Have you ever had an interest in learning more about a company's products, but after landing on their site's "Contact Us" page, you got cold feet about leaving your information and walked away?
In all likelihood, it's a trust issue.
What kind of trust issue? It could be any number of things. But one of the most common reasons for visitor abandonment of the "Contact Us" page is that the site has not provided enough modes of contact.
Many sites, for example, provide an online form as the sole channel to connect. This may be convenient for the business, but it's often not the buyer's preferred means to communicate. Studies show that 81 percent of website visitors have abandoned form fills -- and when they do, they usually don't return.
Some users fail to complete forms because of privacy worries, concerns that increase with the amount of information the form requires. Other users find forms annoying and lose patience with them. These visitors may seek a more immediate means of communicating, or they may simply want to contact you on their own terms.
That's why the best "Contact Us" pages include most or all of the following:
- Phone number
- Office location and map
- Email address
- Live chat functionality
- Social media options
- Texting options
While phone and email remain popular contact options, live chat and messaging channels such as WhatsApp are now preferred by 37 percent of consumers — especially visitors who are millennials and younger. A full 63 percent of respondents to a recent survey say they prefer brands that offer text messaging as a method of contact.
Does including these choices mean that most of your visitors will opt to pick up the phone, write an email, send an SMS or even show up at your front door — rather than simply filling out the form? No, it doesn't. Most will fill out the form if you direct them there as your preferred alternative.
But whether your visitors use the form or not, the mere variety of options will increase your conversion rate by signaling that you are an accommodating, flexible and trustworthy business.
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