Most SaaS companies treat the customer journey like a conveyor belt: sign up, get onboarded, receive a few emails, maybe a QBR, and hope they renew. 🙄
But in 2025, hope is not a strategy.
A real SaaS customer journey is more like a well-scored symphony. There’s tension, resolution, crescendos, emotional hooks – and ideally, a rousing encore in the form of customer advocacy.
Let’s dissect how to turn every touchpoint into a conversion, and every user into a lifelong brand evangelist. Without annoying email drip campaigns or meaningless NPS prompts.
Customer Journey ≠ Lifecycle Stages
Quick clarification: the customer journey is not the same as the “lifecycle stages” in your CRM. That’s just labeling.
The journey is how your customer feels through each stage:
- Confident or confused?
- Supported or ghosted?
- Empowered or overwhelmed?
The goal: deliver seamless momentum at every stage—from curious click to customer champion.
Stage 1: Onboarding – The First Emotional Win
This is where 80% of SaaS companies blow it. They treat onboarding like a checklist. It’s not. It’s a first date.
Your goal here isn’t education. It’s activation.
What to do:
- Trigger “aha” moment in under 5 minutes
- Personalize experience based on use case
- Show progress (hello, dopamine hits)
Tools:
- Appcues, Userflow, Userpilot
- Post-signup video walkthroughs
- Behavior-based nudges
🧠 Psych tip: Use “commitment bias” to get small early wins. (“Upload your first doc!”) Once users invest effort, they’re less likely to bounce.
Stage 2: Adoption – Make Them Feel Like a Pro
This is where you turn new users into regulars.
But here’s the twist: people don’t adopt features—they adopt habits.
What to do:
- Train users on why to use features, not just how
- Reinforce workflows, not one-off actions
- Use tooltips, not tool dumps
Tools:
- In-app usage heatmaps (Hotjar, Pendo)
- Segmented nurture flows
- Gamification elements (progress bars, badges)
🧠 Psych tip: Reinforce identity. “You’re already in the top 10% of teams using XYZ reports weekly.” Boom—retention + ego boost.
Stage 3: Expansion – When Users Become Champions
Expansion = cross-sell + upsell + increased product usage.
What to do:
- Identify value peaks (where ROI is obvious)
- Introduce higher-tier features in context
- Expand user base within the account (multi-threading)
Tools:
- Product analytics (Mixpanel, Amplitude)
- In-product “upgrade” nudges
- Customer success playbooks
🧠 Psych tip: Use “reciprocity bias.” Deliver unexpected value (bonus templates, free reports), then make the ask: “Want more? Upgrade here.”
Stage 4: Advocacy – The Final Boss Stage
This is the SaaS holy grail. It’s when users go from silent subscribers to full-blown evangelists.
But it doesn’t happen by accident. You have to engineer it.
What to do:
- Build a referral program that doesn’t suck
- Invite power users to beta test new features
- Turn logos into thought leaders (webinars, guest posts)
Tools:
- Referral tools (Rewardful, PartnerStack)
- Advocacy platforms (Influitive)
- Good old-fashioned human outreach
🧠 Psych tip: Use “social identity theory.” People love to associate with groups. Give them community + recognition = loyalty for life.
What Most SaaS Companies Get Wrong
- They confuse activity with progress
- They talk at users, not with them
- They assume NPS = loyalty (spoiler: it doesn’t)
Real advocacy isn’t born from surveys. It’s born from repeated emotional wins across the journey.
Think: “You helped me do my job better” → not “Your UI is slick.”
B2B ≠ Boring: Make the Journey Human
Reminder: even in B2B, the second B still stands for “buyer.”
Your users are humans. They want:
- Reassurance
- Simplicity
- Progress
- Recognition
Build those into your journey, and you’ll never need a discount to retain a customer again.
The Ultimate SaaS Journey Blueprint (2025 Edition)
| Stage | Goal | KPIs | Tools |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onboarding | Activate user | Time to value, Aha moment rate | Appcues, Userpilot |
| Adoption | Build habit | DAUs, feature adoption | Pendo, Amplitude |
| Expansion | Increase account value | Seats, upgrades | Gainsight, Mixpanel |
| Advocacy | Create evangelists | Referrals, testimonials | Rewardful, Influitive |
Each stage feeds the next. The better the onboarding, the more likely they adopt. The better the adoption, the more they expand. And so on.
Wrap Up
If your customer journey is just a collection of emails and dashboards, you’re doing it wrong.
But if you treat it like a living, breathing relationship—with emotion, momentum, and identity—you’re building a pipeline of loyal users who grow with you and sell for you.
It’s not about adding more features. It’s about adding more feeling.
Want to learn more? DM on LinkedIn or book a time to talk live!
KRP Consulting 