An engagement scoring model turns a contact’s or organization’s activity into a score from 0 to 100. You build the model with weighted components, and each component reads one metric and turns it into points. You can also place the final score into an engagement category.
What It Controls
A model scores either contacts or organizations, not both. Each model includes:
- Components. Each component reads one measurement, called a metric, and has a weight out of 100 that controls how much it counts toward the total score.
- Point ranges. Each component turns its metric value into points from 0 to 100, based on the ranges you define. For example, “2 to 5 years of membership earns 60 points.”
- Category rules (optional). After the model calculates the total score, it can assign an engagement category based on the score range where that total falls.
Rhythm calculates the total score by adding the weighted points from every component. The component weights must add up to exactly 100 before Rhythm will save the model.
Where to Find It
Go to Setup › Engagement › Scoring Models to open Manage Engagement Scoring Models.
- Create Engagement Scoring Model opens a blank form.
- The clone icon opens a new model copied from that row, without its identifier.
- The edit icon opens the model so you can change it.
- The delete icon removes the model after you confirm.
Prerequisites
- You need the permission your administrator grants for engagement scoring setup.
- If you want to score against your own metric, set up a custom engagement metric first.
- If you want to assign categories, set up your engagement categories first.
The Settings
Basic Information
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: | Contact, Organization | Whatever you chose last in this browser, or Contact | Controls whether this model scores contacts or organizations. You cannot change this after you save the model for the first time |
| Name: | Any text | Empty | Required. This is the name you see when choosing which model to use |
| ID: | Letters, digits, underscores, colons, vertical bars, and hyphens | Suggested from the name, with the model's type as a prefix (for example, a contact model named "Standard" suggests contact:STANDARD) | The model's permanent identifier |
| Status: | Active, Inactive | Active | Controls whether the model can be chosen as the active scoring model |
Scoring Components
The Scoring Components card shows a chart with one slice for each component, sized by weight. A gray slice shows any weight you have not assigned yet. Select a slice to edit that component, or select Add Scoring Component to open a blank component. Add Scoring Component is disabled once the weights total 100.
- Choose whether the component reads a System Metric from Rhythm’s built-in measurements or a Custom Metric that you defined. See Custom Engagement Metrics.
- Pick the metric. Component Name: fills in from the metric’s name, but you can change it.
- Enter the component’s Weight: as a percentage of the total score. You can enter up to the amount of weight that is not already assigned to other components.
- Add one or more scoring rules. Each rule has a Starting Range, an optional Ending Range, and the Score/Points from 0 to 100 that the range earns. The starting value is included in the range, and the ending value is not.
- Select Save Changes to add the component to the model.
Tip
If none of a component’s ranges awards exactly 100 points, Rhythm shows a warning so you can review the setup. A “perfect” measurement should usually earn full points for that component. If the setup is intentional, select (ignore this warning) and save anyway.
Warning
The component dialog and model form let you send changes even when the component weights do not add up to 100. Add Scoring Component is disabled once the weights total 100, but the model form’s Save Changes does not check the total before sending your changes. See Validation and Errors below for what happens when the weights do not total 100.
Changes you make in the component dialog are not sent to Rhythm until you save the model with Save Changes on the model form.
Engagement Categories
Turn on Automatically Assign Engagement Categories to have the model sort a finished score into a category. Add Engagement Category Rule adds a row where you enter a Minimum Score, a Maximum Score, and the Category to assign when the total score falls in that range.
Warning
The form does not check whether your score ranges are contiguous, whether they overlap, or whether a rule’s maximum is greater than its minimum. Set these up carefully, because Rhythm accepts overlaps, gaps, and backward ranges without complaint.
Dependencies and Precedence
- Point ranges within one component must be contiguous. Each range must end exactly where the next one starts, and only the last range in a component can have no ending value. Rhythm refuses to save the model if a component has a gap or overlap.
- Only one model per record kind, contact or organization, scores customers at a time. See Turn On Engagement Scoring to choose which one. You can still keep as many models defined as you like.
- A component’s metric produces meaningful results only when it has data. If the metric belongs to a source application with no data for your account, everyone scores 0 on that component.
Change Impact and How to Revert
- Renaming a model is safe.
- Whether it scores contacts or organizations cannot change after you save the model for the first time.
- Deactivating a model stops it from being offered as a choice. If it is already chosen as the active model for its kind, deactivating it does not stop it from being used.
Warning
You cannot delete a scoring model that has ever produced a score or is currently chosen as your account’s active model for its kind. If you try, Rhythm refuses the deletion. Deactivate a model you no longer want to use instead of deleting it.
Permissions
You need the permission your administrator grants for engagement scoring setup. There is no separate permission for creating, editing, or deleting scoring models within that area.
Validation and Errors
Rhythm gives a clear message when a score range is invalid, whether you see it while saving the model here or while troubleshooting scores that are not regenerating as expected.
| Message contains | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "weight totalling 100" | Component weights do not add up to exactly 100 | Open each component and adjust its weight so the total is 100 |
| "starting range for rule" ... "must be the ending range of the rule" | Two point ranges within a component leave a gap or overlap | Make each range end exactly where the next begins |
| "end range value ... is not greater than the starting range" | A point range’s ending value is not greater than its starting value | Fix the range so it runs from lower to higher |
If you try to save a model with no name, the form will not let you continue. The same happens if categories are turned on and a category rule has no minimum, maximum, or category chosen.