Welcome back!
We've done metric pairings for both Sessions/View and Active Users as well as Avg Engagement Time. It is now time for the most exciting and most powerful, Customer events.
As a refresher, the daily must-sees are:
- Sessions/Views
- Active users
- Average engagement time
- Custom events
- User retention by cohort
Events are flexible in design and help you get to the teensiest detail when monitoring user's actions in your help center. They do however, get bad wrap because if you don't have a technical background or the resources for a developer, they seem impossible to conquer.
When deciding which events to track, think "action". A click on a drop-down menu, entering a specific category, or engaging with a video/image.
The technical side π₯οΈ
Obvi, the easiest way to get these set up is with having a developer help you, but it is 2025 and we can be independent people.
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Some tools, like PostHog, have built in events that are already pre-coded for you. You get the upside of tracking events without the need to set anything up.
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If you are working with limited resources though or using another tool, GtM is a great solution to identifying what you want your triggers to be and naming your events in a clear way.
You can find a variety of YouTube videos to get you up and running, but this one is one of the most clear.
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It is important to note that instructions will change depending on help center platform.
How to pair π·
There really isn't a set way to use events because they are so customizable. I'd say for most situations you want to track, there is most likely a way for events to be incorporated.
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My favorites ones to look at are ...
1. ticket_submitted or form_submitted
If you use a ticketing process or have a way to reach out to your team, this event allows you to track things like self-service and even see accurately how many times people are entering your support flow.
2. first_session
This is a recent favorite of mine, but I like to take a look at those who are coming to view our content for the first time. Their behavoir is always very different from the reoccurring reader. Monitoring their activity helps you build out a learner timeline and what behaviors you should expect as they become more "mature".
3. Experimental testing of layouts/modals
The quarter we implemented a customized self-service flow, was my time managing a help center. We custom built modals to engage the reader, showing them content based on where they came from our UI. Whenever the modal opened, we were able to track who engaged with the documents we were serving up and who still needed to reach out to support.
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No matter the specific experiment, events allow you to compare and contrast how learning flows perform.
4. video_played
Investing in video creation is a always a battle with stakeholders because of the amount of time, money, and resources needed. Video played can help you get those resources. When trying to make a case for video documentation , whip up a quick video that you are barely proud of and implement this metric. From there, you'll be able to see how many sessions include a user watching documentation.
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The higher percentage of views per session with decrease in ticket submission can land the funding you need.
One more week to go before we finish this Basic Metrics edition of What the FAQ?! When I'm done, I'm thinking of getting all the posts together into a PDF download.
What do you think? Is that something you'd like?
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Karissa
P.S. If you thought this was useful, pass it on. This took about 4 hours to create so the more people it helps, the happier I am β€οΈ
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Want to connect π€ and talk metrics?
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