# Collect leads with the in-chat form

> Set up the lead form inside your intoCHAT agent: email and phone fields, manual, AI, rule and hybrid triggers, the form message and what visitors see after it.

When lead collection is on, your agent can show a short form inside the conversation that asks the visitor for an email address, a phone number or both. You decide when the form appears and what the visitor sees after sending it.

## Turn on lead collection

1. Open your agent and go to the **Leads** tab. The agent has to be saved first.
2. Switch on **Enable lead collection**.
3. Under **Fields to collect**, tick **Email**, **Phone** or both.
4. Choose a **Trigger mode**, check the **Inline form message** and pick an option under **After submission**.
5. Click **Save lead settings**.

## Fields

The form collects an email address and a phone number, nothing else. There are no name or custom fields. Every field you enable is required: with both ticked, the visitor has to fill in both before **Submit details** works. Email addresses and phone numbers are checked for a valid format before they are saved.

## Trigger modes

| Trigger mode | When the form appears |
| --- | --- |
| **Manual (visitor asks)** | Only when the visitor asks to be contacted, wants a callback, asks for a person or offers their details. The agent never brings it up by itself. This is the default. |
| **AI-driven** | The agent decides when to ask, guided by your text in **AI guidance**. |
| **Rule-based** | When the message count or a keyword rule matches. |
| **Hybrid (AI + rules)** | When a rule matches. If none does, the agent can still decide to ask, as in AI-driven mode. |

### AI guidance

AI-driven and hybrid mode need a short description of when a visitor is worth asking, at least 10 characters. A starter text is filled in when you pick one of these modes. Describe the signals that matter for your business, for example questions about prices, quotes or availability.

### Rules

- **Message count threshold**: the form appears after this many visitor messages. Once the form has been shown, counting starts again from there.
- **Keyword triggers**: up to 20 keywords, separated by commas or new lines. The form appears when the visitor's latest message contains one of them. Matching ignores upper and lower case and also finds the keyword inside longer words, so `price` matches "prices".

Rule-based mode needs at least one of the two.

## Limits that always apply

- The form is shown at most 3 times in one conversation.
- It is not shown again once the visitor has shared contact details in the current chat session, through the form or by typing them in a message.
- It always appears below the agent's answer and never replaces it.
- Temporary chats never show it, because nothing in them is saved.

## Form message

The **Inline form message** appears above the fields, up to 500 characters. The default is "Could you share your preferred contact details so we can follow up?" It is shown exactly as you write it, so write it in the language of your visitors. Below it, the visitor sees a short note that shared details are stored securely for the chatbot owner.

## Language of the form

Apart from your form message, the form's texts appear in the visitor's browser language: field labels, the **Submit details** button, the privacy note, validation messages and the confirmation after sending. The form speaks English, German, Italian, French and Spanish. Visitors whose browser uses any other language see it in English.

## After submission

| Option | Confirmation the visitor sees (English version) |
| --- | --- |
| **Continue the conversation** | "Thanks for sharing! We can keep chatting if you have more questions." |
| **Show a thank-you message** | "Thank you! We'll follow up with you shortly." |
| **Tell the visitor your team will follow up** | "Perfect—your details are saved. Our team will take it from here." |

> No option sends the visitor to another page. With every option the chat stays open and the visitor can keep asking questions.

If the email address or phone number is already in your leads, the existing entry is updated and marked as a return visit instead of being added a second time. The visitor sees the same confirmation as anyone else. There is no "welcome back" message: by design, the form never reveals whether someone is already in your leads.

## Next steps

- Get an email for every new lead and export your list: [Lead alerts and export](/en/docs/lead-alerts-and-export).
- The form never appears? See [Troubleshooting](/en/docs/troubleshooting).