You buy a bookshelf from IKEA, open the box, and find screws, planks, and a wrench but no instructions. And you’re now running to the store and calling their customer support. Frustrating, right?
That’s how clients feel when they invest in a SaaS product that doesn’t provide the support required to maximize their investment. Even the best tools can overwhelm users if they don’t know where to start. Poor onboarding is the third most important churn factor (after wrong product fit and lack of engagement).
Customer enablement bridges this gap by giving clients the guidance, resources, and training they need to unlock the product’s full potential.
This guide explains what customer enablement is, how it differs from sales enablement, and, of course, the best practices.
What is customer enablement in SaaS?
Customer enablement in SaaS is about equipping clients with the tools, knowledge, and support they need to use your product effectively. It covers everything from onboarding and training to ongoing support and resources that address their business’s specific challenges.
According to Draven McConville, a founder and investor who successfully exited his SaaS company, “Customer enablement isn’t just something that’s a nice-to-have — it’s critical for sustainable growth and should be at the top of your list of priorities. In my experience, the difference between a churning customer and a long-term advocate often comes down to how well they understand and integrate the product into their workflow. This means going beyond basic onboarding to deliver continuous value through targeted training and providing resources and support that evolve with your customers’ needs.
Semrush is a great example of a SaaS company that prioritizes customer enablement. It sends targeted emails to users based on the features they’ve explored and provides actionable tips to help them use the tool even more efficiently.
Key differences between Customer Enablement and Sales Enablement
Below is a table highlighting the key differences between customer enablement and sales enablement.
| Aspect of Differentiation | Sales Enablement | Customer Enablement |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Equips sales teams to close deals and acquire customers. | Helps clients use the product effectively. |
| Audience | Sales teams and representatives. | Existing customers or clients. |
| Focus | Pre-purchase stage (prospects and leads). | Post-purchase stage (onboarding and retention). |
| Key Resources | Sales playbooks, CRM tools, and objection-handling guides. | Onboarding materials, training, and support. |
| Goal | Drive revenue through new customer acquisition. | Reduce churn and build customer loyalty. |
| Metrics | Conversion rates, deal velocity, and revenue growth. | Product adoption, customer satisfaction, and churn reduction. |
Why is customer enablement crucial for SaaS success?
Customer enablement directly impacts how well users adopt, engage with, and benefit from your SaaS product. Here are some more reasons why it is important.
1. Increased product adoption rates
Successful enablement programs do not solely rely on generic onboarding sequences. Instead, they identify specific pain points or friction in the user’s workflow to provide tailored support. For instance, you can use Encharge’s drag-and-drop builder to create custom onboarding processes. The best part? Anyone can create the processes, regardless of their technical expertise.
2. Enhanced customer satisfaction and retention
Tailored resources such as role-specific learning paths help users derive consistent value from your product and increase adoption.
For example, a CRM with an AI platform could identify underutilized features, such as automated email campaigns, and send targeted emails with resources on how it can benefit their business.
3. Empowering users to minimize support tickets
Customer enablement reduces support tickets by empowering users to become self-sufficient. Tools and strategies like AI-based chatbots, interactive in-app tutorials, scenario-based simulations, and usage-based resources enable users to find solutions independently.
For example, Canva includes dynamic in-app tutorials that help users navigate its design tools and increase adoption.
4. Positive impact on customer lifetime value (CLV)
Beyond solving day-to-day issues, effective customer enablement identifies strategic opportunities for customers to grow their capabilities and business outcomes.
For example, imagine a SaaS platform offering analytics for marketing teams. Through customer enablement, users can receive training on how to create advanced attribution models to track multi-channel campaigns.
Best practices for SaaS customer enablement
Customer enablement involves adopting a customer-first approach, personalizing experiences, using interactive tools, updating the learning resources regularly, and acting on customer feedback. Below is a detailed explanation of best practices for SaaS customer enablement.
1. Adopt a customer-first approach
A customer-first approach is not just about teaching customers how to use your product, but it is also about understanding their business goals, their frustrations, and their workflow. In other words, to be truly customer-first, you must deliver results that align with their expectations without requiring them to figure out how your product fits into their workflow.
Here’s how!
Pre-built templates: Provide customers with pre-built templates that they can customize to speed up their tasks. For instance, Monday, a popular CRM platform, offers a wide range of templates, from basic and advanced to those tailored for specific tasks.
Customer-led use cases: Identify successful customers who’ve mastered specific workflows or solved common pain points. Use these real-world examples to create case studies that show how they used your product.
Proactive workflow recommendations: Use in-app analytics to identify common usage patterns and suggest workflow optimizations proactively. For example, if customers often duplicate tasks for similar projects, I recommend creating templates to standardize and save time.
