Service

During my time as a client services manager at Yahoo and then Verizon Media, I witnessed firsthand how important good SaaS onboarding best practices are.

I’ll never forget onboarding a major agency onto our ad server platform –– they were migrating from a competitor’s solution and had millions in annual digital ad spend at stake. Our initial approach of jumping straight into advanced campaign trafficking features almost derailed the entire partnership.

That experience transformed how I approach client onboarding. Instead of overwhelming new clients with technical capabilities, I learned to focus first on building trust and understanding their core workflow needs.

Through leading client platform training sessions and demos, I developed 10 key practices that consistently helped clients transition smoothly and start seeing value quickly. Here’s what I learned from working with both enterprise clients and internal teams at one of the largest ad tech platforms.

In this article:

• What is SaaS onboarding?
• SaaS Onboarding Best Practices
• Why Good SaaS Onboarding Experience Is Important
• 10 Modern SaaS Onboarding Examples
• SaaS Onboarding Checklist: Proven Framework for Success

During the onboarding process, you want to capture your customers’ attention because a successful onboarding can reduce customer churn, improve customer retention, and increase customer loyalty.

But before we get started with the onboarding checklist, we want to first understand the importance of a good SaaS onboarding experience.

Why Good SaaS Onboarding Experience Is Important

Wyzowl found that 86% of clients are more likely to remain loyal to a company that invests in onboarding content. This number alone emphasizes the value of a well-structured onboarding process.

I think good onboarding is critical to establishing trust and delivering value to new clients. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate that you care about their success, and that your product can actually assist them in achieving their goals.

When executed properly, onboarding can:

• Drive product adoption. By walking your customers through your product’s essential features and benefits, you may persuade them to utilize it on a regular basis and incorporate it into their workflows. This helps you achieve what we call product stickiness.
• Reduce support costs. A thorough onboarding process can answer frequent questions and keep users from stumbling into problems, resulting in fewer support tickets and calls.
• Increase customer lifetime value (CLTV). Satisfied clients who effectively use your product are more inclined to upgrade, renew their subscription, and promote your business through referrals.

Now, let’s take a look at some examples of how leading companies turn new users into power users through strong SaaS onboarding processes.

10 Modern SaaS Onboarding Examples

A great SaaS onboarding experience isn’t just about introducing users to features. At its core, the goal is to bring them to an “aha” moment as quickly and smoothly as possible. The best onboarding processes are intuitive, engaging, and personalized, ensuring users feel immediate value.

Here are ten standout examples that, in my opinion, set the gold standard or are redefining the function.

1. Command-First Onboarding: Linear.app

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Linear simplifies SaaS onboarding by prioritizing speed and efficiency. Instead of bombarding users with tutorials, it quickly teaches keyboard shortcuts and introduces the command palette. Users may create their first assignment in seconds, reducing friction and giving them a sense of authority.

I appreciate this approach because it respects the user’s time. Instead of going through explanations, users learn by doing, which increases confidence and recall. Speed is essential in project management solutions, and Linear delivers by making users feel productive right away.

2. AI-Guided Setup: Notion AI

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Notion AI personalizes onboarding through intelligent recommendations. Instead of giving users a clean slate, it recommends templates based on their role and organization size. It also introduces functions in stages, beginning with simple note-taking and progressing to advanced database functionality.

This onboarding method is effective because it lowers choice fatigue. The system guides users, so they don’t have to find out where to start. This strategy, in my opinion, is extremely beneficial since it turns a potentially daunting product into an intuitive, role-specific experience.

3. Split-Screen Learning: Arc Browser

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Switching browsers can be difficult, but Arc makes it simple with its split-screen onboarding experience. Users can see their old browser alongside Arc, making the switch simple and intuitive. The browser automatically imports bookmarks and settings with visual evidence, ensuring users don’t start blank.

I think this strategy is amazing since it eliminates the fear of change. People are hesitant to switch tools because they are concerned about losing familiarity. Arc addresses this fear by keeping everything visible and structured during the onboarding experience.

4. Learn-by-Doing Command Training: Raycast

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Raycast turns onboarding into hands-on command training. Rather than a passive walkthrough, the onboarding process proposes extensions based on the apps customers use, ensuring relevance for their specific needs.

This is an ideal strategy for a tool geared toward developers. I like how it transforms onboarding into a workflow rather than a tutorial, giving developers immediate benefits without interruptions. It makes learning feel like an integral part of the product experience.

5. Personalized Onboarding Surveys: HubSpot

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HubSpot verifies relevance by launching a brief onboarding survey. Users answer a few questions about their company, industry, and ambitions, and the system customizes the dashboard and feature recommendations accordingly.

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This strategy is effective because it minimizes information overload. I like how it shows consumers only the most important elements rather than a generic introduction. When onboarding feels personalized, users are more like to stay interested and explore further.

6. Actionable Guides for Team Adoption: Asana

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Asana’s onboarding is designed for teams, not just individuals. The platform includes step-by-step instructions for setting up projects, assigning tasks, and using collaboration capabilities. Each step is actionable, ensuring that consumers do more than simply read.

I believe this method is quite effective because it focuses on team adoption rather than individual onboarding. A technology like Asana is most useful when used by a complete team, and this systematic approach ensures that happens.

7. Self-Serve Interactive Tutorials: Box

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Box’s self-paced onboarding flow enables users to explore the site at their own leisure. Rather than linear lessons, users are directed through important features like file sharing and security settings via embedded tooltips and prompts.

I like this technique since it suits many learning styles. Some users want to dig in and explore, whereas others require more structured supervision. Box caters to both, ensuring that onboarding is intuitive rather than forced.

8. Simplified Sign-Up Process: Productboard

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Productboard decreases onboarding friction by making signup simple. Instead of asking users to fill out lengthy forms, it captures only the most important information upfront, allowing them to use the platform right away. Once inside, a guided tour emphasizes essential features important to product managers.

This method is effective because it removes needless barriers to entry. If an onboarding process is tedious, users are likely to abandon it.

9. Progress Tracking with Gamification: FullStory

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FullStory employs gamification to make onboarding more engaging. As users finish setup tasks, they receive visual feedback, badges, and awards. This approach makes onboarding a fun “challenge,” motivating users to explore and engage.

This is especially effective, in my opinion, because it appeals to human psychology. Progress monitoring gives consumers a sense of success, increasing the likelihood that they will finish onboarding and continue to use the site. It’s an effective strategy to lower drop-off rates.

10. Instant First-Task Completion: Loom

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Loom’s onboarding focuses on immediate action. Instead of introducing the product, it just prompts users to create a short video. When users hit record, they immediately recognize the tool’s worth.

This one of my favorite onboarding strategies because it eliminates any friction. Users do not need to read or watch a lesson; they can use the product right away. It’s the most effective way to demonstrate value in seconds.

Why do I think these onboarding strategies work?

• Immediate value. Linear, Loom, and Raycast enable customers to perform a meaningful activity within minutes, emphasizing why the product matters.
• Reduce cognitive load. Notion AI and Arc help people ease into the experience by avoiding information overload.
• Personalized experience. HubSpot and Productboard tailor onboarding based on customer replies, making it feel relevant.
• Encourages active participation. To keep users engaged, Asana and Box provide actionable guides and interactive tutorials.
• Leveraged motivation and habit formation. FullStory’s gamification keeps users invested in the onboarding process.

The best SaaS onboarding experiences don’t just teach — they create immediate value. By focusing on hands-on learning, personalization, and seamless transitions, these companies ensure that users not only understand their product quickly but also feel compelled to keep using it.

SaaS Onboarding Checklist: Proven Framework for Success

The difference between a user who leaves and one who sticks around is a well-organized onboarding process. In fact, 82% of enterprise organizations consider their user onboarding strategy to be a crucial factor in driving value for their business.

Based on market insights, my practical experience, and some general best practices, I have created a tried-and-true SaaS onboarding checklist. Create a smooth, high-retention onboarding process by following these steps.

1. Pre-Onboarding: Establishing the Foundation for Achievement

Know your users well.

I always begin by learning about the needs, objectives, and problems of my clients. Donna Weber, author and leading expert in customer onboarding, says that “successful customer onboarding starts before the deal closes and extends beyond the customer’s first move within your product.”

To customize the experience, employ behavioral data, user interviews, and surveys.

Make sure expectations are clear.

I make sure users are always aware of what to expect before the onboarding process starts. For example, a landing page or welcome email should include the following:

• Timeline (e.g., “Your onboarding will take 14 days”).
• Key Milestones (e.g., “By Day 3, you’ll complete X”).
• Success Criteria (e.g., “You’ll be fully set up and trained by Week 2”).

Assign a dedicated AI assistant or onboarding specialist.

I designate a human specialist for high-value accounts and employ AI-driven guidance for self-serve users. This blended approach can significantly impact customer retention, which is crucial given that U.S. companies lose an estimated $168 billion annually due to customer attrition.

By providing personalized onboarding for key accounts and efficient self-service options, businesses can address the retention challenges faced across industries, where the average retention rate is around 75%.

2. Welcome & Setup: Creating Memorable First Impressions

Send a personalized welcome email.

Go beyond the generic “Welcome to [Product Name]” email. As someone deeply invested in good user onboarding, I’ve learned that first impressions are everything.

Here’s how I approach it:

• I always address the user by name and acknowledge their specific role within their organization. This shows I understand their needs.
• Based on my understanding of different industries and use cases, I provide a tailored getting started guide.
• I then create a concise 60-second video walkthrough of the initial steps, focusing on what they need to accomplish right now.
• I’ve found offering a calendar link to schedule a personalized onboarding call dramatically improves engagement early on.

Empower users with accessible self-serve resources.

Next, I ensure we have a comprehensive knowledge base, interactive tutorials, and contextual in-app guidance –– all up to date, of course. In my experience, providing these resources upfront significantly reduces friction and empowers users.

• Optimize for discovery. Ensure that your self-serve resources are easily discoverable. Use intuitive navigation, search functionality, and even proactive guidance like tooltips or contextual help icons to lead users to the information they need without them feeling lost.
• Feedback loop. Implement a system where users can give feedback on the usefulness of the resources. This not only helps keep the content relevant and updated but also shows users that their input is valued, encouraging further engagement.

Design an engaging, adaptive product tour.

I like to avoid boring, linear walkthroughs. Instead, I focus on creating interactive, behavior-driven tours. Here are some ways I frame that:

• “Explore This Key Feature” (Based on their stated goals).
• “Create Your First Custom Dashboard” (Leading them to quick wins).
• “Connect Your Data Sources” (If applicable to their role).
• “Set Up Team Collaboration” (Highlighting the collaborative potential).

Pro tip: I leverage tools like Appcues, Pendo, or WalkMe because I’ve found they’re very helpful for creating dynamic tours that adapt to user interactions and provide personalized guidance.

3. First Value: Delivering the ‘Aha!’ Moment Quickly

Guide users to their first quick win.

The faster users experience value, the more likely they are to stick around. I will often ask myself, “What’s the #1 thing a user must do to see value?” Then, I design onboarding to get them there immediately.

As Steve Jobs famously said, “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology –– not the other way around.”

Provide templates, pre-built configs, or integrations.

Instead of making users start from scratch, I like to offer:

• Pre-set dashboards tailored to common use cases.
• Industry-specific templates that address unique needs.
• One-click integrations with popular tools in their tech stack.
• Guided walkthroughs for customizing pre-built assets.

Offer real-time support and proactive check-ins.

Enhancing your onboarding process with real-time support and proactive check-ins is important for user engagement and retention. Here’s how you can implement these strategies effectively.

• Integrate live chat and chatbots. Implementing live chat or AI-driven chatbots provides users with immediate assistance, reducing frustration and improving satisfaction.
• Schedule proactive check-ins. Regular check-ins, especially during the initial stages, help address user concerns promptly and ensure a smooth onboarding process. These touchpoints can be automated messages or scheduled calls depending on user needs and preferences.
• Set up triggered messages based on user behavior. Use behavioral triggers to send personalized messages that guide users through key features or address potential obstacles. For example, if a user hasn’t completed a crucial setup step, an automated reminder can prompt them to do so, keeping them on track.
• Offer proactive video tutorials for visual learners. Offering video tutorials caters to visual learners and can simplify complex processes. These resources allow users to learn at their own pace and revisit information as needed, enhancing their understanding and engagement with your product.

4. Ongoing Engagement: Preventing Drop-Off & Driving Adoption

Arrange for follow-ups at significant turning points.

I send check-in emails using a data-driven strategy. This ensures users remain engaged and supported throughout their onboarding journey. Consider the following timeline.

• Day 3: Send a check-in email with the subject line, “How’s it going? Need help?” This early touchpoint addresses initial hurdles and reinforces support availability.
• Day 7: Send an email titled, “Tips to Optimize [Feature X],” offering insights into specific features to enhance user experience.
• Day 14: Reach out with, “Let’s Measure Your Progress,” encouraging users to assess their achievements and providing guidance for further advancement.

According to a study by ProductLed, 40% to 60% of users who sign up for service will never return after the first experience. Proactive follow-ups at strategic intervals can mitigate this drop-off by keeping users engaged and informed.

Offer advanced education and certifications that matter.

Creating a thorough instructional ecosystem is essential for maintaining user interest and platform proficiency. Structured learning paths keep users engaged and motivated.

For instance, a solid certification program helps users level up and prove their expertise:

• Tiered certifications to encourage progression
• Real-world scenarios to test how they apply platform features
• Digital badges for LinkedIn and internal recognition
• Exclusive perks like beta access and early feature previews

Make learning engaging, not a chore.

Regularly host live webinars with industry leaders, power users, and product gurus. These workshops enable users to address particular difficulties and obtain deeper insights by combining real-world demos with Q&A chances.

Users of all skill levels will find value in the topics, which range from basic ideas to complex application cases.

Foster a strong, self-sustaining community.

A thriving user community isn’t just a “nice-to-have” –– it’s a game-changer for long-term adoption. I make sure users have a go-to space to:

• Swap tips and best practices with peers.
• Access user-created content like workflows, templates, and integration guides.
• Join monthly challenges that push them to explore new features.
• Give direct feedback to the product team and influence future updates.

Keep up documentation that’s actually useful.

Nobody wants to dig through outdated or overly technical docs. I maintain a clean, accessible knowledge base packed with:

• Step-by-step guides with short video tutorials.
• Case studies showing successful implementations.
• Developer-friendly technical docs.
• Ongoing product updates and feature deep dives.

By making education and community a core part of the experience, I ensure users not only get the most out of a platform, but also feel invested in its long-term success.

Below is more detail — and lots of lived-in tips — for great customer onboarding. Keep in mind that onboarding tools are also essential here.

1. Connecting Sales and Onboarding

Early in my career, I experienced the problems that arise when sales and training work separately. The disconnect led to unhappy customers, churn, and a lot of internal finger-pointing. I soon understood that getting these teams on the same page is not just a good idea –– it’s necessary for a great customer experience.

Making a shared training guide that both sales and customer success teams can use has helped me a lot with this. We also hold regular talks to stay aligned. The key is to have a clear process for handing off information, making sure that sales shares all important customer data.

Sales prepares everything, and training makes it work. When I’ve seen this done correctly, the effects are always amazing.

My Tips

• Make a checklist for deal stages in your CRM. Make sure sales reps fill out a script in your CRM (like Salesforce or HubSpot) before they mark a deal as “Closed Win.” This helps make sure important training information, like customer goals and use cases, is recorded in a uniform way.
• Joint Sales/CS demo reviews. Record sales demos and have the customer success team review them to find any gaps in expectations that can be addressed early during training.

2. Including Customer Success in the Sales Training Process

I truly think that sales training is not complete without a focus on customer success. New sales hires should meet with the training teams. They should attend talks with the onboarding team to ensure a good onboarding experience.

Think about it –– how often have you heard a salesperson make big promises, but then the team in charge of getting customers started has difficulty delivering?

I’ve seen this situation happen too often. I suggest adding a “Customer Success 101” section to the sales training and having regular learning events between teams. When you help your sales team focus on what happens after a sale, you build a better way to keep customers happy.

My Tips

• Product certification for selling. Create a simple product certification program for sales reps. This helps them understand the main features of a product or service and clearly explain benefits to potential customers.
• Onboarding simulation in sales training. Set up a role-playing activity where sales reps pass a pretend customer to the training team. This will help them understand how the customer support team handles new customers.

3. Engaging in Customer Research

Being prepared makes a big difference. Researching a customers’ business, industry, and team before a call makes the conversation easier and more effective. Without preparation, it’s easy to miss important details or ignore issues that are more important to them.

You can use tools like LinkedIn and Crunchbase to quickly find useful information to help you understand their needs and guide the conversation. Putting in a little extra effort helps build trust and create a better experience for others.

My Tips

• Ideal customer profile deep dive. Ensure your onboarding team has a solid knowledge of your ICP. Look up companies that fit this description before the first call so that the discussion stays on track.
• Monitor customer tech stack. Use tools like BuildWith to identify other products your customer is using. This helps you understand their existing ecosystem and potential integrations.

4. Emphasizing Early Contact With Prospects

I really believe that onboarding teams should talk to possible customers early on. I understand that sales teams might be worried about distractions from finishing deals, but I believe that building relationships with customers early on is very important.

In my experience, it helps build trust and clarify expectations. It also gives the onboarding team a better idea of the customer’s concerns and hesitations before they even sign up.

I suggest meeting with the sales representatives first to agree on strategies and plans for training. Working together this way makes things easier and customers are happy.

My Tips

• Provide a “technical discovery call.” Provide a free technical call with an expert to help new customers before they complete their purchase. This deals with technology issues and shows how onboarding is beneficial.
• Create a pre-sale onboarding checklist. Develop a simple checklist for sales reps to review with prospects. This outlines the basic setup needed (like API access and user rights) for a successful start.

5. Making New Customers Feel Welcome

A common mistake companies make is putting off the welcome process for new customers. I understand that things can get hectic, but I’ve learned that connecting well at the start is very important for establishing the mood of the whole relationship.

I suggest adding “new customer welcome time” to your team’s plans. If they feel overlooked, they are less likely to be enthusiastic about working with your team. Focus on new customers and respond to them within 24 hours to keep them engaged!

My Tips

• Automated welcome series. Create an automatic email series in your marketing tool that starts when a deal is closed. Add a personal video from the onboarding team and links to important tools.
• New customer Slack channel. Set up a special Slack channel for new users to ask questions and get fast help during their first week.

6. Being Available When Customers Need You

Following up on what we just reviewed, I encourage everyone to always be ready to assist new buyers. From what I’ve noticed, customers are usually excited when they buy something and it’s important to take advantage of that energy.

From what I’ve seen, reaching out to the customer within the first day helps maintain their excitement. Otherwise, people might lose motivation and begin to doubt their buy.

My Tips

• Live chat help on onboarding pages. Add a live chat feature to your training pages so that new users can get help right away.
• Office hours for new customers. Set up weekly “office hours” for new customers to come and ask questions to the training team in a group.

7. Delivering Value Immediately

When I discuss onboarding in the freemium world, I talk about the “Aha” moment and getting your users there quickly.

Now, it should be no different with higher-touch onboarding. I’ve seen customer success teams spend their first onboarding sessions simply welcoming the customer, discussing goals, and scheduling following steps, without getting anything done.

Those topics are important, but you can complete something as simple as turning on one tool and ticking off one basic task, and the feeling of making progress can put the customer at ease.

My Tips

• Feature first focus. Identify the single most impactful feature for your new customers and design the initial onboarding flow to focus exclusively on that feature.
• Template/preset library. Provide a library of pre-built templates or presets that new users can quickly customize to achieve initial value.

8. Ensuring Your Onboarding Content is Resource-Rich

Businesses frequently spend a lot money on content marketing for their products and services, but they rarely provide comparable materials for onboarding. This is a squandered opportunity because, ultimately, 90% of consumers believe that businesses should enhance their onboarding procedure.

