Multi-step Registration Workflow

You might have lots of information to gather from a student eg, you might be collecting AVETMISS data, billing details and visa information from foreign students. Having one form with all of this information can turn customers away due to its length and detail. Better instead to gather information from customers when you need it. CourseSales.com can do this in a few ways:

making blocks of data dynamically hide on the form to ensure only the most relevant data is collected
breaking the form into tabs or pages and grouping common data
enable ‘save to draft’ functions so that the customer can come back to the form at a later date
allow you to use ‘copy previous address details’ buttons that enable a field to represent other previously entered fields, if they are the same
break the form up into multiple steps separated by process step actions eg, when payment is received then send an email asking for the AVETMISS data to be completed, or when checks/approvals have been done trigger a request to complete further information.

Setting up multi step registrations

The following option assumes you have an operational site taking live bookings and takes precautions to not upset any existing registrations with confusion or instructions that do not work.

Knowledge required

Actions

If your company is using the feature in CourseSales.com to send a Certificate/Statement of Attainment, then an automatic check can be carried out at this Certificate Step to check if the Second Registration Step has been applied, to ensure all the necessary information has been gathered. To configure this check, continue as detailed below.

Prepare the configuration

When viewing the form list use the ‘Add based on this Form’ button to duplicate the document form renamed with ‘subsequent step’ eg: Registration subsequent step
Create a new process step ‘Subsequent step completed’ and a process rule that sends out the existing email triggered at the current, initial registration step.
Create a new email with the name and subject “Next step: complete registration form” which includes as part of the email body, in a big font “Click here to complete your registration” and is linked to the new process step ‘Subsequent step completed’. This should not be configured to send via a rule (yet). Include the following link in the email template to the customer to give them the opportunity to complete the subsequent step:

https://.coursesales.com/public/form?ProcessStepID=&DocumentExternalId=[Documents:DocumentExternalId]&h=1

<short name> is found at the beginning of your domain name that you log into the CourseSales.com administration area
<process id> is which process step will receive the information from the form (this is not the process step that sends the request to complete the form) you can get the Process ID in two ways, either by using the information cog or by looking at the URL when editing the Process Step

Duplicate the email ‘Next step: complete registration form’, rename and adjust the subject to “Action required before your certificate can be issued”. Alter the body of the email to explain that the certificate can not be sent until all AVETMISS data has been submitted and the USI has been completed. Ensure that the large text with the link remains. The rule should send the email to the customer from the branch.
Create the process step ‘Subsequent step not completed’ using a rule to send the email “Action required before your certificate/SoA can be issued” to the student, from the branch.
Add these steps to the process path, the document form for the step ‘Subsequent step completed’ should be that mentioned above ie ‘Registration subsequent step’, no forms are required for the other steps.
Ensuring data is gathered from all students (who have yet to receive their certificates/SoA) do the following: Add as the ‘Prerequisite step’ the step ‘Subsequent step completed’ to the step that sends the certificate/SoA to students, eg “Send Certificate and Questionnaire to student”. For the Missing prerequisite step add the step ‘Subsequent step not completed’

Test the configuration

TEST: Test the links work for a person who completes the current form: Edit the current registration email by adding a small dot to the bottom of the current registration email body, link this dot with the same link used in the ‘Next step: complete registration form’ email. Make a registration, follow the link on the registration email - you should arrive at the new form ‘Registration subsequent step’, and be able to submit that form and then receive the same email Registration again. (this is expected). On that same document apply the step that sends the certificate to students, eg “Send Certificate and Questionnaire to student” - a certificate should arrive.
TEST: Create another test registration but do not complete the subsequent step nor visit the ‘Registration subsequent step’ form. Login as admin and apply the step that sends the certificate to students, eg “Send Certificate and Questionnaire to student” - expect that the ‘Subsequent step not completed’ is applied, and an email arrives with the subject “Action required before your certificate can be issued”. Click on the link in that email and complete the

Make the configuration live

Edit the process rule for the initial registration to now send the email ‘Next step: complete registration form’. The rule should send this email to the customer from the branch.
Edit the ‘subsequent step’ document form, changing all fields to private that are not required to be gathered. Save & Publish. We recommend the following are left public, the remainder of the fields can be gathered as the subsequent step:
First Name
Last Name
Email address
Mobile number
Catalog items
Terms
Payment method

Notes

If your company is not using a step in CourseSales.com to send a Certificate, then you can proceed as above, without making changes to the Send Certificate Step in the Process Path. The student will be responsible for ensuring that all details are complete. In CourseSales.com you will still be able to manually monitor if the Second Registration Step has been completed: in Courses>Documents, click on the little red Status flag.
It is also possible to set up a manual or timed email to notify students (by text if necessary) that they have not completed step 2 of the registration process. This could minimize the chance of students attending without having completed their registration form. A timed step would be configured to send an email a specified number of days before the start of the course.
Remember to add fields to all document and contact forms.
Take the opportunity to change the field names, giving them guidance etc that suits your customers.
Where appropriate consider default values on the fields that will enable completing the forms to be a quick and painless experience.
It is recommended that emails are changed to include messages such as ‘NOT Complete’ or ‘URGENT’ or ‘NEXT STEP’ to ensure that customers complete the second step to the registration.
Include the necessary references to CSS files and JS files in links in the emails for the subsequent step.

Tips

Be sure to include on each form those form fields you wish to carry through from the original registration form, otherwise you might lose this information.
You can ‘hide’ fields to limit the information gathered on the public site while retaining this information on the administration internal form.
If you use the same field names in all forms the information gathered in the previous form will be pre-populated to reduce effort by the form receiver.
The step used must have a document form at the point on the process path that refers to the step.
If accepting payment at only the first step remember to remove the payment type, as this is not required.