How to Create an Effective Onboarding System on Discord!

The onboarding feature was added to Discord on the 30th March 2023 and is able to be used by all servers registered as a community server. Onboarding's task is to make the user experience much faster, sleeker and easier to use when joining a new server. It also aims to increase member retention within a server, which is vital for server growth (member retention is how many members who join the server stay for more than 1 week).
However being able to make use of this feature effectively is not as easy as it sounds, as in many cases the use of Onboarding just ends up making the user's first experience of the server more difficult that it ever was before! With that in mind, here are some tips to help you make sure your Onboarding system is as effective as possible in user retention and engagement:

The Concept of Onboarding:

One aspect to Onboarding that many server owners skip past is that as a feature it will take the place of a variety of previous aspects to the server. This makes the user's entrance to the server much more sleek. Onboarding takes the place of:

A verification system:
In completing the the process the user is essentially verifying themself into the server. This done by setting the questions asked to 'required' so the user has to answer them to gain access.

Self roles:
Within the process the user will be asked the same questions as a self role system, allowing them to choose roles for age, gender etc.

Channel selection:
During Onboarding the user can be asked questions relating to what they wish to do in the server, thus allowing them to tailor the experience specifically to their own tastes and eliminating the option of them disliking aspects of the server.

This major advantage is not regularly capitalised on as many servers still make use of the aspects mentioned above alongside onboarding, making a process that should be quick and easy into a complicated mess as the user has to visit many channels, which are actually unneeded.

What's the Question?:

This relates to what the questions are asking the user. It is important that the questions posed to them are well worded and relevant to the process:

Maximum of 5 questions:
More than this makes the process too long, causing users to become bored and therefor not stay and engage in the server.

Keep them relevant:
The questions should only be relevant to either assigning roles, verifying themselves, or asking what they want to do in the server. More than this is adding unnecessary amounts of questions, linking to the point above

The questions are there to allow users to be able to express themselves through roles within the server, along with tailoring their server experience to their tastes.

Make it Pretty!:

It is also very important to make the Onboarding screen look as welcoming as possible to make sure all users have a great first impression of the server. It also shows time has been put into making the experience is nice as possible for them. There are a number of ways this can be done:

Emojis:
Emojis can be added onto the screen for each answer to a question, this means you can add a relevant emoji to the role or channel that the user is assigning themselves. Make sure they relate to the role/channel to avoid confusion.

Use good grammar:
Using good grammar (capital letters, punctuation, full words) all helps give the image of a well-worked and professional experience. It also shows effort has been used in the making of the Onboarding. Even if the server isn't based on professionalism, using good grammar makes the process much easier to understand.

This helps make your server look more professional and have a clean aesthetic. A potential new member may be 'put off' from your server if their first experience of it through on boarding is not a positive one.

In Summary:

That concludes this article! We hope you have found this helpful and been able to utilise the Onboarding feature as effectively as possible! In summary, understand what you want onboarding to do for your server, know what you want to ask potential new members, and then make it aesthetic!

FAQs

Q: What roles should I let users select?
A: You can allow users to select roles that they can be pinged for (e.g. giveaways, announcements), to express you they are (e.g. gender, age) or to customise their profile. DO NOT allow users to select roles that have dangerous permissions.

Q: How many questions should I have?
A: It is recommended that you have no more than 5 questions that a user will need to answer in order to join the server as more questions may increase the chance of them leaving. To get around this you can combine topics together only set questions to not be required so the new member can answer after joining.

Q: Do I need a verification system as well?
A: This is entirely up to you! Your server will be secure against potential bots due to roles being needed to view the server. However, if you would like some extra security a verification system may be used alongside onboarding (in this case, no roles with permissions to view channels should be assignable through onboarding).

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