This article deals with the identification of the key-factors of client retention in the metal mechanical sector. The research that gave support to it used a nonprobabilistic sample of companies associated to ABIMAQ (Brazilian Association of the Industry of Machines and Equipment) composed of 38 executives. For the data treatment were applied descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis techniques and the results revealed that the ten retention key-factors can be summarized into two factors called main and secondary factor. The quality of the products is preponderant factor to the client retention and when the data treatment technique was changed, quality of the products was proven as the main factor, while the other key-factors had not kept their position. The main emphasis to companies of the sample is given to the product much more than to the questions of reliability, speed and flexibility showing that companies do not still have an integrated vision of the business process. Finally, this study showed that to identify the client retention key-factors do not constitute one of the easiest tasks. Thus, this challenge will persist, maybe, for a long time.
clients retention; quality; reliability; speed; flexibility
