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Tag Archives: Forms

How to Create, Send, Collaborate and Analyze Surveys in Microsoft Forms Pro for Dynamics 365

May 5, 2020   Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft Forms Pro is a simple yet powerful enterprise survey tool that lets you capture, analyze, and act on customer and employee feedback. You can:

  • Create professional surveys no matter your skill set
  • Integrate data with Office 365 and Dynamics 365
  • Improve customer engagement with decisions based on AI-driven insights

To get a sense of the value of Microsoft Forms Pro let’s look at the highlights of how to create, send, collaborate on and analyze surveys.

Step 1: Create Survey

Before you create a survey you need to do some advance planning. First, identify the purpose of your survey. Do you want to interact with your customers, promote new products or services or measure customer satisfaction?

Once you decide on your goal, the AI assisted features can suggest some questions. For example, if you name your survey “Customer Satisfaction Survey” the AI assisted features give you a list of sample questions to choose from. You can use these or enter your own questions.

You can use branding to select a theme or upload a logo to customize the look and feel of your survey.

Using the branching rules feature you can make your survey interactive and ensure only relevant questions are displayed to respondents. For example, based on the response to question #1, you can choose to show the user #2, send them to a URL, end the survey or other options. This is easy to do without any coding, which is a powerful feature of Microsoft Forms Pro.

You can automatically insert custom information into your survey by using survey variables. You can easily personalize “First name, Last name”. Or you can choose your own variables such as “product used” and add default values. This information can be pulled from your Dynamics 365 data.

You can create a multilingual survey that allows respondents to choose their preferred language.  You can add translations for each language by simply selecting “edit” on the language and “add translation”. When you select “edit all” you have the option to download to Excel. In Excel you will be able to edit the translations for all languages and upload them back into the system.

Once you have created your survey you need to send it.

Step 2: Send the Survey

There are different ways you can send your survey in Microsoft Forms Pro.

  1. Send survey link using built-in email capability
  2. Automate the process via Power Automate
  3. Embed a survey in a webpage or Power Apps
  4. Send survey link
  5. Send survey QR code

You can send you survey manually or you can automatically send trigger-based surveys at a specific time such as when a support case is closed. You can go a step further and use Microsoft Flow to create triggered actions or notifications based on survey responses or sentiments.

After the survey is sent, you can use it to help others in your organization.

Step 3: Collaborate on the Survey

With Microsoft Forms Pro multiple people on your team can collaborate on the structure and layout of a survey. All collaborators can view, edit and delete responses and share the survey with other members.

You can also share a survey as a template so that other people in your organization can duplicate it, edit it and use it as their own. When you share a survey as template only the structure of the survey is duplicated, the existing response data is not carried over.

Now you created the survey, sent the survey, and collaborated on the survey. Next you need to analyze the responses you received.

Step 4: Analyze the Survey Results

Microsoft Forms Pro comes with analytics from Power BI that provides summary information and individual results for the survey. You can also export the results to Microsoft Excel.

You can see detailed information about your invitations such as average turn around time, number of failed invitations and invitation status. You can select each response to view more information or you can “view all” to get detailed insights for each question.

When you turn on sentiment analysis for a text field the system will automatically generate a word cloud with common phrases from the comments so you can quickly see if the sentiments are positive or negative overall.

Microsoft Forms Pro comes with rich analytics and you can create your own in-depth analysis by integrating survey data with Power BI.

Are you ready to use the power of Microsoft Forms Pro?

Microsoft Forms Pro is included with select Microsoft Dynamics 365 subscriptions and is available as an upgrade for Office 365 subscriptions.

Are you interested in evaluating Microsoft Dynamics 365? The professional Microsoft Dynamics 365 team at Crowe can help. Let’s start the conversation. Contact us at crminfo@crowe.com.

By Uma Kaliaperumal, Crowe, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Gold Partner, www.crowecrm.com

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Best Practices for Forms in Microsoft Dynamics 365

November 13, 2019   CRM News and Info
crmnav Best Practices for Forms in Microsoft Dynamics 365

Multiple Forms

If you’re familiar with using multiple forms in Dynamics, then you know that you can create different forms and assign security roles so that different users see a different form for a specific entity.  This can get rather complicated depending on how many forms you are using and if you are using a layered security approach where a user may have multiple security roles that are applied to different forms.

In the past, it was best practice to try to stick to one form per entity and only use multiple forms when absolutely necessary. However, once the Portal and new UI was introduced, this thought process changed.

