The Customer Success Glossary

Customer retention is a company's ability to keep its existing customers engaged and generating revenue over a defined period. In SaaS, retention is measured through logo retention (how many customers stay) and revenue retention (how much ARR remains), with each telling a different story about portfolio health and long-term growth potential.

Release notes are concise documents that communicate product changes—new features, improvements, and bug fixes—to users after a software update. In customer success, release notes serve a dual purpose: they keep customers informed about product evolution and give CSMs a ready-made reason to re-engage accounts with value-driven outreach tied to specific improvements that address customer needs.

A renewal is the point in the subscription lifecycle where a customer decides to extend their contract for another term. In customer success, the renewal is less an event to manage and more a verdict on the entire post-sale relationship. Every touchpoint, QBR, health check, and success plan milestone either builds the case for renewal or quietly undermines it, making the outcome largely determined months before the conversation happens.