Zapier

If a lead lands somewhere UpSmith doesn't connect to directly — a form builder, a spreadsheet, a directory site, your own CRM — Zapier is the bridge. Build a Zap that fires when a lead arrives in that tool, point it at UpSmith, and your agent starts texting within moments of it landing.

It runs one way: things flow into UpSmith. There's no Zap that fires when something happens in UpSmith.

Lenny has to be ready before you can activate. Lenny is the agent that answers new leads, for every source. You can connect without him, but Activate stays disabled and the card tells you "Lenny must be set up to answer leads before you can activate Zapier." Set him up under Agents — he needs to be active and have a channel linked to him.

Two things to know first

• The UpSmith Zapier app is invite-only. You won't find it by searching in Zapier. You need the invite link first — the Zapier card in UpSmith has a Join the UpSmith Zapier app button, and if it isn't there, email support@upsmith.com and we'll send it.

• Your API key is shown exactly once. The screen tells you: "This API key will not be shown again. Copy and store it now." That's literal — we keep only a fingerprint of it. Lose it and your only option is to generate a new one and update your Zap.

Connecting it

1. Go to Integrations and click Connect on the Zapier tile.

2. A window shows your Webhook URL and API key. Copy both somewhere safe before you close it.

3. Click Join the UpSmith Zapier app and accept the invite in Zapier.

4. In your Zap, add an action step, search for UpSmith, and choose Create Contact in UpSmith. Paste the webhook URL and API key when it asks you to connect your account.

5. Map your fields — at minimum a unique id, and the phone number.

6. Test the step in Zapier, then turn the Zap on.

7. Back in UpSmith, click Activate on the Zapier card.

Don't skip step 7. Until you press Activate, leads sent to your webhook are accepted and thrown away — more on that below.

Turning it on

The campaign that answers these leads is created paused, but you don't have to do anything about it separately — clicking Activate on the card turns it on at the same time. That's the whole go-live step.

If Activate won't let you

The card tells you why, and there are only a few reasons:

• "Lenny must be set up to answer leads before you can activate Zapier." Lenny is the agent that answers new leads. Set him up under Agents — active, with a channel linked to him — then come back.

• "Campaign Missing — Zapier has no lead-response campaign yet." The lead-response campaign isn't there yet — email support@upsmith.com.

• "The API key is missing. Rotate the key before activating the connection." Use Rotate key, then update your Zap with the new one.

• Anything about a missing organization slug is ours to fix — email support@upsmith.com.

What your Zap needs to send

Only one field is genuinely required: a unique id for the lead from whatever system it came out of. UpSmith uses it to avoid creating the same lead twice — send the same id again and nothing new happens.

Everything else is optional, but two of them matter a lot:

• Phone number. Map this whenever you have it. Your agent works over text, so a lead without a number has no way to be reached — it's recorded, but nobody gets a message. Send it in full international form (Ex:+15125550142) when you can.

• The customer's message or description. Whatever they typed — the problem, the request, the notes field. It goes straight into your agent's opening text, so the difference between mapping it and not is an agent that opens with "about your no-cool call" and one that opens with nothing.

Also worth mapping if your source has them: name (or first and last), email, address, city, state, ZIP, and any marketing tags like the campaign or ad name. Extra fields you send are kept and stay with the lead, so there's no harm in passing through more than you think you need.

Two fields with specific jobs:

• A lead source label. Send one and it's recorded alongside the lead, so you can tell your Facebook leads from your form-builder leads later.

• A business name. If you run more than one brand, this sets the name your agent uses on that specific lead, and it beats every other setting. Note that the campaign name field does not do this — it's marketing attribution only. It's an easy one to get wrong.

The one that catches everyone

A wrong webhook address still reports success. Send a lead to a URL with a typo in it, or to a connection you haven't activated yet, and UpSmith answers with a cheerful success — which Zapier shows as a green tick. Your Zap looks perfect and the leads go nowhere.

That's deliberate — it stops anyone probing for valid addresses — but it means a green tick in Zapier is not proof a lead arrived. The only real proof is the lead showing up in UpSmith. Check that on your first live lead, not on your hundredth.

Checking it works

• The card shows Last webhook received. Before anything arrives it reads "Waiting for first lead...". A timestamp there means we got something.

• Then look in Conversations, filtered to the Zapier source. That's the whole confirmation — a timestamp on the card and a conversation in the inbox.

• There's no delivery log. We don't keep a viewable history of every request, so when something goes wrong the debugging is Zapier's own task history on one side and that timestamp on the other. If you need us to look at a specific lead, send us the time it was sent and the customer's phone number.

Pausing and rotating

• Pause stops leads being accepted. Anything your Zap sends while paused is discarded, not queued — turn the Zap off too if you're pausing for more than a moment.

• Resume starts it again.

• Rotate key issues a new key and kills the old one immediately. Your Zap stops working until you paste the new key in, so do it when you can update both. It's also the fix if a connection is stuck in an error state — rotating clears it.

• There's no delete. You can pause a connection and you can rotate its key, but you can't remove it. Pausing is the off switch.

Troubleshooting

Zapier says the step succeeded but nothing is in UpSmith. The likely order: the connection isn't Active; the URL in your Zap has a typo; or the lead was a duplicate of one already sent. All three look identical from Zapier's side. Check the connection status first, then re-copy the webhook URL from the card.

Zapier reports an authentication error. Your API key is wrong or has been rotated. Use Rotate key to generate a fresh one and paste it into the Zap.

Zapier reports the lead was rejected. Almost always a missing unique id — that's the one required field. Check the mapping is pointing at something that actually has a value.

Leads arrive but nobody texts them. Two things to check, in this order. Is the connection showing Active on the card — if it's Paused, clicking Resume starts the replies as well. And did a phone number actually come through: open the lead in UpSmith and look, because a lead with no number is recorded but can't be reached. If it's Active and the number is there, email support@upsmith.com with the time it was sent and the customer's number.

You're getting two leads for one enquiry. The lead source label is part of how duplicates are spotted, so if your Zap maps that from a field whose value changes, the same enquiry can come through twice. Use a fixed label rather than a variable one.

You can't find the UpSmith app in Zapier. It's invite-only — you have to join through the invite link before it appears in the search.

Common questions

Can a Zap fire when something happens in UpSmith? No. There's one action, Create Contact in UpSmith, and no triggers — leads come in, nothing goes out.

Is there a test mode? Not in UpSmith. The only test is Zapier's own step test, and a lead sent that way is a real lead. Use a phone number you control.

Can I connect more than one Zapier account? One Zapier connection per UpSmith account. Several different Zaps can all point at the same webhook — use the lead source label to tell them apart.

Will renaming my business break the connection? No, the webhook address stays put.

Do I need UpSmith to switch this on? No, other than the invite link. Connecting and activating are yours to do.

Can I build it without the UpSmith app, using Zapier's own webhooks step? Yes, and the technical reference is in the docs linked from How to connect at the top of your Integrations page. The UpSmith app is easier — it builds the request for you.

Where to go next

• Lead Source Integrations — every way leads reach UpSmith

• Booking Form — sending leads straight from your own website form

• Lenny — Leads Responder — the agent that answers these leads

• Working Your Conversations Inbox — where these conversations land