Return Adherence
Return adherence is the share of eligible established customers who returned by their expected deadline. Formula: customers returned by deadline ÷ eligible customers × 100. It is RetentionTek's proprietary framing of base-rhythm retention, and the 60% component of the Retention Score.
Why deadlines beat periods
Period metrics ask “active in Q1?”: a question slow cadences fail unfairly. Adherence asks “back when expected?” per client, per service rhythm: a 12-week client returning at week 11 adheres; at week 20 they do not. The per-client deadline absorbs cadence differences that period counting cannot, which is why adherence suits appointment businesses with mixed service rhythms. Eligibility excludes clients whose deadline has not elapsed (unmatured) and requires minimum history before reporting, unknown is not failure.
Adjacent metrics
Adherence generalizes rebooking rate (intention captured) into kept promises, and specializes retention rate (period survival) into cadence-aware measurement. First-to-second conversion is its new-client sibling, same deadline logic, first window only. Together the two form RetentionTek's 40/60 score: front-of-funnel plus base rhythm, each visible, each interrogable.
Frequently asked questions
What is return adherence?
The share of eligible established customers who returned by their expected deadline: a cadence-aware measure of base-rhythm retention used as the 60 percent component of RetentionTek’s Retention Score.
How does return adherence differ from retention rate?
Retention rate asks whether customers were active in a fixed period; adherence asks whether each customer returned by their own expected deadline. Adherence handles mixed service cadences fairly where period counting punishes slow rhythms.