For our initial PowrLine beta users, onboarding was a painful and time-consuming process that involved extensive communication and customization. While the end results were amazing, the process took 20-30 hours to complete. We wanted to solve this problem before bringing on any new users, so we built an onboarding UI that streamlines and automates much of the process.
The entire onboarding process involves 12 total steps, but below are a few highlights of what the new onboarding UI is able to handle. Most of this information was being collected/generated manually prior to this new system.
Invitation Only
Even with this new automated onboarding approach, we want to ensure that every contractor we onboard to PowrLine has the best possible experience. To this end, we are keeping PowrLine invitation only for the time being.
Contractors interested in using PowrLine, will need to join our waitlist to receive an invitation (offered in the order they joined the waitlist).
The first step of the onboarding process is submission of a contractor’s invitation code as can be seen in this image. If the invitation code matches one of the codes in our database, the user is allowed to continue the account creation process for their company.
Company Information
PowrLine needs company information for each contractor for multiple reasons. Some of this information can be used dynamically to populate and automatically customize automated message templates. However, this information is also needed for regulatory requirements for the use of phone numbers.
PowrLine handles all the proper registrations for the phone number(s) associated with each PowrLine account. This helps protect our users and ensures the best possible SMS/MMS message deliverability. Collecting this information automatically, allows us to use APIs to handles the registrations rather than handling them manually
Onboarding Call
After collecting basic information and onboarding fee payment, the user is able to schedule an onboarding call directly from within the UI. This onboarding call helps us get a better understanding of the user’s sales process, and guide them on specific implementation.
Most importantly, we’ll discuss whether or not they will be transferring existing phone numbers to PowrLine, or using new phone numbers acquired through the app. This will depend largely on how long the company has been in business, whether or not they are using their personal phone number for their business, and whether or not they use an answering service.
Linking Email
We recently added a direct email integration to PowrLine that enables the app to send email directly through user’s email account, rather than first being routed through Zapier. This cuts a substantial time out of the onboarding process and just take a few seconds to complete.
Additionally, this keeps our users from needing a Zapier account to use PowrLine’s email sending features, saving them money and hassle. Having their email account directly linked to PowrLine also opens the door for calendar syncing, scheduling, and other interesting features we may add to PowrLine at a later time.
Number Provisioning
PowrLine’s core functionality is built around a phone service (with a phone number), so getting that number is one of the most important steps of the onboarding process. The new phone provisioning UI allows users to choose a number from an inventory of available numbers using location, or by alpha-numeric pattern (such as “roof”).
For users that wish to transfer an existing phone number to their new PowrLine account, they can choose “Port a phone number I already own”. This takes them to a form where they can enter all required information for porting, including a signed Letter of Authorization (required by carriers to transfer a number). With this information, we can transfer existing landlines or cell numbers from any carrier to PowrLine.
