The contact page of a professional firm: how visitors become enquiries

Why the contact page decides on enquiries

Anyone who lands on your contact page has usually already decided that you are an option. They have read a service page, seen your Google profile or heard your name from an acquaintance. Now only one thing matters: what is the easiest way to get a conversation? Every hurdle at this point costs enquiries. A phone number that cannot be tapped on a mobile, a form with twelve mandatory fields or uncertainty about whether anyone will answer at all sends prospective clients to the next firm in the search results.

For professional firms there is a second level. People write to you about divorces, debts, tax audits or illnesses. What they send via the form is subject to your duty of confidentiality and to data protection from the first contact. A good contact page makes it easy to get in touch and hard to reveal too much.

Phone and availability: the fastest route

Many clients prefer to call rather than write, especially with urgent matters. So put the phone number right at the top, easy to read and on smartphones as a link that dials directly when tapped (click-to-call). Write the number in international format with +43 or +49 so that it also works from abroad.

• Phone hours separate from appointments: “Available by phone Mon to Thu 8 am to 5 pm, Fri 8 am to 12 noon. Meetings by appointment, evenings too.”
• Who answers: “Our office team takes down your request and arranges an appointment.” That lowers the threshold.
• Outside those hours: say whether there is voicemail and when you call back. For criminal defence an emergency contact can make sense, but only if it is really reachable.
• Languages: if you advise in English, Turkish or Croatian, write it next to the number.
• Email address: a general firm address instead of personal mailboxes, so nothing gets stuck during an absence.

Keep the hours identical on the website, in the Google profile and in your out-of-office reply. Contradictions between these places are one of the most common reasons for annoyed calls.

The form: as few fields as possible

Every additional field reduces the number of enquiries, and every field you do not need is data you have to protect. Only ask for what you really need for a first reply. Mark mandatory fields clearly and give every field a visible label, not just placeholder text that disappears as soon as someone types.

Do not make address, date of birth or company register number mandatory. You can clarify that in the conversation. A file upload does not belong in the public form but in the client portal, once the engagement exists.

Confidentiality: what does not belong in the form

People tend to write their whole problem into the message field: the diagnosis, the criminal record, the debts, the employer's name. Health data and information on religion, trade union membership or sex life are special categories under Art. 9 GDPR, and data on criminal offences is covered by Art. 10 GDPR. So ask people, directly above the field, to write only briefly what it is about.

Technically, the form must match your duty of confidentiality. The page runs exclusively over HTTPS, the enquiry is transferred in encrypted form and does not end up unencrypted in a mailbox with a provider outside the EU. Art. 32 GDPR requires security in line with the state of the art. You conclude a data processing agreement with the hosting provider and the form service; in Germany, § 43e BRAO, § 62a StBerG and § 26a BNotO additionally require service providers to be bound to confidentiality. In Austria the same result follows from the confidentiality duties in the professional statutes and the GDPR.

For later email correspondence, § 2 Abs. 2 BORA applies to lawyers in Germany: a communication channel with risks for confidentiality, such as unencrypted email, is allowed if clients agree, for example by using it themselves after being told about the risks. A short sentence on this on the contact page does no harm in either country. Which mandatory information and privacy texts your profession also needs is explained, for example, in the guide to mandatory information for lawyers in Germany or for tax advisers in Austria.

After sending: set clear expectations

The most common gap on firms' contact pages is not the form but the silence afterwards. Anyone who does not know whether their message arrived will call as well or write to the next firm. So say on the page and in the confirmation what happens next.

If you are on holiday or the firm is closed, adapt the acknowledgement: when are you back, who is standing in for you, whom should clients contact about urgent deadlines? The free out-of-office generator creates a suitable text for your profession.

Spam protection without tracking

An open form attracts spam. The obvious solution, a captcha from a large provider, has two drawbacks for professional firms: it loads scripts from a third party that can analyse usage data, and it forces people to click on traffic lights or zebra crossings, which slows down older clients and people with visual impairments. Whether such services require consent under § 25 TDDDG in Germany or § 165 Abs. 3 TKG 2021 in Austria depends on what information they read from the device. It is simpler to do without them.

Directions, parking and accessibility

People coming to their first appointment are often nervous. Good directions take away some of that. Name the nearest stop with its line, parking options or the nearest garage, the floor and whether there is a lift. A photo of the entrance helps people find the right building, especially in old town districts with courtyards.

An embedded Google map sends data to Google as soon as it loads. A map image with a link “Open in Google Maps”, or a map that loads only after a click, is more data-minimising. For accessibility, add: step-free access yes or no, lift, accessible toilet and the option of a home visit or video appointment. For the form itself: visible labels, understandable error messages and keyboard operability. More in the guide to an accessible website.

Specifics of the individual professions

• Lawyers: before accepting a matter you check for conflicts of interest (§ 43a Abs. 4 BRAO in Germany, § 10 RAO in Austria). So optionally ask for the opposing party, not for the facts, and briefly explain why: “So that we can check whether we are allowed to represent you.”
• Tax advisers and bookkeepers: a choice such as “private individual, self-employed, limited company, association” helps with allocation. Receipts and tax assessments only come later via the client portal.
• Mediators: say that either side can get in touch and that you will first only discuss the process. That preserves your neutrality even before the first meeting.
• Auditors: enquiries usually come from companies. Ask about legal form, type of audit and balance sheet date, not about figures.
• Notaries: a factual page with the official seat, phone hours and the documents needed for each matter is enough. Promotional statements such as “fastest appointments in town” are off limits; see the guides to advertising law for notaries in Austria and in Germany.

Checklist for your contact page

Which pages a firm website needs besides the contact page is described in the guide to firm website content. How the contact page works together with the Google profile and local search is covered in the article on local SEO.