The form nobody fills in

The first site I delivered for a merchant had a polished contact form: live validation, confirmation message, email acknowledgement. In three months it received four messages. Two were spam.

Meanwhile, the WhatsApp number in the footer was getting a dozen enquiries a day.

The journey we imagine and the one that exists

We design sites with a journey in mind: the visitor discovers, compares, adds to cart, pays. That is the journey of a customer who trusts an unknown site and an online payment. It is not the journey of a buyer in Yaoundé or Douala.

Here the real journey is: I see, I have a question, I want to talk to someone, I negotiate, I pay on delivery or by Mobile Money to a person I have identified. The site is not where the transaction happens. It is where initial trust happens.

The form betrays that journey: it sends a message into the void, with no face, no immediate reply, no room to negotiate.

What we changed

On the following sites — logistics, car dealership, gift shop, restaurants — the main button is no longer "Send" but "Chat on WhatsApp". And above all, it is pre-filled: the product, the reference, the page the visitor came from.

Hello, I'm interested in the Toyota RAV4 2021 (ref. AM-2021-034)
seen on your website. Is it still available?

The visitor has nothing to type. The seller knows immediately what it is about. The conversation starts in the right place, with context, and continues where the customer already lives: in their messaging app.

No price when the price is negotiated

Second lesson, on the imported-vehicle catalogue. The client insisted: no price displayed. My first reaction was to push back — a catalogue without prices is a catalogue that scares people off.

I was wrong. On this market, a displayed price is a ceiling. The customer reads it, remembers it, and comes to negotiate below it. Without a price, the conversation starts with needs — budget, timing, use — and the price arrives at the end, adjusted. The quote form does not exist: it is a WhatsApp conversation with the vehicle reference.

What is left for the site

If the transaction happens elsewhere, what is the site for? Three things, and they are decisive.

Credibility: a company with a clean site, real photos and a real address is not an anonymous Facebook account. That is what makes people dare to write.

Qualification: the catalogue, the hours, the services, the delivery area. The visitor lands on WhatsApp already knowing what they want. The seller no longer answers "do you deliver to Bonamoussadi?" twenty times.

Search: "grilled fish restaurant Yaoundé" is searched on Google, not on WhatsApp.

What it changed in how I design

I no longer start with the ideal journey. I start by asking the client where their sales actually close today. Then I build the site to bring the visitor there, with maximum context and minimum friction.

The form has not disappeared everywhere. On my own site it still exists — next to a WhatsApp button. Because the lesson is not "WhatsApp is better". The lesson is: the channel is the customer's choice.