On this page
Your bot talks to every lead the way a good salesperson would: it keeps the conversation going, asks everything you want to know, and does not close the door on someone because of one answer. If you would rather it politely stopped once a lead clearly does not fit, you can choose that too. What it cannot know is how far your business bends. A tour operator who will never run a two-night trip and one who happily will are different businesses, and no template can tell which you are.
So setup asks you. This page lists the choices, what each one does to a real conversation, and how people in different industries tend to answer.
The choices you make
| # | Choice | Where you make it | If you have not chosen yet |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | For each rule: is it Hard or Negotiable? | Setup, Your rules step, and Configuration → Qualification | The rule counts as negotiable |
| 2 | How many hard rules must a lead miss before it is marked Lost? | The same place, under the rules | Nobody is marked Lost |
| 3 | When a lead misses that many, does the conversation end, or does the bot keep talking? | The same place, under the threshold | The bot keeps talking |
More choices arrive with later releases: how hard the bot sells, what it may offer on a negotiable rule, whether it shows leads your options, and how a lead books the next step. Each will get its own place in setup and its own section here.
Setup does not move on until you have made these choices. The page shows each missing one in red with a line under it. Choices 2 and 3 appear once at least one rule is Hard. That is on purpose: these are the decisions about what reaches your team, what does not, and what a lead who does not fit is told, and we would rather you made them than guessed on your behalf.
If you skip them anyway, nothing is lost. An undecided rule is treated as negotiable, an undecided threshold marks nobody Lost, and an undecided third choice reads as keep talking, so every lead reaches your team and nobody is sent away. You just get more leads to look at than you need to.
Hard or negotiable
A hard rule is something your business will not do. A negotiable rule is something you would rather have but will discuss. The bot behaves differently on each:
| Hard | Negotiable | |
|---|---|---|
| What the bot says | States the limit, then asks once whether the lead can meet it ("Could three nights work for you?") | States the limit, asks whether the lead is flexible, and if they are not, says the team will check whether something can be arranged |
| What it promises | Nothing. No exception, no check | A check by your team, never a price or an offer |
| Does it keep going? | Yes, and asks every remaining question (unless the lead has now missed enough hard rules and you chose to end the conversation, below) | Yes, and asks every remaining question |
| What it counts for | Towards the number that marks a lead Lost | A reason your team looks at the lead |
The same rule can be hard for one business and negotiable for another. Here is how it tends to go in four industries.
| Industry | Usually hard | Usually negotiable |
|---|---|---|
| Travel | Fewer nights than your shortest trip. A region you do not run | A budget a little under your floor: it may fit a shorter or simpler trip |
| Recruitment | A role or skill area you do not recruit for | A salary budget a little under your floor: the role can often be reshaped |
| Real estate | A locality you do not cover. A property type you do not list | A budget under your cheapest listing: other options may fit |
| Clinics | A site you do not have. A specialty you do not offer | A price under your first-visit fee: there may be a cheaper route in |
The pattern: a limit of what you can do is usually hard, and a limit of what the lead wants to spend is usually negotiable. It is a pattern, not a rule. A boutique that never discounts can mark its budget floor hard.
Why the template does not decide
Each template does suggest. Under every rule you will see a line such as "Most tour operators treat a budget floor as negotiable: a lead a little under it is often worth a conversation." It is advice and nothing more: nothing is selected for you.
We built it this way because the template cannot know your business. If it chose, a rule you never looked at could be turning away leads you would have been glad to win, and you would find out when they had gone. Choosing takes a minute per rule and puts the decision with the person who pays for it.
The threshold
The second choice is a number: mark a lead Lost when it misses at least N of your hard rules. It only appears once you have at least one hard rule, and it can be as high as the number of hard rules you have.
A hard rule counts as missed once the lead's answer is in and fails it, or once they have declined the question. A question not yet answered is not a miss, so the threshold can be reached in the middle of the conversation, and the lead is marked Lost at that moment.
