Contact forms often create perplexity and aggravation for several people which can lead toward loss of online business. There can be situations when a person is somewhat interested in your product or service or has any vacillation in shopping and he/she faces inconvenience in contacting. In this case, that customer can be lost and can send him/her right away to your competitor.

Here are some best practices for website contact form developments and implementations.

Captcha challenge:

Although Captcha is a best way to cut down spam humility but often Captcha images are very tricky, hard to read, and mostly have damaged vision. If Captcha images are being used in contact form make sure that the image placed by you is easily readable at some distance from monitor. Moreover, audio support options can also be included whereby a series of numbers is read out to the user.

Multiple request options:

Always provide multiple request type options to users as this helps the users in categorizing the type of request according to their precedence. This is also useful for data mining at later date. This can be very useful for those who are in confusion between selections or have no option of their choice.

Minimize necessary fields:

Another way to facilitate your clients is to offer minimum necessary fields in contact form. A person who is making a pre-sale inquiry should only be asked for his/her e-mail address as it is enough for reply. There are many contact forms that have several compulsory fields to fill which can cause exasperation for your clients. So, it is wise to demand only necessary information and leave other spaces optional.

Use thank you pages:

Sometimes, a person submits his/her details and after submission he/she views a blank page, an error page, or directed back to contact page. This situation creates confusion in the mind of person that either the form has been submitted or not. So, it becomes very important to design a proper ‘Thank You’ page. Also, you should keep testing it frequently to make sure that it is displayed properly or not. ‘Thank You’ page gives a confidence to customers that they will likely to be heard back.

Provide tips:

Another best practice is to clearly mention all compulsory fields and give validation rules on the form how to complete these fields.

For example: CNIC number (xxxxx-xxxxxxx-x)

Security:

Security arrangements should always be up-to-date if you are selling your product and services online. Ensure that they are working properly and keep checking them frequently.

Avoid unnecessary popup:

Unnecessary popup on web page should be avoided because it can cause frustration to the users.

These practices for website contact forms can help you in composing forms that are quite comprehensible and easy-to-use, which can make your clients more happy and satisfied.