Portal Forms

When you’re setting up your Portal forms, you select the Dynamics form that you would like to present to the user for the Portal page. You can even lock it down to a specific tab on the form as well. You could use the standard Dynamics main form, but anytime you make a change to that form for your internal users, you need to make sure that the same change should be made for your Portal users as well. We have found that it is best to create separate forms for your portal.

When you select a form to use on the Portal, you can also specify a specific tab. If you don’t specify a tab then it will show all of the contents on the form for all tabs. There are two different approaches to consider when setting up forms for Portal use. You could set up multiple, separate forms for each Portal form within each entity, or you can set up one Portal form and create different tabs for each Portal form. Before you make this decision, draw out your ultimate design to see which would work better for your organization. Depending on how many Portal forms you have, changing your mind later could result in a lot of rework and possible Portal downtime.

UI Forms

When using the UI, you don’t need separate forms. The system will use the correct Main form or Quick Create form as needed. The UI form will be the same as the web form. While you don’t need to create separate forms, you can create separate forms. If you’ve worked with Model-driven Apps, then you know that you can create different Apps within the UI for different users. With the new, April 2019 release, you can even force your users directly to the UI. Within the configuration for the UI, when you add entities you have the ability to only add certain forms for each entity.

If you’re fully embracing model-driven apps, then you know that you could have a separate app for each division of your business. Within each app, you only need to add the components you want. This will certainly enhance user-adoption by only presenting them with what they need to do their job. Sometimes giving them too much can be overwhelming, especially at first.

If you aren’t using the UI yet, you should really start setting this up in your organization.  As of October 2020, Microsoft will be deprecating the web app.

This blog is part of a 12 part series focusing on Dynamics Best Practices. If you’ve missed my previous blogs, please check them out by clicking here.

Contact Us!

Please contact us today if you have questions about Best Practices or if you would like assistance in setting up and testing any of the new form functionality and UI functionality in Dynamics.

Beringer Technology Group, a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution. We also provide expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing and Unified Communication Solutions.

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Prevent Bots, SPAM, and Data Garbage in Your Digital Marketing Forms

October 11, 2019   CRM News and Info

by Patrick Enderby

Last updated October 11, 2019

As a modern digital marketer, you can relate. You set up an awesome campaign with solid assets and capture points that are compelling and relevant to your target audience. You then check to see how many leads you have captured, and surprise! The number is much larger than you expected, so you’re super excited. But when you click on the submit report, you see a ton of wonky submissions like “bob@mickeymouse.com” or “公司@12345.com.” 

Spam Prevent Bots, SPAM, and Data Garbage in Your Digital Marketing Forms

Unfortunately, you’re not alone. This is an extremely common occurrence in the digital marketing landscape. 

How to Eliminate Bot and SPAM Submissions on Your Digital Marketing Forms 

According to Distil Network’s 2019 Bad Bot Report, bots accounted for nearly 40% of all internet traffic in 2018. Now, not all bots are “bad.” Some are scrapers or crawlers for search engines or to find your best flight deals. There is, however, a percentage that act as “counter sellers.” These usually come in the form of submits on digital marketing forms that have comment sections, in which the bot will advertise some product or service.

Garbage data providers are another type of poor form submitter. Most of us don’t want to provide our primary contact information. And since most of us have been hounded and abused by aggressive SDR call campaigns at some point in our careers, that’s totally fair. That said, these “bob.smith@gmail.com” submitters actually do want the content or information you’ve gated behind a form, but how can you convince them to provide legitimate contact information or limit their ability to submit bad data?

Let’s walk through a few tips and tricks to cut down on these bot, SPAM, and garbage data form submissions.

Use a CAPTCHA

If you’ve had to interpret distorted letters, numbers, or sounds when submitting a form, you’ve come across a CAPTCHA. Deploying these on your forms is a fast and simple way to cut down on bot submits immediately. You can implement this protective step for free, as this service is provided by reCAPTCHA.

Use Double Opt-In Confirmation

As a good way to build a strong, accurate, and useful email list, you’ll want to use a double opt-in process for confirming form submissions. When someone enters an email address into your form, send them an automated trigger email with a confirmation link. The user will need to open the email and then click on the email to verify that their email is authentic. Bots are extremely unlikely to be able to complete this step, and any submissions that don’t complete the double opt-in should be scrubbed from your list to ensure good email deliverability.

Add a Test Question to Your Form

Many form-builders include several customizable options, including adding HTML that you can copy and paste on your webpage to ask an additional question on your form. You’ll want to frame a simple question that any adult human will be able to answer correctly, but that will be difficult for bots.

