How to connect capture warm leads help to a chat widget

Lead capture in Chatref works directly inside the chat widget, with no external tools or integrations needed. The three pieces that connect are:

• The website widget – The embeddable chat interface your visitors see on your email marketing support pages.
• The lead capture feature – A setting on your Chatref agent that prompts visitors for their contact info after they’ve exchanged a few messages with the AI.
• The agent’s conversation inbox – Where captured leads appear with the full chat transcript and the details the visitor provided.

Once enabled, the widget handles the entire flow: answer questions from your knowledge base first, then – at the right moment – ask for the visitor’s information. The captured data is available inside Chatref’s inbox and can be exported or forwarded to your CRM manually.

1. Go to your agent’s settings in the Chatref app (app.chatref.ai). Select the agent you use for email marketing support, or create a new one trained on your help docs.
2. Enable lead capture. Under the Lead Capture section, toggle it on. Two controls appear:
   • Prompt delay – how many chat messages (visitor + AI) before the prompt appears. Start with 3 or 4 messages to avoid asking too early.
   • Prompt text – the message the widget shows to ask for information. Keep it friendly, e.g., “Mind if we grab your name and email so we can follow up on this?”
3. (Optional) Set a custom action to tag leads or store them in your CRM. The lead capture itself doesn’t require this, but you can add a custom action later if you want the widget to forward data automatically.
4. Embed the widget. Copy the widget snippet from the Embed tab of the same agent. Paste it into the HTML of your email marketing support pages – usually just before the closing </body> tag on every page where you want chat to appear.
5. Test it. Open a page with the widget, ask a few support questions, and confirm the prompt appears after the set number of messages. Fill in a test name and email, then check your agent’s inbox for the captured lead entry.

All features – widget embedding, lead capture, branding removal – are included on every Chatref account with no per‑feature add‑ons, so you don’t need to upgrade anything after enabling this.

When a visitor clicks the chat widget and asks a question about importing contacts or setting up a campaign, the AI answers from your docs. After a few exchanges (based on your prompt delay setting), a small, non‑intrusive prompt slides up inside the chat:

“Mind if we grab your name and email so we can follow up on this?”

The visitor can ignore it, dismiss it, or fill in their name and email. If they provide the info, the conversation continues without interruption. If they skip, the prompt won’t reappear in the same session – it only asks once per browser session.

For the visitor, the experience stays helpful, not salesy. They get their question answered before the lead capture ever appears, so they’re more likely to trust the ask and share real details.

Lead capture prompt never appears

• Check the prompt delay setting – if it’s set too high (e.g., 10 messages) and the visitor only asks one question, the prompt will never fire. Reduce it to 2–3 messages.
• Confirm the widget script is loading correctly (check browser console for errors) and that no ad‑blocker is blocking the widget.
• The prompt is suppressed if the same visitor already submitted information in a previous session on the same browser. Test in an incognito window.

Captured leads don’t show up in the inbox

• Captured leads appear as a conversation thread with a lead‑specific tag in your agent’s conversation inbox. If you’re viewing the inbox for a different agent, you won’t see them. Switch to the agent that has lead capture enabled.

Prompt appears too aggressively or scares people away

• Increase the prompt delay to 5 or 6 messages so the visitor gets real value first. Also soften the prompt text – a direct “Give us your email” turns people off; a friendly request after a solved problem works much better.

Widget not loading on your email marketing site

• Make sure your site domain is added to the agent’s allowed origins in the Embed settings. The widget won’t load if the domain isn’t permitted.

What causes capture warm leads problems for Email Marketing Support?

Most issues come from the prompt delay being too short (scaring visitors before they get help) or too long (never appearing). Other common causes: the widget snippet isn’t placed on high‑traffic support pages, ad‑blockers suppress the widget, or the same visitor has already been prompted in a previous session. Missing domain allowlisting also prevents the widget from loading at all.

How do I improve capture warm leads for Email Marketing Support?

Set the prompt delay to 3–4 messages so visitors get a useful answer first. Use a casual, value‑oriented prompt text like “Happy to help! Want us to send you a copy of this fix via email?” Place the widget on pages where visitors actually ask questions – your knowledge base, support portal, or campaign setup pages – not just the homepage. Finally, export captured leads weekly and follow up manually to turn warm chats into trial sign‑ups.