Easy things to measure

Here's a list of things you can measure if you're looking for objective numbers as a proxy the things that you want to improve but are hard to measure:

• The time it takes to complete an event registration form.

• The percentage of users who open a form and fail to complete it.

• The number of fields in forms that do or do not have a high rate of completion.

• The time it takes for staff to complete a particular task, and how frequently that task is performed.

• Email open rates on various subject lines.

• Average lifetime value of a contact.

• An individual contact’s tendency to open an email, register for events, no show for events, click on email links, or donate to campaigns.

• The percentage of members who renewed in any given year — and of course, anything about what might have gone into that decision on their part.

• The popularity of payment options —check versus credit card — on any or all of your forms.

• The number of errors triggered by any given CiviCRM extension.

• How often your users struggle with required fields on any of your forms.

• The relative popularity of mobile versus desktop browsers among your site visitors.

• The frequency of new email list subscribers month-over-month or year-over-year.

• The number of interactions before a contact will actually make a donation, sign up for an event, or become a member.

• The frequency of user complaints, trouble reports, or requests for help month-over-month or year-over-year.

• The most popular channels through which new contacts learn about your organization.

• The interconnectedness of any of these metrics.

Do you have other things that you're measuring or want to measure? I'd love to add to this list.

If you've got something to add, please take 10 seconds to hit reply; I'd love to hear from you.

All the best,
A.