Which is the best contact method?

[rodion]

Hi everyone!
My company develops and sells software products online. And my question is: which is the most effective contact method offered to potential customers on a web site? Contact form, email, phone call, live chat or any other? Any input would be appreciated.

[ccDan]

Offer as many as you can support. Some people prefer to eMail, others prefer to call.

I prefer to eMail, as a lot of times I'm visiting a web site when the company is closed.

Contact forms and eMail are somewhat interchangeable. But, if you don't list contact eMails, be sure that your contact form will work with a variety of web browsers. If your contact form doesn't work, and your eMail isn't listed, potential customers will not be able to contact you.

On a related note, I don't mind using a contact form on initial contact, but prefer to correspond with someone via eMail afterwards. I don't want to have to use a password or something to go back and forth on a web-based contact system.

If you do decide to list contact eMails on your site, be sure to include eMail addresses other than just sales and support addresses. For example, if I publish a software magazine, and I want to interview someone at your company, who do I contact? If I want to seek permission to quote from some of the articles on your site, who do I contact? And so on. You need some kind of general contact eMail for people who aren't contacting you about sales or support. Otherwise, those inquiries will likely end up going to your sales account, and be a distraction from real sales inquiries.