2. Personalize enablement experiences
When we talk about personalization, we talk about industry-specific resources or segmenting customers into broad categories like marketing and sales. But it’s 2025, and personalization is more than that!
Personalization is also about aligning every interaction with the customer’s specific goals and workflows. The goal is to help customers see immediate relevance in your product. Here’s how to do that.
- Role-specific enablement plans: Offer tailored enablement plans for different user roles in the customer organization. For instance, marketers might receive templates for setting up multi-channel campaigns, while sales teams get resources on tracking engagement with automated alerts. Tools like an AI Sales Agent can further assist sales teams by automating lead qualification and follow-ups, ensuring personalized interactions at scale.
- Use behavioral data to suggest features: Analyze user activity to identify the features they use frequently and recommend related features. For example, you can use Encharge to design tailored campaigns across the entire user lifecycle and trigger the emails when they take a certain action or reach a goal.
- Proactive contextual guidance: Categorize your knowledge base by different problems and offer an intuitive search option that surfaces relevant articles. Slack, for instance, uses categorized topics, featured articles, and customer journey-focused guides.
3. Build customer communities
Did you know that up to 66% of community members are loyal to the brand? Why? When customers connect, they discover solutions, share insights, and explore features they might have missed. Here’s how you can do it.
- Make it easy to join and contribute: Simplify the onboarding process. Offer clear navigation, welcome posts, or starter guides for first-time users. A seamless entry point encourages participation from day one.
- Highlight success and encourage collaboration: Create spaces where customers can share real-world wins. For example, launch a “Community Spotlight” feature to showcase users solving unique challenges or achieving goals with your product.
- Reward meaningful engagement: Recognize regular contributors and encourage them to stay active. Give exclusive perks like feature previews, loyalty rewards, or early access to new features.
Zoho, for example, has an active community where users can ask questions, post answers, and join relevant groups. It also has forums for its various products, so users can join the ones they use.
4. Continuously update learning resources
Released new features? Made changes to the UI? Introduced a new integration? If your learning resources don’t reflect these updates, your customers might feel lost or frustrated.
Outdated resources often lead to confusion, particularly for new users trying to onboard and existing ones revisiting a feature they haven’t used in a while. That said, here are a few tips to keep your learning resources updated.
- Anticipate common questions: Regularly audit support tickets or community discussions to identify areas where customers struggle, then update your guides to address these pain points.
- Include real-world use cases: Customers want to see how your product solves their problems. Add fresh examples or success stories to your resources to keep them practical and relatable.
- Expand beyond features: Create learning materials that focus on workflows, best practices, and industry trends, showing customers how to use your product in innovative ways.
Adobe is a great example of a company that manages and updates learning resources. It offers interactive tutorials, webinars, and hands-on guides that cater to different learning preferences.
5. Leverage interactive and microlearning tools
Modern customers want learning experiences that are quick, engaging, and easy to digest. Interactive and microlearning tools meet those expectations while improving retention. Here’s how to do that.
- Incorporate bite-sized lessons: Replace long, static guides with short videos, step-by-step walkthroughs, or interactive demos. For instance, a two-minute tutorial on setting up an automation rule beats a 20-page manual every time.
- Use gamification: Add quizzes, challenges, or progress trackers to keep users motivated. For example, reward users for completing modules with badges, custom t-shirts, or unlockable content.
- Make it interactive: Let users test features in a sandbox environment or through guided workflows directly in the app. This makes learning more engaging and actionable.
An excellent example is Salesforce. Salesforce’s Trailhead platform is a masterclass in microlearning and interactivity. It offers bite-sized learning modules on topics ranging from CRM setup to advanced analytics to ensure that users can quickly gain the skills they need without feeling overwhelmed.
6. Encourage and act on customer feedback
Your customers are your best source of insight, they use your product daily and know what works, what doesn’t, and what’s missing. When customers see their feedback shaping your product, they feel valued, and that value turns into long-term loyalty.
Here are some tips on how to encourage and act on customer feedback.
- To make feedback easy to give, Add feedback buttons in the app, send regular surveys, or host community polls to collect insights. Keep it simple and accessible.
- Close the loop: Don’t let feedback disappear into a void. Acknowledge it, act on it, and share the results. For instance, create a “You Asked, We Delivered” section in your community or product update notes.
- Highlight customer contributions: Recognize users whose feedback led to improvements. It could be a shoutout in release notes or early access to the new feature they suggested.
Stellar, a content marketing agency, has a “You Asked, We Delivered” section highlighting what’s new on its platform. These changes directly result from customer feedback, and Stellar is not afraid to accept it.
Example of a customer enablement strategy
Now that you know customer enablement, why it is essential, and the best practices, let’s look at how B2B SaaS companies use it.
