Contact forms
Cheap and universal. Also ignored. Most visitors won't fill one out, and the ones who do expect a reply within minutes. If your reply takes hours, the form is a lead graveyard.
Live chat
Converts well when someone is actually there. The problem is coverage: nights, weekends, lunch, and every time your team is busy. An unattended live chat is worse than no chat because it sets an expectation and then fails it.
AI chat box
Answers in seconds, every hour of the day, and books the appointment in the conversation. The quality depends entirely on how well it's trained. A generic bot frustrates people. One built on your actual services, pricing rules, and tone reads like your best employee.
The best setups combine all three: AI handles first response and qualification, a human can jump in when needed, and a form exists as a fallback.
What we recommend
For any business where speed-to-lead matters, start with the AI chat box, connect it to your calendar and CRM, and keep a human escalation path. Measure booked appointments, not chats started.