A talking website or a contact form?

Hosted by Mr. NetShow.

Almost every business website ends the same way. At the bottom of the page there is a form: name, email, message, send. It is a fair way to hear from people. It is also a promise to answer later.

A NetShow agent on your website makes a different promise. It answers now, with a face and a voice. This post is an honest comparison, written for an owner who has to pick where to spend an afternoon. Sometimes the form is enough. Sometimes it is not.

What a contact form does well

A form is quiet and cheap to keep. It collects the details you need in the order you want them. It works at three in the morning, when nobody is at the desk, and it waits patiently for you to reply.

A form is the right tool when the question needs your judgment. A custom quote, a complaint, a job application or a long story from a customer all deserve a person reading it carefully. Nobody should try to answer those in ten seconds, and a form gives them room.

If your website gets a handful of messages a week, and each one is different, a form may be all you need. That is a real answer, and we would rather you hear it from us.

Where a form falls short

A form cannot answer. The visitor who wants to know if you are open on Saturday has to type the question, press send, and wait. Many of them do not bother. They close the tab and try the next business on the list.

A form also asks the visitor to do all the work first. They have to decide their question is worth writing down. On a phone, with one thumb, that is a lot to ask for a question like "Where do I park?"

And a form hears the same questions over and over. Your hours. Where you are. How to book. Who to call. Each one lands in your inbox, and each one waits for you.

What a talking website does instead

Your agent can greet the people who visit your own website. When you switch on speaking first, a panel docks at the bottom right with your agent's face, and the greeting appears as a caption straight away. The visitor does not have to find a button to learn that someone is there.

Browsers keep a page silent until the visitor taps or presses a key, so the greeting is spoken out loud from their first tap. Nothing blares at someone who has not touched the page. The browser asks the visitor's permission before the agent can hear them, and it listens only if they allow it.

Your agent answers from what you teach it. In the agent editor, the Knowledge Text box takes whatever it should answer from: your services page, your opening hours, your returns policy. The Saturday question gets its answer while the visitor is still on your page.

A visitor who would rather not speak does not have to. The panel's Menu holds Chat for typing, Mute replies and Stop listening.

You do not have to choose one

Here is the part most comparisons leave out: the form can stay. Your agent does not replace the page it sits on. It sits in the corner and takes the quick questions, and the form keeps the long ones.

You can even tell your agent where the line is. The Soul MD box in the agent editor is where you write what it must never do. Our guide's own examples: never promise a delivery date, always hand a complaint to a person. Write that, and the agent sends the careful questions back to you.

So the honest test is not "form or face". It is this:

• Keep only the form if your questions are few and each one needs you.
• Add the agent if the same five questions keep arriving, or if most of your visitors are on a phone.
• Keep both if you get some of each, which is most businesses.

What it costs you to try

Setting it up is one tag pasted into your site and one proof that the site is yours. Pasting the tag before you verify breaks nothing: the chat bubble appears and tells visitors the door is closed instead of replying.

A new agent is private, and a private agent does not answer anyone on your site. You can press Talk in the agent editor and ask it your own hard questions first. Nobody else can reach a private agent, so that is the safe place to get it wrong a few times.

The face itself is drawn by your visitor's own browser instead of streamed from a server, so there is no per-minute meter on it.

FAQ

Will a talking website replace my contact form?

No. Your agent sits in the corner of the page it is placed on, and your form stays where it is. Many owners keep both: the agent for quick questions, the form for the long ones.

Does my agent listen to visitors without asking?

No. The browser asks the visitor's permission before the agent can hear them, and it listens only if they allow it. The panel's Menu also has Stop listening.

What if a visitor asks something my agent should not answer?

Write the rule in the Soul MD box of the agent editor. That is where you say what it must never do, such as never promising a delivery date or always handing a complaint to a person.

Can visitors type instead of talking?

Yes. The panel's Menu holds Chat for typing instead, and the × in the corner closes the panel.

See it on your own site

If the same questions keep landing in your inbox, the quickest way to decide is to watch your agent answer them on your own page. Our step-by-step guide walks the embed page from start to finish. You copy one tag, paste it into your site, and publish a small text file that proves the site is yours. Then you switch on speaking first. It also shows how to take the agent off your site again if you change your mind. The guide takes about five minutes to read.