I've stated before that the number one reason for churn is the customer's time to value being too lengthy. Every day you don't ensure value from their investment is another day for your customer to question their decision. The longer that onboarding phase stretches out, the lower the probability of renewal.
While that's easy to say, what should you actually do about it?
The first step is actually simple: treat it as its own function in your post-sale experience.
First off, it actually is different. Think about it. That first ninety days or so with the customer is vastly different than the remainder of your relationship. Think of all the things that have to happen right away for your product or service to see some success inside their business: setup and configuration, data import and conversion, training and education, and change management to ensure adoption.
If you're anything like me, looking at those tasks makes me start thinking of their myriad sub-tasks and all the associated dependencies. I think, "project plan." And once you start that, you're then thinking, "project management." And in the end, that's exactly what onboarding really is: a project management exercise.
Thus, it makes sense to treat it as its own thing.
You don't necessarily need to staff it independently. But treating it as its own discipline elevates the importance of time to value inside your organization. And once you agree that something is its own function, two things become necessary: a dashboard for measuring performance, and a cadence for review, accountability, and problem-solving.
Your dashboard can be a simple spreadsheet to start, with columns that show customer, revenue, sold date, days since sold (the ticking clock), status, and comments.
Showing "days since sold" allows you to work to minimize the number of days it takes to complete the onboarding and get to first value.
With a dashboard, you then need some accountability. And there's no better method for that than a weekly team meeting. Meeting time is precious and to be reserved for critical and important things, so holding a weekly meeting elevates the importance of time to value in the company. It sends the message that this is worth the effort to get right.
Create a simple dashboard and cadence and watch time to value shrink. Get started right away.