Check out this example:

Form 1 Prevent Bots, SPAM, and Data Garbage in Your Digital Marketing Forms

If the input is not the word in white, the program form will recognize that it’s a bot and prevent the submission. And remember to ask a very simple question to avoid frustrating your potential customers.

Create A Bot Honey-Pot

In terms of form submission, a honey pot consists of adding an additional field that only a bot will see and complete. It’s basically a behind-the-scenes trap that protects your forms without any additional steps for human users. You can implement this by adding HTML and styling it using CSS. Some sophisticated bots can now read CSS and Javascript, but this is still an effective method and worth considering if you’ve got some basic programming skills. 

Here’s a simple example:

Honey Pot Prevent Bots, SPAM, and Data Garbage in Your Digital Marketing Forms

You get the idea, right? Just make sure that whatever field you’ve included as a honey pot is not visible to your actual users. If your data includes information gathered from a hidden field, you can immediately recognize that submission as a bot.

Use Email Validation to Eliminate Garbage Data Submissions

One of the new type attribute values in HTML5 is email. Using this new field (instead of the regular text field) can’t prevent a user from using a fake email address, but it does prevent typos or spaces, which helps ensure accurate submissions. Regardless of what the user submits, it will at least look like an email address. 

Here’s how it looks:

Form 3 Prevent Bots, SPAM, and Data Garbage in Your Digital Marketing Forms

Some browsers only look for the @, while other browsers look for the @ and at least one letter and a dot. As of now, this is not supported by Internet Explorer 9.0 (and previous versions) or the Android browser. So, in order to have valid email validation for these browsers, you must create a workaround.

Email Validation Using Pattern Matching

Another way to weed out some of the non-valid submissions is pattern matching. For example, if your company sells to other companies (B2B), you would recognize free email providers like Gmail and Yahoo as poor captures since most companies use company-based addresses. You can use pattern matching to prevent the submission of these email domains. All you need to do is use javascript to search for the patterns you would like to exclude — which would look something like this:

Form 4 Prevent Bots, SPAM, and Data Garbage in Your Digital Marketing Forms

Determined garbage data submitters can circumnavigate some of these, but pattern matching should drastically reduce bad data in your form reports.

Act-On’s Built-In Form Validation Can Help Prevent Fake or Inauthentic Form Submissions

I hope you found this blog helpful in explaining a few tips and tricks you and your marketing team can deploy to prevent bad data submissions. Unfortunately, bots, spammers, and garbage data submitters aren’t going away, but hopefully, some of the tactics outlined above can help clean up your email marketing contacts. 

Additionally, Act-On’s Adaptive Forms have built-in validation tools that you might find helpful. If you’d like to learn more, please schedule a demo today!

Personalizing the Web Experience CTA Prevent Bots, SPAM, and Data Garbage in Your Digital Marketing Forms

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UPS forms new drone delivery subsidiary, will seek FAA approval to operate commercial flights

July 24, 2019   Big Data
 UPS forms new drone delivery subsidiary, will seek FAA approval to operate commercial flights

UPS is doubling down on a drone logistics and delivery market that’s anticipated to be worth $ 29.06 billion by 2027. Ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings call this evening, it revealed that it has applied to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for Part 135 certification, which would enable it to orchestrate commercial drone flights under a newly formed subsidiary business called UPS Flight Forward.

Part 135 approval, which could come as early as this year, would allow Flight Forward to apply for FAA-certified flight operations beyond line of sight, at night, and without limit to the number of drones or operators in command. That’s because Flight Fordware would be legally designated as a certified air carrier, affording it far more leeway in fleet management than the FAA Part 107 drone rules under which UPS currently operates.

Alphabet X lab graduate Wing took a similar regulatory path to market. It announced in April that it had been certified by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration as a small-sized air carrier under Part 135 rules, giving it the green light to charge for service and paving the way for pilot programs in the Virginia towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg,

UPS chief transformation and strategy officer Scott Price claims that Part 135 certification would not only enable faster scaling of the company’s drone deployments in targeted markets, but that it would lay the groundwork for one of the first fully certified revenue-generating operations in the U.S. UPS estimates that cutting off just one mile for the routes of each of the company’s 66,000 delivery drivers would amount to $ 50 million in savings.

“UPS is committed to using technology to transform the way we do business,” added Price. “UPS’ formation of a drone delivery company and application to begin regular operations under this level of certification is historic for UPS and for the drone and logistics industries overall.”

