Web forms are a product of their paper sibling, a gateway to information exchange online. The one thing standing in between a user and a goal. The final frontier before getting that all-important piece of data. Although technology has freed us from the constraint of paper forms, users are still struggling.

Forms meet the needs of the process and not the user. For too long, excessive fields, too many landing pages and multiple error messages have made them labour intensive. Once submitted (if the customer gets to the finish line), there is little opportunity to nurture the beginning of the relationship in real-time. Marketers may as well wave the conversion goodbye.

Although forms are essential to collect information and have questions answered, their nature is cold, distant and inhuman. The seasons might be changing, but this doesn’t need to filter through to how we engage with customers. The consequences? Responses have similar energy. Details are either left out or simply completed to get to the end or through frustration, abandoned altogether.

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Marketers on the edge

The pandemic has highlighted the businesses reluctant to embrace innovation. The acceleration of technological innovation and digital use over the past 18 months has pushed marketers to get creative. Agility has been fundamental to survive.

Marketers are always looking for an edge. Something that positions them above their peers. When communicating with customers and business prospects, a conversation is key. Ease of use leads to greater satisfaction, richer data capture and improved accuracy of action and next steps.

It’s time for marketers to embrace this for website optimisation, we need to be leveraging modern technology to meet customer needs. Market competition for consumer attention is fierce. Clicks and conversions are the golden ticket, so harnessing the power of real-time conversational marketing tools could be a game-changer.

Emulating humans with technology

We must move on from the assumption of what a form interface should look like. Technology has given us the tools to emulate person to person interactions with computers. Building and facilitating this experience will remove webform performance constraints and transform the way leads are generated for marketers.

Instead of allowing businesses to revert to outdated legacy-driven methods, technology can design a conversation flow and solicit valuable information about customer needs. This can create a friendly and frictionless experience, resulting in more form completions and better data harvesting.

Real-time conversational tools can provide marketers with accurate data to learn how a customer would like to interact with a business. Companies can then redirect their efforts to the recurring problems to gain a better understanding of significant difficulties.

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No code, more leads

The purpose of such a conversational tool is not to replace humans, but to allow the reallocation of resources to tasks needing immediate attention. Rule-based, no code chatbots can enable businesses to deploy their bots with little-to-no coding experience. IT departments do not require dedicated chatbot teams, nor extensive training for them to succeed.

Chatbots can control conversational flow and take evidence-based action on behalf of teams. The core of a chatbot’s functionality is to turn raw data into conversation. This can help marketers to better understand the granular meaning of why their conversion rates are not high enough and identify new opportunities for lead generation.

Chatbots help marketers work smarter, not harder.

The future of forms is conversational

The future of forms is more than digital, it is conversational. Chatbots are not just a trend or shiny new way to engage and nurture leads. They are the next stage in our digital evolution.

Chatbots will power the leads of tomorrow. It is up to businesses to harness their innovative capabilities and move away from traditional data capture systems. As markets become more saturated and satisfaction more challenging to attain, marketers must remain agile and innovative in strategising the process to meet key objectives.

Legacy-driven methods are no longer cutting it. We have the wealth and breadth of technology accessible at our fingertips. It’s time for marketers to get uncomfortable and harness the opportunity that real-time conversation presents to stand head and shoulders above the rest.