When it comes to designing forms that reduce abandonment and increase conversions, the same best practices are broadly applicable across all sectors:  

• Always err on the side of simplicity.
• Work to create a sense of progression.
• Incorporate intuitive, unobtrusive error handling.
• Prioritize readability.
• Account for both mobile and desktop users. 

That said, each industry still faces its own unique form abandonment challenges. And while the above should nearly always be applied, it does not represent everything you need. Different sectors will inevitably require different approaches. 

In this post, we'll go over each industry covered by Responser, detailing both the major form design challenges and how to overcome them. 

Financial Services Forms

According to industry benchmarking data collected by Zuko.io: 

• Among users that have actually viewed or started filling out forms, the financial services sector has an overall conversion rate of 47.66%. 

• 47.66% on desktop 
• 45.35% on mobile
• 42.91% on tablet. 

• The median completion time for financial services forms is three minutes, eight seconds. 
• The median abandonment time is one minute, fifty-three seconds.

The major issues facing financial services from a form design perspective is the sheer volume of information an average firm must collect. To say that this is overwhelming for end users would be putting it lightly. 

In a survey by Signicat, 40% of respondents who abandoned a financial services form did so because it required too much personal information, 34% because it took too long to fill in the form, and 18% because of confusing language. 

To address form abandonment, we recommend the following:

• Create a form with multiple pages and a progress bar: Group related fields together on the same page, and make sure each page has only a single column. 
• Tone down complex language: If necessary, include links or popups to knowledge-base articles that explain the concepts you're trying to convey. 
• Incorporate automatic saves into your form: This protects a user from having to start over after an accidental close.
• Think about ways you can reduce form completion time: This could include using autocomplete data from a lead's browser, automatically filling out details such as address or postal code, or eliminating or making specific fields optional that are not absolutely necessary, such as phone numbers. 
• Ensure that your form is usable: Forms should be easy to complete on desktop, tablet, and mobile.

Travel & Tourism Forms

Travel and Tourism at first appears to suffer from the same problem as financial services. Zuko.io reports an average of 48 inputs per form — higher than any other sector save local government. Overall, the sector: 

• Has an overall conversion rate of 33.98% across all devices, with device-specific conversion rates as follows: 

• 39.71% on desktop. 
• 38.14% on tablet. 
• 29.48% on mobile. 

• Has a median form completion time of two minutes, thirty-five seconds, and an abandonment time of one minute, thirty-one seconds. 

Per SaleCycle, the most common reason for travel & tourism form abandonment involves price. While length and complexity do play a part, it's comparatively minor compared to most other reasons:

• No purchase intent, only researching. (39%)
• Price is too high. (37%) 
• Need to check with others. (21%)
• Booking process takes too long. (13%)
• Technical issues. (9%)
• Lack of payment options. (7%)

The easiest way to reduce overall form abandonment in Travel & Tourism, then, is to make pricing information available upfront, ideally via some form of price checking solution. More importantly, one must ensure that prices remain competitive with the rest of the sector. 

Beyond that, the same general advice applies to travel as to other sectors — saving fields and remarketing in particular. 

Additionally, as with many other sectors in this piece, improve your mobile experience. 

Automotive & Car Dealer Forms

Automotive industry forms have the worst conversion rate of all sectors, at 9.65% overall. Moreover, it appears that automotive forms are abandoned almost instantly, as Zuko.io reports an average of 8 inputs per form, with no data on abandonment or completion time.  

Unfortunately, there is little raw data on the reason for such a high abandonment rate — though we can extrapolate based on what we know of the sector. 

First, per Deloitte's 2021 Global Automotive Consumer Study, 71% of American consumers prefer at least part of their purchase occur in person. Another, similar poll from Harris found that 64% of people aren't comfortable buying entirely online. In both studies, however, that customers prefer the following be done mostly or entirely online: 

• Searching for a vehicle. 
• Determining the final sale price.
• Valuation of their trade-in vehicle.
• Credit checks/financing. 
• Scheduling an appointment to take possession post-purchase.
• Reviewing/purchasing insurance or extended warranties. 

It’s clear the problem with automotive form design is foundational. Addressing this means first redefining what's classed as a conversion. Given that a purchase generally will not be finalized until after a test drive, forms should be geared towards getting people to a dealership rather than making a sale. 

Omnichannel personalization is also a must, as the typical customer journey whether buying or renting is complex, and likely to include multiple touchpoints across multiple devices — which may also mean multiple forms. Adjust each to account for this, and ensure you have a means of capturing and remarketing partial leads.

Real Estate & Broker Forms

For property and real estate forms, there’s a lot of interesting takeaways. Here’s what Zuko.io’s industry benchmark reveals:

• An average of 15.8 inputs per form. 
• A 32.31% overall conversion rate. 

• 35.08% of leads convert on desktop
• 27.85% of leads convert on mobile 
• 31.78% of leads convert on tablet. 

• A Median completion time of seven minutes, twenty-nine seconds, with a median abandonment time of fifty seconds. 

As with the automotive sector, very little data exists to explain the precise reason for lost leads in real estate. It is likely, however, that the reasoning is much the same between the two. Just as the test drive is crucial when purchasing a vehicle, a physical property inspection is a critical step in purchasing or renting property. 

Home Value Leads also provides insight into what may be driving low real estate conversions — and what can be done to address this. Realtors and brokers do far more than buy, sell, and rent property. In truth, most of what they do involves relationship building. 

