Callback form

[fisicx]

A recent project for a client included a callback form. It proved successful with their site visitors I decided to have a go at a standalone plugin.

It's not a contact form, it's a callback form. A visitor leaves their email/phone and you get back to them to find out what they want.

Lots of clever features happen in the backend. For example, it adds their details to a mailchimp list. It tracks who opened the form and then completed. It stores all callbacks in a table you can download.

It's also set up for testing to you get a copy of the email that is sent to the site owner.

Please have a play and see if you can break it:

Contact | Testblog Testblog Testblog

Yadda, yadda, marketing blurb and whatever. Some more words on the page. Download the plugin

testblog.co.uk

All helpful comments will be taken into consideration.

 

[JamaC]

Why is it so small?

Maybe add an option for the user to select a preferred callback time.

Also, what the enquiry is about. For bigger companies with different departments/teams

 

[fisicx]

How do you mean so small? There are only two fields so doesn’t need to be any bigger.

Adding extra fields isn’t a problem but time of callback is only relevant if they provide a phone number. So that might need to be a conditional fields.

I thought about adding a reason for the call but after some testing on another form we got better conversions with just two fields.

Most users of the plugin are going to be small businesses. Larger businesses will no doubt be looking for something more bespoke. Which is how I’ll be monetising the plugin.

But good feedback thanks

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Why not do something where you collect the information and the person actually gets an immediate call back (click to call)?

 

[fisicx]

Why is it so small?

Now seen what you mean! Width fixed on a phone

Why not do something where you collect the information and the person actually gets an immediate call back (click to call)?

I like that idea. But a bit difficult to implement. Suppose Fred is looking for a widget supplier late at night. He needs a bit of help so fills in the callback form. There won't be anyone to call him back (or send an email) until the morning. The email you get has the number or email address. I could link these so you can reply or call by clicking on the item.

Another option could be to check if a number is entered (easy to do with a listener script) and display a call me now checkbox. And then have an option to disable outside office hours.

What tends to happen with these sort of plugins is people download the freebie then get in contact to ask for extra features. Which is how I make money.

 

[fisicx]

Why not do something where you collect the information and the person actually gets an immediate call back (click to call)?

Had a bit of a play and did a thing.

Click the button and start entering your phone number:

Contact | Testblog Testblog Testblog

Yadda, yadda, marketing blurb and whatever. Some more words on the page. Download the plugin

testblog.co.uk

Once you start playing with things you end up adding all sorts of chuff.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Collect all contact details, but have the auto call back either managed by times or switch on/offable!

It has been done and similar plugins exist. Also, some CRMs can create some code to put onto your site to offer this, similar to Tawk etc.

What you did is good - can that be tied to some form of web presence?

Just remembered - some VoIP providers we know also offer a call me back service/button!

Ultimately, to get an auto call back, the plunging will need to be connected to a phone service.

 

[fisicx]

Collect all contact details, but have the auto call back either managed by times or switch on/offable!

It's currently set up to only work during office hours (and be disabled)

It has been done and similar plugins exist. Also, some CRMs can create some code to put onto your site to offer this, similar to Tawk etc.

All doable - but there are loads of CRMs and they all have a different API. So this will be a paid upgrade.

What you did is good - can that be tied to some form of web presence?

Can connect to anything. The thank you can include links to whatever you want.

Just remembered - some VoIP providers we know also offer a call me back service/button!

Indeed they do. But like all things there is no standard which means a connection to a VoIP in the UK will be different to one in the USA.

The whole purpose of this project was to create something very lightwieght that can be easily added to a wordpress site. If you want integrations then I do them for you at a cost.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

It's a good plugin and a great way to get client responses.

If it was also a widget, it could be placed all over a site!

 

[Uwe (Invoiceberry)]

I'd separate the one field into two separate Email and Phone fields. Maybe the visitor wants to leave both. I like that it offers me the call ASAP and call later options when I entered my phone number!

Feels like you could ask for a few more information so the person receiving the data actually knows what it is about and can potentially prepare for the call or email. Otherwise the first email would be along the lines of "How can I help you?".

 

[fisicx]

I’m trying to get away from the typical enquiry form. I could have two fields for email and phone but I then don’t know which one the client prefers.

When we tested a two field form for a client in Norway it proved very successful as you could start the email with their name and guess the enquiry as you know where they are (IP address) and the page they were looking at. Conversions for a two and three field were about the same. So we stuck with two fields as it’s simpler for potential customers.

Form design isn’t simple, it needs a lot of testing to get it right.

As an example, many forms ask for first and last name (two fields). You don’t need this, it’s easy to split a string to populate a database so just make it easy for people have one field for name.

 

[Uwe (Invoiceberry)]

Firstname / Lastname split unfortunately only works when people don't enter the middle names which seems more common than I expected in the past. But I completely agree with you. We used to ask for plenty of fields when signing up for an account and then slowly reduced it to only two: email and password. Could even remove the password field and then send a login link.

Regarding the Phone/email field – you're right. Especially since you can check via JavaScript whether a phone number or email address was entered, you can technically just offer one field. I just thought that some people might like to enter both just in case. However, that sort of defies the point of your plugin which is the "callback".

 

[fisicx]

It’s called callback because couldn’t think of an alternative!

But even middle names are easy. Split the string into an array, count the size of the array and populate the DB accordingly. There will be edge cases but I’m not too fussed about those as the DB can always be edited.