Customer Retention Rate

Customer retention rate expresses the proportion of customers who remain customers across a defined period, using a consistent definition of what it means to stay active. For a recurring house-cleaning business, retention might relate to households that continue their scheduled service from one quarter to the next. A one-time fence repair business may need a different definition because repeat purchases are less frequent. Retention rate differs from repeat booking rate, which counts whether customers make additional appointments. Calculations should exclude or account for newly acquired customers appropriately and state the period being measured. A high retention figure can be encouraging, but it does not by itself reveal profitability or customer satisfaction.