1. HubSpot
HubSpot provides an onboarding experience tailored to customer goals, such as improving lead generation or automating marketing. The platform offers new users guided setup instructions based on selected objectives and usage preferences. This includes automated prompts for integrating email campaigns or setting up lead capture forms.
2. Zendesk
Zendesk hosts a comprehensive knowledge base with articles, video tutorials, and community forums. Customers can search for topics ranging from setting up workflows to advanced API integrations. It also sends periodic emails with tips on using key features effectively and updates on new capabilities.
3. Mailchimp
Mailchimp offers tailored onboarding consultations to help users get started based on their subscription plan. Premium plan users receive up to four one-on-one sessions with a dedicated onboarding specialist, while standard plan users get one.
These sessions include a personalized product tour, account setup assistance, and a strategic action plan to align Mailchimp’s tools with business goals.
Tips for effective customer enablement in SaaS
Customer enablement requires you to create a step-by-step approach that empowers users to achieve their goals using your product. Here are five tips for enabling customer enablement.
1. Map the customer journey
Start by creating a detailed customer journey map that identifies key stages: onboarding, adoption, growth, and renewal. For each stage, pinpoint potential challenges and areas where customers need support.
Additionally, analytics can be used to track customer behavior and engagement at each touchpoint. For example, if you notice more customers dropping off during the account setup stage, add an in-app guide that addresses their needs.
2. Provide multi-format resources
When it comes to learning, everyone has their preferences. Thus, ensure your enablement materials cater to a variety of preferences.
Offer bite-sized videos for quick how-tos, detailed guides for in-depth learning, and live webinars for interactive sessions. For instance, a “Getting Started” video paired with a downloadable checklist can make onboarding seamless.
3. Invest in employee training
Your team should know more than just the product. They should understand your customer’s pain points and how your product addresses their problems. Instead of explaining how a feature works, educate your team on why it matters in the context of a customer’s workflow.
For example, if a customer struggles with managing high-volume leads, your team should be able to walk them through setting up automation rules to prioritize and route leads efficiently. This makes your product more relatable and immediately valuable.
4. Focus on clear and simple content
Ever opened an article and felt more confused than when you started? That’s exactly what you want to avoid. Clear and simple content gives customers what they need exactly when they need it.
Here are some tips to create content that is simple yet engages readers.
Address known pain points: Review customer feedback to identify common areas of confusion and create targeted content to address those specific challenges.
Make search easier: Organize your content based on product types, use cases, and other relevant aspects so users can find answers quickly.
Use visuals: Incorporate screenshots, flowcharts, videos, or GIFs to explain complex processes.
Use interlinking: For those who want to dive deeper, provide optional links to more comprehensive resources.
For instance, BrowserStack, a popular testing platform, offers in-depth documentation and links to different product aspects. This helps users understand how to use various platform features and how they connect to other functionalities.
Create checklists: Checklists provide clear, action-oriented steps that guide users through tasks without overwhelming them. Instead of a long manual on managing permissions, create a checklist like “5 Steps to Assign Role-Based Access” that outlines specific actions users need to complete.
5. Highlight product use cases
Product features are often abstract and don’t resonate with customers until they see them in action. Instead of listing features, show customers exactly how your product solves the problems they face daily.
For example, if you have a CRM platform, show how a sales manager uses it to track and prioritize leads or automate follow-up based on engagement level. Tailor the use cases to the specific industries or customer segments you serve.
Conclusion
Successful SaaS companies don’t just sell features—they create an ecosystem of support, training, and resources that empower users to achieve measurable results. You can empower your customers to use the tool more efficiently through personalized experiences, interactive learning tools, vibrant communities, and robust employee training. But remember that customer enablement isn’t a one-time initiative but an ongoing commitment.
Frequently asked questions
What does customer support do in SaaS?
SaaS customer support helps customers get the most out of the product by fixing issues and answering their queries. Channels for SaaS customer support include live chat, email, phone support, and more.
What is the difference between customer enablement and customer success?
Customer enablement equips users with tools, resources, and knowledge to use a product effectively. On the other hand, customer success prioritizes achieving customer goals by helping them derive measurable value from the product.
What does a customer success enablement manager do?
A customer success enablement manager develops programs that equip users with skills to maximize product value. They create training materials, design onboarding processes, maintain knowledge bases, and ensure customers have the resources needed for successful product adoption.
What is SaaS enablement?
SaaS enablement involves empowering users to maximize the value of a SaaS platform by providing them with tailored training, onboarding experiences, knowledge bases, and self-service tools. The goal is to reduce friction in product adoption and ensure users feel confident and capable of leveraging the platform’s features to meet their needs.
