Negative reviews of our software constantly mention the difficulty of subscriber set up. We’re planning on making that experience better by overhauling the software in the long-run, but maybe in the short run we could iterate on some very simple processes to see if they help. Something as simple as a chart on paper that shows a typical set up for a yoga studio, broken down by service categories and class types, and a corresponding empty chart where the subscriber writes in their own yoga studio’s service categories and class types, could help both the subscriber and onboarding agent have a mental map (on paper) of what they are building in the software (wherein they could cross things off as they enter them). As it stands currently, the set up process requires the users to hurdle over many mental walls of abstraction, without a map, while trying to remember what they’re already entered. As we iterated on these simple, low-dev-cost solutions we would also discover what might work best for the software overhaul.
Small teams of smart people get work done. One experienced onboarding specialist and a creative team of 2-3 people (writer, UX, maybe a designer) who were interested in helping subscribers could work up a visual paper chart showing how a typical yoga studio is set up, and a corresponding empty chart. The onboarding specialist could email the chart to a client they were onboarding to see if it helps, and the writer and/or UX designer could shadow the call to improve the chart. The onboarding specialist could ask for the subscriber to take a photo of the chart and send it over, then talk it through before getting going. The iteration in this process is the key—testing the idea over and over, improving, then maybe testing it with a few more onboarding specialists, then maybe building another chart for a CrossFit box. Or maybe the idea will have a fatal flaw from the start and it will just be a few hours invested to discover something that won’t actually work. Either way, this seems like an informational pain point that is worth exploring and learning from.
The onboarding process could become less painful. The future software could be better. We could get better reviews, less attrition, and more business as a result. Or maybe we learn that our assumptions about how subscribers think about onboarding are wrong, and we adjust course.