A beginner’s guide to customer onboarding metrics

You probably already know that customer onboarding can make or break your business. But how can you know if your onboarding efforts are effective? This is where tracking the right metrics comes into play. 

By knowing what customer onboarding metrics to keep an eye on, you can gain valuable insights into the shortcomings of your onboarding process, come up with strategies for improvement, and take complete confidence in setting up your customers for long-term success. 

New to this world? Not to worry; we’re here to help! In this post, we’ll share the cliff notes on 5 key customer onboarding metrics to track, why they matter, and what you can do if you notice that you’re falling short.  

1. Free trial conversion rate (free-to-paid conversion rate)

If you offer new users a free trial, a very telling metric is how many users choose to stick around and decide to invest in your product after their trial is up. 

What it is

The percentage of new users who become customers after their free trial.  

How it’s measured 

(Number of new customers / total number of free trial users) x 100

Average rate

The average free trial conversion rate for SaaS companies typically falls between 18.6% to 29% depending on the industry (Userpilot).

You want this number to be

High.

What it tells you 

Your free trial conversion rate ultimately tells you how effective your trial period is in communicating your product’s value to the customer. If users find your product features to be easy to use and beneficial, then they’re likely to sign up after their trial. 

If they try out your product only to find it difficult to use or completely lacking in value, then they’ll bounce on you as soon as the trial is up. Free trial conversion rate is an important metric to track for all onboarding types but is especially important if you offer self-serve onboarding. 

A low free trial conversion rate may signify the following issues:

• Users can’t see the value of the product during their trial period. 
• The product is a poor fit for the user’s needs.
• Your user interface is confusing or unintuitive. 
• Features are missing from the free trial that users want to try out. 
• Users are getting inadequate support to navigate through the software effectively. 
• Users are finding the price too high to justify purchasing a plan.
• The free trial period is either too short (they don’t get time to experience the value), or too long (it ends up reducing the urgency to sign up.)

Strategies for improving this onboarding metric

• Review user instructions and resources to make sure your free trial users understand how to use the product and see its value more quickly.
  
• Review your product interface to make it more intuitive and ensure a smooth navigation that makes sense and doesn’t leave users feeling lost or frustrated.
  
• Avoid being stingy! Incorporate features that users expect and need to derive your product’s value.
  
• Offer better support during the trial period, such as live chat, guided prompts, or onboarding webinars.
  
• Offer special offers, discounts, or other incentives to your free trial users nearing the end of their trial period.
  
• Simplify and clearly communicate your pricing structure and the value of your plans.
  
• Test different trial lengths to find the optimal period that encourages conversions.

2. Onboarding completion rate

The next key metric to track is how many customers complete the onboarding process you’ve designed to support them.

What it is

The percentage of customers who successfully complete your onboarding process. 

How it’s measured

(Number of users who completed onboarding/number of customers who started onboarding) x 100 

Average rate 

The average typically ranges from 40% to 60% for SaaS companies (Userpilot).

You want this number to be

High. 

What it tells you 

This metric helps you gauge how effectively new users are being introduced to your product and how engaged they are off the bat. A high onboarding completion rate indicates that users are engaging with the product and understanding its value early on. A low onboarding completion rate tells you that your customers are disengaged pretty early through your customer journey. 

A low onboarding completion rate can be a result of:

• An overwhelming onboarding process with too many steps, details, or information to digest. 
• A poorly tailored onboarding journey that isn’t personalized to the needs of your user. 
• Introducing complex features too early, overwhelming users instead of demonstrating quick wins.

Strategies for improving this onboarding metric

• Simplify the onboarding process by breaking it down into smaller, manageable steps and removing unnecessary or repetitive elements.
  
• Tailor the onboarding experience based on user roles, preferences, and behaviors to make it more relevant and engaging.

• Provide only the necessary information during onboarding and avoid overwhelming users with excessive details.

• Highlight the core value proposition early in the onboarding process to engage users quickly.

• Offer accessible and responsive customer support options to help users overcome any obstacles they encounter.

• Ensure that the onboarding process delivers on the promises made during marketing and clearly communicates the benefits.

3. Number of support tickets 

Tracking the number of support tickets during the customer onboarding process is crucial for understanding how well new users are adapting to your product and identifying potential issues that may hinder their progress. 

What it is

A measure of the percentage of customers that have to ask for help using your product during the onboarding process. 

How it’s measured

(Number of new users that request support / total number of new users) x 100

Average rate

A common range for support ticket requests during onboarding is between 10% and 20% of new users. For simpler, more intuitive products, the rate might be closer to 5% to 10%. For more complex products, especially those targeting enterprise customers, the rate might be higher, around 15% to 25% or even more.

You want this number to be

Low

What it tells you 

If you have a high percentage of new users requesting support from your company, it means:

• Your users are frustrated or dissatisfied with your UX or how your product works. 
• There are gaps in your help documentation, tutorials, or other support documents that don’t answer the questions your users are looking for. 
• Your interface could use better prompts to guide the user through using the product features. 

Strategies for improving this onboarding metric 

• Create interactive tutorials and walkthroughs to guide users through initial setup and key features.
  
• Create a detailed and easily navigable help center with articles, videos, step-by-step guides, FAQs, and contextual help to assist users directly within the product.
  
• Provide live chat or real-time support options to quickly address user issues.
  
• Host regular onboarding webinars to walk new users through the product and answer questions.
  
