How do you reduce the number of emails users send you?

Question

We have a website for an amateur sports club www.cugc.org.uk with a lot of content, we have put a lot of effort into providing all the relevant information to new members or those interested in finding out more about the club.

Despite this we still get a lot of email with same old questions. We added a FAQ section with answers to common questions, but people seem not to read them.

Does anybody know of any successful method directing people to answer on the website rather than sending an email? Perhaps in the same way stack exchange suggests answers as you type the question.

The site is based on Drupal 7.

Answer 1

This is a very common problem.

Many companies and other large organizations that offer a lot of support solve this by essentially requiring you to go through FAQ-like content before they even provide you with any way to contact them directly. Some take this to such lengths that it is very annoying for those of us who actually have a question not answered by the online material and can't find any way of making contact.

Ultimately, the only real solution is to not be contactable, so it ends up being a balancing act between limiting unwanted contact and having a reasonable way of being contacted.

In your case, that model probably isn't that relevant, since I can't imagine that you want to put a huge amount of effort into this. A few small things I would suggest:

• Make the FAQ more prominent (in the top navigation).
• Highlight the questions that you most frequently get asked. Put them at the top of the FAQ, perhaps put them at the top of the contact page, or even put a few questions prominently on the front page with links to the FAQ.

You can't solve this completely, though.

Answer 2

I was going to post some answer about the user being too hasty or inept at using websites but after looking at your website I would like to gently point out some observations:

1. Home-page posts appear mashed together and it takes more cognitive load than I am willing to spend in order to understand it. It also looks like there is some important info in some of those posts but my brain says "Nuh uh, moving on..."

2. In general I see that you are trying to sell me something, so why am I presented with a wall of text?

3. Every page feels like a wall of text, and there is also no indentation anywhere.

4. Quite frankly, how do I contact you/your club? I don't see it anywhere.

5. There are so many videos that I don't know if I should read first and then watch or watch and then read. The videos feel very "thrown in there"

I'm sure this will attract downvotes because I'm not answering your exact question but sometimes the real issue is worth fixing rather than just a symptom.

Answer 3

You could dynamically show related questions from the FAQ when the user types in the contact form (this assumes you have a contact form instead of telling the users to send an email directly). You probably need to implement some sort of fuzzy search or look for certain keywords for this to work effectively.

Stack Exchange does a similar thing in the Ask Question form. When you start typing, it tries to find existing similar questions:

Answer 4

Extending part of @dan1111's answer, one other option is adding context to your contact page. One example of this is what Github does under some particular conditions.

Take this page for example. If you scroll down to the very bottom and press the "Contact" link in the footer, it takes you to the contact page however with one minor change.

Basically, looking where the user comes from can give insights into what they might be after. If they came from the Join page on your site, you could then show the first few FAQ that relate closely to that.

On larger, more complicated sites, this approach can be technically difficult to implement however can be quite powerful.

Answer 5

My take: looking at the page I see video, text, weather, faq, trial flights, costs, competitions, learning, gallery, join, contact, learning, the club, search, advertisement, links to gliding pages, 10+ links to blog pages, upcoming events, support & fundraising.

Reading another answer about cognitive overload, I agree, that it is a little intimidating.

I'd say you need to sit down and have a serious group think about what kind of experience you want to give to the user. Namely, it reminds me of this:

To answer more directly: to minimize the number of emails you get, you need to minimize overwhelming the user with information, and find ways to present relevant information at relevant time during the user experiencing their journey throughout the website.

One question to ask yourself that may help is "is this website text/image/video/block right here absolutely needed and required to be on this very page in this spot, or can I remove it with the user still getting the main experience that I want them to have"? Remove and move blocks accordingly.

You may need to do some user testing. What do most users come to the site for? Is it just one thing, possibly two different things, or are they really going for a bit of everything? If 80% of users flock to one, two, or three things on the website, put those things first and foremost, put everything else away, including links, images, videos, and text, and have a link directing them to "everything else".

Side-note: having too much email is a great problem to have. You are getting some serious user hits! Next step is profit!

Answer 6

Building on @dan1111 's suggestion to "make the FAQ more prominent", consider implementing a task-centric help solution, which places on the screen help content relevant to what the user is doing.

So your application could feature a prominent "help" button:

When the "help" button is pressed, the page content gets squished to the left to make room for the help content on the right (the observant will notice that the help content is encapsulatd within divs that are shaded a blue similar to the help button):

The Frequently Asked Questions tab allows the user community to search your help knowledgebase while also offering them the opportunity to contribute to it:

Answer 7

If you have a lot of users wanting to ask questions, it might be time to start an online forum. Other members of your community might be willing to answer those questions.

Answer 8

If you have a Contact Us page rather than just listing your email somewhere, you can specifically state on that page that most questions will be answered by the FAQ. Provide a link to the FAQ even if it's one of the top navigation tabs just to make it really easy for users to go there and find their own answers.

If you're still getting too many emails after that, you could make a required checkbox to submit the form that says

[ ] I have read the FAQ

That way, the users must at least acknowledge the fact that a page exists that might answer their questions before they send you emails.

Answer 9

In a completely different venue, I would like to suggest putting a support phone number in a prominent spot on the site (even if for a trial period of time), and allow users to call in or text with their questions. Be sure to mention that you can also text for those who prefer not to call. You may even want to get a separate phone line for that just in case, which you can cancel later.

I think the conversations that you, or your support staff, will receive and have with users will help you tremendously in answering your question, in ways that you yourself, or responders here may not have seen or expected.

It will minimize emails :) at expense of increasing another medium of communication.