What is reason behind having a contact form on a website?

[Nemanja]

What's reason behind having a contact form on a website? using an email address is enough? Why do so many web sites have contact forms? Is it just a habit or a trend?

 

[smsmbooster]

That's a good question. I have both on my website that have contact form and email, even phone also if I can speak English

I think it's the best if we provide many ways for customer to contact us...

 

[DarioPV]

I guess people use it out of habit and it is pretty easy to implement. In my opinion, small sites don't need it, maybe in some specific niches.

Big sites use it because of spam. You probably saw a strong site that doesn't have a contact info just the contact form. They get tons of pitches from seo companies and I guess contact form is one of the ways they can use to fight all that spam.

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Using a contact form keeps your email hidden from scrapers. Let me clarify that. Using a contact form that does not have your email address in a hidden field keeps your email hidden from scrapers.

 

[vishwa]

Exactly! I am totally agree with Ron's above post. Using Contact us form can keep your email address from scrappers. This will also help users to Submit their request in detail. You can also customize your contact us form and made different segments, where user can submit their request.

 

[Mike001]

Contact forms are a much better way to communicate with the members of your site. The biggest advantage as Rob had pointed out is that it makes you available to the members of the site and yet it does not put your email address in the body of the HTML.

Web Scrappers have been gathering email addresses from the body of HTML for years and that is how a lot of the more less scrupulous people gather emails addresses for things like spam, lockouts, etc.

It is never a good practice to include an email address in the body of HTML.

 

[Claire_Anderson]

There are million of websites on the internet and most of the websites do not even have a contact form and these websites makes it difficult for the customers to communicate with the companies. Following are some of the reasons that your website needs a contact form:

1. Data submitted through the contact forms is more secure
2. It is a guarantee that you will receive the message
3. Customers can contact you at any hour
4. You can customize the form to suit your business needs
5. You can provide better service to the customers
6. With contact forms you can receive more information from the customers

 

[FreebieBoy34]

The reason behind this is to carefully organize the emails being sent to you if its intended for general inquiry, addressing issue and etc. Other than that, it makes you accessible to people who want to reach out to you without having to show your email to avoid receiving unnecessary emails...

 

[skullofskill]

Hi Nemanja,

Hmm.. Very Crazy I stumbled Upon This Topic Today. I, this morning, had a conversation about how I am choosing to not have a contact form on some of my websites due to there really is no need. Instead, I will only show a 'Contact Webmaster' link in the footer with a mailto: link.

I am doing it this way because my support email will only be visible in the status bar on the browser, when hovered, and to actually contact me, my email address will have to be copied and pasted into any emails to be sent to me instead of submitting it from my website. Unless of course the user has a mail program installed on their system.

It's not that I am refusing to help people, it's more about reducing the chances of spam bots. Any of my visitors will still be able to contact me if something needs to be said to me. The sites I operate really don't require much support that need a contact form. The chances of actual people contacting me have so far, in 8 years and 8 months, been maybe ten people total! Those that contacted me had me using a contact form, and the reasons were mostly contacting me, business to business, to sell me something. Nothing Super Major. And If i'm not mistaken, a couple were to report typos that had been found on my page. hmy:

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Rob Whisonant

You are aware that when an email scraper (spammer) program lands on your page it will get your email address right? Scrappers harvest emails by parsing the page html source. Do a view source on your page and you will see your email in it.

That is what a contact form prevents.

Just an FYI.

 

[Colombiawebs]

good day

Many customers find it annoying to send email

These customers are happy to fill out a contact form

The contact form outlines the needs of the client

Blessings

 

[KarenByerly]

So customers can get in touch with you easily if they want then.

 

[Riviera]

The contact form is like a "must have" of a current website. It is the easiness for customers, visitors who visit your site and need to contact - support -buy/sell - complain,... Instead of open Gmail, Yandex, Yahoo Mail and compose a mail. They can connect to you with few clicks. It is easy, especially when they use a mobile, iphone, ipad. Contact forms saves their times for sure. Only fews seconds, you receive email notifications. That is useful and easy for both.

 

[kim16]

I dont think it's made out of a habit. There is science in it. I use contact form in order to reduce spam and basically to get general feedback from the market.

 

[SethTurin]

An example:

On our website we had a link to call, and a URL to visit support.

We added a contact us button with a contact form.

The number of calls we got went down (great, because they are hard to handle) and the number of sales inquiries we got went up.

All sales inquiries get funneled to the support system anyway, so we have no issue handling the greater volume.

Bottom line: Contact forms are easier on the user than asking them to send an email or call. You will get more sales queries and questions, and you will get more sales.