CS & SaaS metrics glossary - 32 definitions

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A

Account-Named CSM - A CSM assigned 1:N to specific named accounts. The standard for high-ACV B2B SaaS.
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) - Annualized value of subscription revenue, calculated as a snapshot of current monthly subscription run rate × 12.
ARR Growth Rate (YoY) - Year-over-year change in annualized recurring revenue.
Average Contract Length - Average length (in months) of customer contracts, weighted by ARR.

CAC Payback Period - Months it takes for a customer's gross profit to repay the cost of acquiring them.
Chief Customer Officer (CCO) - Executive responsible for the entire customer lifecycle after sale - CS, support, services, education, advocacy.
Churn Rate - Percentage of revenue lost from existing customers over a period due to cancellations.
Contraction Revenue - Recurring revenue lost from existing customers via downgrades, seat reductions, or tier moves - but not full churn.
cRPO (Current RPO) - The portion of RPO expected to be recognized as revenue in the next 12 months.
CSM Coverage Model - How a CS team is organized to cover the customer base. Common: Strategic / Enterprise / Mid-Market / SMB tiers.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) - Total sales + marketing spend required to acquire one new customer.
Customer Health Score - Composite score (often 0-100 or red/yellow/green) summarizing how at-risk a customer is.
Customer Lifetime (months) - Average months a customer stays before churning.
Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) - Estimated total revenue a customer generates over their entire relationship with you.
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) - Survey-based score measuring satisfaction with a specific interaction or product.
Customer Success Manager (CSM) - The role responsible for retaining and growing existing customer accounts after initial sale.

Expansion Contribution - The percentage points NRR exceeds GRR. Measures how much of retention strength comes from upsell vs pure stickiness.
Expansion Revenue - Recurring revenue gained from existing customers via upsell, cross-sell, or price increases.

Gross Retention Rate (GRR) - Percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers, EXCLUDING expansion. Measures pure churn + contraction loss.

Logo Churn Rate - Percentage of customer accounts lost over a period (count-based, not revenue-based).
Logo Retention - Percentage of customer accounts retained over a period, measured by COUNT (not revenue).
LTV:CAC Ratio - How many dollars of customer lifetime value you gain per dollar of acquisition spend.

Magic Number - Quarterly sales efficiency metric. >1.0 = invest more in S&M; <0.5 = pull back.
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) - Sum of all subscription revenue normalized to a monthly run rate.
Multi-Year Contracts - Contracts with terms longer than 12 months. A commercial maturity signal for SaaS.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) - Single-question survey score (-100 to +100) measuring customer willingness to recommend.
Net Revenue Retention (NRR) - Percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers over a period, including expansion, contraction, and churn.

Pooled CSM Model - CSMs handle any account that comes through a shared queue. Used at scale for SMB / mid-market.

Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO) - Total contracted-but-not-yet-recognized revenue. The renewal pipeline visible on the balance sheet.
Rule of 40 - Healthy SaaS companies should have ARR growth rate + free cash flow margin combined ≥ 40%.

SaaS Quick Ratio - Ratio of growth (new + expansion ARR) to losses (churn + contraction). >4 is healthy.

Time to Value (TTV) - Days from contract signing to the customer reaching a meaningful first outcome with the product.