FormAssembly’s 12 Days of Data Collection Tips

Happy holidays and welcome to FormAssembly’s 12 Days of Data Collection Tips! Each day for 12 days, we’ll be sharing a new data collection tip from one of our experts. Check back in this blog post for a new tip each day. We’re giving away fun prizes, too—read on for an overview of our 12 days of giveaways.

Win coffee & swag

To celebrate the holiday season, we’ll be giving out 12 Starbucks gift cards and one box full of FormAssembly swag! Just share one of our tips (or a link to this blog post) on social media, then send a screenshot of the post to marketing@formassemblycom to verify your entry. Multiple entries on multiple platforms are welcome!

For bonus entries, we invite you to start a free trial, or refer a friend to start a free trial! Please send us the email address you used to sign up for a trial or the email address of the friend you referred to verify the bonus entries. We’re also donating $5 to charity for each new trial started during the month —sign up for your 14-day free trial here.

Data collection tips from our experts

Tip #1

“The data you collect is only as good as the form you create. Make sure to require the necessary fields in your form and use appropriate field validations.” —Katrina Garza, FormAssembly Director of Customer Success

Tip #2

“Let your respondents know that you received their form submission. Configure the auto-responder so an automated email notification will be sent to the respondent acknowledging that you’ve received their submission, and provide next steps if applicable.” —Katy Lash, Implementation Manager

Tip #3

“Make sure respondents have an easy way to reach you in case they have questions.” —Cedric Savarese, Founder & CEO

Tip #4

“Make sure respondents can easily access your Privacy Policy via clear and accessible links on your forms.” —Beenish Saeed, Sales Operations Manager

Tip #5

“Enable reCAPTCHA to prevent spam submissions. reCAPTCHA will flag any spam responses and prevent them from being processed through any connector integrations you have set up.” —Katy Lash, Implementation Manager

Tip #6

“Follow the Data Minimization principle: Only collect the data you need. This makes forms simpler and faster to fill out, reinforces customer trust, and limits security and privacy risks.” —Cedric Savarese, Founder & CEO

Tip #7

“Ensure you’re asking the right questions in both content and question type. Example: Use radio buttons when possible so respondents can see all their choices versus typing or selecting from a drop-down menu. More straightforward forms = higher completion rates and faster time to completion.” —Paul Lazatin, Head of Partnerships

Tip #8

“Thoroughly test your integrations to make sure you catch and resolve any potential errors before going live with your form.” —Katy Lash, Implementation Manager

Tip #9

“Be clear and transparent about your use of the collected data.” —Cedric Savarese, Founder & CEO

Tip #10

“Ensure that your forms are compliant with the data privacy regulations that apply to your organization.” —Jaret Manuel, Director of Partnerships and Strategic Alliances

Tip #11

“Use clear and concise language. People are likely to scan the form fields and instructions rather than read word for word.” —Cedric Savarese, Founder & CEO

Tip #12

“Work with a compliant and easy to use online form builder and data collection platform like FormAssembly.” —Pratik Paun, Partner Development Representative

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We hope these data collection tips are helpful to you! If you’ve joined the giveaway, good luck—we’ll be in touch with our winners throughout the month of December. Don’t forget: For every trial signup during the month of December, we’re giving $5 back to charity! Learn more and sign up at the link below.