Customer Support Bots vs. Lead Generation Bots
Website chat products support different jobs, including customer support, sales qualification, and appointment booking. Start by defining the job your visitors need the widget to perform.
Support-oriented bots often focus on help content, common questions, and routing to a human. Confirm each product's current capabilities with its vendor.
Lead generation bots are designed for prospects who haven't bought yet. They're built to engage anonymous visitors, qualify them through conversation, and convert them into appointments or meetings. The conversation flow, qualification logic, and booking capabilities are completely different.
5 Features That Actually Matter for Lead Capture
First: progressive contact capture. A widget can let visitors begin anonymously and request contact information later in the conversation. Test this approach against your existing capture flow.
Second: industry-specific qualification. A generic bot asks generic questions. An industry-specific bot knows that real estate leads need different qualification than SaaS leads. Look for bots that adapt their conversation flow to your vertical.
Third: appointment booking integration. If booking is the desired outcome, test whether qualified leads can choose a real available slot without leaving the conversation.
Fourth: confidence scoring. Not all leads are equal. AI chatbots with confidence scoring analyze the conversation and rate each lead based on intent strength, budget fit, and timeline urgency. Your team sees the score before they call.
Fifth: after-hours behavior and service limits. Test response quality, escalation, rate limits, and fallback behavior when your team is unavailable.
Pricing Models: Per-Seat vs. Per-Lead vs. Flat Rate
AI chatbot pricing can be based on seats, conversations, messages, contacts, or a combination of limits. Compare the metric that will drive cost in your expected workflow.
OnLeads Starter costs $29.99/month and includes 1,500 AI messages. Estimate message usage from a representative conversation and compare total subscription, connector, overage, and staffing costs.
Watch out for hidden costs. Some platforms charge extra for calendar integration, CRM sync, or removing their branding. Make sure you understand the total cost before committing.
Setup Complexity: Script Tag vs. Full Integration
The fastest AI chatbots deploy with a single script tag. Copy it, paste it before your closing body tag, and the widget appears on your site. No APIs to configure, no webhooks to set up, no developer time required.
More complex solutions may require server-side integration, API configuration, custom development, security review, or implementation support.
A script-tag deployment can simplify an initial test. Add deeper integrations after confirming the conversation and handoff workflow meets your requirements.
How to Run an Initial Evaluation
Here's a quick evaluation framework: Sign up for a free trial. Select your industry. Paste the embed code on your site. Open the widget and have a conversation as if you were a real prospect. Ask the questions your prospects typically ask.
Evaluate three things: Does the AI sound natural and knowledgeable about your industry? Does it ask the right qualification questions without feeling pushy? Does the booking flow actually work and create a calendar event?
Record the setup work, test results, missing capabilities, and questions for the vendor. Use that evidence to decide whether a longer pilot is justified.