Ep 73: 5 Retention Metrics I Track (And 1 I Ignore)

Most brands track repeat rate. I don’t.

In this episode, Jordan breaks down the five customer retention metrics he actually uses to judge whether an email and SMS program is driving real business results — and the one popular metric he ignores entirely.

Because the truth is: strong retention programs don’t always make your email metrics look better. In fact, sometimes open rates and click rates go down while revenue goes up.

This episode covers how to measure what actually matters, including:

• Why repeat rate can send the wrong signals
• How to track repeat buyers year over year
• A leading indicator for second purchases and funnel health
• How to measure reactivation from “stale” customers
• What your active repeat buyer base says about long-term growth
• The one “master metric” that shows if retention is driving incremental revenue

00:00 — Introduction

03:25 — The metric I don’t track: repeat rate (and why)

04:54 — Metric #1: Repeat buyers year over year

06:20 — Metric #2: Same-quarter repeat (a leading indicator)

09:13 — Metric #3: Stale repeat buyers (95+ day gap)

12:35 — Metric #4: Active repeat buyers as a share of your base

15:31 — Metric #5: Repeat buyers as a share of incremental growth

19:26 — What happens when retention starts driving the business

21:19 — Final thoughts on measuring real retention impact

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