Published: April 23, 2014
WordPress, Evernote, MailChimp, Wufoo. The list of online tools credited for a great deal of efficiency in our lives goes on and on. Each one offering similar, but much needed business benefits like reduced cost, easy integration, and flexibility thanks to their core features.
But we think it’s time to do something different, to consider going above and beyond the base of what these tools offer – and thereby surpassing competitive approaches if even in improved internal process – starting with Wufoo.
According to the company site, “Wufoo is a web application that helps anybody build amazing online forms. When you design a form with Wufoo, it automatically builds the database, backend and scripts needed to make collecting and understanding your data easy, fast and fun.”
When most people think Wufoo, they think contact form or some sort of registration. Yet, with more than 200 templates and themes, this online form builder has the potential to improve business operations as many companies expand the push for data gathering.
The Business Case for Wufoo
When the need arises for a form, the decision between custom development and existing web applications comes to play. There are always situations in which custom built is the best solution. But in many cases, tools like Wufoo bring benefits that outweigh the time, cost and maintenance of building it oneself. Wufoo forms result in reduced cost, no custom HTML development which translates to quick turn around, easy integration with CMS systems like SharePoint, mobile friendly application, ease of use and flexibility. On top of that, here are a few little known secrets and creative ways to use Wufoo forms.
Little Known Secrets
- Wufoo’s template selection is robust, with more than 200 different templates in 7 different categories: surveys, invitations, registrations, lead generation, online orders. Find what you need and then adapt to your needs with simple customization.
- Wufoo Partners allows users to integrate forms with other tools including email, payment and ecommerce processing tools, content management systems, and many mobile apps.
- The Wufoo blog shares unique use cases, interesting tips and shortcuts, and is a great resource for the latest third party integrations and Wufoo news.
Thinking Out of the Box
On top of the typical contact form and mailing list use, Wufoo forms are easily used for:
“Bug Tracking – Quickly deploy an organized focal point for collecting feedback and bugs for your projects using this Wufoo powered bug tracker. Now you can focus on fixing your users’ problems rather than writing code to handle the logistics of collecting them. In addition to gathering the information you need to debug the issue, our file upload field conveniently allows your users to submit screenshots of the problem, so you can more quickly assess the situation. With our field permission settings, you can even hide certain “Admin Only” fields like “Assign to” and “Severity” so that only you have the ability to set the priority and responsibilities of the bugs coming in.
Customer Surveys – You don’t need a marketing research team to gather detailed information about your customers. Now owned by SurveyMonkey, Wufoo allows you to gather structured feedback on the quality of your products, services and web sites with Wufoo powered customer satisfaction surveys. You can Wufoo templates as is or customize them with your own questions and flavor. After you brand it with your logo and color scheme, you can email your users and customers the link to the form so they can fill out the survey on their own time.
Event Registration – For your next workshop or conference, try using a Wufoo powered event registration form to make organizing the event a breeze. Feel free to change the logo and customize the form to collect the appropriate information and interests from your guests. You can use it to coordinate the food, seating and any other accommodations needed by your attendees. With payment integration features, you can even collect the fees right through the form securely and affordably.
Online Order Forms – Commerce doesn’t get any easier than this. You can use Wufoo’s payment integration features to connect your Wufoo form to PayPal or Authorize.net to collect simple online orders through your web site. You can even see when the payment successfully goes through right in Wufoo thanks to tight integration with payment merchants.”
So go ahead, try it. When it comes to better connecting with current or potential customers, gathering and organizing meaningful and visualized data, or simply streamlining internal processes – don’t reinvent the wheel when you can use a reliable third party tool like Wufoo.