Renewals and customer growth are at the heart of your subscription business. But knowing how to improve retention, align your teams, and reduce churn isn’t always straightforward. That’s where TSIA Intelligence comes in.

Built on 20+ years of proprietary TSIA data, TSIA Intelligence surfaces the exact questions leaders like you are asking inside the TSIA Portal. In this blog, we’re highlighting the top questions from the Customer Growth and Renewal research area—along with straightforward answers you can put into practice.

Whether you’re looking to track the right metrics, get your go-to-market teams aligned, or cut down on attrition, you’ll walk away with actionable insights to strengthen your renewal strategy and grow customer value.

Key Takeaways

• Measure what matters most: Focus on renewal and retention metrics like net renewal rate (NRR), churn rate, and customer satisfaction to get an accurate picture of customer health.
• Align your teams on renewals: Clearly define roles and responsibilities, establish repeatable processes, and encourage collaboration across sales, customer success, and renewal specialists.
• Take proactive steps to reduce churn: Use data-driven insights, ongoing customer engagement, and personalized renewal strategies to minimize attrition.

What Metrics Should You Track to Measure Renewal and Retention?

To understand the health of your subscription business, tracking the right metrics around renewal and retention is crucial. These numbers don’t just show whether customers are staying, they reveal how well you’re growing relationships over time.

Core Metrics That Matter

• Gross renewal rate (GRR): Shows how much contract value you’re keeping when customers renew, excluding upsells or expansions. This gives you a baseline for retention.
• Net renewal rate (NRR): Goes a step further by factoring in upsells and cross-sells. A high NRR means you’re not only retaining customers but expanding their value.
• Churn rate: Highlights the percentage of customers you’ve lost in a given period. Lower churn = healthier customer relationships.
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): Estimates how much revenue you can expect from a customer across their entire relationship with you.
• Upsell and cross-sell conversion rate: Tracks how successful you are at growing existing accounts.
• Customer satisfaction (CSAT): Not financial, but a strong predictor of renewal. Happy customers tend to stay.

TSIA research reveals a shift in focus: net renewal rate is becoming the leading measure of renewal health. Many organizations now prioritize NRR over GRR because it reflects both retention and growth within existing accounts.

Companies are also paying closer attention to predicted renewal outcomes, customer churn, and the associated costs of retention. Together, these metrics provide a complete picture of how efficiently you’re managing renewals.

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Why This Matters for You

When you consistently track these metrics, you can:

• Spot risks before they impact renewals.
• Identify opportunities to expand customer accounts.
• Prove the long-term value of customer relationships.

The key isn’t just collecting data—it’s turning insights into action. By utilizing these renewal and retention metrics to refine your strategies, you can strengthen customer loyalty and drive growth.

Related: The 2025 Renewal Reality Check

How Should You Align Go-to-Market Teams on Renewals?

Renewals aren’t just the responsibility of one person or team—they require tight alignment across your go-to-market functions. When everyone understands their role and works together, you can create a smoother renewal process that keeps customers engaged and drives long-term growth.

Define Clear Roles

Each role in your go-to-market organization should contribute to renewals in a specific way:

• Renewal Specialists: Manage the renewal workflow—from sending reminders to negotiating agreements.
• Account Managers: Own overall account health, while managing upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
• Customer Success Managers (CSMs): Focus on adoption, resolve customer concerns, create expansion leads for sales and account management, and, in some cases, manage lower-complexity renewals.

When these responsibilities are clear, there’s less duplication of effort and fewer gaps in customer coverage.

Establish Repeatable Processes

• Segment renewals by complexity: High-value accounts benefit from more personalized, high-touch attention, while smaller renewals can be managed through automation.
• Use data-driven models: Propensity models based on customer behavior and history help you predict renewal outcomes, enabling your teams to prioritize their efforts effectively.

