What is the Customer Engagement Score?

No other metric works as well as the customer engagement score when it comes to predicting churn or identifying new upselling opportunities.

In fact, measuring the engagement score is by far the best way to: 

• Identify the most engaged trial accounts that you could convert into paying customers (and when they’re ready to talk to you about it.) 
• Which trial or freemium users might not be engaging with the product enough to see its value, and? 
• Which existing customers are ready to move on to a higher package?

But how do you do it, exactly? How do you create an engagement score for your brand? 

That’s what you’ll find out from this guide. You’ll learn:

• What is customer engagement?
• Understand the concept of the customer engagement score and why should you care about it. 
• We’ll discuss who should measure customer engagement and how it affects different positions within the company. 
• Finally, we’ll talk about the process of measuring user engagement. 

What is Customer Engagement?

In the simplest terms, an engaged user or customer is someone who receives value from using your product regularly. 

But although the definition might seem simplistic, it hides two critical insights about users:

#1. “The value”

Seeing the value basically means that the person has received the outcome they had hoped for when signing up for your app. 

The value is closely tied to your marketing messages. For CRM software, for example, that promises to simplify the sales process the value will come as a result of users moving more deals forward through an organized sales process. 

A productivity app promising to improve internal company’s processes will deliver its value when users begin to complete more projects on time, and with little chaos in the process. 

The good news is that you can quantify the value and use it as one of the bases to measure the engagement score. 

(Note: Later in this guide, I’ll show you how to do it. I’ll also show you how other companies have been quantifying the value of using their products already.) 

For now, however, let’s focus on the other aspect of the definition you must know about:

#2. “Regularly”

For a user to engage with a product, they must see the value from using it repeatedly. Making one sale through the CRM only will not likely confirm the value. Similarly, completing one project out of many on time might have just been a fluke, rather than a result of using the product. 

Based on the above, we could expand the definition further, and describe an engaged user as:

Someone who received the results they were hoping for originally, when signing up for your product, based on what you’ve promised, and received them repeatedly. 

What is a Customer Engagement Score, Then?

You know the definition of an engaged user already. But what does that have to do with the customer engagement score?

The customer engagement score is a metric that sits at the heart of your Customer Engagement Strategy. You can use it to measure how engaged your existing customers and trial or freemium accounts are.

Typically, you calculate the engagement score based on product activity and product usage. Although, it’s worth to note that your methodology for creating the score and monitoring it will, most likely, be unique to your business (more on this in just a second.)

I’ve already explained what the customer engagement score can help you achieve but let’s recap it quickly:

• Identify trial accounts that are ready to convert into paying customers, 
• Uncover leads who promise the biggest sales opportunity for your inside sales team, 
• Detect existing customers whom you could upsell to a higher package, and
• Find out which customers are struggling with using your product and might churn as a result. 

But Why Should You Care About It All?

The answer is quite simple. 

If users aren’t engaged, your business is at risk.

• Churn goes up
• Trials don’t convert
• Support costs rise

On the flip side: engaged users stay, grow, and spend more — often without you lifting a finger.

But Who Should Care About the Customer Engagement Score in Your Business, Specifically?

Who should care about CES? Everyone.

• Founders/CEOs: See if your product actually delivers on its promise.
• Product teams: Track what’s working, and what features flop.
• Sales & CS: Prioritize the right accounts, cut dead leads, and save time.

After all, CES really isn’t just a metric. It’s a map. And even if it may not seem like it at first sight, it can point you exactly where you need to go to continuously boost engagement.  

How to Build a Customer Engagement Score

Step 1: Define What Engagement Means for You

Not every product defines “engagement” the same way — and that’s the whole point.

You need to figure out what actions in your product actually signal that someone is getting value. That’s your north star.

Ask yourself:

• What outcome do users expect when they sign up?
• What do they do when they’re actually getting that outcome?
• Which of those actions can we measure?

💡 Examples from real SaaS companies:

Company	Engagement / PQL Signal
Slack	Account hits 2,000 messages sent
Drift	100 live chat conversations completed
Close	Multiple sales calls logged in CRM
Mailshake	Email campaigns launched and replied to
CoSchedule	Calendar fully populated with scheduled posts

Each of these signals tells the same story:
“This user is consistently using a key feature — and getting the value they signed up for.”

That’s what your Customer Engagement Score should capture.

✅ Pro tip: You may need different engagement definitions depending on the goal — one to flag churn risk, another to qualify leads, another to spot upsell potential. That’s fine. Build scoring models around the context that matters.

Step 2: Identify the Key Events to Track

Now map those outcomes to in-app actions you can actually monitor.

Pick 2–3 high-impact events that indicate a user is getting value.
Examples:

• Started a new session
• Invited a teammate
• Published a report
• Triggered a core feature

Don’t track fluff like “logged in.” Logins show activity, not engagement.

Step 3: Score the Events Based on Value

Some events matter more than others — and your score should reflect that.

Here’s how:

• Weight your events (e.g. “started session” = 1 point, “invited user” = 5)
• Track frequency over time (e.g. 3-day or 7-day window)
• Calculate an engagement score based on actual usage patterns

✅ Tools like Refiner make this easy — you can set up scoring models and assign weights without code.

Step 4: Use the Scores to Drive Action

This is where CES pays off.

• Sales: Find free or trial users with high engagement. Prioritize them.
• Success: Spot low-engagement VIPs. Reach out before they churn.
• Growth: Watch for users activating upsell-tier features.

📈 Set up daily workflows that surface CES data and push it to your team.

You’re not measuring for the sake of it. You’re turning product usage into business outcomes.

Customer Engagement Metrics

You’ve defined engagement. You’ve tracked events. You’ve scored users.
Now let’s talk about the raw metrics behind it all.

These are the signals that feed your Customer Engagement Score.

Metric	What It Tells You
Usage frequency	Are users showing up regularly? If they’re not logging in, they’re not engaging.
Time spent in product	Are they actively working inside the app — or just dropping in and bouncing?
Key features used	Are they engaging with what actually matters? Not just logging in, but doing the work.
Feature depth	Are they sticking to one thing — or exploring more of what your product offers?
Pricing tier behaviors	Are they activating features tied to a higher plan? That’s your upsell signal.
Purchase intent signals	Are they checking your pricing page or asking about limits? That’s intent.

💡 Not all of these will apply to every product. But once you know your “aha moments,” you can reverse-engineer the behaviors that lead to them.

📘 Reminder:

Engagement isn’t about vanity metrics. It’s about repeated value. That’s what these metrics are trying to surface — users who are truly getting something out of your product.

Conclusion

Monitoring the customer engagement score is by far the best way to increase trial and freemium account conversion rates, increase customer satisfaction, and reduce churn. 

Hopefully, you know what customer engagement is now, and how to measure it to achieve those results and more. 

Good luck!

FAQ: Customer Engagement Score (CES)