Customer onboarding is critical to product adoption, retention, and long-term growth—but only if it’s working. Tracking onboarding metrics gives you the visibility to see where users succeed, where they drop off, and how to improve.
This guide covers 15 essential KPIs every SaaS team should monitor, including time to value, activation rate, onboarding completion, and post-onboarding engagement. For each metric, we explain what it means, why it matters, and how to improve it using actionable tactics. Whether you’re in customer success, product, or growth, these insights will help you optimize onboarding and drive better outcomes across the user journey.
What are customer onboarding metrics?
Customer onboarding metrics are quantifiable measurements that track how effectively new customers are introduced to your product or service.
These data points measure the journey from initial signup to successful product adoption, revealing how well your onboarding process guides users toward their first meaningful interaction.
Why is tracking customer onboarding metrics important?
Without customer onboarding metrics, you're essentially aiming in the dark and hoping you hit the target. This lack of visibility creates serious consequences:
- You can't identify where customers drop off - Is it during account setup, feature discovery, or first use?
- Improvement efforts become guesswork - Teams waste resources fixing problems that don't exist while real bottlenecks remain hidden. You might redesign your entire tutorial when the real issue is a confusing signup form.
- Customer frustration goes undetected - Users struggling with onboarding generate support tickets, abandon features, or churn silently. Without metrics, you only discover problems when it's too late.
15 Customer onboarding metrics and KPIs
These 15 essential customer onboarding metrics will help you systematically identify friction points, measure success rates, and optimize every touchpoint in your customer journey from signup to full product adoption.
1. Time to value (TTV)
Time to Value measures the duration from customer signup to when they first realize meaningful value from your product, a.k.a. the "aha" moment.
Shorter TTV increases customer satisfaction, reduces churn risk, and accelerates product adoption and loyalty
TTV = Time at which value is realized - Start time
How to improve time to value?
- Highlight the shortest path to value: Direct users to one core feature that delivers instant benefit or ROI instead of overwhelming them with all features.
- Auto-configure early setup steps: Pre-fill defaults or use templates to eliminate unnecessary first-time configuration tasks.
- Trigger contextual walkthroughs at friction points: Surface interactive product tours when users hit critical steps in their initial workflow.
Here's an example of a personalized onboarding guide created using Supademo:
2. Customer activation rate
Customer activation rate measures the percentage of new users who complete a key milestone that shows they've experienced your product's core value.
Activation rate = (Number of activated users / Total new signups) × 100
How to improve customer activation rate?
- Define a clear activation milestone: Choose one meaningful action that reflects core product value realization.
- Build milestone-driven micro-tours: Use quick, role-specific walkthroughs that walk users through the activation task step-by-step.
- Guide users with smart nudges: Trigger tooltips or in-app messages when users stall near activation-critical actions.
Here's an actionable guide: 5 Tactics for Better Onboarding: How We Increased Activation by 20%
3. Onboarding completion rate
Onboarding completion rate measures the percentage of users who successfully finish your designated onboarding process. When users don't complete onboarding, much of your customer acquisition cost (CAC) is essentially wasted.
Onboarding completion rate = (Number of users who completed onboarding / Number of users who started onboarding) × 100
How to improve onboarding completion rate?
- Use bite-sized, modular steps: Break onboarding into small, digestible actions that feel quick and easy to complete.
- Visualize progress with checklists: Progress indicators create a sense of momentum and reduce abandonment.
- Let users skip non-essential steps: Give control back to users by allowing them to move forward when ready. Skippable onboarding flows have 25% higher completion rates.
4. Customer engagement rate
Customer engagement rate measures the level of interaction customers have with your product through various touchpoints and activities.
Higher engagement indicates customer satisfaction and predicts retention, loyalty, and potential for upselling.
Engagement rate = (Total engagements / Total reach) × 100
How to improve customer engagement rate?
- Focus on habit-forming actions: Identify and promote behaviors that create user dependency, like saving work, sharing content, or setting up automations.
- Design contextual guidance: Provide just-in-time help and feature discovery when users are most likely to need and adopt new functionality.
- Create engagement loops: Build features that encourage return visits, such as notifications, progress tracking, or collaborative elements that pull users back into the product.
5. Feature/product adoption rate
Feature adoption rate measures the percentage of users who actively engage with specific features of your product. This metric reveals which features deliver value to users and helps identify areas where additional guidance or improvements are needed.
Feature adoption rate = (Number of users who used the feature / Total number of users) × 100
How to improve feature adoption rate?
- Create feature discovery moments: Use contextual tooltips and in-app guided tours to introduce new features when users are most likely to find them valuable.