Your remarketing efforts must therefore be highly personalized, and this personalization should, when possible, extend to your forms. 

Legal Services & Law Firm Forms

The legal sector's conversion rate is actually quite respectable, at 71.55%. Surprisingly, the sector also has a 100% conversion rate on tablets, and 90.65% on mobile. Desktop lags behind at 70.81%. 

Median completion time is two minutes, twenty-five seconds, and median abandonment time is fifty-one seconds, with an average of 7 inputs per form. 

Although not much data exists that dives into the cause of form abandonment for law firms, it is likely due at least in part to how overwhelming the legal process can be. As with financial services, legal agencies typically need to collect a great deal of upfront information from prospective leads. And as in financial services, the same general advice applies: 

• Simplicity & Flow: Leverage a multi-step form with single columns, and include a progress bar. Group similar fields together, and consider leveraging autocomplete data for details like addresses.
• Layman's Terms: Where possible, avoid complex legalese to ensure your leads don't feel confused or overwhelmed. In cases where you must feature such language, make sure there's a way for your leads to learn what it actually means. 
• Save & Recapture: Particularly for more complicated scenarios, the ability to save fields is a must, as is the capacity to instantly remarket and follow-up on leads.  
• Consider Simple Contact Forms: As an alternative to the above, you might consider simply leveraging a contact form that asks leads to describe their legal situation and provide a few basic details about themselves — your firm can take care of the rest. 

Insurance Forms

Examining Zuko.io's data, the most notable detail about the insurance sector is the high level of average field corrections — 3.64, where 4.55 is the general average corrections in an abandoned session. Additionally, among users that viewed or accessed an insurance sector form: 

• 52.83% converted across all devices.

• 52.84% of mobile users converted.
• 55.33% of desktop users converted. 
• 43.94% of tablet users converted. 

• The average abandonment time was one minute, fifty-nine seconds; the average completion time was two minutes, twenty-one seconds. 
• The average number of inputs per form was 25.8. 

Finding an insurance broker can be simultaneously frustrating and overwhelming. Your leads have to sift through endless pages of information, meet with multiple brokers, and listen to pitch after pitch. The first step to improving both your conversion rate and form completion rate, then, is to make things easier on them, and focus on personalization and a positive customer experience. 

To apply this to your insurance forms, follow the same advice outlined for both legal and financial services. Keep them as simple as possible, reduce complex language wherever you can, and ensure there are systems in place for effective error handling and saved fields.

iGaming & Online Casino Forms

iGaming may be a relatively newer sector due to relaxing gambling regulations, but like other industries, a large portion of lead generation occurs with form-based online offers. Within the iGaming sector, Zuko.io reports the following data on form completion: 

• 46.3% overall completion rate

• 49.08% completion rate on desktop
• 40.42% completion rate on mobile
• 39.95% completion rate on tablets.  

• 7.25 average form inputs. 
• A median completion time of one minute, three seconds, and a median abandonment time of one minute. 
• An average of 5.23 corrections per form. 

In Trulioo's 2020 Online Gaming & Account Opening Report, the identity verification service provider found that customer satisfaction for the iGaming form registration process was lower than in other sectors for both the United States and United Kingdom. Reasons for this included: 

• Discomfort with disclosing too much personal information.
• A lack of transparency in the registration process — ie. why the site needed particular pieces of information.  
• Security concerns, especially when it comes to submitting selfies or a photo of one's identification. 
• Wait time between submission and verification. 

The first, most important step here is to pare down the amount of information you request as part of your registration process. Only collect the data you absolutely require in order for the lead to access your services. And in cases where you must collect sensitive information due to regulations: 

• Make it clear that you are obligated by law to ask for this information.
• Establish how you intend to use this information.
• Emphasize that the information will be securely managed and stored. 

Beyond that, the same general best practices apply. 

Health & Wellness Forms

Health and wellness faces a dilemma when it comes to balancing rapid response times and effective data collection. In the healthcare space, Zuko.io reports the following: 

• An overall completion rate of 55.92%. 

• 55.93% on desktop.
• 49.78% on mobile. 
• 48.32% on tablets. 

• An average of 21 inputs per form.
• A median completion time of four minutes, thirty-nine seconds, and an abandonment time of one minute, twenty-two seconds. 

By far, verification and security are the most important considerations for forms in the health and wellness space. Health data is and will always be extremely sensitive. As such, you need to be able to assure your leads that theirs will be well-managed. 

Because the health and wellness space is also hypercompetitive, you have limited time to capture the attention of your leads. Forms and pages must be designed so that all relevant information is available upfront, rather than requiring a lead to dig for it. As with other sectors that require comprehensive, complex information, simplicity and the capacity to save and reload fields is also imperative. 

The real barometer for success in this sector, however, is how quickly you're able to respond to both prospective and converted leads. Although not directly related to form design, follow-up is crucial, and you'll want to choose your platforms and tools with that in mind. 

Design Better Forms and Convert More Leads With Responser

The majority of digital lead generation occurs through online forms. Good enough isn’t going to cut it today when competition is at an all-time high. 

You need to create forms that are highly tailored to the modern customer experience, which means optimizing them for the way your users engage with your website.

A winning form optimization strategy must leverage simplicity, progression, saved fields, and enhanced follow-up capabilities to generate the best ROI from your lead generation efforts.

Are you looking to turn your lost leads into closed deals? Responser can help you own every stage of the lead cycle, from initial submission to conversion. Start your free trial today to get started.

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