Customer Retention

Resources

Prereqs

Read bulk-operations/​SKILL.md first — every read/​write below uses its JSONL pipe, pagination, and dry-run/​digest patterns. Activity-property tables and association rules live in sales-execution/​SKILL.md.

Schema is portal-specific. Verify each property before filtering — e.g. hubspot properties get --type contacts notes_last_contacted, ... hs_last_sales_activity_date, ... --type subscriptions hs_subscription_status. If subscriptions returns 403, your token lacks subscriptions-read — use a private-app token with that scope.

1 — Find inactive customers

CUTOFF=$(date -v-60d +%Y-%m-%d 2>/​dev/​null || date -d '60 days ago' +%Y-%m-%d)

# No outreach in 60d (calls/​notes/​meetings update notes_last_contacted)
hubspot objects search --type contacts \
  --filter "lifecyclestage=customer AND notes_last_contacted<$CUTOFF" \
  --properties email,firstname,notes_last_contacted,hubspot_owner_id

# No sales activity in 60d (broader — also catches emails/​tasks)
hubspot objects search --type contacts \
  --filter "lifecyclestage=customer AND hs_last_sales_activity_date<$CUTOFF" \
  --properties email,firstname,hs_last_sales_activity_date

# Never contacted
hubspot objects search --type contacts \
  --filter "lifecyclestage=customer AND !notes_last_contacted" \
  --properties email,firstname

For more signals (email opt-out, stale tickets, no open deals) see resources/​customer-health-signals.md. For >100 hits, use the pagination loop from bulk-operations.

To audit why a customer churned or moved stage — which workflow, integration, import, or UI edit last changed lifecyclestage — use hubspot objects history --type contacts --properties lifecyclestage [--id <recordId>] [--include-ui]. It flattens each property's source history into one row per change.

2 — Flag at-risk subscriptions

subscriptions is a standard object (hubspot objects types confirms). Enum values for hs_subscription_status are portal-specific — verify before filtering, then plug the exact value in:

hubspot properties options-list --type subscriptions hs_subscription_status   # allowed values

# Past-due — revenue at immediate risk (substitute your verified value)
hubspot objects search --type subscriptions \
  --filter "hs_subscription_status=past_due" \
  --properties hs_recurring_billing_total,hs_subscription_status

# Map an at-risk subscription to its contact for outreach
hubspot associations list --from subscriptions:<sub_id> --to contacts --format jsonl

3 — Create a follow-up task or check-in note

Activity creation lives in sales-execution (full property tables, note + meeting flows). One anchor example — unassociated tasks are invisible in the CRM UI, so always associate:

task_id=$(hubspot objects create --type tasks \
  --property hs_task_subject="Q1 retention check-in" \
  --property hs_task_priority=HIGH --property hs_task_status=NOT_STARTED \
  --property hs_task_type=CALL --property hs_timestamp=$(date +%s)000 \
  --format json | jq -r '.id')
hubspot associations create --from tasks:$task_id --to contacts:<contact_id>

4 — Bulk task creation for a cohort

Pipe a search through jq into one objects create call, then associate. objects create is Additive — never digest-gated — so --dry-run is a plain preview and you execute by dropping it (no digest/​confirm). The digest flow only applies to the irreversible writes in bulk-operations/​SKILL.md.

DUE_MS=$(( ($(date +%s) + 2*86400) * 1000 ))   # due in 2 days

# 1. Capture the cohort (same file feeds both create + associate)
hubspot objects search --type contacts \
  --filter "lifecyclestage=customer AND notes_last_contacted<$CUTOFF" \
  --properties firstname > /​tmp/​inactive.jsonl

# 2. Build task payloads — one per contact
jq -c --arg due "$DUE_MS" '{
  contact_id: .id,
  properties: {
    hs_task_subject: ("Re-engage: " + (.properties.firstname // "customer")),
    hs_task_priority: "HIGH", hs_task_status: "NOT_STARTED",
    hs_task_type: "CALL", hs_timestamp: $due
  }
}' /​tmp/​inactive.jsonl > /​tmp/​task_payloads.jsonl

# 3. Dry-run, then create (drop contact_id before piping)
jq -c '{properties}' /​tmp/​task_payloads.jsonl | hubspot objects create --type tasks --dry-run | head
jq -c '{properties}' /​tmp/​task_payloads.jsonl | hubspot objects create --type tasks > /​tmp/​created.jsonl

# 4. Associate each new task to its contact — one piped call (associations create batches 100 pairs/​API call; paste preserves order)
paste <(jq -r '.id' /​tmp/​created.jsonl) <(jq -r '.contact_id' /​tmp/​task_payloads.jsonl) \
  | jq -cR 'split("\t") | {from:("tasks:" + .[0]), to:("contacts:" + .[1])}' \
  | hubspot associations create

One CLI call for the search, one for the create, and one for all associations — no xargs -I{} per record. The output-order guarantee of objects create (one result per stdin line, in order — see bulk-operations "Output shape") is what makes the paste correct.

Known gaps

• No native churn-score / health-score property — track via a custom property.
• hubspot segments provides CRM lists for re-engagement cohorts — segments members-list pulls a list's members, and segments create / update-filters save an at-risk audience as a reusable list. Re-engagement enrollment can be built as a workflow via hubspot workflows create / update (see workflow-automation/​SKILL.md).
• hubspot sequences reads Sales Hub sequences (read-only): use sequences enrollments <contact_id> to see whether an at-risk customer was ever engaged through a sales sequence. Sequences are a product API (Sales Hub Professional+, automation.sequences.read scope), not a CRM object type — the CLI cannot create sequences or enroll contacts. This list grows over time; recheck hubspot --help / CHANGELOG.md rather than assuming an API is absent.
• hubspot associations create batches stdin JSONL (up to 100 pairs per API call) — pipe the pairs in one call instead of looping.