Retention and churn

Retention is keeping existing customers; churn is the rate at which they leave. The leaky-bucket image, plug the hole before filling, sounds logical but collides with the evidence: defection is largely a function of market share, customers of all brands leave at predictable rates, and growing brands owe their growth almost always to more inflow, not less outflow. That makes retention an outcome rather than a dial. In contractual markets with cancellation moments churn management is more meaningful than in repertoire markets, but even there acquisition is the engine and every brand's bucket leaks.

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