Business enquiry forms: essential fields
What information should a business enquiry form request?
Request only the information needed to start the conversation. Explain the form's purpose, mark required and optional fields, provide privacy information and say what happens next. Use an agreed channel for sensitive documents.
An enquiry form should help a person start a conversation. Asking for information that is not needed at that stage creates extra work and more data to look after.
Give every field a purpose
Review each question and ask what the recipient will do with the answer. A name, reply address, enquiry topic and short message may be enough for an initial corporate enquiry. A phone number can be optional when email is a suitable reply channel.
The OAIC explains that information about an identifiable person can be personal information. Business contact information should therefore receive thoughtful handling, rather than being treated as automatically unrestricted.
Review the form from the visitor's perspective
- Explain what the form is for.
- Distinguish required and optional fields.
- Avoid requesting sensitive documents in a general form.
- Provide a clear privacy notice or link.
- Explain what happens after submission.
Separate enquiries from marketing choices
Responding to a request and adding a person to ongoing marketing are separate decisions. Make any marketing choice clear and optional, and preserve the record of that choice in the receiving business's system.
Test the form with a realistic, non-sensitive example. Check the confirmation message, the destination inbox and the internal owner. A neat form is not useful if the enquiry lands somewhere nobody monitors.
Privacy Act coverage can depend on the business and its activities. Use the OAIC's small-business guidance to assess that question. Regardless of coverage, collecting less unnecessary information makes the enquiry process easier to explain and maintain.
General business-process information. Check the circumstances and seek appropriate professional advice for contractual, legal or specialist decisions.
Further reading
For a corporate enquiry, contact EJN Services.
