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Google Sheets

With the Google Sheets Action, every contact your ChatNorris agent captures is logged in a Google spreadsheet. When a visitor leaves their email or phone (in the chat, in a Lead Form, or from any channel), the agent adds a row with the data you choose: name, email, phone, your Lead Form fields, the channel, and the link to the conversation, among others. It’s the simplest way to have your leads in a place your whole team already knows how to use, without exporting anything by hand or paying for a CRM.

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Requirements

  • A ChatNorris account on any plan. Google Sheets is included in all of them, including Free. You can see the plans at chatnorris.ai/pricing.
  • At least one agent created in ChatNorris. If you don’t have one yet, follow Create an agent.
  • A Google account (Gmail or Google Workspace).
  • The Owner or Admin role in your ChatNorris organization.

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Connect your Google account

Each agent connects to one Google account. All of that agent’s Google Sheets Actions use that same account.
1

Open the agent's Integrations hub

In ChatNorris, go to My agents → [your agent] → Integrations and choose Google Sheets in the catalog.
2

Click Connect with Google

Google opens. Choose the account you want to work with.
3

Accept the permission

Google asks for access to the Drive files you choose with ChatNorris. Leave that permission checked: if you uncheck it, the connection isn’t saved.
4

Go back to ChatNorris

Google returns you to the integration page, which shows Connected as and your email. With Test connection you can check that everything works. Continue with Configure the Action.
ChatNorris only sees the spreadsheets you choose or create from ChatNorris, and in them it only reads the headers and adds rows. It doesn’t see the rest of your Drive, and it doesn’t change or delete existing rows.

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Configure the Action

Connecting Google doesn’t write anything yet. To choose which spreadsheet the contacts go to:
1

Create the Google Sheets Action

Go to My agents → [your agent] → Actions, click New action, and choose Google Sheets.
2

Choose when a row is added

  • Every confirmed contact: when the visitor leaves their email or phone, any way (Lead Form, conversation, or channel).
  • Only when a Lead Form is submitted: you choose a specific Lead Form of the agent. Useful if the agent has several forms and you want each one to go to its own spreadsheet.
  • When the lead moves to a status: you choose one or more statuses from your Leads, for example “Qualified”. The row is added when someone on your team gives the lead that status (in the list or on the board). If the contact is already in that status when it’s confirmed, the row is added too.
In Channels you can limit the Action to contacts from some channels, for example only WhatsApp. With all of them checked, it applies to all.
3

Choose the spreadsheet

With Pick a Google spreadsheet you open the Google picker and choose a spreadsheet from your Drive. If you’d rather start from scratch, Create a new spreadsheet creates it in your Drive with the name you want (by default, “[your agent] leads”) and with the headers already written.Then choose the Tab where the rows are added.
4

Review the columns

Set which value goes in each column (see Columns).
5

Send a test row

In Test, click Send test row. A row with sample data is added so you can check the spreadsheet and the columns. You can delete it afterwards.
6

Enable the Action and save

From then on, every contact that meets the condition you chose adds a row.
An agent can have several Google Sheets Actions, each with its own spreadsheet. For example, the quotes Lead Form to one spreadsheet and the complaints one to another.

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Columns

Each column has a Header (the title in the first row) and a Value (what ChatNorris writes there).
  • If the tab already has headers, ChatNorris reads them and matches each one with the corresponding value (for example, “Email” with the visitor’s email). Review the matching and fix whatever you need.
  • If the tab is empty, ChatNorris writes the headers in the first row. With Use suggested columns you start from: Date, Name, Email, Phone, Agent, Channel, Conversation, and ChatNorris ID.
The values you can choose are grouped like this: At the end of the section is Keep the row up to date (see What gets written and when). You can have up to 30 columns. A column with no value (— Leave empty —) stays empty in each row, in case you want to use it for your own notes.
The ChatNorris ID column is required: if Google fails and the row is retried, ChatNorris uses it to avoid writing the row twice.
Values are written under their header, even if you later reorder the columns or add others in the spreadsheet. Everything is saved as text: if a visitor writes something that looks like a formula (for example, starting with =), it’s saved as text and isn’t run.

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What gets written and when

  • One row per contact. If the visitor confirms their details again, the row isn’t repeated.
  • The row can be kept up to date. By default it reflects the data at the moment it was added. If you turn on Keep the row up to date, when the lead changes status, gets new data in a conversation, or someone edits it in Leads, ChatNorris rewrites its cells in the row it already added. It finds the row by the ChatNorris ID column and doesn’t touch that column or your own columns. If you deleted the row by hand, it doesn’t add it again.
  • It works on all channels: web widget, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram, Email, and the API.
  • Without the full conversation. The spreadsheet receives the link to the conversation, never its content.
The spreadsheet stays in your Google account with your contacts’ data, and anyone with access to it can see that data. Map only the fields you need and review who you share it with.

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Status and retries

The Action form has a Status block with the rows added, pending, and failed, the date of the last row, and the reason for the last failure.
  • Pending: if Google doesn’t respond, the row is retried automatically, with increasingly longer waits, up to 6 attempts over a few hours. If the Google account needs to be reconnected, the row waits without using up attempts, for up to 7 days.
  • Failed: if the row can’t be written (for example, because you deleted the spreadsheet or the tab, because ChatNorris lost access, or because the attempts ran out), Owners and Admins get an alert in the notifications bell with the reason.
  • Updated rows: with Keep the row up to date on, the block also shows the date of the last updated row and how many rows have changes waiting to be written.
  • Retry failed rows: once you fix the problem (for example, by reconnecting the account or restoring access to the spreadsheet), this button puts the failed rows back in the queue, and they’re retried within the next 10 minutes. Each row is retried in the spreadsheet and tab it was originally going to.

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Disconnect

In My agents → [your agent] → Integrations → Google Sheets, click Disconnect. That agent’s Google Sheets Actions stop adding rows and keep their configuration. The spreadsheets and their rows stay in your Drive. To send contacts again, connect Google again.

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Frequently asked questions

No. Adding rows doesn’t use AI, so it doesn’t use credits.
The picker shows the Drive of the Google account connected in ChatNorris. If the spreadsheet belongs to another account, ask for it to be shared with you with edit permission, or create a new one from ChatNorris.
No. ChatNorris remembers the tab even if its name changes. If you delete it, new rows end up as failed and you get an alert: choose another tab in the Action for upcoming contacts. The contacts from the failed rows are still in your Leads, where you can export them.
They keep being written under their header. The new column stays empty until you assign it a value in the Action.
That’s normal. Google limits how many writes can be made per minute, so when you change more than 5 leads at once, the rows are added or updated within the next 10 minutes instead of instantly.
Google stopped accepting the access: for example, because you removed it at myaccount.google.com/permissions or changed the account’s password. Connect Google again from the Integrations hub and use Retry failed rows in each Action.

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Support

Need help with the setup? Write to us at hola@chatnorris.ai.