Turn Your Chatbot Into a Lead Machine: A Setup Guide

Contact forms have a conversion problem. They feel like a commitment before a visitor is ready to commit. A chat conversation, on the other hand, feels like a conversation — lower stakes, more natural, and far easier to start. BotPlatform's lead capture turns that conversational momentum into a contact detail without the visitor even realising they've "filled in a form."

How Lead Capture Works

Lead capture is triggered automatically when your chatbot detects it can't fully answer a visitor's question — phrases like "please contact us" or "I don't have that specific information" act as signals. When triggered, the bot offers to connect the visitor with a human, then walks them through a short questionnaire before asking for their contact details.

The full lead — answers, contact info, and conversation context — lands in your dashboard under Leads, and an email notification goes to whoever you've configured as the recipient.

Step 1: Write a Natural Offer Message

The offer message is the first thing the bot says when it initiates the lead flow. It needs to feel helpful, not salesy. Compare:

• "Would you like to submit your details so our sales team can contact you?" ❌
• "I can have someone from our team follow up with a personalised answer — would that help?" ✅

The second version positions the handoff as a service, not a capture.

Step 2: Add 1–2 Qualifying Questions

Pre-contact questions let you understand the lead before your team calls them back. Keep it to one or two — every extra question reduces completion rates.

Good examples:

• "What type of project are you working on?"
• "Roughly what's your timeline?"
• "What's the main thing you're looking for help with?"

These answers appear alongside the contact details in your dashboard, so your team can prepare before they call.

Step 3: Configure Contact Fields

Ask only for what you need. An email address is usually enough to start a conversation. Phone number is valuable if your team prefers to call, but adding it as a required field will reduce form completion.

A sensible default: email (required), name (optional), phone (optional). Let visitors decide how they want to be contacted.

Step 4: Set Notification Emails

Add your email (and your team's) to the notification list so you get an immediate alert every time a lead comes in. Speed matters — a lead followed up within five minutes is significantly more likely to convert than one called back the next day.

Reviewing Your Leads

All leads appear in the Leads section of your dashboard, sortable by status (pending / followed up). You can add notes, mark leads as followed up, and export everything to CSV for your CRM. The export respects your active filter — so if you want only leads from a specific chatbot, select it in the dropdown first.