I always advise creating webpages, downloads, and tools that describe your onboarding and customer success offerings. The most useful materials are visual ones. High-quality information has a significant impact on empowering your customers and creating positive expectations.

My Tips

• Interactive checklist for onboarding. Just like we discussed earlier, create an interactive onboarding checklist that walks new users through the necessary setup procedures and monitors their progress.
• Use case-specific instructional videos. Create brief, targeted video lessons that show how to use your product or service to address particular issues for various use cases or industries.

9. Streamlining and Simplifying Processes

I really appreciate the efficiency that comes from automating repetitive tasks during the onboarding process. From my experience, manually scheduling calls and sending welcome emails can consume a lot of time. I prefer to set up an automatic welcome email for the customer, which includes the next steps, their points of contact, and details on how to schedule time with them.

It would be beneficial to utilize the marketing team’s automation tools for developing customer onboarding campaigns. This approach also guarantees a uniform and high-quality experience for your customers.

My Tips

• Automated monitoring of usage. Establish automated monitoring of essential usage metrics within your platform to pinpoint customers who might be facing challenges or not maximizing their product experience.
• Personalized in-app messages. Initiate tailored in-app messages according to user actions (e.g., “It seems you haven’t explored Feature X yet. Take a moment to watch this brief video that will guide you through the process.”).

10. Reinforcing Goals (Keeping the “Why” in Mind)

I’ve found that customers often struggle to understand why they’re doing certain things in a particular order when they start using a new tool. In my opinion, it’s important to provide context and explain the “why” behind every task.

Aim to understand your customers’ short-, medium-, and long-term goals and priorities. What does success look like to them? Understanding these goals helps build trust and reduce anxiety at the beginning of your customer’s lifecycle.

My Tips

• Goal setting kickoff call template. Create a structured template for your initial kickoff call that focuses on identifying the customer’s key goals and defining measurable success criteria.
• Progress report automation. Automate the generation and delivery of progress reports that show customers how their usage of your product or service is contributing to their defined goals. The more they can see it, the better.

Make Your Onboarding Experience Memorable

Having spent my career in customer experience, it’s clear that onboarding remains at the core of long-term customer success. It’s not just about showing features, but it’s also about building trust by quickly delivering value to the user. Seeing companies like Linear, Loom, and Notion AI demonstrate that reinforces how critical the experience really is.

While researching and writing this article, I was reminded that the best onboarding focuses on getting users to feel competent in the platform. By putting yourself in the user’s shoes, you can help create a seamless experience that makes every step in using the product that much easier.

By implementing this onboarding checklist and the best practices it entails, you can help your customers become more engaged in your product, transform new users into expert champions, and ultimately drive long-term success for your business.

Delivering exceptional customer experiences requires knowing your customers well. Customer profiling helps you achieve this. Throughout my career, whether creating marketing strategies or improving ecommerce conversion rates, I’ve learned one key fact: understanding your audience is essential.

To connect with your customers, you need to identify their demographics, understand their motivations, and recognize their pain points. You must see the world from their perspective. Customer profiling provides the tools and insights to do this effectively.

In this article, I’ll explore customer profiling, explain why it’s more important than ever in today’s market, provide a practical 10-step process for creating a customer profile, and look at some customer profiling examples. I’ve also included some free templates (which I’ll go over in detail below) to make it easier.

Table of Contents

• What is a customer profile?
• What is customer profiling?
• How to Create a Customer Profile in 10 Steps
• Why is customer profiling important?
• Customer Profiling Benefits
• Types of Customer Profile Data
• Customer Profiling Strategies
• B2B vs. B2C Customer Profiles
• Customer Profile Templates
• Customer Profiling Examples

From my years in customer experience, I’ve learned that trying to appeal to everyone means you connect with no one. Early in my career at a digital marketing agency, I saw campaigns fail because we targeted too broadly. A customer profile is a strategic tool for your business. It helps you focus on your ideal customer and understand their needs clearly.

For example, a customer profile might include:

• Background. Mid-level manager in a growing tech firm with 50-200 employees, facing increasing pressure to improve team productivity.
• Pain Points. Struggles with manual workflows that consume valuable team time and create bottlenecks in project delivery.
• Preferences. Gravitates toward tools that save time, offer intuitive interfaces, and integrate seamlessly with existing systems.

Why is customer profiling important?

In today’s fast-paced, competitive world, customer profiling is necessary. Whether you’re starting a new business, adjusting your marketing plan, or supporting your sales team, knowing your customers is the basis for success. Without it, you risk wasting effort by trying to solve every problem for every person.

In my career, I’ve noticed that customers likely to buy from me in the future often share traits with past customers. This is a pattern, not a random occurrence. Profiling helps you identify these high-value customers and focus your efforts on them.

According to Forbes, 81% of customers prefer companies that offer a personalized experience, and 70% say a personalized experience where an employee knows who they are and their history is important.

The market is crowded, and customers have many choices. Their attention is limited. If you don’t understand your audience, you may create a product or service that doesn’t meet anyone’s needs.

Customer profiles help your product team build useful features, your marketers create effective messages, and your salespeople pursue leads that are more likely to buy.

Customer Profiling Benefits

Customer profiling provides clear advantages for your business. Here are some of the main benefits I’ve personally noticed.

Helps Teams Work More Effectively

A customer profile ensures everyone in your organization understands the customer. Here’s how it supports each team.

• Marketing: Understanding the client is vital to creating engaging advertisements or emails for potential prospects and current clients. Marketers use customer profiles to customize messaging so they can effectively speak to customer needs.
• Sales: Focuses on specific pain points to build trust and close deals faster. Instead of generic pitches, they can speak directly to issues that matter most.
• Support: The customer profile has all the necessary information your customer service team will need to help customers in need. It can act as a record of questions and complaints, and previously tried solutions. This will help save time and keep everyone involved from getting frustrated.

When teams share the same information, they work better together.

Finds Better Customers

Not every lead is a good fit. Customer profiling shows you who benefits from your product, helping you find more like them.

During my time at SmartRecruiters, we shifted focus from pursuing any available lead to targeting prospects who matched our ideal customer profile. Within months, we saw our conversion rates improve.

Reduces Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC)

Customer acquisition cost is the money you spend on marketing and sales campaigns to attract a single customer. Implementing customer profiling allows you to focus your efforts on people who are more likely to become customers, which brings customer acquisition costs down in the long run.

For example, 71% Gen Z use mobile most often when shopping online. If you’re building a product or service targeting that group of consumers, this is good to know for your customer profiling efforts.

I’ve personally discovered this to be true when running social media ads for my business. A well-defined customer profile means I can target the right people online and lower my ad spend.

Social media is also a major discovery engine, with 1 in 4 consumers reporting they’ve discovered a new product on social media in the past three months.

Improves Customer Service

When your support team has access to detailed profiles, they can anticipate problems and respond to individual needs.

As Rami El-Abidin, a former HubSpot Support Team member and current blog writer says, “We always kept detailed notes on each customer, including the issues they had in the past and their needs/goals. Armed with this information, I was much better equipped to meet customers where they were and guide them to success.”

This level of service builds loyalty and trust.

Drives Loyalty Through Personalization

Offering proactive and personalized experiences is a big part of building trust and fostering customer loyalty. According to a Zendesk benchmark report, 62% of consumers agree that personalized recommendations are better than general ones, and 6 in 10 consumers notice and appreciate receiving personalized recommendations.

When customers feel understood, they’re more likely to stay loyal.

Lowers Customer Churn

Customer churn refers to losing customers. We can all agree we want to keep that number as low as possible! A Databox study found that over 67% of surveyed SaaS companies stated that they’ve dealt with a high churn rate.

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By creating strong customer profiles from the start, you can attract and serve customers who actually want to use your product or service — reducing customer churn in both the short and long term.

Types of Customer Profile Data

It’s clear that customer profiling is valuable and effective, but how do you start? It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with data, but don’t worry –– I’ve got you covered. A strong customer profile relies on four main types of data.

Demographic

Demographic data are the concrete characteristics of a customer and can be used to understand consumer behavior.

We did a ton of research on our core demographic at Trendy Butler, a subscription-based clothing brand, where we used AI to tailor personalized items for customers. Back then, customers could interact with an AI agent that would capture their details and establish data points for the recommendation engine to work.

Demographics include the following traits (and more):

• Age
• Gender
• Sex
• Ethnicity
• Job title
• Income level
• Education
• Family status

If you’re in the B2B space, consider attributes such as company size, industry, and other organizational characteristics.

Rami El-Abidin shared a good example of what this looks like in practice: “My music backline rental business is technically B2B, and my customer demographics are segmented by events such as weddings/bar mitzvahs/graduations, music festivals, and touring artists who can’t travel or fly with all their gear. Each type of customer has different needs, and understanding customer segments helps me anticipate and meet them.”

Psychographic

Demographics alone aren’t enough to understand how, when, and why people make purchasing decisions, and that’s where psychographics come in.

These factors relate to the attitudes and psychological makeup of a customer and may include:

• Lifestyle
• Goals
• Pains
• Habits
• Values
• Interests

Psychographics help you understand the buying journey and even the customer journey after they’ve already purchased from you.

Pro tip: Tools like HubSpot’s free email tracking software make it easy to measure these improvements by showing you exactly how and when prospects engage with your segmented campaigns.

Behavioral

While psychographics relate to psychological attributes, behavioral segments look at how that’s manifested in action.

You may consider segmenting by:

• Engagement
• Readiness to buy
• Purchasing history
• Product usage
• Satisfaction
• Loyalty or account age
• Attention required

Segments based on behavioral traits are among the most valuable in customer support. They can help service teams find insights about customer interaction and how these trends manifest into recurring revenue and satisfaction rates.

And once those things are measured, they can be improved. In other words, keeping a close eye on both sales and customer service data is necessary to get concrete details about your consumer base’s behavior.

Pro tip: An all-in-one platform that blends sales tools with customer service and marketing features makes this process a lot easier — you get easy access to analytics data across multiple departments, along with the tools necessary to act on that data.

Geographic

Geographical factors are relevant when location affects how customers interact with a brand or receive their products.

Here are popular ways to segment based on geography:

• City
• Area
• Region
• Country

Gaining insights based on geography can help your organization think through logistics, support implementation, and marketing.

The relevance of geographic data depends on the type of business you run. In my current position running a customer loyalty program at Skybound with physical rewards and prizes, geographic data is very relevant because I can only serve these prizes to customers domestically, as opposed to globally (due to certain restrictions and legal regulations).

However, if you run a software business or sell products online, geographic data has a different level of relevance. Regardless, knowing where your customers are is helpful in understanding more about them and their needs.

Once you have this data, you can focus on how to create a customer profile based on specific types or customer segments.

Customer Profiling Strategies

Remember when I said earlier that truly understanding your customers is non-negotiable? You need a crystal-clear, data-backed customer profile to guide your marketing, sales, and product development efforts. With the right strategies and a bit of elbow grease, you can unlock a treasure trove of insights about your audience.

Here are some proven strategies to help you create a customer profile that’s both accurate and actionable.

1. Psychographic Segmentation

This is where we go beyond the basics. Sure, demographics are important, but they only tell part of the story. Psychographics delve into the “why” behind your customers’ actions. Look at their values, interests, and motivations beyond surface-level traits.

During my time at Yahoo working on programmatic ad campaigns, I found that digging into customer psychographics led to more effective messaging and higher engagement. When you know what drives your audience, your product resonates on a deeper level.

Pro tip: Don’t just focus on who you’re targeting; understand why they engage.

2. Consumer Typology

In this approach, we split up consumers into different segments based on their motivations, mindsets, and how to engage them. It’s true what they say –– not all customers are cut from the same cloth.

Here are the four main types of consumers.

• Loyal customers: Long-term supporters who advocate for your brand.
• Discount seekers: Price-sensitive shoppers who are always looking for deals.
• Impulsive buyers: Quick decision-makers who act on emotion.
• Need-based purchasers: People who need to solve specific problems.

Pro tip: Identify your most valuable segments and tailor your engagement strategies accordingly. For example, pamper your loyal customers with exclusive perks and personalized recommendations while enticing discount seekers with targeted promotions and limited-time offers.

3. Consumer Characteristics

This method investigates what factors influence purchasing decisions. Modern consumers are defined by many common qualities. Here are three that stand out to me.

• Convenience seekers who want quick, efficient solutions.
• Personalization enthusiasts who value customized experiences.
• Community-driven consumers who value belonging and peer reviews.

Pro tip: Use behavioral analytics and A/B testing to validate and refine your consumer characteristics. They evolve with market trends and user expectations.

Based on my experience developing profiles for various businesses, here’s a clear, practical guide for how to create a customer profile of your own.

Step 1: Start with customer profile templates.

Downloading and using pre-made templates can shorten the customer profiling process. We’ll discuss what you’ll find in these templates later in the post. But if you can’t wait, download them now and follow along as we cover the rest of the steps.

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Step 2: Choose your profiling tools.

Once you start creating customer profiles, you’ll need several types of software.

Remember, you must collect data from your current customer base to create effective and accurate profiles.

• CRM: Stores customer data.
• Customer Feedback Software: Collects customer opinions through surveys and forms.
• Analytics: Monitors engagement and performance metrics across channels.

Additionally, tools like AI chatbots can enhance this process by engaging customers directly, gathering real-time feedback, and even automating data collection for your profiles. Curious about which ones to use? Check out this guide to the best AI chatbot picks and streamline your profiling efforts.

Pro tip: I recommend starting with tools you already have before investing in new ones. Often, your existing tech stack contains untapped potential for customer insights.

Step 3: Dig into demographics.

Start with external demographics to understand who your ideal customers are. Then, dig deeper into their needs and how your product or service solves them.

Here are key external attributes to consider:

• Age. What age range does your audience fall into?
• Gender. Does your product or service appear to a specific gender?
• Location. Where do they live –– urban, rural, or specific regions?
• Income level. What’s their income range? This can affect buying behavior.
• Education level. Are they high school grads, college-educated, or beyond?
• Occupation. What industries or job roles do they work in?

Demographics help you create a clear, focused picture of who you’re serving – setting you up for more personalized, effective marketing.

Step 4: Collect customer feedback.

Customer feedback is one of the best ways to better understand your customers. There are a few ways you can effectively gather this feedback.

• Surveys. Quick and easy. SurveyMonkey’s data shows that 85% of happy customers share feedback.
• Interviews. Personal talks reveal deeper details.
• Focus groups. Group discussions can uncover shared perspectives.
• Social listening. Monitor social media for unsolicited feedback.
• Online reviews. Analyze what customers say publicly about your brand.

The most valuable insights come from asking simple questions like, “What made you choose our product?” or “What almost stopped you from buying?”

Step 5: Map the customer journey.

As you begin examining your customer profile data, you should contextualize it using your customer journey map.

When creating HubSpot’s customer journey map, we asked users how they felt about specific points in the customer experience. Then, we charted these stories on the map to see how customer perceptions changed.

This gave us a good idea of what our customers liked and didn’t like about our products. By understanding their needs, challenges, and goals, you’ll develop a stronger sense of what your customers want from your business.

Pro tip: Use HubSpot’s free customer journey map template to get started.

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Step 6: Focus on the problem you solve.

It’s easy to get lost with such a wealth of data. If you find yourself overwhelmed, return the focus to the problem your business is trying to solve.

• What is the specific challenge your business addresses?
• Who experiences this problem most acutely?
• How were current customers handling the issue before finding your solution?

I remember going through this exercise at a subscription-based business I previously worked with. They discovered that while they marketed their product as a “comprehensive solution,” customers actually valued one specific feature that saved them hours of manual work each week. This insight transformed how we positioned the business.

Step 7: Examine contextual details.

Once you’ve defined the external factors that describe your customer profile, it’s time to dig deeper into contextual details. For example, if I’m running a SaaS company, I’d want to ask about:

• Team size and structure.
• Day-to-day challenges.
• Technology and tools currently used.
• Short-term and long-term goals.

Understanding these contextual elements helps you position your offering within the customer’s existing ecosystem.

Step 8: Understand your industry position.

One important detail you should consider is where your brand falls compared to others in the industry. This gives you a good idea of the type of customer you want to attract and retain. It helps to learn the following.

• How do customers view your brand compared to competitors?
• What unique value do you provide that others don’t?
• Which competitors do they consider before choosing you?

This competitive context helps you emphasize true differentiators rather than features everyone offers.

Step 9: Build personas.

Effective personas go beyond demographics to tell a story about the customer’s life, challenges, and goals. I’ve found that giving personas names and backstories helps teams remember that they’re serving real people, not just data points. Learn to create detailed descriptions of ideal customers with HubSpot’s guide and free template.

Here are some key things to uncover about the people in your customer profile:

• Title(s)
• Age range
• Education level
• Income level
• How will they use your product/service?
• What marketing channels can you use to reach them?
• What are the key responsibilities of their role?
• What role do they play in decision-making?

Pro tip: If you need a tool to help you build, visualize, and share your personas, try HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool.

Step 10: Analyze and iterate.

Customer profiles aren’t static documents. Review and update them regularly based on new data, market changes, and evolving customer needs.

The definition of your customer profile will act as a guide when informing what products or features to build, what channels to use in a marketing campaign, and much more.

Pro tip: I recommend quarterly reviews of your profiles, with a more comprehensive update annually. This ensures your understanding stays current without becoming overwhelming.

B2B vs. B2C Customer Profiles

Both B2B and B2C companies benefit from customer profiles, but their approaches differ greatly.

B2C: B2C marketers often manage datasets of millions of individual consumers, requiring them to focus on broad demographic trends like age, location, and lifestyle. This is due to the vast and diverse customer base they serve.

B2B: In contrast, B2B businesses must consider both firmographic and individual data. Studies show that 82% of these marketers agree that buyers expect personalized experiences, making firmographic data –– like company size, industry, and tech stack –– very important for tailoring outreach.

This multi-layered approach ensures that B2B teams create comprehensive customer profiles for users and decision-makers within their targeted organizations.

Customer Profile Templates

As I mentioned before, HubSpot offers free customer profile templates that you can use to build your own customer profiles. I’ll go into more detail below on what you’ll find in the download (in case you aren’t convinced already).

Download your free templates now.

Inside this customer profile kit, you’ll find:

• A short customer profile template. This one-page template helps you lay out all the basic information about your customer. It gives you space to list your customer’s demographics, pain points, retention tactics, and preferred products and services.
• A long customer profile template. This two-page template gives you more space to define your customer profile. It’s ideal for B2B account profiles. You can list external attributes, like customer’s industry and internal attributes.
• A colorful customer profile template. This template is ideal for B2C industries where customers interact face-to-face with your staff members. You have space to list user behaviors, frustrating interactions, and customer communication notes.
• A corporate customer profile template. This template allows you to list a professional overview of your ideal customer, and challenges, benefits, and restraints. We recommend this template for more corporate environments due to its color palette.
• A simple customer profile template. This template lets you list your ideal customer’s background, decision-making process, product preferences, wants, goals, and behaviors in easy-to-scan boxes.
• A modern customer profile template. In this template, you have space to list your target customer‘s company goals, team challenges, and retention tips. We recommend this template for B2B companies because you’ll be profiling an entire organization.
• A buyer’s journey customer profile template. This template is unique because it gives you space to outline your ideal customer’s discovery story — that is, how they found you and what their research process was like. You can also list their goals and pain points.
• A segmented customer profile template. If you’d like to create different segments as you profile your customers, this is the template for you. It lets you list critical information such as goals, benefits, and product constraints in a chart.

Do you need help with how to create a customer profile? Below, we list alternative customer profile examples with methods that you can use to list your ideal consumer’s attributes.

Customer Profiling Examples

If you need help figuring out where to start, look at these top customer profile examples for a granular and overarching overview of your customers.

1. Scorecard

Customer profiles can vary with your company’s needs and preferences. Some companies format customer profiles as a scoring system to determine whether a prospect fits the business.

The above example uses the BANT framework. The BANT framework helps salespeople assess prospects and gives them a score for each criterion ranging from zero to two.

If the total score meets a preset benchmark, that’s a green light for sales to reach out.

