Get website inquiries as a Telegram message
For a business run from a phone: each inquiry from your site can arrive as a Telegram message, to you or to a group of the people on shift, within seconds. It takes a bot, which sounds like more than it is: two messages to Telegram's BotFather and you have one.
The inquiry still lands in your Webkio Inbox. The shared rules are on Send your website inquiries to your CRM; this page is the Telegram part.
What you need
Two values: a bot token and a chat id.
The bot token
- In Telegram, open a chat with @BotFather.
- Send
/newbot. It asks for a display name (anything) and a username (must end inbot). - It replies with the token: a number, a colon, and a long string. Copy it.
The token acts as the bot, so it is stored encrypted and never shown again. BotFather's /revoke issues a new one and kills the old, which is how to cut this off later.
The chat id
Telegram does not show ids in its interface, and a bot can only write to a chat it has been let into, so these two steps happen together:
- To receive messages yourself: open your new bot in Telegram (search its username) and press Start, or send it any message. Then open
https://api.telegram.org/botfollowed by your token followed by/getUpdatesin a browser. In the text that appears, find"chat":{"id":and copy the number after it. That is your id. - For a group: add the bot to the group, send any message in the group, then open the same
getUpdatesaddress. The group's id is a negative number; copy it including the minus sign.
If getUpdates shows nothing, send the bot (or the group) one more message and reload. Telegram only lists recent messages there.
Setting it up
- Project settings > CRM, choose Telegram under Notifications.
- Enter the token and the chat id.
- Tick which inquiries to send.
- Add destination, then Send test. The test message arrives in that chat.
No field mapping: a message is not a record.
What the message says
One message per inquiry:
- A bold first line: "Website inquiry from Ada Lovelace" (the email address if no name was given).
- Their message.
- Email, Phone and Company, one per line, then any extra fields the form collected.
- A last line naming the form, the site and the page.
Anything in the inquiry that looks like HTML is shown as text, not interpreted, so a visitor cannot format or hide anything in your notification. Telegram's 4,096-character limit is respected; a longer inquiry is cut, and the full text is in your Inbox.
What it will not do
Start a conversation. Telegram bots cannot message a person who has never messaged them. That is why pressing Start on the bot is part of the setup, and why a group has to have the bot added to it.
Reply. Replying to the bot does nothing. Reply from the Inbox or by email.
Buttons or files. Text only.
When something fails
Telegram answers failed calls with "ok": false and a description, and the destination card shows it.
| What the destination shows | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
A 401 answer, Unauthorized |
The token is wrong, or was revoked with BotFather. | Copy it again from BotFather (/mybots > your bot > API Token), or revoke and paste the new one. |
A 400 answer, chat not found |
The chat id is wrong, or the bot has never been let into that chat. | For yourself: open the bot and press Start, then re-read the id from getUpdates. For a group: add the bot to the group first. Check the minus sign on a group id. |
A 403 answer, bot was blocked by the user |
You blocked the bot in Telegram. | Open the bot's chat and unblock it. |
| A 403 answer about the group | The bot was removed from the group. | Add it back. |
| A 429 answer | Telegram's rate limit for the bot. | Retried by itself. |
Four consecutive failures pause the destination; Resume after the fix.
Frequently asked questions
Can the whole team get it?
Put the bot in a group with the team and use the group's id. Everyone in the group sees each inquiry.
Can I use a channel instead of a group?
A channel works if the bot is an administrator of it; the channel's id is also negative. A group is simpler.
Is the token safe to paste here?
It is stored encrypted and never shown again, and the pattern check refuses anything not shaped like a Telegram bot token. If in doubt, /revoke it with BotFather afterwards and paste the replacement.
Why does the bot show nothing when I open it?
A bot only speaks when something sends through it. Press Start, then Send test from the destination, and the first message appears.
Can the message be in my language?
The labels (Email, Phone, Company) are in English; the visitor's message is whatever they wrote.
What is the "Webkio Test" message?
From Send test. Nothing to clean up.
Related reading
- Send leads to your CRM - the switchboard every destination hangs off.
- All your customers in one place - the record that stays here whatever is sent on.
- Understanding notifications - the email and bell alerts that fire alongside a delivery.
- Integrations - every destination and connector on one page.
- The automated emails every business should send - the follow-up once a lead is in your CRM.