How pre-populating information saves clients time and speeds them along a process.
Each April, I scramble to send my tax information to my accountant so I can file my taxes before April 15. Since my friends confide that they do the same, there are likely millions of people like us racing to prepare our taxes. What if there was a way to avoid this painful rush—and even the cost of it? The WSJ shares that Japan, New Zealand, and much of Europe get such relief. The countries prepare tax returns for their citizens using existing data, and the citizen just needs to review it, make any needed changes, and click submit. They can skip the small talk with the H&R Block agent.
These countries are simply using existing data (income statements, a citizen’s name, taxable possessions on file, etc.) and pre-populating it into the tax form. While our tax code is different, and may be more complex, the countries serve as a good example of pre-populating data into forms and helping a customer fill them out.
How does this relate to us? We too want to auto-complete things for our customers to speed along a process. We already do this to some degree. We recently added to our platform a ‘single sign on’ (SSO) feature. This allows one to log in once and thereafter be logged in when one visits other accounts on the platform. Due to this, members can more easily message each other, leave comments, report issues, and place orders. Much like a Japanese tax return, we’ve pre-filled in the needed information (e.g., the business’s name, email, etc.) behind the scenes and members can interact seamlessly with others. For example, when I visit a brand's account, I don’t have to enter my name and email to message them. It’s already done. (I also don’t have to enter a security, captcha which is convenient.)
Facebook and Amazon have acclimated us to a web experience with pre-populated convenience. But notably, the vast majority of sites don’t offer this. They don’t have the data available to pre-fill in the forms for you, and this makes using Big Tech’s platforms more convenient and gives them an advantage over smaller bifurcated websites. It’s easier for a customer to shop on a website that already knows their name, shipping preferences, and credit card information. Amazon leans into this advantage.
Shopify and other e-commerce platforms are less advanced than Amazon. These platforms don’t allow interaction between members. Each time one goes to message another Shopify user, one has to manually fill in a contact form.
We want to mimic Amazon’s convenience and highlight Shopify’s friction-filled platform.
We have lots of information about our members and their customers. We want to pre-fill in this information for them wherever we can. In the spirit of Big Tech’s one-click shopping, we are working on a feature that stores a customer’s credit card in a ‘digital vault’ and then lets one use a pre-existing card when checking out. Shoppers can use this when giving a gift, and retailers can use it when making a wholesale purchase.
We want to pre-populate more areas. This strategy can even be extended to automation tools. For example, brands may email us an Excel sheet to import. The sheet is often not in the format that we need to import it. What if we could create a tool to more easily let the member populate an Excel sheet that is correctly set up? They could use their own file with 20 columns, and then load it to a page where they match up their columns to our column organization, and our software produces a file with the correct format. They can then email us that file. This would save our coaches from manually doing this work.
The larger question is: What conversion tools can we offer clients to more easily help them convert their A to our B? I see conversion tools as a variation of pre-filling in a form. They help us pre-populate what they need to give us.
In an ideal world, we’d be telling customers to send us their content and we’d fill in the rest. Behind the scenes, we’ll have software that converts it into what we need. Clients have the information, and just because it’s not in the right format doesn’t mean it’s not right. It’s our job to build tools to automate making it right.
Homework:
What is an area or feature in which your company or organization can pre-populate data to make it easier for users?