If you run free webinars, workshops, or short courses, you may have faced this problem: you ask attendees to fill out a quick feedback form, and almost nobody does. DesignerHub, a SuTan customer on the Enterprise plan, faced exactly this challenge — their feedback form was getting very few responses. Instead of changing the questions or making the form more complicated, they changed the reason people had to complete it: they introduced a verified certificate of attendance as an incentive. The result: 689 certificates issued, 745 total verifications, 63 social shares, and 43 clicks back to DesignerHub's website — along with a second, less obvious benefit: the workflow also cut down the manual effort involved in generating, sending and verifying certificates.
DesignerHub had been running free webinars and wanted to collect feedback after each session. The process was simple: attendees would receive a Google Form and were asked to share their feedback about the webinar — what they liked, what could be improved, and whether they would attend another session.
But there was a problem. The response rate was extremely low. The attendees had already received the value they came for — the webinar itself. Once the session ended, filling out another form felt like additional effort with nothing in return, so most people simply moved on.
The problem wasn't necessarily the form. There was no strong reason for attendees to complete it.
Instead of asking attendees to fill out the feedback form on its own, DesignerHub introduced a simple incentive: complete the feedback form and receive a certificate of attendance. The certificate was generated and delivered through SuTan, with a QR code for instant verification against DesignerHub's own verification page.
The feedback questions themselves didn't need to change. What changed was the value exchange — attendee gives feedback, attendee receives a verified certificate.
Unlike a generic PDF certificate, this one could be verified online and shared with others. For attendees, it became something they could share on LinkedIn or include as part of their professional profile, rather than simply another PDF sitting in their inbox.
According to DesignerHub's campaign data, the certificate-based approach generated measurable activity beyond the feedback responses:
One number stands out immediately: 745 verifications against 689 certificates issued. That means certificates were verified more times than they were even issued — a sign that at least some recipients were actively sharing or presenting their certificates, rather than simply downloading and storing them.
The most interesting outcome wasn't just the feedback — it was what happened after certificates started being shared. When attendees shared their verified certificates on platforms such as LinkedIn, other people could see the certificate and verify it. Some people who had not attended the original webinar subsequently reached out to DesignerHub to ask how they could participate in future sessions.
The certificate wasn't only documenting participation — it was also helping introduce DesignerHub's webinars to new people. A traditional feedback form ends the moment someone clicks submit. A shareable, verifiable certificate can keep travelling long after the webinar is over, becoming a small piece of shareable proof connected back to the organisation.
A certificate without verification is essentially just a document. It can be difficult for someone else to know whether it's genuine, and recipients have little reason to share it publicly. A QR-code-enabled certificate changes that on both sides: for the recipient, it's easy to share, professionally presentable, instantly verifiable, and clearly connected to the issuing organisation. For the organiser, it can encourage attendees to complete feedback, increase engagement after an event, create opportunities for social sharing, bring additional visitors to the website, and provide a more credible way to recognise participation.
In DesignerHub's case, the 43 website clicks are particularly interesting — these visitors reached DesignerHub after interacting with certificates shared or verified by attendees, creating an additional opportunity to introduce its webinars and programmes to new audiences.
The benefit wasn't only for the attendees. For DesignerHub, the certificate workflow also reduced the amount of manual work involved in managing certificates after every webinar. Without an automated workflow, organisers may have to prepare recipient lists, enter or merge attendee details, generate certificates individually, download and send them manually, respond to certificate-related requests, and manually verify certificates when someone wants to confirm their authenticity. SuTan brings all of this into one streamlined workflow:
The original objective was simple: get feedback from webinar attendees. But the certificate introduced several additional touchpoints — webinar, feedback form, certificate, QR verification, social sharing, website visit, and potentially a new attendee.
That's what made the approach more valuable than simply sending a feedback form. The feedback form collected information; the certificate continued the conversation. And the automated workflow reduced the work required from the organising team.
DesignerHub started with a simple problem: nobody was filling their feedback form. The solution wasn't to make the form longer, shorter, or more attractive — they connected the feedback form with something attendees actually valued: a shareable, verifiable certificate. That created benefits on both sides:
DesignerHub's experience highlights a simple principle: give people a reason to take action, and automate the work that follows. A feedback form asks attendees for their time; a verified certificate gives them something valuable in return. And for the organiser, an automated workflow removes much of the repetitive work involved in generating, sending, and verifying those certificates.
That turns a simple feedback process into a broader engagement workflow: webinar, feedback, certificate generation, bulk sending, QR verification, social sharing, website visit. In DesignerHub's case, the outcome was 689 certificates issued, 745 total verifications, 63 social shares and 43 website clicks — and behind those numbers, less manual work for the team managing the certificates.