From Lead to Customer

Turn website visitors into qualified leads and paying customers using Boei's AI chatbot, inbox, and deals pipeline. This guide walks you through the entire journey — from setting up your chatbot to closing your first deal.

What You'll Set Up

By the end of this guide, you'll have a working system where:

1. Your AI chatbot answers visitor questions and collects their contact info
2. Every conversation appears in your inbox as a lead
3. You qualify leads using AI-powered replies and playbooks
4. Promising leads become deals in your pipeline
5. You follow up on deals with AI assistance until the customer converts

Step 1: Create and Train Your Chatbot

First, you need an AI chatbot that knows your business.

How to get there: Go to Setup → Chatbot in the top menu → click Create Chatbot.

1. Click Generate Bot and enter a description of your business
2. Select your default language
3. Click Generate Bot — your chatbot is ready in seconds

Now train it on your website content:

1. Go to the Training → Website tab (under Training in the sidebar)
2. Enter your domain and click Add
3. Select the pages you want the chatbot to learn from
4. Click Train — pages turn green once learned

The more content you train on, the better your chatbot answers visitor questions. See Training Your Chatbot for details on adding files, text, and Q&A entries.

Step 2: Set Up a Lead Flow

A lead flow tells your chatbot to collect visitor information like name, email, and company — either as a form or woven naturally into the conversation.

How to get there: Go to Setup → Chatbot → click your chatbot → Lead Flows tab (under Lead Generation in the sidebar).

1. Click New and choose a template:
   • Seamless Lead Capture — Collects email and name naturally during conversation (recommended for most use cases)
   • Contact Form — Shows a form before the chat starts
   • Sales Qualifier — Collects more details (email, name, company, phone) after a few replies
2. Set the trigger — when should the chatbot ask for information?
   • After 1 reply — Immediately, good for high-intent pages
   • After 3 replies — Let visitors see value first (recommended)
   • On keyword — Only when visitors mention words like "quote" or "demo"
3. Mark the fields you need as Required
4. Save

Tip: Start with just email and name. You can always add more fields later once you see good completion rates.

For the full guide on lead flow options, field types, and combining multiple flows, see Lead Flows.

Step 3: Set Up Transcript Notifications

Make sure you're notified when leads come in.

How to get there: Go to Setup → Chatbot → click your chatbot → Notifications → Where to Send tab (under Lead Generation in the sidebar).

1. Enter your notification email to receive transcripts
2. Under When to send, choose:
   • When lead info is collected — Only get notified when all required lead fields were provided (recommended)
   • Conversations with contact info — Broader: any conversation where at least an email was shared
3. Save

Step 4: Install the Chatbot on Your Website

Connect your chatbot to a widget and install it on your site.

How to get there: Go to Setup → Chatbot → click your chatbot → Install tab.

1. Click your widget (or create a new one under Setup → Widget)
2. Select the chatbot you just created
3. Copy the install code and add it to your website

Need help with a specific platform? See Installation guides for step-by-step instructions for WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Webflow, and more.

Test it: Visit your website, click the widget, and have a test conversation. Make sure the chatbot answers well and asks for your info at the right moment.

Step 5: Review Leads in Your Inbox

When visitors chat with your AI chatbot, every conversation automatically appears in your inbox after the visitor leaves.

How to get there: Go to Inbox in the top menu.

Here's what happens behind the scenes:

1. The visitor chats with your AI chatbot
2. After 20 minutes of inactivity, the conversation is closed and analyzed
3. The AI generates a summary, detects the topic and sentiment
4. The conversation appears in your inbox as an open lead

Each inbox item shows the visitor's messages, the AI's responses, any lead information collected, and the AI-generated summary. Think of every open conversation as a lead that may need a personal follow-up from your team.

Step 6: Qualify Leads with Playbooks and AI Replies

Not every lead is worth pursuing. Use playbooks and AI replies to efficiently qualify leads and move the best ones forward.

Use a Playbook

Playbooks are conversation scripts for the AI. They tell the AI exactly what to ask and in what order — like giving it your sales playbook.

How to get there: Open a conversation in the Inbox → click the Playbook dropdown in the toolbar.

Example: Create a "Lead Qualification" playbook with a prompt like:

Follow these steps in order:
1. Thank the visitor for their interest
2. Ask what specific problem they're trying to solve
3. Ask about their timeline — are they looking to start this month or just exploring?
4. Ask about their budget range
5. If they seem like a good fit, let them know someone from the team will reach out shortly
6. If they're just browsing, share our most relevant resource link

Be friendly and conversational. Don't be pushy.

Assign this playbook to a conversation, then generate an AI reply — the AI follows your script.

See Inbox Playbooks for more examples and tips on writing effective playbooks.

Use AI Reply Suggestions

For a quicker approach, use AI suggestions without a playbook:

1. Open the conversation
2. Click Generate AI reply
3. Review the suggested reply, edit if needed
4. Click Send

The AI drafts a response based on the conversation history and your knowledge base. See AI Reply Suggestions for details.

