When someone finds your website, do you provide an easy way for them to get in touch with you? Contact forms are one of the easiest ways to make sure potential customers can get in touch with you. Many feel your “Contact Us” page is the most important element of your website.
Using a contact form is fast, easy, and a great way to track leads. Depending on how it is set up it can send an email to your address or also store all the info in a database for future reference. The best thing about a contact form is the fact that people are hunting YOU and your business. They are asking YOU to contact them, answer a question, or provide pricing.
Industrial Web Design Best Practices – Contact Forms
Just a few tips to help you improve your contact forms:
*To the right, you will see the contact form from my website. I ask for a name, email, phone, website and then the message.
Some just ask for the name, email, and message. It is up to you to determine how much information is needed, just remember if you ask for too much it turns people off and they feel it is just too much work to get in touch. So keep it easy and simple for the person trying to contact your business. Here is another example: 
*Once your form is created be sure to test it and make sure the information is sent to the correct email address, etc.
*Once it is set up it is a good idea to check it on a monthly basis or whenever there is a website update to make sure it is still working correctly.
*It is important to do a quarterly check of the fields in your form. Are they still relevant? Do you need to add anything?
*Be sure to direct the potential customer to a ‘Thank You” message when they click submit. This will help them to know your message was received and you will get back to them.
Want More Info?
Below are two posts from last year that I wrote pertaining to contact forms and follow-up, I think they would be very helpful as you create your contact form and/or provide customer service.
Follow Up! Increase Your Bottom Line
How to Make Your Customer Service “Rock” by Following Up
Using a contact form in your industrial or manufacturing business is good for business providing yours with fresh leads and a way to provide better customer support.
