---
Title: "What Is Customer Retention? Definition and Formula"
Url: "https://computer.io/glossary/customer-retention"
Topic: "Metrics"
Description: "Customer retention is a company's ability to keep customers over time. Definition, retention rate formula, strategies and how support affects retention."
---

# What is customer retention?

Customer retention is a company's ability to keep existing customers over a period of time. It is measured by the customer retention rate: customers at the end of a period, minus new customers acquired, divided by customers at the start, times 100.

## Formula

Retention rate = ((customers at end − new customers) ÷ customers at start) × 100

Example: start 1,000, end 1,050, new 120 → (1,050 − 120) ÷ 1,000 = 93%.

## Strategies

| Strategy | Example |
| --- | --- |
| Great onboarding | Faster time to value |
| Effortless support | Quick resolutions |
| Proactive success | Health checks, QBRs |
| Close feedback loops | Ship requested fixes |
| Loyalty rewards | Perks for long-term customers |

## Related revenue metric

Net revenue retention (NRR) measures revenue kept and expanded from existing customers.

## FAQ

### What is the difference between retention and churn?

Churn is the share of customers lost; retention is the share kept.

### What is customer retention management software?

Tools that track customer health, usage and risk to help teams keep customers.

### How does support affect retention?

Poor support is a common churn driver; fast, effective support improves retention.

## Related terms

- [Customer churn](https://computer.io/glossary/customer-churn)
- [Customer loyalty](https://computer.io/glossary/customer-loyalty)
- [Customer health score](https://computer.io/glossary/customer-health-score)

## How Computer helps

- [Customer agent](https://devrev.ai/solutions/customer-agent)

## Further reading

- [Customer retention vs loyalty](https://devrev.ai/blog/customer-retention-vs-loyalty)
- [Net revenue retention](https://devrev.ai/blog/net-revenue-retention)
- [Ai churn prediction](https://devrev.ai/blog/ai-churn-prediction)