Add a required location choice to the contact form so each message goes straight to that branch's inbox. Give every location its own page with its phone number and hours, and test each inbox monthly.

Sent to Surrey, meant for Nanaimo

A customer in Nanaimo fills in the contact form on a company's website. The company has locations in Surrey, Kelowna and Nanaimo, but the form has one destination: head office.

In Surrey, someone reads the message when time allows, works out which branch it concerns and forwards it. The Nanaimo branch replies the next day, sometimes later.

Meanwhile the customer, who wanted a price by lunchtime, has phoned a competitor who answered on the first ring.

What the visitor cannot see

The visitor cannot tell who will read the message, where they are or when they will answer. The thank-you page says only that the message was sent.

A customer who cannot see a reply coming fills the gap with doubt. Some send the same message twice; others give up and call around.

Not knowing who will read it also makes people hold back details they would give the right person, such as a part number or the model of a machine.

What forwarding costs

Every forward adds a delay and a chance of loss. The person who forwards is away one week, busy the next, and unsure which branch handles what.

Forwarded messages lose their history, too. The branch sees a note from head office rather than the customer's own words and address.

The reply often comes from head office's address, so the customer's answer goes back to Surrey and the loop starts again. And the branch, which knows its own stock and customers, hears last.

What the form should do

The fix is to let the visitor say which location the message is for, and to send it there directly.

The last item fills the gap the visitor worried about. They know who has the message, and how to reach that branch if it is urgent.

A page for each location

Each location deserves a page of its own: address, map, phone number, hours, the services offered there, and a photograph of the building from the street.

Say what each branch offers that the others do not, such as a machine shop or a repair bench at one location only, so visitors choose the right one.

The contact form on that page can arrive with the location already chosen, so the visitor has one less decision to make.

Each page also gives the location's map listing somewhere specific to point. Someone in Kelowna then lands on a page about Kelowna, with a Kelowna number, instead of the company's home page.

A worked example

A bearing and power transmission supplier has counters in Surrey, Kelowna and Nanaimo, selling bearings, belts, chain and gearboxes to sawmills, farms, food plants and repair shops.

Its website had one form, set up when there was only the Surrey branch. Everything went to the general inbox, which the office manager forwarded between other tasks.

Maintenance planners in the Interior and on the Island often need a part the same day. A forwarded message read the next morning was, for them, no answer at all.

The form now asks which branch the message is for. Each choice sends it to that counter's shared inbox, with the branch name and the customer's company in the subject line.

The confirmation page shows the branch's direct number and hours, and each location has its own page naming the people at its counter.

Head office still receives a copy of every message, so it can see that nothing waits, but it no longer forwards anything. New messages now reach the counter staff where they already spend the day.

One choice, not a long menu

Some businesses route by topic as well as place: sales, service, accounts. A second choice is fine, but a long menu of departments makes visitors guess, and wrong guesses go astray.

For a business with three locations, the location matters most, because it decides who can actually help. Route anything uncertain to a person who reads it promptly.

Checking that every inbox is read

A form that delivers to three inboxes has three ways to fail quietly. An address belongs to someone who leaves, or a branch mailbox fills up and starts refusing mail.

Use shared branch addresses rather than personal ones, and name a person at each location who answers for that inbox, with cover during holidays.

Once a month, send a test from each location's page and confirm that it arrives, sorted correctly, and that someone replies.

Look in each branch's spam folder during the same test, since a new filter can catch form messages without warning.

Reply times you can keep

If the confirmation promises a reply within one business day, every branch has to keep that promise, including the smallest one.

Say what happens outside business hours, when messages wait for the morning, and give an after-hours number if the business has one.

A reply that answers the whole question at once, with price, stock and pickup time, saves the customer a second round of messages.

The counter-case

Some businesses really are answered centrally. Quotes, scheduling or dispatch may sit with one team for every location, and splitting the form would only scatter the work.

Then keep one inbox, but say so on the form: the team in Surrey answers every enquiry, with its usual reply time. Show each location's phone number beside the form all the same.

Either way, the visitor should never have to guess who will read the message.

Routing the form to each branch

  1. List every location and who reads its mail.
  2. Create a shared inbox for each branch.
  3. Add a required location choice to the form.
  4. Name the location in each subject line.
  5. Confirm which branch will answer, and when.
  6. Build a page for every location.
  7. Test each inbox once a month.

Step seven keeps the rest working. Routing that works in September can fail in March when someone leaves, and only a test will show it.

Overseas enquiries answered while the visitor sleeps shows how to write a reply that settles an enquiry in one message instead of several.

Frequently asked questions

Why not send every enquiry to head office?

Each forward adds a delay and a chance of loss, the reply often comes from the wrong address, and the branch that can help hears about it last.

What should the location choice look like?

A required list naming each branch, plus a "not sure" option that goes to head office. Keep it to locations; a long list of departments invites wrong guesses.

Should head office still see the messages?

It can receive a copy of each one to see that nothing waits, as long as the branch replies directly and nobody has to forward anything.

What belongs on each location page?

The address, a map, the branch's own phone number and hours, the services offered there, and the contact form with that location already chosen.

What should the confirmation page say?

Which branch has the message, when it will reply, and that branch's direct phone number for anything urgent that cannot wait.

How do we know every inbox is being read?

Use shared branch addresses, name a person responsible at each location, and send a test from each location's page once a month.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Three branches sharing one contact form?

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