Perspectives

How Low-Code Enables Customer-Centric Customer Onboarding

Rui_Felix

In today's highly competitive business landscape, the success of any organization hinges on its ability to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Laying a solid foundation that fosters engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty is paramount. Traditional approaches to onboarding often prioritize internal processes, overlooking the critical aspect of customer needs and expectations.

However, to truly excel in customer onboarding, businesses must understand the importance of being customer-centric, or aligning onboarding efforts with customer desires, preferences, and pain points. A customer-centric approach places the customer at the heart of the onboarding process. However, a customer-centric approach on its own is not enough. It should be complemented with a technology that can keep pace with the agility of digital customer onboarding solutions. Then, organizations can create tailored and personalized onboarding experiences that resonate with their customers.

Combining customer-centricity with low-code offers several advantages. Low-code platforms, such as OutSystems, enable businesses to build customer onboarding solutions efficiently and effectively. With visual interfaces, pre-built components, and simplified coding, low-code platforms significantly reduce development time and resources, enabling organizations to deliver exceptional, customer-centric onboarding experiences quickly.

At OSQuay, I've seen businesses iterate and customize onboarding processes rapidly, keeping up with changing customer expectations and market demands. The flexibility of low-code platforms empowers organizations to streamline workflows, integrate systems seamlessly, and provide personalized onboarding experiences at scale.

Let's delve into the pivotal roles of customer-centricity and low-code in revolutionizing customer onboarding.

Meeting Customer Expectations

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, 73% of customers consider customer experience a vital factor in their purchasing decisions. By adopting a customer-centric approach, businesses can ensure that their onboarding processes align with these expectations. They can build an onboarding app with low-code to meet the unique needs and preferences of individual customers, resulting in higher levels of satisfaction and engagement.

Building Strong Customer Relationships

Accenture's Global Consumer Pulse Research reveals that 77% of customers have stronger relationships with companies that offer personalized experiences. By taking a customer-centric approach, organizations can establish a positive rapport with customers from the start. By understanding their pain points, motivations, and goals, businesses can create digital onboarding experiences with low-code that resonate on a personal level. This leads to a sense of trust, loyalty, and a higher likelihood of repeat business and referrals.

Increasing Customer Retention

The Forrester Consulting study on the total economic impact of OutSystems found that organizations using low-code platforms experienced a 65% improvement in customer retention rates. By designing digital customer onboarding solutions with a customer-centric mindset, organizations can significantly reduce churn rates. A smooth, personalized onboarding experience quickly and easily delivered with low-code enhances customer satisfaction and increases the likelihood of customers staying committed to the brand.

Driving Customer Advocacy

According to a report from Nielsen, 89% of US consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over other forms of advertising. A customer-centric onboarding approach creates an opportunity to turn customers into enthusiastic advocates. Exceptional digital and user experiences make customers feel valued and supported throughout the onboarding process. They are then more likely to share positive feedback and recommend yourbrand to their network. These recommendations increase brand reputation, customer acquisition, and business growth.

Using Low-Code and a Customer-Centric Approach to Designing and Implementing Customer Onboarding Solutions

Let’s explore how to create exceptional, customer-centric digital onboarding experiences using low-code.

1. Understanding and Mapping the Customer Journey

To create a successful digital onboarding experience, businesses must gain a deep understanding of the customer journey. According to a study conducted by PricewaterhouseCooper, 43% of consumers would pay more for greater convenience, while 42% would pay more for a friendly, welcoming experience. This underscores the importance of prioritizing customer needs from the initial stages of onboarding development. By analyzing each touchpoint and pain point, businesses can identify friction points and opportunities for improvement and streamline the design of the digital onboarding process to enhance customer satisfaction and retention. 

2. Personalization and Customization

Customers expect personalized onboarding experiences that cater to their unique requirements. Research by Accenture reveals that 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that recognize, remember, and provide relevant recommendations. Using low-code platforms like OutSystems, you can create dynamic and tailored digital onboarding solutions that adapt to individual customer preferences. The result is a significant increase in customer satisfaction, loyalty, and, ultimately, business growth.

3. Speed to Market Matters

In the fast-paced digital landscape, speed to market is crucial. Traditional development methods often struggle to keep up with the evolving demands of digital onboarding. The Forrester study of the total economic impact of OutSystems found that businesses using the platform experience a 50% reduction in application development time. With visual development interfaces and pre-built components, low-code platforms enable businesses to rapidly build, test, and deploy customer-centric onboarding applications, gaining a competitive edge and capturing market opportunities.

4. Empowering Business and IT Collaboration

Successful customer-centric onboarding necessitates seamless collaboration between business and IT teams. Low-code platforms act as a catalyst for collaboration, bridging the gap between these departments. This collaboration fosters innovation, accelerates the development process, and creates exceptional onboarding experiences that align with business objectives and customer expectations.

5. Iterative Improvement and Feedback

Iterative improvement based on customer feedback is a hallmark of a customer-centric approach. By regularly soliciting feedback, businesses can identify areas for enhancement and make iterative improvements to the onboarding process. With OutSystems, customers can even give feedback right in onboarding apps to allow for faster iteration and customer satisfaction. This iterative approach demonstrates a commitment to customer satisfaction and ensures ongoing optimization of the onboarding experience.

Conclusion

By embracing a customer-centric approach and harnessing the capabilities of low-code platforms like the OutSystems high-performance low-code platform, businesses can unleash the true potential of their onboarding processes and catapult themselves ahead of the pack.

Throughout this article, we've explored the critical role of customer-centricity in revolutionizing customer digital onboarding. We've seen how aligning onboarding efforts with customer expectations, desires, and pain points leads to heightened satisfaction, stronger relationships, increased retention rates, and robust customer advocacy. The customer-centric approach enables businesses like yours to craft personalized onboarding experiences that leave a lasting impact, fueling customer loyalty and amplifying brand reputation. And when organizations use the OutSystems platform, they can rapidly develop, test, and deploy exceptional onboarding applications. With the speed of market responsiveness, seamless collaboration between business and IT teams, and iterative improvements based on customer feedback, OutSystems enables organizations to stay agile, adaptive, and one step ahead of the competition.

By adopting a customer-centric ethos and using OutSystems, businesses can forge an unbreakable bond with their customers from the very first interaction. It's a strategic decision that reaps the rewards through enhanced customer experiences, accelerated growth, and a commanding position as an industry leader.