Creating a clear and accurate customer lifecycle overview in HubSpot is essential for customer success, account management, and revenue operations. While it sounds basic, many teams struggle to maintain a real-time list of active customers and understand where they are in their journey.

This guide explains how to set up and manage your HubSpot customer lifecycle using lifecycle stages, custom properties, and automations.

Why Build a Customer Lifecycle in HubSpot?

A clear customer lifecycle view allows you to:

  • 👥 Maintain an up-to-date list of active customers

  • 🔁 Track churn, onboarding, and adoption phases

  • 📊 Power lifecycle-based segmentation and reporting

  • 🤝 Align teams around customer journey stages

Step 1: Use the Company Object as Your Lifecycle Source

In HubSpot, it’s best to manage the customer lifecycle using the Company object as your source of truth. This allows you to:

  • Store core customer info

  • Enrich with custom properties

  • Associate with contacts, deals, tickets, or custom objects

Step 2: Create a List of Active Customers in HubSpot

The simplest way to track current customers is to use the Lifecycle Stage property.

✅ Default Method:

Update the Lifecycle Stage to Customer when a company becomes a paying client. This is a built-in HubSpot property and often automatically updated when a deal is marked Closed Won.

Step 3: Expand HubSpot’s Lifecycle Stages for Better Insight

HubSpot’s default lifecycle stages cover the pre-sale journey well, but are limited post-sale. To improve customer visibility, consider expanding the lifecycle stages beyond just Customer and Evangelist.

🔧 Option 1: Add Values to the Default Lifecycle Stage Property

You can edit the default Lifecycle Stage property and add new values like:

  • Customer – Onboarding

  • Customer – Adoption

  • Customer – Value

  • Old Customer or Churned

💡 Pro Tip: Use a consistent naming convention (e.g. starting with “Customer –”) so you can easily filter all customer stages in HubSpot.

🆕 Option 2: Create a New Custom Property

Create a separate custom dropdown property such as:

  • Customer Phase or Customer Journey

Suggested values:

  • Onboarding

  • Adoption

  • Value Realization

  • Expansion

  • Renewal

  • At Risk

  • Churned

Use this property to provide more granular insight while keeping the original Lifecycle Stage intact.

Step 4: Automate Lifecycle Stage Updates in HubSpot

📈 From Prospect to Customer

Use HubSpot’s native automation:
When a deal is marked Closed Won, the Lifecycle Stage automatically updates to Customer.

🔗 Learn more from HubSpot’s lifecycle stage automation documentation

📉 From Customer to Churned (Old Customer)

Set up a custom workflow to update the Lifecycle Stage when a customer fails to renew.

Example automation:

  • Trigger: A renewal deal is marked as Closed Lost

  • Action: Update company’s lifecycle stage to Old Customer or Churned

📌 This ensures accurate churn tracking and supports downstream reporting and CS engagement.

Summary: Build a Flexible HubSpot Customer Lifecycle Model

Setting up and customizing your HubSpot customer lifecycle helps every team—from CS to RevOps—understand customer journey stages and act accordingly.

Key Takeaways:

  • Use the Company object as your single source of truth

  • Expand default lifecycle stages or use a custom field for deeper insight

  • Automate updates based on deal activity and renewal status

  • Use lifecycle data for segmentation, reporting, and health tracking