How did you hear about us?
Posted January 5th, 2010 by David HamillIt’s a question that many organisations ask on contact forms, registration forms and checkout processes – How did you hear about us?.
But asking this will cost you in lost conversions and the data you gather is probably inaccurate. In this post I explain why you should avoid asking people how they heard about you on your web forms.
Added friction
It might seem like a harmless question. But there’s no such thing as a harmless question when you want people to complete your form.
The fewer questions you ask on a form, the greater the number of people will complete it. So each question you ask has a cost that it must justify. That cost is the number of people who drop out because of its inclusion.
This isn’t because your users say “Oh, I’m not answering that” and leave. Instead adding friction to a process increases the likelihood that users don’t get to the end of it.
We are are so often distracted by something else when using the internet. We’re also quite often limited by time, so it’s easy to decide to postpone the form until later when we think we don’t have time to complete it now.
By removing points of friction, you increase the likelihood that users will get through the form without interruption.
Inaccurate data
When people are completing your form, they’re happy to answer questions they feel are necessary to ask. When they’re buying something, they’ll tell you their address because you need to know it in order to make delivery. But when you ask a question that isn’t related to their request, you risk annoying them.
The accuracy of a customer’s response to this question has no impact on them personally. If they answer incorrectly, they still get what they came for. So if you’ve annoyed them, they may deliberately give you an incorrect response. Even if you haven’t, they’ll often just pick an option at random.
You’re relying on goodwill in order to get a correct response. But you’re also testing their patience by asking the question in the first place. This puts goodwill in short supply.
Sometimes it’s just a silly question
When you have a strong brand in your industry, it’s a bit silly to ask people where they heard of you. It’s like me asking you where you heard about Coca-Cola before you bought it.
People often engage with companies having never heard of them. But most of the time they buy from or contact companies they’ve heard of through multiple channels. This makes the question very difficult to answer. When the question is difficult to answer, you’re making them think. And what does Steve Krug tell us about making users think?
You’re adding potential complications that are avoidable.
What are you doing with the answers?
When you ask this question, what are you doing with the answers? How valuable is this data to your organisation? I know several companies who ask this question and do nothing with the data they collect. They don’t realise that this data comes at a cost. If they could truly see the cost, they’d probably stop asking the question at all.
Even if you are looking at the data. How is it driving your decision making? Are you just looking at it and saying “Oh that’s interesting”? Interesting is good, but remember this question is costing you money. Is the information so interesting that you’re willing to pay for it in lost sales?
Conclusion
It’s useful to know which of your marketing efforts are leading to conversions and there are ways of obtaining this information. But asking your users when they’re trying to get through a web form isn’t the way to do it.
You can’t rely on the accuracy of the data and it’s costing you in lost conversions.
What do you think?
Do you agree? Or am I talking nonsense? Tell me what you think by adding a comment below. You can also read other articles from my blog. Here are a few suggestions:
- What difference does colour make?
- 10 tips for writing 10 tips articles
- Using address finders in web forms
25 Responses to “How did you hear about us?”
January 5th, 2010 at 9:17 am
Great post David,
I hadn’t thought about the accuracy of the data recieved on questions such as this.
I really like the rule of only asking questions that the customer needs to answer to get the process done. That’s a rule I’m going to think of every time I’m designing a form process from now on.
I’m going to bookmark this post to use as evidence to try and persuade certain clients.
January 5th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Good stuff David – so right – I totally agree, and I’m amazed at how many forms I still interact with that ask me totally irrelevant questions. Whilst I find these totally annoying – what I hadn’t given thought emphasis to is the fact about the users time being limited and interruption – so that’s interesting. Of course, the question – How did you hear about us – is used to try and track and measure marketing reach. However, there are far more accurate ways of measuring marketing effectiveness – for example, providing a promotional code, which you can track back to a specific activity is a better way of tracking. Far more targeted, effective and importantly it won’t upset the user – as they are gaining something by including it.
January 5th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
I couldn’t agree more. I’m witnessed this myself during usability testing, seeing participant after participant annoyed by the question and commenting that they’d just answer randomly so that they can move on and complete their task, even to the point that some people consciously answer incorrectly as a way of releasing frustration!
I can appreciate the need to ask the question but any data needs to be taken with a pinch of salt and asked once the user has completed their task in a ‘thanks’ and ‘would you mind’ type of way.
The only thing I’d add is that in my experience its not necessary accurate to say that the fewer questions the better. It’s more important the each question is relevant to the task. Last year we carried out extensive testing of a well known insurance site and the feedback we received was that in certain circumstances the customers would be reassured by more questions. In the case of a contact form, fair enough only ask the bare essentials, but if the task has a high level of importance or associate cost (e.g. a mortgage application) the user needs to feel reassured the correct number of questions have been asked.
Sorry to go a little off topic but just thought I’d throw in my tuppence. Great post David, and like Michael I’ll be saving it for later reference.
