Contact-us forms shouldn’t be WTF moments

I saw this bad ‘contact us’ form today. Then it went to ‘WTF’.

Why is it bad?

• Well, all the model numbers listed without any context, of course.
• The really lame qualification questions for “current need” or “future need”.
• The lack of an opportunity for the prospect to say more than they are ‘interested in’ their products. I can only assume that by filling out the form you will get pricing info.

Then I got to the “salesman to call” question, where one of the two choices is “By Phone/Fax”.
Salesman to call … By fax???? WTF.

Okay, I can only guess that this form was set up with the intent of faxing pricing information (hence the request for your fax number). Certainly this form and method is outdated. And probably they think this form doesn’t perform well, and expect that the ecommerce part of their website is the primary lead collector.

(Yes, they do have ecommerce websites for their different products.) But quite a few prospects, speaking from experience, just jump to the contact-us page to submit what they need.

And when these action-oriented folk hit this contact page, as plain and ordinary as it appears, undoubtedly they are going to say WTF as they attempt to fill it out. They are going to have to HOPE that the normal sales process will get them pricing, or write a plea for what they need in the comments block.

Takeaway: Web forms should anticipate what the visitor wants, and give some expectation of what submitting the form will result in.

This form does neither, and thus fails.