That waiting feeling ...

Few things irritate me more about the web as the randomness of contact/query forms.

If I had a dollar for every query lost into the ether I'd be ... well, I'd be able to dine out rather well at least once.

Like sending an email, web contact forms are asynchronous.  In other words, you send a message.  Then you receive a message (at least hopefully). But the communication link is broken in the meantime. So this sort of communication takes a lot of trust.  And when that trust is breached, there is a fundamental breech of the trust a potential client has in you and your business.

Another bug bear is the clunky unusable form. Forms that break when users send something loosing all the data they've meticulously put in. Forms that ask redundant questions or make unecessary fields mandatory.

Bottom line - if you run a web site and have a contact form - make sure it works efficiently and be prompt with responding to enquiries!!!!

Here at Bluff IT we specialise in building robust forms.  We do so where appropriate by:

- having a nice layout graphically pleasing layout
- theming individual form elements
- moving validation logic to the client side wherever practical
- ensuring they are not too large and cumbersome
- eliminating unecessary steps and avoiding where possible consufing multiple step forms
- keeping a stored copy as a node in the database as well as sending a notice to both the sender and the receiver if required

Having a contact/query form is almost mandatory these days, but you risk loosing a customer forever through having a bad form or not replying promptly!