Removing repeated form fields: +19.31% completed quote requests
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsDropping the name and date-of-birth fields from step two of a health plan quote form, because visitors had already typed them on the homepage, raised completed quote requests by 19.31%.
Clicks on the main Request Contact button rose 24.68%.
Wingify Services, the consulting team at VWO, ran this test with Brazilian health plan administrator Qualicorp, and it was published as a VWO case study.
- Clicks on the main form button (Request Contact): +24.68%, reported at 100% significance.
- Visits to the request-received page, which confirms a lead: +19.31%, reported at 100% confidence.
- The test ran for 14 days with traffic split 50/50 and all visitors included. Sample size was not shared.
The change
The variant removes the name and date-of-birth fields already filled in on the homepage.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Visitors entered their name and date of birth on the homepage to start a quote. On step two of the form, they were asked to fill in those same two fields again.
Variant
Step two no longer asked for name and date of birth. Visitors only filled in the fields they had not already answered.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Asking for the same details twice makes a form feel longer and suggests the site is not paying attention. Removing the repeat cut both effort and annoyance.
- Fewer fields on a step usually means fewer chances to drop off before submitting.
- Visitors who had already started on the homepage were committed. Keeping step two short let that momentum carry through.
Caveats: The test ran for 14 days. Sample size was not shared, and the result is reported in a vendor case study.
Who ran it
VWO ran this test and published the results (VWO case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on VWO →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we stop asking for details visitors already gave us earlier in the funnel, then more of them will submit the form, because the step feels shorter and less repetitive.
- Primary metric
- Completed lead submissions (visits to the confirmation page)
- Guardrails
- Lead quality or contact rate by sales
- Share of leads with missing or wrong data
- Errors in passing data between steps
- Who should test it
- Lead-gen businesses with multi-step quote or application forms where an earlier step or homepage widget already collects some fields. If your form never repeats a question, look for other friction instead.
Questions
Should a multi-step form ask for the same field twice?
No. Carry answers forward from earlier steps. In Qualicorp's test, removing two repeated fields raised completed quote requests by 19.31%.
How do I avoid repeating fields across steps?
Store answers from the first step in the session or URL and pre-fill or skip them later.
Test that the data still reaches your CRM correctly.