When
Hartman Baldwin Design/Build, in Claremont, Calif., launched its new Web site in November, it included a “Schedule a Consultation” form that partners Devon Hartman and Bill Baldwin hoped would help to attract potential clients. The key to the form’s success is that it asks only for essential details and resists digging too deep.
“This form is just a way to get some essential information about the project,” Hartman says. “If we ask for anything more than an e-mail address, a few words about the project, how they heard about us, and to click a few buttons, then people don’t want to do this.”
The form intentionally avoids questions about budget, partly because people are less than candid this early in the process. “The budget discussion is a very personal one ... that we prefer to have face-to-face after we’ve educated [prospects] about the true costs of our services,” Hartman says. Instead, the focus is on collecting information that will make for a quality discussion during the consultation.
—Chris Keimig writes about remodeling business from his home in Baltimore.
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