It’s yet another step toward drone delivery dominance for UPS, which earlier this year collaborated with drone platform provider Matternet to launch an aerial delivery service from WakeMed’s flagship hospital and campus in Raleigh. In 2016, it teamed up with Zipline and international health care alliance Gavi in 2016 to deliver blood products to remote locations in Rwanda. And in early 2017, it tested a drone that launches from the top of a UPS van to autonomously drop off packages as the delivery driver makes a separate delivery.

UPS is forging ahead against rivals like Amazon, which launched a trial of its Prime Air drone delivery service for select customers in Cambridge, England in December 2016. In the intervening years, companies like Microsoft and startup Flytrex have trialed airborne delivery services in cities like Holly Springs, North Carolina and Wichita, Kansas. In May, Uber announced plans to deliver food by drone in San Diego, and FedEx plans to develop a drone-powered aircraft inspection program in Tennessee.

Reports show the commercial drone industry is continuing to grow quickly, albeit from a small base. A 2017 forecast from Gartner projected the number of commercial drones sold that year would exceed 174,000. Moreover, about $ 454 million was thrown at UAV startups in 2016 alone, and the market is forecast to be worth $ 127 billion by 2020.

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Microsoft Forms Pro and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CE) – FAQs

July 4, 2019   Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft Forms provides quick and easy Forms & Surveys functionality. Forms Pro extends it by enabling integration with Flow, Dynamics 365 CE, and the Power Platform. Microsoft Forms Pro public preview was announced in this blog post. Here are some common questions that could help Dynamics 365 CE experts understand how Forms Pro and Dynamics 365 CE work together.

What is Microsoft Forms Pro?

A simple, comprehensive enterprise Survey solution built on Microsoft Forms, Dynamics 365 and Power BI. Survey, Invitation and Response data is stored in Common Data Service (CDS) environment. Out of box Power BI visualizations enables easy and effective Response analysis.

How to integrate with existing Dynamics 365 CE instance?

When you sign up for Public Preview, a default CDS environment is provisioned to store Forms Pro Survey, Invitation and Response data.

To work with Surveys in existing Dynamics 365 CE environment, sign up for the preview using your account linked with Dynamics 365 CE instance.

FormsPro1 Microsoft Forms Pro and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CE) – FAQs

Default CDS environment is created as part of Forms Pro Preview sign up. See below screenshot of Environments list that show up when we click user account. MSFT Service (default) is the CDS environment added as part of Forms Pro provisioning and is the current/focus environment when I sign into Forms Pro.

FormsPro2 Microsoft Forms Pro and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CE) – FAQs

BhaveshLab-PFEDYNCE is my existing Dynamics 365CE instance. Installed Forms Pro app from Microsoft App Source in this Dynamics 365 CE instance, and can point Forms Pro to this environment by switching to this environment.

FormsPro3 Microsoft Forms Pro and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CE) – FAQs

How to automate sending Survey Invites on a business transaction?

The Forms Pro and Flow integration provides Flow templates to send Survey invitation on common business transactions. You can customize these Flow templates or create from scratch depending on business needs.

FormsPro4 Microsoft Forms Pro and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CE) – FAQs 

How to automate Survey Response processing?

Survey Invites and Response data is stored in the CDS environment. These entities are part of the Forms Pro solution and can be explored through the Solutions area or Advanced Find. CDS “record created” Flow trigger can be leveraged to trigger business logic on a Survey response. Here are screenshots of a simple example, a Task is created in Dynamics 365 CE when a Survey response arrives with a low NPS score.

 FormsPro5 Microsoft Forms Pro and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CE) – FAQs

How to create file upload question?

File upload question is not currently available but it’s on the roadmap. Please see updates on this suggestion in the Microsoft Forms user voice portal.

Issues or suggestions while tying Forms Pro?

Please use the Feedback FormsPro6 Microsoft Forms Pro and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CE) – FAQsbutton on upper right corner or direct link to Microsoft Forms Suggestion Box to review existing suggestions, vote or submit a new one.

Hope this helps!

Bhavesh Shastri

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Send and Analyze Quizzes/ Surveys in Microsoft Forms Pro

May 2, 2019   Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Have you ever wanted a simple easy way to capture data from your customers, partners or employees? If so then you are going to love Microsoft Forms Pro, the newest member of Microsoft’s Power Platform.  Microsoft Forms Pro is a simple yet comprehensive survey solution that allows businesses to easily capture and analyze feedback to improve customer, employee, and product experiences. I decided to challenge myself to learn how to use this new project and write about it in a blog. This post is the last in a three-part series. Part one covered creating a survey. Part two covered creating a quiz. And finally, in part three, I will cover sharing your survey or quiz and viewing and analyzing the data.

