Retention (2024)

What Is Retention?

Customer retention refers to a company’s or product’s ability to retain customers over time. If a company or product has high customer retention, it means that customers return to purchase or continue using a product or service. If a company or product has low customer retention, it means that customers stop buying or using a product or service.

Why Is Retention Important to Product Management?

It costs quite a lot more—roughly 5 – 25 times more—to acquire a new customer rather than keep an existing one. Therefore, delighting existing customers and striving to keep them satisfied should be the goal.

Additionally, retention impacts ROI, overall business growth, and customer loyalty. Loyal customers are more likely to stick with a trusted company when exploring additional products or services; they are also more likely to refer colleagues, friends, or family (i.e., potential new customers at no cost to you).

According to HubSpot:

“Customer retention is important because it measures not only how successful they are at acquiring new customers but also how successful they are at satisfying existing customers.”

Building products that delight customers and keep them coming back starts with product discovery. This process enables product teams to move beyond “nice to have” features and products towards products that solve a problem.

How Do You Measure Retention?

Retention (1)

The most basic method of measuring retention is to compare the total number of customers at the beginning and end of a specific period. Then, exclude any new customers acquired during the same period.

Retention (2)

8 Tips for Improving Retention

Here are eight tips to help improve customer retention:

  1. Know Your Customers: A profound understanding of customers helps you build products that will delight them and keep them satisfied.
  2. Manage the Product Experience: Good product experiences (i.e., understanding what customers want, how they feel about the product experience, and what they’re doing) increase usage and build loyalty.
  3. Value and Protect Your Customer Relationships: Recognize that your users are human beings and that your relationship with them requires intentional stewardship. Don’t take these relationships for granted.
  4. Engage Customers and Reward Loyalty: Look for opportunities to connect with your users. Consider developing a program that rewards their continued loyalty.
  5. Gather User Feedback: Take to heart what your customers share with you and provide support on the right channels.
  6. Share Your Gratitude: Remember to let your customers know that you appreciate them–the more personal you can be, the better the result.
  7. Understand Churn: Figure out why some customers churn.
  8. Understand Your Most Loyal Customers: Examine the attributes of your most loyal customers and identify commonalities.

Related terms: Customer Empathy /Product Tree /Lifetime Value / Customer Acquisition Cost /Churn /User Experience

Retention (2024)

FAQs

What is a good retention? ›

What Is a Good Employee Retention Rate? Currently, employee retention rates in the U.S. average around 90 percent and vary by industry. Generally speaking, a good retention rate ranges 90 percent or higher.

What questions should I ask to improve retention? ›

Open-ended retention survey questions
  • If given the opportunity, what changes would you make at this organization?
  • Are you able to reach your full potential in your role? ...
  • Does your role align with your skillset? ...
  • Are your growth and development opportunities adequate? ...
  • Could you see yourself leaving this company?
Aug 17, 2023

What do you mean by employee retention? ›

Employee retention refers to the strategies organizations use to prevent employees from leaving. It's crucial to maintain a high retention rate, as high turnover can be costly and impact team morale. Effective retention involves competitive benefits, a positive work environment, and growth opportunities.

Is retention a good thing? ›

Although most educational and psychological research confirms that grade retention is rarely a positive intervention, there are some children that do better if they are retained. For these students, retention is both necessary and beneficial.

What is the 40 20 10 retention rule? ›

On average, a 40-20-10 profile is considered good retention ‒ 40% retention on Day 1, 20% retention on Day 7, and 10% retention on Day 30. But depending on the genre of the game, good retention rates may vary. According to Gameanalytics, the average Day 1 retention rate is 25%.

Is 20% retention good? ›

Industry Benchmarks

While the average hovers around 20% 90-day retention, it's best to aim for 25% or higher depending on your industry.

Is an 80% retention rate good? ›

Your ideal CRR depends on your industry. However, as a general rule, 35% to 84% is considered a good retention rate.

What are the 4 pillars of retention? ›

By building an engagement strategy on the four pillars: well-being, company culture, training and development, and recognition, and powering it with modern technology, employers can improve their recruitment and retention rates.

What is the biggest key to retention? ›

Top 6 Factors That Drive Better Employee Retention
  1. People and culture. A positive working environment or company culture should fit like your favourite pair of jeans. ...
  2. Work acknowledgement. ...
  3. Meaningful benefits. ...
  4. Ongoing training. ...
  5. Workplace environment. ...
  6. Mission and values alignment.
Jun 7, 2022

How do you ensure strong retention? ›

Table of Contents
  1. Offer Competitive Base Salaries or Hourly Wages.
  2. Let Your Employees Work From Home.
  3. Provide Flexible Scheduling and Reduced Workdays.
  4. Encourage and Promote a Work-life Balance.
  5. Recognize and Reward Your Employees for Their Work.
  6. Create a Culture That Employees Want To Be Part Of.
  7. Build Employee Engagement.

What are the three R's of employee retention? ›

To address this challenge effectively, organizations need to focus on the 3 R's" of employee retention: Respect, Recognize, and Reward.

What is a retention strategy? ›

A retention strategy is a plan organizations create and use to reduce employee turnover, prevent attrition, increase retention, and foster employee engagement. While some turnover is inevitable, building a retention strategy to prevent as much voluntary turnover as possible can save an organization time and money.

Why is retention so important? ›

High retention reduces lost knowledge, hiring expenses, and missed revenue opportunities. It amplifies workers' contributions, allowing you to make the most of the talent you have. And retention drives better performance and improved business outcomes over the long term while delighting your clients and customers.

What does 80% retention rate mean? ›

This is written as a percentage of total customers who remained with the brand throughout the time period. For example, if your app starts the month with 100 users and ends the month with 80, your app's retention rate would be 80%.

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