Customer churn rate is the percentage of customers who stop doing business with a company over a given period, calculated as customers lost divided by customers at the start of that period.

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‍Why it matters

Churn is expensive in a way that's easy to underestimate. Replacing a customer typically costs far more than retaining one, and a churned customer also stops generating any future revenue that would have compounded over their remaining time with the company. Support quality is one of the more controllable levers on churn, since customers frequently name a bad service experience, not price or the product, as the reason they left.

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‍How it's tracked usefully

Support teams usually track churn among customers who recently had a support interaction separately from overall company churn, since that comparison shows whether a bad support experience is actually driving people away. A spike in churn following a specific policy change or a bad rollout is one of the clearest signals a support team can hand to the rest of the business.

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‍How it connects to lifetime value

Churn and customer lifetime value are mathematically linked. A longer average customer lifespan is the same thing as a higher CLV, so reducing churn and growing CLV are really the same lever viewed from two directions. This is why support teams tracking churn among customers who recently had a support interaction can point directly at CLV impact, not just an abstract retention number.