## Overview

Every contact has a **type** that represents their stage in the relationship:

- **Visitor** — not yet identified (no email, phone or social profile).
- **Lead** — already has some way to reach them (email, phone or an external channel like WhatsApp).
- **Customer** — promoted manually (or by automation) after buying/closing.

The type appears as a **colored badge** in the Contacts list and in the contact panel **inside a
conversation**, where you can **change it** in one click.

## Prerequisites

- None. The contact type is native and always available.

## Step by step

**See the type**

1. Open **Contacts**. Each contact shows its type badge next to the name.
2. Inside a conversation, open the contact panel on the right — the badge appears next to the name.

**Change the type (in a conversation)**

1. In the contact panel, click the type badge.
2. Pick **Visitor**, **Lead** or **Customer**. The change is saved immediately.

**Filter / segment by type**

1. In **Contacts**, open **Filter**.
2. Choose the **Contact type** attribute and a value (Visitor / Lead / Customer).
3. Save it as a **segment** to reuse.

## Settings & options

- **Automatic promotion**: a **Visitor** contact automatically becomes a **Lead** as soon as it gets an
  email, phone or a social identifier (for example, when it arrives via WhatsApp). The **Customer** type is
  never set automatically — only manually or by automation.
- **Change via automation, macro or FlowBuilder**: use the **Change contact type** action
  (`change_contact_type`) — available in automation rules, macros and the FlowBuilder **Contact action**
  node — to set Visitor / Lead / Customer automatically (e.g. become a **Customer** when a payment is
  confirmed).

## Use cases

- **Qualification**: a flow marks the contact as **Customer** when a sale closes.
- **Segmentation**: build a **Customers** segment for a post-sale campaign.
- **Hygiene**: filter old unidentified **Visitors** for cleanup.

## Tips, limits & best practices

- The type is **never** downgraded automatically — a Customer won't revert to Lead on its own.
- The three types (Visitor, Lead, Customer) are fixed; custom types aren't part of this release.

## Troubleshooting

- **The contact reverted to Lead after I saved it as Visitor?** If it has an email/phone, automatic
  promotion sets it to Lead on save. To keep it at another stage, use **Customer**.

## See also

- [Contact import and segments](/hc/ajuda/articles/contacts-crm-contatos-import-segmentos-en)
- [Custom attributes](/hc/ajuda/articles/contacts-crm-atributos-personalizados-en)