2. Segmentation

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A segmented customer profile recognizes not every prospect is the same. What one customer needs from your business may differ from the next, and your customer profile definition is mutable. Each customer type is broken down by demographics, core values, and preferred communication channels in a segmented customer profile.

It includes a summary describing how the marketing team should advertise to these individuals.

With this information readily available, your marketing team can work alongside customer service to create effective campaigns that resonate with each segment of your customer base.

Free resource: Download our customer segmentation templates to help you create detailed customer profiles based on characteristics, including demographics, psychographics, geographics, and more

3. Basic Information

Download this Template

A basic information customer profile is just that — basic. This customer profile, available in our free customer profile templates, cuts right to the point.

It lists the fundamental information you need about each customer type, including background data, demographics, and pain points. I’ve found that the basic customer profile format is the easiest to get up and running, and you can always expand to a more involved customer profile type as you grow.

4. Buyer Persona

To construct a buyer persona customer profile, you must survey your current clients to understand their overall buying personality.

It’s important to note that the buyer persona usually comes after you know your customer profile.

Nonetheless, many buyer persona builders can get you thinking critically about your ideal customer by asking valuable, qualitative questions.

Buyer personas can greatly enhance marketing efforts. In fact, according to Marketing Insider Group, 24% of companies generated more leads using buyer personas and 56% of companies generated higher quality leads when using them.

Pro tip: Use HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool as a starting point for mapping and profiling your customers.

5. Demographics, Psychographics, and Behaviors

A customer profile can be as detailed as you need it to be. Many marketers find that the more they know about their audience, the better their chance of engaging with a prospect and making a sale.

Gathering demographics, psychographics, and behaviors in one document gives you an overview of your most profitable customers. Write your answers in bullet points or paragraph format to better understand your customers’ purchasing behaviors.

Pro tip: Don’t let your profiles stagnate. Integrate them into your CRM to trigger personalized campaigns and track behavior changes. By prioritizing behavioral data and using predictive analytics, you can anticipate needs and refine profiles into actionable user stories.

Unlock Better Service With Customer Profiling

I’ve always believed in putting the customer first, and my experience in service has reinforced a fundamental truth: you have to know your customer.

That’s where customer profiling comes in. It’s something I’m passionate about because it allows you to:

• Zero in on your ideal customer.
• Keep churn at a minimum.
• Create customer experiences that WOW.

In my view, the more you know about your customers, the more detailed your customer profile, and the more value you can extract from it. This translates to more effective marketing campaigns, increased sales conversions, and a superior customer experience.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in January 2018 and has since been updated for comprehensiveness.

Customers have countless interactions with your brand, which collectively form their opinion about your business. But what exactly are these touchpoints?

A customer touchpoint is any avenue through which prospects and customers interact with your business. Providing value on every touchpoint helps turn prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers.

In this post, I‘ll explain what customer journey touchpoints are and the role they play on marketing and customer service teams. Then, I’ll wrap up with a list of touchpoint examples and proven techniques to use in your business.

Table of Contents

• What are customer touchpoints?
• Customer Touchpoint Examples
• Customer Touchpoint Examples Before a Purchase
• Customer Touchpoint Examples During a Purchase
• Customer Touchpoints Example After a Purchase
• Customer Touchpoint Examples in Customer Service
• How to Use Customer Touchpoints in Your Business

Customer touchpoints are typically recorded on a customer journey map and there are templates to help (thanks, HubSpot!).

The maps are put together in chronological order to demonstrate a typical customer’s experience with a business. This helps marketing and customer service teams identify touchpoints that cause friction so they can remove them and enhance the customer journey.

Here’s an example of what a customer touchpoint looks like on HubSpot’s customer journey map:

While this is only a small section of a much larger document, it gives you a good idea of how useful touchpoints are to marketing and customer service teams.

In the original document, the green dots represent customer interactions that are positive, and the red ones represent points of friction. Yellow dots are moments when customers have to make decisions, which leads to either a green or red dot.

With this layout, I can see an overall view of different touchpoints occurring within various stages of the customer journey. This makes it easier to spot areas of your business that you can improve to increase customer delight.

Next, let’s dive a little deeper into those many touchpoints and see what we find.

I‘ve segmented this list to cover touchpoints that occur before, during, and after a purchase. Additionally, I’ve added a section that’s specific to customer service teams.

Customer Touchpoint Examples Before a Purchase

The customer experience begins at the first touchpoint with your brand. What are those most common initial touchpoints? Let’s look.

1. Social Media

Social media fits into every section of this list, but its cost-effectiveness makes it most valuable for reaching your target audience and acquiring customers. You can use social media to promote products, build relationships with clients, and enhance your brand’s overall reputation.

A good example? Me!

Most of the clients I‘ve gotten in my marketing career were solely because I posted and interacted on LinkedIn. Without social media, odds are that I wouldn’t be writing for HubSpot today.

You can get the best out of any social media platform by sticking to the unspoken rule: become and remain a consistent publisher on your preferred platform.

Here‘s a real-life example of how a prospect reached out to me after seeing value on their first and second touchpoints (I’ve marked them up in the email so you can see what I mean.)

Optimizing this touchpoint: Understand that customers may lurk for months or years before they interact with your brand for the first time. Create content for this customer touchpoint with a long-term vision.

2. Online Advertisements

Have you ever noticed banner ads displayed at the top or sidebar of a webpage? Those are touchpoints that take prospects back to your website. For some brands, like Poliform below, it’s an effective way to drive website traffic. Online advertising can be a very effective touchpoint when leveraged correctly.

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Optimizing this touchpoint: I recommend creating landing pages for these ads to get the most out of your marketing budget and banner ads. This lets you re-target prospects, as opposed to sending those prospects to your landing pages.

3. Digital Marketing Content

Digital marketing content includes the materials your company publishes online to promote its brand. These materials could be:

1. Educational videos.
2. Infographics.
3. Engaging blog posts.
4. Social media posts.

Beyond analyzing the impact of your marketing content, it‘s vital to ensure the content you put out ‌are on-brand and helpful to customers. Speak to customer pain points while creating content marketing that’s convincing and engaging.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Your digital marketing content sets customer expectations. A potential customer like me will assume that the quality of your marketing reflects the quality of your product.

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4. Company Events

If you’re on a marketing or sales team, then you may have attended a conference this year where you stood in a booth to promote your company. These events are an excellent way to introduce your brand to customers who may not be aware of it.

One example is INBOUND, where companies from around the world meet to discuss marketing, sales, customer service, and other business topics. It’s a great chance for business leaders to connect with new partners and discover strategies that can help their organizations grow. A core benefit of company events is that most attendees will be qualified leads for your business.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Approach events with a well thought-out plan for following up with leads who fit your ideal customer profile. Go in prepared and make a great first impression, then follow up.

5. Word of Mouth

When I’m making a purchase, I always opt for word-of-mouth referrals from people in my life or online. Why? A brand may lie in its advertising, but customers will always tell you what they really think of a product.

Like me, many customers say that their friends and family are their most trusted sources of referrals. Word-of-mouth referrals are even contagious: customers who were referred to your business make up to 57% more referrals than non-referred customers.

This makes it imperative to positively engage your existing customers at every touchpoint. It’s not enough to just have a great product; if other touchpoints are negative, customers will still hesitate to refer your business. For example, do customers have a position touchpoint when they put in an inquiry with your customer support team?

Optimizing this touchpoint: A good product alone isn’t enough to earn high customer satisfaction and coveted word-of-mouth referrals. Positive touchpoints are required at every level, from social media to chatbots and customer service and beyond.

6. Third-Party Reviews

I‘m a curious customer: This drives me to seek out reviews before making a purchase. A couple of one-star reviews don’t bother me. However, three is too many. It turns out I’m not alone.

According to Susie Ippolito, a former community manager for HubSpot’s Trends, customer trust drops by 67% when reviews drop from just four stars to three.

Conversely, trust spikes to 95% at the five-star level. The bottom line? Work hard to increase customer satisfaction and earn great reviews for your business on third-party websites.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Incentive repeat customers to leave reviews, and then display them prominently in your marketing materials.

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Customer Touchpoint Examples During a Purchase

A customer is preparing to make a purchase — celebrate! This is what all previous touchpoints have been about. But customer contact is more important now than ever before. Here are six touchpoint examples in the purchase phase of the customer journey.

7. Conversations with Company Representatives

Your sales interactions are the most direct point of contact with customers. These conversations, which take place virtually with sales reps and in your stores, have an immediate impact on the customer’s purchase decision.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Have a thorough customer service rep onboarding process and maintain high standards.

8. Pricing Page

I feel exasperated when I want to buy a product, land on the pricing page, and all I see is “request a quote,” “schedule a demo,” or something similar. This is a turn-off; word on the street is that many people feel the same.

If you have a pricing page for your product, be transparent and put up the pricing. If you have no intention of displaying your price, make that clear on the homepage and avoid surprising customers with the extra step of reaching out for a quote or demo.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Make your language as clear as possible to avoid customer frustration.

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9. Product Catalogs

Whether they’re online or in hard copy, catalogs are an excellent medium for showcasing your product line. An image of the product, coupled with an enticing description, gives the customer everything they need to know before making a purchase.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Analyze your customer’s buyer objections, then speak to these concerns in your catalog. Aim for clarity and ease of use to maximize this customer touchpoint.

10. Ecommerce

Ecommerce is an effective way to acquire customers and close deals because websites can be accessed globally, making it possible for an SMB in one location to provide products and services to a customer on the other side of the world.

Understanding the touchpoints within ecommerce can dramatically improve the customer experience for SaaS and other online companies. Such touchpoints during a purchase include:

• Information on your product pages.
• Live chat feature.
• Your shopping cart.
• Checkout page.

Optimizing each of these touchpoints is crucial for winning the sale.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Customers ask themselves if a website is secure enough before making a purchase online. Reassure users by offering clear product information (sizes, dimensions, etc.) as well as store policy (return policy, customer support email, etc.). Anticipate their questions.

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11. Product Reviews

In today‘s digital age, product reviews are no longer just a pre-purchase touchpoint. Customers now have smart devices that can call up product reviews while they’re shopping in your stores or making a decision online.

Additionally, some online retailers include reviews on the listing page, allowing users to see what other customers think without navigating away from the page.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Engage with all written product reviews, thanking customers for providing feedback and showing how much you value their insights. With this approach, even negative reviews can turn into a positive touchpoint. The example below of an Airbnb host responding to a critical guest review is a great example of maximizing this touchpoint opportunity.

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12. Point of Sale

This is the last touchpoint your customers will reach before making a purchase. That’s because this is where your sales rep makes their case for why the customer needs your product. For all businesses, this is a momentous step in the customer journey.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Focus on speed and convenience at the point of sale. Offer multiple forms of payment and have trained associates handling these final sales to answer any questions about adoption that could sabotage the sale.

Customer Touchpoints Example After a Purchase

How do customers interact with your brand after they’ve made a purchase? Understanding this will help you identify customer touchpoints that impact your revenue most. Here are common touchpoint ideas.

13. Thank You Letters

One effective way to build customer rapport is by following up with a thank you letter. This can be an email, or, if possible, a handwritten note that thanks customers for their business. It’s a great way to show customers you care and develop a long-term relationship with them.

If you’re not sure how to start sending customer thank you letters, check out our guide on writing thank you letters.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Show gratitude to every customer at every tier of your business. A handwritten thank-you might be overkill for customers who make a small purchase on your website, but a smaller token of gratitude like an email or discount code for the next purchase will help your company be remembered.

14. Product Feedback Surveys

Product feedback surveys are sent after a purchase, and they evaluate the customer’s experience with your product or service. If the customer leaves a negative review, the company can reach out to learn more about the issue. They then relay this information to the product development team, who makes enhancements to the next version of the product.

Beyond making customers know that you care, these customer feedback surveys might help you retain customers who are five times harder to get, according to customer acquisition studies.

Optimizing this touchpoint: When asking for feedback, showcase how the brand has used previous customer feedback. This incentivizes customers to share thoughtful ideas for improving your product.

15. Upselling/Cross-Selling Emails

Customer needs don’t go away after a purchase is made. In fact, some customers have additional needs once they start to use your product.

This presents an opportunity for you to upsell or cross-sell customers on additional or premium items in your store. See an example of this in the image below.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Customize your cross-sell offers to each purchase. This will maximize conversion and expand customers’ understanding of your brand offerings as it relates to their interests.

16. Billing Actions

Billing is often an overlooked touchpoint on this list. That‘s because it happens after a purchase occurs and has no direct influence on the customer‘s decision to buy your product. However, it‘s still a vital step in the customer’s journey because a negative experience can result in an immediate instance of churn if not addressed properly.

Worst part is, identifying churn as a result of billing challenges may be hard. That’s where conducting regular surveys help in optimizing your billing process.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Review your billing process and look for improvement opportunities. Sit next to a member of your team who hasn’t used the customer billing portal and have them work through it. Look for opportunities to improve the process or offer positive reinforcement to customers.

17. Subscription Renewals

Renewals are crucial to your revenue model if you’re a subscription-based business. You need customers to renew their subscriptions to maintain steady growth for your business. This makes it important that you remove as much friction as possible from your renewal process. After all, it should be effortless for an existing customer to stay a customer after their contract is up.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Show the customer that you‘re thinking of their needs by making certain predictable steps easy to access. For example, how does a customer update their payment information or cancel? You can anticipate this question, and it shouldn’t require customers to speak with your customer support team.

Customer Touchpoint Examples in Customer Service

Speaking of customer service … This is your most valuable customer touchpoint. Here are five examples and ways to optimize these interactions.

18. Customer Support Channels

Customer support channels are any platforms that service agents use to communicate with customers. This includes:

• Live chat.
• AI bots.
• Email.
• Phone support.
• Social media.
• Peer review sites.
• And more.

Optimizing this touchpoint: The list of support channels goes on and on. Businesses need to invest in omnichannel support if they want to create a convenient experience for all customers. Optimize this by choosing a product like HubSpot Service Hub that combines multi-channel communication into one convenient interface so no touchpoint is lost.

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19. Customer Success Programs

A customer has a lot of direct contact with a company when in the wooing process. But what about after they purchase? Who’s there to help them succeed? This is where a customer success program comes in.

Customer success programs have various touchpoints. When a customer success department recognizes a potential problem, it contacts customers to notify them of the issue or offer a solution. This demonstrates a commitment to the customer’s goals, which builds additional rapport over time.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Improve customer success through both self-service avenues (like knowledge banks and AI chatbots) and direct contact with your success team. Some customers prefer a hands-on approach, and others will prefer to find the answers themselves — this aids both types of customers.

20. Customer Onboarding

The battle is not won after you win a new customer. You have to onboard your customer to truly win them. Customer onboarding is a popular touchpoint for service teams because many customers abandon products shortly after buying them.

Why does this happen? Either customers:

1. Don’t know how to use your product, or
2. They don’t have the time to learn how to use it

Both result in churn, making it essential for companies to invest in effective onboarding programs.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Onboard customers to your product as quickly as possible. Have your customer success team make immediate contact with new customers and equip them with materials to help them start using the product immediately.

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21. Customer Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs strengthen your relationship with customers and turn them into lifelong advocates. By incentivizing people with exclusive rewards and discounts, they’ll be more likely to share positive reviews about your business.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Make the enrollment process as frictionless as possible to incentivize signups. Consider having multiple types of loyalty rewards to reward customers with something valuable to them.

22. Self-Service Resources

When customers are in a hurry or only have a quick question for your support team, they don’t want to spend 20 minutes waiting on hold for a rep. Instead, you can offer self-service resources that feature troubleshooting steps customers can take on their own. That way, they’re not dependent on your service team for answers and can find solutions on their own time, making your product more convenient and easier to use.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Use AI to enhance your blog or knowledge base. This interactive approach to self-service will make this touchpoint more helpful for customers.

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All of these touchpoints are essential for creating and analyzing your customer’s journey. But how do you use them in your business? I’ll explain that below.

How to Use Customer Touchpoints in Your Business

By using customer touchpoints, you’ll exponentially improve the customer experience. But not all touchpoints will make sense for your company. For instance, if you‘re a SaaS business, you might not have an online catalog. And if you’re running the business on your own, your customer likely won’t run into a sales team.

To create a custom customer touchpoint map, I recommend the following steps.

1. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes.

First and foremost, put yourself in your customers’ shoes and envision the steps they take as they make a purchase decision. Where do they look first? How do they reach a purchase decision? And what do they do if they run into problems using the product?

Let’s take a look at an example customer journey below.

• The customer becomes aware of a problem and researches ways to solve their issue.
• After finding a solution, they search for a particular product. They look through product listings on Google and then explore offerings on retailer websites such as Amazon.
• They search for product reviews.
• After finding sufficient information, they purchase the product.
• They use the product but run into trouble. They look for articles and resources on how to solve the issue on their own.
• They reach out to a customer service representative.

After, match each of these customer actions to a certain touchpoint. Here’s what that looks like:

• Touchpoint 1. A robust blog that covers commonly-researched issues by your customers.
• Touchpoint 2. A series of paid ads on Google‘s and Amazon’s product pages.
• Touchpoint 3. A collection of unsponsored product reviews on your website.
• Touchpoint 4. A portal for customers to easily check and see their order status.
• Touchpoint 5. Self-service options such as knowledge bases and product how-tos.
• Touchpoint 6. An easy-to-find customer service portal or phone number that allows them to get in touch.

2. Decide what’s feasible based on your company size and budget.

Now that you have a rough idea of the resources and information your customer will need during their journey, it’s time to decide which ones are easiest to implement based on your company size and budget.

If you sell a complicated product but run a one-person business, investing in a full-scale service desk with knowledge bases and ticketing features might not be feasible. But you could start by adding free live chat.

The key here is to find an alternative that‘s easy to adopt for you and your team and scalable as your business grows. You don’t want to be boxed in after your customer touchpoint strategy yields positive results.

3. Establish touchpoint tasks.

Deciding on the touchpoints is one thing; translating them into actionable tasks is another. You‘ve decided what’s feasible, and now it’s time to turn it into action.

Here’s what that can look like for the example referenced above.

First Touchpoint Tasks

• Create a strong cluster content strategy that solves for the customer.
• Decide on the first five posts, which will be published in four weeks.
• Outsource the content creation by hiring freelancers to write the content.
• Use the in-house marketing team to leverage buyer personas and current customer acquisition data.

Second Touchpoint Tasks

• Create a Google Merchant Center account and an Amazon seller account.
• Write unique descriptions for each product using the services of two freelancers.
• Source product photos and general information such as specifications, country of origin, sustainability score, and so on.
• Add product listings to Google and Amazon.

Third Touchpoint Tasks

• Add product reviews to the site using a WordPress review plugin or another solution.
• Invite current customers to write reviews by offering a 10% discount on a future purchase.
• Respond to reviews as they come in so prospects can see the brand is active.

You’d continue down the touchpoints list, adding tasks until you have a comprehensive checklist that everyone on your team can reference.

4. Leverage software tools to automate touchpoint tasks.

Use marketing, sales, and service software to ensure touchpoint tasks run smoothly with minor intervention.

Let‘s say you’ve decided to invest in social media marketing as the first touchpoint, but you have a three-person marketing team, and you don’t know how to get started. You can consider a social media management tool such as HubSpot’s Social Inbox (included in Marketing Hub). And if your team is new to social media management, you can have everyone take a social media certification course.

If you‘ve decided that one of your customers’ touchpoints is chatting with a salesperson, you’d invest in a CRM that helps your sales team keep track of all communication and automatically schedule follow-up calls.

If one of your touchpoints is a discount delivered via email, you’ll want to use email marketing software to automatically send the message. This way, you won’t need to manually type each email and send it to every customer.

And if one of your touchpoints is an easy-to-reach service desk, you’ll invest in customer service software that can take care of ticketing — and even resolve simple inquiries with a customer service bot.

These tools can help you streamline your customer touchpoint process so that it progresses with minimal team intervention. As you serve more customers, no touchpoint slips through the cracks.