January 5th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Hey David! Thanks for the article… I can definitely see what you’re saying here. It’s always a good idea to shorten your forms as much as possible from what usability tests have shown. People just don’t like answering questions, much less this one.
In terms of how you would use it, though, I would use it to find trends in where people were coming from. If I saw people coming from a specific location (e.g. Google), I could put more time/money into improving how I do things with these different “hands” that are ushering people in.
Cheers!
January 5th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
All good points, David. I find it an irritating question myself, and I try to dissuade clients from including it. One client presented me with a list of about 20 options to be displayed in a SELECT box on his contact form! We reached a compromise, showing just the top 4 or 5 likely channels.
If you are really interested in this question, then maybe it’s best left until a relationship has been established, when it’s easy to say, “By the way, where did you hear about us?” It’s also a truer measure of conversion, as you’re now counting people you are actually doing business with, rather than those who have just filled in a contact form and might never take things further.
January 5th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Great point, especially when you ask ‘What are you doing with the answers?’
Coincidentally I recently finished re-reading Luke Wroblewski’s “Web Form Design” in which he makes this point. Have you read it?
January 5th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Nice article David – I think this one touches a nerve with a lot of us who have had this argument with our marketing teams in jobs past!
James Costa’s comment is spot on – some places rely heavily on this (inaccuate!) data to know where to spend their PPC budget. But, I would say they may feel like they have no alternative to measure effectiveness of their ad channels. And so the ‘where did you hear’ question stays in…
At a previous workplace I tried to remove this question altogether because it was possible to track MOST people without having to ask them. For example, asking if someone came from a search engine is just plain lazy – their browser gives you that info for free! Likewise, PPC and email campaigns can be tracked either by your PPC provider or your own (simple) tracking code. This is not technically difficult to set up.
As Michelle Carvill says, simple promo codes can help add to this and track offline channels.
‘Where did you hear’ should be a last resort, i.e. if your site’s code draws a total blank and can’t see where they came from. But if there’s ‘free’ data alreay there for the taking with some simple code, there is no reason to be asking the user this question.
Cheers for another great article, David!
January 6th, 2010 at 10:40 am
Hi Ted,
Yes I read it a while ago.Like many of my posts, it’s not a ground breaking idea. Most of my peers feel the same way I do about it. I just write about stuff that I repeatedly tell clients. I figure if I need to say same thing repeated to different clients then there’s likely to be a lot more people who don’t know about it.
January 6th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
i need some help of how to layout and what to put in the drop down menu of where did you hear about us, i am about to add this section on our website and would be intrested in the most popular drop down categories also we want to add in Newspapers and magazines, do we do another sub drop down listing all of these your help would be appreciated
Thanks very much
January 6th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Hi Carla, this post is trying to convince you not to add this to your site at all. It might not be the best place to ask such advice.
January 8th, 2010 at 12:28 am
I often recommend a second form to clients to gather any additional info that isnt ABSOLUTELY needed on the main form.
An extra question or two on the thank you page that is optional for people to fill in. If they do it may suggest that it’s more valid data since they weren’t forced to give it up.
I think Digg used to do something similar with their signup. They would first ask for username, email and password – then on sucessful submission would say “Why not fill in this extra info while you wait for the confirmation email”.
January 9th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
But… surely there’s no harm in having… just one wafer-thin optional question?
January 9th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Hi Harry, did you get a Month Python box set for Christmas then?
January 11th, 2010 at 9:30 am
A pet peeve with this type of question is when they don’t provide an answer I can use! I recently filled in a form that had this question. My answer was “by word-of-mouth” because a friend had told me about it – nothing came close to matching that reality. So I had to lie (mandatory field!) to move on. Sheesh.
I like the example given by @Jacob – providing a reason for asking extra questions, but that goes back to the point of making it seem relevant and worthwhile. It seems that option still allows for an opt-out, but all done in a friendly tone.
Nice article, Dave. I don’t bookmark your articles per se – I bookmark your site.
January 11th, 2010 at 11:39 am
Great article David!
I recently had a client that totally agreed with me on this point, but unfortunately not all clients are that switched on.
Keep the great articles coming!
January 11th, 2010 at 11:45 am
[...] it short Every extra question raises the dropout rate. It's probably also worth keeping each page's content above the [...]
January 11th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
The best way to kill this dragon is to tell the client that the answers will be wrong and they will make wrong decisions based on the wrong data. Use the word “wrong” a lot.
PS: I heard about David Hamill from uxbooth.com
January 13th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Hi David
Thanks for the post, which I agree with…in part.
From your last argument to your first…
It doesn’t matter what the question is, if the data isn’t being used, it shouldn’t be asked.
Similarly, no point asking a question that doesn’t make sense, in context (e.g. when a brand is pervasive).
