Chat forms: collect details in one step

A chat form collects a few details in one go, such as what a visitor needs a quote for, or an order number and the reason for a return, instead of the agent asking question by question. You build the form on the Actions tab. The agent decides when to show it. The fields are always the ones you set.

Create a form

1. On the Actions tab, go to Forms below your actions and click Add form.
2. Fill in the fields:
   • Name: shown to visitors as the form's title. Up to 60 characters.
   • When to show it: read by the agent, not shown to visitors. Describe the moments the form helps, in up to 1,000 characters. For example: "When the visitor asks for a price for a custom order, or wants a quote for several items."
   • Fields: what the form asks, up to 15 fields. Each has a Label of up to 60 characters, a Type and a Required checkbox. Two fields can't have the same label. Use the arrows to change the order.
   • Button text: optional, up to 30 characters. Left empty, visitors see "Send" in their own language.
   • Message after sending: optional, up to 300 characters. Left empty, visitors see a short thank-you in their own language.
3. Keep Agent can show this form on, check the Preview and click Add form.

Visitors see your name, labels, choices, button text and message exactly as you write them, so write them in your visitors' language. The rest of the form, such as "(optional)", error messages, the default "Send" and the default thank-you, follows the Widget language on the Appearance tab.

Manage your forms

Each form in the list shows a Form badge, the number of fields and the number of submissions.

• The Enabled switch stops the agent from offering the form, without deleting it. A form that was already shown in a chat then says "This form is no longer available."
• Edit opens the form. Renaming or removing a field keeps the answers visitors already sent. A form that is shown again in a chat, for example after a reload, shows your current version.
• The trash button deletes the form and all its submissions. This can't be undone, so export the submissions from the Leads tab first if you want to keep them.

An agent can have up to 10 forms. Forms don't count toward the limit of 25 actions.

When the agent shows a form

The agent reads When to show it for each enabled form. When the conversation fits, it shows the form under its reply and mentions it in a short sentence. It doesn't ask for the same details in the chat.

• The form is built from the form you saved. The AI model only decides when to show it, never what it asks.
• The agent shows at most one form under a reply.
• No form appears under a reply that already shows the lead form because one of your rules triggered it.
• Forms aren't shown in temporary chats, because nothing in them is saved. The agent asks the visitor to go back to their saved conversation instead.

Forms appear in the chat bubble, the inline iframe, the direct link, the Help Page and the Playground. They are saved with the reply, so they also show in transcripts on the Conversations tab, and Why this answer lists them under Actions called as "Form".

What visitors do

The visitor fills in the form under the reply and clicks the button. Required fields and email, phone, number and date answers are checked before the form is sent. Afterwards the form shows your Message after sending.

Each form can be sent once per conversation. After that it shows as sent, also when the visitor reloads the page.

Submissions on the Leads tab

On the Leads tab, the Form submissions card lists what visitors sent. Choose a form under Form to see its submissions, newest first, 20 per page, with the answers and a link to the conversation.

• Refresh loads new submissions.
• Export CSV downloads up to 10,000 of the newest submissions of the chosen form. The file has the columns Submitted at (UTC), one column per field with its current label, in the form's order, and Conversation ID. A field you removed gets a column after them when a submission answered it. Answers that start with =, +, - or @ get a leading apostrophe, so spreadsheet apps don't read them as formulas.
• The trash button deletes one submission. Webhooks and emails already sent aren't affected.

Notifications

• Email: each submission is emailed to the recipients of your lead alerts, but only while Email when a new lead arrives is on. The subject is New " followed by the form name, " form from and the agent name. The email lists the answers and the time, with a See the conversation button. If the form has an email field, replying goes to the address the visitor entered. Each agent sends at most 30 form emails per hour, separate from the lead alerts; submissions beyond that are still saved.
• Slack: tick Form submission under Post a message for in the Slack alerts card. See Slack alerts.
• Webhooks: subscribe a webhook to Form submitted to receive the form.submitted event with the answers. See Webhooks.

Duplicating an agent

A duplicated agent gets copies of the forms. The submissions stay with the original agent.