Create a Customer Registration Form In 3 Steps

How to Build a Customer Registration Form

In this guide, we outline the steps necessary to create and launch a customer registration form using Five’s advanced form builder.

The process involves:

1. Creating the database
2. Designing the form
3. Deploying the form

We will also cover securing the form with logins, authentication, and permissions, although this is an optional step.

What is a Customer Registration Form?

A customer registration form is an interface used to gather, store, and manage customer-related data. These forms capture essential information such as customer names, contact details, account preferences, and payment information, which can be used for tracking, reporting, and customer relationship management (CRM).

Customer registration forms can range from simple web forms to more complex systems integrated with databases and analytics tools.

Key Components of a Customer Registration Form

• Web Forms: Online forms that users fill out to submit customer-related information.
• Databases: Systems like MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MongoDB that store collected customer data in an organized manner. (Don’t worry if you’re not familiar—Five makes it easy.)
• Data Security: Measures to protect sensitive customer data from unauthorized access and breaches.
• Analytics Tools: Software that allows users to query the database, generate reports, and visualize customer data.
• Dashboards: Interactive interfaces that provide real-time insights and trends on customer registrations, activity, and interactions.

Why a Traditional Form Builder Might Not Cut It

Customer registration often requires managing relationships between various pieces of information, such as customer details, preferences, and purchasing history. Standard form builders typically struggle to handle these complex data structures, making it difficult to create a comprehensive picture of each submission.

Security is also a major concern when collecting sensitive customer data like addresses or payment information. A secure platform that complies with regulations such as GDPR or PCI DSS is critical. Unfortunately, many off-the-shelf form builders lack the security infrastructure necessary to handle such data safely and in compliance with these strict rules.

Additionally, customer registration forms may require integration with existing systems, such as CRM or marketing platforms. Traditional form builders often lack the necessary tools for these integrations, resulting in disjointed workflows.

Lastly, the need for advanced reporting and analytics is crucial for businesses managing customer data. Most traditional form builders offer only basic reporting features that fall short of the robust insights businesses need.

Building a Customer Registration Form with Five

Creating a customer registration form in Five offers significant advantages over traditional form builders, making it ideal for businesses needing secure, robust, and analyzable customer data.

Unlike traditional form builders that only store submitted data, Five allows you to directly connect your customer registration form to a database. This connection enables you to query your database and generate visual representations of your data, making it easier to identify customer behavior, trends, and preferences. Most traditional form builders require exporting data to third-party tools for analysis, adding extra steps and increasing the chances of errors.

While traditional form builders may suffice for very basic registration tasks, they often struggle with large datasets or high submission volumes. Five’s database-connected solution, on the other hand, is designed to handle substantial amounts of customer data efficiently, maintaining performance as your application needs grow.

One of the standout features of Five is the ability to create login-protected forms. This ensures that only authorized users can access and manage customer data, enhancing the security of your customer registration process. Traditional form builders often lack these advanced security features, leaving your data vulnerable to unauthorized access.

In addition to its advanced data management and security features, Five allows you to build dashboards and generate detailed reports directly from your customer registration data.

You can create visual data representations such as charts and graphs, providing a clear overview of customer registrations, engagement, and other valuable metrics.

With Five, you can:

• Quickly deploy your customer registration form with a secure database.
• Build a user-friendly interface that protects sensitive data with login authentication.

Build a Customer Registration Form
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Step 1: Database for Your Customer Registration Form

To get started, sign up for free access to Five and create a new application by navigating to the Applications section and clicking the yellow plus button.

Create a New Application:

• Click the yellow plus button.
• Name your application (e.g., “Customer Register”).

• Confirm by clicking the check icon in the upper right corner.
• Click on the blue Manage button to enter the development environment.

Create Database Tables:

• Go to Data > Table Wizard, a user-friendly interface for creating database tables.

Name your table descriptively (e.g., “CustomerRegistrations”).

