Completion rate is the number of users who complete a transaction as a percentage of the number of people who start.
Why do you need to track completion rate?
Tracking the completion rate on your service is important because we want people to be successful when they interact with the government online. If users don't complete a transaction, we are able to see the point in the transaction where they drop out and leave.
We can then research to find out what caused them to leave the task and we can find ways to reduce these barriers. Over time, this will improve the user experience, and increase the completion rate.
Think about completion rate when you design your service
eServices will work with your developer to configure your service so you can measure its completion rate. We'll also help you use your analytics reports so you can learn more about user behaviour.
What counts as a transaction?
For the Government of Yukon, when we talk about a digital service, we define a transaction as an exchange of money or information that results in a change to government records.
- Example of an exchange of money: Pay a government invoice
- Example of an exchange of information: Turn in poachers and polluters
Transaction start and end points
Transactions within your service must have clearly defined start and end points.
Measure from the start of a transaction. Your service should have a start page on Yukon.ca. This should be the only way to access the service. Consider a transaction to have started when the user continues from your service’s start page.
Make sure users can’t bypass the start page via links or search engine results.
Identify the end point of the transaction. A transaction is completed when someone finishes the task your digital service provides. For example, when a user:
- downloads a form;
- submits an application; or
- makes a payment.
The service will tell the user the transaction is complete with a confirmation message.
As long as a user submits an application successfully, the transaction can be considered complete.
For example, the apply for an energy rebate transaction is considered complete when the user has submitted an application, regardless of whether their rebate application is successful.
What does not count as a start or end point?
The following activities do not have clearly defined start and end points. We do not count these as transactions.
- General advice or inquiries
- Informal complaints
- Visits to websites
Failed transactions
A failed transaction is when a user gives up before reaching the confirmation page. This includes when a user abandons the service from an error page.
Measure completion rate
Discovery
If possible, review any data from legacy and offline systems. Consider:
- the data that’s available.
- where you can get the data. For example, an existing online service, a database that supports an existing offline service, inquiry desk or service desk data and search terms in web analytics.
- whether you can calculate completion rates from these to use as a baseline.
Prototype development (alpha)
As you build your prototype, start planning how you'll measure completion rate. Specify the user journeys you'll measure and identify start and end points.
Beta
You won't be able to measure completion rates until your service is in public beta, but you can map all of the possible user journeys through your service in beta.
Live
Once it's public, work with eServices to track the completion rate for your service.
eServices will help you make sure you are only counting actual users and internal users. Test users and robots are to be excluded from the reports.
- Count the number of completed transactions. This is the numerator.
- Divide it by the total number of transactions. Include partially completed or failed transactions. This is the denominator.
- Show the result as a percentage. For example, 65% completion rate.
How to improve the completion rate
As you continue to collect user feedback and observe people using your service, you'll identify the points in your service where users drop off and leave.
eServices will provide you with guidance so you can put solutions in place to reduce barriers and improve the user experience. This will translate into more successful completions over time.
This is a continuous process of iteration that will be in place for the life of your service.