Lifecycle Stages
The customer journey funnel — where each contact stands, from lead to customer.
A lifecycle stage records where a contact stands in your customer journey. Each contact is in exactly one stage at a time, and the stages together form your Customer Journey Funnel.
Setting Up Stages
Open Contacts → Lifecycle. If nothing is configured you will see "No lifecycle stages yet" and a Set up Lifecycle Stages prompt.
Click Add Stage or Create Lifecycle Stage.
Enter a stage name — the placeholder suggests the shape: New Lead. A name is required.
Pick an emoji icon. It is how the stage is recognised at a glance across RateUp.
Add a description explaining what qualifies someone for this stage, so the whole team applies it the same way.
Save.
Won and Lost Stages
The funnel has two kinds of endpoint:
| Type | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Won stage | The contact converted |
| Lost stages | The contact did not — add these with Add Lost Stage |
Several lost stages is usually better than one. Too expensive, Went to competitor and No response are three different problems, and lumping them together hides all three.
A Typical Funnel
| Stage | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 🆕 New Lead | Just made contact |
| 💬 Engaged | In active conversation |
| 📋 Qualified | A genuine fit |
| ✅ Customer | Bought — the won stage |
| ❌ Lost Lead | Did not convert — a lost stage |
Keep it to five or six. A funnel with fifteen stages does not get maintained.
Changing a Contact's Stage
| From | How |
|---|---|
| Contact record | Set the stage directly |
| Inbox | Ticket Details panel → Lifecycle Stage |
| Automation | The Assign Lifecycle action |
| Import | Assign a stage during import |
Automating stage changes on real signals — a first purchase, a form submission — keeps the funnel honest in a way that relying on people to remember never does.
Display Options
Show/Hide Lifecycle Stages controls whether the funnel appears in the contacts view. Hidden, it reads "Lifecycle Display is Hidden" — the stages still exist and still apply.
Descriptions can be shown or hidden with Show description / Hide description.
Editing and Deleting
Use Update Lifecycle Stage to change a stage's name, icon or description.
Cannot delete default stage — the default is required. Deleting any other stage asks "Delete lifecycle stage?"; make sure contacts sitting in it are moved somewhere sensible first.
Lifecycle vs Labels
| Lifecycle stages | Labels | |
|---|---|---|
| How many | One per contact | Many |
| Shape | An ordered funnel | A flat set of tags |
| Answer | "How far along are they?" | "What is true about them?" |
Related Pages
- Labels
- Automation Actions
- Campaigns — targeting by stage