I agree with Caroline. My golden rule here is that a contact form is really the start of a conversation with a potential customer. If you don't have a "smile" on your "face" like all good service people in the face-to-face world you turn the customer away.
I always have my sites show all methods of contact - phone, fax and e-mail and allow the user to decide how they want to start the conversation. If they opt for e-mail in a web form I explain why each item I am asking for is needed. On the other side of the coin, as a customer I prefer to talk to a real person who knows what they are doing, so I prefer as small an "electronic handshake" as possible! That means just an e-mail address and I want to control the conversation initially in any potential commercial transaction. If you think of your customers that way and don't use the info gathering form at the start of the "conversation" as a catchall crutch you end up with better defined leads since you've talked to the customer and started the relationship on the right foot. Stephen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=41431 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
