Contact forms have always had a mixed reception, some work really well and are worth having and others are just there for the sake of having them. Contact forms are indeed much neater and efficient when it comes to sending your contact details to someone without having to use email or an email system like Outlook or Thunderbird, but sometimes webmasters get it totally wrong when implementing contact forms on sites.
Below, we take a look at the top five ways you will lose visitors when it comes to badly implemented contact forms.
Require Too Much Information - Some forms just seem to ask for your life story and these are the forms that will either get dismissed straight away or will probably be abandoned half way through. As we mention on a point below, it is vital you get enough information without asking for the world, because once you have a verified contact detail you can then contact the visitor directly should you require any further information.
Captcha Impossible To Read - Another frustrating aspect in relation to increased spam protection are the captchas you can never quite read and therefore have to try a few times before you get it right. If you are going to use a captcha and we would recommend you do, make sure you choose one that is readable and will not cause the user any issues when they come to complete your contact form.
Too Many Required Fields - A form that goes on forever is a form that is not going to get filled in, as people just simply do not have the time to complete never ending forms. Try to make sure you get enough data which allows you to process any request, but do not try to get all of the information in one go as people will worry about their browsers crashing half way through or simply not having all the information to hand. Once you have the persons email address or phone number, you can then make contact and take any extra information you may need to deal with the enquiry.
Not Enough Required Space - We have seen many forms where they ask you for your email address but have restricted the field width or character limit so that you can not complete the information successfully. For things like email its best to go with caution as a domain name could be up to 50+ characters and many personal email addresses can also match this, so it's best just to make sure you leave enough room to allow everyone to input their information without any issues.
Not Testing It Works Regularly - Frustrating is not the word when you fill in a lengthy form, hit the submit button, wait for ages and it doesn't go through. Then out of desperation you hit the back button and all your fields are blank, so with perseverance in mind, you try again only for the same thing to happen. We would put money on you never tried again and you quite happily closed the browser on that site and moved onwards to something else. The moral of this story is that if you are going to use contact forms test them regularly, as many people will not bother to tell you when your form is broken or unusable.
When designing and implementing a contact form, try to approach it as if it were you that would be filling it in if you required the service or product on offer. If you find your own forms a bit long and tiresome then you can assume the majority of your other visitors will probably also find this the case as well.
