Why Contact Information Matters

[KristineS]

I've seen this debate several times in different places, and I thought it was a good topic to open here.

When it comes to contact information on a web site there are two schools of thought. One school maintains that you should always have multiple forms of contact information on your web site, particularly if you sell things. The other school maintains that having a contact form is enough and customers don't need, or want, any more information than that.

I'm a adherent of the first school, and an experience I had today reminded me why that is. I'm trying to make a purchase for one of our companies. We found the exact item we wanted at a good price. When I went to place the order, their online check-out form malfunctioned twice. They had a report checkout problems link, so I clicked that and reported my issue. I still haven't heard back from them.

After that I went looking for a phone number so I could call and place the order. There isn't one anywhere on the site. In the absence of a phone number, I tried contacting them through their online contact form. That malfunctioned as well.

Now, granted, this is obviously a poorly maintained site, but simply having a telephone number available would at least have let me alert someone to the problems, and possibly would have allowed me to place the order I wanted to place. As it is, I'll probably go elsewhere because now I'm annoyed.

Where do you guys all stand on contact information? How important do you think it is to have multiple forms of it available?

[cbscreative]

I'm with you completely! Not having a phone number, physical address, and other forms of contact is a ploy used by scammers. Any real business should make it easy for people to contact them.

[nealrm]

KristineS,
You make some good points. When selling anything, you want to make sure your clients can reach you easily. That normally includes some type of online contact form and phone numbers. Unfortunately, spammers have made just posting an email address on your site impracticable.

[vangogh]

Kristine I agree with you, though I'll offer a caveat. I think to some degree it depends on how much new business the site wants. That may sound a little strange since common sense would say the site wants as much new business as it can get. But is that really true.

Most service based businesses have a limited amount of clients they can handle without either outsourcing some work or hiring new employees. Some businesses may not want to do either so at some point they may not need new clients at the same rate. Maybe just enough to replace clients who no longer need services.

In that case you might not offer ever form of contact on your site. Sure it will lead to less people contacting you, but that may be appropriate for your given situation.

Overall the main point to keep in mind is that people are different. Some will fill out a form and some won't. Some need a phone number and others won't care. Just know that the more ways you offer contact information the more people will contact you. If you don't need as many people contacting you then you can scale back on the ways people contact you.

[Harold Mansfield]

What about affiliate sites ?
I have wrestled with the contact thing for a while. My mind tells me that if products are sold by a 3rd party that the contact information of that company will suffice. IOW if I sell Amazon products , there is no need for my contact information, but I should make Amazon customer service, returns policies, and such available on the site.

Do you think affiliate sites need contact information ?

[KristineS]

I think any retail site that sells anything definitely needs multiple forms of contact information. It may be a little different for a service site, but if you're selling physical product, your customers need to be able to contact you.

For an affiliate site, I'd just put up something that directed people with problems to the appropriate manufacturer or whatever. Just give them a method to resolve issues and you should be fine.

[Aaron Hats]

Not only do I look for contact info but if I'm buying something I look for a physical store address. If I have a choice between a store that is online only and one that has a B&M store I'll take the B&M store every time. That's not always possible but I try.

Aaron

[vangogh]

Aaron if both an online store and a physical store exist, would you buy from the online store. For example Barnes & Noble has both. Would you be willing to buy something through their site or would you only visit the physical location to buy?

[nealrm]

eborg9,
That is somewhat similar to our site. We advertise real estate for the agents. Our contact information is present, but not ready apparent. However, we have complete contact information for all the agents.

[Dan Furman]

I have my full contact info, plus a form. But sometimes I kind of wonder about the phone - it's just me here, so "feeler" phone calls can be time-consuming.

The form, far and away, gets used the most. I don't know why, but I find that interesting