SaaS Customer Engagement and Retention Plan (CERP)
Scaling SaaS growth through automation across the entire customer lifecycle
Challenge
A global intelligent transportation system company was shifting from a hardware-driven model to a SaaS-first business. However, their SaaS operations were highly manual, with little to no automation in place. Critical processes across marketing, sales, onboarding, renewal, and multi-year retention were fragmented, limiting scalability and efficiency.
To enable growth and maximize customer lifetime value (LTV), a fully automated process needed to be designed and implemented — one that would optimize the entire SaaS customer journey and improve the LTV:CAC ratio.
Solution
The shift to SaaS required more than technology — it demanded a complete rethinking of how the company engaged customers across their entire lifecycle. To support this transformation, I designed and implemented a comprehensive SaaS workflow in HubSpot using HubSpot Journeys, bringing every stage — from lead generation to multi-year renewal — into a single, automated framework.
At the heart of the solution was lifecycle automation. Lead capture & nurturing, customer onboarding, engagement campaigns, renewal triggers, and advocacy programs were orchestrated in one system, ensuring no stage of the customer journey was left to chance. This structure provided consistency for customers while giving internal teams the tools to act quickly and intelligently at every touchpoint.
Equally important was cross-functional alignment. Marketing, sales, customer success, and technical support were connected through shared visibility and automated processes. What had previously been fragmented interactions became a coordinated operating rhythm, allowing every function to see where customers stood in their journey and to engage with context.
The workflows themselves combined marketing campaigns with sales and customer success touchpoints, delivering timely, personalized engagement. From a welcome sequence for new customers to renewal nudges for at-risk accounts, each interaction was designed to feel relevant and proactive. This approach not only improved the customer experience but also supported long-term retention.
Finally, the framework was underpinned by a SaaS reporting model that gave executives a clear view of growth and profitability drivers. The funnel tracked the entire lifecycle — acquisition, engagement, retention — with Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) and Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) for recurring revenue growth, churn and retention rates for customer stickiness, renewal performance segmented by product line and revenue, and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) as a forward-looking indicator of upsell and renewal potential. Efficiency measures like Customer Lifetime Value (LTV), Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), and LTV:CAC ratio provided leadership with the visibility to balance acquisition investment with long-term value creation.
Together, these elements established more than a process. They created a scalable engagement and retention engine, capable of supporting both rapid SaaS customer acquisition and long-term growth.
Results
The redesigned process delivered tangible improvements across the entire SaaS lifecycle. Customer onboarding was transformed from a bottleneck into a flexible, accelerated experience. Whether through self-service onboarding, group sessions, or guided specialist support, customers could now choose the path that best fit their needs. This not only shortened time-to-value but also boosted initial connection rates, laying the groundwork for stronger long-term relationships.
Customer engagement became consistent and proactive. Automated sequences ensured that clients received regular, structured touchpoints instead of being deprioritized in favor of urgent tasks. For account managers, this shift eliminated the burden of manual follow-up and freed time to focus on more strategic and high-value customer interactions.
Visibility also improved dramatically. With a unified engagement history available inside the CRM, account managers had full context at every interaction, enabling more relevant conversations and personalized support.
Finally, the new process reinforced retention and growth. On-time, personalized engagement accelerated early renewals and drove a higher rate of multi-year commitments, turning what had once been a reactive renewal cycle into a predictable and scalable revenue driver.
The impact of this project shows how a well-orchestrated customer engagement engine can accelerate onboarding, deepen relationships, and turn renewals into a predictable growth driver. The same principles are captured in our SaaS Retention & Growth Framework — a practical model that maps out how to build, measure, and scale lifecycle programs that maximize customer lifetime value. Ready to maximize your customers’ lifetime value? Download your copy below 👇