Microsoft Forms Pro extends the capabilities of Microsoft Forms in Office 365. However, the basic Forms app included with Office has limited a limited toolset. Microsoft Forms Pro features additional functions, including advanced branching, theme customization, individual tracking links, data connection with Dynamic 365 workflow automation using Microsoft Flow, Response data is available in real time, but is also available in PowerBI for further analysis.

The public preview is available to anyone with a Microsoft work account, including both Microsoft Office 365 commercial customers, and Dynamics 365 customers. Forms Pro is expected to be a paid service, once generally available.

Sending Surveys and Quizzes in Microsoft Forms Pro

There are currently five different options for sending your survey or quiz. The directions I will give are for sending a survey. The process for sending a quiz is very similar, as the options are the same. (There are slight differences in what you will click on).

MFP 3 5 options for sending Send and Analyze Quizzes/ Surveys in Microsoft Forms Pro

1. Email: Send the survey link by email using the built-in email feature.

    • Simply open the survey you want to send, click on Send Survey> Email
    • By default, a subject line and an unsubscribe link are auto-populated along with a button/ link to your survey. If you want to add an additional link to your survey in the body of your message, just click on Insert Survey Link.
    • You also have the option to easily personalize your email and use by first name or last name.
    • You also have the option to use preformatted email templates. These templates may be modified and saved.

2. Microsoft Flow: Send the email by configuring a business trigger with Microsoft Flow.

    • You may also send a quiz or survey based on a certain business trigger, such as the resolution of a case, etc.
    • To get started, simply open the survey you want to send. Click on Send Survey> Microsoft Flow.
    • An email will pop up. Compose the text you want. Then select Configure Flow.
    • You may choose either a preformatted template in Flow or create your own flow from scratch. Currently, there are templates available for the following scenarios:
      • When a case is resolved.
      • When a lead is qualified.
      • When an order is fulfilled.
      • When a certain button is clicked on in PowerApps.
      • When a case is closed in Salesforce.

3. Embed: Embed the survey or quiz within a webpage by pasting the survey’s embed code into your webpage’s source code. You must first choose from one of the three options for how you want your survey to appear. Your three options are as follows:

To embed your survey:

    • First, open the survey you want to embed. Go to Send Survey>Embed.
    • Under Select the embed type for your survey, choose how you want your survey to appear. You have three options.
    • Inline: The survey is displayed statistically on the webpage.
    • Pop-up: The survey is displayed in a pop-up window (based on the respondent’s actions).
    • Button: The survey is displayed when a certain button is selected.
      • By default, the text on this button is “provide feedback.”
    • Next, you have two options for adding parameters:
    • Select one or all out-of-the-box parameters under Select parameters to add in embed code
    • Create a new parameter by selecting Add custom parameter.
    • Select Generate code.
    • Lastly, select Copy and paste the embed code into the webpage.
    • Don’t forget to update the page’s source code in order to render the survey on the webpage.

4. Link:  Here you can copy and paste the link to the survey or quiz you created. Choose this option if you don’t have the emails of the people you want to see your survey.

      • Open the survey, and go to Send Survey > Link
      • Select Copy and paste the link in a place visible to your intended audience. They may gain access to the quiz by clicking on the link.

5. QR code: Send a QR code for your survey or quiz so that the quiz may be accessed by simply scanning it on a tablet or phone.

      • Open survey, and go to Send Survey > QR Code.
      • Select Download, and share the QR Code.

Continue to our blog to read more and learn how to analyze your quizzes and surveys in Microsoft Forms Pro.

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Easily Create Quizzes in Microsoft Forms Pro

April 24, 2019   Microsoft Dynamics CRM
crmnav Easily Create Quizzes in Microsoft Forms Pro

Quizzes Can Be Helpful in the Business World Too!

Many people consider quizzes to be unproductive and not beneficial, but nothing could be further than the truth! There are actually many benefits to businesses doing quizzes. Not only are quizzes are fun and interactive, but they engage your customers in ways they’ve never been engaged before. Who doesn’t like the fun of taking a quiz? There are times and places where reading a piece of content might be more appropriate, but there are also times that a quiz is the right way to go. Many big businesses such as Disney, Hilton Hotels, and Red Lobster engage their audiences with quizzes. Using quizzes can give you some great insights about your customers or can be used to educate someone about your products or services. There are many articles out there about the psychology behind quizzes and the business benefits to using quizzes in marketing. No longer are quizzes only a tool used by teachers to assess student progress and improve student outcomes. Quizzes are actually content marketing’s secret little weapon. Creating quizzes in Microsoft Forms Pro can be very productive and enlightening.

