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Time to value survey template

Learn how long value takes, and what slows the first month down

Four questions for customers a month after sign-up: how long it took before the product was clearly useful, how much effort setup took, whether they needed help and the moment it felt worth it. Use it as it is or change any question, and Usertick reads every written answer for you.

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What this time to value survey tells you

A time to value survey asks new customers how long it took before the product earned its place. This template keeps it to four questions and under a minute: when the product first became clearly useful, how much effort setup took, whether they needed someone's help, and the moment it first felt worth it.

It is written for an email to customers who signed up about 30 days ago, long enough to have reached value or to know they haven't. Send it each week to that week's group, or share the link in your onboarding emails and customer success calls. In your web app, the same survey can open for users whose signup date is about a month back.

Results shows the share of each time frame, the average setup effort on the 1 to 10 scale and the share who needed help, each against the period before. Every written answer is read as it arrives and filed under a category such as getting started, with a theme, so the moments customers name come grouped.

In an emailAs a linkOn your websiteAs a conversation
Questions
4
Time to answer
About a minute
Written for
An email to customers about 30 days after sign-up
Plans
Every plan, the free plan included

See it on every channel

The same template on your website, behind a link, in an email and as a conversation.

In an email

Send it from Usertick to a contact list, with the first question inside the email. A tap on an answer opens the rest of the survey with that answer already kept. Usertick sends 50 emails a month on the free plan, or connect your own sender.

The 4 questions, one by one

What each question asks, why it is there, what it shows you and what to change.

Question 1 of 4 · Multiple choice

How long did it take before the product was clearly useful to you?

Why ask it
The time frame is the measure itself: the same day, within a week, within a month, longer, or not yet. Customers who haven't found value yet are the ones to reach before they cancel.
What you learn
A donut with the share and count of each time frame, as stacked shares over time, so a faster onboarding shows as a growing share of same day and within a week.
Make it yours
Select It hasn't been useful yet and read those customers' other answers first, since they are the closest to leaving.
Question 2 of 4 · Big scale

How much effort did the setup take?

Why ask it
Setup effort explains the time frame. A slow start with little effort points to the product, and a slow start with a lot of effort points to setup.
What you learn
The average and a column per step from 1, very little, to 10, a great deal, compared with the period before. A higher number means more effort here, so a falling average is the good direction.
Make it yours
Read the score next to the first question: customers who took more than a month and rated effort 8 or higher show where setup needs work.
Question 3 of 4 · Yes / No

Did you need help from someone to get set up?

Why ask it
Needing help is no failure, but it costs you support time and it tells you which customers can't get started alone.
What you learn
The share that said yes, against the period before. Select Yes to compare the time frame and the effort of those customers with the ones who set up alone.
Make it yours
When a high share needs help, check whether it comes from one kind of customer, such as larger teams, and give that group its own onboarding path.
Question 4 of 4 · Text · Optional

When did you first feel it was worth it?

Why ask it
The moment customers felt it was worth it, in their own words, is the step your onboarding should lead every new customer to.
What you learn
Usertick reads each answer, files it under a category and a theme, and marks it as praise, an idea or a complaint. Filter by theme to see which moment comes up most.
Make it yours
Put the moment named most into your welcome email and first-run screens, so new customers reach it sooner.

What the answers show

Results turns each question into numbers you can follow week by week.

How long did it take before the product was clearly useful to you?

The share of each answer with its count. Select an answer to narrow the whole page to those people and read what else they said.

Every written answer, read for you

Each answer arrives with its category, theme, type and urgency, so the urgent ones reach your team first.

Use this template in four steps

From the template to the first answers.

  1. 1

    Open the template

    Sign up free and pick Time to value in the template gallery. It opens in a matching style, ready to change.

  2. 2

    Make the questions yours

    Reword any question, change the options, and add logic or more questions.

  3. 3

    Choose where it runs

    Show it on your website, send it by email, share its link and QR code, or switch it to a conversation.

  4. 4

    Publish and read the answers

    Answers arrive in Results and the inbox as people send them, each written one read and filed by Usertick.

Tips for this survey

Small choices that keep people answering and the answers useful.

  1. 01

    Send it on a weekly rhythm

    Usertick doesn't send on each customer's own 30th day. Each week, import the customers who signed up about a month ago as a list and send the survey to it, or schedule the send.

  2. 02

    Send it from HubSpot

    With HubSpot Professional or Enterprise, a HubSpot workflow can enroll each new customer when their first month is up and send them the survey.

  3. 03

    Reach the customers still waiting

    On every plan, a workflow posts every answer of It hasn't been useful yet to your customer success channel in Slack or Microsoft Teams, so someone can call while the account can still be saved.

  4. 04

    Compare one month with the next

    Read the share of each time frame period by period, so a change to onboarding shows in the groups of customers who signed up after it.

Onboarding surveysSaaS surveysEmail surveysEffort and time questions

More onboarding templates and questions

Templates like this one, and single questions from the library to add to it.

Templates

Browse all templates
OnboardingOnboarding feedbackLearn how the first steps in your product felt, what new users came to do and where they got stuck. Trigger it when someone finishes setup or on their third day.
OnboardingTrial check-inCatch trial users who are stuck before the trial runs out, and learn what they came to test. Show it on the third day of the trial.
OnboardingInviting the teamLearn how easy it is to bring a team on board and what keeps invited colleagues from joining. Send it to account owners a week after their first invite.
OnboardingWelcome surveyLearn who signed up and what they came to do, so you can tailor onboarding and see which channels bring the right people. Show it right after signup, before the first screen of the product.

Frequently asked questions

About 30 days after sign-up. Earlier, many customers haven't used the product on real work; much later, they no longer remember how the first weeks went.

Not by itself. Send it each week to a list of that month's customers, use a HubSpot workflow to send it to each contact it enrolls, or, from Starter, show it in your web app to users whose signup date, passed with Usertick.identify(), is a month back.

Most customers finding value within a week or within a month, little setup effort and few needing help, with each share moving the right way from one period to the next.

Every customer who signed up about a month ago, including those who rarely log in. Their answers to the first question are the ones you most need.

Yes. Every template comes with every plan, the free plan included, and the free plan covers 150 responses a month across your surveys.

Yes. The template becomes your own survey, so reword any question, add or remove questions, and change the options and the logic. The gallery stays as it is.

Yes, from Starter. The template is written in US English. Add languages by hand or with AI translation, and each person sees the survey in their browser's language.

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