Compare
Forms, chat, answering services, booking links and a brain, compared.
The right way to handle inquiries depends on how many questions people ask, how often the answers change, and what your team has to decide in person. Categories, not product reviews.
Why the conversation is different.
A chatbot retrieves text. A brain is built from sources approved with you and from interviews with your best people, so it answers the way they would: it asks what it needs to know, and it says when a question is outside what it was given.
| Compared on | Contact form | Booking link | Live chat or chatbot | Answering service | A brain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What the visitor experiences | Typing into fields and waiting for a reply | Picking a time, then waiting for the meeting | Typing in a text window | Talking to someone reading a script | A conversation with your best person's brain, spoken or typed |
| How the conversation goes | One message, one way | No conversation until the meeting | Typed replies, often from set flows or help pages | A message taken, a few questions answered | It listens, asks what it needs to, and answers the way your best person would |
| Answers questions | No | No | Yes | Some | Yes, from what you've approved |
| Where answers come from | Your team, later | Your team, at the meeting | Help pages, set flows or staff; varies by product | A script and the operator's judgment | Only the sources approved with you |
| When a question is outside its remit | Nothing happens until someone reads it | Waits for the meeting | Varies by product | Takes a message | Says so, and the question reaches your team with the conversation |
| After hours | Collects a message | Collects a booking | Varies by product | Yes, by shift | Yes, at any hour |
| What your team receives | The fields the person filled in | A name, a time and a note | A transcript | A message | The whole conversation: what they asked, what they were told, what still needs a person |
| Best for | A few simple requests | People who already know they want to meet | Simple questions with written answers | Phone-first businesses that need triage | Important questions your best people answer every week |
Categories, not product reviews. Features vary by product and change over time.
When a brain fits
- The same important questions reach your best people every week, often outside working hours.
- A slow or wrong answer costs you the person asking.
- The answers change with your business, and you want to govern them.
When something else is the better choice
- Most inquiries arrive by phone and need triage: an answering service may suit you better.
- People ask a few questions whose answers rarely change: a clear page, a short form and a booking link may be all you need.
Tell us who needs to reach you, and what it should answer first.
Four fields to start. A person reads it, and you hear back within two business days.