Is Time On Your Side?

If an in-store salesperson made you wait for service, you will likely lose patience and move on to another store. This is not always that easy in the physical world if you have to hop on your bike, walk or drive your car to the next location but on the Internet it is painfully easy because the next store is a click of a button away. In this article I want to focus not on how much time a person spends on each page on your site but how much time it takes them to fill out your feedback forms, order forms, or personal information forms. First there are some parameters beyond your control that affect the amount of time it takes to fill out a form;

1) Some people type slower than others

2) Some people surf the internet with slower connections that others

3) A person may step away from the computer to complete another task before coming back

Keeping this in mind I would like to focus on parameters that are within your control.

You should know how long people are taking to fill out your forms. If the form seems too long, questions do not allow for quick responses, or are too lengthy, some may abandon the experience resulting in a loss of sales or valuable information. These factors may also result in the information you receive being rought with errors.

Things to consider;

1) the questions are too long

2) the form is too lengthy

3) the form is laid out poorly

4) the questions are not easily understood

5) it's lunch time and I'm in a hurry and this is just too much [possible reason why Amazon started the one click ordering]

Incentives for #1 - offer something of value for filling out the form in its entirety - online surveys do this

Incentives for #2 - reduce the # of questions or refer to incentive #1

Incentives for #3 - redesign the form

Incentives for #4 - re-read and modify where necessary

Incentives for #5 - you may want to save information for repeat customers and implement a system such as Amazon where you won't have to re-enter your information to complete an order.

The bottom line is - If you make it a lenghty process for me, I will go away and never return. Keep it short and sweet or offer me something extra for my time.

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