Widgets and Client Portal

Widgets are embeddable tools you can place on your website to collect information, accept bookings, or receive payments from visitors — all without them needing an Ambivo account. The Client Portal gives your customers a dedicated self-service space to manage their account, view files, and handle billing.

What Are Widgets?

Widgets are small interactive components that you configure in Ambivo and embed on your website or landing pages. When a visitor interacts with a widget (books a meeting, fills out a form, makes a payment), the data flows directly into your CRM.

Types of Widgets

Getting There

• Log in to Ambivo
• Click Widgets in the left sidebar
• You will see a list of all your configured widgets with their names, types, and statuses

Appointment Widget

The Appointment Widget lets website visitors book time on your calendar. It displays your available slots and handles the scheduling automatically.

Create an Appointment Widget

• Click + New Widget and select Appointment
• Configure the basic settings:
• Widget Name — Internal name for your reference (visitors do not see this)
• Title — The heading visitors see (e.g., "Schedule a Free Consultation")
• Description — Optional text explaining what the meeting is about
• Configure scheduling options:
• Duration — Meeting length options (15 min, 30 min, 1 hour, etc.)
• Timezone — The timezone for displayed time slots

Set Operation Hours

Operation hours define when visitors can book meetings.

• In the widget settings, find the Operation Hours section
• For each day of the week, set:
• Whether that day is a working day (toggle on/off)
• Start time and End time (e.g., 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM)
• Default hours are typically 9 AM to 5 PM on weekdays

Configure Buffer Time

Buffer time adds breathing room between appointments so you are not booked back-to-back.

• Find the Buffer Time settings
• Set Buffer Before — time added before each appointment (e.g., 5 minutes to prepare)
• Set Buffer After — time added after each appointment (e.g., 10 minutes for wrap-up)
• Available buffer options include: No buffer, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour

Specific Day Overrides

If you have different hours on certain days (e.g., shorter hours on Fridays, or blocking out a holiday):

• Find the Specific Days section
• Click Add Specific Day
• Select the date
• Set custom hours for that day, or mark it as unavailable
• Specific day settings override the regular operation hours for that date

Additional Options

• Max Daily Events — Limit how many appointments can be booked per day
• Working Days — Choose which days of the week are bookable

What Happens When a Visitor Books

• The visitor sees a calendar showing your available dates
• They select a date and choose from the available time slots
• They enter their name, email, and any other required information
• They confirm the booking
• The appointment is created on your Ambivo calendar
• Both you and the visitor receive a confirmation email
• If you have calendar sync enabled (Google/Outlook), the event appears there too

Form Widget

The Form Widget lets you collect information from website visitors through customizable forms. Each submission can create a new lead or record in your CRM.

Create a Form Widget

• Click + New Widget and select Form
• Configure the basics:
• Widget Name — Internal name
• Title — What visitors see at the top of the form
• Description — Optional instructions or context
• Add Fields:
• Click Add Field for each piece of information you want to collect
• Choose the field type (Text, Email, Phone, Dropdown, Long Text, etc.)
• Set the field label (what the visitor sees)
• Mark fields as Required or optional
• Arrange fields in the order you want them to appear
• Set the Confirmation Message — the text shown after submission (e.g., "Thank you! We will be in touch within 24 hours.")
• Click Save

What Happens When a Visitor Submits

• A new lead or record is created in Ambivo with the submitted information
• The submission appears as a Widget Execution record
• If you have automation rules set up, they can trigger follow-up actions (e.g., send a confirmation email, assign the lead to a team member, create a task)

Use Cases for Form Widgets

Payment Widget

The Payment Widget allows you to accept payments directly from your website. It requires a connected payment provider (Stripe).

