When hosting events, you compete for your invitee’s attention. You’ve spent your time and resources planning and executing a campaign, but in the final step, a prospective attendee might give up filling out the registration form.
Asking people to provide the same information repeatedly is a poor experience, especially for loyal customers who may attend multiple events a year.
This isn’t just applicable to event registrations. The same frustration can arise with web forms for bookings, applications or support requests where individuals are required to re-enter the same details.
That’s why a feature for Dynamics 365 Customer Insights is designed to streamline the form-filling process.
What is Form Prefill in Customer Insights?
Form prefill functionality automatically populates fields with customer data from your Dynamics 365 environment.
This capability works across both marketing and event registration forms. Each customer is identified when they click a Customer Insights email, which uses a unique URL for the registration page that contains the form.
Customers will benefit from reduced friction and save time by quickly completing their registration. Data fields attributed to the customer stored in Dynamics are already populated.
How Form Prefill Works
- Identification through email link: Prefill only works when a customer opens the form via a tracked link in a Dynamics 365 Customer Insights email.
- Time-sensitive access: The prefill token embedded in the link is valid for 30 days. Links older than that won’t prefill the form.
- Consent-based: Customers must have previously granted consent for tracking in order for their information to be used.
Prefill must also be configured in your Customer Insights system by turning on the feature switch and enabling it for specific domains. In addition, you need to switch on each form you wish to use prefill on.
This is also controlled at the field level. When the form has prefill toggled on, you must decide which fields are enabled in the editor.
Security Considerations
If customers forward their email, containing a link to a form with prefill enabled, this could expose their data. If the recipient(s) were to click on the link, they could see the prefilled customer data on the form.
From our testing, to reduce this risk, we suggest:
- Carefully think about which forms you enable prefill on.
- Inform the invitee that forwarding the email may expose sensitive information.
- Review forms and the fields that contain customer information periodically, and consider if it should be turned off.
- Do not enable prefill for shared domains – only use the ones you trust and control.
Who’s Form Prefilling for?
We think this new feature will be primarily used by organisations that host regular events but it can be used for any type of marketing web form. The following business scenarios are just some examples:
Application or Enrollment Processes
For industries like insurance, finance, or education, returning applicants can have their personal info prefilled, streamlining multi-step applications or re-enrollments.
Service or Maintenance Requests
For industries with post-sale service workflows (e.g., manufacturing, automotive), prefilled forms let customers quickly raise service tickets without having to re-enter contact or product data.
Content Personalisation Journeys
In nurture journeys where form submissions trigger dynamic content delivery (e.g., whitepapers, product guides), prefilled forms reduce resistance and enhance engagement.
Travel or Booking Modifications
If you work in events, hospitality, or travel—customers updating a booking or RSVP can do so faster with prefilled details, increasing conversion and satisfaction.
Final Thoughts
Form prefill functionality is a small but powerful addition to Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys to improve web conversions, and maintain data accuracy.
Whether you are running events or collecting other types of registration, these prefilled capabilities overcome many limitations of static web forms.
If you need support configuring this feature or other aspects of the Customer Insights product, please get in touch.
Related:
New Form Audience Management Options in D365 Customer Insights
