Product Registration

Steven Sawyer

I may be interested in creating a product registration system that allows our customers to register their purchased products in a Smartsheet Form. Has anyone done this? Looking for pros/cons, tips, maybe let me see your solution.

Jeff Reisman

@Steven Sawyer I built something recently for one of our business units that I'm showcasing for another business unit tomorrow, and I think it could give you some ideas of how to accomplish product registrations fairly easily.

The system I put together was for HVAC contractors to register for training classes on our products. Our Sales managers organize these with our Distributor partners, so the Sales people decide on time, location, etc., and Distributors send out QR codes to their Contractor customers that link to the registration form. Instead of having to create a new form, or depend on the Contractor to put in the class information correctly, we're building custom URL query strings with the class info pre-filled.

When a Sales guy wants to plan a class, he opens a form that lets him enter the class name, location, and date. He submits the form, and the sheet parses out his info into the custom URL. I use a series of SUBSTITUTE formulas to replace things like spaces, ampersands, commas, etc., with the necessary codes (%20, %26, %2C, etc.,) and tack these all together into the custom URL. So for example, if there's a Residential Controls class at Starsky & Hutch HVAC Supply on April 1 2023, all the formulas eventually parse this out to:

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/{formIDgoeshere}?Training%20Class=Residential%20Controls%20Starsky%20%26%20Hutch%20HVAC%20Supply%204%2F1%2F23&Class%20Date=4%2F1%2F23

It then sends him an update request containing the info he entered and the URL. He has the option to correct any info via the update request and get a new URL if needed. He then goes to a free website and creates the QR Code with the custom URL in it. He then sends the QR Code and class info to the Distributor for them to share with their contractors. When the contractors use the QR Code, the form opens with the class info pre-filled. In the example above, it would be Training Class: "Residential Controls Starsky & Hutch HVAC Supply 4/1/23" and Class Date: "4/1/23". Then they enter their name, email, whatever, and submit their registration.

So for your product registration, you could do something similar if you send out a QR Code with something like the Product SKU or other info pre-filled in the URL. Even better if you collect buyer name and email address at time of sale, you could send custom URLs to the buyer directly.

Steven Sawyer

Very clever. Thanks for the ideas.