Regarding inaccurate data, I would caution all of us to not throw this one out because we have seen or imagine that *some* users answer randomly. This is using inaccurate data (i.e. our own opinions and beliefs) to decide that a question yields inaccurate data. What we need is some research to quantify the quality of responses to this question. Furthermore, if some people answer (truly) randomly but others give a considered answer, and if there is some trend in the data overall, we can still learn something from that trend.
Finally, to your first point, I agree that added friction is a definite thing to avoid. However, if this is the last question on a form, it is optional and users feel that they have gotten value from filling out the rest of the form, then I would suggest that it may well cause little or no friction.
Overall, I would argue that this isn’t always a bad question. It all comes down to context and in this way, forms are like any other thing we might design.
Thanks for the opportunity to comment,
Jessica
January 14th, 2010 at 9:52 am
Hi Jessica, as others have said, if you want this question to cause no friction at all, put it on the confirmation page. That way people will only answer it if they can be bothered. It is therefore more likely to be answered accurately.
I don’t agree that you need to commission research to test the accuracy of the answers to this question. It’s not an opinion, I’ve witnessed it first hand in other pieces of research I’ve carried out (quite regularly). People tend to say “Oh I just pick any old answer here” or “I just pick the first one” without me even having mentioned it.
It appears I’m not the only one who has witnessed this either. If you read Paul’s comment you’ll see that he has witnessed the same in his research. I don’t agree that making a question optional removes friction. People still need to read the question. They still need to realise that it’s optional. They need to decide whether they are going to answer it or not. This takes thought.
January 14th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Hi David
Putting the question on a confirmation page is a good idea, and is in line with exactly my main point: it’s not an inherently bad question that should never be asked but rather one that should be carefully thought about.
Like you and Paul I too have heard people say “I just pick any old answer”. However, I’ve *also* observed people answering this question attentively. There is other research [1] that shows generally form fillers are much more altruistic and honest than we might think and so my concern is that we are underestimating how valid the data may be.
And I’m afraid that we might have to agree to disagree on the last point too. Sure, reading – even if it’s just the “optional” indicator – takes some effort. My argument is that I if the rest of the form was reasonable and usable, and the end outcome of the form is delivering value to the user, I don’t think many potential customers will drop off just because of this final question. In fact, cognitive psychology suggests that humans are quite tolerant of such (perhaps annoying) things, if we’ve already expended some effort. To give up at that point would, psychologically, be seen as a loss on our behalf and as such we’re instinctively averse to it.
In the end, though, I think you and I are on the same side. Questions really need to be justified and reasonable, and as users of the resulting data we need to be confident that the quality of that data is sufficient for our needs.
Thanks for the debate!
Cheers
Jessica
[1] Wentland, E.J. & Smith, K.W. (1993). “Survey Responses: An Evaluation of their Validity”. Academic Press, Inc., California. [http://isbndb.com/d/book/survey_responses.html]
January 14th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Hi Jessica, as I said in the post, people don’t just drop out of forms because they object to questions. It’s often because they are distracted by the rest of their lives. Another point I’d pick on is that having one person answer a question correctly does not repair the wrong answer the person before them gave.
Like you said. I think we’re both agreeing on the basics and debating the intricacies of it. Thanks for taking the time to do so though. I really enjoy hearing everyone’s view on such matters.
January 14th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
I’m constantly having this debate… the “cost” angle unfortunately isn’t a great one because the question comes at the end of a very long, multi-page form. Customers are so invested at that point that they don’t drop out of the process.
However, it is irritating them, it is lengthening their journey and they are entering false information in order to get through.
All I want to do is make it OPTIONAL instead of MANDATORY. Then the minority of people who are willing to answer the question can do so accurately, while the majority are allowed to continue uninterrupted.
January 14th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Hi Rose. Yes at the very least you’d want to make it optional. I had the same debate with a client a few years ago. I really must look back and see if they changed it. This is where video clips from usability testing come in to their own. When you have someone ranting on a video about something your colleagues think is an innocent question, it can be quite persuasive. Especially when the company’s TV adverts feature usability as a key selling point ;0)
January 19th, 2010 at 10:28 am
OK here is a real example from LearnDirect – its a drop-down with 24 answers:
24 is too many and the drop-down will misbehave for many users.
The answers are in a confusing order – why is “Leaflet elsewhere” before the other leaflets? How many people know what “Internet Banner Ad” means ? Or “Personalised Mailing”?
It’s not good – they should already know all of the online traffic sources with full tracking. Do they really run banner ads and not know the results?
February 18th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Okay well …I came here looking for ideas of items to add to the HDYHAU drop down from our site.
After reading this article I have cut the HDYHAU drop down completely.
I gave the marketing guy two sets of numbers: the first set was the *actual* stats from the HDYHAU drop down, and the other set was randomly generated.
So … What will we change or resolve not to change based on either of these two sets?
Once he can give me a reasonable answer to that question, he can have his HDYHAU back.
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