Ask for an email only when you will write back
A required email is a small tax on every response. People who are happy to rate your service anonymously hesitate when the form wants to know who they are. So ask for it when something will actually happen with the address: a reply to a support request, a confirmation of a booking, a follow-up interview.
In feedback and loyalty surveys, make it optional and say why: «Leave your email if you want us to get back to you.» The people who fill it in are the ones you should talk to.
Place the field near the end. By then the respondent has invested in the answers and is more willing to leave a way to reach them than on the very first screen.
Wording for the email field
- Where should we send the confirmation?
- Your work email, so we can share the report
- Email (optional, only if you want a reply)
Validation, placeholder and the mobile keyboard
The only setting of its own is the placeholder. By default the empty field shows name@example.com next to a mail icon, which makes the expected format obvious without extra text.
The field is a real email input, so phones switch to the keyboard with the @ key close at hand. If the address does not look valid, the respondent sees «Enter a valid email address» and cannot go further until it is fixed. A blank optional field passes, since validation only runs once something is typed.
In the results the addresses are grouped by domain (the top seven are shown) alongside sample answers. That quickly tells you whether you are hearing from company mailboxes or personal ones.
What you can set
- hint inside the empty field