- Build progressive feature unveiling: Introduce advanced features gradually after users master core functionality, preventing overwhelming new users with too many options.
- Use interactive walkthroughs for new features: Guide users through feature benefits using short, interactive feature demos that explain value in context.
6. Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)
Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) measures how satisfied customers are with a specific interaction, product, or service experience. This metric captures immediate customer sentiment at key moments in their journey with your company.
CSAT = (Number of satisfied responses / Total number of responses) × 100
Satisfied responses are typically ratings of 4-5 on a 5-point scale or equivalent positive feedback.
How to improve CSAT?
- Time surveys strategically: Send CSAT surveys immediately after key interactions like onboarding completion, support resolution, or feature usage to capture accurate sentiment.
Srikrishnan Ganesan, CEO and Co-founder at Rocketlane, shares that the team tracks milestone completion rates through CSAT surveys. When users complete a milestone, the customer success team nudges them to share feedback to understand customer sentiment. This metric reveals the CS team’s competencies, product-related or onboarding issues.
- Close feedback loops quickly: Respond to negative CSAT scores within 24 hours with personalized outreach to understand and resolve specific issues.
- Train teams on customer-centric behaviors: Ensure all customer-facing staff understand CSAT goals and receive ongoing training in empathy, problem-solving, and communication skills.
7. Customer effort score (CES)
Customer effort score (CES) measures how much effort customers must exert to complete a task, resolve an issue, or interact with your product or service. This metric focuses on the ease of the customer experience rather than overall satisfaction.
CES = (Sum of all Customer Effort Scores / Total number of respondents)
Typically measured on a 7-point scale where 1 = very difficult and 7 = very easy.
How to improve CES?
- Build comprehensive self-service resources: Create searchable knowledge bases and interactive help guides that let customers solve problems independently.
- Ensure first-contact resolution: Train support teams to resolve issues completely during initial interactions rather than requiring multiple touchpoints.
8. Number of support tickets
Number of support tickets measures the volume of help requests generated during the onboarding process. This metric reveals friction points in your product experience and indicates how well your onboarding materials enable self-service problem resolution.
Support Tickets per Customer = Total support tickets during onboarding period / Number of customers onboarded in that period
How to improve the number of support tickets?
- Preempt FAQs with visual guides: Embed demos for top support issues directly inside help docs or tooltips.
This reduced repetitive tickets, saved 10+ hours per week per agent, and enabled the team to scale support without increasing headcount.
- Add inline help at friction points: Provide guidance at known drop-off steps instead of waiting for users to ask.
9. Customer retention rate
Customer retention rate measures the percentage of customers who continue their subscription or service over a specific time period. This metric indicates customer loyalty, product stickiness, and your ability to deliver ongoing value that keeps customers committed to your solution.
Customer retention rate = (Customers at end of period - New customers acquired) / Customers at start of period) × 100
How to improve customer retention rate?
- Track renewal warning signals - Monitor declining usage, support ticket frequency, and login patterns to predict churn 60-90 days before renewal dates.
- Build value-driven check-in cadences - Schedule quarterly business reviews focused on ROI demonstration and expansion opportunities rather than generic satisfaction surveys.
10. Trial-to-paid conversion rate
Trial-to-paid conversion rate measures the percentage of free trial users who upgrade to a paid subscription. This metric indicates how effectively your trial experience demonstrates product value and converts prospects into revenue-generating customers.
Trial-to-paid conversion rate = (Number of trial users who upgraded to paid / Total number of trial users) × 100
How to improve trial-to-paid conversion rate?
- Design value-focused trial experiences: Limit trial duration but ensure users can complete meaningful workflows that demonstrate clear business outcomes.
- Send upgrade prompts at peak engagement moments: Trigger conversion messages when users achieve success milestones or hit trial limitations during active usage sessions.
- Create urgency with timed emails: Send countdown reminders with ROI proof and feature highlights as the trial nears its end.
11. Customer lifetime value (CLTV)
Customer lifetime value (CLTV) measures the total revenue a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your company. This metric helps determine how much you can invest in acquisition, which customer segments to prioritize, and the long-term financial impact of retention efforts.
CLTV = (Average Revenue Per Customer × Customer Lifespan) - Customer Acquisition Cost
How to improve customer lifetime value?
- Drive revenue expansion through upselling - Identify usage patterns that indicate readiness for higher-tier plans, additional seats, or premium features that increase monthly spend.
- Extend customer lifespan with strategic account management - Assign dedicated success managers to high-value accounts who proactively address issues and identify growth opportunities before renewal cycles.
