Online form update

[G. Lasagne]

I thought people may be interested in how the form was going as it was a pretty conversial subject.

The form went live on friday morning since then i have had 8 people successfully complete the form allowing me to offer a quote, as yet nobody has accepted the quote but i only sent them a couple of days ago, the response has been excellent, i have had 0 quote requests using the traditional method since friday morning.

0 traditional enquiries in a few days is not uncommon at the moment as most of the installs im getting are for old contacts or referrals. to give you an idea i would estimate that i done 5 quotes in the last 2-3 weeks.

Im not going to ask matt and kieth to eat there hat's just yet as i have not converted any, and at the end of the day conversions are whats important.

The people who have selected either "telephone or either" when asked how they would like to be contacted i have called, and used that call to attempt to "close the deal"

I have got the enquiries mainly from adwords which is costing a lot of money and definately needs a lot of tweeking, but as far as getting enquiries, it has been far better than i expected, so far so good

 

[Nell01]

Hi Gas Angel
Sounds good but would think this type of conversion may take longer than say something a client requires to be sorted pretty quick
I would assume people would request a quote for a new boiler then see when down the line they can afford it if this was not essential at the moment
Do you put an end date on your quote?
helen

 

[G. Lasagne]

I think you could be right, out of the 9 (just got one now) quotes 7 have put down a start date of between 3-8 weeks and only 2 put asap.
when i said they had all completed the form properly thats not strictly true there was a couple who i had to email or call to confirm minor things.
I dont put a end date, but maybe i should, as if people think its a special offer it may urge them to take advantage, good tip cheers.

 

[Tej]

Would suggest that you put " Quote valid for 30 days"..
Gets them to get off their a*ses.. IMO
Works for us!

 

[Matt1959]

sounds good hopefully the orders will come off the back of them as that will dictate the quality of the enquiries.

If nothing else, giving this option makes you stand out from the crowd a bit, costs nothing and even if you get just one order you wouldnt normally have, it'll be worth it

hats sat on the side for now

 

[BoilerBoy]

Glad you're seeing some success with this mate, but I think there's some easy ways to make it much more successful. Hope you don't mind some (hopefully constructive!) criticism!

First thing is that the form is way too imposing to yield a high conversion rate of visitors to quote-requests:

* Lots and LOTS of form fields
* Asks technical questions (size of flue, etc)
* Asks questions which take the visitor away from their computer (to check space available for the boiler, measure flue distance from pipes/vents)
* Asks questions the visitor has to think about (how many radiators...I live in a small Tyneside flat and even I had to do a quick mental add up)
* Asks ambiguous questions (is anything "near" the boiler)
* Asks yes/no questions the visitor might not know the answer to (Q: Do you want the new boiler in the same position as the old? Sensible person's A: not sure, want an expert to tell me!)

None of them are killer problems on their own but all put together and they seriously reduce the amount of people you'll see pressing the submit button. I've seen the submit rate on similar forms sky rocket when you take out the detail and make it something the visitor can dash off in a couple of minutes without too much headache.

Of course the flip side of more quote requests (and I guarantee you'll get those if you trim it down) is more time wasters! You have to get the balance right between quantity & quality of leads, but better to err on the side of too many I figure. You can always make the form harder to fill in if you're getting more enquiries than you know what to do with!

Best of all you don't have to take my word for it: you can test the best configuration for the form with Google Website Optimizer (https://www.google.com/analytics/siteopt/preview). It's a little technical but I know you like to roll your sleeves up on the techie stuff too

 

[G. Lasagne]

Glad you're seeing some success with this mate, but I think there's some easy ways to make it much more successful. Hope you don't mind some (hopefully constructive!) criticism!

First thing is that the form is way too imposing to yield a high conversion rate of visitors to quote-requests:

* Lots and LOTS of form fields
* Asks technical questions (size of flue, etc)
* Asks questions which take the visitor away from their computer (to check space available for the boiler, measure flue distance from pipes/vents)
* Asks questions the visitor has to think about (how many radiators...I live in a small Tyneside flat and even I had to do a quick mental add up)
* Asks ambiguous questions (is anything "near" the boiler)
* Asks yes/no questions the visitor might not know the answer to (Q: Do you want the new boiler in the same position as the old? Sensible person's A: not sure, want an expert to tell me!)

None of them are killer problems on their own but all put together and they seriously reduce the amount of people you'll see pressing the submit button. I've seen the submit rate on similar forms sky rocket when you take out the detail and make it something the visitor can dash off in a couple of minutes without too much headache.

Of course the flip side of more quote requests (and I guarantee you'll get those if you trim it down) is more time wasters! You have to get the balance right between quantity & quality of leads, but better to err on the side of too many I figure. You can always make the form harder to fill in if you're getting more enquiries than you know what to do with!

Best of all you don't have to take my word for it: you can test the best configuration for the form with Google Website Optimizer (https://www.google.com/analytics/siteopt/preview). It's a little technical but I know you like to roll your sleeves up on the techie stuff too

Thanks dan, great advice, to be honest i am happy with the amount of people who are pressing the submit button as i have had 10 since friday morning, but like you say maybe that could be improved further with trimming it down a bit. Problem is the questions i ask, i need to ask in order to give the quote, so its a bit of a catch 22 situation. But i agree entirely in what your saying mate and will look at the tool you suggested.

