Too many forms!

We usually think red tape wraps mostly around Government. We don’t realise that our own business can be a victim of data for data’s sake.

There actually is a difference between data and information. In a fairlt general sense, data is information without contect. For example, 1970 could be “one thousand nine hundred and seventy”, “one nine seven zero” or “year of birth, Ninetenn Seventy”.

Whenever we collect data from a customer, it must serve a purpose. A couple of common misconceptions:

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• If you’re asking for date of birth, there’s no need to ask for age as well.
• If all your customers are from the same Town, State, and/or Country, is the information needed?
• If you can’t actually see a person sign a form, why ask for their signature?
• Name, Date of Birth, and Address are not good security questions – they are usually printed on any driver licence. Unless the licence is a photo id and you can see the photo, you cannot verify the person on the other end of the phone line.

The information you collect will determine the design of the form you create to collect that information. Be quite sure of (i) what you need to know, (ii) what you might like to know (for marketing purposes), and (iii) what you either don’t need to know (or if you ask for it, might turn the customer away) BEFORE you even start to design your collection form. It usually makes little difference whether the form is online or offline, the information you’ll need remains the same.