by Dixie Lang

This is the second part of a two-part article - read Part I here.

Steps to Test a Contact Form

1. Contact the person who designed or maintains your website. Ask them to look at the form's programming code and tell you the form's "send to" email addresses.
2. Figure out which staff members belong to the email addresses.
3. Fill out the contact form and click Submit.
4. 4. Contact the staff members who should have received the messages. Did the messages go through? If the staff members can't find the messages, have them check their junk mail folders. If they still can't locate the messages, contact the person from Step 1 and ask them to troubleshoot the form.

Discuss the Form with Your Management Team

Talk with your management team about the customer's expectations of messages sent with the contact form. Next, discuss how you can most effectively meet those expectations.

These question will help you get the discussion moving:

• Which staff members should receive the messages?
• How often will designated staff members check for new messages?
• How long will staff members have to respond to messages?
• When the designated staff members are absent, who will monitor and respond to the messages? Technically, how will this happen? Can the supervisor login to the staff member's computer and email accounts?*
• Will staff members use an email template or a script to respond to the messages?
• How will staff members prioritize the messages?
• Should you create special procedure(s) for routing emergency or sensitive messages?
• How will you ensure all incoming messages get answered?
• Will you monitor the responses for quality assurance? If so, how?
• Who will test the form each month?
• Who will troubleshoot the form if the test fails?
• When an employee listed in the “send to” of the contact form leaves the company, who will update the form with the new email address?
• Can you mine the message data to improve customer service? Message volume statistics could be used to manage workload or justify new staff. Repeat questions could signal the need for new policies or additional topics for your website's Frequently Asked Questions page.

After the meeting, make sure to update your training and policy and procedures manuals based on your decisions.

* Role-based email lets multiple employees share a single account. The email address represents a role (e.g. sales@companyname or customersupport@companyname) rather than an individual employee's name. A supervisor shares the login information with designated employees, and can monitor responses for quality assurance.