PrintData is key to building a solid business, whether it means keeping an updated database of contacts, tracking your invoices, or surveying your customers to find out how you can improve. And your data isn’t only important in the office -- you need to be able to access it on the go for maximum efficiency.
Larger companies often opt for costly custom solutions to build their databases and keep them connected. But now there’s an application that brings customizable drag-and-drop forms straight to your fingertips. The best part? You don’t need an IT department.
The app is FormSpring, and it stands out because of its flexibility. FormSpring can handle multiple types of forms, from creating the most basic e-mail contact form to calculating estimates, creating event registrations, and even processing online purchases. The app lets you integrate your information with third-party applications, including invoicing tool FreshBooks, CRM app SalesForce, e-mail marketing program MailChimp, and more. For advanced users it has an open application programming interface, which provides even greater control and integration opportunities.
You don’t have to worry about technical specs unless you want to get fancy, though. At the core of FormSpring’s business appeal is its simplicity, and the program’s ease of use lies in its drag-and-drop form creation interface. You can quickly add text fields, set up calculations, insert check boxes, and more with intuitive tools. Then you can drag the elements where you want them on the page. Have a long set of questions for users to answer? You can create a multipage form and show your users a progress bar that tracks their progress.
You can also use conditional logic to show and hide items based on how users respond to fields higher up in your form, keeping questions relevant to users and tailoring information to specific instances. This allows you to create more efficient forms, which can help increase conversion and completion rates.
When receiving information from the forms, you have an equal amount of control thanks to a smart routing system that lets you send submissions to the proper departments or individuals, provide customized messages and confirmation e-mails, and redirect users to various URLs or payment processors.
FormSpring really sets itself apart, though, with its iPhone application, which can turn an iPhone into a powerful, portable business tool and help your organization go paperless. Businesses have created iPhone forms that allow remote time tracking, invoicing, appointment scheduling, and data input that can help increase efficiency and lower costs by saving on time, travel, and staffing. Field agents can easily plug in numbers to get on-the-spot estimates without calling into a home office, and they can send customers e-mails with the estimates the moment they’re complete.
The iPhone integrations can also take advantage of the phone’s camera, GPS tools, and voice capabilities so your reps can create multimedia field reports, instantly get directions to their next destination, and dictate notes to save time on typing.
Through cloud computing, FormSpring strives to increase efficiency for businesses of all sizes and eliminate the need for a costly IT department. It offers all the security features you’d expect, including SSL, encryption, and password protection. It also offers white label forms, so you can brand them and offer them to your own customers.
Use of FormSpring requires a subscription that ranges in price from free to $149 a month, with the most popular plan at $30 a month. The free plan includes banner advertising from FormSpring, though all paid subscriptions (starting at $9 a month) are ad-free. As the plans increase in price, you are able to create more forms, add more fields to your forms, and save more submissions.
