Track Time to Onboarding Kickoff: Measure Speed and Momentum Post-Sale

Customers who engage quickly after the deal closes are more likely to build momentum, avoid churn, and experience faster time-to-value. Tracking how quickly your customers book their onboarding kickoff call helps align sales-to-onboarding handoffs and ensures you’re driving engagement at the right time.

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Here’s how to set up this report in HubSpot:

Step 1: Create Custom Properties to Track Kickoff Timing

We’ll create a couple custom properties to calculate the time between the ticket being created and the kickoff call being booked.

1. Go to Settings > Properties > Ticket Properties in HubSpot.
2. Create the following properties:

• Onboarding Kickoff Booked
  • Type: Date Picker
  • Label: Onboarding Kickoff Date‍
• Days to Kickoff Booked
  • Type: Calculation‍
  • Calculated Property Type: Time Between‍
  • Start Date: Create Date‍
  • End Date: Onboarding Kickoff Date

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Step 2: Set Up the Workflow to Automate Kickoff Date

To ensure the “Onboarding Kickoff Date” property is updated automatically when a kickoff call is booked:

1. Go to Automation > Workflows.
2. Create a Ticket-based Workflow.
3. Set the Trigger as:
   • Meeting Name = Onboarding Kickoff (or a similar condition tied to kickoff scheduling).
4. Add an action to Set Property Value:
   • Update the Onboarding Kickoff Date property to the date of the current step.
5. Turn on re-enrollment to ensure the workflow triggers any time a kickoff meeting is booked.

This workflow automatically records the date the onboarding kickoff call is scheduled, ensuring the timing is always accurate.

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Step 3: Build the Report to Track Kickoff Timing

Now that the properties and workflow are in place, let’s create a custom report to monitor average and maximum time to kickoff.

1. Create a Custom Report

• Go to Reports > Reports > Create Report.
• Select Custom Report Builder and choose Tickets as your data source.

2. Apply Filters

To focus on relevant onboarding tickets:

• Pipeline: Onboarding Pipeline (or equivalent).
• Onboarding Kickoff Date: is known.

3. Configure the Chart

• Chart Type: Combination Chart.
• X-Axis: Close Date (set to Monthly).
• Y-Axis 1: Average (Days to Kickoff Booked).
• Y-Axis 2: Max (Days to Kickoff Booked).

This configuration gives you a clear view of the average time it takes for customers to schedule a kickoff call, while also surfacing outliers where engagement might be delayed.

What This Report Tells You

This report provides insights into how quickly customers engage after closing:

• Average Days to Kickoff: Tracks your team’s ability to get customers booked quickly.
• Max Days to Kickoff: Identifies slow-moving customers that may require follow-up to avoid disengagement.

With this data, you can:

• Ensure handoffs from sales to onboarding are smooth and timely.
• Identify patterns that might cause delays (e.g., scheduling conflicts, unclear communication).
• Proactively intervene to keep customers engaged and prevent churn.

Drive Engagement and Reduce Churn

By tracking time to onboarding kickoff, your team can focus on driving early engagement and momentum for new customers. This report helps you measure the handoff process, ensure customers stay on track, and identify opportunities to improve speed and efficiency.

Set up your report in HubSpot today to measure, track, and optimize kickoff engagement!

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