I was reading this test from GoodUI when I had an idea. Rather than having someone enter a ton of information on a web form, why not let the user just write a normal email in their preferred email client?
The process would be something like this:
- User clicks "Contact us" and enters his or her email
- System automatically sends an email from a monitored email address (sales team or whatever) with a greeting message that encourages user to reply to the email (with their name and their message.)
- The rest of the information could be gathered as necessary later after a conversation is started.
Aside from the drawback of not having all the information (Company, Country, Phone) from the user before the conversation is started, I think that this would be a much better experience from a usability standpoint.
Another possible drawback from a technical standpoint is this could be exploited by spammers, but I believe that can be overcome with good spam filters.
So my question is, technical limitations aside, which of the following options for starting sales conversations would lead to the most conversions?
- Use a web based form
- Use the method above
- Just make the "Contact Us" button a "mailto" link
Note: I appreciate all of the answers so far, but for this question, please keep your answers focused on usability, not implementation. I'm only interested in the usability concerns, not the technical limitations.