Saturday 17 November 2007

Woohoo for Wufoo …

I stumbled upon this online forms builder when looking for a way to easily gather and centralise feedback from customers. I started off with the trial version, liked it a lot and moved on to paid subscriptions which are really worth it.
What impresses me most about Wufoo is the ease of use and the way in which data becomes easy to act upon.
So, Wufoo not only allows one to easily build and customise online forms but it also allows notification of people via e-mail when a form was filled out. The collected, centralised data can then be reported on via an easy to use online reporting application.
Another functionality I started using in a more efficient way is the possibility of sending a customised confirmation e-mail to the person who has completed the form. This confirmation e-mail can be html-edited and customised so it fits the look and feel of your own corporate e-mails.

I must admit I initially didn’t see the full potential of online forms, but since then I have been using Wufoo constantly in order to automate data collection and some of the respective processes.

Example 1:
You could ask trainers within your company to complete a Training Completion form after a training session they conducted. This form asks for the e-mail addresses of the trainees and the Main Contact can be automatically sent an e-mail asking for his feedback. This feedback form can then be used to evaluate if the training sessions are consistent with the needs of your customers and it can also ask for feedback about the trainer. This data can then easily be reported upon (even including graphs) and exported to Excel.

Example 2:
Let’s say your organisation is organising multiple events. You can easily send an e-mail campaign (using online platforms such as www.campaignmonitor.com) inviting customers and prospects, but you need to collect all their feedback, centralise it and make it easy to report on and update. Wufoo makes this data collection ultimately easy and will send out the e-mails that contain all the confirmation data your customers need.

To summarise:
Wufoo allows to ask for your customers opinions and needs; and keeps the responses manageable. And, isn’t that an essential part of marketing … knowing your customers? Just by asking you will be able to identify opportunities, improve customer relations and generate new business.

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