Forms let your chatbot do more than answer questions. It can take bookings, enquiries and requests: it collects the details in chat (or shows a card), confirms them with the visitor, then emails you everything. A taxi company can take ride bookings, a salon can take appointment requests, and a builder can collect quote enquiries, all without a person on the other end.
Create a form#
Click + New form
On a new chatbot you’ll see “No forms yet” and a Create your first form button instead.
Name it and describe when to use it
Enter a Form name (up to 120 characters) and fill in When to use this form. This description is how the bot decides when to offer the form, so write it carefully. See the tips below.
Choose a capture style and trigger
Decide whether the bot asks questions in conversation or shows a card, and what makes it start the form.
Add your fields
Add at least one field and up to 20. Give each a label and type, and set whether it’s required.
Set up emails and save
Choose who receives submissions, write a success message, and click Save form. Make sure Enabled is on.
Save form stays disabled until the form has a name, every field has a label, and no field asks for sensitive information.
Capture style and trigger#
Capture style
| Style | How it works |
|---|---|
| Conversation — bot asks in chat | The default. The bot asks for each field in turn, summarises the answers, and asks the visitor to confirm before submitting. |
| Form card — visitor fills a card | A form card appears inline in the chat for the visitor to fill in. Form cards include spam protection. |
Trigger
| Trigger | When the bot starts the form |
|---|---|
| AI decides from the description | The default. The AI reads your “When to use this form” text and offers the form when a visitor’s request matches. |
| Keywords only | Only when the visitor uses one of your trigger keywords. |
| AI + keywords | When either the description matches or a keyword is used. |
Add trigger keywords as chips: type a word and press Enter or a comma. You can add up to 30. Forms are offered during the chat, when the visitor asks for something that matches. They don’t appear at the start of a chat; use Pre-chat fields for that.
Fields#
Each field has a Label (up to 100 characters) and a key, which is created from the label and appears in your submission email. You can edit the key, reorder fields with ↑ ↓ and remove them with ×. Fields are required by default, and can have placeholder text.
| Type | Options |
|---|---|
| Short text | Max characters: default 200, up to 1,000 |
| Long text | Max characters: default 1,000, up to 2,000 |
| Needed if you want to send the visitor a confirmation email | |
| Phone | — |
| Number | Optional minimum and maximum |
| Date | Optional “Must be in the future” |
| Time | — |
| Date & time | — |
| Dropdown | Up to 50 options |
Emails and confirmation#
- Email submissions to
- Up to 10 addresses. Empty = the chatbot’s lead alert address
- Success message
- Shown after submitting, up to 1,000 characters
- Default success message
- “Thanks! We’ve received your details and will be in touch shortly.”
- Visitor confirmation
- Optional. Needs an Email field, chosen as “Visitor’s email field”
If you leave Email submissions to empty and the chatbot has no lead alert address, submissions go to the first member of your organisation. Tick Send the visitor a confirmation email to send the visitor a copy too.
Submissions and managing forms#
The Submissions tab lists everything your forms have collected. Filter by All forms or a single form. Each submission shows the form name, its status (received, emailed or failed), the date, the field values, and View conversation, which opens the full chat in Leads. Submissions are limited per visitor to stop abuse.
On the Forms tab, each form shows badges for its status (Enabled or Off), capture style and trigger. Use the toggle to switch a form off without deleting it. Deleting a form means “The bot will stop offering this form. Past submissions are kept.”
Writing a good “When to use” description#
With the default AI trigger, the description is the only thing the bot reads to decide whether a visitor’s request matches your form. Be clear and specific:
- Start with “Use when the visitor wants to…”.
- List the different ways people describe the request.
- Say what the form is not for, if there’s a similar question the bot should simply answer.
Example: Taxi Booking. Fields: pickup, drop-off, date, time, passengers, name and phone. Description: “Use when the visitor wants to book a taxi or airport transfer, or arrange a pickup for a specific date and time. Don’t use for general questions about fares.”