Forms beyond sign-up: contact, surveys and applications

Most owners put real thought into their sign-up form, because it sits between a visitor and a payment. The other forms on a membership site often get far less attention: the contact form, the member survey, the application for a scholarship or a speaking slot, the form for submitting a story or a portfolio. Yet members meet these forms at important moments, usually when they need help, have an opinion or want something from you.

A clumsy form at those moments costs you. Support requests arrive without the details you need. Surveys are abandoned halfway. Good applicants give up on a long application with no way to save it. The principles that make these forms work are simple, and they apply across every type.

Principles every form shares

Whatever the form is for, treat it as a short conversation. A few habits make that conversation easy:

• Say why and how long. One line at the top: “Tell us about your project so we can match you with a mentor. About 5 minutes.”
• Put labels above fields, not only inside them as placeholder text that vanishes once someone starts typing.
• Ask only what you will use. Every field should have a reason you could explain to the member.
• Mark the exceptions. If most fields are required, label the optional ones instead, and vice versa.
• Use the right input. Email fields that bring up the email keyboard on phones, date pickers for dates, a short list of choices instead of a free-text box where answers are predictable.
• Group related questions under small headings, in the order people naturally think about them.
• Write a specific submit button, such as “Send my question” or “Submit my application,” rather than “Submit.”

Contact and support forms

A contact form's job is to get the right information to the right person so the problem can be solved in one reply. Design it around that goal:

1. Start with a topic choice, such as “Billing,” “Logging in,” “Course content” or “Something else.” This routes the message and lets you ask follow-up questions that fit.
2. Show two or three relevant help articles once a topic is chosen. Some members will find their answer without sending anything.
3. Ask for the details you will need: the email on their account, the page or lesson concerned, and what they expected to happen.
4. Set expectations beside the button: “We reply within one working day.”

How you handle messages once they arrive matters just as much. Setting up customer support for your membership site covers the channels and tools, and how quickly should you answer support requests will help you choose a reply time you can keep.

A worked example: an association's contact form

Callum manages the website for a professional association of landscape architects. Here is its contact form before and after:

Before: Name, Email, Phone, Company, Membership number, Subject, Message, and a button reading “Submit.” Every field required, with no explanation of what happens next.

After: “What can we help with?” with five choices. Choosing “Renewal or invoice” shows links to the renewal guide and invoice downloads, then asks for the email on the account and a message. Choosing “Continuing education credits” asks which course and adds a field for the certificate date. Phone and company are gone. The button reads “Send to the membership team,” with “We reply within one working day” beneath it.

The form asks for fewer things overall, yet the team receives more of what it needs to answer first time.

Surveys members will finish

Surveys fail when they feel endless or when the questions are hard to answer honestly. Keep them short and well built:

• Ask one thing per question. “How useful and enjoyable are the live sessions?” is really two questions.
• Offer balanced answer choices, with as many positive options as negative ones and a neutral middle.
• Make most questions optional, so one awkward question does not end the whole survey.
• Show progress on longer surveys, using the same step indicators that help members elsewhere, as discussed in progress bars and onboarding checklists in your interface.
• Avoid large grids of ratings. They are tiring on a laptop and very hard to use on a phone.
• End with a single open question, such as “What is one thing we could do better?”

Applications that respect people's effort

Applications, whether for a vetted membership, a scholarship, an award or a speaking slot, ask the most of people. Respect that effort:

• Publish the criteria and the full list of questions before people start, so they can prepare their answers.
• Split long applications into steps with clear headings, such as “About you,” “Your work” and “Your goals.”
• Let applicants save a draft and return later. Losing a long answer to a timed-out page is infuriating.
• Explain file uploads: which formats, what size limit and what you want to see.
• Show word limits beside each open question, with a running count.

What happens after the button

Every form needs a clear ending. Show a confirmation page that says the form was received, repeats the key details and explains what happens next and when. Send a confirmation email as well, so the member has a record. For applications, include the timeline: “We review applications at the end of each month and will email you with a decision within two weeks of that.”

Review your forms

1. List every form on your site, not just the sign-up form.
2. Remove any field you cannot explain a use for.
3. Add a line at the top of each form saying why it exists and how long it takes.
4. Add topic routing and help links to your contact form.
5. Check each form on a phone, especially surveys with rating grids.
6. Write a specific confirmation page and email for each form.