How to increase customer retention: A guide for global brands looking to scale

With customer acquisition costs on the rise across industries, retaining loyal clients has become vital for sustainable growth. To increase customer retention, global businesses are increasingly investing in value-rich experiences that emphasize personalization, cultural relevance, and ongoing interaction.

This guide will explore proven client retention strategies that help global businesses drive repeat sales, deepen engagement, and stand out in crowded international markets. You’ll discover how thoughtful localization, automation, and communication help brands retain loyal customers and thrive in a competitive digital landscape.

What is customer retention? Definition and why it’s essential for global revenue growth

Customer retention is a company’s ability to maintain long-term customer relationships. It’s often measured with a customer retention rate, a key indicator of customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and long-term profitability. In saturated and highly competitive markets, a high customer retention rate is often a more reliable gauge of sustainable success than short-term acquisition metrics.

Mastering customer retention means going beyond transactional relationships. Global brands must build trust, offer seamless experiences across cultures, and prove their ongoing value through consistent delivery. A solid customer retention strategy yields the following benefits:

• Secure revenue generation: Acquiring new customers is significantly more expensive than retaining existing ones, making customer retention essential to achieving revenue forecasts.
• More customer loyalty: Engaged, loyal customers typically spend more over time and become vocal brand advocates.
• Consistently strong brand experiences: Businesses pursuing customer retention prioritize quality service, responsive support, and high overall value.

11 customer retention strategies to reduce global customer churn

Retaining customers across global markets requires more than a solid product. Brands must continuously earn customer loyalty by demonstrating cultural fluency, proactive support, and personalization at scale.

The following customer retention best practices help global businesses build meaningful, long-term customer relationships:

1. Localize the onboarding journey

First impressions are crucial. Localized onboarding uses translated content, region-specific use case examples, and culturally relevant messaging to help new customers feel understood and supported. This sets the stage for long-term engagement by building trust and credibility from the start.

2. Maintain communication

Consistent and thoughtful communication keeps customers engaged. Use localized email campaigns, push notifications, and region-specific promotions to stay connected with your audience. Always communicate in the customer’s preferred language and align your messaging with their cultural norms and values. A tailored communication approach shows respect and reinforces brand loyalty.

3. Automate intelligently with AI-driven translation

Speaking customers’ language doesn’t have to be a challenge. Marketing automation tools and AI-powered workflows can streamline global communication and improve operational efficiency. Smartling’s marketing automation integrations can automatically localize marketing materials and sales assets within the business software you already use.

4. Improve customer service with multilingual support

Prompt, localized support is a key factor for global customer retention. Many brands use multilingual chatbots to engage users in real time. In addition, Smartling provides customer support integrations that leverage AI to translate customer support knowledge bases, allowing businesses to deliver global support at scale.

For example, Smartling's Zendesk integration makes it easy to empower your support teams to deliver 24/7 multilingual customer assistance. Watch a demo of how it works below.

5. Start a customer loyalty program

Customer loyalty programs reward repeat purchases with perks and incentives, such as cost savings, exclusive access, or premium features. Loyalty programs that respond to customers’ needs and purchasing patterns deliver continuous value, supporting larger marketing and retention strategies.

6. Provide personalized experiences across languages and cultures

E-commerce customers crave personalized interactions that demonstrate an understanding of their unique needs and challenges. Leverage customer data to personalize communications and offer tailored recommendations that support repeat purchases.

7. Strategize based on customer feedback

Customer feedback provides data on your customer base’s evolving needs so you can improve personalization and quality. Ask for reviews, conduct customer surveys, and monitor sentiment in local markets. Treat complaints as strategic insights and close the loop with localized follow-ups. Acting on feedback shows customers their opinions matter, increasing trust and satisfaction.

8. Reward referrals

Customer retention can also streamline new customer acquisition. Targeted incentives encourage your most loyal customers to refer friends and peers. These referral strategies scale more effectively when adapted to regional expectations and behaviors.

9. Express values that resonate globally 

Modern customers care deeply about a brand’s ethos and authenticity. Value-driven messaging can deepen emotional ties and foster long-term customer loyalty. Show how your company supports diversity, sustainability, or social causes, and adapt your messaging to each region so it feels genuine.

10. Offer localized payment methods

Global customers prefer to pay using familiar methods and platforms. Tailor your checkout experience to support local payment gateways, currencies, and tax systems. This removes friction from the customer experience, encouraging users to return to the product or service.

11. Educate existing customers

Educational content helps buyers get the most out of their purchases and reduces customer churn over time. Global brands can use Smartling’s translation services to quickly and cost-effectively localize your entire knowledge base, including how-to content, tutorials, and FAQs. By employing linguistic assets like a localization style guide throughout the translation process, your materials can maintain a consistent brand voice in every language.

Calculating customer retention rate: Key metrics for CRR

Your customer retention rate reflects how many customers you retained over a given period. Here’s how to calculate it:

Customer retention rate = ((E – N) / S) X 100

• E = Number of customers at the end of the period
• N = Number of new customers acquired during the period
• S = Number of customers at the start of the period

Example: Imagine you had 1,000 customers at the beginning of a quarter, gained 300 new customers, and ended with 1,100 active customers. Here’s how you would calculate your retention rate for that quarter:

((1,100 – 300) / 1,000) X 100 = 80%

In addition to customer retention rate, several complementary metrics help brands better understand customer behavior and long-term value. These data points reveal patterns in customer behavior, highlight emerging needs, and support a stronger retention strategy.

Repeat customer rate

The repeat customer rate measures the percentage of customers who return to make a second purchase.

Repeat customer rate = (repeat customers / total unique customers) X 100

Purchase frequency

This figure measures how often the average customer returns to buy your product or service within a set timeframe. It’s closely related to the repeat customer rate.

Purchase frequency = total orders / total unique customers

Durchschnittlicher Bestellwert (AOV)

The average order value is the amount of money an average customer spends in each transaction.

AOV = total sales revenue / total orders

Customer lifetime value (CLV)

The customer lifetime value estimates the total revenue you can expect from an average customer throughout their relationship with your brand.

CLV = average order value X purchase frequency X average customer lifespan

Whether you measure purchase frequency per month or year, make sure you denote customer lifespan in the same way.

Churn rate

The customer churn rate represents the percentage of customers who stop using your product or service within a given time frame. Every company expects some churn, but typical rates vary depending on the industry and business model. A relatively high customer churn rate suggests underlying issues, such as unmet expectations or poor customer service.

Churn rate = ((customers at the start – customers at the end) / customers at the start) X 100

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Retain more international customers with Smartling’s localization tools

To achieve better customer retention, global businesses need thoughtful strategies, cultural intelligence, and consistent execution. They should research what their audience wants and transform the customer experience to meet users where they are—linguistically, financially, and emotionally.

Smartling empowers brands to form loyal customer relationships worldwide with efficient and cost-effective translations. With our AI translation, you can translate double the content in half the time of traditional methods, supporting your multilingual customer service at scale. AI-generated translations are backed by a satisfaction guarantee; if you’re unhappy with a translation, we’ll redo it at no extra cost.

Want to see the impact of streamlining global customer support? Read how Smartling helped Personio, an HR software solution, deliver personalized, multilingual support and provide top-notch multilingual customer service to HR departments across Europe.