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Chat or feedback form: what to put on the site and when both are needed
The feedback form and online chat promise different things to the visitor: the form says “we’ll call you back,” the chat says “we’re here now.” Everything else follows from this: who will leave the contact, how much time managers will spend and what leads will come. Below is a comparison based on seven criteria, four types of sites with a ready-made solution and a hybrid scheme in the CHBT widget: a pre-chat form, a “Leave contacts” button and a script that itself answers typical questions.
Two different promises to the visitor
Before comparing conversions, it’s worth understanding what exactly each mechanic tells a person.
Form - this is a delayed contact. The visitor fills out the fields and agrees to wait: they will call you back, write you, or send you a message. He does not expect an answer now, so he leaves a request only when the decision is almost made or the issue cannot be resolved otherwise. But he doesn’t wait and doesn’t get upset if they answer in an hour.
Chat is a promise of presence. An open window with an input field means “ask and we will answer.” A person writes before he is ready to submit an lead, often with a clarifying question. But if there is no response for five minutes, the promise is broken, and this is worse than no chat: the visitor leaves with the feeling that the company is not working.
Hence the main principle: chat is set up by those who are ready to respond quickly - by a person or a bot. If there is no one to answer and there is no script, the form is more honest.
A simple test for “readiness for chat”: open a competitor’s website with chat, write a question and time the time until the answer. If you have the same situation and the answer will come in an hour, it’s too early to start a chat without a script. If after a minute, because the bot responded with buttons, and the person picked up where needed, the chat will add applications. In CHBT this “bot in the first minutes” is the script for the “Open Widget” trigger; we will return to it in the section about the hybrid.
Comparison based on seven criteria
| Criteria | Return form communications | Online chat with bot |
|---|---|---|
| Who leaves contact | Ready for lead | Ready plus those who have left question |
| First response speed | From minutes to days, depends on manager | Seconds, if there is a script; otherwise than the form |
| Barrier for visitors | 3–5 fields immediately | One message; contact later |
| Application quality | Higher: human motivated | Miscellaneous: qualifications needed in conversation |
| Load on managers | Processing in batches at a convenient time | Permanent, if the bot does not close typical |
| Night and weekend | Works, answer in the morning | Works with offline message and script |
| What sees company | Form fields | Entire conversation, channel, tags, files |
Not a single line gives a clear winner. The form wins in terms of lead quality and ease of processing; chat - in terms of coverage and speed. The choice depends on which of these parameters is currently the bottleneck.
When form is enough
A form without chat is a normal solution in four situations.
- There is no one to answer quickly. One manager who is on trips, and no one in the office. A chat with a four-hour wait for a response will bring more irritation than requests.
- The lead requires preparation. Calculating the cost of repairs, selecting equipment, a legal question - the answer cannot be given in two lines, you will still need it call.
- Traffic is small and targeted. 20–30 visitors per day for a narrow request: almost everyone knows why they came, and they have questions “is there” no.
- The product does not tolerate fuss. Premium services, B2B with a long cycle: a pop-up window is perceived as intrusiveness.
What should you do with the form in these cases: reduce it to the name and one contact (phone or e-mail - your choice), remove the captcha where there is no spam, and write above the button exactly when they will answer. “We’ll call you back within an hour during business hours” relieves some of the anxiety that the chat would relieve with its presence.
When do you need a chat?
Chat pays off where visitors do not leave a request because of one unresolved issue.
- Online store and delivery. “Are you in stock?”, “Will you deliver before 18:00?”, “Can I have a different color?” Without an answer, the person goes to a competitor with the same price. Questions with the same answer—delivery terms and conditions, payment, returns—are closed by the bot with buttons, and the rest is passed on to the operator.
- Services with recording. Salon, clinic, car service: the question “is there a window on Saturday” is resolved through conversation, and not through the “leave your phone number” form. In CHBT, the entry works like a request - the client writes a convenient time in text, the administrator confirms; There is no calendar with slots, and in the chat it looks natural.
- Complex product with typical questions. Online school, SaaS, subscription: the same 15 questions about payment, access and terms. They are given to the script or AI agent, and the person does the rest.
- Lots of night traffic. Advertising runs around the clock, and the office is open from 10 to 19. The form is almost never filled out at night - “no one will answer.” A chat with an offline message “we’ll answer in the morning, leave a question” collects contacts at night as well.
A common sign: you have a script or person who will answer in the first two minutes. If this condition is not met, first build the script - template "Autoresponder FAQ" closes standard questions using keywords and gives the rest to the operator.
Workload on managers: we consider it honestly
The main argument against chat is “managers will sit in correspondence all day.” This is true if the chat is without a bot. With a bot, the situation is different, and it can be calculated before implementation.
Take the 50 most recent requests from the site - requests and calls - and divide them into three groups:
- Typical questions with the same answer: price, terms, address, delivery, payment.
- Qualified: you need to find out 2-3 parameters (city, volume, deadline), and then - either a refusal or an lead.
- Complex: require an expert.
Count how many requests fell into each group: this determines how much work the bot will remove from managers. The larger the first and second groups, the more noticeable the effect.
