Live Chat · Pre-chat form
Pre-chat forms that tie every conversation to a contact
Ask visitors for a name, and optionally an email, before the chat begins — so conversations are attached to a real contact instead of an anonymous session.
Can ChatFlo collect a visitor's details before the chat?
Yes. With the pre-chat form enabled, the widget asks for the visitor's name — and optionally an email — before the conversation starts, so every chat is tied to a contact. It is off by default, and is skipped automatically when your site already identifies the visitor.
Why it matters
Capture who you are talking to before the conversation starts.
Anonymous conversations are hard to follow up
A resolved chat with no contact attached cannot be followed up, attributed, or reconnected to the same person when they come back tomorrow.
Chat is a lead source, not just a cost centre
Pre-sales questions arrive through the same widget as support ones. Capturing an email turns the good ones into something your team can act on.
Nothing is asked twice
If your site already tells ChatFlo who the visitor is, the form is skipped — logged-in customers are not made to re-type their own name.
In the product
How it behaves
These map to real settings in your dashboard, not a roadmap.
Off by default
The form is opt-in. Left off, identity is taken from the host session or captured naturally mid-conversation instead.
Name required, email optional
Ask for as little as you need. A name alone is enough to attach the conversation to a contact.
Skipped for identified visitors
When your site passes an identity for a logged-in user, the widget goes straight to the conversation.
Verified identity for tools
Identity your site signs with the HMAC secret is trusted by the agent's tools. Unsigned identity stays display-only metadata, so nobody can look up someone else's order by typing their email.
It costs you conversations
Every field in front of the chat box reduces how many people start one. A pre-chat form is worth it when chat is a real lead source for you, and a bad trade when it is mainly a support channel — there, the friction turns away the customers you most want to help. If you are unsure, leave it off and capture identity mid-conversation instead.
Know who you are talking to
Turn the pre-chat form on where chat drives revenue, and leave it off where it drives support.
Frequently asked questions
Yes — that is the trade. Asking for details before the conversation starts always costs you some volume. Enable it where the contact record is worth more than the conversations you lose, which usually means sales-led sites rather than support-led ones.
It happens automatically. When your site identifies the visitor, the form is not shown — they go straight into the conversation.
Not on its own. A self-typed email is display-only metadata. For the agent to look up orders or account data, identity must be signed by your site using the HMAC secret — otherwise anyone could type someone else's address.
Onto the conversation in your shared inbox, so the thread and the contact stay together rather than living in separate systems.
More live chat
The rest of the widget
Every one of these is a setting on the same widget — you are not buying them separately.
Widget customization
A chat widget that looks like it was built for your site.
Learn moreMultilingual chat
One widget that answers in whatever language the visitor types.
Learn moreProactive messages
Start the conversation before the visitor decides to leave.
Learn moreBusiness hours
Set when a human is available — the agent covers the rest.
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