Agents accumulate two kinds of evidence about their work: ratings, and how long their merchants stay. The second is far more informative, and it is the one worth optimising for.
What a rating actually captures
How someone felt shortly after an interaction. Ratings are usually given right after installation, when the agent has been attentive and nothing has gone wrong yet. They measure a first impression.
They are also given by whoever bothers — which skews toward the very pleased and the very annoyed, with the ordinary middle silent.
What retention captures
Whether a merchant kept paying, month after month, when they could have stopped at any time. That is a judgement made repeatedly, with money, by everyone on your book rather than by the few who left feedback.
A merchant who stays for two years has said something a five-star rating cannot.
It is already how the model works
Commission is 50% of what a merchant pays, every month, for as long as they stay. Your income is your retention. And Partner rank counts only paying merchants, so a book that stops paying slides back down a rank — retention is enforced by the counting rule rather than by a separate metric.
Nothing anywhere pays for signing. The design already treats retention as the thing that matters.
What retention actually requires
Not charm. Installing properly, being present in the first week, staying in contact while commission is being paid, being reachable when something breaks, and never pushing an upgrade a merchant does not need.
A merchant sold something they did not need lapses, and takes the commission with them.
For merchants choosing an agent
Look at how long their merchants stay rather than at their rating. A high rating with poor retention describes someone good at first impressions. Steady retention describes someone who keeps turning up.
The uncomfortable implication
An agent with a large book and poor retention is not successful yet. They are replacing merchants as fast as they lose them, which is the hardest possible way to do this job.
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