Create a Parent/Child Segment

Parent/Child segmentation allows you to navigate and segment on complex hierarchies where data is stored at a parent account level. This allows you to set up automations (like plays and journeys) that target parent or child accounts.

• NOTE: This feature requires a setting found in our Admin space (Organization Settings). For more information on parent/child relationship setup in ChurnZero, see Setting Parent/Child Relationships.

This allows you to create segments like: 

• All accounts where the direct parent's Industry = Hospitality.
• All accounts where at least 50% of the child accounts have Hospitality as their industry. 

This article is broken up into the following sections. Use the links below to jump right to the information you need. 

• Understanding Direct Parent and Ultimate Parent Relationships
• Create a Parent/Child Segment
• Parent Segmentation Example
• Child Segmentation Example

Understanding Direct Parent and Ultimate Parent Relationships

Parent/child segments are driven by the concepts of direct parent and ultimate parent accounts. 

• Direct Parent: The account directly above your source account in the hierarchy.
• Ultimate Parent: The account at the very top of your account hierarchy. 

For example, let’s say that you have a few accounts. Chase’s Bakery is the corporate account. It owns Chase’s Donuts and Chase’s Coffee. Each one of those accounts also owns an "East" and "West" location. In terms of Ultimate Parent/Direct Parent/Child accounts, this would look like:

• Chase’s Bakery (Ultimate Parent) 
  • Chase’s Donuts (Direct Parent) 
    • Chase’s Donuts – East (Child)
    • Chase’s Donuts – West (Child)
  • Chase’s Coffee (Direct Parent) 
    • Chase’s Coffee – East (Child)
    • Chase’s Coffee – West (Child) 

In ChurnZero, you can view this hierarchy from the Ultimate Parent's account page (on the Account Details tab, at the top of your Standard Field settings). 

Victory Marketing is the ultimate parent in this example, with four child accounts. Heritage City Police Department is the direct parent of Parkside ERP. 

To create a parent/child segment: 

1. Follow the steps to create a new segment.
2. When you add a filter, you'll see a dropdown to the left. 
   
   To filter for information on the parent or child accounts, select from Direct Parent Attributes, Ultimate Parent Attributes, or Children Attributes.
3. Your segment results update to show the applied parent/child filter results.
   • These results show accounts where the information is true (ex, all accounts with a direct parent account whose renewal date is in the next 90 days).
4. You can create new column sets to view parent/child information within your segment results:
   • At the top of the segment column set window, to the right of your Available column header, use the dropdown to select Direct Parent or Ultimate Parent. 
     
   • Select the Direct Parent or Ultimate Parent columns you want to add, and continue to edit your column set as usual. 

Parent Segmentation Example: 

Let's say that you want to look up all accounts that: 

• Are renewing in the next 365 days.
• Have a red ChurnScore.

Your renewal information is attached to the parent account, but you communicate directly with each individual child account in terms of adoption. 

1. Create a new account segment.
2. Click Add Filter, select Account Attributes, and add the Next Renewal Date filter (Next Renewal Date equals Next 365).
   
   • This shows the account renewal date, but you need that information from the parent account.
3. Click the dropdown at the start of your filter and select Direct Parent Attributes. 
   
   • Your results update with a list of all accounts whose direct parent has a renewal date within the next 365 days. 
     
4. Next, add your ChurnScore filter. This information lives directly on the account, so you don't need the filter to look up to a parent account. Add your ChurnScore filter as you would in any other segment. 
   
5. Your results show a list of all accounts with a red ChurnScore whose direct parent has a renewal date within the next 365 days. 

Child Segmentation Example:

Let's say you want to look up all accounts where none of the child accounts have logged in within the last 90 days. Your event data is logged at the child account level, but you do business directly with the parent accounts. 

1. Create a new account segment.
2. Click Add Filter, choose Account Metrics, and select the Event Instances filter. Then, click the dropdown at the top of the filter and select Children Metrics.
   
   • In Target Type, you can choose how you to view your metrics. You can choose number of percentage.
     
     • For our example, we're going to choose Percentage with a value of 100.
   • For Event Type, select the event you want to filter. For our example, we want "Equals: Login."
     
   • We want to find the number of child accounts that have not logged in, so Number of Event Instances = 0. 
     
   • Time Period: Last 90 Days. 
     
3. Your results show a list of all accounts whose child accounts have not logged in within the last 90 days.
   
   • You can use this segment to power plays that alert the parent accounts to the fact that their children have not logged in recently.