If you’re like many organizations, you probably use forms to collect payments for products or services or to process donations. Payment forms can be tricky to create well. Not only are you asking people to take time out of their day to fill out a form, you’re also asking them to give you some of their hard-earned money. The good news is there are things you can do to make the process of filling out a payment form easier, even painless, for your users. Read on for form tips you can use to benefit your organization today.
1. Prefill Information
Think of how much you type on a regular day. As you roll out of bed, you might scroll through your social media feeds and write comments to friends. During breakfast and your commute, you probably send a few texts and emails. Then your day begins. You type up more emails, maybe a report or two, a strategy document, the list goes on. With all the typing and computer work you do on a regular basis, why would you want to make more keystrokes than you have to? That’s why in payment forms, if you have the option, always prefill any information you can for your users. The more work you do for them, the easier a job they have of filling out your forms.
With FormAssembly you have multiple options for prefilling forms with user data:
- Salesforce Prefill Connector – Prefill your forms with user information that’s stored in Salesforce.
- URL Prefill – Build a URL that will prefill information for a user.
- Prefill Within a Form – If your forms ask for the same information in multiple fields, prefill from one section to another.
2. Test Your Forms on Multiple Devices
More people than ever are using mobile phones for a myriad of uses, including making purchases and processing payments. Mobile device internet usage already overtook desktop internet usage back in 2016, and it’s only expected to increase. If your payment forms don’t work correctly or look good on mobile devices, that’s a problem. Before you put a web form into use, make sure to test it with your team on multiple devices and multiple browsers to make sure that it works the way you intend it no matter whether you’re on a phone or a laptop.
Check out these great tips from our documentation for achieving responsive forms.
3. PCI Compliance
Declining trust is an issue across the board for NGOs, government, media, and businesses, according to the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer. While your organization individually may have done nothing to merit distrust, it’s every organization’s job to do everything possible to strengthen customer trust.
If you’re collecting payments on the internet, whether it’s a donation or a subscription service, make sure your users have no reason to worry about security. That means using secure payment connectors and choosing vendors that prioritize security (like FormAssembly’s PCI DSS Level 1 Certified data collection platform).
4. Keep Forms Visually Simple
Minimal payment forms aren’t just nice to look at; people also prefer them. In a study from the University of Basel and Google/YouTube User Experience Research, researchers found that the more complex a site, the worse an impression it left on users. Takeaway? Don’t overcomplicate your payment forms. Cut out any unnecessary elements, while still achieving the same function. Keep the design simple and focus on the main goal of the form: to allow people to quickly and successfully make a payment.
Get more great design tips in our web form design eBook!
5. Reduce Form Fields
While there are some exceptions to this rule, shorter forms generally get better response rates, because they require less work from your users. In a study conducted by Dan Zarrella (summarized in this HubSpot article), Zarrella found that as form fields increased, conversion decreased. Once people have made it to your payment form or donation page, don’t make them jump through too many hoops to complete the form. Instead, only ask for the information you absolutely need.
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What are you waiting for? Get started applying these tips to your FormAssembly forms. Don’t have a FormAssembly account? Sign up today!