Use Customer Touchpoints to Enhance the Customer Journey

After reading all this, I hope you see that you can play a role at every step of the customer journey by identifying, planning for, and leveraging each customer touchpoint. Nothing is left up to chance. Instead, you provide targeted information at just the right time.

Now, it’s time to identify customer touchpoints that impact your ROI most.

Whether you’re a one-person business or an enterprise-level team, I recommend using touchpoints to enhance the customer experience, empowering you to retain more customers and grow better.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in January 2020 and has since been updated for comprehensiveness.

My early days as a customer support agent really drove home the importance of having clear, accessible knowledge base articles that let customers solve problems on their own, and this became a consistent part of my support ethos.

My journey in customer support has taken me through startups and larger corporate organizations where I’ve implemented knowledge bases that cut support tickets by as much as 70%, boosted customer satisfaction scores, and even improved organic search for terms like “knowledge base articles.”

Now, as a seasoned customer experience (CX) professional writing this guide for HubSpot, I’m excited to share the lessons I’ve learned about creating and using a knowledge base effectively.

Whether you’re a business owner, a support team lead, or someone passionate about CX, this guide will walk you through everything you need to know to leverage knowledge bases for customer success.

Table of Contents

• What is a knowledge base article?
• Benefits of Knowledge Base Articles
• How to Create Knowledge Base Articles
• Examples of Knowledge Base Articles
• Knowledge Base Article Templates

From my years of working in CX, I’ve come to see these articles as the backbone for effective customer support. Depending on the audience, they can take various forms:

• Step-by-step guides
• FAQs
• Troubleshooting instructions
• Detailed feature breakdowns

I’ve used text-based articles most often, but do love incorporating screenshots, videos, and infographics to make complex topics easier to understand. This is especially important considering people have different learning styles.

What makes knowledge base articles different from other content?

What makes a knowledge base article unique, in my experience, is its focus on practicality and clarity. Unlike blog posts, which might aim to entertain or inform, these articles prioritize delivering solutions in a straightforward way.

For example, I’ve written an article about how to reset your API key that included numbered steps and a screenshot of the dashboard. Within weeks, support requests for that particular issue dropped.

Knowledge base articles also differ from other types of content because they’re highly targeted. Each one addresses a single problem or question, and they are organized for easy access and searchability, often under categories like Account Management, Billing, or Troubleshooting.

Next, I’ll explain why knowledge base articles are so valuable and how you can create them effectively.

Benefits of Knowledge Base Articles

I’ve seen how knowledge base articles deliver tangible results for both customers and businesses. They’re necessary for any organization serious about customer success.

Below, I’ve outlined six key benefits, each backed by recent data and my own experiences in Silicon Valley’s fast-paced tech environment. These advantages extend beyond support –– they affect productivity, consistency, and even aspects of marketing.

Reduces Support Ticket Volume

One of the core benefits of introducing knowledge base articles is their ability to lighten the load on support teams. When a self-service resource is able to handle the inquiry alone and does not need to escalate a ticket, we refer to this as a deflection.

For example, at Skybound, I analyze ticket data weekly and look for any repeating patterns in customer inquiries. If I notice there’s a consistently higher volume around a particular question or issue, I’ll create a knowledge base article and add it to the knowledge base.

Typically what’ll find is that tickets around that subject slowly become deflected, as customers learn to navigate your knowledge base. In fact, according to 2024 data, businesses with well-crafted knowledge base articles can see a 23% reduction in customer support ticket volume.

Improves Customer Satisfaction

When customers can solve problems on their own, they feel empowered, and that significantly boosts their satisfaction. This empowerment comes from several things.

• A sense of control. Customers can take control of their problems without waiting for support.
• Increased autonomy. Customers appreciate a sense of independence.
• Enhanced trust. When customers can solve their own issue, it builds trust with a brand because they perceive the company as proactive and customer-focused. This can lead to loyalty and positive word-of-mouth.

Historically, whenever I’ve introduced a robust knowledge base, the business has seen increased CSAT scores and a rise in NPS.

Enhances Employee Productivity

Knowledge base articles don’t just help customers — they make life easier for employees, too.

At a company I worked with in 2022, our sales team used articles like “Understanding Subscription Tiers” to answer prospect questions during live demos, saving them time as they prepared for each new opportunity. Similarly, our technical support team relied on internal knowledge base articles to document bug fixes and feature requests.

Similarly, at Skybound, my current support team was able to cut their average handle time by 40% as of Q4 of 2024, simply by using centralized troubleshooting guides.

In other words, your knowledge base ends up serving your customers and becoming a training resource for your team. Research has found that your average worker spends about 30% of their workday searching for information. So, this not only helps drive efficiency but reduces the potential for lower morale.

Standardizes Information

Consistency matters, especially as teams grow. Early in my career, I quickly noticed how there would often be a knowledge gap as customers moved down various funnels in their customer journey. By the time they reached customer support, everyone involved had conflicting information. This not only leads to confusion but also a spike in support tickets.

In contrast, when everyone delivers the same message, customers feel more confident in your brand.

Supports 24/7 Availability

In a global and digital market, customers don’t stick to your time zone. Knowledge base articles provide around-the-clock support without extra staffing costs. I love waking up to check our knowledge base queries from the previous night, typically from Asia-Pacific customers, to see that many of them deflected and did not escalate into a ticket.

There’s also a growing demand for self-service that complements this. A 2024 study found that 67% of customers prefer using some form of self-service over talking to a live agent.

In my view, a well-crafted knowledge base article is a strategic asset for streamlining support operations.

Boosts SEO and Organic Traffic

One benefit I didn’t anticipate early on was the SEO power of knowledge base articles, as 52% of keywords people search for have informational intent.

By optimizing titles and content for long-tail keywords like “How to fix integration sync errors,” you can actually end up ranking in Google search results, thus driving more traffic to your website because of people finding your knowledge base –– and ultimately driving new leads. By creating content that addresses specific user inquiries, you can improve your search engine rankings and establish yourself as an industry authority.

The benefits are convincing, as they not only enhance customer satisfaction and operational efficiency but also contribute to long-term business growth through improved SEO and reduced support costs.

For more ideas, check out this HubSpot article on knowledge base examples.

How to Create Knowledge Base Articles

Creating effective knowledge base articles is a process I’ve honed over years of trial and error. You really need to focus on solving problems efficiently.

Below, I’ve detailed a nine-step approach, complete with tools and tips from my experience. This method ensures your articles are clear, actionable, and results-oriented.

Step 1: Identify common customer queries.

You can’t solve problems you don’t understand, so I start by digging into support ticket data to find recurring issues and general common questions.

Try to pinpoint as many frequent topics as you can and then mentally bundle them into categories — topics like “How do I update my account information?” and “Why did my payment fail?” Then, create a diagram chart mapping out the categories and the associated topics.

Pro tip: Use tools like HubSpot’s Service Analytics to spot trends. You can also run keyword searches in your ticketing system for phrases like “how do I” or “error.” If available to you, don’t stop at just tickets –– survey customers or use AI tools like Gong.io to analyze call transcripts for unlogged pain points.

Step 2: Define a clear structure.

A logical structure makes articles easy to follow. I like to promote doing this early on and taking it seriously because your ability to scale knowledge management depends on it. Otherwise, you’ll have to come back and make changes that might take time to overhaul.

My go-to format includes:

• A keyword-rich titles (e.g., “Why was my order canceled?”).
• A short intro (2-3 sentences on what the article covers).
• Numbered steps or sections with clear headings.
• Visual aids like screenshots or videos.
• A brief conclusion or next steps.

Pro tip: Test your structure with a small user group. You might learn some things that need adjusting to improve comprehension. I recommend keeping sections short, aiming for around 75-100 words each. This helps avoid overwhelming the readers. Consistency is key to scalability.

Step 3: Write for your audience.

Your audience dictates your tone and depth. For developers and product managers, I use technical terms; for the average user, I stick to plain language.

A Statista study shows that 60 to 65% of website traffic comes from mobile devices, suggesting people are more likely to access knowledge base articles on mobile.

Source

Pro tip: Use tools like Hemingway App to target a particular grade level of reading for broad accessibility. I think grade 6 through 8 reading level is good in that it does not assume a high level of literacy. Also, define any unavoidable jargon in a sidebar or tooltip –– don’t assume prior knowledge.

Step 4: Incorporate visuals.

Sometimes, words alone are not enough to describe complex tasks. How difficult would it be to put together your newly purchased IKEA furniture if it only included written instructions instead of images? Knowledge base articles are no different. I always add screenshots, annotated diagrams, or 30-60 second videos to clarify steps.

Research shows that 36% of people have struggled to process information without visuals since elementary school –– and 50% are actively looking for visual aids when reading informational content to improve their understanding. Adding screenshots, diagrams, or short videos to your knowledge base articles can make complex steps clearer and more digestible.

Pro tip: Use tools like TechSmith Capture or Loom for screenshots and videos — and remember to optimize your content for mobile and add alt text for accessibility and SEO.

Step 5: Optimize for SEO.

Search engines can lead users to your knowledge base articles, so I like to include primary keywords in titles and headings, and long-tail phrases in the body.

HubSpot’s Knowledge Base Software has AI-driven keyword suggestions, which are very powerful for boosting search rankings.

Pro tip: Research your competitors with Ahrefs or Semrush to find high-volume, low-competition terms. Write your meta descriptions between 150 to 160 characters, summarizing the article and including your keyword.

Step 6: Categorize and tag.

A well-organized knowledge base is important for both customers and employees. I group content into clear categories like “Getting Started,” “Billing,” or “Troubleshooting,” and use tags like “login error” or “refund request” to make searching easy.

Keep your categories and tags straightforward. This helps everyone find answers quickly, reducing customer frustration and agent handling time.

Pro tip: I’ve always found that a simple navigation menu with 3 to 6 core categories is a good starting point. Too many options can overwhelm users, while too few can make finding specific information harder.

Step 7: Review and update regularly.

Outdated content loses trust. It’s important to manage your knowledge base and optimize your content for accuracy, freshness, or even new media formats depending on what you’re seeing in the visitor traffic data. I personally review knowledge base data weekly and make small adjustments as needed. For larger overhauls, I’ll take notes and go back to step 2 if required.

Source

Pro tip: Try applying the Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule. It talks about how roughly 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. Using this in a knowledge base context, start with the top 20% of viewed knowledge base articles –– this typically addresses 80% of user issues.

Step 8: Gather feedback.

While you can see a lot in the data, sometimes it’s helpful to turn directly to your audience. Sending a quarterly survey can help gauge how much your customers value your self-service resources and identify any gaps that need to be filled.

One way to do this directly in the knowledge base article is by using those little “Was this helpful?” buttons. This will give you a general overview of which articles are working and which are not. Then, review the feedback and prioritize the most high-value opportunities while addressing the low-rated articles for updates.

Pro tip: Add a free-form comment field alongside the “Was this helpful?” buttons so you can capture specific improvement suggestions. This makes the binary feedback a bit more actionable.

Step 9: Leverage AI tools.

AI can really help speed up this entire process without completely sacrificing quality. Don’t get me wrong, it requires your effort and guidance, but by using large language models to help you create drafts and get started, you can get moving more quickly than ever before.

For example, you can feed the LLM various customer issues or how-tos and then have it start compiling a foundation that you can build upon. Support teams are finding a lot of success leveraging AI for knowledge base management.

Source

Pro tip: Use AI to suggest related articles or keywords to enhance user navigation and SEO, but always edit AI output for accuracy and brand voice –– don’t just publish “copypasta.”

This approach consistently transforms overwhelming support backlogs into efficient self-service resources that delight customers and reduce operational cost.

Examples of Knowledge Base Articles

Let’s look at a few examples of knowledge bases that implement these principles. Knowledge bases come in many forms, but the best ones have common characteristics that make them useful.

Greenhouse Support Center

My alma mater Greenhouse Software has a support center that shows many knowledge base best practices. Notice that the homepage has multiple entry points, with a search bar, popular searches, and visual categories.

This recognizes that different users have different preferences for finding information –– some want to search directly, while others like to browse categories.

Source

I think this homepage’s effectiveness lies in its clean and minimal design, which puts the most used information front and center. The “Most popular subjects” section has visual thumbnails with straightforward article titles, so users can find what they are looking for easily.

This follows the 80/20 rule I mentioned earlier — tackling the 20% subjects that solve 80% of user problems directly on the homepage.

Looking at a specific knowledge base article, this jobs manual from Greenhouse shows how to organize step-by-step instructions efficiently. The article breaks down what could be a complex process into manageable parts with easy navigation, highlighted notes,and visual elements that enhance the written instructions.

Source

I really like how this article uses green info boxes to highlight important exceptions or edge cases. And the table that compares different job creation options allows users to see their choices.

These visual cues reduce the mental load on the user, making it easier for them to understand the choices and make a decision. In my experience, this kind of thoughtful formatting can reduce tickets and enhance customer experience.

When you’re building your knowledge base, these are some elements I think you should consider:

• Clear organization.
• Visual support.
• Minimalist design.
• Highlighting the most common user paths.

Remember, the best knowledge base articles are discoverable, clear, and solution-focused.

Slack Help Center

The Slack help center is a great example of a well-organized knowledge base. The site feels friendly right away thanks to a conversational header that says, “Hi. How can we help?” and gives you a number of ways to get information.

There’s a big search bar, quick links to popular topics, and categories that are easy to see. It’s great that they incorporate different learning styles.

Source

I like that the layout is simple but still very useful, and the common questions and categories are easy to see right away. It’s clear that when designing this, Slack wanted to make it easier for people to quickly find and solve their own problems.

Diving into one of their knowledge base articles, I took a look at their piece on “Managing your organization’s connections.” First thing that I tested was whether it appeared in search engine results. We talked earlier about the importance of optimizing for SEO, and it looks like Slack took this into consideration.

As you can see, the knowledge base article appears at the top of the SERPS, even recognized by the native Google Gemini search labs AI overview. This means customers don’t even need to visit your knowledge base directly to find their answers — they’ll be led there by the search engine, thanks to your knowledge base articles focusing on primary and keyword structure.

What I like most about this knowledge base article is that it tells you what to expect right away. It also lets users know which roles can use the tool, so they don’t waste time if they don’t have the right permissions.

The process doesn’t feel too difficult as each step is short, clear, and shown visually. I also like the quick feedback buttons at the end. As I mentioned earlier, that’s a smart way to get feedback from real users to improve the material.

The way Slack does things is a great example for anyone who wants to build or improve a knowledge base. Some great takeaways to remember are:

• Use friendly language.
• Organize visuals clearly.
• Keep things simple and step-by-step.
• Include a feedback loop that keeps content changing.

Answers should be simple to find, simple to understand, and simple to improve over time.

HubSpot Knowledge Base

Okay, I know I’m writing this for HubSpot –– so of course I have to plug the HubSpot Knowledge Base. But honestly, even if I wasn’t, it would still make the list (I promise they didn’t make me say that). Here’s why.

Right from the homepage, it’s clear HubSpot wants to make things easy. Much like Slack’s, there’s a prominent search bar, quick links to popular topics, and organized categories covering everything from marketing and sales to CRM setup and beyond.

Plus, there’s a little chat widget in the bottom-right corner, which I love. I like these widgets because they’re like a safety net — they’re great to use when you’re convinced you’ve looked everywhere but still can’t find what you need.

What stands out to me most is how HubSpot balances practical guidance with education. It’s not just a bunch of questions and answers, their knowledge base is packed with actionable marketing, sales, and service strategies. It feels less like a support resource and more like a learning hub that happens to solve your problems along the way.

One article I keep coming back to is the guide on setting up automation workflows. This could easily be a complicated mess, but the article breaks it down into consumable sections that are action-oriented. It makes everything feel less overwhelming.

What I really like about this article is that it doesn’t just tell you how to build a workflow –– it explains why certain steps matter. It’s part tutorial, and part strategy guide, which makes it more useful than a basic troubleshooting page. You walk away knowing not only how to set things up, but how to make them work better for your business.

The biggest takeaways for me are:

• Clear structure.
• A balance of technical and strategic guidance.
• Scannable formatting.
• A focus on empowering the user –– not just fixing the problem.

A truly great knowledge base article helps people get smarter.

Knowledge Base Article Templates

I’ve created these two templates to help you easily build effective knowledge base articles. My goal was to make them simple to use, so you can quickly structure your information and get it out to your users.

Whether you need to explain a process or help someone fix a problem, these templates give you a foundation to get started. (You can also download HubSpot’s free knowledge base articles template, too.)

Here are two templates you can apply today.

Template 1: How-To & Educational Articles

Title: [What the user will learn to do/understand]

Intro: [One or two sentences. What’s the goal?]

Section 1: [First Step or Concept]

If it’s steps:

1. Do this first.
2. Then do this.
3. And so on…

[Screenshots]

[What should they see after the steps?]

[Screenshots]

[Possible problem? How to fix it?]

If it’s explaining something:

• Explain it simply.
• Use short sentences.
• Use bullet points.

Section 2: [Next Steps or Concept] (Repeat the format above)

…(More sections if needed)…

Related Articles:

• [Link 1]
• [Link 2]
• [Link 3]

Still Need Help? (How to contact support)

Was This Helpful? Yes / No (Optional comment box)

The first template is your go-to for creating a step-by-step approach to explaining concepts. This second template is for troubleshooting articles, and helping users identify and fix problems on their own.

Template 2: Troubleshooting Articles

Title: [Problem the user is having]

What’s Happening? [One or two sentences describing the problem]

Possible Causes:

• [Cause 1]
• [Cause 2]
• [Cause 3] (Add more if needed)

How to Fix It:

Solution 1:

1. Try this first.
2. Then try this.

[Screenshots]

What Should Happen? [Short description of expected behavior]

[Screenshots]

If that didn’t work do this:

1. Try this.
2. Then try this.

Still Not Working? [Link to submit ticket]

Related Articles:

• Link 1
• Link 2
• Link 3

Was This Helpful? Yes / No (Optional comment box)

Your Knowledge Base, Your Success

Knowledge base articles are for building a resource that empowers your customers and frees up your team. As you work on your own knowledge base articles, don’t be afraid to experiment. Try different formats, gather feedback relentlessly, and keep iterating.

And one last tip: start small. Focus on the top 20% of questions and issues, and build from there. The most important thing is to start, keep learning, and always put your customers first.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in February 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The companies I work with care deeply about their customers, and it shows. That’s especially true when I’m updating the UX of a site or overhauling knowledge base content. However, customer feedback management is often lacking.

Companies either think they know their customers so well that they don’t need to formalize the feedback loop, or they’re collecting a lot of feedback and have no way to understand the data. That’s why a structured approach to managing feedback from customers is essential.

Below, I’ll discuss the approach I recommend for recording and acting on customer feedback. I’ll also share helpful channels to keep and eye on, as well as best practices.

Table of Contents

• What is Customer Feedback Management?
• How to Implement Customer Feedback Management
• Customer Feedback Management Software
• 5 Customer Feedback Management Best Practices
• 3 Examples of Customer Feedback Management
• Get Started with Customer Feedback Management

At its core, CFM is a customer-centered approach to doing business that uses customer feedback as a means to deliver a better service experience and product. It’s helpful to visualize customer feedback management as a loop that includes the following steps:

1. Ask — solicit customer feedback.
2. Categorize — sort feedback into separate groups.
3. Act — share feedback with relevant parties and develop solutions.
4. Follow-up — Follow up with customers to gauge the effectiveness of your efforts.

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You can use customer feedback software at each stage of the loop. This can be really useful if you have a large amount of data.

Now you know how customer feedback management works, let’s talk about the types of feedback. There are two distinct categories I think about — direct feedback and indirect feedback — which I’ll discuss below.

Types of Customer Feedback

Direct customer feedback comes from explicit requests that you send to customers. For example, I might ask customers to complete surveys post-purchase or leave reviews. Indirect feedback is given but not asked for, like social media posts, comments, or even product returns.

