A dormant account is one silent beyond a multiple of its own cadence, and the cadence runs from twice a week to once a year depending on the desk. This hub sets out, for twelve industries, the typical cadence, what silence looks like in that industry's data, the threshold that follows, the run rate that values the account, and the seasonal trap in each, with the full guide for each desk.
A dormant account is defined the same way on every desk: silent for longer than a stated multiple of its own cadence. The cadence is what differs, from days to a year, and with it what silence looks like and where the seasonal trap is. This hub gives twelve desks, the event, the cadence, the threshold and the trap, with the guide for each.
Cadence = median days between events, trailing year Dormant if days since last event > multiple × cadence Value = run rate before the silence
| Industry | The event | Typical cadence | Dormant after (multiple 3) | Seasonal trap | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foodservice distribution | A delivery | 2 to 7 days | 1 to 3 weeks | Seasonal kitchens close for a month | Drop frequency |
| Beverage distribution | A route order | Weekly | 3 weeks | Summer outlets | Route coverage |
| Industrial distribution | An order | 2 to 6 weeks | 6 to 18 weeks | Plant shutdowns | Reactivation list |
| Builders' merchants | A purchase on the trade account | 1 to 4 weeks | 3 to 12 weeks | Winter for outdoor trades | Contractor share |
| Trading desks | An inquiry or trade | Daily to weekly | Days to 3 weeks | Holiday periods, quarter ends | Quiet client list |
| Wealth management | A contact | Quarterly | 9 months | None; contact should not be seasonal | Contact recency |
| Commercial banking | A transaction or a contact | Monthly | 3 months | Year-end balance moves | Deposit flight |
| Accounting firms | A filing engagement starting | Annual | Past the usual start date plus margin | The whole measure is seasonal | Season watch |
| Insurance broking | A renewal | Annual | Past the notice window with no activity | Renewal season clustering | Renewal watch |
| Education | An order or a renewal | Annual, by academic year | Past the renewal window | The whole measure follows the academic year | Programme fit and renewal |
| Customer service | A ticket | Weekly to monthly | Zero tickets for months at a formerly active account | Product release cycles | Silence and surge |
| Asset management | A subscription or inquiry | Monthly | 3 months of net outflow from a buyer | Quarterly rebalancing | Redemption watch |
The event, and therefore the cadence and the season. A desk whose event is annual measures dormancy against a calendar; a desk whose event is daily measures it in days. The seasonal trap is the account whose cadence is a year and whose silence is on schedule.
A fixed threshold. Wrong in both directions for most of the book.
Cadence from too few events. Require three; use the segment stand-in until then.
Seasonality unflagged. The autumn-only account on every spring list.
Lost accounts on the recovery list. The ceiling keeps them off.
Covirage computes cadence and dormancy from the desk's own event ledger, with the multiple and the ceiling stated. The dormant threshold guide covers the rule in general form, and the B2B churn guide covers what dormancy becomes past the ceiling.
Because ninety days is twelve missed orders for a weekly buyer and no missed orders for a quarterly one. The account's own cadence is the only fair test, and this hub shows how different the cadences are.
Three times the cadence is a common starting point across industries: the account has missed roughly two expected events. The ceiling that moves an account from dormant to lost is higher, and both are stated per desk.
Whatever the desk's ledger records as the customer acting: an order, a delivery, a trade, an RFQ, a filing, a booking, a scan. The guide per desk names it, and the cadence is computed on it.