Tutorial: capture leads with a WhatsApp Form

🎯 Goal

Customers fill a short form without leaving WhatsApp. Every answer lands on the contact, hot leads alert your sales team, and you can read all responses in one place.

🧰 What you need

• A connected number
• A Meta-verified business (needed to publish a form)
• Your number added as a test number, to try the draft

Why a form instead of questions? A WhatsApp Form (Meta calls it a Flow) shows all the fields on one screen, with dropdowns and checks, and the customer sends them in one tap. It’s faster than five Ask question steps.

Step 1: create the form

1. WhatsApp Flows → New form.
2. Pick the ready-made Lead form and name it Website enquiry.
3. It opens in the editor with one screen, Get in touch: Full name, Email, Company, Interested in (a dropdown), Your requirement and a Send me offers and updates on WhatsApp opt-in.
4. On Build, edit what you need. For example, change the Interested in options to Sofas, Dining, Bulk order, Something else. Full name is prefilled from the contact’s name.
5. Save.

login.meapi.in/whatsapp-flows

• Your forms, with their status on Meta.
• New form starts from a ready-made form or a blank one. Import from Meta brings in forms made elsewhere.

Other ready forms: Appointment booking, Feedback / NPS, Registration, Quote request, Order form, Customer survey, Callback request and Support ticket.

Step 2: save the answers to the contact

Open Settings → Save answers to the contact. By default each answer is saved under its own name: full_name, email, company, interest, requirement, marketing_opt_in. Pick another contact field for any answer, or Don’t save on the contact.

Saved answers work like any contact field: in messages as {{email}}, in segments, and in flow conditions.

login.meapi.in/whatsapp-flows/3

• The form editor: Build, JSON, Settings and Responses tabs.
• A phone preview of the real form next to the editor.
• Save, Sync to Meta and Publish at the top.

Note

For a dropdown, the saved value is the option’s ID: the option text in lower case with _ for spaces, for example bulk_order for Bulk order.

Step 3: test the draft, then publish

1. Click Sync to Meta.
2. In the Inbox, open a chat with your own test number. In the composer click the form button (Send a WhatsApp form) and pick Website enquiry (draft — test numbers only). Fill it on your phone.
3. When it looks right, click Publish and confirm.

Caution

A published form can’t be changed any more. To change it later: Duplicate to edit, change the copy, publish it, then Deprecate the old one.

Step 4: send it from a chatbot

1. Automation → New chatbot Enquiry form. Trigger card → Match keyword enquiry, quote, details, Match: Contains.
2. Click + → Bot actions → WhatsApp Flow form.
3. Body text: Tell us what you need — it takes 30 seconds 👇. WhatsApp Flow: Website enquiry. Button label: Open form.
4. The step has two outputs: form submitted and typed instead (optional).

SSharma Home Decor✓

I need a quote for office chairs

Tell us what you need — it takes 30 seconds 👇

📝 Open form

📝 Form submitted

Thanks Rahul! Our team will call you today.

Message

The form opens inside WhatsApp.

Step 5: act on each submission

After form submitted, the answers are ready as {{full_name}}, {{email}}, {{interest}} and so on. Click + beside form submitted and add:

1. Send message Thanks {{first_name}}! Our team will call you today.
2. Set / remove tag lead.
3. Condition: Field / answer interest is bulk_order → yes: Notify agent Everyone online 🔥 Bulk lead: {{full_name}} ({{phone}}) — {{requirement}}. Add Create deal too if you use the sales pipeline.

Test, Check, Publish.

Step 6: forms sent from the inbox or a campaign

A form you send from a chat (Step 3) or in a template with a Flow button isn’t waiting in any chatbot. Use the Form submitted trigger for those:

1. Automation → New chatbot Enquiry received. Trigger card → Form submitted → Form: Website enquiry.
2. Add the same steps as in Step 5.

The trigger doesn’t fire for a form sent by Step 4’s flow: that flow already continues on its own form submitted path.

Step 7: read the responses

Open the form → Responses: every submission with when it came, the contact, and the answers. Each answer is also on the contact (Contacts), so you can build a segment such as interest is bulk_order.

Common mistakes

• Testing a draft on a number that isn’t a test number. Drafts only reach test numbers. Publish first, or add the number in Meta.
• Publishing too early. Published forms can’t be edited. Test the draft first.
• Sending a form outside the 24-hour window. The composer’s form button is locked then. Use a template with a Flow button instead.

What’s next

The Flow editor →Screens, fields and options.Send a Flow and read responses →Every way to send it.Tutorial: leads into Google Sheets →Copy each lead to a Sheet.