How to Automate Lead Follow-Up with AI Chatbots and Webhooks

Most small businesses do the same thing when a lead comes in: they write it down, maybe send a quick email, and then forget about it for three days. By then, the lead has gone cold — or signed with someone else.

The fix isn't more staff. It's automation that runs while you're focused on actual work.

Pivra's Actions & Webhooks and Agentic Flows features let you build a proper lead nurture pipeline without touching a single line of backend code. This guide walks through the full setup: chatbot captures the lead → webhook fires to your CRM → agentic flow sends a timed follow-up email 24 hours later.

What you'll build

Here's the sequence this guide produces:

1. Visitor chats with your AI chatbot and submits their name + email
2. Pivra fires a webhook to your CRM (HubSpot, Pipedrive, or via Zapier to anything else)
3. An Agentic Flow waits 24 hours, then triggers an automated follow-up email
4. If the lead replies, the chatbot re-engages and updates the CRM record

This is a Starter + Business feature combination — webhook actions start at Starter ($39/mo AUD), Agentic Flows are on the Business plan ($299/mo AUD).

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Step 1: Set up lead capture in your chatbot

Before webhooks fire, your chatbot needs to collect the lead. In Pivra:

1. Open your chatbot → Settings → Lead Capture
2. Enable lead capture and add fields: Name, Email, Phone (optional)
3. Set when to prompt — "Before the first message" works well for high-intent landing pages; "After 2 messages" is better for general support bots
4. Save

Your chatbot will now collect and store leads in the Leads tab of your dashboard. But we want more than storage — we want action.

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Step 2: Create a Webhook Action

Actions trigger external services when something happens in a chat. Here's how to set up a webhook that fires when a lead is captured:

1. Go to Chatbot → Actions
2. Click New Action → Webhook
3. Name it something like Lead captured → CRM
4. Set the Trigger: On lead form submitted
5. Paste your Webhook URL — this is the endpoint in your CRM or Zapier catch

What gets sent

Pivra sends a JSON payload to your webhook with the lead's data:

{
  "event": "lead_captured",
  "chatbot_id": "your-bot-id",
  "lead": {
    "name": "Sarah Chen",
    "email": "sarah@example.com",
    "phone": "0412 345 678",
    "message": "I need a quote for a bathroom renovation",
    "captured_at": "2026-03-02T14:30:00Z"
  },
  "session_id": "abc123"
}

Connecting to your CRM

HubSpot (native integration on Pro/Business): Use the HubSpot integration under Settings → Integrations — no webhook needed, it syncs automatically.

Pipedrive, Salesforce, or any other CRM: Create a Zap in Zapier with a Webhooks by Zapier trigger. Paste the Zapier catch URL into Pivra. Then map the fields to your CRM in Zapier.

Your own backend: If you have a custom API, paste its endpoint directly. Pivra will POST to it.

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Step 3: Set up the 24-hour Agentic Flow

This is where it gets interesting. Agentic Flows let your chatbot take multi-step, time-delayed actions — like a follow-up sequence.

1. Go to Agentic Flows → New Flow
2. Name it: Lead follow-up sequence
3. Set the Trigger: Lead captured
4. Add Step 1: Wait 24 hours
5. Add Step 2: Send email via webhook

For Step 2, create another webhook action that POSTs to your email provider (Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, SendGrid, etc.) with the lead's details and a follow-up email template.

A simple Zapier Zap works here: Webhooks trigger → Gmail/Mailchimp → send template email with the lead's name.

Example follow-up email payload

{
  "to": "{{lead.email}}",
  "subject": "Still thinking about it? — [Your Business Name]",
  "body": "Hi {{lead.name}}, just following up on your enquiry yesterday. Happy to answer any questions — reply here or call us on [number]."
}

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Step 4: Test the full sequence

Before going live, run through it manually:

1. Open your chatbot in preview mode
2. Start a conversation and submit a lead
3. Check your CRM — the contact should appear within 30 seconds
4. Check your Agentic Flow logs — the 24hr timer should be running
5. If you want to test without waiting 24 hours, temporarily set the delay to 2 minutes

In the Agentic Flows dashboard you'll see each in-progress sequence with its status, lead details, and the next scheduled step.

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Step 5: Add conditional logic (optional, Business plan)

Business plan Agentic Flows support conditional branching. You can build logic like:

• If the lead's message contains "urgent" → skip the 24hr wait, fire an immediate SMS via webhook
• If the lead is from a specific suburb → route to a different CRM pipeline
• If the lead hasn't opened the follow-up email → send a second email at 72 hours

This turns a simple chatbot into a full lead management system — without a marketing automation tool.

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What this setup replaces

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Pricing for this setup

For most small businesses running a basic "capture → CRM → one follow-up" sequence, the Pro plan at $99/mo covers it. Agentic Flows with branching logic require Business.

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Get started

The fastest path: start with a free Pivra account, enable lead capture, and set up your first webhook to a Zapier catch. You can have your first CRM-connected lead capture live in under an hour.

Start free — no credit card required

Once you see leads flowing in and your CRM populating automatically, adding the timed follow-up sequence is the obvious next step.