We’ve all been there before. You’re searching through a website that is meant to cater to your needs as the user. However, when you want to actually interact with someone, usually for something within the realm of customer service, you are met with this:

A Contact Form. The most impersonal possible way to service someone visiting your site. Its as near to the antithesis of customer assistance that one can reach without overtly offending your user. For many people this is enough to create an aversion to your entire company.

This causes your visitor to pose the question; Why even go through the effort of having a website for customers if you aren’t willing to go the whole nine yards to actually satisfy their needs? The point of having your website is for increased accessibility for customers interested in whatever product or service you render. This is a basic principal that is disregarded in many areas, but it is important for a company of any size or location.

Example of a bad Contact Form:

You’re obviously interested in their product. You’ve navigated their site for some assistance, in the aim of giving them your business. And you’re met with this generic contact form that says, Viking strives to be ‘#1’, and that a part of this aim it providing customer service. But really you’re left with a contact form that:

• Does not say who you will be contacting.
• Does not give an estimated time for a response.
• Illustrates that the company is willing to take your contact information, but is not willing to put themselves out there to better serve you.

Ultimately, as a potential customer you are given very little reassurance that your needs will be met. This serves only to lend a feeling of dissatisfaction for those visiting your site, and will likely leave a negative impression of your company as a whole.

Here’s a Useful Contact Page:

You’ve landed on a similar company’s website, and from Len-Co’s home page you are one click away from information that will greatly assist your process. You are provided with:

• Information for all three of their locations, further assuring that you will not have to go through the time of being funneled through unneeded barriers to your information.
• A phone number for each of these locations, should you want to speak to someone directly.
• An email address for each of these locations if you choose not to speak over the phone. All of this is provided to you, the potential customer, without having to fill out a single line of any contact form, let alone give out information about yourself.

The positives and negatives of both of these options are as plain as the text that they are written in. One company is not willing to give out their contact information, and requires you to fill out a form with no reassurance that your questions will be answered or in a timely manner for that matter. The other company is transparent, and seemingly values your business enough to provide multiple locations and multiple forms of contact for you to choose from. You are not required to fill anything out, and you are left with the impression that this is a company that values you, the customer. It is a blatantly simple concept, but an important way to better serve the people interested in your business!

What do you think of our contact page?