Do you remember the first time you met your partner? Were they nice and friendly? Do they have good style or taste for music? In relationships, much like in software onboarding, first impressions are everything. That’s when expectations are sorted out, and the need-to-know stuff gets passed along, shaping how someone will work with the person (or platform) it’s been presented to them.
Independence and autonomy play a crucial role not only in personal relationships but also in our connection with the project management tools we use. In the book “Onboarding Matters,” Donna Weber, a global leader expert in customer onboarding, talks about the benefit of empowering customers via self-service and training. She says this approach reduces customer support burden and enhances satisfaction and loyalty. As we delve into the world of Hive’s onboarding, we’ll explore how this philosophy shapes Hive’s commitment to user autonomy and proficiency and its role in higher adoption among teams.
Bee-ing Exceptional: Hive’s Customer Experience
When a company has customer success in its DNA the value isn’t measured by the payment tier—be it premium or free. What truly counts is the exceptional customer experience. That’s the reason behind Hive’s outstanding onboarding experience. According to Hive’s CEO and co-founder, John Furneaux, an easy set-up process means satisfied customers and employees, higher adoption, and increased customer lifetime value.
This mindset led Furneaux to allocate Hive resources in its army of customer success experts. “We don’t spend a million dollars on marketing,” admits Furneaux. Why? Because of Hive’s excellence in customer success and easy onboarding are the best word-of-mouth marketing for the platform. Testimonials, like Gary Bright’s from Bikmo, attest to Hive’s accessibility for all: “You do not need to be a qualified project manager to get the immediate benefits of using Hive.”
Another example of Hive’s easy adoption and onboarding, is Pioneer Foods UK, the leading producer of breakfast cereals and fruit-based snacks in the United Kingdom. In a manufacturing-centric environment like Pioneer Foods UK, where dealing with software is not the norm, Hive’s intuitive interface became a game-changer.
Today, from customer service to planning and engineering, everyone’s on board and relies on the platform. According to Annika Campbell, NPD Project Manager at Pioneer Foods UK, the shift has been significant: “Before Hive, people would say ‘Annika, can you just get me those figures?’ Now I tell them to look in Hive. Just click a button and the setup is all there for you. Everyone can pull together the information they need, giving them more time to do the task rather than searching for information.”
Outstanding Experience: The Only Path to Success
Trying Hive is as simple as “sign up and get started,” with an option for a free consultation with Hive’s team. Furneaux emphasizes a universal onboarding process as another reason for the software’s high adoption among business teams.
“We have one track [to onboarding]. Hive is so simple and easy to use that you can get started with no assistance whatsoever, whether you are Coca Cola or whether you are a one person freelancer.”
John Furneaux, Hive Co-founder & CEO
Furneaux argues Hive’s sales team exists not to explain the value of the platform, which speaks for itself — but to help big corporations navigate the sales administrative process.
“The folks who use Hive and get started in trials are taking exactly the same journeys if they’re in a big corporation, as if they’re in a two person company. We just have someone along the way to answer questions like security and legal process, and organize a meeting where we bring people together on their side to facilitate decision making,” explains Hive’s CEO.
Furneaux says that a solid sales process boils down to offering people a user-friendly tool that tackles their specific issues, and if it’s got that attractive, good-for-work vibe. For him, these key points apply across the board, no matter the size of the organization.
The platform’s commitment to an outstanding onboarding experience extends further with its Adoption Guarantee policy.
Hive’s Adoption Guarantee policy offers customers a risk-free implementation of its productivity platform and accelerates their time to value. Hive guarantees that within 90 days, 100% of initial user groups will be trained and using Hive actively – or the company will refund a full three-month subscription value.
Empowering Customers with Self-Guided Onboarding
While Hive boasts a dedicated team of customer success leaders ready to assist users, the company adopted a strategic approach to scaling customer enablement. Hive developed a user-friendly, self-guided program to streamline the process. The program is another example of Hive’s user-centric focus, or as Furneaux would put it, another proof that Hive is “a software designed by and for people.”
The course walks individuals through every stage introducing a new project management platform to a company: initial introduction and assessment of the customer’s current workflow to the preparation, communication, and training for system implementation, culminating in the setup of workspaces and transitioning teams onto the platform.
Hive’s self-guided program goes beyond video tutorials, it offers hands-on tools and materials such as downloadable plan projects, kick-off meeting presentations and even supporting language, such as email templates on how to communicate about the system change to your stakeholders.
Maximizing Efficiency: Hive’s Time-Saving Resources
On top of its Self-Guided Program, the platform also hosts webinars and training sessions regularly, making it easier for customers to dive into the tool. Got a question about Hive? Just hit the blue question mark in your dashboard to find FAQs, webinars, video tutorials, or get help from the Hive team. Fun fact: Hive’s team typically responds in just nine minutes, keeping things quick and easy for users.
In Hive’s workspace, customers can click on the blue question mark icon to easily access:
- Hive University — a portal with lessons to learn about Hive basics and advanced features and capabilities;
- The Swarm, a closed community for Hive members to share tips, ask questions, access exclusive resources and connect with industry peers and build new opportunities;
- Shortcut list — a menu of keyboard shortcuts to speed up your workflow.;
- Template library — a vast collection of pre-made templates to get started on Hive. The list includes examples of projects set-ups ready-to-be-used for different departments and industries, from project management to Human Resources, to Finance to Sales and Marketing.
- Change log — a history of all new features released. Hive 2.0 updates included robust capabilities to personalize your views, search and projects kick-off processes.
In conclusion, from a universal onboarding process to a strategic scaling of customer enablement, Hive has created a software designed not just for efficiency but for people.
Are you ready to experience the exceptional?
Sign up for Hive now and witness the transformative power of user-friendly tools, outstanding customer support, and a community dedicated to your success. Take the first step towards Hive’s unique blend of simplicity, efficiency, and user-centricity.
