Why visitors see my booking form but don't want to fill it?

[jaygao79]

Hi everyone,
I am working on an e-commerce site at the moment, the company is selling training courses. The website is www.knowledgetrain.co.uk
In last month, only 9 percent of the visitors who have clicked Book Now actually filled the form. I am wondering if there is something (or are things) wrong with the design of the booking page? I have been looking for tips or theories about how to design a booking form and about the content of the page, but no luck at all.
Any suggestions are most welcome, and if anyone could direct me to some resources relating to this topic, I would very much appreciate it.
Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[suz]

Well this is just one quick suggestion and I have no idea if it will help but the first thing I see is "please fill in your coupon number". Do you need a coupon in order to sign up or is it optional?

 

[jaygao79]

Well this is just one quick suggestion and I have no idea if it will help but the first thing I see is "please fill in your coupon number". Do you need a coupon in order to sign up or is it optional?

That's a good point, thanks for it. It is actually done by somebody else, it is optional, but definitely confusing.

 

[pingeyeg]

Well, right off in looking at your form, it does seem intimidating. Try and shorten it or gather it together more so that it doesn't make such a long page. Customers may see it and run because it looks so long.

 

[rarepearldesign]

I hate filling out forms, so I will try to explain why I would never fill that form you have out:
1) Too many fields, too much text to read
2) Hard to read
3) Typically I quick scan a form to see what is all needed upfront to fill-in, your form cannot be quickly scanned, no separation of sections.

My recommendations:
1) Increase font size
2) Format the course info to use more horizontal space and make it visibly different from form, even so much as to have a header. This shortens the form and the eye can easily separate the base info from the actual form.
3) Make the two major form sections fit side by side with headers. Hide the company paying section unless a "Different Billing Information" checkbox is selected. Then show that form section with the checkbox to copy from left. This will drastically shorten the form and make it less intimidating to those who are both the registrant and the biller.
4) The radio buttons will fall in below now nice and neat after changes above.
5) Make the Terms and Conditions a checkbox like you have, but link them to a pop up window, or use an Ajax accordian to expand the info as requested.

Hope that helps.

 

[jaygao79]

thanks to you all

those were great helps, definitely more than I could have expected! I love this forum, thanks guys.

 

[suz]

Yes very good tips there rarepearl