Quick Summary: A customer success platform directly supports higher NRR by unifying customer data, improving visibility, and automating retention workflows. The 2025 Customer Revenue Leadership Study shows that teams using CSPs average 100% NRR versus 94% without.
Since we’ve released this year’s Customer Revenue Leadership Study, we’ve talked a lot about strengthening and maintaining net revenue retention (NRR). From architecting a strong customer team to stabilizing operations and inter-departmental processes, it all comes back to recurring revenue.
The case remains the same for your tech stack, because investing in a customer success platform, along with tools like a CRM, LMS or support software, correlates to higher NRR.
Let’s walk through the findings and how an integrated CSP can support this forward momentum for revenue-focused teams.
Download the 2025 Customer Revenue Leadership Study in full here.
Finding 1: Customer-centric tech stacks correlate to higher NRR
This year’s study indicates that the presence of customer-data-centric tools correlates to increased NRR. Overall, teams using the following reported a statistically significant difference from those without:
- CSP: NRR at 100% (94% without)
- CRM: NRR at 98.5% (90% without)
- LMS: NRR at 99% (95% without)
- Support software: NRR at 99% (93% without)
Real-world example: ChurnZero’s Renewal Hub
One way a CSP helps you increase NRR is by tracking revenue metrics accurately in real time. ChurnZero’s Renewal Hub is a centralized location for filtering, searching, and sorting revenue forecasts. This means better visibility on every stage: renewals, upsells and downsells, expansions, and churn, with holistic analytics that incorporate customer health scores and regularly sync with CRM data. Renewal Hub’s path to better NRR:
- Forecasting: a clear picture of every account’s standing with customized categories and integrated health scores.
- Revenue strategy: proactive risk assessment with balanced team resources.
- Performance reviews: identify team or individual performance at any rate, as well as forecast results for NRR, GRR, and all current KPIs.
Finding 2: Perception is not reality when it comes to tool effectiveness.
While the numbers are up, software usage across the board has dropped since last year. The root cause may be perception: tools that have the most impact are not being used or selected.
According to the 2025 study, for example, only 9% of respondents identified LMS technology as a top tool to grow revenue, only 13% identified support software, and only 36% identified CSPs.
Real-world example: ChurnZero’s Success Insights
Recurring revenue doesn’t stand a chance if you can’t detect risk in the first place. ChurnZero’s Success Insights is that risk detection system. Beyond the standard health scores, it categorizes customers into risk levels to highlight certain accounts and flag renewal dates. Without needing extra time and resources to analyze extensive datasets, your team can uncover what correlates to churn and which patterns or behaviors to track for each account. Success Insights’ natural progression to retention:
- Data based on customer success: it’s actual customer behavioral data, not just general benchmarks.
- Automated reports: risk reports delivered at a regular cadence for constant retention fine-tuning.
- Data-driven revenue strategy: optimize the customer journey because the data is accurate, and your team will just have more time.
Finding 3: Tech stacks are in transition as AI tool usage increases.
Most teams are still focused on tactical AI use cases like call summarization (73%) and account research/customer intelligence (50%), while teams shifting to revenue-focused AI use cases remain few and far between:
- Customer segmentation: 16%
- Predictive expansion signals: 15%
- Intent-based outreach: 14%
- Journey orchestration: 11%
Real-world example: ChurnZero AI
AI should be purpose-built to work with your team and enrich your revenue data. ChurnZero AI was the first embedded, CS-tuned, native GenAI within a CSP, and now includes integrated AI functionality and agents that close the gap between customer insights and CS execution. It’s designed to be led by real people; automating routines and analysis so you can focus on relationships, strategy, and outcomes.
- AI agents work as digital teammates to automate routine tasks, create structured summaries, flag risks and opportunities, and provide on-demand insights.
- Continuous access to customer data means consistency, speed, and scalability to customer growth programs.
- Built-in AI functionality increases overall efficiency and improves customer base knowledge.
- CS-tuned AI assistant supports writing, analysis, and guidance across the full platform.
Build an NRR-boosting tech stack with a CSP as your hub
Revenue retention is only as good as the systems and processes you support. If retention is your priority (which it should be), then make your CSP the hub. Unifying data in one system (across product, CRM, support, etc.) will offer a comprehensive view of your customers. Then, tie each element to specific retention goals:
- CSP = renewals and customer health.
- CRM = pipeline accuracy and revenue targets.
- LMS = activation and time to value.
- Support = risk detection (and deflection).
However, next your move shouldn’t necessarily be to add more tools—you can also make the ones you have work smarter together. The teams leading in NRR aren’t just investing in technology; they’re integrating it into every operational layer of the customer lifecycle.
Start by identifying where data silos slow down insights or decisions. Then, align your tech stack around shared revenue outcomes—renewals, expansion, and customer health. As AI becomes a standard part of this stack, focus its use where it can extend human impact: automation that saves time, intelligence that sharpens strategy, and visibility that drives accountability.
When your tech stack is connected and your customer data unified, retention stops being reactive. It becomes a predictable, repeatable part of growth.
