Do you feel like customer onboarding is the middle child of the customer journey? The one desperately seeking attention, but constantly pushed to the sidelines. 😅

Most companies treat customer onboarding like a game of organisational hot potato. "Hey CSM, can you handle this?" becomes the default strategy.

It might even get passed to Support or Account Management, becoming a scattered and inconsistent experience.

All other functions have dedicated teams - why has customer onboarding become a task rather than a team in many companies?

I tried and failed a few times to get leaders to see this opportunity. But I also managed to learn the best ways to discuss the topic to get results.

My aim today is to arm you with those tools. ↓

The Cost of Customer Onboarding Neglect

The period post sale is critical in determining long-term customer success when it comes to subscription based businesses.

I’ve seen many companies treat this crucial phase like a rushed and improvised performance. A box ticking exercise that often confuses implementation with onboarding.

Without a dedicated onboarding team, you're:

• Diluting accountability

• Missing structured learning opportunities

• Leaving critical customer touch points to chance

• Facilitating confusion and frustration for the customer

🧪 The Project: Build Your Onboarding Team

Let’s look at how you can prepare to talk to leadership about building a customer onboarding team.

Step 1: Data detective work

Conduct an investigation into how customers truly experience your product's initial stages.

Start by gathering data from multiple sources: your CRM, customer success platforms, support ticket systems, product data, and feedback surveys.

Look beyond surface-level metrics and dig deep to understand the narrative behind the numbers. Your goal is to identify critical pain points and missed opportunities.

Pay special attention to:

• Time-to-first-value

• Customer drop-off rates

• Support ticket volumes

• Conversion rates from onboarding to full product adoption

Step 2: Create a compelling narrative

Data alone doesn't create change - storytelling does.

Your mission is to transform numbers into a narrative that leadership cannot ignore.

Develop a before-and-after scenario that quantifies the potential revenue impact of a dedicated onboarding team.

Frame your argument around three key elements:

• Current state: The revenue being left on the table due to inefficient onboarding

• Proposed solution: How a dedicated team could recover potential customer value

• Projected outcome: The tangible benefits of investing in a focused onboarding approach

Step 3: Strategic benchmarking

Your power in this scenario comes from understanding how other successful SaaS companies approach onboarding.

Conduct a thorough investigation targeting 5-7 similar companies in your industry.

It will make more of an impact if you include competitors too.

Create a comparison matrix that highlights:

• Team structures

• Innovative onboarding approaches

• Publicly shared performance metrics

• Unique strategies for customer implementation

The goal is not to replicate but to adapt. Look for patterns and approaches that could be transformed to fit your context.

Step 4: Prototype team structure

Design a potential team structure but start small. A strategically focused team can drive significant change.

Propose an initial team with carefully considered roles that suit your company.

The team could report to the Chief Customer Officer or Head of Customer Success, with dotted-line connections to Product and Sales leadership.

Develop a financial model that outlines:

• Estimated salary ranges

• Training and tool investments

• Potential technology requirements

• Projected return on investment

Some of these more detailed steps can be done in collaborative environments with other teams and leadership themselves.

Even showing a plan for it can be the catalyst that’s needed to get things moving.

Step 5: Pilot Program Blueprint

Transform your strategy from theory to action with a carefully designed pilot program.

This is your proving ground. A way to demonstrate the value of a dedicated onboarding team.

Define clear, measurable objectives that go beyond theoretical improvements.

Select a targeted customer segment that will provide the most meaningful insights.

Track success related to the improvements you are looking to make:

• Reduction in time-to-value

• Decrease in support ticket volume

• Improvement in feature adoption rates

• Customer satisfaction score increases

🤓 The Analysis

Leaders love data (proof), hearing a strategic plan, and how it will positively impact the business.

Come into the conversation with an idea for all of those and it will become a productive topic to talk about more widely.

In my experience, even if you receive positive responses, you will need to push to make things happen.

Implementing a dedicated onboarding team can unlock:

• Faster customer time-to-value

• Increased customer retention rates

• More predictable revenue forecasting

• Enhanced product adoption and feature utilisation

Will you be giving it a go? 👀