Thoughts

Improving the UX of Your Contact Page: 5 Common Mistakes Case Study

Ahead of the next LEARN: UX and Conversion Rate Optimisation workshop, we’re starting to think about the different ways in which brands are losing conversions due to poor UX. The event, hosted at Shoreditch House in May, will cover a beginner-to-intermediate overview of UX and we will discuss how to maintain a strong brand presence with a high converting website.

Luxury brands are renowned for their sleek, beautifully designed websites, however there are a number of problems we see in terms of poor UX and contact pages. Here’s five of the most common:

1. Overcomplicated navigation

So many brands make the mistake of over-simplifying their websites. Although this may reflect the look and feel of the brand, it does not positively impact the user experience. The contact page must be easy to find and not hidden amongst a noisy ‘About Us’ section.

A great example of seamless UX is on The Wolseley website. This site, which was designed and built by Verb, is easy to navigate whilst still feeling simple and sleek. The team wanted to ensure that visitors to the website could make an enquiry, book a table or purchase something from the shop as easily as possible. As soon as the user lands on the homepage, they are able to navigate to the contact page straight away, as well as view a simplified version of the contact details in the footer. In addition to this, the site’s main goal of making an enquiry is the clearest call to action. Situated both in the header and the main hero area.

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2. Too much information is required

Have a think about what information is really necessary at this stage of communication. A user getting in touch via the website is very likely to be an existing or potential customer, due to the fact that they are already on the website and actively looking to engage.

Therefore the chances are, information such as address or location will be obtained at some point further down the customer journey. Here, we see The Wolseley contact form is simple, easy to use and does not ask intrusive or unnecessary questions making the whole experience much more efficient.

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3. Form only option

Give users the chance to contact you how they wish. The more ways to contact, the better. Solely having a contact form with no other options is likely to limit the number of enquiries as often, users want to know they can get an immediate response.

The contact page on The Wolseley website gives the user numerous options to get in touch with the restaurant and by providing three different email addresses, the user feels confident their enquiry will go to the right place and be dealt with efficiently. There is also a simple contact form, should they wish to use it.

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4. Broken forms

This sounds like an obvious point, but so often we see problems on contact forms, which result in them not working. Conduct regular tests to ensure your enquiries are going through to the correct people.

Ensure there is a confirmation of enquiry as well as an indication of lead time on the response, so that the user is confident their submission has been successful.

Here, we see that when an enquiry is submitted via contact form on The Wolseley website, the user is shown a simple message thanking them for the enquiry and giving an estimation of how long it will take to respond.

This not only demonstrates a high standard of customer service, it gives the user confidence that their enquiry will be dealt with efficiently.

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5. No contact page

Do not just rely on having just social media icons as your main method of communication. Particularly for luxury brands where the audience is likely to be of a varied age range, it is essential that traditional ways of contacting are still made available.

For a brand like The Wolseley, where naturally as a restaurant, the audience is extremely varied in many demographics, it’s essential users can contact the restaurant directly, despite their impressive social media following.

These are just a few examples of how brands can improve their contact page UX to increase leads and conversions. 

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