Customer health score
A health score is a predictive model of renewal likelihood built from observed signals, and it is only a model if it has been validated against actual renewal outcomes.
Most health scores are weighted composites of product usage, support volume, sentiment, and relationship coverage. The composite is defensible only if each input has demonstrated predictive value for the outcome. Weights assigned by workshop consensus produce a number that describes attention paid rather than risk carried.
Validation is straightforward and rarely done: score accounts, wait for renewal outcomes, and check whether the score separated renewals from churn. A score that does not separate them is a reporting artifact, and acting on it misallocates the scarcest resource in the post-sale system.
Where it breaks
The score is dominated by an input CSMs update manually, so it measures CSM optimism.
Related terms
- Adoption
- Adoption is the extent to which entitled capability is actually used, measured against what the customer bought rather than against a generic activity benchmark.
- Time to value
- Time to value is the elapsed time from contract signature to the customer’s first realised outcome, measured against a defined outcome, not against go-live.
- Renewal management
- Renewal management is the governed process by which a contract term ends and a new one begins, with the renewal treated as a forecastable pipeline event.
- Onboarding
- Onboarding is the governed transition from signed contract to realised value, with defined entry conditions, milestones and an exit criterion.
Field notes on this
- Read NRR with GRR
NRR can combine base retention with concentrated expansion. Pair it with GRR and a cohort bridge, then investigate the causes separately.