How to qualify leads on WhatsApp and Instagram without a form
How to qualify WhatsApp and Instagram leads from chats you already have, with a 0 to 100 score, a stage and interests, so follow-up starts with the right people.
Product pages: Lead qualification, Broadcasts and segments
Most businesses on WhatsApp or Instagram already have a sales pipeline. It just lives inside the support inbox, mixed in with order updates and returns questions. Somebody asked about teeth whitening three times this month. Somebody else came in from an ad and asked for a price. Nobody wrote it down, so nobody followed up.
Risolva's WhatsApp lead scoring pulls those people out of the noise without asking your team to tag anything by hand.
How are leads scored from WhatsApp and Instagram chats?
The scoring is deliberately plain arithmetic, so you can understand why a contact scored the way they did. It starts from the topic, intent and sentiment tags the AI already puts on every conversation:
- The topic, from your own topic list (say "Teeth whitening" or "Invisalign").
- The intent: sales, inquiry, complaint, informational or support.
- The sentiment: positive, neutral, confused, frustrated or angry.
For each topic a contact has talked about, Risolva works out an interest score. A sales intent counts fully, an inquiry a bit less, and plain support questions count least. Positive conversations nudge the score up and angry or frustrated ones nudge it down. Older conversations count for less than recent ones.
Those interests then roll up into one lead score:
- Top interest50%
- Number of topics20%
- Number of conversations15%
- Recent activity15%
What do the stages mean?
| Stage | When a contact is in it |
|---|---|
| New | First conversations, not much signal yet |
| Engaged | Coming back and asking more |
| Qualified | Lead score of 60 or more |
| Converted | Marked as converted by someone on your team |
| Dormant | No activity for 60 days |
Conversion is marked by hand on purpose. Risolva can see that someone asked about pricing twice, but only your team knows whether they actually paid.
What does the team see?
In the inbox, each conversation's info panel has a Lead card. It shows the stage, the lead score out of 100, and the contact's interests grouped by strength: High intent, Considering or Just browsing, each with the number of chats about it. If the contact arrived from a click-to-WhatsApp ad, the card says so. There is a Mark converted button right there.
Northline DentalInstagram · example conversationLead · Teeth whitening · High intent
The point of the card is context at the right moment. When a receptionist picks up this conversation a week later, they can see this person is a warm lead for whitening and not just a support ticket.
Should the AI ask qualifying questions?
This is a behavior choice per bot, not a script. In Consultative mode, the assistant answers a broad question ("what do you offer for whitening?") with a short overview and one qualifying question, which suits higher-value services. In Direct mode it answers what was asked and does not add questions of its own, which suits shops where customers just want a quick answer.
For higher-value services, a handoff rule can send sales questions to a person. Use a topic condition, such as "Teeth whitening", if you want that on the first message, since intent tags only refresh every few messages.
How do you follow up with qualified WhatsApp leads?
Scores are only useful if somebody acts on them. In Segments you can filter contacts by lead stage, lead score, conversion, what they are interested in, what they discussed, and whether they came from an ad. A few segments are ready to use:
- Hot leads, with a lead score from 60 to 100
- Qualified, not converted
- Dormant 60+ days
From there you can send a WhatsApp broadcast to that segment, for example a WhatsApp template message to everyone who showed high intent for whitening but has not booked.
A few honest limits
The lead score reflects conversations in Risolva only. It does not sync with an external CRM, and it does not know about sales that happen in person or on the phone unless someone marks the contact as converted. Within those limits, it gives a small team something it rarely has: a ranked list of who to follow up with, built from conversations they were having anyway.
To see lead scoring on your own inbox, book a demo. If you are still choosing a platform, our guide to AI customer support vs a chatbot covers what to look for.
Frequently asked questions
How does Risolva score leads?
Each conversation is tagged with topic, intent and sentiment. Risolva combines those into a per-topic interest score and an overall lead score from 0 to 100, weighting sales intent highest and giving more weight to recent conversations.
What are the lead stages?
New, Engaged, Qualified, Converted and Dormant. A contact becomes Qualified at a lead score of 60 or more, Dormant after 60 days without activity, and Converted when someone on your team marks them so.
Does the AI ask qualifying questions?
It depends on the bot's behavior setting. In Consultative mode the assistant answers a broad question with a short overview and one qualifying question. In Direct mode it answers and never asks qualifying questions on its own. There is no fixed questionnaire.
Can I follow up with qualified leads?
Yes. Segments can filter by lead stage, lead score, interests and whether the contact came from an ad, and you can send a broadcast to a segment. Built-in segments include Hot leads and Qualified, not converted.
What questions should you ask to qualify a lead on WhatsApp?
Answer their question first, then ask one natural question at a time, such as what they need it for or by when. In Risolva, Consultative mode adds one qualifying question to a broad answer, and the score itself comes from what people talk about, not a questionnaire.
How fast should you follow up with a WhatsApp lead?
Ideally while WhatsApp's 24-hour customer service window is still open, when you can reply in free-form text. After it closes, only approved templates can be sent, so an instant AI answer plus a same-day human follow-up for hot leads is a practical target.
