Even when a customer needs your tool, some of them still don’t use it and
eventually they churn. It’s because they don’t understand how to use it
despite your great user interface. We’ll show you 5 user onboarding tools that
help you walk a customer through your site without needing to code.
Onboarding tech: The World’s Fastest REMOTE CONTROL Screen
Sharing
Good read: Want Onboarding That Works? Think About
Netflix
Resource: Onboard and Support Customers Like Never
Before
What are walk through tools?
Walk through tools sit on top of your website to guide customers step by step
when they first sign up.
They’re often pop ups like the image below that tell you where to click and
what that feature does.
They generally don’t require any coding.
We’ll show you 5 tools of which 4 are automatic and the 5th is manual, for
guiding non-tech users where real people need to be involved.
Many of these walk-through tools have a very similar feature set but the look
and feel of each, as you play with them, is quite different.
1. WalkMe is the original walk through tool with everything you need
WalkMe allows you to build walk through tutorials for users with no
installations.
It includes tools like pop-up balloons, notification bars and call to action
buttons to “walk users through” every step of any process until completion.
‘WalkMe is used by Enterprises from a wide range of industries and
verticals to increase sales and conversion rates, boost UX, reduce support
costs, and improve employee productivity.
Our vision is to match the capability of people with the capability of
technology.’
Main Features
Unlimited Walk-Thrus, Multiple Support Options and Domains, Full Help Desk
Integration, Design Flexibility. Full Interface Control, Advanced API Support,
Multi-language, Self-Hosting Option, Analytics, SSL Support.
Pricing
WalkMe offers two enterprise pricing plans —
-
An unlimited time free plan in which it allows you to make three
walkthroughs -
A custom plan which you need to get a quote custom built for your company
See more: https://www.walkme.com
2. Appcues make personalised products that your users will love
Appcues is a non-code, user experience guide tool that allows you to build
walk throughs on your own site.
This app is more about the design of the walk throughs, also focusing on
personalisation. You can customise patterns such as how, when and where to
show tooltips, modals and hotspots.
‘Emails and blog posts just aren’t cutting it. Call out features inside your
product, when users are ready and able to take action.’
‘You’ve brought personalization into top of the funnel interactions. Apply
that same level of targeting inside your product to increase engagement.’
Main Features
Unlimited flows, Audience targeting and personalization, Flow analytics,
Advanced behavioural targeting, A/B testing, Customization, Advanced user
permissions.
Pricing
Appcues pricing is relative to the amount of active users you have. You
guessed it… the more users the more you pay!
They have starter, standard and enterprise options, with the enterprise option
always being set to ‘Let’s talk’.
2,500 users is $199 / month
20,000 — 50,000 users is $779 / month
See more: https://www.appcues.com
3. Analyse and Engage with WhatFix’s captivating designs
Design, engage and analyse are the three key words WhatFix base their product
on.
WhatFix created an app where real time interactive guides and attractive
designs are the focal point of capturing the users attention.
They hone in on the importance of analysing the users engagement by measuring
with advanced analytics.
‘Whatfix is a performance support platform for businesses to ease
onboarding, improve support and reduce training effort for its users.’
Main Features
Easy Guide Creation, Rich Display Options, Multiple Touch points Engagement,
Multilingual and Multi Device Support, Zero Code Integration, Smart Targeting,
User Level Tracking, Compatibility And Cross Browser Support, Frames Support.
Pricing
Whatfix customise their pricing depending on their customers specific needs
though according to their user reviews, they are significantly cheaper than
Walkme.
See more: https://whatfix.com
4. Nickelled understand the need for speed for efficient onboarding
Nickelled can be deployed straight from the website so that visitors can
instantly get access to the knowledge they need.
They pride themselves on users being able to update their guide in just two
minutes — with no coding and no changes to your website required. You can also
share guides with others simply by copying and pasting.
‘Just point and click. Create your first guide in 2-minutes (no coding
required and no changes to your website — for real)’
Main Features
Custom Tutorial Creation, Responsive Web Demos, Theme Creator, Multiple
Language Support, Collaboration, Guide Link Sharing, Guide Feedback Gathering,
Branded Domain, Analytics, Weekly Progress Reports, Integrations.
Pricing
Nickelleds pricing plan is based on how many guides you need, this can be
added to once you are signed up.
For creating and deploying 10 different user guides, it’s $99 / month
For 50 guides, it’s $249 / month
See more: https://www.nickelled.com
5. For onboarding even the toughest non-tech users? Use Upscope
Does the following personality sound familiar?
-
This person doesn’t understand your automated walk through steps.
-
They don’t really take in your other help guides or videos.
-
They will ask you lots of questions and take up lots of time.
-
Even after asking lots of questions, they will not use the product much.
-
They will never subscribe to a paid plan.
-
However, they do want your product and are able to pay.
What went wrong?
Some of your toughest non-tech users need to be shown your site MANUALLY 1 to
1 by a real person.
You have to sit next to them and explaining things and click for them.
You mean screen sharing?
No, with screen sharing, you have to ask them to download software and go to
some other link.
They will struggle to do that. It takes too long.
You need something instant and without downloads.
Is there such a thing?
Walk them through your site as if you’re sitting next to them using Upscope
co-browsing.
Co-browsing is when you can instantly see their screen and browse the website
together while talking. No downloads nonsense!
You can remotely scroll for them, click for them, highlight links and even
draw circles around buttons to show them where to click.
Find out more about Upscope here:
https://helloscreen.com
New entries we've come across: Userlane
Userlane is the navigation system for software that understands how to guide
users to customer success
Userlane is both a customer onboarding automation platform and user guidance
solution for mid-sized to large enterprise SaaS companies looking to increase
engagement and activation via interactive performance support.
With Userlane, users are guided logically through processes in any
browser-based software application in real time, directly on screen. The
platform requires no coding and offers a customizable solution.
SaaS companies embed Userlane directly into their software, and use the
platform’s interactive guides to create easy-to-understand process
walkthroughs and product and onboarding tours.
Main Features
Customer segmentation (creating different discovery journeys and walkthroughs
for different user segments).
A Virtual Assistant (users can access it on demand).
A powerful editor to build guides.
Contextual guides can be triggered automatically or via hyperlink, fully
interactive experience.
Contextual segmentation, browser neutral, an overlay that blocks out every
element in the UI except for the one the user needs to interact with.
Ability to add media elements (videos or pictures) in steps, multilingual
guides, analytics, ability to interact with every possible in-app event from
page changes to text input and autofill, single or double right/left clicks,
hover, drag and drop, and more.
Pricing
Userlane’s pricing is modular and is based on number of users, features,
deployment, and additional services. The customer success program, which comes
with each plan, is free. There’s no limit in terms of number of guides.
See more: https://www.userlane.com
Related: 4 statistics on why companies are rapidly taking up
co-browsing
Minh Saggers is Upscope's Head of Operations
