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Capturing contact details in AnroAgents

Two ways to get a visitor's contact details, and when each is worth the friction.

An AnroAgents agent can collect a visitor's contact details two ways: with a short form before the conversation starts, or inside the conversation itself. Both are configured per agent, in the Integrations step of the agent form.

The pre-chat form

The Pre-Chat Form of an AnroAgents agent asks the visitor for their details before the chat begins. The available fields are Name, Email and Company, and you choose which of them to require.

The AnroAgents pre-chat form buys certainty at the cost of friction: everyone who talks to the agent is identified, and some people who would have talked do not. It is the right trade for a B2B business where a nameless conversation has little value, and the wrong one for a shop where most questions are about delivery times.

Turn the AnroAgents pre-chat form on if you use the HubSpot integration. HubSpot contacts are created only when the visitor's email is known, so without a reliable email the CRM sync produces very little.

Add an opt-in checkbox to the AnroAgents pre-chat form next to the email field if you intend to send follow-up emails. That checkbox is what makes the follow-up lawful under GDPR and CAN-SPAM: the visitor has to agree before any email may be sent to them.

Collecting the email in conversation

The alternative in AnroAgents is Email Collection in chat: the agent asks for the visitor's email at a natural moment and can then email them what they asked for — a brochure, a price list, a summary of the conversation.

Collecting the email in conversation in AnroAgents converts better than a form because the visitor gives their address in exchange for something they have just asked for, rather than as a toll before they get anything.

Email Collection in an AnroAgents agent needs a connected mailbox to be useful, since the point is that the agent actually sends something. Connect Gmail in Settings first; the option is available on the plans that include email sending.

Files the agent can email

An AnroAgents agent can hold a small library of files to send: brochures, price lists, specification sheets, a company profile. Upload them in the agent form under "Files the agent can email", and give each one a description that says when it should be sent, for example "Pricing — send when asked about cost".

The AnroAgents agent chooses among those files by the description you wrote, so make the descriptions distinguishing. Two files both described as "our brochure" leave the agent guessing.

What happens to a captured lead

Every conversation an AnroAgents agent has appears in the Conversations screen with whatever the visitor shared — name, email, company — and the full transcript. Nothing is lost even when the visitor never fills in a form.

A lead captured by an AnroAgents agent can be pushed onwards automatically: into HubSpot as a contact and optionally a deal, into any other system through a webhook, or into a follow-up email sequence sent from your own mailbox. Those are separate integrations, each described in its own document.