Customer retention is the practice of keeping your customers loyal and engaged over the long term. It’s about building trust, delivering consistent value, and strengthening partnerships that last. Retained customers spend more, cost less to maintain, and help drive growth through referrals and advocacy
If you’re starting a new VoC project and want to avoid rookie errors, understanding retention is essential. Our Three Foundations of VoC Guide will help you get things right from the start.
If customer acquisition feels expensive, it is. According to a study by Harvard Business Review, acquiring new customers can be 5 to 25 times pricier than retaining your current ones.
In B2B specifically, acquisition costs are even higher, with longer sales cycles, more decision-makers to engage, and typically higher stakes in each deal. Wheras existing customers spend more and are warm leads for new product or service offerings. So why not focus on them first?
Genuine customer retention efforts are increasingly rare in a market dominated by short-term tactics and fleeting customer relationships. Businesses that prioritize retention as a core strategy don’t just keep customers—they create a lasting advantage that competitors struggle to replicate.
As the saying goes, you can’t improve it without measuring it (but also, you don’t fatten it by weighing it), so to improve retention you need to be able to measure Customer Retention Rate (CRR).
Calculating your Customer Retention Rate (CRR) is how you measure how good you are at keeping customers. Here’s the formula in plain English:
You can only calculate ‘retention’ over a time period, so decide if you want to look at monthly, quarterly, or yearly retention.
CRR = (E − N) / S × 100
Let’s look at an example.
Say you want to calculate monthly retention.
At the start of the month, you have 100 customers.
By the end of the month, you’ve got 120 customers, but 30 of those are new.
Your CRR would be:
CRR = (120 − 30) / 100 × 100 = 90%
So, 90% of your original customers stayed with you. That’s a good target!
Keeping track of your CRR over time can give you valuable insight into how well your retention strategies are working.
Need help improving your CRR? Our guide, How to Respond to Customer Feedback deals with everything: the organisational politics around dealing with feedback, and specific tactics you can implement in your day-job to make sure it happens, and happens well.
Retention is genuinely harder than ever. Because customer experiences are almost completely digital, with a couple of clicks, customers can jump from you to any number of competitors. So if you’ve invested in earning someone’s business, you want them to stay because they see value in sticking with you.
High customer acquisition costs in B2B mean losing a customer is more than a relationship setback — it’s a significant financial loss. With larger deals and intensive onboarding, every lost customer represents wasted investment, time and missed referral opportunities. A strong retention strategy safeguards that investment, turning acquisition efforts into sustained loyalty and long-term value.
Retention is critucal, but how do you improve it?
The single most effective way is a strong, systematic feedback managment/Voice of the Customer programme.
Listening to your customers is only the first step. To retain them, you need to show them you’re acting on what they’re telling you. That’s what builds trust and makes people feel valued.
59% of customers will leave a brand after a single bad experience. This underscores how critical it is to proactively address and improve customer experience. Each interaction is an opportunity to either strengthen the relationship or risk losing it.
In B2B you’re not just managing one person’s feedback, but often balancing multiple stakeholders across different roles, locations, and touchpoints. Every stakeholder might have a slightly different experience or priority, so gathering, managing, and responding to this multi-layered feedback can be challenging. But when done right, it strengthens the overall customer relationship because each stakeholder feels heard and understood.
At CustomerSure, we help companies capture, analyse, and use feedback in a way that actually makes a difference. When customers feel heard and see that their feedback leads to positive changes, they’re more likely to stay engaged. Our guide, How to Share Customer Feedback with Employees explains why sharing feedback internally can make a big impact — when employees know what’s important to customers, they’re more likely to respond in a way that strengthens these partnerships.
Feedback management and VoC come with their challenges, and we’re here to help clients overcome them. But here are a few simple, actionable ways your VoC programme can boost retention:
Every customer who takes the time to give feedback deserves a response. Acknowledging their input—not with automated platitudes but with genuine, thoughtful replies—shows you value them as individuals.
Customers expect more than surveys; they expect results. Prioritize acting on feedback in real time rather than filing it away for future analysis. Address issues as they arise to build trust and prevent churn.
Empower your team to own customer interactions by sharing feedback widely. When everyone understands what customers are saying, the whole business can align around delivering better experiences.
Focus less on tracking broad metrics and more on whether actions taken from feedback are solving real problems for customers. Use feedback as a direct tool for improvement, not just a reporting mechanism.
You don’t need to overhaul your entire approach to feedback at once. Begin by responding to a manageable subset of feedback. Prove its value, then expand to more areas of the business
Customer retention is more than just a metric — it’s a strategy for sustainable growth.
By focusing on retention, you reduce costs, improve satisfaction, and create long-lasting partnerships. Platforms like CustomerSure make it easier to listen, act, and build trust with your customers.
Ready to take the next step? Book a call with us today to learn how a VoC programme can strengthen your retention efforts.
Ready to elevate your VoC programme and ensure success using our expert guide? Learn the three foundations required for success.
Discover more »Connect with a CX expert who’ll help determine your current VoC programme maturity level and provide a 3-step action plan to improve.