Does it make sense to combine Contact settings with company contact info?

Question

We are looking to expand our website and want to have 3 sections:

• Contact Us
• Let us Contact you
• Stop contacting me

Does it make sense to combine these 3 sections into a single page? Do you think it would be easy for users to understand?

^{download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups}

It should be noted that this is for a debt collections company. Frequently the Contact Us comments they get are to stop calling, so I was thinking that putting it on the same page would make users aware that option is available when they go to contact the company.

Answer 1

I think it sounds like the correct approach, they fall into the same category. Rather than compromising the main menu GUI with a selection of contact actions.

A solution could also be to have a main button called "Contact" with the additional versions of contact separated into a drop down menu from that main button. This however depends on the conventional user interface of your website, whether it would violate consistency or not.

Answer 2

The only issue I can see is that there might be some initial confusion as the user has two different requirements. In the first they want to get hold of you, whereas in the second they are asking you to contact them. I know it sounds like I'm stating the obvious, but if I was searching for the latter and the first thing I saw was the former I might be momentarily confused.

I'd consider splitting the "I want to contact you" off into a different page or even include it in the footer of every page (if your design has a footer). Collapsing the different sections when they don't have focus might be enough to alleviate this issue though.

Having said that I really like your design and wish that more sites had this or something like it, and it is a minor quibble.

Answer 3

I think that the problem is not that users won't understand the page (you've done some nice information hierarchy in this wireframe), but rather that users won't know how to find their way on the website to the relevant section.

Here's how I see it:

• Contact us - A rather conventional section that contains the company contact details (address, telephone etc.). This is usually in the "contact us" or "about us" section.
• I want to you to contact me - This is a unique feature you don't see much. I think it makes sense to put it together with the contact us.
• I want you to stop contacting me - It's hard to understand this section out of context. Why would someone have to go on your to tell your company to stop contacting them? Sounds like something's wrong with the way you handle communications in the first place (but you might have a unique use case I can't imagine on my own). Anyway, I suspect that users will be looking for this stuff under their own account or in a help section, and not the main "contact us" section.

So bottom line is - take the third feature and put it somewhere else where users could find it.

Answer 4

I would split it in this manner:

Pages:

• Contact us
  
  Sections:

  • Our contact details

• Contact me
  
  Sections:

  • Subject(s) for contact
  • Preferred contact means (phone/email/...)
  • My contact details
  • When to phone (days/hours)
  • Activate/deactivate/block contact (delete me/freeze/freeze until)

• Unlist/remove/delete from database
  
  Sections:

  • Remove me (wrong person/didn't sign up/no longer interested/other)