Customer Feedback Glossary

Churn Rate

Churn rate is the percentage of customers who stop doing business with a company within a given time period. It is a critical metric for subscription-based businesses and is calculated as: Churn Rate = (Number of customers lost during period / Number of customers at start of period) × 100. A high churn rate signals underlying problems with product-market fit, onboarding, support, or value delivery.

CSAT Score

CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) is a transactional metric that directly measures a customer's satisfaction with a specific interaction, product, or service. Customers rate their experience on a simple scale — typically 1–5 or 1–10 — immediately after a touchpoint. The score is expressed as the percentage of respondents who gave a positive rating (usually the top one or two values on the scale).

Customer Effort Score (CES)

Customer Effort Score (CES) is a metric that measures how easy it is for customers to interact with a company — whether completing a purchase, resolving a support issue, or getting started with a product. Customers rate the ease of their interaction on a scale (typically 1–7 or 1–5), and lower perceived effort is strongly associated with higher loyalty and reduced churn.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), also known as LTV, is the total net revenue a business can expect to earn from a single customer account over the entire duration of their relationship. It factors in purchase frequency, average order value, gross margins, and retention duration, making it a fundamental input for acquisition budget decisions, pricing strategy, and customer success investment.

Customer Retention

Customer retention is the ability of a business to keep its existing customers over a defined time period. It is measured as a retention rate — the inverse of churn rate — and is closely tied to customer satisfaction, perceived value, and the quality of the ongoing customer experience. High retention is the foundation of sustainable, profitable growth.

Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a measure of how well a product, service, or experience meets or exceeds customer expectations. It is typically tracked through surveys, ratings, and feedback mechanisms, and serves as a leading indicator of customer loyalty, retention, and revenue growth.

Exit Survey

An exit survey is a structured set of questions presented to customers who are canceling a subscription, churning from a service, or abandoning a page or purchase flow. Exit surveys are designed to understand the reasons behind departure, capture final feedback, and occasionally surface win-back opportunities — making them one of the most direct sources of actionable churn intelligence.

Feedback Loop

A feedback loop is a closed cycle in which customer feedback is systematically collected, analyzed, acted upon to improve the product or service, and then communicated back to customers. A closed feedback loop signals to customers that their input is valued and acted on — a powerful driver of loyalty and advocacy.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a widely-used customer loyalty metric based on a single question: 'How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?' Respondents answer on a 0–10 scale and are segmented into Detractors (0–6), Passives (7–8), and Promoters (9–10). The score is calculated as: NPS = % Promoters − % Detractors, yielding a number from −100 to +100.

Onboarding Feedback

Onboarding feedback is input gathered from customers during their initial experience with a product — typically within the first hours, days, or weeks of use. It is designed to surface friction points, identify confusion, confirm early wins, and catch the customers who are at highest risk of churning before they ever experience the product's core value.

Voice of the Customer (VoC)

Voice of the Customer (VoC) is the process of capturing customers' expectations, preferences, pain points, and aversions through direct and indirect feedback channels. VoC programs synthesize this input to guide product development, service improvements, marketing messaging, and customer experience design.