10 Important Onboarding Success Metrics & KPIs to Measure

A simple onboarding process creates a lasting impression among your users. But that's not all. Do you know a complicated onboarding process can cost 74 percent of your potential customers?

Undoubtedly, customer onboarding needs to be exceptional yet straightforward. But how do you know if your virtual onboarding flow actually resonates with your customers?

Well, you need to keep a close check on the onboarding success metrics closely to understand what is working with your customers and what isn't.

Quest Labs shares the top user onboarding metrics that help you identify onboarding issues and optimize your strategies.

What is User Onboarding?

User onboarding welcomes new users and makes them familiar with your product. It also collects the correct data about your users and directs them to features that they might like better.

You invest in user onboarding to

• Improve customer retention
• Boost conversions from free to paid plans
• Support upselling

User onboarding has three steps: orienting, training, and acclimatizing.

• Orienting:

  It is the first interaction with potential customers. Here, you can show them how your product solves problems and what it can do. You can use blog articles, case studies, and explainer videos to get the word out.

• Training:

  It begins when customers start using your product. At this stage, guides and task lists help them get comfortable and become skilled with your product.

• Acclimatizing:

  This stage focuses on keeping users engaged and satisfied. It helps users establish a routine with your product and find features that meet their needs.

Why is User Onboarding Important?

User onboarding is important as it introduces users to your product. Moreover, it helps you understand your customers' preferences and industries so that you can direct them to the right features that align with them.

If users cannot quickly realize your product's actual value, they are most likely to churn. In a heavily competitive market, they can easily find a product that meets their requirements. That is why you need to captivate their attention right from onboarding.

Now, let’s discuss the benefits of onboarding.

• Easily Understand Your Product:

  With the right onboarding elements, you can encourage users to understand your product effortlessly.

• Lasting User Engagement:

  Onboarding sets the stage for user engagement and customer satisfaction.

• Helps Optimize Onboarding:

  Monitoring customer onboarding metrics can identify opportunities to optimize the flow.

• Improve Your Retention:

  An effective onboarding process ensures that you can retain your users and generate more revenue.

How to Measure Onboarding Success: 10 Customer Onboarding KPIs To Track

Let’s look at the 10 important onboarding success metrics.

1. Activation Rate

It is the percentage of users who hit essential milestones in your product within a specific time frame. These milestones are vital to keeping users around for the long term.

Every product has important steps that users must complete to understand and use well. Decide what those steps are for your product.

To figure out the activation rate, divide the number of users who reached these steps by the total number of users. Then, multiply that number by 100.

Therefore, the activation rate is one of the most essential onboarding KPIs. It tells you if the onboarding flow is effective enough for your users to navigate your product. It also helps you understand whether the users are able to achieve their goals during the onboarding process.

2. Retention Rate

This rate shows the percentage of customers you can retain for a certain period. It also helps you understand onboarding success.

Here's how you calculate the customer retention rate for a specific period: Subtract the number of users you acquire from the number of paying users present at the end. Then, divide this difference by the number of paying users at the beginning of the period and multiply it by 100.

3. Engagement Rate

Engagement rate shows the percentage of users actively using your product over time.

To make the most of this metric, divide your users into groups based on when they started using your product. Then, see what percentage each group uses the product daily, weekly, or monthly.

Keep an eye on this metric to understand how changes in onboarding impact user engagement. With time, these improvements will help keep your users more active and reduce their chance of leaving.

4. DAUs, WAUs, MAUs

Daily active users (DAU), weekly active users (WAU), and monthly active users (MAU) tell you how many people are using your product during a specific period. This info helps you understand if your product meets their needs and how often they use it.

How do you define an active user? It might mean completing a certain task or engaging with a specific feature.

Tracking these numbers as part of your onboarding process can be super insightful. You can see how different onboarding strategies affect user activity. Could better onboarding make users want to engage more? Better onboarding can lead to users interacting with your platform more frequently.

5. Net Promoter Score

This metric measures customer satisfaction. You calculate it by asking customers to rate their experience on a scale of 0-10.

It’s important to track this because it reveals how satisfied new users are. It also reflects their feelings about your product and the onboarding process.

6. Time to Value

Time to Value (TTV) is the time it takes for a user to see the value of your product. This happens when they hit that "Aha!" moment. They start experiencing what you promised.

TTV can be tricky. You need to know what ‘value’ means to your customers.

Before tracking TTV, figure out what value your product offers. Understand why users are trying your product.

Keep your TTV as short as possible. A short TTV means users quickly see the benefits and face minimal hassle. This creates a good first impression and improves conversion rates.

7. Trial to Paid Conversion Rate

The trial-to-paid conversion rate, also known as the free trial conversion rate, shows how many users who start a free trial end up paying for the service.

Here’s how you calculate the conversion rate.

A great free trial should leave users feeling like they can't return to their old ways without your app. Make sure your trial aligns perfectly with what users want.

Onboarding is crucial here. If you can quickly show users how your product meets their needs, you'll see more users convert to paid customers.

8. Support Tickets

When businesses grow and get more customers, the number of support tickets often increases. People usually think of two solutions: hiring more support reps or automating customer support. While both can work, there’s a better option—reducing the number of tickets you get.

Understand that a lot of tickets mean there are friction points. Find and fix recurring complaints through in-app messages or a resource center. For example, if customers often complain they can’t use a specific feature, create a tutorial to help them (and new users) with that issue.

