Update Communication Preferences

A lead asked you to stop emailing them but said text is fine. Use the granular flag, not the broad one. Setting dnc to mean “stop emailing” over-blocks; setting unsubscribed only stops marketing email and leaves personal email open. Neither matches what the lead actually asked for.

Pick the right flag

The lead said…	Use this flag	What it blocks
”Stop emailing me, text is fine”	do_not_email	All email — automated and personal
”Stop calling me, email is fine”	do_not_call	All voice calls
”Stop texting me”	do_not_text	All SMS
”Take me off your newsletter”	unsubscribed	Marketing email (newsletters, drips, market reports) only — personal email still allowed
”Don’t contact me at all”	dnc	All automated outreach across all channels; manual contact requires a logged reason

The granular flags (do_not_email, do_not_text, do_not_call) match a lead’s narrow request without taking other channels off the table. Reach for dnc only when the request is genuinely “all channels off.”

Steps

1. Open the lead’s detail page.
2. Open the Flags panel (in the Lifecycle card or the lead actions panel).
3. Click Set flag and choose the flag type from the list.
4. Add a reason in the free-text field — “Lead asked by phone 2026-05-17 to stop email; text and voice OK.”
5. Save.

What changes after the flag is set

• A chip appears on the lead’s board card and on the detail-page Lifecycle card.
• The timeline records the set event with your name, the flag type, and your reason.
• Future automated outreach respects the block. The exact behavior depends on which flag: see communication flags for the full effect table.
• The pipeline state and temperature are unchanged. Flags are a third, independent dimension.

Clearing a flag

When the lead later resubscribes — “actually, email is fine again” — clear the flag rather than deleting it.

1. Open the Flags panel.
2. Find the active flag (cleared_at is null).
3. Click Clear and add a reason — “Lead reauthorized email by phone 2026-05-22.”
4. Save.

The active row is marked cleared. The timeline gets a second event for the clear. Both the original set and the clear stay on the audit trail; the flag is no longer in effect.

You can re-set the same flag later — unsubscribed → cleared → unsubscribed again is valid. The partial unique index only enforces “at most one active flag per type per lead,” so historical re-sets are preserved.

Caution

Don’t use the database or admin tools to delete flag rows. Clear them. Deleted rows erase the audit trail; cleared rows preserve it. If a lead later disputes “I unsubscribed but you kept emailing me,” the cleared-row history is your evidence of what was set when and by whom.

A worked example

Ethan Brooks in the demo dataset already has an active unsubscribed flag. Suppose he texts you tomorrow asking to stop receiving text messages too — “email me, don’t text me.”

Open his Flags panel. Set do_not_text with the reason “Lead asked by text 2026-05-18 to stop SMS, email OK.” He now has two active flags. The composition rule: marketing email is off (from unsubscribed) and all SMS is off (from do_not_text). Personal email is allowed; phone calls are allowed.

If Ethan had asked for “no email and no text,” you’d set do_not_email in addition to do_not_text rather than upgrading to dnc. dnc is broader — it requires a logged reason for any manual contact at all, even a callback he asked for.

What flags do NOT do

• They don’t move the lead between columns. State and flags are independent.
• They don’t recalculate the temperature score directly. Engagement decay still applies normally.
• They don’t expire automatically. A flag stays active until someone clears it.

Related

• Communication flags — the full reference table, including composition rules
• Record first contact — always check flag chips before reaching out
• State machine card — the pipeline dimension that flags don’t affect