Add fields to your table using the plus button, specifying appropriate data types:

• CustomerName (Text): Stores the name of the customer.
• EmailAddress (Text): Captures the customer’s email address.
• PhoneNumber (Text): Holds the customer’s phone number.
• HomeAddress (Text): Captures the customer’s home address.
• RegistrationDate (Date): Records the date the customer registered.

Remember to choose appropriate data and display types to ensure your data is stored and displayed correctly. If you are unsure, just ask ChatGPT for guidance.

Save Your Database Table:
After adding all relevant fields, save your table by clicking the check icon in the upper right corner. Your MySQL database table is now ready to store customer registration data.

Side Note: While this may seem more advanced than traditional form builders, Five excels at building complete applications, meaning you can easily expand your form into a fully functional application capable of more than basic data collection.

Step 2: Designing the Customer Registration Form

Next, navigate to Visual > Form Wizard in Five to design your customer registration form.

Select Data Source:
In the Form Wizard’s General section, select the “CustomerRegistrations” table you created as the main data source. This links your backend (database) with your frontend (form).

Finalize the Form:
Click the check icon in the upper right corner to complete the form creation. Your form is now ready and connected to your database.

Add Form Submit/Cancel Buttons:

• Navigate to Visual, then select Forms and scroll down.
• Under Complete Caption, add your submit button (you can change this to whatever you’d like).
• You can also change the Cancel Caption. Remember to click the tick to save afterwards.

Add Your URL:

• Navigate to Setup, then select URL and add an item. Ensure the URL is lowercase.
• Also, select your form in the action field.

Step 3: Deploying the Customer Registration Form

Deploy to Development:
Click the “Deploy to Development” button in the top right corner. This action opens your customer registration form in a new browser tab, allowing you to preview it.

Once you run your application, your default URL will look something like this:
https://control-default-registrationform-ryan.5au.dev/?reloadSchema=7b2081af-aba0-4fbd-86c3-ebbd4711014f&inspect=false

Delete this URL section ?reloadSchema=7b2081af-aba0-4fbd-86c3-ebbd4711014f&inspect=false and replace it with what you named your URL above.

For example, based on this demo, the new URL would be:
https://control-default-registrationform-ryan.5au.dev/url/form, and this will lead you to your form.

Enhance Your Form:
Consider adding themes or additional features, such as conditional logic to guide users through the process or automated emails confirming registration.

Securing Your Customer Registration Form: Logins, Authentication, Permissions

Five offers more advanced features compared to simple form builders. Five not only allows for data collection but also enables you to build full web applications with custom logic and dashboards.

One of the key benefits is security, allowing you to add a login-protected backend for submitted form data.

Here are the steps to add user roles and logins:

• Turn your application into a multi-user app by automatically adding a login screen.
• Create user roles with specific permissions. For example:
• Customer Role: Can submit customer registration forms.
• Admin Role: Can review submissions, manage customer data, and access dashboards summarizing all submissions.

Explore More Security Features:
Utilize Five’s documentation for detailed instructions on securing your customer registration form with authentication and permissions, ensuring only authorized users can access or modify data.

To add a custom URL (e.g., customerregistrationform.com), you’ll need to sign up for a paid plan of Five.

To learn more about Five and expand out your form check out some of our code-along articles.

Conclusion: Building a Customer Registration Form

Building a customer registration form with Five’s application development environment offers numerous advantages over traditional form builders.

The process involves three key steps: creating the database, designing the form, and deploying the web form. Five provides security features, including login protection, authentication, and user permissions, ensuring that your customer registration form is secure and only accessible to authorized users.

By using Five, you can directly connect your customer registration form to a database, enabling efficient data management and real-time analysis through custom charts and reports.

This capability allows you to track customer registrations, monitor engagement, and manage customer data effectively—tasks that are often cumbersome with traditional form builders that require exporting data to third-party tools.

With Five, you can improve your registration process, enhance data security, and leverage analytical tools to gain insights, making it the superior choice for creating a comprehensive and efficient customer registration form.

What Else You Can Do with Five
Here’s a more advanced form for property booking, which demonstrates Five’s calculation capabilities.