Why Are Conversational Forms Better than Static Forms for Lead Generation?

When trying to get customers to reach us or leave their contact information, it’s common practice to direct them to the traditional static contact form. Why not make the dialogue between you and your customer flow easier using a conversational form instead?

Consumers in this fast-paced social economy demand more engagement, interaction and conversations are essential to nurturing lead generation. A quick and cost effective way to meet this need is by using conversational forms instead of using static web forms.

In Southeast Asia alone, consumers are expecting conversational commerce-driven approaches. This means that a static web form, where a customer has to wait hours or days for the brand to respond, might no longer cut it. 57% of Southeast Asian respondents to a survey, chat with a brand to get more product or pricing information and confirm their judgment before making a decision and this number is set to rise.

Before we go on about why a conversational form is better for lead generation, let’s first look at the key difference between the two types of forms.

Image: Static contact us form on Kia website

Most people recognise a simple form they see online. If there aren’t too many fields, you’ll have no problems filling and submitting it. Think of your contact us forms for general inquiries or sign up forms for lead gen on your website or social media channels.

While being widely used, static forms have their limitations. They lack the interactivity that today’s audience wants when engaging with a business. Plus, it doesn’t allow a business to respond immediately to the customer’s query. If the static form is boring, has too many fields, or is asking too many prodding questions, the abandonment rate of the static form increases. According to a survey by Manifest, 81% of their respondents abandon online forms, resulting in lesser leads generated.

Image: Kia chatbot with conversational form

Conversational forms are rule-oriented chatbots integrated into company’s website or social messaging platforms.

Rather than listing out all the questions with respective answer fields in a static box, the conversational forms appears within a chat environment, with the store virtual assistant asking the customers one question at a time in a natural and intuitive manner – an experience akin to texting a friend.

Imagine you are shopping for the latest shoes collection but would like to check if the shoes design runs large or small. However, instead of having a conversation with you, the store assistant just passes you a form (whether on paper or a digital device) to fill up and informs you that they will get back to you within the next 3-5 working days! This undoubtedly creates a friction point in the customer experience that leads to a significant drop in conversion rates.

Conversational forms address this inherent interactivity limitation of the static forms, allowing brands to chat and assist shoppers instantly, thus delighting and converting more customers.

You may want to check out: Why Conversational CX is the Modern Marketer’s Most Powerful Tool

We’ve covered the difference between static web forms and conversational forms.

Now, let’s get to the point. Whether you have a small or big team, you’ll want to maximise productivity and sales. To do that, every decision you make counts.

Using conversational forms can help you capture more leads and increase customer satisfaction. The Aberdeen Group reported that companies with the chatbot option witnessed a 34% improvement in customer satisfaction rates.

Here are some reasons you should choose a conversational form over a traditional static form:

• Conversational forms are proactive, engaging and interactive

When a potential customer lands on your website or comes across your brand post on social media platforms, they can start a chat conversation with you. Brands can create a virtual assistant persona, design the conversations with a distinct tone of voice for the brand and inject emojis wherever appropriate to spice up the conversation.

• Give customers immediate gratification

With static forms, your customer has to wait a few hours (or days) before they hear from you. With conversational forms, brands can react to the questions they ask almost immediately. Quicker response times help with faster buying decisions.

• Direct all efforts to where customers actually are

Adopt an omnichannel strategy and synchronise conversations with customers across channels and devices. Beside having a chatbot on the brand’s own website channel, many businesses are now utilising conversational forms on popular social media messaging apps like Messenger or WhatsApp.

• Conversational forms are your best marketing partners

These forms are proven to be useful not just to the customer support, but also help with reaching out to new customers with messaging ads, driving engagement, customer segmentation and even an entire e-commerce transaction process if you move your customers from the traditional contact form to an interactive chat. Our AI chatbot allows brands to segment the customer groups based on customer chat responses for lead qualification, data analytics and better re-targeting capabilities.

