Do's and don't's for a feed-back form

What makes people fill in the form?

[vitaplease]

I have been checking my stats and found that many visitors click on the "more info" link on the bottom of my site, but only a percentage really fill in the form for a request for more information.

I have trimmed it down to the following ingredients:

1. Question
2. Email
3. Company name
4. Tel
5. Country

Those are the only fields you have to fill in. Furthermore our direct email address is on the bottom of every page on the site.

Any ideas on what to add or leave away or other resourcefull features that would get more people to feel free to actually send us the request for information?

[knighty]

Maybe by more info they think they will find "more info" as in a page or PDF, word download with more detailed information.

What type of information will the receive? Peope dont like filling in too many boxes and personal details perhaps just ask for an e-mail address or give them other options such as "Request contact by either phone, e-mail or address.

Also they may be wary of submitting their e-mail address and receiving SPAM.

[Ove]

One thing i have noticed is the people who have signed in my form and will that i contact them.

The people i have called back to i have got 100% of the jobs and they i just mailed back to are not that much so i will always call them back

/Ove

[Skunkeh]

Personally I will provide my comment and my e-mail address (if I want a response) and that's it - if a form demands more information than that I will either ignore it or fill the fields in with "anonymous". The way I see it I am doing sites a favour by providing my feedback for free, so they have no right to demand any more than the bare minimum of information from me.

[vitaplease]

I guess I should add that I only want corporate clients. I always supposed they have less of a problem in filling in just a bit more information.

Knighty, The "more info" on the bottom is purpously put there. I want my specific pages to have just enough information to "raise eyebrows" without giving away our secrets. For those they should contact us..

[starec]

The simpler the better. All you really need is the email and the question.

Forget the company name, if they want to list it they will in the question field. Also reconsider if you really need the country field at this stage.

The phone number is useful because even if people don't fill it in it makes users feel good they could get a quick reaction if needed. Make it optional, not obligatory.

[tedster]

I agree that "more info" is slightly deceptive wording, and that's probably why you get a low percentage of forms filled out. If the link said "ask for more info", it would be a more exact description.

The visual appearance of a form can be another factor to consider. If the eye can take it in easily and it looks organized and aligned, you get a better response.

A link to a privacy statement in a spot like that is also a big help.

[wasmith]

I provide a simple feedback form and the email is completely optional. I state if you need a responce you need to give us a email.

Close to 50% provide an email. Nearly all the feedback provided has been of value. Nearly every post has had enough information so no additional questions were needed. Certainly if they wanted information to be emailed and they did not provide enough information as to who they were that could be resolved by an email explaining who we could give that kind of information too. Based on my experiances, i would suggest as simple a form as possible with a textarea for them to include as many details as they think are important.

[vitaplease]

tedster, good idea to leave a privacy statement.

And wasmith maybe i'll try your idea of leaving either a telno or an email.

At the moment with approx 500 unique visitors a working day (technical field site)I get ca. 13 responses a day of which 8 are emails and 5 telephone calls. That adds up to 2.5 % response rate. I guess that is low for people really looking for information.