Best Planhat Alternatives for Client Onboarding in 2024

Imagine launching your top-of-the-line enterprise SaaS product, only to have customers struggle through a clunky onboarding process. Shudder! A smooth, optimized onboarding experience is critical for maximizing customer success and ensuring a healthy ROI.

But with a plethora of customer onboarding tools available, choosing the right one can be daunting. In this blog, we delve into two leading contenders: Planhat and CogniSaaS. We'll dissect their strengths and weaknesses, specifically how they cater to the unique needs of subscription businesses' customer onboarding.

By the end, you'll be well-equipped with the key metrics to identify the champion for your specific onboarding goals.

What is Planhat?

Planhat is a customer success software platform designed to help businesses manage their customer relationships, particularly after the initial sale.

It goes beyond traditional customer relationship management systems by focusing on customer success and driving long-term value and customer experience. Here's a breakdown of what Planhat offers:

Customer Success Management:

Planhat provides tools to track customer health, and customer journey, manage workflows, and ensure customers achieve their goals. This can include features like:

• Customer 360: A unified view of all customer data, including conversations, notes, and activity.
• Customer Success Inbox: A central location for managing all customer communication.
• Automation: Ability to automate tasks and actions based on customer behavior.

Data Platform:

Planhat acts as a customer data platform (CDP), allowing businesses to centralize and organize all your customer data and customer health scores.

This enables them to gain insights into customer behavior and tailor their approach accordingly making the repeatable processes amongst the cross-functional teams.

Flexibility:

Planhat is designed to be adaptable to different business needs. It can be used for customer success, product-led growth, customer experience management, channel management, and more.

Overall, Planhat positions itself as a modern customer success platform that helps businesses build strong customer relationships and maximize customer lifetime value.

Is Planhat the right tool for customer onboarding?

Planhat can be a strong contender for enterprise SaaS customer onboarding, but it's ideal to consider your specific needs for a well-informed decision. Here's why Planhat might be a good fit:

• Structured Approach: Planhat excels at creating clear, repeatable onboarding processes. This is crucial for enterprise SaaS, where onboarding can be complex and involve multiple stakeholders.
• Scalability: Planhat is built to handle large customer volumes, which is important for enterprise deployments.
• Data & Analytics: Planhat's data platform provides insights into customer activity during onboarding. This allows you to identify bottlenecks, optimize your process for faster adoption, and monitor product usage.

However, it's also worth considering potential limitations:

• Focus: Planhat is broader than just onboarding, encompassing the entire customer lifecycle. While this can be a plus, if your primary focus is solely on the initial onboarding stage, there might be more specialized tools available.
• Customization: Enterprise needs can be highly specific. While Planhat is flexible, it's important to ensure it can adapt to your unique onboarding workflows.

Planhat offers robust functionalities for enterprise SaaS onboarding, but a thorough evaluation against your specific requirements is recommended.

Top 3 Planhat Alternatives for Client Onboarding in 2024

1. CogniSaaS

2. GUIDEcx

3. Taskray

Is Planhat not quite the right fit for your customer success needs? Don't worry, there are plenty of excellent Planhat alternatives out there!

With a variety of options available, you're sure to find the perfect tool to keep your customers happy and engaged.

1. CogniSaaS

Here's why CogniSaaS might be the right Planhat alternative for customer onboarding especially for enterprise SaaS:

Focus on Onboarding:

• CogniSaaS is built specifically for customer onboarding and implementation, whereas Planhat is built for customer success teams that focus on customer retention across the entire lifecycle.
• CogniSaaS offers features like templated tasks and use cases, which can streamline the onboarding process for complex enterprise software.

Collaboration and Project Management:

• CogniSaaS emphasizes cross-functional collaboration between internal and external stakeholders during onboarding. This is crucial for large-scale enterprise deployments.
• Project management features in CogniSaaS can help track progress, set deadlines, and ensure everyone is on the same page with its powerful actionable insights.

Enterprise Needs:

• CogniSaaS might be more adept at handling complex onboarding processes common in enterprise SaaS, including role-based access control and integrations with other systems that enable businesses to streamline customer success.

However, it's important to consider:

• Both platforms may offer free trials or demos. Take advantage of these to see which one better suits your specific needs.
• Your existing tech stack. Consider if either platform integrates well with the tools you already use.

2. GUIDEcx

• User-Friendly Interface & Customization: GUIDEcx boasts a clean and intuitive interface, making onboarding a breeze for both you and your customers. Customize onboarding workflows with drag-and-drop functionality and pre-built templates to ensure a consistent and efficient experience.
• Automated Tasks & Clear Communication: Free up your team's time with automated tasks like sending welcome emails and scheduling follow-up calls. GUIDEcx also provides clear communication channels within the platform, fostering better collaboration and keeping everyone on the same page.
• Real-Time Progress Tracking & Reporting: Monitor the progress of your onboarding journeys in real time. Identify bottlenecks and track completion rates to ensure smooth onboarding for all your new customers. GUIDEcx also offers reports to analyze the effectiveness of your onboarding strategies.

3. Taskray

• Task Management & Dependencies: Break down complex onboarding projects into manageable tasks. Assign tasks to team members, set deadlines, and visualize dependencies to streamline workflows. Taskray ensures everyone stays on track and avoids roadblocks during onboarding.
• Real-Time Collaboration & Communication: Facilitate seamless collaboration within your team. Taskray allows for real-time communication on tasks, fostering transparency and efficient problem-solving during onboarding processes.
• Progress Tracking & Reporting: Maintain visibility throughout the onboarding journey. Track the progress of individual tasks and the overall project, ensuring deadlines are met and projects are completed successfully. Taskray also offers reports to identify areas for improvement in your project management strategies.

Ultimately, the best choice depends on your specific requirements. If you prioritize a comprehensive solution specifically designed for streamlining complex enterprise onboarding processes, CogniSaaS might be a better fit.

But, if you already have a good onboarding process and want to focus on churn prevention later in the customer lifecycle, Planhat could be a valuable tool.

The Bottom Line:

If you're looking for a general customer relationship management tool, Planhat might be a good option. But, for enterprise SaaS companies seeking a laser-focused solution to optimize and streamline their onboarding process, with a strong emphasis on customer value realization, CogniSaaS appears to be one of the best Planhat alternatives.

Remember, a test drive of both platforms is always recommended before making a final business decision.

Conclusion

In conclusion, both Planhat and CogniSaaS offer valuable tools for customer onboarding, but they cater to different teams. Planhat is primarily built for customer success managers whereas CogniSaaS is an onboarding platform built for cross-functional teams including customer success teams.

Planhat provides a comprehensive suite for managing the entire customer lifecycle, making it a good choice for businesses seeking a versatile CRM solution.

However, for enterprise SaaS companies laser-focused on optimizing the onboarding journey and driving faster customer success, CogniSaaS emerges as the more specialized and potentially more effective option.

To get a comprehensive view of the right client onboarding platform for your business, you can request our free onboarding consultation solution or request a free demo with CogniSaaS.