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Overview

The Collect Leads action captures a visitor’s contact details as a lead during the conversation. You control when the lead form appears, which details are collected, and where they’re sent. The agent can either display a form inside the chat bubble or ask for the details naturally in conversation.

Best for:

Turning an interested visitor into a contactable lead before they leave, and routing that lead straight to your CRM or inbox.
Common Use Cases:
  • Capturing details when a visitor asks about pricing or a demo
  • Following up with someone whose question needs a human answer
  • Qualifying interest with custom fields like company name or budget

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How to create the action

1

Navigate to Actions

Go to your Chatbase dashboard and select your agent. Click Build > Actions in the left sidebar.
2

Create the Action

Click Create action, then select Collect Leads.
3

Configure General Settings

When to use: Specify when the form should show during the conversation. You can also add other instructions related to the action, such as Show only the leads form without listing the form’s fields. Previewing the action will help you spot the edits you may want to make.To restrict the action to procedure steps only, turn on Only use in procedures. When it’s on, the When to use field is hidden, because the agent no longer decides when to call the action.
The When to use field for the Collect Leads action
4

Define your fields

In the Fields section, choose how the agent collects details and which fields it asks for. See Fields below.
5

Set your destinations

In Destinations, choose where collected leads should be sent. See Destinations below. This step is optional.
6

Choose Channels

Use Channels to control where the action is available. Toggle the action on or off for each configured channel, then click Save. Some channels may be incompatible with the action and won’t be available for selection.
7

Enable and Test

Preview your settings in the AI agent on the Action page, then click Save and enable.

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Fields

In the Fields section, you first choose how the agent collects the lead’s details:
Whichever mode you pick, either E-mail or Phone Number must be enabled and set as required. This guarantees every saved lead has a way to be contacted, and the action cannot be saved without it.

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Form mode

You can enable or disable any of the three available fields in the form (Name, E-mail, and Phone Number) and set any or all of them as required.
A lead form holds a maximum of three fields, and custom fields are not available in this mode.

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Conversational mode

In conversational mode, the agent gathers the lead’s details in chat on every channel. The fields table has two parts:
  • Identity fields: Name, E-mail, and Phone Number. Each can be toggled on or off and marked as required. Their types are fixed, and you can add a description to guide the agent on how to ask for them.
  • Custom fields: any extra details you want collected, such as company name or budget. Each custom field has a name, a type (text, number, email, date, or boolean), a description that tells the agent what to ask for, and a Required checkbox.
The agent asks for all required fields before saving the lead; optional fields are saved when the customer provides them but never block the save.
Conversational fields editor with identity and custom fields
The agent never invents values: it only saves what the customer has explicitly provided, and if the customer shares more details later in the conversation, the lead is updated without losing what was already collected. Collected leads appear under Activity > Leads, where each custom field gets its own column. Custom fields are also included in CSV and PDF exports and in the leads.submit webhook.

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Messages

Success Message: The message displayed once the customer submits the form. Dismiss Message: The message shown once the customer dismisses the form by clicking the X button. This only applies to form mode, since conversational mode has no form to dismiss.
The Success and Dismiss message fields

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Destinations

Use Destinations to specify where collected lead information should be sent. You can skip this step if you don’t want to send leads anywhere external.

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Webhooks

Add one or more webhook endpoints to receive each collected lead as a POST request.
1

Expand Destinations

Open the Destinations section of the action.
2

Enter the endpoint URL

Add the URL that should receive the lead.
3

Create the webhook

Click Create webhook, then save your changes.

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Email notifications

Enable Email notification to receive an email every time a lead is collected through this action. You can add one or more email addresses, and each successful lead submission triggers an email containing the collected lead information.
This is different from the Daily leads email notification available under Settings → Notifications. Email notifications configured here are sent immediately for each collected lead, whereas the daily leads notification sends a summary of leads collected throughout the day.
Test the action by having a conversation that should trigger it, and confirm the lead appears under Activity > Leads with every field populated.

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Channels

Use Channels to control where the Collect Leads action is available. Enable or disable the action for each configured channel, such as:
  • Chat bubble
  • Help page
  • Instagram
  • Messenger
  • WhatsApp
Some channels may be incompatible with the action and won’t be available for selection. After choosing the supported channels, click Save.

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Best Practices

Pick the Right Mode

Use Form for a quick, familiar capture in the chat bubble, and Conversational when you need custom fields or a less abrupt ask.

Ask at the Right Moment

Trigger the form once the visitor has shown intent, not at the start of every conversation.

Use Natural Language

Keep When to use instructions short and simple, include examples, start with action verbs, and say what you want the agent to do rather than what to avoid.

Keep Required Fields Few

Every required field is another reason a visitor abandons the form. Require the contact method and little else.