#Lead Forms

#What it is

A lead form is a short list of questions that Threadline asks a customer in the chat, one at a time, at the moment their conversation is handed to a person. For example: "What's your full name?", then "What's your email?".

It is an Admin area, reached from Lead Forms in the navigation, and needs a plan that includes Lead Forms.

#The problem it solves

When a conversation reaches a person, the agent usually has to start by asking the same things: name, email, order number. That costs the customer time while they wait, and the agent time once they arrive. Often the customer has left before the agent gets the details.

A lead form asks those questions straight away, while the customer is still there and waiting. When the agent opens the conversation, the answers are already in front of them. You also collect the customer's details even if nobody was available at that moment.

#How it works

1. A conversation is handed to a person.
2. Threadline checks whether a lead form is attached to that channel or its knowledge base.
3. If so, it sends the first question as a normal chat message.
4. The customer replies. Threadline saves the answer and sends the next question.
5. When all questions are answered, the answers are saved with the conversation.

There is no special button, link or web page. The questions are ordinary messages, so the form works the same on WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Messenger and the website widget.

#1. Building a form

1. Go to Lead Forms and click Create form.
2. Enter a Title, for example "Book a demo". Only your team sees it.
3. Under Fields, in the order they'll be asked, click Add field for each question:
   • the label is the question the customer will read, for example "What's your full name?";
   • the type is Text, Phone number or Email address.
4. Use Move up and Move down to set the order.
5. Choose where to attach it (next section).
6. Leave Active ticked and save.

Keep forms short. Two or three questions get answered. Ten do not.

#2. Attaching the form

A form only works when it is attached to something. This is the step people most often forget.

Attach to	The form is offered on
A knowledge base	Every channel linked to that knowledge base.
A channel	That one channel only.

If a channel has its own form and its knowledge base also has one, the channel's form is used, because it is more specific.

If you attach a form to a knowledge base and later link a channel to a different knowledge base, that channel stops offering the form. You do not need to change the form.

#3. What the customer sees

The customer sees the questions as normal messages, one after another, as if a person were typing them.

• Each customer is asked a given form only once. If they are handed to a person again later, even in a new conversation, they are not asked the same questions again.
• To ask returning customers new questions, attach a different form.
• Email answers are remembered. When a customer answers an Email address question with a valid address, Threadline saves it as that customer's email. On the website widget, this also lets a returning visitor be recognised on another device. See Website Widget Setup.

#4. Where the answers appear

• In the Inbox, in the conversation and in the contact panel under Forms they filled in. There is no separate list to check.
• A completed form can start an automation, for example to tag the person and open a deal.
• A completed form can notify your other tools through a webhook, for example to add a row to a spreadsheet.

#Good to know

• Deleting a form stops it being offered immediately.
• The form is offered only at hand-over, not at the start of a conversation. To send a message at the start, use an automation.

#Common questions

A returning customer was not asked the form. That is expected. Each customer is asked a form once.

Can I make a question optional? Every question is asked in turn. Keep only the questions you really need.

Does the AI answer during the form? The form's questions are sent by Threadline at hand-over. The customer's replies are saved as answers.