Building a customer health score might sound complicated, but it doesn't have to be. You don't need a complex formula or dozens of data points to get started. A simple health score with a few well-chosen metrics can be as effective as an advanced one.
HubSpot's Service Hub makes it easy to build a basic health score that helps you spot at-risk customers, identify loyal accounts, and give your team clear direction on where to focus their efforts.
This blog will walk you through the essential components of a simple customer health score in HubSpot. You'll learn what metrics to track, how to set up weights, and how to organize scores into categories that make sense for your team.
A customer health score is made up of three main components: metrics, weights, and categories. Each one plays a specific role in helping you understand customer health and take action.
Metrics are the data points you track to measure customer health. These are the behaviors, interactions, and signals that show whether a customer is doing well or struggling.
For beginners, it's best to start with a small number of metrics that are easy to track and clearly tied to customer success. Here are some common ones:
You don't need to track all of these right away. Pick two or three metrics that best reflect customer success in your business, and build from there.
Weights determine how much each metric impacts the overall health score. Not all metrics are equally important, so weighting lets you prioritize the signals that matter most.
For example, if product usage is the strongest indicator of customer health in your business, you might assign it a higher weight than support tickets. That way, a customer who logs in frequently but submits an occasional ticket will still have a strong health score.
Weights are usually expressed as percentages. For instance, you might set product usage at 50%, support tickets at 30%, and survey scores at 20%. This adds up to 100% and ensures your score reflects what's most important to your team.
Score groups are collections of related metrics that determine your health score. HubSpot organizes these into two types: event groups and property groups.
Event groups track customer behaviors and interactions over time, such as:
Property groups track static or regularly updated data points, such as:
For beginners, HubSpot offers pre-defined score groups that include common metrics like "1:1 Engagement," "Supported Tickets," "CSM Sentiment," and "NPS." You can use these as a starting point or create your own groups from scratch.
You don't need to track everything right away. Pick two or three groups that best reflect customer success in your business, and build from there.
Max points determine how much each score group can contribute to the overall health score. Instead of using traditional percentage-based weights, HubSpot lets you set a maximum number of points that each group can add to the total score.
For example, if product usage is the strongest indicator of customer health in your business, you might give that group a max of 50 points. Support tickets might have a max of 30 points, and survey scores might max out at 20 points.
Within each group, you can add or subtract points based on specific criteria. For instance:
HubSpot will calculate the total points across all your score groups to create the final health score.
Score labels and thresholds help you organize customers into groups based on their health score. Instead of looking at raw numbers, you can assign labels like "Satisfied," "Neutral," or "Unhappy" based on score ranges.
This makes it easier for your team to prioritize outreach. A customer labeled "Unhappy" needs immediate attention, while someone labeled "Satisfied" might be a good candidate for an upsell or case study.
HubSpot lets you set custom thresholds for each label. For example, scores above 80 might be labeled "Satisfied," scores between 50 and 79 might be "Neutral," and scores below 50 might be "Unhappy." You can also assign colors to each label to make them visually easy to spot on dashboards.
When you turn on your health score, HubSpot automatically creates two properties:
These properties update automatically as customer behavior changes, so your team always has the most current view of account health.
Building a health score in HubSpot doesn't require advanced technical skills. The platform guides you through the process step by step, making it accessible even for beginners.
Here's how to get started:
Start by deciding which metrics to track. As a beginner, focus on the data you already have access to. If you're not tracking product usage yet, start with support tickets and survey scores instead.
HubSpot pulls data from multiple sources, so you can include metrics from your CRM, support tickets, forms, and even integrations with tools like Jira or Slack.
For example, a simple health score might track:
These three metrics give you a clear picture of engagement, satisfaction, and potential issues.
Once you've chosen your metrics, decide how much each one should count toward the overall score. Think about which signals are most important for predicting customer success.
If you're not sure where to start, try an even split. For example, if you're tracking three metrics, give each one a 33% weight. As you gather more data, you can adjust the weights to reflect what you learn.