9. Customer Onboarding Flow Map

A customer onboarding flow map visually represents each step a user takes during onboarding. It should highlight the touchpoints and actions the customers take during the process.

The customer journey map during onboarding assesses the overall onboarding experience. It highlights the efficiency and effectiveness of the onboarding process. It also brings out the points where users struggle or are more likely to drop off.

Here's what the user onboarding flow should include..

• Guided Tours or Tutorials:

  Guides and walkthroughs of an app highlight the product's key features to help users understand it better.

• First Task Completion:

  It is essential to highlight the actionable tasks that a user completes.

• Feedback and Support Channels:

  It's essential to offer effective feedback and support to customers during onboarding.

10. Time to Onboard

The time to onboard is the duration a new user takes to complete the onboarding process. It's ideal to keep the duration of your onboarding process short.

But what extends the time to onboard in your app? Let's explore the factors that extend the time to onboard.

• Complex Signup:

  If your signup form is complex, users are more likely to drop off. So, try to simplify the process and include social media logins to simplify the experience.

• Lack of Clearer Instructions:

  Even if your onboarding process is simple, ensure that it offers clear instructions to users. Add videos and tooltips to make the process simple and easy to follow.

• Overwhelming Information:

  It is equally essential to ensure that users don't become overwhelmed.

Best Practices for Tracking User Onboarding KPIs

Wondering what are the onboarding best practices? Let’s explore the same.

1. Set Goals:

   Knowing what you wish to achieve through effective onboarding is essential. This will help you understand the right metrics to track.

2. Choose the Right KPI:

   Now that you know what you wish to achieve, choose the suitable set of KPIs to track.

3. Track Progress Over Time:

   Monitoring your onboarding process continuously is essential. This will help you understand how the process improves and how users react.

4. Optimize Strategies:

   Tracking the onboarding metrics helps you understand what needs to be optimized. By taking action, you can ensure that the onboarding experience improves.

Tips to Improve App's User Onboarding

Here are some simple ways to improve your app's user onboarding:

1. Use a Welcome Screen

A welcome screen is the perfect way to greet new users. It should explain what your app does and how it benefits them. Including a short video or tutorial is also a great idea.

2. Use Tooltips and Hover States

Tooltips and hover states help new users understand your app better. Tooltips can explain what each element does. At the same time, a hover can show more info when the user hovers over an element.

3. Use Animated GIFs

Animated GIFs are useful for showing new users how to use your app. They can demonstrate specific features and what happens when users take certain actions.

4. Use In-App Messaging

In-app messaging can guide new users as they explore your app. These messages can introduce new features, give tips, or promote special offers.

5. Use a Progress Bar

A progress bar helps users track their journey in your app. It can show how much of the app they have explored and how many tasks they have completed.

Benefits of tracking onboarding metrics

1. Progress Tracking:

   Understand how users move through onboarding and spot potential issues.

2. Pinpointing Pain Points:

   Identify and fix areas where users struggle for a smoother onboarding experience.

3. Measuring Changes' Impact:

   Evaluate the effects of process changes and iterate for improvement.

4. Addressing User Needs:

   Spot and address areas where users require additional support or clarification.

5. Informing Development:

   Discover user behavior and preferences to guide product or service development.

6. Overall Success Assessment:

   Set benchmarks for key metrics to assess the effectiveness of onboarding efforts and stay competitive.

Why Quest Labs?

Quest Labs is an intelligent product activation platform that helps companies intelligently engage users in their apps by using AI-driven insights.

• Our innovative, SDK-first platform and suite of interactive components, Quest offers a more personalized, integrated, and intelligent approach to onboarding, engaging, and retaining the users designed to help companies accelerate the adoption and engagement of their software products.
• By harnessing the power of AI and deep product integration, Quest identifies the optimal moments for user activation, ensuring that new features and tools are introduced at the most impactful points in the user journey. This tailored approach doesn't just improve user experience; it transforms it, turning casual users into product experts and brand advocates.
• Quest's components help create a magnetic first impression, drawing users in with interactive onboarding experiences that highlight the product's value proposition.
• With personalized guides, walkthroughs, and gamified elements, Quest keeps users engaged, helping them find continuous value in the product.
• Through timely updates, feedback mechanisms, and AI-driven support, Quest ensures that users are not just satisfied but delighted, turning them into vocal advocates for your product.

Conclusion

Understanding and measuring how users get started with your product is key to making their experience better. It also helps in keeping them happy.

Focusing on important metrics and KPIs lets you see how well you’re bringing new users on board. You’ll also spot areas where you can improve. This will help you see how your onboarding strategies are working.

We at Quest Labs, with an intelligent product activation platform, exemplifies how leveraging advanced technologies like AI for user segmentation and targeted in-app components can significantly enhance the onboarding process.

By prioritizing these metrics and continuously refining their strategies, companies can ensure a smoother, more effective onboarding experience for long-term success and customer loyalty.

If you're interested in learning more about how to use Quest Labs to improve your onboarding metrics, start your free trial with us.

FAQs

1. How to track onboarding process?

By closely monitoring the KPIs for onboarding, you can track the success of the onboarding process. It also helps you optimize your onboarding process.

2. How to measure the onboarding success rate?

You can measure the onboarding success rate by tracking these metrics.

• Activation Rate
• Retention Rate
• Engagement Rate
• Time to Value
• Trial to Paid Conversion Rate
• Time to Onboard