 

[fisicx]

Good to hear that it is working.

One way to make the form easier to use is to change the dropdowns to radio buttons. This will reduce the number of actions the user has to take and will make the form much more compact.

 

[G. Lasagne]

Good to hear that it is working.

One way to make the form easier to use is to change the dropdowns to radio buttons. This will reduce the number of actions the user has to take and will make the form much more compact.

Good tip cheers.

 

[G. Lasagne]

these are the stats from when the site went live, i have had 10 copmpleted forms, would you say this is good or bad?

• 65 Pageviews

44 Unique Views

• 00:02:48 Time on Page

55.56% Bounce Rate

• 38.46% % Exit

$0.14 $ Index

cheers

 

[CKG]

Glad to see it's getting some action!

Be wary of the time wasters though they will have you jumping through hoops and chasing your tail!

I noticed a lot of peole that filled my forms in just wanted a price for their own curiosity, which is fine if their honest about it.

But they do seem to have have a habit of getting you out to site survey with absolutely no intention of buying or just to price check you against bob the one eyed plumber from the Dog & Duck who'll do it for a fiver and a bag of pork scratchings.

Not so bad if you have a full time salesman on the books but when your time is your money it's bloody annoying as it can be a couple of hours out of your day.

 

[flare]

yeah looks good, your covering all of the preferred methods of quoting, keeping everyone happy Theres a quoting method for everyone

 

[G. Lasagne]

yeah looks good, your covering all of the preferred methods of quoting, keeping everyone happy Theres a quoting method for everyone

Hows yours going mate?

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

I would suggest that you save the forms to some kind of diary, and make the telephone number field mandatory, and then you can call all of those people back in 3 weeks time to discuss their requirements further.

Maybe split the time period from 3-8 weeks to two smaller ones to allow you to target the customers closer to their time of need.

i.e. the quotes that don't convert now are just well qualified leads for 3 weeks time.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

But they do seem to have have a habit of getting you out to site survey with absolutely no intention of buying or just to price check you against bob the one eyed plumber from the Dog & Duck who'll do it for a fiver and a bag of pork scratchings.

Not so bad if you have a full time salesman on the books but when your time is your money it's bloody annoying as it can be a couple of hours out of your day.

tbh it works the other way too.

If you are a customer and you've got some pushy salesman/tradesman saying "come on, it's a free quote & survey, what have you got to lose", you say yes just to shut them up.

 

[CKG]

you say yes just to shut them up.

Or you say.

'No thanks were just looking for prices so we know how much it will cost for the future'.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

Or you say.

'No thanks were just looking for prices so we know how much it will cost for the future'.

Go back to the bit about "pushy".

Sometimes, no matter how many times you say "i'm not looking to buy right now" they still carry on about "free quotations and surveys".

Not all salesmen listen to their customer, and oneday they will figure out that in those instances they rarely act in their employers best interests either.

 

[flare]

Hows yours going mate?

Good thanks, Its coming on, the site im gonna use it for hasnt come live yet, but im doing the finishing touches on the site just now, all the design is done etc...

trying to figure out how to get phpmailer working and then im good to go live Ive gone through the form a bit myself and asked friends and family what they thought of it and it seems like it could be a hit!

 

[estwig]

So am I eating my hat yet??

I hope you make it work GasAngel and sharing your experiences is very good of you.

I'm not really a hat person you know, generate some money from this, or should I say 'when' you generate some money from this, we'll donate £50.00 to a charity of your choice, as long as it doesn't involve hats!!

 

[G. Lasagne]

Theres no need for that mate, if you feel the need, donate some money to one of your choice, im sure theres plenty that could do with a donation.
i recieved no quotes today and as yet have converted none.
Its definately going to be a working progress, more work needed on closing the deal i think, will keep you up to date on any changes and the results.

 

[estwig]

I'd like to, admire what you are doing and do see it as 'cutting edge'. We could do something similar with loft conversions, just not sure if people would see it as too impersonal, a loft conversion to create extra bedrooms for your family is a very personal thing. Conversely everyone likes to see the value of their property go up.

Have it mate and give us a shout when it generates some business, or when you have had enough of people using you for a 'comparison quote'

 

[G. Lasagne]

Not sure for your line of work kieth.
£30-40k is a hell of a lot of money to anyone, so you can bet your bottom dollar they are going to want to be 100% satisfied that the person(s) carrying out the work are going to do a good job, not sure people would get that reassurance form an online form.
my quotes range form £1300 - £3000 and im replacing a box on the wall that heats the rads and hot water up, very little of it is cosmetic, its more functionality that people are after.
saying that im sure all your jobs arent 40k ones, theres no reason why you couldnt have some sort of " property conversion estimation calculator" ie
garage - office
single glazed window - double glazed window
etc etc
and give estimates which you follow up with a call or whatever.
you could simply reply with between £7,500 - £8250

A bit food for thought mate