• Have your customer success team reach out to new users proactively to offer assistance and gather feedback.
  
• Ensure your support team is well-trained on the product and common onboarding issues.

4. Churn rate

One of the most important customer onboarding metrics that helps you gauge customer engagement is your customer churn rate. 

What it is

The percentage of customers who stop using your company’s product or services during the customer onboarding process. 

How it’s measured

(Number of customers lost during the onboarding period / total number of customers at the start of the onboarding period) x 100  

Average rate

SaaS companies often experience higher churn rates of about 5% (Gong.IO).

You want this number to be

Low 

What it tells you

If you have a high customer churn rate, it means that:

• Customers are not satisfied with the quality and value of your product overall
• Your product is missing key features that customers need, that can push them to look for alternatives.
• Your product isn't meeting the needs of your market effectively 
• There are frequent issues or bugs within your product. 
• You may have poor customer support, unhelpful service, and slow response times. 
• Your pricing might be inflexible or expensive for the customer.
• You’re not putting enough effort into loyalty programs, regular check-ins, or personalized engagement strategies.
• You’re not actively seeking and addressing customer feedback.
• You’re not making sufficient ongoing improvements and updates to the product, making it stale and less attractive over time.

Strategies for improving this onboarding metric  

• Invest in UX/UI improvements to make the product more user-friendly.
  
• Regularly update the product to fix bugs and introduce new features.
  
• Collect customer feedback often, through different stages of the customer journey.
  
• Create multiple channels for customers to provide feedback, such as surveys and user forums.
  
• Act on feedback quickly to show customers that their input is valued and leads to tangible improvements.
  
• Invest heavily into the training of your support staff and your ticketing system so that they are responsive and effective at solving customer issues quickly.
  
• Provide accessible training resources, such as tutorials, webinars, and documentation.
  
• Consider offering flexible pricing plans to cater to different customer segments.
  
• Use CRM tools to maintain regular, personalized communication with customers.
  
• Implement loyalty programs and offer incentives for long-term customers. 

5. Time to Value (TTV)

Last but not least, another important customer onboarding metric to track is Time to Value (TTV). 

What it is

The amount of time it takes for a new customer to realize the promised value of your product after initial purchase or subscription

How it’s measured

First, you have to define what success or value looks like for your customer. This could be the completion of a specific task or achieving a measurable outcome. You then measure TTV using the formula below:

First date of milestone —  signup date. 

Average rate

TTV ranges significantly based on the complexity of your product. 

A very simple product like a to-do list productivity app might have TTV of only a few minutes to a few days. CRM software, project management tools, or team collaboration platforms can have a TTV of a few weeks to a month. Complex B2B products like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems might have longer TTVs of a few months. 

You want this number to be

As low as possible for your particular product type 

What it tells you

If you find that your TTV is higher than you need it to be, it can mean that:

• Your product is complex, requiring users to put in significant effort to navigate it.
• Your onboarding process is lengthy and uninteresting to your users. 
• Customers don’t have access to the resources they need to navigate your product. 
• The product might require extensive customization to meet specific customer needs.
• Your product doesn’t integrate with your customer’s existing systems easily. 

Strategies for improving this onboarding metric

• Create a clear, efficient onboarding process that guides new customers through the essential steps to get started quickly.
  
• Use interactive tutorials and in-app guidance to help users get started quickly.
  
• Use chatbots and AI-driven support tools to provide instant help for common issues.
  
• Offer comprehensive resources such as tutorials, guides, webinars, and a knowledge base to help customers understand and use the product effectively.
  
• Ensure robust customer support to assist new users in overcoming any hurdles they face during the initial stages.
  
• Use personalized onboarding experiences and touchpoints to cater to the specific needs of different customer segments.
  
• Focus on intuitive product design that minimizes complexity and helps users achieve their goals with minimal friction.
  
• Develop and maintain comprehensive integration guides. Provide technical support for integrations and create pre-built connectors for popular systems.

The key to customer satisfaction: collecting feedback  

Collecting customer feedback during the onboarding process is a smart move for a few key reasons:

• It helps you understand what your customers think right from the start, so you can spot any issues early on and make things smoother.
  
• Getting direct feedback also lets you adjust your support and resources to better fit new users' needs, which keeps them happier and more likely to stick around.
  
• Plus, customer feedback shows you how well your onboarding process is really working, so you can keep tweaking and improving it over time.

Using a data collection tool like Content Snare is an efficient way to collect feedback from your customers. While we have a whole post dedicated to the best form builder tools, you might appreciate Content Snare’s functionality the most since it offers the following:

• Total flexibility with how you want to build your form — be it a mix of open-ended or multiple-choice questions.
  
• Complete customization to brand your forms in sync with your company’s look.
  
• Automatic reminders that nudge your customers to complete your form by your chosen deadline.
  
• An unmatched user experience that auto-saves responses, works on any device and doesn’t require users to have a Content Snare account to access the tool.

The best part is that Content Snare also offers a free trial so you can test it out and see how you like it! 

Looking for more resources on improving your customer onboarding process? 

That’s only one of our favorite topics! Check out more of our related posts below:

• 5 best practices for SaaS user onboarding excellence
• Customer success best practices: 7 tips to know
• 5 client onboarding best practices for making a lasting first impression 
• Top 15 client onboarding tools to boost efficiency
• Create an effective client onboarding checklist (template included)