What it is
segment_health_tier is which of five bands a segment’s health score falls in.
The five bands are the same for every company. You do not name them, add to them or reorder them.
The same value also appears on an account record, and this is where it is misread. On an account it is the tier of the segment that account belongs to — the same single value about the group, shown next to the account for context. It is not a tier for that account. Every account in a segment carries the same one, whatever each of them is doing.
How it is calculated
Measured. The tier bands the segment health score against fixed thresholds, so the same score always gives the same tier. It carries that score’s character in one respect: because the score is built from Beacon’s own readings, neither it nor the tier is something you can reproduce from your own records.
The bands are contiguous and cover the whole scale, so every segment with a score has exactly one tier.
Two of them split on direction rather than level. Two segments both scoring 80 sit in different tiers if one is rising and the other is flat. A segment that is strong and improving is a different case from one that is strong and static.
The two thresholds that matter most are 45 and 75. Below 45 a segment is At Risk and its position warrants review; at 75 and above it is treated as strong enough to invest behind. Moving either threshold is a decision made by whoever owns segmentation in your business, and it is never automatic.
Where it comes from
The tier comes from the segment health score and from nothing else. The score’s own dependencies are set out in its article: billing, marketing and sales cost, fit scoring, the data-confidence measure and the post-sale stage rail, each feeding one of six dimensions. The account-record version is a copy of the segment’s current tier placed on each of the segment’s accounts. It is written from the segment, never worked out per account.No read interface or MCP tool serves this value yet — the table above publishes the shape ahead of the doors.
How fresh it is
The tier is worked out with the score, once per segment per recalculation cycle. It moves less often than the score does, because it only changes when the score crosses a boundary. A segment can move nine points inside Developing and never change tier; it can move one point and change tier twice in a quarter if it is sitting on 45 or 75. Reading the tier alone hides both cases, which is why the score is published beside it.Currency and rounding
Neither applies. The tier is a label. The score it bands is read as published; Beacon does not round a score to bring it over a boundary.What changes it
Only the score crossing a band boundary, or the direction of the score changing between rising and steady at 75 and above. Because the score moves when segment membership moves, a tier can change without anything changing at any individual account — accounts joining or leaving the segment are enough. An approved change to a threshold, or an approved merge, split or rename, re-runs it.What it is not
- Not a tier for the account it is shown on. It is the segment’s tier, displayed there. To read one account, use that account’s own health score.
- Not the tiers on
health_score. Those are Strong, Healthy, Concerning and Critical, and they describe one account. The word Healthy appears in both sets and means a different thing in each. - Not a satisfaction or sentiment rating. It reads commercial behaviour, not what anyone said.
- Not an instruction. The tier says how a segment is doing; deciding what to do about it is a separate act, taken by people, and it is not this value.
- Not comparable between companies. The bands are fixed, but the score behind them is built from your own customer base.