It is 21.40. Someone is sitting on the sofa, scrolling through your website on their phone. They have been thinking about a terrace for a couple of weeks, and now they finally have a moment to look into it. They would like to know roughly what a terrace would cost, and whether you could build it before the winter.
What does your website offer them at that moment?
Three places where an enquiry gets lost
Most small companies' websites have a phone number, an email address and perhaps a contact form. All three work well during the day. In the evening, each has the same problem: they wait for the visitor to make the next move.
Nobody answers the phone. At 21.40 nobody calls a company, and nobody should have to. The number is no use to the visitor until they remember the matter again during office hours — if they do.
The form waits to be found. A form usually sits on the contact page, which is a different place from the page where the visitor is reading about your service. Going there is a small decision, but it is a decision. A visitor who doesn't yet know whether it is worth getting in touch may just as well close the tab.
The question goes unanswered. A visitor doesn't always know what to write in a form. First they would like to know whether you do this kind of work at all, which area you cover, or what the price depends on. If the website doesn't answer, they keep searching — and the next search result is your competitor.
What a chatbot changes
An AI chatbot is a chat window in the corner of your website that answers visitors' questions from what your website says. It doesn't change what you offer. It changes when and how the visitor gets an answer.
When a visitor asks in the evening roughly what a terrace costs, the bot answers with what your website says: what the price depends on, for example, which area you cover and how long the job usually takes. When the visitor then wants a quote, the bot doesn't tell them to call tomorrow. It opens a short form in the conversation, already holding what they have told it. The visitor adds their name and phone number and presses send.
The enquiry is in your inbox a couple of minutes later. In the morning you call someone who has already told you what they need.
The difference from the form on your website is not the form itself but the moment. The bot offers the form just after the visitor has asked about the price — not only once they have first found the contact page. That is why the bot brings in enquiries even on websites that already have a good form.
What a chatbot doesn't change
It is just as important to say what the bot doesn't do.
It doesn't sell for you. The bot takes the enquiry, but a person still makes the sale. An enquiry is only worth something if somebody answers it — preferably on the next working day.
It doesn't know more than it has been told. A well-built bot answers from your website and the information you give it, and says plainly when it doesn't know. If something essential is missing from your website, the bot doesn't make it up, but offers the visitor the chance to leave their question with you. If you want the bot to talk about prices or schedules, they are worth writing into its knowledge base.
It doesn't replace your form or your phone. The bot is one more route, not the only one. A visitor who would rather call will still call.
How to know whether it works on your website
Nobody can promise in advance how many enquiries a bot will bring to your website in particular. It depends on the number of visitors, the industry and what visitors ask. But it can be found out on your own website: after a month, your inbox shows you what the bot brought in. A free one-month trial, installation included. No commitment. If you don't continue, I take the bot down and you pay nothing.
Read how an enquiry is made, or see the pricing.