Improving Service Quality through Customer Onboarding in a SaaS Company

In the face of growing and competitive customer service challenges triggered by shifting customer behavior and emerging technologies, there are increasing pressure on businesses, especially those providing software as a service (SaaS) and business enterprise solution to improve their service quality (SQ) through customer onboarding process (COP). Against this backdrop, the objective of this thesis is to investigate and co-create an improved and fit-for-purpose COP of case company – ABC Oy, to enhance users’ adaptability in using the business enterprise tool provided by the company that is expected would improve the company’s SQ and overall UX/CX. To achieve the above objective, the current state of ABC Oy COP was analyzed and applied action research methodology was used to help identify limitations in ABC's current COP, devise and implement an action plan. Data was collected with qualitative and quantitative research methods through interviews with purposefully chosen stakeholders in the company and document analysis. The current state analysis (CSA) conducted identified strengths and weaknesses in the company’s current COP. Emphasis was made on identified weaknesses through which three (3) development areas (preboarding, account setup and commitment steps) were recognized to measure and enhance SQ, CX and engagement that informed direction to explore existing knowledge and good practices to develop conceptual framework. As an outcome, the proposed and improved co-created COP was validated by key stakeholders in ABC Oy through which short, mid-term and long-term implementation strategies of proposed recommendations of the new COP were also validated and recognized. The improved COP is an informed framework, that is, work-in progress towards meeting current needs and expectations of B2B users while preparing for unforeseen emerging trends in user behavior and technology to guide new initiatives through which users can easily adapt, commit to using and adopt ABC Oy's tool