Business Reasons For a Quiz

Quizzes can be extremely useful for businesses too. Some examples of how businesses might use quizzes are:

  • Reinforcement for training or webinars.
  • Onboarding documentation.
  • To educate your clients or prospects on a particular service or product you offer.
  • Employee testing tool.

Once you start thinking, you’ll think of all kind of scenarios in which quizzes can be applied to your business.

If you’ve ever created quizzes in Microsoft Forms, then you know how easy it is! Microsoft Forms Pro, the newest member of Microsoft’s Power Platform, extends the capabilities of Microsoft Forms in Office 365.  The basic Forms app included with Office has somewhat of a limited toolset. Microsoft Forms Pro features additional functions, including advanced branching, theme customization, individual tracking links, data connection with Dynamic 365 workflow automation using Microsoft Flow. Response data is available in real time but is also available in PowerBI for further analysis.

Microsoft Forms Pro is a simple yet comprehensive survey solution that allows businesses to easily capture and analyze feedback to improve customer, employee, and product experiences. I decided to challenge myself to learn how to use this new product and write about it in a blog. This post is the second of a projected three-part series. Part one covered creating a survey. Part two covers creating a quiz. And finally, in part three, I will cover sharing your survey or quiz and viewing and analyzing the data. Once you use this “simple, yet comprehensive” tool, you’ll realize how valuable the data you attain is! This blog post will walk you through the steps for creating a simple quiz.

The public preview is available to anyone with a Microsoft work account, including both Microsoft Office 365 commercial customers, and Dynamics 365 customers. Forms Pro is expected to be a paid service, once generally available.

Let’s Get Started!

The first thing to do (if you haven’t already done so) is to visit the Forms Pro website and sign up for the preview. Once you do that, you will see two options, create a new survey and create a new quiz. Let’s take a look at creating a new quiz, so click on that option. My screen shows a few surveys and quizzes I have created. If you previously used Microsoft Forms, those forms will be migrated over to Forms Pro.

Next, it is time to give your quiz a title and description. Click on the words untitled quiz. The font size and type may be changed here. You may also add an image here if desired, although the area where the picture will be displayed is pretty small. It is perfect for a company logo or a small picture.

Click on the paint pallet icon (on the top right-hand corner) to choose a theme. You can choose either a solid color, a pre-set picture, or add your organizations’ theme by clicking the plus sign button.

Continue to our blog to read more and learn how easy it is to create quizzes in Microsoft Forms Pro

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Easily Create Surveys in Microsoft Forms Pro

April 19, 2019   Microsoft Dynamics CRM
crmnav Easily Create Surveys in Microsoft Forms Pro

Have you ever wanted a simple easy way to capture data from your customers, partners or employees? If so then you are going to love Microsoft Forms Pro, the newest member of Microsoft’s Power Platform! Microsoft Forms Pro is a simple yet comprehensive survey solution that allows businesses to easily capture and analyze feedback to improve customer, employee, and product experiences.  I decided to challenge myself to learn how to use this new project and write about it in a blog. This tool can give you some great input and data from your customers which can help you make more informed business decisions and be proactive rather than reactive. Anything that gives you more information from your customers is a good thing! This post is the first of a projected three-part series. Part one covers creating a survey. Part two will cover creating a quiz. And finally, in part three, I will cover sharing your survey or quiz as well as viewing and analyzing the data. Find out how easy it is to create surveys in Microsoft Forms Pro.

Microsoft Forms Pro extends the capabilities of Microsoft Forms in Office 365. However, the basic Forms app included with Office has limited a limited toolset. Microsoft Forms Pro features additional functions, including advanced branching, theme customization, individual tracking links, data connection with Dynamic 365 workflow automation using Microsoft Flow, Response data is available in real time, but is also available in PowerBI for further analysis.

The public preview is available to anyone with a Microsoft work account, including both Microsoft Office 365 commercial customers, and Dynamics 365 customers. Forms Pro is expected to be a paid service, once generally available.

I found Microsoft Forms Pro to be fairly straightforward and easy-to-use.  Microsoft Forms Pro is a quick and easy way to send surveys to your recipients. You can then gather and analyze the responses, using the data to enhance your customer’s journey. Once you use this “simple, yet comprehensive” tool, you’ll realize how valuable the data you attain is! This blog post will walk you through the steps for creating a simple survey.

