Collecting data in an online form is a great way to gather customer data. The number of questions you have can help you gather more information to qualify your customer further and help you provide a better service. Sometimes you can ask too many questions, and rather than giving someone a 20 page questionnaire to do business with you, you might want to consider using hidden fields. Here are some ways to use hidden fields:
- to indicate where the form was filled out - such as landing page number 3
- to prepopulate other systems with automation triggers - such as task status or a checkbox of approval
- to add other common pieces of information synonymous with that type of customer - such as Country
- to add obvious information and to reduce the number of questions asked - for example, if they filled out the industry field then you might automatically assign them as a corporate client
Collecting data in hidden fields helps you to classify who what when and where in a much more powerful and contextual way.