Other types of customer feedback include:

• Product or service sales.
• Support tickets.
• Technical issues and bug reports.
• Requests for product or service walkthroughs.
• Customer complaints.
• Suggestions.

With the feedback gathered from CFM, I can work cross-departmentally to identify key customers, streamline improvements, and increase revenue.

Customer feedback management is not just about finding ways to keep customers satisfied. It’s also about turning negative experiences into opportunities for positive engagement. After all, more than half of customers will switch to a different brand after just one negative experience.

The Difference Between a Customer Complaint and Customer Feedback

Before I move on, let’s look at the differences between a customer complaint and customer feedback. This distinction makes a difference when you go to put your customer feedback strategy together.

A complaint is delivered after a customer experience and is — by definition — negative. Meanwhile, feedback can be solicited before, during, or after a customer experience. This information could be bad, good, or neutral.

Customer complaints are mostly due to product or service issues, a lack of empathy in interactions with support staff, and inadequate responses to reviews or appeals for assistance. On the other hand, customer feedback can include praise, suggestions for product improvements, or comments on the effectiveness of a customer service interaction.

Companies need to be sensitive to the power of customer complaints, as rage-filled customers are more vocal than satisfied ones. In fact, 56% of customers don’t complain at all — they just quietly switch to another brand without so much as a “goodbye.”

The sad truth is that most customer complaints never get reported, which means that complaints aired publicly are just the tip of the iceberg. It’s part of the reason I advocate strongly for structured feedback requests in any company — you don’t know what you don’t know.

Why is Customer Feedback Management Important?

Customer feedback management benefits include:

• Reduced churn.
• Increased revenue.
• Improved products and services.
• Stronger customer relationships.
• Data about key customer groups.

I’m all about growth, and I’d be the last person to deny there is value in acquiring new customers. But there is even more value in retaining existing customers. A 2022 research study found that ecommerce brands lose $29 for every customer they acquire — a 222% increase in just eight years.

Customer feedback management is also critical to letting customers know that you care about their satisfaction. People leave companies for many reasons. However, two-thirds of consumers who feel a brand cares about their emotions will likely turn into repeat customers.

Customer Feedback Management Channels

No matter what you sell or how customers buy, there are many avenues to gather customer insight. Here are some of the most common customer feedback management channels:

• Focus groups.
• Customer interviews.
• Surveys.
• NSA.
• Third-party reviews.
• Email.
• Live chat.
• Text.
• Social media.
• In-product requests.

In the past, focus groups and customer interviews formed the backbone of most CFM efforts. I think they still have their place, especially for gathering qualitative information about a specific product or aspect of your company.

But these days, things are mostly digital. CFM is no exception. I find more and more companies are hyper-focused on digital channels because they cost less to analyze, and the data is easier to synthesize at scale.

For example, net promoter score (NPS) surveys make it easy and affordable for companies to automate CFM. They help businesses understand how customers feel overall about their brand. Although different software score their results differently, all NPS surveys measure customers’ loyalty to a brand.

Source

Live chat, text, and email are the most direct customer feedback management tools. With the increasing digitalization of customer service experiences, people want to be able to communicate with businesses quickly and efficiently when a problem arises.

Let’s not forget third-party reviews and social media sites. Here, people air their grievances and discuss their favorite brands. I love how organic these channels are. You can see what people say without any solicitation. So, if you’re a beginner to CFM, I recommend starting with review sites and social media to gauge customer sentiment.

How to Implement Customer Feedback Management

Good customer feedback is important for everyone from sales and marketing to product and customer success. This information can help inform everything from day-to-day operational changes, right up the chain to strategic financial decisions.

With the whole organization clamoring for customer feedback data, it’s easy to go overboard. So, before you implement a customer feedback management strategy, I recommend taking a step back and ensuring you plan a structured approach. Here’s how.

1. Set clear objectives.

It sounds like an obvious step, but I’m always amazed at how many teams jump straight into data collection. This is how I’ve ended up sifting through disparate customer feedback for hours. In these scenarios, I’m looking at information from multiple channels, trying to make sense of it.

Basically, if you don’t have objectives, it’s more difficult to make your customer feedback actionable.

I recommend defining what you want to know and why. This could be broader business objectives or relate to something highly specific. For example, you might want to:

• Improve the features of your product.
• Understand whether your brand resonates with the target market.
• See if your pricing is too high or too low.
• Validate a new product line or feature before launch.
• Optimize the user experience.
• Get an overall sense of how happy your customers are with the company.

You might already see how these objectives might then feed into my next step.

2. Select your feedback channels.

Some feedback channels, like social media and review sites, are always worth keeping an eye on. I sometimes use social listening or sentiment analysis tools designed to automate data synthesis on these sites.

Other channels need a bit more consideration. Some objectives, like validating a new product, might be best met with a focus group. Others are broader and better suited for one-off mass surveys.

The other item I recommend thinking about here is frequency. How often should you gather fresh data? It depends on what you’re gathering. For example, some SaaS brands I’ve worked with send quarterly surveys to gauge their NPS. Other channels, like a “how did we do” email, can be sent continuously to new customers.

3. Use automation.

There are lots of methods and tools you can use to automate the collection of customer feedback.

Let’s say I’m looking at a site with an ecommerce store. I might recommend implementing a drip email sequence so customers receive a purchase confirmation and a couple of follow-ups asking how they like the product. Each of these emails can include links to surveys, opportunities to leave a review or quick star-rating apps. Now, customer feedback management is fully automated.

Other areas I recommend you consider for automation include:

• Chabots on your website to ask people about their experience (like HubSpot’s Breeze).
• In-app surveys if you’re working with a software product.
• Requesting reviews on platforms like Google or Trustpilot.

Remember to automate when to request feedback. Right after purchase is one obvious trigger. However, there are plenty of other interactions worthy of feedback. For example, if a new feature is released on a SaaS platform, I recommend triggering a request for feedback when a user first interacts with the feature.

4. Set a schedule for focus groups.

I think focus groups still have their place in CFM, regardless of industry. They don’t have to be formal affairs conducted through two-way mirrors. I’ve run focus groups over video calls that provided tons of really valuable, qualitative feedback.

But here’s the thing: Your customer’s time is valuable. Finding available participants who represent your target personas can be difficult. If you run them too often, you might run out of worthwhile customers to interview, particularly if you work with a smaller customer base.

Instead, I recommend planning focus groups that are in line with your overall strategic planning. They should coincide with significant events in the calendar, like a new feature release or the launch of a new service portal.

5. Centralize and categorize the data.

Where you have control over the questions you ask your customers, try to keep them consistent. Let’s say you have a website chatbot and a post-purchase survey email. They should both direct customers to the same survey with the same set of questions and response options.

I’ve seen companies collecting simple star ratings from one platform while using detailed questions in surveys elsewhere. It’s all good data, but it makes analysis to get to the heart of your customer sentiment extremely difficult.

There are also tools available, like MonkeyLearn or Chattermill, that use AI to help you synthesize sentiment and survey data from multiple channels in one place.

Either way, make sure you can compile your data. But remember that, without insights, data is just words and numbers on a page. Try to align how you categorize and organize the feedback closely with the objectives I spoke about earlier.

6. Make a plan for implementation.

When I get to a place where I can take objective-focused insights from feedback, the time comes to transition to decision-making. This often means compiling and passing reports to other departments that use the feedback in their own strategic decision-making processes.

During this phase of customer feedback management, you’ll uncover room for improvement. Internal stakeholders might request more information moving forward or deeper insights into a particular area. In those cases, I recommend revisiting the structure of a survey or seeing if a focus group or one-off survey is worthwhile.

Customer Feedback Management Software

Customer feedback management software helps you automate feedback collection, aggregate data, and analyze metrics to form actionable decision-making. Here are a few high-quality software tools I recommend beginners check out.

1. Service Hub

HubSpot’s Service Hub features a customer feedback software tool that helps you truly understand customer perception and uncover areas of opportunity for taking action to satisfy your audience.

Service Hub also allows you to automate customer surveys, making it easier for users to gather feedback after every interaction. Being able to define clear survey triggers allows me to gauge how customers feel at key moments in the customer journey. Beyond that, sentiment analysis tools have helped me find feedback patterns I may have otherwise missed.

What I find most helpful? Service Hub helps teams see what feedback looks like in context. I can see other products a customer has purchased and other feedback we received from that buyer before

2. Survicate

Survicate helps you reach customers where they are most engaged, allowing you to deploy surveys on desktop, mobile, in-app, or via email. With multiple touch points, you’ll have visibility into the experience at every step of the customer journey.

However, what I like the most about Survicate is its real-time feedback dashboard. I can see how customer sentiment is changing at any time. So, if there’s ever a dip, I can more easily investigate what happened in our ecosystem that caused the shift. There’s even a visualization tool that makes seeing this information even easier.

Beyond that, this platform seamlessly integrated into my tech stack. Actionable customer feedback automatically synchs with our CRM and ticketing system. I can then make sure a member of our feedback team can follow up, ensuring a better service experience.

3. SurveyMonkey

You’ve probably interacted with SurveyMonkey at least once before. It’s one of the most common surveying tools. In the world of customer success, SurveyMonkey can help you create surveys for different areas of your business (products, customer loyalty, service interactions, etc.), allowing you to gather information about the customer experience.

My favorite thing about SurveyMonkey is the interface’s simplicity. I can create a survey in a matter of minutes intuitively. I just choose what type of question I want to ask and how I want to elicit a response (open-ended, sliding scale, multiple choice).

When results come in, I can filter by demographic information or customer segment. SurveyMonkey also offers sentiment analysis and a word cloud feature, making information easy to understand.

5 Customer Feedback Management Best Practices

1. You need both quantitative and qualitative data.

Quantitative data typically tells me the “what,” but qualitative data backs that up with a “why” that makes feedback from customers actionable.

Net Promoter Score is a good example. A three out of ten rating is concerning, but not knowing why a customer feels that way makes it almost useless information. It’s best practice to leave space for customer comments along with the rating request to get more context. I’ve uncovered issues with user experience this way, where the data revealed customers just didn’t understand how to use certain features optimally.

Essentially, quantitative data gives you something to investigate. Qualitative data helps you solve the case.

2. Make it easy for your customers.

Time is precious for everyone, and your customers are no different. Plus, the more people I get to fill out a survey, the more reliable the data. So, I recommend making feedback collection as simple as possible for your customers.

Written reviews take time, but a couple of multiple-choice questions with a short open text field for more details takes no time at all.

The best part of this strategy is you’re more likely to capture your middle-ground customers. Highly satisfied and highly unsatisfied customers are likely to leave a review. But what about people in the middle who find your product or service fine but have valuable insights about what to improve?

Easy feedback methods make it much easier to capture feedback from this segment.

3. Track patterns and trends.

Patterns or trends in your customer feedback data can provide really useful insights to pass along to other departments and improve business outcomes.

Maybe I notice that increased levels of customer dissatisfaction correlate with recent pricing increases, or customers who buy a product online have more negative (or positive) feedback than in person. A new competitor might be getting more mentions than before, causing customers to churn.

If you aggregate your data well, these types of trends can help you get ahead of those that can have pretty severe consequences for the business.

4. Keep customer data protected.

This is true of all interactions, of course. But if you’re collecting customer feedback, you’re often collecting personal or sensitive data along with it. When it comes to using this information, even internally, make sure you’re staying compliant. Include opt-ins for storing customer data.

5. Use A/B testing.

It can be difficult to compose feedback questions. I’ve often wrestled with deciding how many questions to include and at what point I’m asking too much.

Just like in marketing campaigns, you can A/B test certain aspects of your CFM strategy. Here are some things I would consider testing:

• Survey length (and question length).
• Timing and frequency of feedback requests.
• Format of surveys (multiple choice, open text, or star ratings).
• Delivery channels.
• Personalization.

Acting on the test results can greatly improve the quantity and quality of responses from your customers.

3 Examples of Customer Feedback Management

Let’s take a look at some customer feedback examples to see how global brands do it efficiently and effectively.

1. Uber

Ridesharing startup Uber has made measurement-based customer feedback a core part of their CX design.

After each trip, users can use in-app surveys to rate their driver between 1 and 5 stars. They then choose from several preset categories to explain their rating. What I like best is that, if a driver goes above and beyond to deliver an exceptional customer experience, customers are encouraged to give a specific compliment.

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It’s a quick and easy mechanism, but it allows Uber to quickly identify a problem driver and take corrective action. It also provides insights into what customers like when a driver performs well. This helps Uber maintain the quality of its driver base and reduce the likelihood of negative experiences.

2. Zappos

Ecommerce giant Zappos is well-known for responsive and helpful customer service. The online shoe retailer makes it easy to get in touch by offering 24/7 chat, text, and phone service. By keeping multiple lines of communication open both day and night, Zappos ensures that it can nip problems in the bud before they escalate into full-blown complaints.

But what I particularly like is the feedback options under “Help & Support.” Not only is customer service easy to access but there is also a “Give Us Feedback” link. Customers then get a detailed survey so the brand can collect all feedback, not just get ahead of complaints.

Zappos’ commitment to free delivery and returns for 365 days demonstrates its willingness to innovate based on customer feedback. This, in turn, has ensured that the company enjoys a dedicated following, even in the crowded online retail marketplace.

3. Apple

Few companies took product and service innovation more seriously than Apple. Over the years, the tech giant has built up a rabid fan base, largely because it knows what its customers want.

Apple consistently ranks highly in customer satisfaction surveys because of its reputation for continuously seeking and employing customer feedback. After every purchase, Apple sends the buyer an email to gather feedback related to the sale.

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Apple also relies on NPS surveys to measure customer satisfaction related to products, services, and in-store or online shopping experiences. It then uses these scores to tailor features for new products to satisfy the widest number of consumers.

Get Started with Customer Feedback Management

I’m a big believer in using customer feedback management in a way that works best for your brand. If you’re a beginner to CFM, take a look at your existing channels, even if it’s just your social media or presence on review sites. Then, see how you can aggregate the data for worthwhile insights.

As you progress, I recommend exploring new channels and formal feedback mechanisms. Don’t forget to use software to automate your processes, too. You’ll be surprised how much time you can save and how having a formal strategy can work wonders for strategic decision-making.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2022 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

If you run a SaaS business, you may have hit a wall where your network and initial traction aren’t enough to keep growing. Maybe you’re generating leads but struggling to convert them into long-term customers. Or worse — you’re bringing in new customers, but they don’t stick around.

This is where a strong B2B customer funnel comes in.

Many companies focus too much on lead generation without considering what happens after someone signs up. A good customer funnel helps at every stage, from first hearing about you to becoming loyal fans.

In this guide, I’ll break down the five key funnel stages, outline proven strategies for each stage, and share some examples to help you optimize your funnel and accelerate your growth.

Table of Contents

• What is the B2B customer funnel?
• Why the Customer Funnel Matters in Customer Service
• The B2B Customer Funnel Explained in 5 Stages
• How to Use the B2B Funnel in the Customer Journey
• B2B Customer Funnel Strategies
• How I Think About Customer Funnels

What is the B2B customer funnel?

A B2B customer funnel is the journey a customer takes from learning about your business to becoming a long-term user.

It’s different from a sales funnel, which only focuses on getting new customers. The customer funnel goes further, making sure those customers:

• Stay engaged.
• Get value from your product.
• Recommend you to others.

P.S. You might also see terms like a marketing funnel and customer acquisition funnel. While these all share similarities, each will differ slightly by the end goal and what exact metrics you’re measuring for.

Key Differences Between the Sales and Customer Funnel

Why the Customer Funnel Matters in Customer Service

A well-structured B2B customer funnel improves customer satisfaction, reduces churn, and increases lifetime value.

What the data says:

• Better upsell & cross-sell opportunities. Companies focusing on post-sale engagement see up to 30% higher revenue per customer.
• Consumers are loyal. 95% of consumers say that customer service impacts their brand loyalty.
• Personalization is key. 78% of reps agree that customers expect more personalized experiences than ever before, and consumers are more loyal to brands that offer those experiences and value their opinions.
• Saves you money. Acquiring new customers is five times more expensive than retaining existing customers. Additionally, customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than companies that aren’t.

Knowing your customer journey matters more than ever. Too often, I see startups that focus too much on acquisition alone and ignore the post-sale experience.

Pro tip: If you’re looking to improve your customer journey, start with a customer journey map. I recently wrote a guide on how you can use AI to level up your entire process. (It’s easier than you think!)

The B2B Customer Funnel Explained in 5 Stages

Every customer moves through five key stages:

1. Awareness. They realize they have a problem.
2. Consideration. They explore possible solutions.
3. Onboarding. They buy your product and need help getting started.
4. Retention. They actively use your product.
5. Advocacy & Expansion. They tell others about your product.

Each stage requires tailored customer service strategies to keep users engaged and drive long-term success. What makes this successful, I’d argue, is being able to take a step back and look at the big picture. How do customers flow between each stage? Why do they take the next step, and what factors influenced them? All of these things will help you zero in your customer funnel.

Below, I’ll go over each stage in more detail so you can see examples in action.

How to Use the B2B Funnel in the Customer Journey

Meet AcmeTech, a fictional company that sells AI-powered customer support software.

Their problem? They get lots of leads, but many customers don’t stay long-term. Here’s how AcmeTech could use the customer funnel to solve this problem.

P.S. I used ChatGPT here to illustrate some of these examples!

Awareness

At this stage, your goal is to make potential customers aware of your brand and educate them about a problem they may not even realize they have. This means:

• Publishing high-quality SEO-driven blog content.
• Running targeted LinkedIn and Google ads.
• Partnering with industry influencers or guesting on podcasts.
• Offering free tools, templates, or research reports that attract potential buyers.

Business Example: AcmeTech’s Approach

AcmeTech realizes that many customer support teams don’t know how much time they waste on repetitive queries. To raise awareness, they create an interactive AI ROI Calculator that helps companies estimate how much money they could save by automating responses.

They also publish a thought leadership article titled:

👉 “The Hidden Cost of Slow Customer Support — And How AI Can Fix It.”

This educational-first approach positions them as a trusted expert rather than just another software company pushing a product.

Consideration

Once potential customers know about your solution, they start evaluating their options. This is where they compare vendors, request demos, and read case studies. At this stage, businesses should:

• Offer free trials or personalized demos.
• Provide case studies that show measurable success.
• Engage in conversational marketing (e.g., live chat, webinars).
• Address objections with comparison guides and FAQ pages.

Business Example: AcmeTech’s Approach

Since AcmeTech struggles to keep customers around long-term, leads may not fully understand AcmeTech’s value or how it stands out from competitors.

To solve this problem, AcmeTech decides to strengthen engagement by publishing a case study from one of their most successful clients. They begin to offer regular webinars and free trials for interested prospects. They also give the sales team sales enablement materials to effectively communicate ROI and success stories.

Onboarding

Onboarding is where many B2B companies lose customers. A confusing setup, lack of training, or slow implementation can lead to frustration and high churn rates. A smooth onboarding experience should include:

• A structured onboarding sequence (checklists, welcome emails, guided walkthroughs).
• A dedicated customer success manager (CSM) for high-value accounts.
• Access to self-service resources (knowledge base, video tutorials).
• A kickoff call to define success metrics and usage goals.

In my experience, great onboarding is what separates my favorite tools from the rest and what makes me a long term customer. Make it extremely easy to get started, help me see the value of your product, and give me a “quick win” — it’s that simple.

As Patrick McKenzie, a strategic advisor for Stripe, says, “I can tell you with a fair degree of certainty that no matter how great your product is, 40-60% of your free trial users never see the product a second time. Which makes that first use of the software really, really freaking important.”

Business Example: AcmeTech’s Approach

Optimizing the onboarding process is key for AcmeTech to retain their customers once they convert. They decide to revamp onboarding with hands-on training, personalized setup, and proactive support to ensure customers see immediate value.

