Customer Analytics Cheat Sheet

Updated 2026-05-23

Next Topic: Dashboards & Reporting Cheat Sheet

Customer Analytics transforms raw customer data into actionable intelligence across the full lifecycle—from acquisition through retention and expansion. This cheat sheet covers the core metrics and KPIs every analyst tracks, the segmentation and RFM frameworks used to categorize customers, the CLV models from simple heuristics to full probabilistic BG/NBD+Gamma-Gamma pipelines, churn prediction feature engineering, cohort retention analysis, journey mapping and attribution, voice-of-customer scoring (NPS/CSAT/CES), product affinity and market basket analysis, k-means clustering, propensity modeling, customer 360 data unification, health scores, and CX dashboard design—ordered from foundational to advanced.

What This Cheat Sheet Covers

This topic spans 13 focused tables and 131 indexed concepts. Below is a complete table-by-table outline of this topic, spanning foundational concepts through advanced details.

Table 1: Core Customer Analytics Metrics & KPIsTable 2: Customer Segmentation ApproachesTable 3: RFM Analysis & ScoringTable 4: Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Models & FormulasTable 5: Probabilistic CLV Models (BTYD Framework)Table 6: Churn Prediction & Retention AnalyticsTable 7: Cohort Analysis & Retention CurvesTable 8: Customer Journey Analytics & AttributionTable 9: NPS, CSAT & CES Voice-of-Customer MetricsTable 10: Product Affinity & Market Basket AnalysisTable 11: K-Means Clustering for Customer SegmentationTable 12: Propensity Scoring & Predictive ModelsTable 13: Customer 360, Health Scores & CX Dashboards

Table 1: Core Customer Analytics Metrics & KPIs

Concept	Example	Description
Churn Rate	Lost 50 of 1,000 customers → 5% monthly churn	• `(Lost Customers / Starting Customers) × 100`. Good SaaS target: <1% monthly • average SaaS annual churn ~3.8% (B2B).
Customer Retention Rate	950 retained of 1,000 → 95% retention	`((Customers End − New Customers) / Customers Start) × 100`. Complement of churn rate.
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)	500 customers × $99/month =$ 49,500 MRR	• Predictable revenue from active subscriptions in a given month • Tracks New MRR, Expansion MRR, Churned MRR, Net MRR
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)	$200K MRR / 2,000 users =$ 100 ARPU	`MRR / Total Active Customers`. Used in historical CLV calculations and cohort comparisons.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)	$50K spend / 500 new customers =$ 100 CAC	`Total Sales & Marketing Spend / New Customers Acquired`. Includes headcount, tools, ads, events.
CLV:CAC Ratio	CLV $300 / CAC$ 100 = 3:1 ratio	• Target 3:1 or higher • Below 1:1 means acquiring customers at a loss • above 5:1 may indicate under-investment in growth
CAC Payback Period	CAC $120 / ($ 20 monthly revenue × 80% margin) = 7.5 months	`CAC / (Monthly Revenue per Customer × Gross Margin)`. Good B2B SaaS target: 12–18 months.

Table 1: Core Customer Analytics Metrics & KPIs

Concept	Example	Description
Churn Rate	Lost 50 of 1,000 customers → 5% monthly churn	• `(Lost Customers / Starting Customers) × 100`. Good SaaS target: <1% monthly • average SaaS annual churn ~3.8% (B2B).
Customer Retention Rate	950 retained of 1,000 → 95% retention	`((Customers End − New Customers) / Customers Start) × 100`. Complement of churn rate.
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)	500 customers × $99/month =$ 49,500 MRR	• Predictable revenue from active subscriptions in a given month • Tracks New MRR, Expansion MRR, Churned MRR, Net MRR
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)	$200K MRR / 2,000 users =$ 100 ARPU	`MRR / Total Active Customers`. Used in historical CLV calculations and cohort comparisons.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)	$50K spend / 500 new customers =$ 100 CAC	`Total Sales & Marketing Spend / New Customers Acquired`. Includes headcount, tools, ads, events.
CLV:CAC Ratio	CLV $300 / CAC$ 100 = 3:1 ratio	• Target 3:1 or higher • Below 1:1 means acquiring customers at a loss • above 5:1 may indicate under-investment in growth
CAC Payback Period	CAC $120 / ($ 20 monthly revenue × 80% margin) = 7.5 months	`CAC / (Monthly Revenue per Customer × Gross Margin)`. Good B2B SaaS target: 12–18 months.