Customer Statuses
Every customer in Driive has a status that tells you where they stand in your customer lifecycle. There are three statuses, and understanding them helps you prioritize follow-ups and keep your customer list organized.
The three statuses
Lead
A Lead is a potential customer who has reached out about your services but hasn't been scheduled yet. Every new customer record starts as a Lead, whether it came from:
- A request submitted through your booking page or website
- A call or chat that Dot logged as a request
- A customer you added manually (for example, from a referral)
Leads represent your pipeline — people who are interested but haven't converted yet. Use the Lead filter on your customer list to see who needs follow-up.
Customer
A Customer has at least one appointment on the books with your business. Driive promotes a Lead to Customer automatically the first time one of their appointments gets scheduled — they've gone from "interested" to "on the calendar."
Customers are your proven revenue base. When you filter by Customer status, you're looking at people who already trust your business and are good candidates for repeat bookings or referrals.
Inactive
An Inactive customer is someone who is no longer actively engaged with your business. You might mark a customer as Inactive when:
- They've moved out of your service area
- They've asked not to be contacted
- They haven't booked in a long time and you want to clean up your active list
Inactive customers aren't deleted — they're still in your system, keep their full history, and can be reactivated at any time.
When statuses change automatically
Driive handles one transition for you:
| Event | Status change |
|---|---|
| A new customer record is created | Starts as Lead |
| An appointment for the customer is scheduled | Becomes Customer |
The promotion to Customer happens whenever an appointment gets a confirmed time — whether you book it yourself, schedule a Needs Scheduled appointment with the Find a Time picker, or the customer picks their own slot from a booking link.
Note: An appointment that's still Needs Scheduled doesn't promote the customer — the switch flips when a time is actually booked. And Driive never moves anyone to Inactive automatically; that's always your call.
Changing a status manually
You can set a customer's status yourself at any time:
- Open the customer's detail page.
- Click the status pill in the toolbar at the top (it shows the current status — Lead, Customer, or Inactive).
- Pick the new status from the dropdown. The change saves immediately.
Tip: If you have unsaved edits on the page, Driive warns you before applying the status change so you don't lose your work.
Manual status changes are useful when you need to:
- Mark a long-time-no-see customer as Inactive
- Reactivate an Inactive customer who reaches out again
- Promote a Lead to Customer after an off-platform job
Using statuses to manage your workflow
Here are a few practical ways to use statuses in your day-to-day operations:
- Follow up on Leads — Filter your customer list by Lead status to see who needs a nudge. These are people who showed interest but never got on the calendar.
- Target repeat Customers — Filter by Customer status when you want to reach out about seasonal services like AC tune-ups, gutter cleanings, or annual roof inspections.
- Clean up your list — Periodically mark unresponsive Leads or moved-away Customers as Inactive to keep your active list focused.
What's next
- Tags, Notes, and History — Add another layer of organization with tags and internal notes.
- Customers Overview — Return to the full overview of customer management.