• Gamified Tour. AcmeTech installs a guided tour with gamification features so new clients can learn how to use the software quickly.
• Access to Knowledge Base. They provide easier access within the software to their already-established wealth of self-service resources so customers can find an answer to any question.
• Milestone-Based Engagement. They start sending emails when users reach key actions (e.g., “You’ve handled 100 tickets with AI — see your impact!”).
• First 30-Day Health Score. AcmeTech starts tracking engagement metrics (logins, features used, response time improvements). If a customer isn’t engaged, they intervene early with personalized training.

Retention

Once a customer is onboarded, the next challenge is keeping them engaged so they renew their contract or expand their usage. This requires:

• Proactive support (regular check-ins, feature updates, success reviews).
• Exclusive training (invite-only webinars, advanced user groups).
• Community engagement (forums, Slack groups, networking events).
• Usage-based nudges (automated alerts when engagement drops).

Pro tip: If you want to learn more about retention fundamentals and best practices, check out HubSpot Academy’s course on the topic. It’s a great starting place to refine your strategies.

Business Example: AcmeTech’s Approach

AcmeTech already has a customer success team available for any questions their clients might have, but they decide to implement a more proactive approach by having reps reach out to clients on a regular basis.

They also integrate AI-driven insights to optimize clients’ use of the software and provide ongoing educational content that is delivered monthly to users’ inboxes.

Advocacy

Loyal customers can become your biggest growth channel — if you give them a reason to advocate for your brand. Key strategies include:

• Referral programs (offering discounts or perks for successful referrals).
• Customer spotlights (featuring them in blog posts, podcasts, or events).
• Co-branded content (partnering on whitepapers, webinars, or case studies).
• User-generated content (UGC) (testimonials, LinkedIn shoutouts, customer success stories).

Business Example: AcmeTech’s Approach

Because AcmeTech has been struggling with retention, they have few referrals and testimonials, but are missing out on this key part of the customer funnel.

They decide to go the classic route and create referral incentives. They further encourage satisfied customers to share reviews and case studies.

B2B Customer Funnel Strategies

To optimize each stage of the customer funnel, I recommend trying some of these key engagement strategies.

Awareness: Using Educational Content to Build Brand Authority

At the awareness stage, our goal is to educate and engage potential customers. Content marketing is a powerful way to do this, providing value upfront without asking for anything in return.

At HubSpot, that’s our secret sauce — and likely the reason you’ve arrived at this post.

We focus heavily on inbound marketing, using SEO-driven blog posts, free courses, and downloadable resources to attract potential customers. The HubSpot Academy, which offers free certifications in marketing, sales, and CRM management, helps people learn valuable skills while also introducing them to HubSpot’s ecosystem.

My takeaway: If you consistently provide high-value content, you create a natural inbound funnel where potential customers seek you out rather than being chased down. No matter what company or industry you’re in, you can easily replicate this playbook.

Consideration: Personalized Demos and AI Chat Support

When potential customers are in the consideration stage, they’re actively comparing solutions. A frictionless, personalized experience can be the difference between a sign-up and a lost lead.

Drift revolutionized B2B sales funnels by replacing static lead forms with AI-powered chatbots. Instead of asking customers to fill out a form and wait for a demo, Drift’s chatbot instantly connects them with a sales rep or provides an interactive, personalized demo experience based on their needs.

My takeaway: Using AI chatbots and real-time demos reduces friction and guides potential customers faster toward a purchase decision.

Onboarding: Structured Plans and Guided Walkthroughs

The onboarding process is where many potential users drop off if the experience is frustrating or overwhelming. A well-structured onboarding flow ensures users quickly see value from your product.

Asana, a platform I use almost daily for project management, provided a straightforward onboarding experience that helped me understand how to use it and start getting value from it immediately. I learned how to create projects from scratch or using a template. I can then break the project down into specific tasks with assignees and due dates.

My takeaway: Having a clear onboarding plan is vital for customer success. Use a template or make a plan with experts to ensure your customers succeed.

Retention: Proactive Customer Support and Exclusive Training

Customer retention is everything you do to keep existing customers coming back. Customer success and support teams play a significant role in customer retention as they continually nurture relationships and ensure the customer’s ongoing success with your brand.

According to our research, a 5% increase in customer retention can increase company revenue by 25-95% and ultimately grow your customers’ lifetime value (LTV).

Source

When asked in a survey about what “customer loyalty” means, 74% of respondents said it’s about feeling appreciated and understood rather than receiving special offers. Additionally, 64% mentioned that they are willing to spend more on a brand that remembers them and offers a personalized experience.

My takeaway: Customer service software like Service Hub makes it easy to provide timely and proactive customer support that keeps track of all interactions in one place.

Advocacy: Leveraging Referral Programs and Community Engagement

Turning satisfied customers into brand advocates creates a powerful organic growth engine. One of the best ways to do this is through referral incentives and an engaged user community.

I can think of so many companies that have done referral programs really well — Dropbox, beehiiv, Morning Brew.

Referrals are an awesome approach for several reasons:

• They help build trust and social proof. Buyers trust peer recommendations more than marketing materials.
• They lead to higher close rates. Referred leads convert 3-5x more than cold outreach.
• They have a lower CAC. Referral-driven customers cost significantly less to acquire.

A great example of the power of referrals is Slack. Slack initially scaled by encouraging users to invite teammates, leveraging network effects. This organic approach helped them grow to $1M ARR within 8 months before layering in paid acquisition — and eventually became the fastest-growing business app of all time by relying on word-of-mouth.

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My takeaway: If you make referrals easy and rewarding, your customers will sell for you, creating a cost-effective, scalable growth loop.

How I Think About Customer Funnels

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that customer acquisition is only half the battle. A steady stream of leads won’t get you far if those customers don’t see value, stay engaged, and ultimately advocate for your brand.

That’s why I always look at the full customer journey — not just the sale.

• If you focus only on awareness and lead generation, you’ll struggle with conversions.
• If you don’t invest in onboarding, customers will churn before they ever see value.
• If you neglect retention and advocacy, you’ll always be chasing new customers instead of growing through referrals and renewals.

I’ve seen time and time again that companies that prioritize the full funnel — especially retention and advocacy — outperform their competitors.

At HubSpot, we’ve built our entire strategy around this. Try Marketing Hub to get more leads and build your client acquisition, use Sales Hub to close more potential customers, and use Service Hub to earn loyalty and keep those valuable customers.

As a customer support manager with many years of experience in the startup trenches –– from scaling global support teams at SmartRecruiters to launching conversational AI chatbots at Dapper Labs –– I’ve directly seen how technology transforms customer service.

Today, I lead CX efforts at Skybound Entertainment, where we’ve found success blending human ingenuity with smart automation. A key driver in this evolution has been the rise of AI customer service agents.

These virtual assistants are proving to be invaluable, enabling businesses to provide seamless support, achieve cost efficiencies, and ultimately delight their customers –– all while freeing up human agents for more nuanced interactions.

Whether you’re a startup founder or a CX leader at a growing enterprise, this is your roadmap to leveraging AI customer service agents for support that scales.

Table of Contents

• What are AI customer service agents?
• How to Implement AI Agents for Customer Service
• Why are AI customer service agents so popular right now?
• Benefits of AI Customer Service Agents

Why are AI customer service agents so popular right now?

AI customer service agents are a reaction to major changes in consumer and business operations — not just a passing trend.

From my experience at Dapper Labs, where my team and I launched three conversational AI chatbots using Ada — automating 70% (at the time) of incoming requests — I’ve seen how these agents can significantly reduce response times and improve team operations.

During that time, the use of the chatbots allowed for the team to work on clearing the large backlog while maintaining a steady rate of incoming requests. It was especially effective during new product launches and releases, which we had weekly.

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These days, they’re not just chatbots spitting out canned responses –– they’re smart, adaptable tools that can handle everything from “where is my package?” to troubleshooting a tricky software bug and collecting the necessary information your team needs to deploy a fix.

Since Ai chatbots are built on LLMs and trained on your company’s data, they can deliver interactions that feel personal and human-like, deployable across a variety of your business communication channels.

Let’s go into why they’re blowing up this year, supported by data and my own experience.

Meeting Rising Customer Expectations for Convenience and Speed

Customers of today do not wait. According to a Salesforce report, 64% expect real-time responses, and according to Zendesk, 67% prefer self-service over speaking on the phone.

AI agents satisfy this need head-on, providing instantaneous responses wherever and whenever customers need assistance –– something human agents can’t really do without increased global headcount.

(PS: For a deeper understanding of AI-powered support tools, see HubSpot’s AI Customer Service Software guide.)

Offering Personalized Experiences at Scale

I remind my team often that “customers want to be seen.” Giving them personalized experiences is one way to do just that. In fact, 65% of customers actually expect personalized service.

While your human reps may not be able to fill this need all the time, AI agents have the ability to shine here, pulling CRM data to craft accurate, tailored responses quickly.

At Skybound, we use customer data from our store purchases to optimize certain customer interactions with the use of AI, focused on assessing customer sentiment and providing responses that are sensitive to the customer’s immediate needs. It’s like Netflix’s recommendation system, but for service: it’s personal, and it works.

Reducing Costs and Improving Efficiency

I’m very used to working in agile and lean startup environments. So naturally, I’ve always kept cost in mind. According to Gartner, by 2025 80% of service orgs will lean on generative AI to boost agent productivity. A McKinsey study also finds that 35% already use it to amplify efficiency.

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At Skybound, I recognized an opportunity to optimize our ecommerce and player support operations. By improving standard operating procedures and introducing automation into the mix, I was able to scale our support capabilities without accruing significant additional costs.

This resulted in a more streamlined and efficient workflow, enabling the team to handle increased volume while maintaining a high level of service quality.

Alleviating Burnout and Improving Employee Satisfaction

Too many skilled customer service reps get burned out from doing the same things over and over again. I’ve seen this happen and have worked hard to change it. A lot of the time this results in lower morale and leaves little time for important, complex work.

AI is making a big difference in this area. ServiceNow’s AI-powered automation has reduced the time needed to handle complicated cases by 52%, which means that human agents can focus on customer interactions with more important outcomes. I’ve seen how this type of change makes people happier at work, less frustrated, and eventually better for customers.

However, AI isn’t a magic bullet –– it needs to be used carefully. According to a study from the Institute of the Future for Work, “29-34% of workers felt more stressed when AI was used to spy on them instead of helping them.”

I’ve always pushed for AI to be a tool, not a watchdog. When used properly, AI improves both employee happiness and overall service experience by freeing up human reps from repetitive tasks and giving them more power to take on higher-value interactions.

It’s simple: when workers are happy, they provide better service.

Ensuring Consistent and Scalable Service

Many businesses find it hard to grow their customer service departments without lowering the level of quality in their work. Using AI customer service agents has become an important way to solve this problem and the market is growing very quickly.

AI in customer service, specifically, is expected to grow at a rate of 25.8% per year, rising from $12.06 billion in 2024 to $47.82 billion in 2030.

Source

Smart brands are using AI to handle the mundane stuff –– those repetitive questions and basic processes that eat up valuable time. This frees up their human service agents to tackle the harder challenges that actually need a person’s attention.

And here’s the thing: major companies worldwide aren’t just experimenting anymore. They’ve cracked the code on AI assistants that work “around the sun” without making customers frustrated.

I think it’s proof that you can actually grow bigger AND better when you’re smart about blending AI and human support.

Benefits of AI Customer Service Agents

The benefits of AI customer service agents are becoming increasingly evident, offering a transformative impact on how businesses interact with their customers.

These aren’t minor tweaks or gradual improvements either — they’re game-changing advancements that are reshaping how we operate and do business. In fact, HubSpot’s own VP and CMO weighed in with their thoughts on AI agents in Are AI Agents Worth It?

Now, let me share some more insights from my experience, supported by more data, that highlight the direction we’re heading.

Instant, 24/7 Support – Around the Sun

These days, in this digital world that is always on, you can’t just wait around for help. AI agents are properly placed to give customers the instant gratification they want and need.

A huge 65% of companies plan to put more money into AI for the customer experience this year. Why? Because AI doesn’t sleep or need breaks, and it can handle a lot of interactions at the same time.

Multilingual Capabilities

One of the best things about AI for customer service is that it can quickly talk to people from different languages. By providing correct answers in real time and in multiple languages, these tools are completely changing localized support.

Companies can now service customers around the world without having to hire large teams of multilingual agents. This makes international help easier to get (and much cheaper).

Improved Efficiency and Cost Savings

According to a 2024 Intercom study, 68% of support teams report their customers now expect lightning-fast responses thanks to AI. The bar’s higher than ever, and we’re all scrambling to keep up.

But here’s the thing –– it’s working.

About 65% of C-suite support leaders are hunting for AI tools to modernize their tech stack, and for good reason. The numbers don’t lie. Teams running with AI are crushing their KPIs and productivity metrics while decreasing cost and increasing revenue.

Here are some numbers showing you the impact AI has had on the various departments, reported by some organizations in a McKinsey study.

Source

At Skybound, we’ve managed to scale our support operations without throwing more bodies at the challenge.

The result? We’re handling more tickets without watching our costs spiral out of control during peak seasons.

Declan Ivory, Intercom’s VP of customer support, says his advice is to “Move fast. Don’t lose out on the opportunity. It’s there for the taking (now).”

With 43% of teams seeing a direct link between meeting high customer expectations and keeping them around, AI isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s survival in today’s business climate.

Customer Insights and Analytics

AI customer service agents are invaluable in making data-driven decisions. I’ve always focused customer support operations based on the discoveries I’ve found through general trends and patterns, as well as in-depth analysis.

Whether that be optimizing departmental efficiencies, team workflows, or directly impacting the product roadmap –– these insights become crucial for taking your business to the next level.

AI customer service agents give teams access to a wealth of data considering they can be connected across a variety of your interaction touchpoints. By proactively addressing these findings, whether through self-service resources or product updates, you can reduce friction in the customer journey.

Improved Customer Satisfaction

It should come as no surprise that using AI customer service agents can lead to happier customers. They want quick, accurate, personalized responses.

Optimizations that lead to improvements — such as higher first-contact resolution, lower customer effort scores, reduced average handling time, and increased personalization — have a direct positive impact on your customer’s experience.

The 2024 HubSpot State of Service report found that of surveyed customers:

• 78% said they expect more personalization in their interactions.
• 82% said they expect immediate problem resolution from customer service agents.

By using AI customer service agents, you can ensure you’re fulfilling these needs without putting too much stress on your team.

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Getting started with AI customer service agents can feel a bit daunting at first, but once you have a strategy in place, it becomes something of an operational exercise.

When I was building AI agents at Dapper Labs, my team and I would have daily optimization and weekly strategy sessions to continuously improve the AI from the build, launch, and post-release stages.

Drawing from my personal experience, here’s my step-by-step approach for getting started with AI customer service agents.

Step 1: Define your objectives.

Before diving in, you have to know exactly what you want to achieve. Maybe it’s reducing response times, getting a portion of routine questions handled automatically, or just making your customer generally happier.

When I tackled this with my team at Dapper Labs, we set our sights on a specific target: automating over 50% of incoming requests.

This wasn’t just a random number. It meant our support team could focus their energy on the tricky stuff that really needed their expertise. In our case, we were deflecting upwards of 70% of incoming requests during that time. Trust me — having a clear goal like this makes all the difference between just implementing another tool and actually transforming your support offering.

Step 2: Pick your tech (but choose wisely!).

Don’t just grab the first chatbot you see. Take a minute to think about what you actually need.

I like to fill out my own platform evaluation checklist whenever purchasing a new tool. It gives you some structure and a strategic rubric for evaluating your needs.

It’s really important to choose the right platform, one that addresses what you’re looking for and seamlessly integrates with your existing tech stack.

While there are many options, I encourage you to check out HubSpot’s Breeze Customer Agent. It’s robust, customer-focused, and best of all –– does not require technical expertise.

Step 3: Prepare your data.

Your AI customer service agent is only as good as the data you feed it. You’ll want to gather up some existing customer service conversations, support tickets, and internal documents.

Then, you’ll want to take the time to clean it up and organize the data so that you train your AI agent effectively. I always prefer to start these things right versus taking any shortcuts. Go through everything in great detail to ensure you’re working with reliable information.

Trust me, it pays off when your AI customer service agent is responding accurately, minimizing your ongoing back-end manual training.

Quick tip: I’ve found it’s better to have 100 solid, accurate documents than 1,000 messy ones that’ll just confuse your AI.

Step 4: Design your conversational flow.

Nobody wants their AI agent to feel like a question maze. You have to map out the back-and-forth interactions like you’re the customer interacting with your product. Think about every possible path your users might take, from basic questions to those “uhh, I need a human” moments.

If it helps, grab a pen and sketch it out. Flowcharts will help you spot any dead ends or awkward loops in the conversations before they frustrate your customers. Your goal is to make every interaction feel as natural as chatting with one of your human service agents.

When customers hit a wall and need further assistance, make sure they can smoothly transition to a real person with minimal effort.

Step 5: Train your agent like a pro.

Training is not a one-and-done deal. You’ll be doing initial training and ongoing post-launch training. In my own experience leading these projects, it’s helpful to set aside time for your team to meet, specifically for working on training and optimization. This includes revisiting logs where the AI customer service agent provided inaccurate information, did not understand a customer query, or led the user through some kind of loophole.

Reminder: You’ll want to update your AI customer service agent whenever you have new releases or product launches, even if they’re temporary. This is where having a small, dedicated team in charge of your AI comes in handy.

Step 6: Connect your AI to your tech stack.

Integration is extremely important to get the most from your AI customer service agent. You’ll want to connect it with your existing tools, especially your CRM and knowledge base. These will be integral in training your AI service agent and allowing it to have real-time access to your customer database.

By doing this, you empower your AI customer service agent to make those personalized experiences we talked about earlier.

Step 7: Run a test focus group.

Now that you’ve created your conversational flows, trained your AI agent, and connected it to your greater tech stack, it’s time to run some tests pre-launch.

Run through your conversational flows with actual humans. At Dapper, we did a couple rounds of internal testing with our customer support team, letting them “break” the chatbot so that we could identify those areas for immediate training.

Likewise, on a more public level, we’ve done something similar at Skybound using a test group with our customer loyalty community. Whichever approach you take, just make sure you test and iterate before launching.

Step 8: Deploy and monitor.

Okay, so your AI customer service agent is live. Now comes the tedious phase of monitoring and optimizing.

I’ve found you may have to do this a lot in the beginning. You’ll most likely have areas in the conversational flows you did not consider, and that’s okay.

This is the time to optimize through new training, creating new flows, and editing existing ones. Those daily and weekly training sessions I mentioned earlier will come in handy here. I like to think of this phase similar to working on a ticket backlog –– clearing the queue.

Make sure to:

• Track key metrics like resolution times, customer satisfaction, and the percentage of queries the AI handles independently (i.e., deflection rates).
• Pay close attention to customer feedback, both direct and sentiment analysis in your chat logs.

Remember, your focus should be on continuous improvement to maintain optimal performance and customer experience, especially if you have an update-heavy product or service.

The Future of AI Customer Service Agents

AI customer service agents are a major shift in how businesses operate and connect with customers. They offer fast, personalized, and scalable support, which the data shows is what customers expect today. My own experience shows these benefits are real.

Looking ahead, AI in customer support will only become more important. I think we’ll see even more personalized service, AI that predicts customer needs, and better teamwork between AI and human agents.

While researching and writing this article, I was reminded of –– and learned new data points around –– the rapidly growing customer expectations in the age of AI.

I recognized that customers now expect AI to enhance every aspect of their interactions. For those of us working directly with customers, it’s about anticipating how those expectations are evolving as AI becomes more prevalent in daily life. This is the new reality of customer service.

When I started my own online store with Printify and created social media shops, I found out that marketing segmentation was very important for making steady sales.

At first, I tried to sell to everyone, thinking that reaching more people would bring in more customers. Instead, my messages were unclear, and my sales were inconsistent.

But when I began dividing my possible customers into specific groups by looking at their interests, shopping habits, and how they interact, it revolutionized how I did marketing and positioned my products.