Here is what it does with three hard rules. Each cell is what happens to a lead that missed the number of hard rules in the left column, and nothing else. Not a fit means the lead is marked Lost; what the lead is told is your third choice, next.
| Hard rules the lead missed | Threshold 1 | Threshold 2 | Threshold 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Qualified | Qualified | Qualified |
| 1 | Not a fit | Held for your team | Held for your team |
| 2 | Not a fit | Not a fit | Held for your team |
| 3 | Not a fit | Not a fit | Not a fit |
A lead that misses only negotiable rules is always held for your team and never marked Lost.
Which number? A threshold of 1 means any single hard miss ends it, which suits a business where every hard rule is truly a deal-breaker. A higher number gives leads a second chance: a traveller who wants two nights and a region you do not run is a poorer fit than one who only wants two nights. A threshold of 2 is a common place to start; adjust it once real leads show you what is getting through.
When a lead misses enough: end, or keep talking
The threshold decides only whether a lead is marked Lost. Your third choice decides only whether the conversation goes on. Together they give four cases:
| Threshold not reached | Threshold reached | |
|---|---|---|
| End the conversation politely | The conversation goes on to the end. The lead is qualified or held for your team | On that very turn, even mid-conversation, the lead is thanked, told kindly that you cannot help this time, and marked Lost. The bot stops |
| Keep talking | The same: the conversation goes on to the end | The lead is marked Lost at once, but the bot carries on: it never says no, asks the questions still open, answers what they ask, and closes warmly. Your team sees a note in the thread: "Marked Lost: the bot kept talking (your setting)" |
When the bot keeps talking, a better answer can undo it. If a lead changes a hard answer so that they now pass ("actually, three nights works"), the lead is reopened and the verdict is worked out again at the end. A lead who is still Lost stays Lost, and the bot never promises them a yes. Follow-up nudges are not sent to a lead who is Lost.
Pick end if a quick, kind no saves your time and theirs. Pick keep talking if you would rather every lead leaves with a good experience and you might win some back: future releases will build on this.
What a lead hears
The lead is never told they do not qualify, and never given a flat "no" in the middle of the conversation. They hear this:
| When | What the bot says |
|---|---|
| During the conversation, on a rule they missed | The limit in plain words ("Our trips start from 400 per person"), and a question about flexibility. Which question depends on hard or negotiable (above) |
| At the end, a qualified lead | Your closing message |
| At the end, a lead held for your team | Your closing message, which says the team will check the open points |
| A lead that is not a fit, if you chose end | At once, on the turn the threshold is reached: a warm thank-you, then the message you wrote on the first hard rule they missed, written to leave the door open |
| A lead that is not a fit, if you chose keep talking | Nothing about it. The conversation carries on with the remaining questions and ends with a short thank-you that says everything is noted and passed on to your team. It never promises that anyone will contact them or reply |
Whichever you chose, the lead is asked the questions in the order that suits the conversation, optional ones included, and you keep every word of what they said. The only conversation that stops early is a lead you chose to end it with. Everyone else is asked everything before the verdict is worked out.
The limit in the bot's mouth is on by default. If you would rather the bot did not state a limit on a given rule, turn off Tell the lead this limit on that rule: the bot then says only that the answer is a little outside what you usually do.
Not a fit, and Reconsider
A lead that is not a fit is marked Lost quietly. It does not appear under Needs you, it does not raise an alert, it gets no reminders and no matching. It does appear in your leads list under the Not a fit filter, with its reason and every answer it gave.
Nothing is lost. If you open one and think "actually, I would talk to them", press Reconsider on the lead page. Owners and admins see it. The lead reopens as one for your team to decide on, with its matches, and nothing is sent to the lead: the bot stays paused until you reply or accept them.
If you find you are pressing Reconsider often, one of your hard rules is probably negotiable. Change it on the Qualification page and the next lead is treated differently.
If the lead writes again. After you chose end, a message within the quiet gap (24 hours
by default, welcome_back_after_hours in Settings) gets one short reply, "Thanks, I've
passed that on", and nothing is raised to your team. After the gap the bot welcomes them back
and asks whether they want to pick the same enquiry up or have something new in mind
(how).
Try it
The fastest way to see all of this is the playground. Play a lead who misses one rule, then one who misses two, and read what comes back. The side panel shows the verdict as it would stand if the lead stopped there.
The rules themselves, and how a conversation is judged, are in Qualification rules.