Episode 45 - Cross Functional Retention

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📰 Top Story: Cross Functional Retention

Since retention is the function of all customer interactions with your brand, it is the result of every decision made within the organisation, including product, promotion, CX, and customer service.  

Often, because retention is driven by the core value proposition (including pricing), who is acquired and how you handle retention at moments of truth, different departments can end up being responsible for various elements of the retention hierarchy of needs without actually having any focus on retention at all. 

The Retention Hierarchy of Needs

In episode 38 of this newsletter, I called for a Chief Retention Officer. This role includes responsibility for:  

• Any loyalty program 

• Retention research & analytics 

• Customer happiness measures like NPS  

• Customer value measurements like customer lifetime value

• Customer retention teams in the customer service organisation 

• All customer communications activity including CRM Marketing

• Business casing for customer investment to support value realisation 

• Key product journeys like the onboarding, cancellation or key services journeys 

For enterprises with this type of role, organising teams to focus on retention is easier, but not straightforward. 

With or without this role, because retention is the sum of all interactions that a customer has with the brand, to organise for retention, I suggest brands adopt the following; 

1.Cross Functional Working Groups Focussed on Moments of Truth 

When you have leveraged data and research to understand the moments that matter to customers, form working groups with folk from marketing, commercial, product and customer service to ensure alignment around optimisation of key retention moments of truth. These groups might be spun for a short period and then dissolved once the moment of truth has been addressed.

2.Shared metrics and KPIs 

Ensure that everyone in each working group is aligned to a common KPI. This retention KPI may negatively impact another business KPI, but this should be surmountable if you have leadership alignment around this moment of truth. For example, high NPS scores following a service interaction may require longer call handling times, but this extra time with the customer may be critical to driving improved retention. 

3.Department-Specific Retention Roles 

If you have a Chief Retention Officer, this makes life easier, but even if you don't, ensure there are key folks in primary functions within your business who have retention accountability. The Head of Retention Product, the Head of Retention Marketing, and the Head of Retention Service are all key roles for a retention-driven organisation. 

4.Shared Knowledge/Communication Frameworks 

As you formalise these working groups, bring the teams together so everyone has a common understanding of the customer journey, the challenges customers experience, how customers realise value, and moments of truth. This common understanding translates to shared goals. 

5.Collaborative Processes 

Ensure these working groups are empowered to bring in other stakeholders to drive the retention agenda across the organisation. Develop collaborative processes so retention isn't seen as the side of desk task or a spin-off initiative but a fundamental part of the organisation's BAU way of working. 

Case studies 

Slack created cross-functional "triad teams" consisting of product managers, engineers, and designers who work directly with customer success representatives. They implemented a shared dashboard showing product usage metrics alongside customer satisfaction and retention rates. This structure allowed them to quickly identify when specific features were underutilised and collaborate on solutions across departments. Their customer experience council meets weekly to review retention metrics and address emerging issues with product, marketing, support, and sales representatives.

Spotify organises around "squad" models where cross-functional teams (including developers, designers, product managers, and data analysts) focus on specific aspects of the user experience. Each squad is accountable for acquisition and retention metrics related to their focus area. Their "retention guild" brings together retention specialists from different squads to share learnings and best practices.  

Final Thoughts 

Retention isn’t a single team’s job - it’s an organisation-wide responsibility. The brands winning at retention today are the ones breaking down silos and aligning around what matters: the customer experience at key moments of truth.

By building cross-functional teams, unifying around shared KPIs, and creating space for collaboration, you turn retention from a fragmented afterthought into a coordinated growth engine. 

Until next week, 

Tom 

Do you need help with Customer Retention?

When you are ready, contact me to discuss consulting, my fast-track retention accelerator, courses, and training. Or if you are interested in sponsoring this newsletter, get in touch via [email protected]