How to capture CRM trial leads from chat

• A Chatref account with at least one active agent. If you haven’t created an agent yet, the guided onboarding will get you there in a few minutes.
• Your agent embedded on the public-facing pages where trial signups happen – typically the trial landing page, the signup flow, and the post-signup onboarding wizard. For CRM platforms, that usually means the “Start trial” page and the first in-app welcome screen.
• Access to the Chatref conversation inbox, where captured leads appear alongside the chat thread that produced them. You’ll review and hand off leads from there.

Lead capture is included on every Chatref account, whether you’re on free credit or have topped up your prepaid balance. There are no feature gates or add-on charges.

1. Open agent settings and enable lead capture

From your Chatref dashboard, select the agent you use for trial-related pages. Go to Settings and find the Lead capture section. Toggle the feature on.

2. Choose when to ask

Two common approaches work for CRM trial leads:

• Always ask after a first answer. The agent answers the visitor’s first question, then immediately invites them to leave their details. This is safe and simple – it catches everyone who engages, and the visitor is already warmed up by the response.
• Ask on a signal. If the visitor types a phrase like “pricing” or “start trial,” the agent can present the capture form at that natural interest point. You can configure a list of trigger phrases inside the lead capture settings.

Avoid asking before the first answer – you’ll get fewer completions and more drop-offs. The moment right after the agent delivers a helpful reply is when trust peaks.

3. Decide which fields to collect

Start with as little as you need. For CRM trial leads, a good minimum is name and work email. If your sales team qualifies on company size or use case, add company name and a brief note field (optional). You can change the set of fields any time – fewer fields improves completion, more fields improves lead scoring.

Enable the three fields you’ll actually act on. Save the changes.

4. Test the flow from a visitor perspective

Open an incognito window, visit a page where the widget is active, and type a typical trial question (“Can I import my existing deals?”). After the agent answers, the capture form should appear – or appear after your trigger phrase if you chose that method. Go through the form and submit. Check your conversation inbox to confirm the lead shows up with the filled details and the full chat transcript.

5. Review and hand off leads from the inbox

Inside the Chatref conversation inbox, filter by agent and look for conversations with a lead tag. Click into a conversation to see the captured fields – name, email, company, optional note – alongside the chat thread. From there you can:

• Copy the lead details into your CRM manually (if you’re testing the flow)
• Export a CSV (Chatref currently provides bulk export from the inbox)
• Use the transcript to qualify: what did the prospect ask about, how urgent is their need, and which part of your CRM did they focus on?

If your CRM supports email-based lead creation, simply forward the lead details email-style or use a low-code automation later once you have the export pattern down. Chatref’s lead capture stores the data; your team owns the handoff.

When lead capture is enabled, the agent doesn’t just collect data – it attaches context that makes qualification practical. Each lead entry sits next to the conversation that triggered it, so your sales rep sees the exact question the prospect asked and the answer they received.

The agent asks the details using the same conversational tone it uses for support, which keeps the experience cohesive. Because the widget works without a page reload, the visitor never leaves the trial flow. For CRM trial leads, that continuity matters – you don’t want a form that pulls the prospect out of the onboarding sequence.

Lead capture lives inside the same inbox where you see every chat. You don’t need a separate admin panel or integration to test the value. Once you decide you need a permanent connection to your CRM, the export path (CSV or manual entry) gives you immediate control without waiting for a native integration.

Start with the minimum fields. Name and email close more captures than a five-field form. You can always follow up via email for company size, use case, or timeline after the chat.

Trigger on the trial landing page, not the entire site. Enable lead capture only on the agent instance deployed to your trial signup and onboarding pages. That way you capture trial evaluation intent without spamming existing customers who just need support.

Review leads daily, not weekly. Trial intent decays fast – a lead from yesterday wants a response today. Even if you’re manually transferring leads into your CRM, a daily batch keeps your follow-up within hours, not days.

Use the transcript to qualify before assigning. A visitor who asked about “importing from HubSpot” likely means an active migration – high intent. Someone who asked “how do I add a logo” is earlier in the trial and less urgent. Sort the inbox by the question content, not just the fact they left a lead.

Experiment with trigger phrases. For CRM trial leads, test phrases like “start trial,” “pricing,” “demo,” “import,” and “migrate.” Chatref checks for these signals and offers the capture form only when they appear – reducing form fatigue for purely support-driven chats.

Keep the agent’s lead request short. The built-in prompt will say something like “Would you like to leave your details so we can follow up?” – that’s often enough. Don’t pile on a custom survey into the capture form; preserve the quick, in-conversation feel.

How do I qualify CRM trial leads?

Use the conversation transcript attached to each lead. Look for signals: the specific feature they asked about, whether they mentioned a competing CRM, and the language that indicates a near-term evaluation (phrases like “import,” “migrate,” “pricing”). Enrich with your usual ICP criteria – company size, team size, B2B vs. B2C – after you’ve copied the lead into your CRM. Chatref doesn’t score leads automatically, but the transcript gives you more signal than a standard web form.

How do I collect emails in chat?

The easiest way is to enable lead capture on your agent and set the required field to “email.” The agent will automatically ask for the email. If you prefer a conversational approach without the capture form, you can configure the agent’s instructions to ask for an email when a trial lead asks a certain type of question (“I’d be happy to help – could you share your work email so I can follow up?”). The captured email appears in your conversation inbox either way.