What Counts as a Fumble
A Fumble is any lead or customer message that goes 60 minutes during business hours without a response. The timer starts the moment the lead or message hits your CRM.
What Triggers a Fumble
Delayed responses. A lead in at 10:20 AM and answered at 11:23 AM is a Fumble.
Ignored messages. Ignoring does not stop the timer. No response in 60 minutes still counts as a Fumble.
After-hours messages. Tracked separately, but the timer still runs. An overnight lead not answered within an hour the next morning is a Fumble.
Duplicate leads. If a duplicate flag isn't cleared within an hour, it Fumbles.
Short customer replies. Even "OK" or an emoji needs a response, unless you use Acknowledge (see below).
Acknowledge for Emojis and Reactions
For customer reactions and emoji-only messages, use Acknowledge instead of replying or ignoring. Acknowledge before the one-hour mark and the message won't count as a Fumble. Acknowledge after the hour is up and the Fumble stays on your metrics, but the message clears from your Un-Replied Sidebar.
Exceptions
STOP messages. You can't respond, so they don't count. Scheduled tasks themselves do not count as fumbles. However, if no manual response is made within the 60-minute window, the lead or message will still be marked as fumbled.
AI conversations. Conversations handled by DriveCentric AI don't Fumble. If the last message is from the customer and a human response is required but not provided within the 60-minute window, the lead or message will still be marked as fumbled.
How to Avoid Fumbles
Respond within 60 minutes. Even a quick acknowledgment stops the timer.
Use Acknowledge for emoji replies and reactions before the hour is up.
For leads with no contact info, add a store contact or mark the deal dead.
Check the Response Time Report regularly to catch patterns.- Any manual action, such as sending a text, email, or making a phone call, qualifies as a response and stops the fumble timer.
Reporting
Business-hour and after-hour Fumbles show up separately in the Advanced Response Time Report. Drill in for user-level and customer-level detail. Note that once a lead or message is marked as fumbled, the status is permanent and is used strictly as a reporting metric.