New in Google Docs: Spreadsheets Form Summary

I love how Google quietly and consistently adds new tools – and new capabilities to existing ones.

A favorite tool of mine is Google Docs – spreadsheets in particular. I use it for clients as well as myself. For instance, when someone requests a free initial consultation, they are asked to complete a short questionnaire prior to our appointment, in order to define their needs and make our call super focused and productive. This questionnaire is a Google spreadsheet that has been turned into an online form that can be conveniently completed in a browser. Submissions and responses are kept private and confidential.

Late last week Google added a form summary page feature with information about completed responses, which instantly gave me some very useful data on my prospective virtual assistant clients. Keep in mind that this form is less than one year old and that I don’t require answers to all of my questions, but here are some examples:

Copyright 2009 Aday VA Solutions

These are just a handful of examples, but as you can see they provide valuable data about the type of prospective clients that request a free initial phone consultation with me.

There are many other ways to use these easy spreadsheet forms: customer satisfaction surveys, quick opinion polls (post the results to your blog!), post conference/teleseminar feedback, etc.

How do you use Google Docs? Do you have how-to questions?

Tagged as: clients, collaboration, customer service, free stuff, Google, organization, planning, productivity, Resources, Spreadsheet, time management, virtual assistant