No "Contact US" is NO sales!

Yeah, I have actually went the universal help desk route.
Ever since I created contact forms on my sites I have been spammed to bits. It affects my response time to customers because sometimes their stuff gets lost between all the blue pill emails. I had to create new emails every few months. Captcha's doesn't even work on the contact forms.

Excellent point. I've seen the same thing, and it leaves me wondering why folks don't put some contact info -- anything -- on their site. If they're afraid of spam or whatever, there are ways to decrease the chances of having an email harvested (from using a help desk to using a graphic for an email address).

It's not just customers and prospects trying to reach the person, either. I've wanted to alert a marketer that a product link is dead -- but no dice because there wasn't any way to contact the person.

Cheers,
Becky

What about a ticket system with captcha?
There are probably free solutions.

In my opinion people just want to make money without answering e-mails / support.
It won't suprise me if people set something up at monday and look back at friday and think "damn, 22 e-mails, and I don't have time for that"

I suppose you couldn't get them to join a special list before they pay, then you can email the support link?

And then, if you started receiving spam, you would have some idea who it was that shared the link?

I use the osTicket helpdesk software. It's free, and I get very little spam through it.

Actually I haven't updated it for several years. I installed it with Fantastico, and only because at the time I couldn't find the product as a download. (I prefer to install scripts myself.)

osTicket is here:

osTicket:: Open Source Support Ticket System

I tend to have a link on my pages saying something like "Contact Us" or "Customer Services" that leads to the help desk. The software will also receive emails, and I have Javascript-encoded versions of the email addresses that the help desk will use. The Javascript encoding makes it harder for spam bots to read the code, so they don't bother with it. You can find free Javascript encoders on the web.

I also put my full postal address on my sales pages. That information is required under UK law; I'm not sure whether it absolutely has to be on the sales page or if it has to be on a page linked from the sales page. Of course, that will only affect traders operating within the UK.

I have my email addy on the site under the contact us link I have not been spammed yet thankfully but there needs to be a way to contact you for whatever reason. I did have the livehelp on but I found I ended up leaving it open and I wasn't there so I removed it. Help desk ticket systems work too but I prefer to have instant contact available
-WD

I notice more spamming coming from my wordpress sites as opposed to the sites created from other scripts. I wonder if it might have something to do with some plugins or something that is in the main code base because the difference in spam is very noticeable.

I agree with having contact info on a sales letter but do you think that might open you up to fielding questions that are answered on the site? People do like to spin off an email before reading.

That is standard Internet marketing advice and it is valid in an interesting way.

Having an 800 number, a "Contact Us" link or an addresses posted prominently on your website almost always wins split tests.

But that actually does NOT mean that you actually need to have good support. I know that sounds like sacrilege, but think it through.

One of the tasks of a sales page is to qualify your prospects to find out which ones YOU want to be customers. If you encourage hand holding during the sales process, you will end up with a lot of needy customers.

The knight in shining armor who saved the lady in distress ended up with a distressed lady, not a princess!

Another way to look at it is to look toward online businesses that are more successful than your own. Do they have a contact method listed on their site? Probably.

Have you tried to use it? Is it easy to get in contact with someone? Are they willling to chat with you on the phone or answer your idle questions which were probably already answered on the web-site by email? Probably not!

Drop a note to Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon, Paypal, Ebay or any other successful online business. Do they answer quickly or does it take a day or two? Do they answer at all?

Did they give you canned answers? Or did you get a personable person on the other end that was willing to chat for hours?

I'll bet you don't get a response. If you do, it takes a day or two. And that response is carefully crafted canned answers that are completely useless.

It's OK, because any pertinent information was already on the site. They are just doing their job... disuading time wasters and resource hoggers from actually becoming customers.

Think it through. Put the contact method on your site because you will make more money.

But think long and hard about how much time you want to waste on prospects who will always need hand holding if they ever become a customer.

Instead, use the information and questions you get from your contact form to improve your business and get missing information on your web-site where the good prospects will find it and never write an email... and where the bad time wasting prospects will ignore it and send you endless emails asking about the darnest things just trying to waste your time.

Food for thought...