Data Business Form:
Documenting Your Customer Needs

A data business form is what a business uses to gather information about its customers.

Forms help you to understand your customer by gathering written information about their needs. Customers can enter data via electronic or offline paper documentation. Once this information is collected you can refine your message to meet the needs of your customer. A good data business form uses the following:

Section I - Survey Information

These are quality questions that you ask visitors about your business. You ask your visitors what they like and not like about your business. Visitors can also rate your services and provide suggestions for improvement. This also allows you to start your business relationship with your visitors. Knowing your customers builds trust with them. A lifelong customer relationship is based on trust.

The survey must be at the beginning of the form and be easy to complete.

Section II - Contact Information

It's important not to ask for too much contact information from a first time visitor until you build a relationship with the contact. Also keep in mind that you may connect with visitors from around the world. Make the contact form easy for any visitor to complete. Remember to think globally and act locally!

A recommendation is to create a spreadsheet of all the data fields you might collect from a visitor. Each field would be defined with a field name, type of data, information to enter, and size of the data field. Some data fields to collect could include the following:

- Visitor's First Name and Last Name
- Visitors's Address Line 1, Address Line 2, Address Line 3
- Visitor's City
- Visitor's State
- Visitor's Zip Code (10 digit text box)
- Visitor's Country
- Visitor's Time Zone
- Best times to call the visitor
- Type of phone and phone number of visitor
- Visitor Email Address
- Visitor's web site

It's important to develop all the standard fields and which fields will be used on particular forms. It's also important to determine if the field will be a required field to enter on a form.

Section III - Thank You Page

This is an online or offline message that the visitor receives after the form is submitted. This thanks the visitor for filling out the form. It also allows you to make additional suggestions that could benefit the visitor. You certainly appreciate the time that the visitor spent. You definitely want the visitor to contact you again in the future.

Section IV - Autoresponder Email

This is one or more series of emails that you send to the visitor. The purpose of the emails is to show thanks or offer additional information that the visitor might need. You want to maintain contact with the visitor. The visitor should have the ability to opt out of emails if additional contact is not desired.

Section V - Notification Email

This is an email sent to your email address right after a form is submitted. A web form submission can automatically send you an email with no action needed on your part. This email would contain an email from address, your email address, a specific subject line, the responses to form fields by the visitor, and any other email information you desire.

When set up properly the form can be emailed from:

- your web site to...
- a pop3 email site like gmail and your smart phone to...
- an email software like Outlook Express and then...
- copied using a software package like AddressGrabber to...
- a contact manager program like Act

Notification emails allow you to take action from the email and store the contact information for future connection with your visitor.