High-value trial users don't activate fully
For users who match your ideal customer profile, offer a free 15-minute setup call. Human touch converts better than any drip email.
When to use
You have high-value trial users worth spending time on. Works best when lifetime value justifies the time.
Hypothesis template
If we offer [15-minute onboarding calls] to [high-value users], activation will increase by [target]% and trial conversion by [target]% because personal attention builds trust.
Method
The problem: Your best potential customers sign up, poke around, and leave. Automated onboarding doesn't address their specific situation.
What Superhuman did: Every new user gets a personal onboarding call where a team member walks them through the product customized to their workflow.
The result: Superhuman's onboarding calls create near-100% activation. Users who receive personal onboarding have dramatically higher retention and willingness to pay.
How to do it:
- Identify your high-value user signals: company size, role, signup source
- For matching users, send a personal email: "Want 15 minutes to get set up perfectly?"
- Use Calendly to let them book a convenient time
- On the call: ask about their goals, set up the product for their use case
- Follow up 3 days later: "How's it going?"
- Track: call booking rate, activation rate of called vs non-called, trial conversion
Key insight: This doesn't scale, and that's the point. 10 onboarding calls per week can transform your conversion rate for the users who matter most.
Success metrics
- •Call booking rate
- •Activation rate (called vs non-called)
- •Trial conversion (called vs non-called)
- •Net revenue per call hour
Prerequisites
- Time to do 5-10 calls per week
- Calendly or scheduling tool
- Criteria for identifying high-value users
Common pitfalls
- •Offering calls to everyone (it won't scale)
- •Making the call a product demo instead of personalized setup
- •Not following up after the call
- •Treating it as a sales call instead of a service call
Source: Superhuman. Personal onboarding calls create near-100% activation for high-value users.
Suggested ICE scores
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