In the world of SaaS, it’s imperative to maintain your customer’s attention. Customers want one thing and one thing only: getting the most out of your product in the shortest amount of time. So how exactly can you give them that? By giving them a taste of what your product will do for them as soon as they start using it. Learning how to reduce your SaaS time to value (TTV) is a very important first step.
But what actually is the time to value of SaaS? How can you measure it? And most importantly, how can you improve it so you can keep your customer’s attention and, thus, keep them using your SaaS business? Keep reading to find out!
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Today you’ll learn everything there is to the time to value metric, including:
- What is time to value (TTV)?
- What are the different types of TTV?
- How to measure your SaaS’ time to value
- How to decrease TTV
- Time to value and how to measure and decrease it
What is Time To Value (TTV)?
Time to value is the time your customers take to fall in love with your product. It’s a customer onboarding and retention metric that refers to how much time it takes your customers to see real value from your product after they make the purchase.
It’s super important to measure how long it takes your customers to engage with your product and to realize they need it in their lives forever. It sounds dramatic, but it’s true: you want to retain your customers’ attention (and, by default, cement their product adoption), so they keep using it. After all, that’s how you can maximize your product’s success!
The above is what’s called the ‘aha moment’: the moment when a user realizes the purpose and benefits of the product or service. If the time to value is the time it takes the user to experience the value of your product (to reach their aha moment), it needs to start decreasing over time. That way, new customers will find your product value faster. It’s a crucial SaaS metric, as customers paying for your services or product expect to receive its value right away.
A healthy TTV metric is an indicator of business growth and efficient operational performance. Now that you know what TTV is and its importance, let’s look at the different types of TTV.
What are the different types of TTV?
Here’s a list of the types of TTV you might measure in your SaaS:
- Time to basic value (TTBV): refers to the time it takes a new user to understand the value of your product during the initial stages of utilizing it, and how long it takes them to become curious about its potential future value.
- Time to exceed value (TTEV): refers to the time it takes for a customer to go beyond the first ‘aha moment’ and receive additional value from your product that they didn’t know they’d get. It serves as a final nudge for trial users to become paid customers.
- Immediate time to value (ITTV): this happens when a customer sees a return on their investment almost immediately. It starts showing the benefits that were promised as soon as they start using the product.
- Short time to value: is the desired outcome – a product has a short time to value when users recognize its value pretty quickly.
- Long time to value: this happens when products take longer to show results and benefits.
Ok, so you know the TTV metrics you may want to measure within your SaaS, but how do you actually measure them? Jump to the next section to find out!
How to measure your SaaS Time To Value
1. By measuring the Time to upgrade from free to paid
Make sure you’re taking into account the time it takes for users to switch from the free version of your product to the paid one. When clients are ready to upgrade from the free version of your product, they have realized the true worth of your product and are prepared to pay more for the enhanced features and offers.
2. By measuring Customer onboarding time
How long does it take clients to get ready to use your product throughout their company when they decide to buy it? New software frequently needs a thorough training procedure. Many businesses will be less likely to choose that platform if employee training takes a lengthy time, as it will result in unneeded downtime and delays for the entire company. Customers may be more likely to choose your solution if you have a speedy onboarding procedure that makes it easier for them to use new software solutions.
3. By measuring the Time of adoption for new features
How soon after you launch new features do clients start using them? If you see that users take time to learn new features, it may be a sign that they don’t require them or that unneeded barriers are getting in the way.
4. By measuring the Time to achieve the desired ROI
How long does it take for clients who start using your product to see the desired return on their investment? It’s important to take into account how long it will take them to get acquainted with your SaaS, and how fast they can implement it in their day-to-day workflow.
5. By measuring Ongoing engagement
Providing good customer service will create customer satisfaction, which means that customers will continue to engage with your product.
How to Decrease TTV
Now that you know how to measure time to value, let’s learn how to decrease it!
1. Improving your User Interface:
A good interface shouldn’t be taken for granted: user experience increases when the product design is great. Your customers need to be able to navigate through your user interface quickly and seamlessly. The key components are:
- Having a simple, minimalist design
- Personalized content
- Memorable products that showcase your brand personality.
2. Setting up a goal for your users:
Setting up goals for your users allows them not to be as frustrated as they would be if they had to figure everything out on their own. When they know what they need to accomplish and how long it will take them to get there, they’ll be happier. A great strategy is to set attainable objectives to help them learn more about your product and assess whether they believe it to be worth the price.
3. Creating a strong Onboarding Experience:
You can drastically shorten your time to value with a good and strong personalized onboarding experience. Shower your users with guides and case studies, product walkthroughs, checklists, knowledge bases, customer support, and user training programs.
4. Personalizing Customer Experience:
Making it simple for clients to contact customer care is important if you want them to know they can rely on you in their times of need. They may overcome any challenges with the assistance of strong customer support, which will speed up their adoption of your SaaS. As the client uses the program over time, they can get help with any onboarding concerns or address problems with fresh software patches.
5. With a shorter Free Trial
14 to 30 days is the optimal time for SaaS companies to give free trials, allowing customers to understand its value and get introduced to the product’s essential features by then. Having a longer free trial becomes risky when the customer gets complacent about the time they still yet have to use it. So learn what your sweet spot is and don’t hesitate to shorten it!
Time To Value and How to Measure and Decrease it
Time to value is a complicated metric that’s really not so complicated when you understand a key concept. The sooner your customer sees the value of your product, the better, and they need to experience it on their own. Once you get that, it’s all about measuring how long it takes them to get used to it and how you can find ways to decrease it.
A product-led growth company like FROGED has a customer-led mindset that prioritizes the value of the product over how much it sells. This is key if you want a successful SaaS product and to reduce your TTV.
Book a demo and learn about product flows, which will help you build and edit flows based on event tracking, and user behavior conditions to reduce your TTV.