• Conversational forms conquer form drop-offs and retarget effectively

When a user abandons a static form half way, there is less opportunity for you to reach out to them again. There is no way to track or retrieve the information that users have completed if the form wasn’t submitted. With conversational forms used on Messenger or WhatsApp, user profiles or phone numbers are identified and chat history is retained once conversations started. Brands can choose to set an automated message to remind users to continue filling up the form or assign a customer service representative to follow up.

That’s not all. Using automated follow-up message with conversational form means that your message actually gets read. Open rates for messages in user’s private inbox is 98%, which can’t be achieved with the passive and expensive ad retargeting.

• On your website

You can take a proactive approach by having a “new message notification” icon and a greeting message at the bottom right corner of the screen to invite visitors to start the conversation in a non-intrusive way. You can also use a lead magnet to help capture leads within the chat window.

• On social messaging apps

Conversational forms are also available on Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, and even Google Business Message. Whether entry points are direct or via social media ads, you can preload form options and responses for anyone trying to contact you.

Although chat apps on social channels can assist with facilitate conversations and customer support, there is a powerful opportunity that is often missed by brands: proactive outreaching to prospects and 3X your sales using messaging ads like ads that click to Messenger (CTM) or ads that click to WhatsApp.

Interested in learning more about the benefits of CTM ad and how to set one up? Read our article on “How To Set Up An Effective Facebook Ad that Click to Messenger”

Image: Static contact form usage versus chatbot usage statistics

As seen in the usage statistics above, we can clearly see the trend of consumers start adopting conversational form in the past 3 years. Using both in a complementary way can boost customer engagement and generate more leads for your business.

For example, your contact page can still have a simple web form, while your virtual assistant are made available across all channels including website and social media platforms.

You can also adopt a hybrid approach if the lead qualification requires a lengthy form. Conversational form can be set up to capture 3 of the most important information in the initial step before redirecting users to the website static form to fill up the rest, i.e: billing or document submission. This allows businesses to leverage on conversational form superior ability to capture lead contact information even when users drop off mid-way.

It’s time to get the conversations started. To stay ahead of competition, use a conversational form to assure your customers that you’re indeed available to address their needs.

With AiChat technology, you can automate personalised conversations with customers across different channels and drive 2 to 3 times more sales.

Here are some examples of campaigns our clients have utilised conversational forms with AiChat solution:

In this campaign, FWD aimed to receive more leads for their E-Cancer campaign. They used a conversational lead gen form powered by AiChat paired up with Ads that click to Messenger. An A/B test was carried out to compare the performance of click to Messenger ads to its business-as-usual campaign.

Video: FWD Lead Gen Chatbot Campaign – Quote Generation Conversational Form

The following results were recorded for their November 21 to December 31, 2021 campaign:

With AiChat’s Conversational Service Suite Solution, Petron Malaysia launched an automated experience for Messenger to help customers with common enquiries, register their Petron Miles card and discover the latest rewards offerings.

Video: Petron Chatbot – Contact Us Conversational Form

Between August 2019 and June 2021, the solution earned Petron Malaysia the following results:

For sales team using Salesforce, why not pair it up with AiChat’s Facebook Messenger Leads Capturing Chatbot for Salesforce to automate and streamline your leads capturing process?

This app enables businesses to set up multiple messaging leads generation campaigns to capture leads from Facebook Messenger and CTM ads then sync up on Salesforce Sales Cloud. All in just a few steps.

There are big things in store for your business if you move from static web forms to dynamic and conversational chatbots on social media or your website. Use this tool to help your business, regardless of size, get more quality leads for conversions and improve your customer satisfaction scores.

Ready to get started? AiChat can help you create conversational forms thanks to our powerful proprietary AI technology and user-friendly interface. Get started with AiChat Lite or enquire about customised packages for your business today.

AiChat is a leading A.I-Powered Conversational Customer Experience platform designed to help brands automate business processes in customer service, marketing and commerce via popular social messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram and Google Business Messages etc. We are proudly trusted by Bayer, TESCO, Marina Bay Sands, MR D.I.Y, Mondelēz, Petron, Unilever and many other enterprises and SMEs across South East Asia.