Old Dominion Freight Line Q1 2026 Demand Recovery and Backlog Outlook

Verizon’s outlook for customer lifetime value (CLV) growth in 2026

Verizon’s management framed 2026 CLV growth largely through improving customer economics—especially churn reduction, better acquisition/retention economics (COR/COA), and shifting the revenue mix toward more durable recurring services—with an explicit emphasis on prioritizing customer lifetime value over short-term revenue maximization ¹.

What the company is implicitly saying about CLV growth in 2026

While Verizon does not publish a single “CLV growth” percentage in the excerpts, multiple signals indicate management expects CLV to improve across 2026 as the transformation program drives:

• Lower churn and better retention outcomes: Verizon exited Q1 with consumer postpaid phone churn below 85 bps and reported churn reduction “meaningfully” quarter-over-quarter ². In addition, total postpaid phone churn fell 5 bps sequentially to 0.97% in Q1 ³.
• Better unit economics tied to churn + lower spending: Management states that improvements in acquisition and retention costs have come down substantially through the quarter and are expected to continue through the year, attributing this to micro segmentation and tailoring offers more precisely to customer needs ⁴. They also describe cost-of-retention/acquisition declines as “structural… not onetime or seasonal,” implying durability through 2026 ⁵.
• More “durable” revenue mix: Verizon says it is “purposely shifting” mix toward durable recurring service revenues away from low-margin, promotional activity, and that it is “prioritizing customer lifetime value over short-term revenue maximization” ¹.
• Evidence that “customer economics” are flowing to cash generation: Verizon explicitly links improving churn/unit economics to consumer lifetime value and says those trends are “already flowing through to the bottom line and to our free cash flow” ⁶.

Taken together, management’s guidance posture indicates CLV should trend upward during 2026 as churn and customer acquisition/retention costs improve and as the firm reduces reliance on promotional tactics (which can both pressure margins and distort future retention economics) ¹⁴⁶.

---

How recent guidance changes may impact CLV growth

Verizon recently raised 2026 adjusted EPS growth guidance and revised the postpaid phone net adds outlook upward, while reaffirming mobility and broadband service revenue growth (2% to 3%) ²⁷⁸.

1) Raising adjusted EPS growth guidance suggests CLV-positive economics are becoming more confident

Verizon raised its adjusted EPS growth outlook to 5% to 6% (from a prior range of 4% to 5%) ²⁸. In management’s framing, this confidence is supported by customer-economics progress—such as reduced churn and improved acquisition/retention costs ²⁸—which are core drivers of CLV ⁶.

This matters for CLV because higher EPS guidance is consistent with expectations that:

• churn improvement and retention economics will persist,
• acquisition/retention costs will remain structurally lower,
• and the company’s customer-centric approach will keep producing better long-term value per customer ²⁴⁶.

2) Upward revision to postpaid net adds supports the “volume + quality” side of CLV

Verizon says it now anticipates postpaid phone net adds in the upper half of its $750,000 to $1 million range ²⁷. Management connects this to lower churn, better unit economics, and record customer satisfaction scores and indicates it is “ahead of pace” ⁷.

For CLV growth, net adds are relevant, but Verizon specifically emphasizes that the net adds are higher quality—e.g., account net adds improved, and the company is adding accounts with more lines per account and “more of the right customers at the right economics” ⁹⁶. Additionally, management states that net adds are likely to come “at least as, if not more than half” from improvements in churn, which should reduce the dollars spent “on driving our net add number” because the funnel is “tightening” ⁴. Lower promotional intensity combined with better churn economics is typically CLV-friendly because it supports both margin and retention durability ¹⁴⁶.

3) Re-anchoring 2026 revenue and free cash flow guidance suggests CLV gains are not just promotional-driven

Verizon reaffirmed mobility and broadband service revenue growth of 2% to 3% and expects free cash flow growth of approximately 7% or more versus last year ⁷. Management also states it will “maintain” mobility and broadband service revenue guidance while changing EPS and postpaid net adds outlook based on “data” and higher confidence ⁷.

If CLV were being improved only via short-term commercial incentives, you might expect more volatility in revenue quality or cash flow; instead, management claims CLV drivers are “structural” (churn and unit economics) and already visible in cash flow ⁴⁶, which supports the interpretation that guidance changes reflect real customer-economics durability—a key prerequisite for CLV growth ⁶.

---

Bottom-line synthesis

• Outlook for 2026 CLV growth: Verizon’s guidance and commentary imply CLV is expected to grow through 2026 as customers stay longer (lower churn), acquisition and retention costs remain structurally lower (micro segmentation and more disciplined retention tactics), and the company shifts away from promotional activity toward more durable recurring revenues ¹⁴⁶².
• Impact of guidance changes: The raised adjusted EPS growth outlook to 5%–6% ²⁸ and the postpaid phone net adds shift to the upper half of the range ²⁷ reinforce that management believes customer economics improvements are not only present in Q1 but should be dependable across the year—supporting CLV expansion via both better retention economics and higher-quality subscriber growth ⁷⁴⁶.

---