Customer Lifecycle
The customer lifecycle is the model that classifies every customer by what stage they're in. Most B2B SaaS companies use 5 stages:
- Onboarding — first 30–90 days
- Adoption — using the product but not yet at full value
- Growth / value — getting business outcomes; potential expansion
- Renewal — within 90 days of contract end
- Advocacy — referring others, in case studies
Each stage has different goals, playbooks, and metrics.
Why lifecycle staging matters
Treating a Day-7 customer the same as a Day-300 customer wastes effort and confuses the customer. A lifecycle model lets CS playbooks be specific to where the customer is right now.
How BlueHill helps
BlueHill tags each customer record with a lifecycle stage. Status reports group accounts by stage. Different automations fire by stage (onboarding → daily nudges; renewal → forecast updates).
Related: Customer journey · Renewal · Advocacy