Why Course Providers should stop using Google forms.
Free to use form tools such as Wufoo, Typeform and Google forms are often used by course providers to quickly collect data.
However, course providers should be mindful of how the collection of data in this way could actually be hurting their business and sucking productivity.
Undeniably, some providers see advantages in using these solutions. First of all, platforms such as Google Forms and Typeform are free of charge. You can instantly create forms on the fly and there are no quotas or restrictions when it comes to usage. Similarly they are flexible solutions... Google Forms for instance is incredibly easy to use and the forms created can be easily edited by the owner - even after data has been collected.
It is important to stress that the reason why Course providers should not use these forms does not relate to the forms themselves... but rather the broader context around how using these forms can impact your businesses operations and key business processes.
1. If you use Google Forms as a Course Provider your Data is likely fragmented
Everyone knows that it is course providers that master the digital landscape that survive and become market leaders.
The path to becoming a digital course provider lies in being able to extract key insights from the massive amounts of data you collect on a day to day basis. You and your team need to be able to analyse data to collect valuable snippets of information that can be put to good use.
The biggest obstacle in your way of drawing insights from valuable course data is data fragmentation. Data fragmentation occurs when all of your data becomes scattered all over the place in an unorganised and unstructured fashion. For Course providers this leads to an incomplete view of data.
If you are using multiple Google forms and multiple form providers, your data is fragmented across silos and locations - so you never have a true vision of your business and how it’s performing.
With CourseCo you have a complete picture of all of the data that you collect. You can view the data that has been fed by customers into your multiple forms and spreadsheets under one login. This means that you can merge historical data from multiple locations, multiple courses, multiple seasons and more in to one report focused view.
2. If you use Google Forms as a Course Provider you are not connecting to your CRM.
The number one benefit you will see when you choose an integrated solution such as CourseCo instead of Google Forms is that you will no longer have to spend a needless amount of time exporting data from your forms and manually copying and pasting this data into your CRM. You will make considerable time admin savings which will in turn free up your staff to work on other projects.
With CourseCo your website is connected to your CRM and any forms that live on the website feed into this CRM. This connection is a real-time seamless connection so all of the data that you can see on the CourseCo platform is timely and up to date.
This means that you can stop questioning the accuracy of your data, and stop wondering whether the information that students inputted into a form last week has been added to your CRM.
This is hugely beneficial when it comes communicating to course attendees or students. You can be confident that all of the details you hold, right down to their most recent course booking or other interaction with you are correct. This allows you to focus your attention to where it matter most - customer care and increasing sales.
With an integrated solution like CourseCo that also acts as your CRM, many aspects of your course business can be automated. For example payment alerts can be set up so that they are sent automatically to students who owe money and accurate PDF reports showing sales activity can generated on demand.
Want to find out how CourseCo’s other features and in-built tools can help your business? Connect with us on social media or call our product team on +353 61 513 030 today! We can’t wait to hear from you!