The first group is completely covered by the script: the “Message” block with buttons and branches for each question. The second is the “Data Collection” and “Condition” block: the bot itself asks for the city and volume, puts a tag and either notifies the manager with the “Notify operator” action, or politely replies that you do not work with this region. The third group reaches the manager through the “Operator” block - and each such conversation already has a context: it is clear that the person asked, what he chose with the buttons and what the bot answered.
With the form, the manager spends time differently: calling everyone back, including those who only needed an address. Therefore, with the same number of requests, chat with a bot usually saves time, while chat without a bot wastes more time than the form.
To compare your numbers, track two times in a week: the operator’s response in “Conversations” - with quick responses to the standard ones - and a call back based on an lead from the form with missed calls and call backs, including those who only needed an address. Multiply each by the number of requests - and you will see from which flow the chat with the bot begins to save time.
Hybrid in CHBT: pre-chat, “Leave contacts” button and script
The CHBT widget allows you not to choose between chat and form, but to assemble the desired combination from the settings. Three elements:
1. Pre-chat form (section “Widget” → block “Pre-chat form”). The fields name/email/phone are shown before the first message, each with its own “required” checkbox. With a mandatory telephone number, this is essentially a feedback form, after which a conversation immediately opens: the person left a contact and received an answer without waiting for a call. Suitable for B2B and services with preparation - those cases from the section “when a form is enough”, but with a quick response from a bot.
2. Button “Leave contacts” (block “Collect contacts”, enabled by default). Soft option: the form appears at the request of the visitor, when he has already asked something. The entered contact ends up in “Contacts” with the tag widget-lead, the deal appears in CRM, and a letter is sent to the owner. This form, built into the chat, is what the store and delivery need.
3. Script for the “Opening Widget” trigger. Replies instantly, gives buttons, asks the contact through “Data Collection” with format checking at the right point and transfers complex issues to “Conversations” with the “Operator” block. This replaces the manager in the first minutes and makes the promise “we are here” fulfilled even at night.
Working combinations: for a store - only a button and a script; for B2B - pre-chat with a mandatory e-mail plus a script; for services with recording - pre-chat with one optional field “Name”, a button and a script with “Data collection” on the phone. Installing the widget - one line before </body>, details in the article about chat widget on website.
Applications from chat and form - in one system
If you leave both a form and a chat, leads should not live in two places. Three ways to bring them together.
- Everything is in CRM CHBT. Contacts from the widget already go to “Contacts” and “CRM”. The manager enters leads from the form manually using a card in CRM - this takes a minute per lead and is suitable for 5-10 leads per day.
- Everything goes to the external system. The form already sends data to amoCRM, Bitrix24 or a table. Add an “Action” → “HTTP request” block to the bot script: it will send a POST with a contact and variables to the same address - via Make, n8n, Albato or your server. There is a ready-made connection in CHBT to Bitrix24 (lead to a conversation event), but not to amoCRM, so the connection with it goes through a webhook; how to bring a lead from a bot to CRM step by step - in the article about leads from a bot in CRM, overview of integration points - on the page integrations page.
- Flag source. In both cases add a tag or variable
source:formorchat. In a month, you will see not only “how many applications”, but also “where they are most likely to get hired from” - and you will be able to decide whether both channels are needed.
How to prepare a bot for sending leads and what will be included in the request is discussed in the article about collecting applications via chatbot.
Decision by site type
| Site | What to put | Setting in CHBT |
|---|---|---|
| Landing page for one service with advertising | Both: short form in the offer + chat | “Leave contacts” button, URL trigger on a block with a price, script with 3 buttons |
| Online store, delivery | Chat | No pre-chat; script for “Opening a widget”: availability, delivery, payment, “Operator” |
| Services with recording | Chat, form - in the basement | Pre-chat with optional name; “Data collection” for time and phone |
| B2B, complex product | Form as a basis, chat as an addition | Pre-chat with obligatory e-mail; the script answers the standard one, the rest is “Operator” |
| Corporate website without sales | Form | No chat needed |
If in doubt, start with chat in soft mode (without pre-chat, with a button) and after two weeks see how many contacts are with the tag widget-lead We have reached the “In progress” stage. The period comparison method is described in the article about what changes in leads after chat is installed.
Hybrid launch checklist
- Decide what the bottleneck for your site is: the quality of applications (then pre-chat with a required field) or their quantity (then only a button).
- Build a script for the “Open Widget” trigger: a greeting with 3-4 buttons for the most common questions, “Data collection” on the phone after a useful answer, an “Operator” block on the “Another question” button.
- Include an offline message indicating when you will respond.
- Enable notifications: the “New requests from bots” letter in “Account → Notifications” and Web Push in “Dialogs” so that the promise of a quick response is fulfilled. How transmission to a person is built - in the article about the boundary between the bot and the operator.
- Leave the form where it was and mark its claims as the source. Compare after two weeks.
The free plan CHBT includes a widget, flows in the “Steps”, “Contacts” and CRM modes - 30 conversations per month per bot, this is enough for a test. No signature in the window and no limit - Basic for 650 ₽ per month. Place chat next to the form →
Chat widget on the site in 5 minutesTemplate "Autoresponder FAQ"Leads from a bot in CRMPlans