12. Time to complete onboarding
Time to complete onboarding measures the average duration from when customers start the onboarding process until they finish all required setup steps. This metric identifies bottlenecks in your onboarding flow and helps optimize the speed at which new customers become fully operational.
Time to complete onboarding = Total time spent by all customers completing onboarding / Number of customers who completed onboarding
How to improve time to complete onboarding?
- Eliminate non-essential setup steps - Remove optional configurations, secondary integrations, and nice-to-have customizations from the core onboarding flow to focus on minimum viable setup.
- Implement parallel processing workflows - Allow customers to complete multiple setup tasks simultaneously rather than forcing sequential steps, such as data import running while they configure settings.
13. Customer churn rate
Customer churn rate measures the percentage of customers who cancel their subscription or stop using your service during a specific period. This metric identifies the rate at which you're losing customers and helps pinpoint specific reasons and patterns behind customer departures.
Customer churn rate = (Number of customers lost during period / Total customers at start of period) × 100
How to improve customer churn rate?
- Conduct exit interviews with churning customers - Systematically collect feedback from canceling customers to identify recurring issues, unmet expectations, and competitive disadvantages driving departures.
- Create win-back campaigns for at-risk segments - Deploy targeted retention offers, feature education, or pricing adjustments to customer cohorts showing early warning signs of disengagement.
14. Onboarding drop-off rate
Onboarding drop-off rate measures the percentage of customers who abandon the onboarding process before completion. This metric identifies specific steps where customers get stuck, overwhelmed, or lose interest, revealing critical friction points that prevent successful product adoption.
Onboarding drop-off rate = (Number of customers who started but didn't complete onboarding / Total customers who started onboarding) × 100
How to improve onboarding drop-off rate?
- Analyze step-by-step abandonment patterns - Using Supademo analytics you can identify which specific onboarding steps have the highest exit rates and prioritize fixing those bottlenecks first.
- Implement progress incentives and recovery emails - Send automated reminders to users who pause mid-onboarding, highlighting their progress and offering assistance to complete remaining steps.
15. Monthly active users (MAU) post-onboarding
Monthly active users (MAU) post-onboarding measures the percentage of customers who actively use your product within 30 days after completing onboarding.
This metric indicates whether your onboarding process successfully transitions customers from setup completion to regular product usage and habit formation.
MAU post-onboarding = (Number of onboarded customers who were active in the past 30 days / Total customers who completed onboarding in the past 30 days) × 100
How to improve MAU post-onboarding:
- Schedule post-onboarding engagement touchpoints - Send weekly emails highlighting new features, use cases, or success stories to maintain momentum after initial setup completion.
- Create a guided “day 31” path – Design a next-phase experience that builds on onboarding but introduces more advanced use cases.
Stay on top of customer onboarding metrics with Supademo
Understanding where users drop off is important, but acting on that insight is what drives outcomes. Supademo gives you the visibility, flexibility, and control to improve onboarding performance across every key metric.
From time to value to activation and retention, Supademo helps you deliver guided experiences that convert, scale, and continuously optimize based on real user behavior.
With Supademo, you can:
- Create interactive, no-code product demos in minutes. Guide users through core workflows without engineering support.
- Embed demos anywhere. Add them to your app, onboarding flows, help docs, emails, or CRM.
- Personalize onboarding at scale. Segment demos by use case, persona, or role to drive completion and activation.
- Track performance with built-in analytics. See drop-offs, step engagement, and how each demo influences activation or retention.
Want to improve activation, retention, and onboarding performance at scale? Try Supademo today!
FAQs
What are customer onboarding metrics and why are they important?
Customer onboarding metrics are measurable indicators that help businesses assess the effectiveness of their customer onboarding process. They are important because they provide insights into customer satisfaction, product adoption, and long-term retention, helping companies improve onboarding strategies and deliver better experiences.
How often should I review and update my onboarding metrics?
It is recommended to review onboarding metrics at least quarterly, and sooner if a significant product update or shift in customer preferences occurs. Regular assessment ensures your metrics stay relevant and aligned with evolving business goals.
What tools can I use to effectively monitor customer onboarding KPIs?
Popular tools for monitoring customer onboarding KPIs include customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, analytics dashboards, onboarding software, and feedback collection tools. These solutions automate data tracking and offer actionable insights for continuous improvement.
What are the top 5 KPIs that you would track from a customer success standpoint?
The top 5 KPIs for customer success are Customer Health Score, Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Churn Rate, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). Tracking these metrics helps teams measure engagement, loyalty, retention, and overall satisfaction, ensuring optimized customer experiences and long-term business growth.
