Nothing tells your customers “Please, don’t contact us–ever” quite like using CAPTCHA on your website. Sure, CAPTCHA is an effective way to weed out those annoying bots jamming your order system, but it also weeds out frustrated prospects and customers.

Do you really want to create a barrier between you and your customers just so you can stop a few spam bots?

Maybe it wasn’t your decision. Maybe is was the folks in IT working to keep your inbox clean and clear. Are you going to let the IT department make your important customer service and brand experience decisions?

Do your brand a favor, and more importantly, do your customers a favor: Kill the captcha.

Post script - Several folks have commented via social media that this post is naive or ignores the challenges that led companies to use captcha. I’m not saying spam entries aren’t a problem. I saying it’s not your customer’s problem. You can’t solve your IT challenge by transferring your burden to the customer. 

You may want to take a look at areyouahuman. They are a startup out of Detroit that is taking a unique approach to captcha and add a little fun to the process. While I think it’s a big improvement over blurry words, it still place the burden on the customer.