Give your bot a goal: gather details while it chats

A goal is what a bot tries to find out while it answers — a name and an email, a company, a budget. It asks one question at a time, tacked onto the end of a real answer, so it never feels like a form.

Set it up

Open Chat → Bots, pick the bot, and find What it tries to find out. Turn on Ask visitors for details while it answers, then add what you want to know — one click for Name, Email, Phone or Company, or + Something else for anything custom. Each detail has a label and an answer type (text, email, phone, number, date, choice, yes/no, website).

Order matters

Drag the rows into the order you want them asked. The bot works from the top down: the first detail it doesn't yet know is the next one it asks for. Put the thing you care about most first — if someone leaves after one question, that's the one you got.

Under More on each row you can write exactly how to ask (otherwise it's worked out from the label) and why you need it — if a visitor asks "why do you want my number?", the bot uses your reason instead of making one up.

Asking nicely

• Choose when it starts asking: in its first reply, or from its second, third or fourth reply, so visitors can say what they came to say first.
• Each detail is asked at most twice. The visitor's reply to the second ask still counts; if they don't want to say, the bot moves on.
• When the visitor simply answers the question (types their email, say), the bot says thanks and asks the next thing. It doesn't search your knowledge for their answer.
• A number, a yes/no or a choice is only picked up from the reply to the question that asked for it, so "ok, 3 people" can't fill a budget field.
• Pick what it says once it has everything. It is sent the moment the last detail comes in.

Where the answers go

Everything a goal learns becomes a lead on the widget the conversation happened on — see Widget leads. It does not write to your CRM by itself: add an automation with the Widget lead trigger to create the contact. Include an Email or Phone — a conversation only becomes a lead once there's a way to reach the person.

One bot, one goal

Goals used to be a shared list that bots subscribed to. Now each bot has its own, so changing one bot's goal can never change another's. If two bots shared a goal before, saving either gives it its own copy. Saving applies to new conversations; ones already underway finish the way they started.