Easy to get in touch
Rosette Why we prefer email to contact forms
Every Rosette shows your email address and phone number on every page. People can copy them, or press them to open their own email or phone. Most websites have a contact form instead. This page says why I think email is better, for you and for the people getting in touch.
Nothing gets lost
A form has to pass each message on to you, and that can stop working without anyone noticing. A setting changes or a spam filter gets stricter, and messages stop arriving. You find out when someone asks why you never replied.
An email goes straight to the inbox you already check.
Easier for the person writing
People write emails every day. Their own email keeps a copy of what they sent. They can save a draft and finish it later, and they can attach a letter or a report.
A form gives them none of that. If it shows an error or the page times out, what they typed can be gone.
Many of the people who contact you will be tired, worried or short of time. Some use a screen reader or speak instead of typing. Their own email is already set up the way they need it. A form on your site is one more thing to learn.
No puzzles to prove you are human
Forms attract spam, so most of them make you solve a puzzle first. Those puzzles lock some disabled people out completely. With no form there is nothing to protect, so there is no puzzle.
Less personal information on your site
A form collects names, contact details and sometimes things about a child, and keeps them somewhere. All of that has to be kept safe, and it has to go in your privacy notice.
An email goes to you and nowhere else.
You still know who got in touch
Your monthly report counts how many people pressed your email address or phone number. So you can still see how well your site is working.
When a form is the right answer
Some things need the same questions answered every time, like a booking, a referral or an application. Then a form helps, and I add one as a module.
It sends from an email address ending in your own web address, so it does not end up in spam. It keeps a copy of every message on your site, in case an email goes astray. And it stops spam without a puzzle.