Create a Payment Widget

• Click + New Widget and select Payment
• Configure the settings:
• Widget Name and Title
• Amount — Choose between:
• Fixed amount — The price is set (e.g., $99 for a service)
• Variable amount — The visitor enters the amount (useful for donations or deposits)
• Description — Explain what the payment is for
• Currency — Select the currency
• Payment Methods — Credit card, bank transfer, or other methods available through your Stripe connection
• Click Save

What Happens When a Visitor Pays

• The visitor sees the payment form on your website
• They enter their payment details (card number, etc.)
• The payment is processed securely through Stripe
• The visitor sees a confirmation message
• The payment is recorded in Ambivo
• A Widget Execution record is created with the payment details

Custom Data Widget

The Custom Data Widget lets you collect structured data that goes beyond a simple contact form. It is useful when you need to gather specific, formatted information.

Create a Custom Data Widget

• Click + New Widget and select Custom Data
• Configure the fields based on the specific data you need to collect
• Each field can be typed (text, number, date, dropdown, etc.) for data validation
• Set required and optional fields
• Click Save

When to Use Custom Data Widgets

• Collecting property inquiry details (budget range, location preference, timeline)
• Intake forms for professional services (case details, project scope)
• Onboarding questionnaires for new clients

vCard Widget

The vCard Widget lets visitors download your contact information as a digital business card (vCard format).

Create a vCard Widget

• Click + New Widget and select vCard
• Enter the contact information to share:
• Name, title, company
• Phone, email, website
• Address
• Click Save

How It Works

Visitors click a button on your website to download a .vcf file, which they can import into their phone contacts or email client.

Embed a Widget on Your Website

After creating any widget, you get an embed code or shareable link.

Embedding via Code

• Open the widget configuration
• Click Get Embed Code or Share
• Copy the provided HTML code snippet
• Paste it into your website's HTML where you want the widget to appear
• Save your website and publish the changes
• The widget renders on your page and is ready for visitors

Sharing as a Standalone Link

If you do not want to embed the widget in your website (or want to share it via email or social media):

• Open the widget
• Copy the standalone link
• Share the link directly — visitors will see the widget on a hosted page

Embedding Tips

• Place the appointment widget on your Contact Us, Services, or Book a Demo page
• Place the form widget on landing pages or a Get Started page
• Place the payment widget on your Pricing or Checkout page
• Test the widget on both desktop and mobile browsers after embedding

Personalized Widget Links (Mail-Merge for Forms)

You can send each prospect a widget link that is pre-filled with their own information — the same idea as a mail-merge in an email, but for the form on your website. When they click the link, the form opens with fields like name, email, and phone already populated, so they can review and submit instead of re-typing everything they have already told you.

How it works, in plain terms

• You build a form widget (or custom data widget) the normal way, and tell Ambivo which form fields should be filled from which CRM attributes — e.g. the Email field should come from the lead's email, and the Name field should come from the lead's full name.
• When Ambivo sends an outbound message (email, SMS, or push) that contains a link to that widget, it generates a unique link per recipient. The link looks the same to you, but each recipient's link quietly carries their values along with it.
• When the prospect taps the link, the widget page reads those values and pre-fills the form automatically. The prospect sees a page that feels built just for them.

What the prospect sees

• Their name, email, phone (or whatever fields you mapped) are already filled in when the form loads.
• Nothing looks like a tracking parameter — the values in the URL are scrambled (encoded) so they are not obviously readable in an SMS preview or when glancing at the link. The widget on the page unscrambles them just to fill the form.
• If they edit the pre-filled values before submitting, their edits are what get saved — the pre-fill is just a starting point.

Why the values are scrambled

• Privacy in previews — an SMS preview, link hover tooltip, or a screen-share of the inbox will not leak the recipient's email/phone from the raw link.
• Safer transport — special characters (accents, ampersands, emoji) ride through without breaking the link.
• Less tampering — if someone edits the link by hand, the scramble breaks and the form simply opens empty, rather than quietly sending garbled data back into your CRM.

Short links for SMS

A personalized widget link can be long — too long for a clean 160-character SMS. Ambivo can automatically shorten it to an amb.cx/... link (7-character code). When the prospect taps the short link, they land on the same personalized form they would have reached through the long link. Use short links whenever you are sending by SMS, and long links are fine for email where length does not matter.

