Onboarding drop-off recovery: bring back the customer who never reached activation

Scenario

Customer downloaded the operator’s app, started registration: entered the number, received OTP. At the document verification step — the phone did not catch good lighting, OCR rejected, customer closed the app.

In most operators that is the end. Stub account sits in the database. A week later the customer deletes the app and goes to a competitor.

Recovery — the operator knows the customer stopped at a specific step and helps them complete.

Stage detection

In the onboarding flow each step is a separate analytics event:

• onboarding.started
• onboarding.phone_verified
• onboarding.document_uploaded
• onboarding.document_approved / rejected
• onboarding.biometric_passed
• onboarding.completed

Drop-off — absence of the next event within N hours of the previous one. Each stage has its own recovery playbook.

Action per stage

Stage A: phone verified, no document upload (1-24 hours later). Push: “One more step — photo of the passport. Tips [→]”. Link returns to the flow with a tutorial overlay.

Stage B: document uploaded, rejected. Push: “Document did not pass — maybe blur or poor light. Shall we try again? [Help]”. May offer a video call with a support agent.

Stage C: document approved, biometric not passed. Push: “Just the selfie left — takes 30 seconds. [Continue]”.

If after 3 pushes there is no result — SMS with an alternative: “We can activate in our store for free. Nearest address: …”.

What is measured

Onboarding completion rate — baseline.

Recovery rate per stage — how many drop-off customers returned and completed.

Time to completion — with recovery factored in.

Stage-specific friction — which steps drop most often (source of product improvements).

What not to do

Do not send the same message to all drop-offs — different stages = different reasons.

Do not stretch to a week — after 48 hours recovery probability drops sharply.

Do not bombard with 5 pushes a day.

Do not treat a missing app open as “no interest” — most drop-offs are technical.

How SamaraliSoft engages

Sprint Onboarding Recovery — 4-6 weeks. Funnel analysis, stage-specific trigger design, communication framework, friction reduction at top failure stages.

Related

• /en/insights/telecom-onboarding-friction/ — onboarding friction
• /en/architecture/telecom-ekyc-architecture/ — eKYC
• /en/architecture/telecom-realtime-decisioning-architecture/ — decisioning
• /en/use-cases/telecom-topup-failure-recovery/ — top-up recovery