Please! Stop Using Google Forms for In-store Demo Recaps

Friday, January 15, 2021

Dear CPG brands and agencies,

I regret to inform you that your Google Forms are making your life harder(not easier) when it comes to managing and reporting on in-store demo product sampling campaigns (and that doesn’t get any better as you transition to digital sampling).

The Sampoll team interviewed over 170 CPG brands and promotional event staffing agencies and roughly 50% of them said they currently use Google Forms for reporting on in-store or in-person product sampling demos.

What is Google Forms? 

It’s one of the many wonderful free tools courtesy of Google that anyone can use to make online surveys. This is a great option if you are looking to make standard surveys, quizzes or event registration forms without spending money.  

Here are some disadvantages for your brand ambassadors and promotional staff:

  1. No internet, no access. 

          a) Google forms is an online, internet based tool. If you’ve ever been to a large trade show, internet access and bandwidth can be very spotty. Thus, trying to collect real-time information to send to remote teams renders itself impossible and probably why you’re tirelessly chasing down your staff for demo recaps after the events.  

  1. A Google form isn’t a digital punch card. 

           a) You are flying blind on whether your staff is actually at the event! Google forms are simple - they just allow you to fill out some basic multiple choice questions - and that’s it. There are no additional features in Google Forms that allow you to create transparency to hold your staff accountable. 

  1. No Reporting Dashboard.

            a) There are no photo gallery features to easily upload and store those booth setup/customer activation photos that you or your brand customers may have requested. There is no way to automatically compile and format these photos for reporting. 

             b) If you want to make custom reports, you will have to use google sheets(excel format) raw data and create your own manual reports that can result in eating up a lot of your time!

Switching from Google forms to Sampoll:

Sampoll is a platform to help brand activation managers and agencies oversee sampling campaigns all in one, easy to use, platform. 

  • Offline Mode.
  1. Sampoll is able to cache(store) your demo campaigns on the mobile app so you can collect data even when you're offline.  
  • Staff Tracking. 

          a) Your demo staff can easily check-in/out of their shift for the event using our GPS tracker and helps you keep tabs on all your staff in real time. Sampoll now has a unique feature, multi-location tracking technology for those guerilla marketing street campaigns when your staff walks around to different stops during one campaign.   

  • Real-Time Reporting Dashboard.

             a) Event Photo Gallery - Sampoll has a robust photo gallery section so you can take multiple photos of your events and Sampoll will automatically add them to your report. 

             b) Intelligent Dynamic Reporting -  No more chasing down your reps to ask for their post-demo recaps, Sampoll automatically collects and packages your recaps in a visually appealing dynamically generated report that can be exported or shared with your brand customers in real time.  

Set up a demo call today.  Schedule a Time Now!