[Mike Halliday]

do you think that getting people to use 'contact us' pages on websites actually puts people off?

 I was thinking  everyone is familiar with email so just to put the email address they can click and then use their email programme would be a lot easier than them typing into a small box, then putting their name in another box then their email address.

contact boxes always put me off

I know it is too stop spam email but I think the odd spam email would be worth it if more people got in touch

[Chris Hawkes]

Mike

I would tend to agree with you - a "contact us" form does put me off a bit.  I needed to contact a web designer yesterday but there was only a form on their site so I went somewhere else.  I think it may stem from the fact that so many of those form pages tended not to work in years gone by.

How about putting a form and an email address?

Chris

[AshWhite]

And how about a number so people can text you instead of calling?

[A P T]

A number so people can text you ? - must be a sign of the times,  don't people TALK anymore ?   Lol

[AshWhite]

Well, as it happens there's lots of people who don't like picking up the phone.  My Mrs for example won't phone for insurance, wont book her car in for an MOT, won't phone catalogues etc - she's so nervous of looking like a tit if they ask her something she doesn't know.  It sounds ridiculous, but she's obviously not alone.  Text messaging is better than e-mail for a lot of people as they might only check their e-mails once a day, whereas their phone is on them 24/7.

Makes sense I think... 

Ash

p.s. I found it ironic you ended your message with "lol" which is of course 'text speak', goes to show how much we all use it in our everyday lives now 

[garry22]

Why don't you test two "contact us" pages?

One with a form, one with an email only and rotate them. The only problem may be getting enough traffic for meanigful tests.

You never know unless you test.

[wynne jones]

Why don't you test two "contact us" pages?

One with a form, one with an email only and rotate them. The only problem may be getting enough traffic for meanigful tests.

You never know unless you test.

Finally someone with some sense.

If you are serious and hard nosed about your marketing, you wouldn't ask your carpet cleaning mates unless you just want to shoot the breeze. If you really want it to make a difference to your bottom line you would test things out and get a REAL answer not 10 opinions (which are either all different, or follow the flavour of the day)

Start with known stats.

The best conversion is a PHONE NUMBER, which is prominent. This has been known since the the invention of the telephone. This does not mean you don't have an opt in box for leads or a separate contact page as well.

Testing different layouts by rotating them round and looking at your analytics will lead you ultimately to the best conversions.

Having a contact page is niether here nor there. Hardly anyone uses it but the odd one will and Google like it, but it ain't going to put another van on the road. On the other hand I may be wrong and testing will give you the truth. 

 

[Andy Hogarth]

Interesting, It never occured to me that the contact us may put people off for a second

I like the txt idea

Think I'll just add the 'email address' and a 'text me' section to the top of the contact us page, see how it goes

[Helen]

God I feel old
I hate the texting idea. Sorry but I just do.  Does no-one know how to hold a conversation be it selling, marketing or personal anymore
I won't leave details on voicemails or ansamachines either. Just say who I am, why I'm calling, tel number and I'll call you later. (which I do until I get a person) That's all we ask of people on our ansa messages too.
Contact forms: I use them if I have to when enquiring on websites, but I do find that a lot of them don't answer, so you end up phoning anyway! I tend to phone if they have put a number, but then I don't mind talking to people and don't feel that I will be classed as daft if I don't know something.......if you don't ask you don't find out
Asking other people about contact forms I always get the answer, "can't be bothered as you have to fill in info each time, so I would rather phone or just e-mail".
Good job we are all different or it would a boring old world!











LOL xx

[AshWhite]

Helen,

I didn't necessarily mean that you hsve to REPLY by text, only give the customer the option to make the initial contact by SMS.  There's nothing saying you can't call them as soon as you receive the message - I know people who will text enquiries for various services because they have free texts but no free minutes (OK, so I'm not in the most affluent area..).

At the end of the day, it doesn't cost anything to offer the service as long as you use a mobile anyway - if it gets me only 1 enquiry then it would have been a result!

Ash

[garry22]

I agree with Wynne here.

It is probably not a critical issue at all.

Mike, if your analytics stats show loads of people going to the contact page and then exiting the site then it's worth testing. What do your visitor states tell you?

I had a similar situation with a friend's e commerce site a couple of years ago. He was losing a lot of customers in the order process.

It turned out that the text / layout made it look as though you could only pay by Paypal (which was not the case). We added some screenshots and put bold headings about paying either by credit card or paypal and that increased sales.

It's worth a try.

[Mike Halliday]

Garry you make a good point I never thought of looking at my google analytics to see how many people view the contact page.

during May 28 people viewed the contact page spending on average 1min  8sec on the page i had 2 people fill in the contact box.

not a good conversion.

[garry22]

That's an interesting stat and one I was not expecting at all. Maybe it is worth testing.

Did they stay on the site or leave?

You can see this on the  "X started here and then went to this page" bit (I cannot think of the page title offhand).

Have a look at the BETA In page analytics. It 's not perfect but gives a rough idea of where on the page people are clicking.

[Helen]

Helen,

I didn't necessarily mean that you hsve to REPLY by text, only give the customer the option to make the initial contact by SMS.  There's nothing saying you can't call them as soon as you receive the message - I know people who will text enquiries for various services because they have free texts but no free minutes (OK, so I'm not in the most affluent area..).

At the end of the day, it doesn't cost anything to offer the service as long as you use a mobile anyway - if it gets me only 1 enquiry then it would have been a result!

Ash

I didn't think you did mean that.
Yes we have had people text us in the past and I am sure that we will in the future. The extent of our answer by text would be, "thanks for contacting us we will call you back."
We advertise phone (landline or mobile) and e-mail contact. If someone wishes to text us then fine that is there choice, but we wouldn't encourage it as we want to talk to people! 

[Helen]

Garry you make a good point I never thought of looking at my google analytics to see how many people view the contact page.

during May 28 people viewed the contact page spending on average 1min  8sec on the page i had 2 people fill in the contact box.

not a good conversion.

Did you convert the 2 into work Mike?

[Helen]

Garry you make a good point I never thought of looking at my google analytics to see how many people view the contact page.

during May 28 people viewed the contact page spending on average 1min  8sec on the page i had 2 people fill in the contact box.

not a good conversion.

Mike you should have 1 hit at least today on your contact page as I have been there.
Yours is a contact page that I think is user friendly to all whichever way they choose to contact you.
I would expect that because you have a freephone number that that may swing people away from using e-mail contact. Just my opinion, but if I lived in your area, and I wanted carpets cleaned I would phone you as my eyes were drawn to your yellow phone
To answer your first post, contact boxes do nothing for me either

[Adam P]

i find people hang around on the contact page so this will effect your times. people will sometimes send a message and then leave the site up on their browser tab making the times longer then normal. if your contact form goes back to the contact page after email sent then every 1 visitor is actually 2 and again your times will be incorrect as the first time on that page they'll spend 3 minutes, next 2 seconds.

i'd say put both if worried but this will lead to spam. we put our email address on ours and it gets a lot of advertising stuff. we know this is from the site simple because this is the only way to find the address. our contact forms and contact with customers/signing up to sites is though another email, this one we've put just on the site and set the spam filter to high.

most people still use the contact form to get in touch or phone number.

if you want to show your email address don't save it just for the contact page, show it at the top of all of them so whatever page they're on which they decide to get in touch you make it easy for them. you could even have a little trick by adding a subject dependent on page so you know exactly which page each customer was on when they decide to get in touch.