Cair Solutions builds software and digital solutions for organizations in the adoption, foster care, and child welfare space. Its products help agencies manage cases, connect families, and support communication throughout the care journey.
For Cair Solutions, chat is more than a way for users to contact an organization. It can be the starting point for collecting the information needed to understand a user's needs and guide them to the right service.
Turning a form-like intake flow into a conversation
Cair Solutions wanted to make intake feel like a conversation rather than a traditional form.
A bot starts by collecting basic information such as the user's name and email address, then asks what service they are looking for. From there, the next questions depend on the user's answers.
For example, someone selecting a particular care service may be asked additional questions relevant to that service, such as whether they are pregnant and how many months along they are. Once the required information is collected, the flow can move the user toward booking.
The challenge was making these questions and answer options behave like part of the conversation itself.
The challenge: keeping guided options inside the chat
Cair Solutions had already built much of the intake logic using CometChat's React UI Kit. Their bot and backend controlled which questions appeared and what options were available.
The remaining challenge was how to display those options inside the message stream.
The team initially explored a custom React component positioned between the message list and message composer. While the component could display the options, it existed outside the conversation. The choices were therefore not messages, were not part of the conversation history, and could not naturally drive the chat flow.
They needed each question to behave like a message, with its answer options attached to it and rendered directly inside the conversation.
Making questions and answers part of the message
Cair Solutions used CometChat's custom messages and extended message templates to bring the guided intake flow into the conversation.
Each custom message carries the question and its available answer options as structured data. The bot determines that payload, meaning the branching logic remains with Cair Solutions rather than being generated by the chat UI.
On the React side, Cair Solutions extended the existing message template to recognize these messages and render the options as custom bubbles.
This gives them a simple separation of responsibilities:
The bot and backend decide what to ask.
The message payload carries the question and options.
CometChat renders the question and options inside the conversation.
The user's selection determines what the bot asks next.
Regular messages continue to use CometChat's standard templates, while only the guided intake messages use the custom rendering.
A more flexible way to build guided intake
With the guided flow running through messages, Cair Solutions can change the questions and available options through the bot's payload rather than rebuilding the front end for every change.
That makes it possible to add new services, introduce service-specific questions, or change answer options without changing the underlying chat UI.
More importantly, the entire intake becomes part of the conversation history. The questions, choices, and responses live together in the same message stream rather than being split between chat and a separate form or UI component.
The result
Cair Solutions turned a static intake component into an interactive conversation flow built directly into CometChat.
Guided intake inside chat
Users answer questions and select options without leaving the conversation.
Backend-controlled branching
The bot determines which questions and options appear at each step.
Conversation history
Intake questions and responses remain part of the chat rather than living in a separate component.
Flexible flows
Cair Solutions can change services, questions, and options through the message payload.
Custom UI without replacing the UI Kit
Only the guided messages require custom rendering, while the rest of the CometChat experience continues to use standard components.
By treating guided intake as a conversation rather than a form, Cair Solutions can collect the information it needs while keeping the entire experience inside chat.
