Lead capture settings
Turn lead capture on, choose when the form appears, and route new leads automatically — including the one-time backfill.
A lead is a captured contact: name, email, phone, company, and message. Leads arrive from three places — the widget's lead form, the agent's capture_lead action, and the public lead API.
Turning capture on
Collect leads is a per-chatbot setting on the Appearance tab. With it on, choose when the form is shown:
| Timing | The form appears… | Good for |
|---|---|---|
before_chat | Before the visitor can type | Sales-led sites where every contact matters |
after_first_response | Once the agent has answered once | The usual balance — help first, then ask |
on_handoff | When the visitor asks for a human | Support-led sites; guarantees a reply route |
manual | Only when the agent's capture_lead action asks for it | Conversational capture |
Phone numbers are validated inline, so a mistyped number is caught while the visitor is still there.
before_chat also runs outside business hours — off-hours is exactly when being able to follow up matters most, so the form is not skipped. See Business hours.
Auto-assignment
Under Settings → Leads (owners and admins), auto-assign routes each new lead to the least-loaded workspace member. It is off by default.
Alongside it sits a one-time backfill that assigns existing unassigned leads the same way. Run it once after switching auto-assign on; otherwise your history stays unowned while new leads get owners.
Changing either setting is recorded in the audit log.
Owner notifications
The workspace owner is emailed when a lead is captured, so a lead does not wait for someone to open the dashboard.
Where to go next
- Configuring an action — the
capture_leadpath.
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