The short version

The way to collect leads on Instagram without an ad budget is a form inside the DM: the person types a word, the questions arrive one at a time, the answers land in a list. In BixoChat the Form Builder does the asking, Lead Management lists the answers, and Excel export gets them out. Even without a form, phone numbers and emails sent on their own in DMs are saved when automatic capture is on. This page covers the three ways to collect, the setup, and which questions to ask.

Three ways to collect

  1. A form: a word such as "quote", "appointment" or "enroll" starts it; the questions come one at a time; every completed form is a row in Lead Management.
  2. Automatic capture: with the Lead Management switches on, a phone number or email someone sends on its own in a DM is saved even without a form. A number buried in a sentence is not picked up; "just send your number" does the trick. No more reading threads to copy numbers out.
  3. Comment to DM: a Comment Automation sends everyone who comments "quote" a DM; in it you point them to the form's word. Hundreds of "price?" comments under a Reel turn into a list that way.

How the Form Builder works

  • A form starts on up to 5 trigger words.
  • It asks up to 30 questions, each sent as its own message; the next one arrives when the person answers. Keep questions short (Instagram rejects long ones; longer explanations go in the closing message), and add quick replies to a question when the answers are a fixed set.
  • Every answer is saved as a lead; phone numbers and emails from a form are always saved.
  • A Closing message goes out when the form is completed, a cancel button and a cancel message for anyone who cancels; there is no separate welcome field, so the welcome goes into the first question.
  • It is not a Direct Automation: it runs a sequence, not a single reply. Use a Direct Automation for one-answer topics such as price and shipping, and a form for collecting details.

Setup in five steps

  1. Create a form in the Form Builder

    Open the Form Builder and create a form. Enter the words that start it: "quote", "get a quote", "estimate" (up to 5). Keep them clear of the words your Direct Automations use; everyday words such as "info" are a bad choice for a form.

  2. Write the questions

    Open the first question with a short welcome: "A few quick questions so we can prepare your quote 🙂 Your full name?". Then phone, city, and the one question specific to your business. Put what happens next in the Closing message in the settings step: the answers arrived, and when you will call. Keep each question short; a long one stops the form from saving. Add quick replies to questions with a fixed set of answers.

  3. Switch it on and announce the word

    A form is not discovered by itself. Put "Type quote for a quote" in the Reel caption, in the story, and as a line in your welcome message. The more visible the word, the fuller the form.

  4. Read the answers in Lead Management

    In the form list, Responses shows every answer with its date and the person's name; phone numbers and emails also collect in Lead Management.

  5. Excel export and the call

    The Excel export button sits at the top of Lead Management and of each form's responses: pick a date range, the file is prepared in the background, and you download it there or on the Jobs page. The real work starts here: call within the time you promised in the closing message. A lead nobody calls was never collected.

Which questions to ask

  • Always: full name, phone. Ask for an email only if you will use it.
  • One business-specific question: the one that shapes the quote. Kitchen measurements for a cabinet maker, budget for a realtor, level for a course, the treatment for a clinic.
  • Never on first contact: address, government ID, date of birth. They break trust and pile up data you do not need.
  • Three to five questions. One more and the number of people who abandon rises.

The three mistakes

Afterwards

You cannot message the collected list in bulk from DMs; BixoChat sends no bulk messages. Call them, and write by hand to the ones you could not reach. The flow in front of the form: Instagram DM automation; sending commenters to the form: Instagram comment-to-DM automation.