# Contact Rating System ## **Overview** Cymbal assigns a **star rating (1 to 5 stars)** to email and SMS subscriptions based on how often they engage with campaigns and purchase tickets. This rating helps organizations understand which contacts are most active. * **Higher-rated contacts (4–5 stars)** frequently open emails, click links, and buy tickets. * **Lower-rated contacts (1–2 stars)** rarely engage with campaigns or make purchases. * **Ratings change over time** based on a contact’s activity ## **What Do the Ratings Mean?**
Star RatingWhat It Means
⭐ (1 star)Rarely engages with campaigns and is often excluded from marketing.
⭐⭐ (2 stars)Newly subscribed or re-engaging after inactivity.
⭐⭐⭐ (3 stars)Occasionally interacts with emails or texts.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 stars)Regularly engages with campaigns and sometimes buys tickets.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 stars)Highly engaged—frequently interacts and purchases tickets.
## **New Subscription Ratings** * When someone **subscribes for the first time**, they start at **2 stars**. * If a subscription bounces or unsubscribes, it will **not have a rating** until it is subscribed again. ## **What Causes Ratings to Increase?** A contact’s rating improves when they **engage with marketing campaigns**, such as:\ ✅ **Opening emails** \ ✅ **Clicking links in emails or texts**\ ✅ **Buying tickets after receiving a campaign** More engagement leads to a **higher rating** (up to 5 stars). ## **What Causes Ratings to Decrease?** A contact’s rating decreases if they **ignore multiple campaigns** in a row:\ 🔻 If an email contact **does not open emails** over time, their rating will drop.\ 🔻 If an SMS contact **does not click links** in texts, their rating will drop. Once they engage again, their rating can **increase** and stop declining. ## **Refreshing Inactive Contacts** Since 1-star contacts are often excluded from campaigns, Cymbal periodically **refreshes** them. If a contact remains at **1 star for over 2 months**, they may be given **another chance** and move back to **2 stars** to re-engage. ## Why is my Email going to Less Recipients? That’s because a significant portion of your contacts were **demoted** to a 1-star rating, which you are currently excluding from that email campaign. If your open rates are **less than 20%** a large portion of your contacts may get demoted to **1-star**, but this is actually a positive step. By filtering out unengaged contacts, you improve your sending reputation with Gmail. Over time, this helps Gmail **stop routing your emails to spam**. As engagement improves, our system will gradually promote 1-star contacts back to 2-star status, giving them the opportunity to receive your emails again. This process can take a few months, but in the long run you should expect open rates in the **40–60%** range, which will have a materially positive impact on overall email performance. ## **What Happens to Suppressed or Bounced Contacts?** * **Bounced or unsubscribed contacts** do not have a rating. * **Suppressed contacts** keep their rating but **do not change** while suppressed. If they are unsuppressed, they continue from where they left off. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.cymbal.co/help/contacts/contact-rating-system.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.