Log calls, emails, and notes
Record a call, email, text, or note against a lead so the activity is on file and the lead doesn't get flagged as stalled.
Every time you talk to a lead, log it. It keeps a contact history on the lead and resets the stalled-lead clock so the lead doesn't get re-flagged as ignored.
Log a communication
- Go to Leads and click the lead you talked to.
- Scroll to the Communications card and click Log communication.
- Pick a Type: Phone, Email, Website chat, AI chat, In person, SMS, or Other.
- Pick a Direction: Outbound (you contacted them) or Inbound (they contacted you).
- Add a Subject (optional), a short summary line.
- Add Notes (optional): what was said, next steps, anything to remember.
- Click Log.
The entry appears at the top of the Communications list (newest first) with its type, direction, and time. The lead's Last activity updates to now.
Type and Direction are both required. If you click Log without choosing them, you'll see "Choose a type and direction". Subject and Notes can be left blank.
You can log the same way against a customer or a deal: open the customer record (or a deal's Activity tab) and use its Communications card. The form is identical.
Why logging keeps a lead "worked"
A lead with no recent activity gets flagged as stalled so it doesn't fall through the cracks. Stalled detection is derived from the lead's Last activity time. Logging a call, an email, or a note counts as working the lead. It bumps Last activity to now, so the cadence cron stops nudging you about a lead you're actively pursuing.
Only a logged communication (or another action that updates the lead) refreshes Last activity. Talking to a customer but never logging it leaves the lead looking ignored. It can still get flagged as stalled and escalated even though you've been in touch. If a lead you're actively pursuing keeps getting flagged, you're probably not logging the contact.
Email replies land on the timeline by themselves
Every email the platform sends in your dealership's name (a reply from the CRM, a templated message, an appointment reminder, a payment reminder) carries a Reply-To at your dealership's receiving address. When the person replies, the message lands on their timeline as an inbound email, the lead's owner (or you) gets a bell, and a copy is forwarded to your dealership's own mailbox so nothing is lost. Attachments the store accepts are filed on the person's documents and the timeline entry says which were filed and why the others were not.
A reply that comes from a different mailbox than the one on the record (a work address, a family member's phone) still lands on the right timeline when it answers an email the dealership sent or received: the platform keeps the message id of every email on its timeline entries and follows the reply's own reference to it. The bell then says which address it came from. A message from an address that matches no lead or customer, and that answers nothing the dealership has on a timeline, goes to your Inbox (in the sidebar under Sales): a DMV letter, an auction invoice, a floor-plan notice, a shopper writing from a new address. The owner gets a bell that opens it there. On each email you can add the sender as a lead (the email lands on the new lead's timeline), link it onto someone already on file, archive it, or Reply right there: the subject keeps theirs with Re:, your reply goes out from the dealership with its Reply-To, it lands on the person's timeline, and it threads under their own message in their mail client. Replying to an email that is not on a timeline yet makes the sender a lead first, so the conversation always belongs to someone. A linked email shows on that person's timeline like any other inbound email. Each morning the assistant also names mail that has waited in the Inbox since the day before (the Email waiting in the inbox topic under Settings → AI assistant). When you link an email or add its sender as a lead, the attached files the store accepts are filed on that person's documents, the same way a lead's own reply is filed; until then they stay with the email provider, and the forwarded copy in your own mailbox carries them. The assistant reads inbound email, including the Inbox, the same way it reads every timeline entry, as information rather than instructions, and it will not send a templated message to someone whose reply is still waiting. Ask it "did the DMV write back?" or "what came in from the auction this week?" and it answers from the Inbox. Ask it to add a shopper's email as a lead, to put an email on someone's timeline ("that payoff letter is Maria Lopez's") or to archive a newsletter, and it prepares a card for each. Nothing happens until a person approves the card, even with Autopilot on, because the email was written by someone outside the dealership, and it never proposes one just because an email asks for it. Replying stays on the Inbox page.
Files the person attached are filed for you. A PDF or a photo (PNG, JPEG, WebP, HEIC, TIFF) attached to the email lands on that lead's or customer's Documents card, named as the sender named it, with a note saying who sent it and when, and the timeline entry says which files were filed. Files the store does not accept (a Word document, a spreadsheet, an archive), files over 25 MB, and anything past the tenth attachment in one email are named on the timeline entry with the reason they were not filed; images embedded in the message itself (a signature, a logo) are ignored. The assistant sees the filed files the way it sees any document on the record.
Receiving addresses work once the platform's inbound mail domain is set up. Until then replies go to your published contact address as before.
FAQ
Who can log a communication?
Any signed-in team member, with no role restrictions. There's no extra permission to turn on.
Does logging an email or text actually send it?
No. This records that the contact happened. It's a manual log of an activity that already took place, not a message sent to the lead.
Can I log something that happened yesterday?
The entry is stamped with the current time when you save it. The form has no back-date field, so log contacts as they happen to keep the timeline accurate.
Where does the logged activity show up?
On the lead's Communications card, newest first. Every entry is also written to the audit log (action communication_logged), so there's a permanent record of who logged what and when.
What's the difference between a Note here and the lead's Notes field?
A communication is a dated entry in the activity timeline (and it bumps Last activity). The lead's Notes field, shown under Lead details, is a single free-text scratchpad about the lead overall.