6 Helpful Ways to Use Microsoft's Best Kept Secret, MS Forms

650,000 U.S. companies use Microsoft 365 for their business productivity and collaboration. But many only stick to the apps they know, like Word, Outlook, and OneDrive. While some companies may even venture out into using Teams and SharePoint, there are many other applications in the Microsoft world one only needs a Microsoft account to access that are completely missed. Businesses only find them if they have a great IT consultant or hear about them through word of mouth. One of these best kept secrets in the MS world is Microsoft Forms. If you ever send out any surveys, sign-up forms, or quizzes, Microsoft Forms can completely streamline how you do it and save you a lot of time. Additionally, the app is free to use with a Microsoft account.

Typical Survey Workflow Say you’re sending out a year-end customer satisfaction survey. A typical workflow might look like this:

1. Create the survey in MS Word.

2. Email the survey, one by one to each customer

3. Wait to get the completed Word surveys back via email

4. Go through each document and compile the results in Excel or another program This is a time-consuming process and can invite data errors if information isn’t transferred accurately from a survey to a spreadsheet.
   

Microsoft Forms Survey Workflow When you use Microsoft Forms, the entire process is automated. Additionally, forms take a lot less time to complete because of the templates and easy-to-use interface.

1. Create survey in the Microsoft Forms online interface

2. Share a link to the form via text, email, on social media, etc. with all customers at once

3. Read responses as they come into the interface automatically

4. Export your already collated results to Excel Using Forms, you no longer need to go through the arduous process of collating multiple surveys, results are ready to export to Excel at the click of a button.
   

Here Are Some Great Ways to Use Microsoft Forms Because of the ease of use, once you begin using Forms you might find that you’d like to collect more data using surveys to inform your business decisions, marketing campaigns, and employee policies. A bonus is that not only is Forms easy for those creating the surveys, it’s easier for the people filling them out too. A person can open a survey or quiz on any device and fill it outline. No manual document to attach and email back. Here are some ways you can use forms to power faster surveys and better data gathering (many of these are available as pre-set templates!).

Customer Satisfaction Survey Impress your clients with a more modern survey that they can fill out easily from their mobile device or desktop. Forms has some of the classic question fields used in professional surveys like rankings, Likert®, and Net Promoter Score®.

Employee Security Awareness Quiz It’s important to train employees regularly on how to detect phishing emails, proper data handling policies, and IT security hygiene. But how do you know they are retaining the information? Use Forms to send out a security awareness quiz and you can not only see responses but also the average time the quiz takes to complete.

Webinar or Event Registration You don’t need to pay for a fancy webinar system to send out a pre-event registration. There is a template for this in Forms that allows you to capture all types of data, such as name and business details, sessions of interest, and any other information you need to plan a great event.

Change Readiness Survey Change management is a growing necessity as company go through multiple technology and business-related transformations all the time. Change management focuses on helping people get through those changes. Forms can be used as an effective tool for gathering change management data like an employee’s current feelings about a change, and how prepared someone feels they are for new workflows.

Remote Learning/Working Sentiment Survey Evaluate how students or employees feel about the remote experience for going to school or working. These types of surveys help organizations gauge what’s working and what’s not and gather important feedback to improve remote experiences.

Cloud Tool Survey An important part of streamlining cloud use and managing shadow IT (apps employees use without permission) is getting feedback from your team on their cloud apps. Which they like, which they don’t, which they wish they had, etc. Forms makes it easy to put together a cloud tool survey and gather that necessary information to streamline and optimize your company’s cloud use.

Gain a Competitive Advantage Through IT Consulting Texas I.T. Pros offers expert IT consulting and can help your Denton or Wise County business uncover hidden gems like Forms and implement your cloud strategy in the most effective and cost-efficient way. Contact us today to learn more! Call 940-239-6500 or reach out online.