Skip to content
English - United States
Submit a Ticket
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Lifecycle Stages & Statuses

Track every contact from their first inquiry through becoming a long-term patient. Ensure no one falls through the cracks while helping your team prioritize outreach and automate follow-ups intelligently.

Understanding Lifecycle Stages

Every contact in Growth99 belongs to one of two Lifecycle Stages that define their overall relationship with your practice:

Lead

Someone who has expressed interest but hasn't yet booked an appointment or purchased a service. This includes people who:

  • Submitted a contact form on your website
  • Called to ask about services
  • Started a chat conversation
  • Requested a virtual consultation

Customer

Someone who has taken the next step by booking an appointment or purchasing a service from your practice. These are your active and past patients.

Each Lifecycle Stage contains specific statuses that provide granular detail about engagement levels, helping you determine the right next action.

Lead Stage: Status Definitions

Leads require careful nurturing to convert into patients. These statuses help your team track engagement and prioritize follow-up efforts.

Active Lead Statuses (Leads in Play)

New

  • Definition: A fresh lead from any source that hasn't been contacted by your team yet
  • Use When: The lead just arrived through your website, phone, chat, or was manually entered
  • Action Required: Assign to a team member and follow up immediately—speed dramatically improves conversion rates

Pending

  • Definition: Your team has made initial contact and is awaiting the lead's response
  • Use When: You've sent that first message or left a voicemail
  • Action Required: Monitor for responses and set follow-up reminders if needed

Cold

  • Definition: The lead hasn't responded despite multiple outreach attempts
  • Use When: You've tried connecting several times without success
  • Action Required: Consider pausing active follow-up or enrolling in a long-term nurture campaign

Warm

  • Definition: The lead is actively engaging with your team
  • Use When: They've responded to messages, asked questions, or shown genuine interest
  • Action Required: Maintain momentum by answering questions promptly and guiding toward scheduling

Hot

  • Definition: The lead is ready to book and actively seeking appointment times or pricing
  • Use When: They're asking about availability, costs, or trying to schedule
  • Action Required: Make this your top priority—respond with urgency and clear next steps

End States (Closed Leads)

Inactive

  • Definition: The lead won't be converted to a patient
  • Use When: They've explicitly declined, aren't a good fit, or all reasonable attempts have failed
  • Action Required: Close out the lead and add notes explaining why for future reference

Junk

  • Definition: Invalid or mistaken entry that shouldn't be in your system
  • Use When: Dealing with duplicates, spam submissions, or incorrect data
  • Action Required: Mark as junk to maintain database accuracy and clean reporting

Customer Stage: Status Definitions

Once a lead books their first appointment, update their Lifecycle Stage to Customer. This transition is crucial for accurate tracking and appropriate communication.


Active

  • Definition: Currently engaged patients receiving services or in active communication
  • Use When: They have upcoming appointments, ongoing treatment, or recent interactions
  • Action Required: Track appointments, gather feedback, and identify upsell opportunities

Inactive

  • Definition: Past patients who haven't engaged with your practice recently
  • Use When: Treatment is complete or they haven't returned in an extended period
  • Action Required: Consider re-engagement campaigns, satisfaction surveys, or win-back offers

How to Update Lifecycle Stage & Status

Growth99 provides three convenient ways to update contact information:

From the Inbox

While managing a conversation, use the dropdown menu in the contact details panel to instantly update stage or status without leaving the message thread.

From Contact Details

Open any contact's full profile and update their stage and status using the clearly marked dropdown menus.

From the Contacts List

Update individual contacts using in-line dropdowns, or select multiple contacts to apply bulk changes—perfect for cleaning up your database or moving groups through your pipeline.


Pro Tip: Keeping statuses current is critical. Accurate status tracking enables better follow-up timing, cleaner automation rules, and more reliable reporting on your practice's performance.

Why Proper Status Management Matters

Prioritized Outreach

Your team instantly knows which leads need immediate attention (Hot) versus those requiring patient nurturing (Warm) or re-engagement strategies (Cold).

Cleaner Pipelines

Clear end-state designations (Inactive, Junk) prevent your active pipeline from becoming cluttered with dead leads, keeping your team focused on real opportunities.

Smarter Automation

Trigger targeted campaigns based on status changes—send booking links to Hot leads, nurture sequences to Warm leads, or win-back campaigns to Inactive customers.

Actionable Insights

Identify exactly where leads drop off in your conversion process. If many leads go from Warm to Cold, you might need stronger follow-up protocols. If New leads rarely progress, response time might be the issue.

Best Practices for Status Management

  1. Update in Real-Time: Change statuses immediately after interactions to maintain accuracy
  2. Train Your Team: Ensure everyone understands the definitions and uses them consistently
  3. Review Regularly: Schedule weekly pipeline reviews to catch outdated statuses
  4. Use Bulk Updates: Clean up multiple records at once when patterns emerge
  5. Add Context: Use contact notes to explain status changes, especially for Inactive or Junk designations

By mastering Lifecycle Stages and Statuses, you transform a simple contact list into a powerful pipeline management system that drives growth for your practice.