When a new client signs on, they’re not just buying a design service or opening a trade account – they’re buying into your process. That first impression sets the tone for everything that follows. A smooth onboarding builds trust, keeps projects on track, and increases the odds they’ll come back, or send a friend your way.
But how do you know if your onboarding is actually working?
From decades of refining client journeys and helping brands scale through trade relationships, I’ve learned that success leaves clues. Here’s what to measure if you want to track satisfaction, retention, and referral potential in your onboarding experience.
Satisfaction: Are clients happy with the process?
Client Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
The easiest way to gauge how well onboarding is going? Ask.
You could send a short survey to every new client a week into onboarding. Ask: How satisfied are you with the onboarding experience so far? Keep it to a 1–5 scale and follow up with anyone rating a 3 or lower.
For a client, we simplified their onboarding form after noticing low scores tied to overwhelm. Breaking the process into two smaller steps helped boost their CSAT and made clients feel more at ease.
Email/Message Response Time
Timely communication is everything at the beginning of a relationship. You could track how fast your team responds to inquiries or client emails during onboarding. Are you replying within 24 hours? Are messages being missed?
One thing that I find helpful is to create an automated response that notifies the client that you have received their message and clearly states your typical response times. Also add your hours of operations so they know not to expect a response during weekends / holidays. Just in case…
Onboarding Task Completion
Whether you’re asking clients to upload floorplans, submit brand materials, or provide trade credentials – completion matters.
Use a shared portal like Notion (my favorite) or Dubsado to manage tasks and track completion rates. If certain steps get skipped repeatedly, it’s a sign they’re either unclear or not user-friendly.
Sometimes, reducing steps improves the completion rate, making the onboarding more seamless. Remove the steps you really don’t need, or add them to other parts of your process.
Give them a clear visual or breakdown of the steps ahead—how many forms, how long each section takes, and what they’ll need on hand. If the process takes 30–45 minutes, say that upfront. It’s frustrating for clients to start something they think will take five minutes and still be clicking around an hour later.
You could also list what they should have ready: a computer (not just a phone), a calculator, any room measurements, or inspiration photos. Setting expectations helps your clients feel prepared and respected—and reduces drop-off mid-way through.
Retention: Will they stay?
Time to First Win
You could define your first onboarding “win”, maybe it’s presenting a design concept or sending the first sample, and then track how long it takes from contract to delivery.
For a client, we reduced the time to deliver their welcome kit and first concept from 10 days to 5. The result? Clients stayed more engaged and were more likely to reach the project kickoff with enthusiasm intact.
Client Activation Rate
You could track how many clients actually take action post-signup. Did they book the kickoff call? Place their first trade order? Fill out the questionnaire?
For a tech client, we saw a 40% activation rate in their passive onboarding course and realized the intro video was too long. We swapped it out, trimmed the copy, and raised activation to over 70%.
Repeat Business
Depending on your business model, “repeat business” can look very different.
If you run a design studio, projects are often long-term, and while your repeat business rate may be high, the time between projects can be significant. A client might finish a renovation today but not start their next phase for six months, or even a year.
You could still track engagement in between. For example, monitor how many clients stay subscribed to your newsletter, open your updates, or interact with your social posts after onboarding. Those touchpoints show retention and ongoing connection even before the next project begins.
For a client, we helped set up a post-project nurture sequence that checked in at 30, 90 days, and then each 90 days. It offered seasonal styling tips and shared behind-the-scenes updates from new projects. A great way to keep your past clients in the know about your business.
If you sell products or offer trade accounts, your repeat business metric will look different. You could track reorders, follow-up inquiries, or new category purchases within the first 90 days. Early engagement is a strong indicator that onboarding built trust and momentum.
For my home textile brand, we hade a systematic follow up that always increased our reseller sales.
The key is to measure not just if clients come back, but when and why. That data tells you whether your onboarding experience creates lasting relationships – or one-time transactions.
Referrals: Will they recommend you?
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
You could send a short survey 30 days into the relationship asking, How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague? Use a 0–10 scale and calculate your NPS by subtracting the percentage of detractors from promoters.
For a client, we introduced a bonus gift for promoters who referred someone within 30 days. Not only did it encourage word-of-mouth, but it also gave us clearer data on who was most satisfied.
Testimonial Requests vs. Actual Testimonials
You could track how many testimonial requests you send, and how many actually come back. If clients are ghosting your request, it might not be that they’re too busy. It could be a sign that something in the onboarding process didn’t meet their expectations, or that you didn’t explain why you request testimonials, and when!
Referral Conversion Rate
Of course, you want to measure how many referrals actually turn into clients. That’s your referral conversion rate, and it gives you a clear sense of whether the experience you’re delivering matches the reputation that brought them in.
One simple way to do this is by adding a “How did you hear about us?” question to your intake form or inquiry process. If you’re using a CRM, tag those leads as referrals so you can track how far they go – do they book a consult, sign a contract, or fall off before they ever respond?
It doesn’t have to be overly complex. A basic tracking sheet inside Notion or a tag in your CRM, and a little consistency can reveal where you’re losing warm leads, and whether your onboarding flow is helping or hurting that first impression.
Getting the client in the door is just the start. What really matters is what happens next, and whether they leave thinking, “Yes, this is exactly who I want to work with.”
Whether you’re onboarding a new design client or bringing a trade partner into your world, every step shapes how they experience your brand. And when you have the right metrics in place, you’re learning, refining, and making it better every time.
