# Welcome flow — Telybot docs

- URL: https://telybot.com/docs/guide-flows
- Last updated: 2026-10-12

## Welcome flow

A welcome flow is a short, fixed sequence the bot walks a new visitor through before the AI takes over — a greeting line, "What is your name?", "Your WhatsApp number, so we can follow up?", a choice of what they are looking for. The answers are saved on the chat, shown to the AI, and can turn the chat into a lead.

There is one flow per bot, it runs in a straight line, and you edit it under **Welcome flow** in the dashboard. Switch it on there; switching it off keeps your steps for later.

### When it runs

- **When the chat opens** — right after your welcome message, before the visitor has typed anything. Suits a sales bot that needs a contact detail from everyone.
- **After the visitor's first question** — the bot answers first, then asks. Suits a support bot: nobody is asked for a phone number before they have been helped.

A visitor sees the flow once. Coming back to the same browser within 30 days does not restart it.

### Step types

- **Message** — a line the bot says. Several in a row appear as separate bubbles.
- **Ask their name**, **Ask their phone**, **Ask their email** — a question whose answer is checked and saved as the chat's name or contact.
- **Ask a question** — free text, saved under a key you choose.
- **Multiple choice** — two to six options shown as buttons under the bubble. The visitor can also type an answer.

Your text can include `{{name}}` and `{{business}}`: the visitor's name once you have it, and your business name.

### Save as, required, skip

Every question has a **Save the answer as** field. Name, Phone and Email fill the chat's own name and contact; Custom saves under a short key of your choosing (`interest`, `city`) and shows in the chat's visitor details.

**Required** hides the Skip button. Even so, a phone or email answer is checked, and after two answers that do not look right the bot moves on — nobody is ever trapped in the flow.

**Skip if we already know it** is on by default for name, phone and email. The question is skipped when the chat already holds that detail, from an earlier run or from a visitor who left their details to talk to a person.

### What the visitor sees

Each step is an ordinary bot bubble. For a question the composer's placeholder becomes the question and the keyboard switches to the phone or email layout; choices appear as buttons, with a Skip button when the step is optional. Typing a wrong phone number gets a polite retry.

A visitor who asks something instead of answering — a message ending in a question mark, or longer than a dozen words — gets an AI answer, and the pending question is asked again afterwards.

At the end the bot says your finishing message, or "Thanks! How can I help you today?" if you left it blank, and the chat carries on as normal.

### Where the answers go

- **To the AI.** Every later answer in that chat sees the details as facts — `Name: Rahul`, `Interest: wedding catering` — so the bot can address the visitor and stay on topic.
- **To the chat.** They are listed under visitor details in Chats, and the name and contact become the chat's title and contact.
- **To Leads.** With **Mark the chat as a lead when finished** on, the chat becomes a lead with status New the moment the flow completes, with the flow recorded as its source.

### Testing it

Save, then open **Test**. The preview runs the real flow even while your bot is in draft: answer it, skip a step, type a wrong phone number and watch the retry.

Editing the flow while a visitor is halfway through does not break their chat — their run simply ends and the AI takes over.

### Tips

- **Three questions at most.** Every extra question loses visitors. One contact detail and one thing that tells you what they want is usually enough.
- Put the question that matters most first; some visitors stop after it.
- Write in the language your bot speaks. The built-in lines — retries, the default finishing message — follow it.
- Do not ask for anything you will not act on. A phone number nobody calls is a promise you did not keep.

> Limits: 12 steps, 500 characters of text per step, up to 6 options of 60 characters each, a finishing message of 300 characters, answers of 500 characters.