The result? More sales, better customer service interactions, and a shop that connected well with its audience.

My practical experience taught me a lot, but I wanted to learn more. I took a deep dive into market segmentation –– what it is, why it’s important, and how businesses of all kinds can use it to improve their strategies.

Here’s everything I learned.

Table of Contents

• What is market segmentation?
• Benefits of Market Segmentation
• Challenges of Market Segmentation
• Types of Market Segmentation
• How to Identify Your Best Market Segments
• Examples of Market Segmentation IRL

Think of it like this –– instead of casting a wide net and hoping to catch fish, market segmentation allows you to use a spear, targeting particular types of fish in their natural habitats.

This focused method makes sure your marketing and services reach people who are truly interested, helping you better connect with potential loyal customers.

Benefits of Market Segmentation

Market segmentation has many advantages, especially for improving customer service and support. Here are some important perks I’ve personally noticed and am also learning more about.

1. Improved Customer Happiness

By knowing what different customers want and need, companies can create more personalized and relevant experiences for them.

For example, if you know some of your customers want quick delivery, you can provide faster shipping choices. On the other hand, price-sensitive groups might like deals or sales.

Market segmentation helps you customize your service for different groups, which makes customers happier. And happy customers are more likely to return and recommend your brand to others.

In fact, the data shows that typically, 72% of customers share a really great customer experience with six or more people.

2. Deeper Understanding of Customer Needs

Segmentation helps you go beyond general ideas and understand exactly what your customers want.

By looking at different groups based on how they act, what they like, and how they shop, you can find similarities and useful information that might not be obvious otherwise.

For instance, you might find out that one group of customers cares a lot about eco-friendly goods, while another group prefers high-quality items. This understanding helps you tailor products, marketing messages, and customer service to fit those unique needs.

3. Better Marketing ROI

When you focus on specific groups of customers with messages that suit them, your marketing efforts work much better.

Market segmentation helps you find and focus on valuable customers who are most likely to be interested in your brand or buy your goods and services.

This focused strategy helps you get the most out of your investment by:

• Cutting down on lost advertising dollars for people who aren’t interested.
• Boosting the number of potential sales or sign-ups.

4. Optimized Product Development

Market segmentation offers important insights for creating products. By knowing what different groups like and struggle with, you can improve your goods and services to meet their specific needs better.

For example, a software company might analyze segmentation data to find features that appeal most to small businesses versus enterprise clients. This understanding can help sell products more successfully and gain a larger market share.

5. Active Customer Support and Lower Customer Loss

By identifying customer segments, you can also predict potential churn risks and directly address them.

RFM research helps you find “at-risk” customers who are losing interest. It looks at how recently they’ve bought something, how often they buy, and how much they spend. Try making win-back campaigns with personalized offers to reconnect with these groups. Taking a proactive approach to customer service can help keep customers and build trust.

Challenges of Market Segmentation

Market segmentation is no doubt a useful tool for businesses, but I’ve found it has notable challenges in today’s environment. Here are the main hurdles marketers are currently facing based on recent studies and industry trends.

1. Data Quality and Access

The growth of data has both benefits and challenges for market analysis. It provides new insights but also creates big privacy issues.

According to some research done by FasterCapital, data quality issues are among the most common problems in customer segmentation, with inaccurate or incomplete data leading to misclassified segments.

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To solve for this problem:

• Keep customer data clean and up-to-date.
• Check data for accuracy.
• Use different sources for a complete understanding.

2. Advanced Skills and Tools Required

Modern segmentation methods are complicated and require special skills and tools. Now, AI and machine learning are changing how businesses target their markets. These days, some AI systems can predict future customer behavior with more than 90% accuracy.

However, many marketing teams don’t have the skills to make the most of these tools.

To solve for this problem:

• Spend more money on training programs to improve data analysis and assessment skills.
• Think about teaming up with tech companies and data experts. Businesses that invest in AI and ML technology will most likely see an increase in their ability to make money from data in 2025.

3. Over Segmentation and Missed Opportunities

Some caution is necessary when segmenting. Research shows you can divide your market too much, making too many small segments that are hard to handle and require a lot of resources.

In customer service, dividing customers into too many groups can make processes more complicated, create disjointed experiences for customers, and waste precious company resources.

To solve for this problem:

• It’s important to find the right mix in your segments and focus on areas that are both important and easy to handle.

4. Changing Nature of Markets

Markets are always changing and developing, and customer needs, wants, and actions change over time due to different outside influences. This means you should regularly update how you handle and analyze your data.

But it’s not always easy: 82% of market researchers cite keeping up with market changes as a major challenge. For customer service, this can mean that the definitions of customer groups and strategies you provide should be checked and updated regularly to stay useful and effective.

In my experience:

During my time building the conversational AI chatbot at Dapper Labs, we regularly analyzed the chatbot interaction data and optimized the chatbot based on how our customers were engaging with it. This really helped identify what they were looking for.

5. Resource Intensity

Maintaining and applying successful market segmentation techniques can be somewhat expensive and demanding in terms of time, money, and human capital.

In regards to customer service, this can mean investing in new technologies, training support agents on segment-specific approaches, and committing ongoing segment analysis and refinement. You may want to check out HubSpot’s Service Hub if you’re in the market for new technologies.

To solve for this problem:

• Carefully consider the expenses and advantages of segmentation and give segments with the highest possible return top priority.

Types of Market Segmentation

The way you go about market segmentation should not be the same for everyone. There are different ways to split markets, each using different methods to make the divisions.

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Here are the five main types that I looked into.

1. Demographic Segmentation

This is a simple and popular type that separates the market using clear demographical factors. These factors can be measured and are clear, which makes population segmentation a useful place to start.

How to do it: Collect demographic information using surveys, market study reports, and analytics tools. You can use tools like our HubSpot CRM to help you gather and study demographic information while storing it for future uses.

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Where it works best: Products and services whose target audience is highly influenced by demographic factors.

Here are some examples that I came across:

• Age-specific products. Toys and clothes of certain ages, retirement planning services.
• Services based on income. Expensive products, affordable flights, money management services.
• Family life stage products. Baby items, family holiday deals, retirement communities.

Real-world example: A financial services company might offer different retirement planning options for various age groups.

2. Psychographic Segmentation

This type of segmentation looks at the psychological factors that influence how consumers behave, paying attention to their lifestyles, values, hobbies, and personality traits.

Psychographic segmentation looks at the reasons behind customers’ decisions, focusing on their thoughts and feelings rather than just their age or gender.

How to do it: Utilize polls, questionnaires, focus groups, and social listening to gather psychographic data. Look at customer feedback, online activities, and how they interact with the brand to understand their ideals and interests.

Where it works best: Products and services that depend a lot on what consumers value, how they live, and their personalities when deciding to buy.

Here are some examples that I came across:

• Lifestyle brands. Eco-friendly clothing, outdoor equipment, health and fitness items.
• Hobbies and interests. Sports tools, art supplies, travel and tourism.
• Products that focus on values. Fair trade coffee, goods bought ethically, and donations to charities.

Real-world example: A sustainable food business would connect with environmentally aware customers by promoting their eco-friendly values.

3. Geographic Segmention

This method segments the market by physical geography. It understands that what people want and like can change a lot depending on where they live and work.

How to do it: Use location data from your CRM system, marketing automations tools, and geographic data providers (if available). Think about all the tools that help you target ads based on location.

Where it works best: Businesses whose products or services are influenced by location.

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Here are some examples that I came across:

• Climate. Clothes for different seasons, air conditions, services for removing snow.
• Population density. Differences in goods, services, and transportation choices for rural versus urban.
• Culture. Looking into what people eat and drink, what they wear, how they choose to have fun.

Real-world example: A snowboard store would target its marketing in places where people come for winter activities or where it snows regularly.

4. Behavioral Segmentation

In my experience with online shopping and running my ecommerce stores, I’ve noticed how helpful it is to group customers based on their behaviors. This method groups customers based on what they do –– how they shop, talk to brands, and use goods. It’s about knowing who people are and how they choose to buy things.

I actually did my graduating project from San Francisco State on behavioral patterns for online shopping differences between men and women back in 2013. This kind of information can greatly enhance your understanding of your customers and how to keep them coming back.

A study by McKinsey found that companies that use behavioral data to tailor their marketing can boost their revenue by 5% to 15% and improve marketing efficiency by 10% to 30%. This shows that watching how customers behave is not just a luxury, it can be extremely beneficial.

How to do it: Look at website data, buying habits, CRM information, and customer reviews to spot trends in customer behavior. Also, don’t just look at the buying habits but how visitor traffic is engaging with your business, whether that be physical foot traffic or digital.

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Where it works best: Customer-centric industries where understanding and predicting consumer actions is crucial.

Here are some examples that I came across:

• Ecommerce. Online retailers can leverage this type of data to personalize product recommendations, optimize pricing, and tailor marketing campaigns based on browsing and purchase history.
• Subscription-based services. Companies offering recurring services can use behavioral segmentation to reduce churn, improve retention, and enhance overall customer experience.
• Financial services. Banks and fintech companies can employ this method to offer products and services based on spending patterns and financial goals.
• Travel and hospitality. This industry can benefit by tailoring offers and experiences based on past travel behavior or desired preferences.

5. Firmographic Segmentation

Firmographic segmentation is one that I had to dive a little deeper into as it’s a bit new for me, even considering my years of B2B SaaS experience. It’s similar to demographic segmentation, but instead of looking at individual customer traits, it focuses on the characteristics of organizations in B2B markets.

How to do it: Use B2B data providers like ZoomInfo, Demandbase, Clearbit, Crunchbase, and Dun & Bradstreet for information about company size, revenue, and business type. You can also leverage CRM and sales tools like HubSpot CRM or LinkedIn Sales Navigator to organize businesses and find people who make decisions.

Where it works best: B2B products and services where company characteristics influence purchasing decisions. Essentially, where factors like company size, industry, and revenue shape buying needs.

Here are some examples that I came across:

• SaaS solutions. They enable companies to customize their offerings according to factors such as company size, industry, and technology adoption levels.
• Business services. Helps organizations like consulting, finance, and logistics firms to effectively segment their business services based on industry, revenue, and employee count.
• Industrial equipment. Focuses efforts on businesses based on their production scale and geographic location.

How to Identify Your Best Market Segments

Identifying the most promising market segments is a crucial step in the process. Here’s an outline of the general best practices that I discovered while doing my research.

1. Begin with market research.

First, gather comprehensive insights about your existing and prospective customers. This involves executing surveys, interviews, and focus groups to gather both quantitative and qualitative insights. Your market research is the foundation of your market segmentation capabilities.

Pro tip: Here are 28 tools and resources you can use for conducting market research. You can also download our free market research kit to get you started.

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2. Analyze your data.

Once you’ve collected sufficient data, the subsequent step is to review it to identify patterns and trends. Leveraging statistical analysis enables the identification of common traits and behaviors across diverse customer segments.

Pro tip: Use data visualization tools to quickly spot patterns and trends in your data. Basic charts will do, but I personally love using heat maps and scatter plots. This will help you identify common behaviors and traits across customer segments more effectively, turning raw data into actionable insights.

3. Develop buyer personas.

Now is the time to leverage your data to craft detailed profiles of your ideal customers for each segment.

Buyer personas must accurately reflect your target segments, encompassing details about their objectives, obstacles, preferences, motivations, and both demographic and psychographic traits. These characters enhance the relatability of your groups and streamline collaboration.

Pro tip: Check out our free “Make My Persona” buyer persona generator.

4. Segment your market.

From here, you’ll want to use these buyer personas to divide your total market into distinct segments.

Consider trying various segmentation strategies to establish more defined and actionable groups. You want to ensure that each group consists of individuals with similar characteristics, distinct from other groups, and sufficiently sized to drive profitability.

Pro tip: When segmenting your market, ensure each segment is measurable, substantial, and actionable. Use a mix of segmentation strategies so you have more to work with as you enter the testing stage. These customer segmentation templates can help.

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5. Test and optimize.

Once you’ve identified your segments, implement your marketing and customer service strategies for each group. Monitor the feedback and outcomes to refine your approach. Market segmentation is a continuous endeavour.

Pro tip: Instead of just testing marketing tactics within existing segments, I came across this advice to A/B test different variations of the segment definitions –– like adjusting the age ranges or psychographic criteria –– to find the most responsive and profitable groups.

This type of continuous refinement is something I saw at Trendy Butler. It ensures your segments stay aligned with evolving customer behaviors rather than relying on outdated assumptions.

6. Leverage segmentation tools.

Implement technology to streamline your segmentation process. CRM platforms offer functionalities that enable users to categorize and organize contacts into lists according to various criteria.

Utilizing marketing automation tools enables the segmentation of audiences based on their behaviors, allowing for the delivery of tailored campaigns that resonate with individual preferences.

HubSpot’s list segmentation empowers businesses to gain insights into their customers, enabling them to deliver more tailored experience.

Examples of Market Segmentation IRL

While I’ve gained valuable insights into segmentation through my own work in subscription-based businesses and ecommerce, this article is the result of a deeper dive into the subject, building on both what I already knew and new discoveries I’ve made along the way.

Below, I’ll break down some real-world examples of how companies implement market segmentation strategies, what I’ve learned from them, and how they align with the principles of market segmentation.

1. Nike – Master of Psychographics

When it comes to demographic and psychographic segmentation, Nike is a master. The strategy that Nike employs to target various customer groups has been an essential component of the company’s success on a global scale.

On the surface, it may appear that Nike’s market strategy consists solely of categorizing customers according to demographic factors like age, gender, or sports interest. Nevertheless, the incorporation of psychographics is what truly stands out in their approach.

A mindset of attaining personal objectives, conquering problems, and pushing boundaries is something Nike encourages its customers to adopt.

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Through a deep customer awareness and an understanding of purchasing decisions, Nike is able to establish a strong connection with their community. Their “Just Do It” slogan places an emphasis on personal identity, as well as goals and motivation.

Despite the fact that I was already familiar with the concept of market segmentation, my research on Nike further showed me how essential it is to understand your consumers values and viewpoints.

2. Starbucks – Personalization Through Geography

Starbucks is an excellent example of how businesses can blend location and customer interests to develop a brand that is successful on a global scale — all while maintaining a sense of personalization for customers in their own local markets.

As a result of my research, I discovered that the company actually modifies both the products they sell and the layout of their stores in order to cater to the interests and cultural customs of other regions.

For example, in China they cater to the preferences of the locals by offering beverages such as red bean frappuccinos. On the other hand, during the fall season in the United States, pumpkin spice lattes are all the rage.

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Customers who view Starbucks stores as a “third place” where they can relax or hang out doing their work is exactly the type of customers they are looking to attract.

As someone who has worked in customer service for many years, I am very aware of how important it is for a company to establish a genuine human connection with the people who use its products.

I can see why Starbucks has found much success in striking a balance between a worldwide brand that is consistent and provides local flavors, ensuring that their products and experiences seem personal in each and every market.

3. Netflix – Behavioral Segmentation Beast

Netflix is a great example of how splitting customers into groups according to their activity and region may help keep customers interested in the service and lower the number of people who cancel their memberships.

Netflix is able to learn how their viewers watch episodes through the use of behavioral segmentation, which helps them provide those very accurate, personalized recommendations.

Understanding and being able to predict consumer behavior is something I’ve personally witnessed in both my scholastic endeavours and professional career, and it can really enhance your approach to customer experience, too.

If you are aware of how customers use your service, you’ll be able to better predict their demands and boost the amount of engagement you have with them.

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The manner in which Netflix utilizes geographic and behavioral segmentation is something that I found to be very interesting about their strategy. They really think above and beyond when it comes to their offerings.

In order to provide viewers in different regions the impression that their viewing experience is tailored specifically to them, Netflix adapts its content to the languages, cultures, and preferences of the local community. That, tied in with viewing behavior, can be incredibly powerful.

Market Segmentation Learnings

Deep diving into market segmentation for this post? Honestly, pretty eye-opening stuff.

It’s evident that proper market segmentation is one of the fundamental blueprints for scalable growth and creating a truly customer-centric brand. Understanding and executing on market segmentation is necessary for everyone in the startup trenches looking to optimize their GTM strategy and create long-term success.

Thinking back to my online store launch, that initial broad-stroke marketing was a classic startup move, but totally inefficient. The biggest learning curve was realizing it’s not about volume — it’s about precision. Shifting from mass marketing to truly understanding and targeting specific customer segments? That’s where the real leverage is.

I love a good success story, especially when the main character has worked hard to overcome a specific problem. In the SaaS world, a testimonial that communicates that win is gold. The best way to share that story is by asking happy customers a few testimonial questions.

In today’s buying market, it’s no secret that customer acquisition costs continue to rise and consumers require more information than ever to make a buying decision. Advocacy efforts like customer testimonials unlock a more cost-effective way to generate leads and drive new business.

Whether they’re written, visualized, or recorded as a video, customer testimonials can be a powerful deciding factor in the sales process as they increase the level of trust that consumers have in a business. The foundation of any great testimonial is the story, and these testimonial questions will help you craft a compelling story that helps pitch your offering in an authentic way.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• Testimonial Questions to Ask Your Customers
• Tips & Tricks for Testimonials by Format

Testimonial Questions to Ask Your Customers

I’ve grouped these client testimonial questions into sections based on their overall theme, and I’d recommend choosing one to two questions from each section. By choosing questions from different sections that compliment each other, you’re able to easily thread the story of your customer’s success.

Setting the Stage: Questions About the Buying Journey

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and the responsibilities of your role and your team.

When I ask this question, I want my customer to describe their role and the responsibilities of their team. With that information, I can better understand the daily tasks that my product impacts. The answer I get helps the reader see what processes my product might simplify.

If I’m talking to a few different people from the same organization, I can show that the impact of my offering can be felt across multiple people in an organization.

2. What problem(s) were you facing before you purchased our product?

This question prompts your customers to share the challenges and struggles they had before buying your product or service. You can use their response to demonstrate how your business can solve other customers’ needs.

I like this question because your customer probably isn‘t alone in the problem your product helped them to solve. If you’re segmenting your customer base into buyer personas, then it’s likely that other customers will be experiencing the same problem. By including their story in your testimonial, leads will see a proven track record of customer success.

3. What challenges did this problem pose for your team or your organization?

I always ask this question to show how my customer’s business problem goes beyond just their daily role and affects the broader team or organization. With that information, my reader can envision how important it is to curb the impacts of this shared problem. This insight is a great way to make potential buyers realize what purchasing your product could do to mitigate the problem’s spread.

4. What hesitations or concerns did you have when shopping for a solution to your problem?

It‘s hard for any person to pull the trigger and make a big purchase. And, it’s likely that your customers will share similar concerns when undergoing difficult buying decisions. Detailing their objections — and how they overcame them — will empower other prospective customers to do the same.

Additionally, I’ve seen marketing and customer service teams use this feedback to improve the customer’s journey. By understanding the biggest roadblocks affecting your leads, you can remove these distractions and increase lead conversion.

Differentiators: Questions About How Your Company Stands Out

5. How did you hear about our company/product?

By explaining how they started searching for a solution and where, the customer can subconsciously guide someone to do what they did. This gives customers a clear path to purchasing your product, making buying decisions much easier.

I’ve noticed that if leads can relate to your customer‘s starting point, they’ll see my business as a shortcut to long-term success.

6. What selection criteria did you prioritize when looking at solutions?

Customers may have different buying criteria when shopping for solutions. Having your customer narrow down what was important to them is like a bat signal for folks in the same predicament. The answer to this question can encourage others in your customer persona to consider a similar prioritization strategy.

The response to this question can also reinforce that there are often more important factors to consider than just the final cost of a product. That lightbulb can help customers who may be on the fence to consider more than just the price tag in their final decision.

7. What made you choose our offering over other offerings in the market?

Leads often compare products between competitors. This question will make it extremely clear to prospects what your product’s X factor is.

What was the bottom line that contributed to your customer’s decision to buy? Was it a product feature? Your customer service team? The price? In my experience, these answers help prospective customers reading or listening to the testimonial evaluate their priorities. This will also let your marketing team know which aspects of your business are most desirable to customers.