Good use cases

Setting it up

You do not send personalized links one-by-one. Instead, they are generated automatically when:

• A workflow or automation rule sends a message that references a widget — Ambivo stamps each outbound message with a link personalized for that recipient.
• A campaign includes a widget link in its template — each recipient's send gets their own link.

As the administrator you just build the widget once, tell it which form fields map to which CRM attributes, and drop the widget's link into your workflow / campaign message. Ambivo handles the per-recipient personalization and (when asked) the link shortening automatically.

Things to check before going live

• Send yourself a test — most workflows and campaigns let you send a preview to your own contact record. Confirm your own name / email / phone show up pre-filled in the form.
• Review the mapping — make sure every form field you want pre-filled has an attribute mapped to it. Unmapped fields open empty (which is fine, it just means the prospect has to fill them).
• Check on mobile — tap the test link from your phone, not just your laptop, especially for SMS-delivered short links.
• Think about PII — the scrambling keeps values out of the naked URL, but the prospect still sees them in the form once the page loads. Only map fields you are comfortable showing back to the recipient.

Widget Executions

Every time a visitor interacts with your widget (books an appointment, submits a form, makes a payment), an execution is recorded. Executions are your audit trail of all widget activity.

Viewing Executions

• Open the widget
• Go to the Executions section
• See a list of all interactions with:
• Visitor information — Name, email, and other submitted data
• Submission data — The complete form response or booking details
• Date and time — When the interaction happened
• Status — Whether the execution was successful

Viewing Execution Details

• Click on any execution to see the full details
• Review all the data the visitor submitted
• See which CRM record (if any) was created from this execution

Client Portal

The Client Portal is a separate, customer-facing interface where your clients can log in and self-serve. It is completely separate from your internal Ambivo workspace.

What Customers Can Do in the Portal

Setting Up the Client Portal

• Enable the Client Portal feature from Settings > Features
• Configure which sections are available to portal users:
• Toggle on/off: Files, Billing, Requests
• Customize the portal appearance (optional) to match your brand
• Invite customers to the portal

Inviting Customers to the Portal

• From a contact's or customer's record, look for the Portal option
• Click Send Portal Invitation
• The customer receives an email with a link to create their portal account
• They set up their password and log in

The Customer Experience

• Customer receives an invitation email with a registration link
• They create their portal account (name, email, password)
• After logging in, they see their personalized dashboard
• They can navigate between the available sections (Profile, Files, Billing, Requests)
• They have their own password reset flow if they forget their credentials

Portal Authentication

• Email and password login
• Password reset via email
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA) for added security
• One-time passcode (OTP) login

Common Questions

Tips and Best Practices

• Place the Appointment Widget on your "Contact Us" or services pages — it is the most effective way to convert website visitors into booked meetings
• Use the Form Widget as a lead capture tool on landing pages — each submission creates a lead in your CRM automatically
• Combine widgets with automation rules — automatically send a confirmation email, assign an owner, or create a follow-up task when someone submits a widget
• Test your widgets after embedding — check the widget on both desktop and mobile, and submit a test entry to make sure data flows correctly into Ambivo
• Set realistic buffer times — even 5-10 minutes between appointments helps you prepare and avoids being overwhelmed
• Configure specific day overrides for holidays and special hours before they happen, so visitors see accurate availability
• Keep the Client Portal clean and simple — only enable the sections your customers actually need
• Monitor widget executions regularly — check that submissions are being processed and follow up on any that need attention
• Use standalone links for email campaigns or social media posts when you want people to book, submit, or pay without visiting your website first
• Review your operation hours quarterly — update them if your business hours change

• CRM-014 — Workflows
• CRM-013 — Calendar
• CRM-023 — Payments, Subscriptions, and Billing
• CRM-001 — Leads Management
• CRM-017 — File Management
• CRM-015 — Integrations