Contact Bark leads fast and send your estimate

1. Open the lead from Leads in the Bark top navigation, read the request and click Contact lead; Bark shows the credit cost before you confirm and deducts it straight away.
2. Bark puts the customer's name, phone number and email on the lead, and the lead moves to the Pending tab of My Responses.
3. From My Responses in Bark, use Show number to call, then Send email, Send SMS or Send WhatsApp; reusable texts live under Settings > Communication > Email Templates and SMS Templates.
4. Click Send an estimate on the same lead in My Responses to quote your price.
5. Each new Bark lead repeats the same clicks across the lead page and My Responses, while Bark has already told the customer that a professional is interested and other professionals can still respond.

Contact Bark lead 61842207 if it still costs 15 credits or less, text Jordan my "Wedding intro" SMS template, and send a £450 estimate for full-day coverage with an edited gallery.

1. 01

   Recheck the lead right before buying

   Cost and competition change by the minute, so the agent reopens the request with get_lead first. If the response count has reached 4 or the price has gone above your cap since you shortlisted it, the agent stops and asks you instead of buying.

2. 02

   Buy inside a hard ceiling

   contact_lead runs with the max_credits you set, after your OK. When the call fails on price, nothing is spent, and the agent moves on to the next lead only if you gave it a list.

3. 03

   First message on the channel the customer chose

   The agent reads the contact preference in the request. A customer who asked for texts gets your SMS template; everyone else gets your email template, with their first name and one detail from their answers, such as the event date.

4. 04

   Quote only what you have priced

   send_estimate goes out with the amount and inclusions you set for this kind of job. When the request falls outside your price list (an extra day, a second venue), the agent drafts the estimate and waits for you to fill in the number.

5. 05

   Leave a record for the follow-up

   add_note stores the credits spent, the template used and the quoted amount, so a later follow-up knows what the customer already has. A bounced email or dead number is flagged with the date the 14-day return window closes.

Lead 61842207, Wedding Photography, Leeds LS1: contacted for 12 credits after your OK. 88 credits left.
Professionals who responded before you: 2.
SMS sent to Jordan from template "Wedding intro".
Estimate sent: £450, full-day coverage with edited online gallery.
Note added: "12 Oct: 12 credits, SMS intro, quote 450".
Lead 61843018 not bought: it reached 4 responses and 16 credits, above your 15-credit cap.

• Bark deducts credits the moment you confirm Contact lead and notifies the customer that a professional is interested in their request.
• Bark reviews credit returns only within 14 days of the purchase, for listed reasons such as an invalid phone number, a bouncing email or a duplicate charge.
• Bark accepts an accidental purchase as a reason for a credit return only as an isolated incident on an account in good standing.
• Bark SMS Templates, under Settings > Communication > SMS Templates, take a Customer name merge tag that Bark replaces with the customer's name when the text is sent.

contact_lead, send_message and send_estimate ask for your OK by default. To run it daily without you, switch confirmation off for those tools in your dashboard.

Sources: Bark Help: What happens after you buy a lead? · Bark Help: Credit Return Policy · Bark Help: Eligible reasons for returns · Bark Help: SMS Templates

curl https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/bark/contact_lead \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"lead_id":"61842207","max_credits":15}'

{
  "lead_id": "61842207",
  "status": "pending",
  "credits_spent": 12,
  "credits_left": 88,
  "service": "Wedding Photography",
  "location": "Leeds, LS1",
  "customer": {
    "name": "Jordan",
    "email": "client@example.com",
    "phone": "+44 7700 900123"
  }
}

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the tool is bark_contact_lead. Example data.

• Find Bark leads worth buying before you spend credits
• Follow up pending Bark responses and ask hired customers for reviews
• Bark API and MCP server: every tool
• All use cases