Custom Forms Integration via Zapier
Quick Start Guide
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Using Zapier, a third party application that allows two or more pieces of software to talk to each other (a kind of "universal adapter" for software), users can connect online forms created with Google Forms, Cognito Forms, Wufoo, Survey Monkey, or any other form builder software/website supported by Zapier to their CRM v2 system so that data inputted into the form will automatically be added to CRM as well.
- In order to use the online forms integration users must first set up/create a Zapier account. Zapier account pricing ranges from free to hundreds of dollars per month. Learn more about Zapier and set up your account with them at www.zapier.org.
- Some online form builders—including Cognito Forms—require a paid subscription to work with Zapier. We recommend checking the form builder's pricing page before proceeding.
- Please note: the only type of form data you can collect and add to CRM is data related to CONTACTS (individuals and/or organizations). You cannot collect data that would not be stored on a contact record (either in one of the out of box contact name or contact information fields or in a custom data set field) and have it added to CRM. For example, feedback on a workshop or event COULD be stored in CRM if you are collecting the survey takers' names (or recording all the data under contact Anonymous Anonymous) - then the data can be added to each person's contact record; however, if you're not collecting the respondents' names and/or trying to enter aggregated feedback data tied just to the event, there is no way to store the data in CRM (you can't store the data with the event as there is no way to attach a custom data set to an event).
- Please Also Note: All contact records created or updated by a custom form through Zapier will show the username of the Zapier account username. So all records created or updated via the Zapier integration may appear to have been updated by a staff person who didn't actually touch/manually update the record; this might cause confusion. We recommend, as a best practice, that you set up your Zapier username as something like "Zapier" or something like that so that in CRM that is what will show in the created by/last updated by field.
- Once you have a Zapier account, the general process for setting up the online form integration is:
- Step 1: create AND PUBLISH your online form in the Zapier-supported form building software of your choice (such as Survey Monkey, Wufoo, Google Forms, Cognito Forms, Jot Forms, etc. Go to https://zapier.com/apps and filter by "forms and surveys" to see the list of form building software Zapier integrates with).
- Step 2: create the custom data set that the survey data will be saved to inside of the CRM. Please note: you MUST create a TRANSACTIONAL custom data set (NOT a general custom data set) (if you want to use a general custom data set, you will need to contact Fundly Support).
- Step 3: inside Zapier, set up the link (called a "Zap") between CRM and your online form.
- It is imperative that these steps be completed IN THIS ORDER. Steps #1 and #2 can be reversed/completed in any order, but you MUST set up the form inside your form-building software and create the custom data set FIRST/before attempting to set up the link (called a "Zap") inside Zapier.
- Tips for Completing Step #1: Create and Publish Your Online Form
- Survey Monkey's FREE accounts cannot push survey answers to CRM; it can only push the contact name and email address of the respondent to Fundy CRM and send you a notification that someone filled out your survey. If you want the survey answers added to CRM you MUST either have a paid Survey Monkey account or use some other form builder software.
- Tips for Completing Step #2: Create Your Custom Data Set in CRM
- You must create a TRANSACTIONAL custom data in CRM. See our tutorial on the difference between a general and a transactional custom data and how to create custom data sets. Transactional data sets will create a new/additional record every time there is an update to the data in the data set (for instance, special comments, ethnicity, and work information are examples of transactional data where there can be more than one record per data set) versus a general data set where updates to the data overwrite the existing data (birth date, first name, last name, and gender are examples of general data where there can be only one record per data set).
- It is possible to use a general data set; however, you must contact Fundly Support and ask us to add this option (which will be considered as a feature request and may not be available right away).
- You CANNOT sync/map custom form fields to the following custom data set fields: Contact Name, Campaign, Program. Trying to push custom form data into any of these CDS field types will create an error in your Zap/will cause your Zap to fail to sync to CRM.
- Please Note: one of the fields you link from your survey/form to CRM is Contact Source. Zapier has the option to create a custom contact source/add a new custom contact source on the fly at the time you set up your Zap OR you can set up a custom contact source in CRM PRIOR to starting this Zapier set up (Main Menu: Contacts: Configurations: Contact Source). When you are setting up your custom data set, it's a good idea to add your new contact source as well so you don't forget to do this later.
- Tips for Completing Step #3: Link your Custom Data Set and Custom Form Together via Zapier
- Zapier is third-party software not afiliated or controlled by CRM. We cannot provide you training on Zapier, support for your Zapier account, or answer Zapier specific questions. Our instructions below are very general and meant as a general guide only.
- We have found Zapier to be very fussy - the CRM custom data set (CDS) and survey must be set up perfectly and prior to creating the link in Zapier (the "Zap") in order to be able to complete the Zap set up. There also tends to be a lag between making updates in your CRM custom data set and/or your online survey and those updates appearing in Zapier. We have found that if either the CDS or the survey is not 100% perfect before setting up your Zap, you will have to just cancel out of creating the Zap, fix the CDS/form, and then start the Zap over from scratch.
- Each Zap can only push data for individual contacts or organizational contacts. Therefore, you will have to create two different zaps for one survey if you are collecting data from both individuals and organizations.
