Onboarding customers to a new platform can be challenging. If done wrong, you may even end up losing some of them!
Some common questions we’re asked are: “Do you have any tips for onboarding customers into our community?” “What if we already have an existing group and want to migrate over?” “What do we do to keep new members in our community?” Interested for some tips on these? Keep reading below!
If you already have an existing community and want to migrate them over, planning and communication is key. Plan how, when, and how often you will communicate with members the benefits of a new platform and any related information they need to know. Discuss with your members why this would be valuable for them and for the community as a whole to lessen potential resistance.
Identify top community members from your existing platform who you can empower to become advocates for the move to a new one. You can explain the benefits to them early on and get their feedback and thoughts as well. They can be great assets to help answer questions and get other members excited about moving to a new platform.
Any change will be met with some resistance; onboarding customers to a new platform is no different. To overcome this, lessen any stress from changes by making sure to communicate timely and appropriate information. This will keep customers informed and ease them into the new platform, lessening stress and resistance from having unanswered questions and unnecessary confusion. If possible, appoint a point person who members can contact for any concerns.
Not all members will move over to the new platform right away and you don’t want to lose them by shutting down your existing platform too early. A transition period will give time to make periodic announcements about the platform transfer and to get as many people migrated and onboard.
Whether through announcing on a current platform, sending invitations through email, or posting on social media, be sure to invite customers to join your community!
Getting customers into your new community website is only the first part, they should have a reason to stay. Providing engaging content and interaction opportunities will support connections and retention. Regular activity will also encourage check ins. You can schedule some recurring content such as question of the week, weekly tips and tricks, ask me anything sessions, and more.
Don’t forget to ask your members for feedback on the community and the platform. This is a good way to gain ideas for improvements as well as learn what your members like and dislike so you can keep engagement and momentum going. You can do this through polls, surveys, and asking questions. This can be done periodically to check on changes made based on feedback. This also allows members to feel valued and heard.
Consistently check your community statistics and metrics. This helps you gain insights on your community’s health and how members are doing. It can also give you other valuable information such as number of new members, retention rate, and number of monthly active users.
We hope these tips give you a guide to plan out how you can better onboard members into your community! Let us know in the comments what other practices that have worked for you!
