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Record First Contact

You just called, texted, or emailed a lead for the first time. Log it. The act of logging is what moves the lead from NEW to CONTACTING and stops the response clock.

From the detail page

Section titled “From the detail page”
  1. Open the lead’s detail page (click the card on the board).
  2. In the Lifecycle card on the right, under Next step, click Log contact attempt. The button reads “Log contact attempt → Contacting”.
  3. In the dialog, pick How: Call, Email, Text, In person, or Other.
  4. Add a short note describing what happened: voicemail left, answered live, sent property link.
  5. Click Log contact attempt.

The dialog header shows the lead’s name and New → Contacting, so you can confirm the move before you submit.

From the board

Section titled “From the board”

Two routes, same dialog:

  • Drag the card from NEW onto the CONTACTING column. While you drag, CONTACTING shows a dashed outline and the hint “Drop to log contact attempt”. Columns the state machine does not allow are dimmed and refuse the drop.
  • Open the ⋯ menu on the card and pick Log contact attempt. The menu works with a keyboard and on touch screens, where dragging is awkward.

Either way the dialog opens with the same channel chips and note field. Nothing moves until you submit.

What changes when you submit

Section titled “What changes when you submit”
  • The card moves from the NEW column to CONTACTING.
  • The response clock stops. The Lifecycle card switches from “Response clock running” to Responded in time if you logged inside the five-minute window, or Response window missed if you did not, with how far past target you were.
  • The timeline gets a Contact attempted row with New → Contacting, the channel chip, your note as a quoted block, and your name as the actor.
  • The lead drops off the Response clock list on your dashboard’s Needs you now card.

Logging a call you forgot to enter

Section titled “Logging a call you forgot to enter”

If you made the call an hour ago and are only now at a keyboard, turn on This happened earlier… in the dialog and set the date and time. The timeline shows the entry at the time it happened with an amber entered later marker; hovering the marker shows when you typed it in. The response clock is judged against the time you enter, not the time you submit.

Two limits: the time cannot be before the lead was received, and it cannot be in the future. The system also replays the lead’s whole history with the backdated entry in place and refuses it if that would make a later event impossible. The dialog tells you why.

Voicemails and no-answers still count

Section titled “Voicemails and no-answers still count”

The trigger is contact_attempted, not contact_succeeded. A logged voicemail is a valid contact attempt. The state machine doesn’t distinguish “they picked up” from “I left a message”; both are first contact and both stop the clock. Whether the lead actually responds determines the next state change (qualifying them), not this one.

When they get back to you

Section titled “When they get back to you”

Once the lead is in CONTACTING, Log contact attempt is not offered again. The Next step buttons become Lead responded, Confirm motivation, Archive: no response, and Mark as bogus.

Use Lead responded when they reply, call back, or answer. It stays in CONTACTING (the button reads “Stays in this stage”) and takes the same How chips and note. It is a temperature signal rather than a stage change, and it tells the next person who opens the card that this is a two-way conversation now.

What doesn’t move the state

Section titled “What doesn’t move the state”
  • Reading the lead’s details without logging anything.
  • An automated drip email going out. System-generated outreach is not an agent contact attempt.
  • An undelivered email bounce.
  • Saving Internal notes in the Assignment & Notes card. Notes are a scratchpad, not an event.
Section titled “Related”