HubSpot makes it easy to test different weighting formulas and see how they impact scores, so don't worry about getting it perfect on the first try.
Next, create categories based on score ranges. These thresholds help your team know what action to take for each customer.
A simple setup might look like this:
These categories make it easy for your team to scan a dashboard and know where to focus their energy.
One of the best features of HubSpot's health scores is that they update automatically. As new data comes in from support tickets, surveys, or product usage, the scores adjust in real time.
This automation saves your team from manually calculating scores and ensures everyone is working with the latest information.
If you're building your first health score, keep it simple. Here are the most useful metrics for beginners:
This is one of the strongest indicators of customer health. Customers who log in regularly and use key features are getting value from your product. Customers who stop logging in are at risk.
In HubSpot, you can track metrics like:
If you don't have product usage data yet, consider integrating HubSpot with your product analytics tool to start tracking this metric.
Support tickets aren't always a bad sign, but a sudden spike in ticket volume can indicate a problem. Tracking how many tickets a customer submits helps you spot issues early.
For example, if a customer who usually submits one ticket per quarter suddenly submits three in a week, that's a red flag worth investigating.
Surveys like CSAT or NPS give you direct feedback about how customers feel. High scores mean customers are happy. Low scores mean there's work to do.
HubSpot makes it easy to send automated surveys after support interactions or at regular intervals. You can then pull those scores directly into your health score calculations.
Engagement metrics show how actively customers interact with your team and your content. This might include:
These signals help you understand whether customers are paying attention and staying involved.
Yes, weights are important because they let you prioritize the metrics that matter most. Without weights, every metric would count equally, which might not reflect how your business actually works.
For example, a customer who logs in daily but submits a support ticket should still have a strong health score if product usage is more important than ticket volume. Weights give you control over how much each metric impacts the final score.
That said, you don't need to overthink weights when you're starting out. Begin with a simple formula, test it with real customer data, and adjust as you learn what works best.
You might think a basic health score isn't powerful enough to make a difference, but the opposite is true. A simple score built on the right metrics can have a huge impact on retention and growth.
Here's why:
Even a basic health score helps you spot warning signs before customers leave. A 5% increase in customer retention can boost revenue from 25% to 95%, showing just how valuable it is to act on early signals.
Health scores also help you find your best customers. Loyal customers spend 31% more than new customers and provide the highest quality leads, according to 66% of salespeople.
Knowing who these customers are lets you focus on growth opportunities instead of just damage control.
Customer success reps often have too many accounts to manage. Health scores give them a clear way to prioritize. Instead of guessing which customers need help, they can focus on the accounts where their efforts will make the biggest difference.
On average, 65% of a company's revenue comes from approximately 8% of its most loyal customers. A simple health score helps you identify and protect those high-value relationships.
HubSpot's Customer Success Workspace is designed to make health scores accessible, even if you've never built one before. Here's how it helps:
HubSpot offers templates with common health score metrics already set up. You can use these as a starting point and customize them to fit your business.
Once your health score is live, you can view it in a dashboard that updates automatically. Your team can see which customers are healthy, at risk, or critical without digging through reports.
HubSpot lets you connect health scores to workflows, so actions happen automatically. For example, if a customer's score drops below a certain threshold, you can trigger an email, create a task for a rep, or send a Slack notification to the team.
If you're managing customers across different regions, HubSpot's multi-language support ensures your health scores work for global teams. This makes it easier to scale as your business grows.
Building a customer health score doesn't have to be overwhelming. Start with a few key metrics, set up basic weights, and organize customers into simple categories. As you gather more data and learn what works, you can refine your score to make it even more effective.
The most important thing is to get started. A simple health score is better than no health score at all, and HubSpot makes it easy to build one that helps your team reduce churn, improve retention, and focus on the customers who matter most.
If you're ready to set up a customer health score but need help getting started, Origin 63 can guide you through the process. We'll help you choose the right metrics, build a health score that fits your business, and train your team to use it effectively.
Talk to Origin 63 today and start using health scores to protect revenue and build stronger customer relationships.