Leads will be more likely to trust testimonials than traditional advertising. It‘s one thing if your business says it’s better than your competitors. However, I’ve seen greater impact when a real-life customer says it. Customer advocacy plays a major role in lead acquisition and customer retention.

8. How has your experience been with our product so far?

I ask this question when I’m looking for a high-level answer about my product or looking for something I can easily use as a quote in promotional materials. When answering, customers can hone in on whichever area of the product experience stands out the most to them.

If you’re looking to get more granular, I’ve included more experience-specific questions later in this post.

Impact: Questions About the Benefits of Your Product

9. What specific problem does our product help you solve?

I’ve personally discovered that by asking this question customers tell us exactly how our product helped them solve their problem or challenge. This answer helps connect the dots in the story if you’ve already asked question two. You’ve already mentioned the problem, and now you can highlight the solution (your product!).

10. How has the reception been for your [END USERS] since implementing our product?

If your product has different personas, like buyers and end users, I highly recommend asking this question. This question highlights how your product or offering makes an impact across teams within the organization. I’ve found that including this question ensures you’re highlighting the experience of the individuals who will be using your tool on a daily basis.

For example, when I worked in martech, I routinely asked my customers (who were marketing leaders) what they were hearing from their sales development representatives (our end users). More often than not, their SDRs were seeing an increase in lead conversion from using our product. Naturally, their feedback about the tool was positive!

11. What has changed or improved for your team or company since using our offering?

This goes back to highlighting the broader impact of your offering. We all know that budgets are tight, specifically in SaaS. In my experience, most commercial conversations now happen with a CFO or even procurement teams. This creates even more pressure to prove value realization.

If you can highlight that your product is making a difference across multiple areas of the company, you’re giving your potential buyer an even better proof point to use in their internal budget conversations. If you can get specific numbers to show your impact, even better.

12. How has your business been impacted since starting to use our product or service?

Results can be exceedingly persuasive. With this question, I can prompt my customers to think about their experience with my product in terms of the impact it created. Maybe their revenue increased by $30,000, or they won 15% more customers than they did last year. These quantifiable, tangible wins sell your product for you.

13. What was one unexpected benefit you experienced from using our product or service?

The great thing about this question is that it’s completely up for interpretation. Your customer can share a financial, personal, or team-related benefit.

For instance, your customer might be averse to carrying out report meetings, because they don’t like public speaking. Your marketing software made it much easier to compile performance data for stakeholders, negating a need for a meeting. These sorts of anecdotes communicate the strength of your product in small but impactful ways.

Questions to Highlight Specific Selling Points

14. What was your buying experience like with us?

I don’t think anyone likes the process of buying a new product or piece of software. It’s typically a lengthy and time-consuming process that requires multiple steps. But, if your sales team built trust and left the customer with a positive experience, then that’s worth highlighting.

A company’s reputation has been noted as the most influential factor in choosing a vendor. Highlighting a positive buying experience with your brand can help build trust and credibility for new prospects who are considering entering the sales process.

15. How smooth was the implementation stage?

The implementation stage is where your company has to start delivering on what you promised. When prospects are shopping, they want to know if your company will help them get onboarded in a way that sets them up for success.

In fact, nearly two-thirds of customers said that they take the onboarding period into consideration when deciding whether or not to make a purchase. I’ve noticed that highlighting your customer’s positive experience with onboarding can help reassure a prospect that you’ll deliver a great implementation experience.

16. How has your support experience been with us?

I have seen the post-sale support experience make or break the relationship between a brand and its customers. Prospects are weighing customer support as part of their buying criteria. Over 50% of customers are willing to make a purchase solely on the support they expect to receive.

Of organizations, 81% already cite customer experience as a leading differentiator, so I highly recommend highlighting a positive post-sale experience when you can.

17. Was our product worth the initial investment? If so, why?

In my experience, every contract signer or executive sponsor wants to know one thing: Was this purchase worth the investment? This question allows the customer to answer in their own words. Plus, you’ll have a powerful sound bite to use in your testimonial.

18. How has this product helped you do/solve [SPECIFIC VALUE PROPOSITION]?

If your product has specific and defined value propositions, your marketing team likely already knows which one(s) are the top value drivers for customers. If you know your personas, you can draw out common pain points and clearly explain how your product helps.

By putting a specific value proposition into this question, your customers can tell prospects that your product solved a very specific pain point for them. This helps prospects envision your product solving that same point for themselves.

19. What has exceeded your expectations since working with us?

Sometimes, business is cut and dry. However, it’s always a smart idea to surprise and delight your customers so they’ll keep talking about it in their recommendations. Customers will remember the times that your business provided above-and-beyond customer service, and leads will want to hear about these stories, too. It’s a lot easier to show how great your service is when highlighting individual moments of excellence.

Advocacy Questions

20. What would you tell someone who is considering purchasing our product?

When leads are considering your business, customer testimonials are perfect for convincing them to buy your product. In fact, 81% of leads look at customer reviews before making a purchase.

Having your customers give advice to leads during their buying decisions will help your sales and marketing teams capitalize on timely opportunities to convert leads. They‘ll know when leads are likely to hit roadblocks and what they’ll need to say to overcome them.

21. Would you recommend our product to someone else facing a similar problem, and if so, why?

Consider this question the cliff notes version of a testimonial. In just a few sentences, your customer tells the reader exactly what made them so satisfied with your brand, proving that they’re happy enough with the product to give a public recommendation.

I like this question because it’s focused on the problem that the customer shares with the reader, which lends more credibility to the recommendation.

Prospects now lean on credible recommendations to inform their decision making, with roughly 92% of business buyers reading reviews and testimonials before making a purchase.

22. What has surprised you the most about working with us or using our product?

This question provides insight into the customer’s perception of your brand or product. When they first purchased your product, they had a goal they were hoping to accomplish.

However, some customers will find that your business offers other benefits — like rewards and loyalty programs — that help them achieve more than they initially thought. By collecting these stories, you can show leads that your company is focused on the entire customer experience, not just on selling a product.

23. How has your overall experience been with our brand?

In earlier questions, we asked the customer about their experience with your company’s product, implementation process, sales process, and support.

This question differs slightly in that it can highlight the customer’s overall experience with your brand. (Or if you’re a small business that doesn’t have separate teams and functions, this question is open-ended enough for the customer to pick what they’d like to highlight about their experience.)

A positive statement from a customer about their experience with your brand helps with your brand perception. We know that brand perception is closely tied to trust and credibility (and 81% of consumers say that trust is a deciding factor in their purchasing decision), so your customer’s response to this question can positively influence the credibility of your brand.

24. Is there anything we could have done differently?

This question is geared toward your marketing and customer service teams. Unless the customer doesn’t have anything to add, these responses should be saved as useful pieces of customer feedback and are not typically included in the actual testimonial. Keep in mind, customers providing testimonials should be your happiest customers.

Getting their feedback is a crucial part of maintaining customer satisfaction and improving the customer experience. This question also makes the testimonial seem less staged and more realistic.

25. Is there anything else that you would like to comment on or say about our product or business?

This last question opens the floor and lets the customer say what‘s on their mind. This is important because your questions may not have addressed every experience they’ve had with your brand. By letting the customer speak freely, you’ll obtain some unique feedback that you may not have considered about your products or services.

Need more inspiration for questions? I recommend looking at review sites like G2.com to see which selling points buyers care about. Look up your offering (or competitors) on a review site, identify the key criteria that customers are reviewing, and then tailor a few of your testimonial questions to reflect that criteria.

Tips & Tricks for Testimonials by Format

Testimonials can be delivered in a variety of formats, including video, written quotes, case studies, and more. While all of the questions I listed above can apply to any format, here are a few tips and tricks to enhance the responses to your video, written, and short-form testimonial responses.

Video

Video testimonials, whether done virtually or recorded in person, are a great way to make the testimonial feel more authentic. You can highlight a customer’s genuine emotions and reactions.

In my experience, video testimonials typically include more questions than written testimonials. This format also relies on open ended questions to allow the customer to share their story. Once a customer has agreed to a video testimonial, I try to give them ample time to prepare for it by sending over the questions you’ll be asking in advance.

Written

Written testimonials can be the easiest to acquire since customers can submit them on their own time. If you’ve built out a testimonial form or questionnaire, try to make this as frictionless as possible for your customers by only asking a handful of questions (or consider making a few questions mandatory but include a few more that are optional).

Implement a few creative experiences for customers to submit their written testimonials, like building a testimonial chatbot to make the submission process feel more conversational and less tedious.

Short-Form Quotes

Consider creating quick and easy ways for customers to answer a single testimonial question on their own time. I recommend building open-ended testimonial questions into different points of the customer journey, such as after a specific product outcome is achieved or once a customer officially moves into onboarding after signing the deal.

Be careful to check where NPS surveys sit in the customer journey so as to not overwhelm customers with requests for feedback.

The Right Questions Help You Tell the Right Story

In writing this piece, I realized that customer testimonial questions have changed over the last few years. Today’s testimonial questions place more emphasis on the overall customer experience (which I love) versus just the product’s capabilities. I imagine this is a result of consumers weighing the customer experience as one of the top factors in their buying decisions.

I also see the questions beginning to adapt to show “value realization.” In Saas, we’re no longer able to obtain a renewal with one single ROI factor. We now have to prove that our product solves multiple problems or impacts multiple areas of the business.

Testimonials remain a key part of the buying process, and I don’t see that going away any time soon. Since consumers often trust each other more than they do a business, testimonials can persuade potential customers to make a purchase by offering a relatable and authentic perspective on a brand or product.

Using the above questions is a great way to ensure you get answers to build a compelling story that highlights the effectiveness of your product, in turn helping you acquire new customers and grow your business.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in May 2018 and has since been updated for comprehensiveness.

When was the last time you moved through a customer journey funnel in just one step — seeing a product, deciding you needed it, and purchasing it immediately? Unless it’s a routine grocery item, that’s probably not how you buy. The modern buying process is far more complex, with consumers needing multiple touchpoints before making a decision.

Research shows that this is a common behavior. In fact, customers often need between 7 to 13 touchpoints before completing a sale in the B2B space (and around eight touchpoints in B2C). When I see something I’m interested in, I always spend some time researching it before I hit “purchase.”

So, you need a process to get customers from learning about your brand to actively buying. While many companies have this type of funnel, they often focus just on marketing and sales. From my 14 years in the field, I know that successful companies focus their funnels on the customer. Below, I’ll explain the customer journey funnel, what it solves, and why it works.

Table of Contents

• Why the Marketing and Sales Funnel Needs a Revamp
• Why The Customer Journey Funnel Is the Solution
• How to Build a Customer Journey Funnel
• The Customer Journey Funnel In Action — What to Expect in Each Stage

Why the Marketing and Sales Funnel Needs a Revamp

Most businesses today use a marketing funnel to inform their engagement strategy, with many still relying on the traditional AIDA model. The AIDA framework describes four stages that buyers go through in their purchasing journey:

• Attention (or awareness).
• Intent.
• Desire.
• Action.

That seems pretty straightforward. However, customers don’t purchase in a linear way, says Karen Holmgren, marketing director of IntelePeer. Some customers need more steps before they’re ready to buy.

“Seeing the path to a sale, even gathering all the data from different systems and making sense of them, can be overwhelming. One customer may need to see 5 Instagram ads, and another sees none; one customer clicks on one email and purchases — another unsubscribes but still purchases,” Holmgren says.

Beyond that, I’ve noticed a huge flaw of the AIDA model. When you look at the funnel below, do you notice anything missing? The process ends after the point of sale.

When looking at this model, I assume that the customer’s buying journey is over after that initial purchase. However, as a customer success professional, I know the importance of nurturing this relationship after a deal has closed. That’s how I turn our customers into brand evangelists.

Marley Wagner, a digital customer success consultant, notes that repeat business has become increasingly important in today’s subscription-driven world.

“A majority of marketers have been exclusively focused and measured on driving net new revenue from the acquisition of new customers,” Wagner explained. “But the subscription economy necessitates a longer-term view of the retention and growth of that revenue, on top of the continuous addition of more and more new customers.”

So, while the traditional sales and marketing funnel makes a great foundation, it’s due for an upgrade that reflects the complexity of today’s buying journey, including a customer’s intent to repurchase.

That’s where the customer journey funnel comes in.

Why The Customer Journey Funnel Is the Solution

The customer journey funnel helps you understand the holistic buying journey from your customer’s perspective. This framework allows you to create strategies to engage your ideal customer at each individual stage, with a focus on retaining business.

The customer journey funnel is unique because it provides insight into the end-to-end buying experience and includes two additional stages missing from a marketing funnel. So, the stages of the custom journey funnel include:

• Awareness.
• Consideration.
• Conversion.
• Retention (or loyalty).
• Advocacy.

Why should you use a customer journey funnel? Taking the time to nurture your customers in those post-sale stages is worth the investment. Businesses continue to report that repeat customers make up the majority of their annual revenue and spend more on average than new customers.

Using this framework can also help you increase personalization (which is shown to drive 10-15% more in revenue), increase your conversion rates, and retain and grow your current customer base.

“There is absolutely value in marketing teams considering the entire customer journey in their efforts, rather than simply ignoring anything that happens after a sale is marked closed,” says Wagner.

However, she notes that business leaders need to set team goals and KPIs that align with this broader purview. Sales and marketing pros also need to “work in close concert with the customer success organization, Wagner says.

How to Build a Customer Journey Funnel

Before you start creating your funnel, there are a few important things you’ll need to identify. It’s critical to include insights from key stakeholders like your customer experience, sales, and even product teams as you work through this process. Here are my recommendations for getting the foundation right.

1. Identify the stages of the customer journey.

When creating a customer journey funnel, I start by using data and insights about my company’s buyers. I can then map out the buying journey from their perspective. I recommend working on this with your customer experience team. They likely have already created a customer journey map.

When defining stages, I start with the first touchpoint with my brand (awareness) through the point of conversion. Then, I can add what loyalty and advocacy look like, better defining those two new stages.

Pro tip: Feel free to name the stages in a way that makes sense for your brand. I’ve seen the second stage named in many different ways, including consideration, intent, interest, and nurture.

If you want to test this out, try our free customer journey template. You can outline your company’s customer journey and experience with these seven free templates from Hubspot.

2. Align customer behavior.

In the section above, I defined the stages of the customer journey. These stages now become the different parts of my funnel.

Once I have my stages defined and named, I map out what customer behaviors and actions happen during each stage. By understanding what my customers are doing at different stages in their buying journey, I can tell what they need and how to engage them in a relevant way.

Customer behavior can be things like reading reviews, clicking on an ad, or downloading an ebook. Every action counts, so try to be as specific as possible.

3. Create your engagement strategy.

Now that you know what your buyer does (and needs) at every step of their journey, how will you engage them? Each stage has its own engagement strategy. Different teams may take the lead at different stages. For example, your marketing team will make most of your Awareness stage collateral. The sales team may be the star of your conversion strategy.

In customer success, I often work with the retention and advocacy stages. I make sure to consider the unique pain points or motivators in the post-sale experience. For example, if I’m selling software, my customers may need help with implementation. Providing great service helps build brand loyalty and keep customers for the long term.

Pro tip: Don’t skip out on creating a robust strategy for your Advocacy stage. Beyond asking for referrals, you can nurture these customers with loyalty programs, spotlight speaking opportunities, or collaborate on case studies.

If you don’t have a customer advocacy team to take the lead, I recommend using automation, like intake forms for customer case studies or triggering email campaigns that ask for referrals.

4. Define success metrics.

Chances are, even if you changed your funnel, your main KPIs and engagement metrics are still the same — or very similar. However, now you should include metrics for long-term impact. Make sure your metrics are specific to each stage and measure the relative engagement strategy.

For example, customer lifetime value and cost per acquisition can show that your buyers are satisfied after a purchase is made. These two metrics allow me to see if our Retention and Advocacy strategies actually work.

Understanding success isn’t all about numbers. Holmgren recommends defining what success looks like at each stage of your customer journey funnel. That vision will help you improve your messaging and see what roadblocks are barriers to success.

“Reviewing customer journey metrics at each stage makes it easier to make data-driven decisions, even if they go against your initial instinct. By reviewing insights, you can create a truly customer-centric organization,” she adds.

Now that you’ve set the foundation, it’s time to build that funnel.

The Customer Journey Funnel In Action — What to Expect in Each Stage

Above, we talked about how to build a customer journey funnel. Now, we’ll take a look at what might happen in each stage.

It’s important to note that funnels vary by company and team. If your customer journey has a different number of stages than what you see below, what happens in each stage may look different. However, you’ll likely notice similar goals and a strong focus on the customer.

Awareness Stage

In this first stage, my potential customers are just becoming aware of my brand or product. My goal is to capture their attention and inform them that a solution to their problems exists.

Common strategies in this stage include promoting helpful blog posts, posting freemium content on social media, or putting a helpful playbook behind a paywall. I’ve also seen companies organize an exclusive product release webinar to drive awareness of new offerings.

In this stage, marketers are trying to connect with a customer pain point, point to a few solutions direction, and get potential buyers familiar with the brand,

Consideration Stage

In this stage, the buyer is considering my product as a possible solution to their problem. They’re doing research and comparing their options. My goal is to give them information that helps them understand my product’s benefits and its differentiators.

Current customers may have different pain points as they enter back into earlier funnel stages.

For example, let’s say a common pain point for an existing customer is obtaining additional budget approval to add a new product to their account. You could create content with proof points that show the compounded value that comes from layering a new product to their existing subscription.

Conversion Stage

In the Conversion stage, the customer evaluates the product and considers things like price, features, and brand reputation. At this point, they may sign up for a free trial, submit their information through a contact form, or complete a purchase.

This is when the scale tips from a prospect considering a product to actually making a purchase. Your sales team may be giving product demos and addressing any concerns related to the offer. Potential buyers exit this stage as customers.

Retention/Loyalty Stage

After a customer purchases, they either become loyal to your brand or leave it at the time of renewal. The goal of this stage is to build loyalty with the customer to drive retention, maintain customer satisfaction, and encourage repeat purchases.

Retention looks wildly different depending on what you sell. For B2C brand Sephora, Beauty Rewards points are a tangible program that incentivizes people to shop. In the B2B world, I’ve had to get more creative, relying on excellent service and building long-lasting relationships. I’ve also seen exclusive offers and discounts successfully win repeat business.

I recommend creating targeted campaigns for customers’ milestones. On a purchase anniversary, send them an email thanking them for their business and offer them company swag in exchange for a review.

Another fun tactic for customers at this stage? You can give them early access to test upcoming paid features. This acts as a free trial and primes them for purchase once the paid feature hits the market.

Advocacy Stage

Here, your happy customers become advocates for your brand by sharing their positive experiences. The goal of this stage is to turn your customers into advocates so they help bring in new customers.

This stage can be a dream come true for a customer advocacy team. You can tap into happy and successful customers. You may aks them to collaborate on case studies, user-generated content, marketing events, customer round tables, and more.

You may even surface some hardcore brand evangelists. Creating an “Inner Circle” is a great way to invite all your advocates to one place. You can run targeted campaigns asking these customers to give a referral, submit a testimonial, or provide a review. I recommend offering financial incentives or company swag in exchange. I’ll always leave a review for a gift card.

To identify the right advocates, you can tap into your NPS promoters and review the data on product outcomes.

Stay in Touch With Customer Needs

With the increasing complexity of today’s buying journey, upgrading your funnel allows you to stay in touch with your customers’ needs. You can then adapt quickly to changes in their buying behavior.

By engaging a customer at every stage of the buying journey, you create a revenue loop for your business. With this holistic engagement strategy, you’re able to gain customer loyalty, earn repeat business, and benefit from your customers’ advocacy by acquiring new qualified leads.

That’s why I recommend creating a customer journey funnel. You can bring teams together to focus on the same goal: finding customers, serving them, and keeping them coming back for more.