Foster Cross-Functional Collaboration

Alignment isn’t just about process; it’s about culture. To keep teams moving in the same direction:

• Create regular communication rhythms between renewal specialists, account managers, and CSMs.
• Consider team-based incentives that reward shared renewal outcomes rather than individual wins. This ensures everyone is motivated to support the customer experience.

Keep Improving Over Time

• Track performance: Monitor KPIs such as renewal rates, expansion revenue, and customer satisfaction.
• Gather feedback: Establish feedback loops across teams to identify challenges early and adjust your approach accordingly.

Why Alignment Matters for You

When your renewal strategy is coordinated across teams, you reduce churn risks, increase expansion opportunities, and provide customers with a consistent experience. The result: stronger relationships and more predictable revenue growth.

Related: Trust in Action Across the Renewals Landscape

How Can You Reduce Customer Attrition in the Renewals Process?

Keeping customers past their first contract term is one of the biggest challenges in subscription businesses. If too many customers churn during renewals, you lose both recurring revenue and future growth opportunities. The good news is that you can take proactive steps to minimize attrition and maintain a strong subscription base.

Start by Understanding Why Customers Leave

Attrition often ties back to poor adoption or weak engagement. If customers aren’t seeing value in your product, they’re less likely to renew. That’s why it’s critical to have a framework in place for measuring adoption and engagement, so you can intervene early before contracts are up for renewal.

Strategies To Reduce Churn

Here are some of the most effective ways to prevent customers from walking away:

• Segment and analyze your renewal base: Group customers by revenue, complexity, subscription type, and engagement level. This allows you to spot at-risk accounts and prioritize them with the right strategies.
• Use data to predict risk: Propensity models can identify customers who are less likely to renew, allowing your teams to focus their efforts where needed.
• Enhance engagement early: Don’t wait until renewal is on the table. Check in with customers throughout the year, align on the value they’re receiving, and address issues before they escalate.
• Personalize renewal communications: Automated reminders are more effective when they highlight features customers actually use or offer tailored incentives.
• Involve Customer Success Managers (CSMs): When CSMs stay engaged during the renewal cycle, net retention rates improve significantly. Their role in reinforcing value and addressing concerns is vital.
• Offer renewal incentives: Programs that reward timely renewals—such as added support, or early access to new features—can tip the balance for hesitant customers.

Keep Monitoring and Adapting

No renewal strategy is “set it and forget it.” Regularly track your renewal KPIs, customer feedback, and churn patterns. By adjusting your approach based on the data, you’ll stay ahead of attrition risks and build a more predictable renewal process.

Reducing attrition isn’t just about saving accounts—it’s about growing long-term value. By combining data-driven insights with proactive customer engagement, you can enhance retention, foster customer loyalty, and establish a more stable revenue stream.

Renewals are more than a transaction; they’re proof of the value you’re delivering to your customers. By tracking the right metrics, aligning your go-to-market teams, and taking proactive steps to reduce churn, you can strengthen customer loyalty and drive sustainable growth.

With TSIA Intelligence, you gain access to the top questions and answers shaping renewal strategies across the industry. It’s a faster, more innovative way to get insights that help you refine your approach and stay ahead of challenges in customer growth and renewal.

Related: The Impact of AI on Customer Success and Renewal Teams

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FAQs

What’s the difference between customer retention and customer renewal?

Retention refers to keeping customers over time, while renewal specifically tracks whether a customer continues their subscription or contract at the end of a term. Both are critical, but renewal gives you a direct view of revenue stability.

Why is net renewal rate (NRR) so important?

NRR doesn’t just measure whether customers stay; it also reflects account growth through upsells and cross-sells. A high NRR means you’re both retaining and expanding revenue from existing customers, which is one of the strongest indicators of long-term business health.

How does TSIA Intelligence support renewal strategies?

TSIA Intelligence gives you instant access to data-backed insights drawn from TSIA’s proprietary research. You can see the top questions leaders in your position are asking about renewals and customer growth, and use those answers to refine your own strategies and reduce risk.