7 principles for better onboarding UX

Here are 7 principles for better onboarding UX that’ll keep your abandonment rates low.

1. Explain why you’re asking

People are perhaps more cautious about their personal information than they’ve ever been. Customers will feel more comfortable sharing the information you need from them if you explain why you need it and what you’ll be using it for. In the end you’re doing it to protect customers’ identities and prevent fraud, so it shouldn’t be a difficult sell.

2. Make data entry quick & convenient

The less time a customer has to spend filling in forms, the less time they’ll have to get bored or frustrated and drop out. You can make form-filling faster and less onerous using third-party tools.
What’s more, you can increase the accuracy of customer information, which makes it easier to meet your KYC and AML obligations later on.

3. Humanise your customer experience

The language you use during onboarding can have a huge effect on abandonment, especially if your customers are feeling vulnerable. You can be professional without using daunting industry jargon that alienates customers. Make your language as clear and ‘everyday’ as you can to reduce abandonment rates.

4. Set expectations

Reduce frustration by telling customers upfront how long things are likely to take, what you’re going to need from them and what they’re going to achieve by the time they’re done.

Without clear expectations, customers may be left wondering how much longer they’ll need to spend filling in forms. And surprising customers with a request for documents halfway through onboarding that they won’t have to-hand is just asking them to drop out.

5. Use tech for convenience

In some circumstances, you can’t avoid giving the customer a long form to fill out. When you have to, you need to have contingencies in place for customers getting bored or fed up and leaving without finishing it. For example, if you take their email address early, you can save the session data and invite the customer to return and complete the form later.

Another way to make data input more convenient is with tech that scans customer identity documents and automatically populates the form using the ID document data.

6. Visualise progress

A progress bar is a great visual cue to motivate customers towards completing a form and achieving what they arrived at your site to do.

7. Give reassurance

You can ease customer nervousness by employing trust signals that tell them you’re a professional, trustworthy company. Display everything from customer reviews and ratings (think Trustpilot) to your regulators’ icons (e.g. Financial Conduct Authority) and information security certificates to help reduce abandonment rates.

Cost-effective tech solutions

GBG has a range of solutions to the UX challenges presented by ever-evolving regulations that work for businesses and budgets of any size.

GBG identity verification supplies fast and simple onboarding experience, combined with regulatory rigour, means you can win customers with no compromise to compliance.