Auto-enter inbound inquiries into the pipeline

Before you start

You'll need:

1. CRM enabled on your account.
2. At least one inbound channel set up — a Patch webform, SMS number, or TextChat widget.
3. A decision on which stage new deals should start in (Inquiry is the default).

Set it up with the wizard

1. Go to Automations → New Automation.
2. Choose the Add Inbound Enquiries To The Pipeline wizard (under CRM).
3. Select which enquiry types should create deals:
   • Form Finished — someone completes a Patch webform
   • Incoming Textchat — someone starts a text chat
   • Incoming SMS — someone texts your account's number
4. For each type you selected, answer the follow-up:
   • Which form? — pick a specific form, or leave blank for any form
   • What content? (SMS / text chat) — match a keyword or phrase, or leave blank for any message
5. Choose the starting stage for new deals.
6. Review and Activate.

That's it. New inquiries matching your criteria will appear on the board automatically.

Why duplicate suppression is on by default

Every inbound message fires the trigger separately. If someone texts three times asking about a party, that's three trigger events — and without protection, three deals for one inquiry.

The wizard turns on Skip if the contact already has an open deal by default. If the contact already has a deal in any non-closed stage, no new deal is created.

Closed deals don't count. A customer who booked last year and texts again this year will get a fresh deal — which is what you want.

Only turn duplicate suppression off if you genuinely want one deal per message (e.g. each text is a separate inquiry). The builder shows a warning when it's off.

If you prefer the automation canvas:

1. Create a new automation.
2. Add whichever triggers apply: Form Finished, Incoming Textchat, Incoming SMS.
3. Add a Create Deal action and connect every trigger to it.
4. Set the starting stage and leave duplicate suppression on.
5. Activate.

Multiple triggers feeding one Create Deal action is intentional — the deal should look the same however the inquiry arrived.

Narrowing which inquiries count

For further filtering (e.g. only contacts in a certain city), add a Filter block between the trigger and Create Deal. Filter blocks test the contact, not the message — better for "which contacts" than "which message."

WordPress and external sites

Patch's Pixel captures form submissions from external websites — including WordPress — using the same generic form-binding mechanism. A WordPress site can submit to a Patch form through the Pixel without any WordPress-specific setup.

Caveat: This works in code but hasn't been verified end-to-end on every WordPress configuration. Test on your site before telling customers it's live.

Troubleshooting