The first thing to do is to visit the Forms Pro website to sign up for the preview. Once you do that, you will see two options, create a new survey and create a new quiz. Let’s take a look at creating a new survey, so click on that option. My screen shows a few surveys and quizzes I have created. If you previously used Microsoft Forms, those forms will be migrated over to Forms Pro.

Continue to our blog and learn more about how easy it is to create surveys in Microsoft Forms Pro.

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4 Ways to Use Adaptive Forms to Improve Your Lead Gen Efforts

January 2, 2019   CRM News and Info
Adaptive Forms Feature 4 Ways to Use Adaptive Forms to Improve Your Lead Gen Efforts

If they aren’t already, forms should be a staple of your marketing strategy. While forms don’t get the same attention as other digital marketing methods, they can be extremely effective in improving your lead gen efforts, and helping you transform your inbound and outbound marketing strategy.

But why are forms so important and effective? First things first, they’re extremely useful when it comes to quickly gathering information on your leds and customers. Plus, having a more thorough understanding of your target audience is always helpful when it comes to building out your entire marketing strategy.

And, in the world of adaptive forms, you can personalize your forms for even better results. Focusing on asking the right questions, and making the overall experience interactive and enjoyable provides your leads and customers with extra motivation to share a bit about themselves with you.

Of course, as is the case with all your marketing efforts, there are ways you can use forms for better engagement and results. And, today we’re listing a few ways in which you can get creative in order to gather the information you need to inform and revamp your marketing strategy.

1. Entice Leads and Customers to Share A Bit About Themselves

While using forms to collect information may seem like a no-brainer, it’s sometimes easier said than done. Plus, there is also the challenge of convincing your audience to give you their contact info and other relevant information when they know little or nothing about what it is you do. That is why I advise offering customers some sort of incentive that will both peak their interest in what you do, and make them feel that sharing a bit about themselves with you is worthwhile.

For example, did you know that content marketing results in six times more conversions than other forms of marketing? Therefore, offering customers an asset such as an eBook, video or webinar is a great excuse to ask them to fill out a form in exchange.

2. Use Forms to Identify the Best Opportunities

Forms can help you do so much more than just collect information. If used strategically, they can also help you identify the best leads so both marketing and sales can focus their efforts effectively and efficiently. As your leads move along the sales funnel, consider providing them a form that will inform your team whether this is your ideal customer and an opportunity worth pursuing.

Need some inspiration on how you can use forms to identify leads? Check out our recent interview with Kat Krieger from Joyride to learn how her team is using Act-On forms to find and focus on the best opportunities.

3. Survey Your Current Customers to Find Out What they Want

Collecting feedback from your customers is an important part of nurturing a relationship with them. It doesn’t only show that you care and are dedicated to providing them with amazing customer service, it can also inform how you approach business in the future.

For example, are you looking to innovate your product or add services in the near future? You can take some of the headache out of brainstorming and spending money on research by asking your customers directly what they want. Ask customers to fill out a form telling you what they like about your product and what is on their wish list. Try offering customers some sort of incentive, such as a chance to win a gift card, in order to improve your conversion rate.

4. Make Your Emails Fun

Forms don’t have to be long and tedious. Including a multichoice block in your emails to prospects or current customers is a great way to gather information over time. You can ask your audience questions about what type of content they prefer, their interests, business goals and much more. And the great thing is that the right marketing automation tool can help you easily add one into your email template, eliminating the need to know any special code to make your emails a bit more interesting.

A Few Tips for Optimizing Your Forms

Optimizing your forms is just as important as the way you use them. After all, you don’t want your target customer to leave your form filled out halfway because they lost interest or it was too difficult to complete. Here are a few tips to creating a form that encourages customers to submit:

  • Make Sure Your Forms Are Branded: It’s just as important that your forms, like any other content, meet your brand guidelines. Your forms are part of the nurturing process, and you want potential leads and customers to be able to put a face to the name.
  • The Length of Your Forms is Important: The last thing you want to do is have your customers browse away from your form because they decided it was too long and time-consuming. It’s best to gather information over time instead of in one fell swoop. Decide what questions to ask based on where your customers are in the sales funnel.
  • Minimize the Amount of Typing Required: Did you know that 66% of B2B customers think companies should make it easier to access their content? That means less is more when it comes to forms. When designing your form, think about where you can use multiple choice, checkboxes or dropdown menus instead of text boxes. This allows you to ensure consistency in the type of information you gather from your form, and save your leads and customers time in filling it out.
  • Make it Personal: The great thing about adaptive forms is that instead of creating a generic form, you can tailor them to best fit the needs of each of your leads and customers. When creating a form, think about who each of your customers are and what type of questions will apply to each segment. That way, they will only have to deal with questions that are relevant to their needs, which will in turn enhance their trust in you to deliver a solution.  
  • A/B Test: Like all your other marketing efforts, it is extremely important to A/B test your forms and update them based on your findings. In each version of your form, use a different CTA, content, images and/or design, and measure conversion rates to gauge which of these combinations resonates best with your audience.
  • Make Your Form Mobile Friendly: Making your forms easy to view and fill out on mobile is just as important as making your websites and emails mobile friendly. Having font that is too small or requiring your audience to scroll, may discourage them from filling out the form in the first place. Making your form mobile friendly will enhance their experience resulting in a better conversion rate.

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GDPR-friendly Web Forms that Feed into Dynamics 365

May 21, 2018   Microsoft Dynamics CRM

With the deadline to meet the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) fast approaching, we want to make it easier for our customers to collect the consent they need from their clients, and track that in Dynamics 365. We’re going to be using the PowerWebForm add-on, which allows users to quickly and easily create a web form to post on their website, and feed the web form submissions directly into Dynamics 365. The GDPR-friendly form can be accomplished in just a few easy steps.

1. Import the PowerWebForm add-on if you don’t already have it in your system, and register for a free, 30 day trial.

2. Create two new fields on your lead and contact entities: Consented, and consent date (or whatever you’d like to call them). The “Consented” field should be a Two Option type field, with the values Yes and No. The Consented Date field should be a Date type field.

3. Build the web form. To do this, navigate to the web form entity, under the PowerPack area and click New. Fill in the required information and Save (more details on exactly what each field does, can be found in the user guide). We’re choosing to create leads with our web form submissions, but you can create whatever you’d like. The cool thing about PowerWebForm is that duplicate detection is built in – for multiple record types! – so if the lead (or contact) already exists in the system, it won’t create a duplicate.

052118 1626 GDPRfriendl1 GDPR friendly Web Forms that Feed into Dynamics 365

4. Create fields for the web form, by scrolling down to the form fields section of the web form record and clicking the + sign on the grid. Make sure to create a Consent checkbox, which will be mapped to the field you created above. If you make this a required field, the person filling out the form will have to check the check box, in order to submit their inquiry. We’re going to choose to leave ours as not required.

052118 1626 GDPRfriendl2 GDPR friendly Web Forms that Feed into Dynamics 365

5. (Optional) If you’d like to set up duplicate detection for not just leads (which is what the web form above is currently checking on) but also for contacts, navigate to the related Duplicate Check entity, and create a Duplicate Check for contacts as well.

052118 1626 GDPRfriendl3 GDPR friendly Web Forms that Feed into Dynamics 365

To recap, here’s what we’ve done so far: Created a web form that looks for a duplicate lead in the system based on the email address entered on the form, and the email address entered on the lead, when a form is submitted. If a duplicate is not found, it will then go and look for a duplicate contact, based on the email address on the contact. If a duplicate is still not found, a new lead will be created and a web form activity will be created and associated to the newly created lead. If a duplicate lead OR contact is found, a web form activity will be created and associated to the existing lead. (note: the information on the lead/contact will NOT be updated).

The next step is going to be to create a workflow that updates the “Consented Date” and “Consented” fields on the newly created, or existing lead or contact, if they’ve checked the “Consented” check box on the web form. This workflow will only update those two fields, if the person submitting the form DID consent. So, we’ll need a parent workflow that checks the value of the form submission, and then a child workflow that updates the related lead or contact.

Parent workflow:

052118 1626 GDPRfriendl4 GDPR friendly Web Forms that Feed into Dynamics 365

Child workflow:

052118 1626 GDPRfriendl5 GDPR friendly Web Forms that Feed into Dynamics 365

Update step:

052118 1626 GDPRfriendl6 GDPR friendly Web Forms that Feed into Dynamics 365

Note: If you are doing this on multiple web forms, make sure that the “consented” field on the web form is exactly the same across all web forms. If it is, then you only have to build one set of workflows, as listed above, since the value will be the same if someone consents, no matter what form it’s on.

As always, it’s important to test your entire process, so you know that it’s working correctly. But that’s it! You now have a process that asks specifically for consent and tracks it back to the leads/contacts in your system.

For more helpful tips and tricks – subscribe to our blog!

Happy D365’ing!

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