Update the Contact Status

Once you've determined a visitor is a real lead:

1. Go to Contacts and find the contact
2. Change their status from Contact to Lead

This helps you filter and track leads separately from general contacts.

Step 7: Create a Deal

When a lead looks promising, turn it into a deal to track it through your sales pipeline.

How to get there: Open a conversation in the Inbox → click Create Deal.

1. The deal form opens with contact info pre-filled from the conversation
2. Enter a deal name (e.g., "Acme Corp - Enterprise Plan")
3. Set the value (expected revenue)
4. Add any notes from your qualification
5. Click Save

The deal appears on your kanban board under Deals, starting in the New stage.

You can also create deals from a contact's profile page — go to Contacts, open the contact, and click New Deal. See Managing Deals for all the ways to create and edit deals.

Step 8: Work the Deal

Move your deal through the pipeline stages as the relationship progresses.

How to get there: Go to Deals in the top menu.

1. Drag the deal from New to Contacted once you've made first contact
2. Move to Qualified when you've confirmed it's a real opportunity
3. Move to Proposal when you've sent your offer
4. End at Won or Lost

Set Follow-up Reminders

Never let a deal go cold:

1. Open the deal
2. Set a follow-up date using the quick buttons (+1 day, +3 days, +5 days, +7 days) or pick a custom date
3. Add a note about what to do next

Deal cards show follow-up status with color coding — red for overdue, orange for soon.

Turn On Email Reminders

By default, you'll receive a daily email listing all deals that are due or overdue for follow-up. You can change this:

How to get there: Go to Deals in the top menu → click the bell icon in the header.

Choose from:

• Daily — Get a reminder email every morning with your due and overdue deals (default)
• Weekly (Mondays) — Get a weekly summary every Monday
• Off — No email reminders

Each reminder email lists your overdue, due today, and upcoming deals with direct links. Open the deal, review the AI-generated follow-up, and send — all in a few clicks.

Customize Your Stages

The default stages (New → Contacted → Qualified → Proposal → Won/Lost) work for most sales processes, but you can customize them. Go to Deals → click the Settings gear icon to add, remove, or rename stages.

See Customizing Stages for details.

Step 9: Follow Up with AI

When a deal's follow-up date arrives, you'll get an email reminder. Here's what to do.

How to get there: Go to Deals in the top menu → click on the deal.

Before Following Up: Check the Contact Status

Before you spend time on a follow-up, check whether the lead has already converted on their own:

1. Open the deal and click on the linked contact
2. Check their status — has it changed to Customer already?
3. Review their recent inbox messages — did they come back and buy, or ask new questions?

If they're already a customer, great — move the deal to Won and you're done. If not, continue with the follow-up.

Generate an AI Follow-Up Email

Each deal has a built-in AI follow-up feature that drafts a personalized email based on the full conversation history with the contact.

1. Open the deal
2. Click Generate Follow-Up Email
3. The AI analyzes all previous conversations and drafts a personalized follow-up
4. Review the email, make any edits
5. Copy and send via your email client

The AI considers the conversation history, what was discussed, and the contact's interests to write a relevant, natural-sounding follow-up.

Use a Follow-Up Playbook

For follow-ups through the inbox instead, you can also use a playbook:

1. Go to the contact's inbox conversations (click View All on the contact page)
2. Open the most recent conversation
3. Assign a playbook (e.g., a "Follow-Up" playbook)
4. Click Generate AI reply to draft a follow-up message
5. Review, personalize, and send

A good follow-up playbook might look like:

Follow these steps:
1. Reference the visitor's original question or interest from the conversation history
2. Ask if they had a chance to review the information/proposal
3. Offer to answer any remaining questions
4. Suggest a specific next step (demo, call, trial)

Keep it brief and helpful. Don't repeat information they already received.

Keep Moving the Deal

After each follow-up:

• Update the deal stage if progress was made
• Set a new follow-up date
• Add notes about what was discussed
• If the lead has gone cold after multiple attempts, consider moving to Lost

Putting It All Together

Here's the complete flow at a glance:

Tips for Success

• Respond quickly — Leads are warmest right after their chat. Try to follow up within a few hours.
• Always set a follow-up date — Every deal should have a next follow-up date. The email reminders make sure you never forget, but only if you set the date.
• Use playbooks consistently — Create 2-3 playbooks for your most common scenarios (qualification, follow-up, objection handling) so every lead gets a thorough, consistent response.
• Review your pipeline weekly — Go through your deals board every week. Move stale deals, set new follow-ups, and close anything that's clearly lost.
• Refine your lead flow — Check your lead flow completion rates. If visitors are dropping off, try reducing the number of required fields or switching to AI conversation mode.
• Train your chatbot regularly — The better your chatbot answers, the warmer leads will be when they reach your inbox. Add new content, review training quality, and update your business info.

Related Guides

• Creating Your First AI Chatbot — Detailed chatbot setup
• Getting Started with Live Agents — Add human agents to the mix
• Lead Flows — All lead flow options and field types
• Inbox Playbooks — Writing effective playbooks
• AI Reply Suggestions — Using AI to draft responses
• Deals & Pipeline — Pipeline management basics
• Contacts — Managing your contact database