Data management. It doesn’t sound like the most super-exciting topic in the world. Although it seems relatively technical (and it can be), it’s made simple for you by the EmailMeForm Data Manager.
Over the past weeks, we’ve worked through setting up online forms from scratch, and you’ve begun collecting one form entry after another, slowly but surely.
However, now you are wondering what you are supposed to do to use the business or personal data you’ve collected from your respondents.
Today, we’ll look at eight awesome things you can do in the Form Manager — no special technical skills required. Isn’t that a relief?
In fact, when you finish reading this blog entry, you will know how to:
- Find your form usage statistics
- View your online form responses
- Perform an advanced search to find information quickly
- Download data as a PDF
- Export data to Excel, CSV, or TXT
- Print out forms (if you are not a paperless office)
- Edit responses (and learn why you’d want to do so)
- Delete records
Why It’s Important to Retrieve Your Form Entries
Speed is of the essence in converting online leads. You might be competing with large companies with round the clock customer service and chatbots, so the sooner that you respond, the more likely you’ll seal the deal.
In December of 2018, Statista released survey findings which indicate that 42% of American shoppers cite customer service, including fast response time, as a primary factor influencing whether or not they feel encouraged to spend their dollars with e-commerce sites.
When a user takes the time to complete your form, they are interested in your product or service. Now it’s up to you to convert that lead rather than squandering a prime opportunity.
Are you ready to dive into the data management pool? Let’s go!
1 - Find Your Form Usage Statistics
First, it’s an essential part of data management to know and understand your statistics. This knowledge provides you an insightful look at when you are receiving form entries. You’ll know peak times when users are either viewing your form or creating a form entry.
Our data manager provides this information in an easy to read graph.
Armed with these insights, you can determine:
- Peak days for your users
- How many viewers enter their data
Once you know this information, you’re able to use it to analyze whether or not your form is successful and make tweaks to your form to drive more significant results.
How to View Usage Statistics
From your Form Manager Screen, select the form you want to work with. Click the “Usage Statistics” button at the bottom right-hand side of the screen. It opens up the chart, and you can use the four tabs at the top to view your stats by:
- Today
- Week
- Month
- Year
Easy as apple pie!
2 - View Online Form Responses
So, you’ve been collecting form responses. You know this because the friendly folks at EmailMeForm send you an email alerting you to each time you receive a form entry. You’ve meant to check in to how to retrieve those entries, but you got sidetracked away from attending to this essential data management.
However, putting off tackling this task could allow valuable inquiries — and hot leads — to slip away from you.
How to Find Your Form Responses in the Data Manager
Log in to EmailMeForm and you’ll be in your Form Manager.
Click the “Data” button at the bottom right corner.
This takes you to your form responses.
View a list of records on the left side of the window and scroll through individual records on the right.
3 - Perform an Advanced Search
When you first started with EmailMeForm, perhaps you only got a few responses. But, as your list grows, you might need to locate the customer data of one particular person quickly.
For instance, you know the name of a person who has ordered in the past, but you lost his phone number (it was written on a sticky note for the longest time, but you can’t imagine where it is now!)
Now, you want to reach out to them because their favorite cruise line is offering a substantial discount or you just got their favorite brand of socks back into your e-commerce site.
Instead of wasting time scanning through for the customer data you need, perform an Advanced Search. This feature is a real timesaver from a data management standpoint!
How to Advance Search for a Record
- From your EmailMeForm From Manager, locate the form you need, open the data manager.
- Once you are in the Data Manager, type the customer name into the Advanced Search Bar, and click enter.
- The record you need will display on the right side of the screen.
4 - Download a Record as PDF
So, it’s obviously super useful to know how to retrieve your form responses. However, you will most likely need, on occasion, to use the data in other applications and want to move them to your computer.
One way of doing that is to download the record as a PDF. This option is helpful when you want to keep a form handy on your computer but don’t need to print it.
Here’s an example. You know you a user requested a phone call on a particular date to discuss an architectural drawing he needs you to draft.
However, you will be attending a conference that day. You want to call him, but you don’t want to retrieve his data using public WiFi. Instead, you download a PDF that you can open up on the go — much safer than logging in on open WiFi.
How to Download Records to PDF
- Go to your form manager, click to open the form you need to retrieve data from, and open up the Data Manager.
- Click the checkbox in front of the record you need.
- Find the “print” icon with the little printer image.
- Click the blue “print” link.
- When your print wizard appears, change the destination to “Save as PDF,” name and save the file.
5 - Export Data to Excel, CSV, or TXT
Need to move your data into a spreadsheet? That’s easily done, as well!
Whether you need it to create sales forecasts reports or to upload it to a newsletter list, it takes only a few brief minutes to accomplish this data management task.
How to Export Data to Excel, CSV, or TXT
- From your EmailMeForm Form Manager, choose the form you need to work with and select “Data Manager” from near the bottom right of your screen.
- Select the record (or records using the select all checkbox).
- Click the “Export” button from below your list of responses, and choose the output type.
- Save the newly created file as you wish.
6 - Print Forms
We don’t recommend the printing of every form, especially those that contain sensitive customer data like credit card payments. Indeed, the best thing about EmailMeForm (and our Vault) is the built-in form security — which goes out the window if you print forms.
However, we do realize that not all companies are a paperless environment. Company policy might require you to keep paper backups of certain records. Or, in the case of simple contact forms, you might just prefer to work with paper.
So, we do include the option of printing forms for your convenience.
How to Print Your EmailMeForm
- From the Form Manager, choose the form you need to print and select the “Data Manager” button at the bottom of your screen.
- Use the checkbox to select the record(s) you want to print.
- Click the “Print” icon (the one with the printer)
- Then, click the blue “print” link.
- You’ll launch your print wizard and print as you would any other document.
7 - Edit Responses
On occasion, you might need to edit responses. This can be because you are updating a form with internal notes or a user typed in incorrect information that you need to correct.
Fortunately, it’s only a few clicks to get there.
How to Edit Responses
Head from Form Manager over to the Data Manager.
Select the data the needs to be edited by checking the box in the front of the row; this will pull up the form.
Make the necessary changes and “Submit.”
8 - Delete a Form Record
When you no longer need a record, you can delete it to keep your form database neat and clean, cutting down on time wasted scrolling through old information.
How to Delete Multiple Records
You can select one or multiple records and delete them by checking the boxes of those which you want to purge and then clicking the delete button right below your records list:
Deleting a Single Form Entry
Additionally, you can delete single forms from the preview window on the right-hand side of the screen.
Form Security Reminders
We want you to retrieve your customer data and utilize it in the way that best suits your business needs.
However, remember that EmailMeForm is PCI-certified and takes data security measures that protect you — and your users. Work within the safe confines of our Data Manager as opposed to printing or storing on your computer as often as possible.
Handle data carefully, and if you must print your forms, destroy them after use with a cross-cut shredder or hire a document destruction service to take care of it for you.
And, if you are collecting credit card payments, be sure to store it in our Vault for safekeeping. Data management is a serious responsibility and should always be done with the utmost care.
If you want to learn more information about handling data safely, read our form security 101.
Deborah Tayloe
Deborah is a blogger and freelancer who often writes for EmailMeForm. When she’s not blogging, you’ll probably find Deborah working on DIY projects around her home in North Carolina.
