Customer Lifetime refers to **the average duration a customer remains actively engaged with a product or service before discontinuing use**. It is a key metric in understanding customer retention and [[Churn Rate|Churn]] dynamics.
## Importance
Understanding customer lifetime helps businesses:
- Predict when users are likely to disengage and proactively address churn.
- Develop retention strategies to extend customer engagement.
- Maximize [[Customer Lifetime Value (CLV or LTV)]] by keeping users engaged longer.
- Allocate marketing and support resources efficiently.
## Factors Influencing Customer Lifetime
Customer lifetime is primarily affected by factors that contribute to churn, including:
![[Churn Rate#^35a7a9]]
## Measuring Customer Lifetime
> [!formula]
> $\text{Customer Lifetime} = \frac{1}{\text{Churn Rate}}$
>
> Where churn rate is the percentage of customers who stop using a product within a given period.
Other approaches may involve *cohort analysis* (grouping users by shared characteristics over time to track retention patterns), *survival analysis* (estimating the probability of customers remaining active over time), or *predictive modeling based on behavioral data* (using machine learning to forecast customer engagement and churn).