- To create a Zap/link a custom form to CRM:
- Start by connecting the form and CRM from the Dashboard OR selecting "Create New Zap" from the upper right of Zappier. TO DO THIS, YOU WILL NEED TO CONTACT FUNDLY SUPPORT. CRM is not yet a public/"findable" app in Zapier's library of approved apps. Our technical team has to "invite" you/your Zapier account behind the scenes to access the CRM app.
OR
- After we approve you to use CRM via Zapier, you can proceed.
- In Step 1 "When this happens" you will identify the custom form that you want to link to CRM. Start by choosing the application that you are using to build your custom form (Cognito Forms, Google Forms, Suvey Monkey, Jot Forms, etc.). For this example, we are using Cognito Forms.
- Next choose the "Trigger Event" - the thing that happens that will prompt the system to push the data into CRM. That trigger event is when someone fills out your form. The choices offered in this drop down VARY BY APPLICATION CHOOSEN IN STEP #1. You want to find the option that basically says "New Entry" or some version of "someone fills out my form."
Cognite Forms Options
Google Forms Options
- Click the blue Continue button.
- Next, you will be prompted to choose/log-in to your survey application's account (Survey Monkey, Cognition Forms, etc. Whatever application you choose above/in the first step of creating the Zap). If you have already linked that application to your Zapier account, you will be able to select it from the list. If not, you will need to add it now.
- After selecting or adding your account, click the blue Continue button.
- Next, select the specific form within your account that you wish to link to CRM. Your form must be published/active and accepting entries (not in draft mode). Please Note: If you're not seeing your form in the list, most likely the reason is that it is still in draft mode/is not yet published. We have found that filling out the form once with some dummy data seems to increase the likelihood of Zapier finding the form (having dummy data in the form will also enable you to test the connection in the next step). Beyond the information provided here, we cannot troubleshoot your form not appearing in the list. You would need to contact Zapier support for help with this.
- After selecting your form, click the blue Continue button.
- Next, have Zapier find the data file/data that is in the form. You can choose to Test & Review the data (before proceeding), Test & Continue to get the data and move to the next step, or Skip the Test. If you don't have any data in the form, then skip this step. However, we do recommend that you proceed with the test and not skip this step.
- After completing the test or skipping the test, you will be asked to pick the application that will receive the data. Select CRM here.
- Next, choose the "Action Event" - what you want Zapier to do with the data it gets from the Trigger Event (someone filling out your form). In this case, you want CRM to "Create Transactional Dataset Entry."
- After selecting your Action Event, click the blue Continue button.
- Next, you will be prompted to choose/log-in to your CRM account. If you have already linked your CRM account to your Zapier account, you will be able to select it from the list. If not, you will need to add it now.
- After connecting your CRM account, click the blue Continue button.
- Next, select the specific Custom Data Set in CRM where you wish to save the form data. First, select if the form is being filled out by individuals or organizations (if both, you need to create two separate forms in your form builder application and create two separate zaps - one for individuals and one for organizations). Then select the specific custom data set from the list.
- Once you select the custom data set, the fields on the form will be pulled into Zapier and you will need to complete "field mapping" - telling Zapier what field in the data set to store each of the form's fields. This is the same process used in CRM's import utility, so if you've done field mapping via the Import Utility, this process should feel very familiar.
- If linking a form that individuals will fill out, mapping First Name, Last Name, and Form ID are REQUIRED. If linking a form that organizations will fill out, mapping Organization Name and Form ID are REQUIRED. All other fields are optional. You do not have to map all of the fields in your form (or your custom data set), just the relevant ones/just the fields that have data you want to save in CRM.
- The field names (text in bold) shown are the names of the fields in your custom data set in CRM. From the drop down under each field name, you will select the name of the corresponding field from your custom FORM (the name of the field in your form that you want to save data FROM into that field in CRM). In this example, we are completing field mapping for the First Name field. The field is called "First Name" in our custom data set, and "Name First" in our survey form.
- The first field you will have the option to map is Contact Source. You can set a custom contact type from here or configure the custom contact source in your CRM account prior to starting the Zap set up and then select it off the list that appears here.
- Here, we have completed field mapping for the First Name, Last Name, and Email address fields.
- After you complete your field mapping, click the blue Continue button.
- Next, you can test that you have set everything up correctly by sending test data from your form to CRM (your form needs to have at least one record in it for the system to be able to send test data to CRM). We strongly recommend you complete the test, though you can skip it if you wish.
- After you test or skip the test, if everything has gone well, you will get a confirmation screen that your Zap is ready to activate. Click the blue Turn Zap On button to complete set up.
- You will then receive a confirmation that your Zap is on and running. We STRONGLY recommend going to your survey application/front facing survey page and completing a test survey/form and then checking CRM to verify the data you inputted into your form has successfully been added to CRM (and added correctly).
- Start by connecting the form and CRM from the Dashboard OR selecting "Create New Zap" from the upper right of Zappier. TO DO THIS, YOU WILL NEED TO CONTACT FUNDLY SUPPORT. CRM is not yet a public/"findable" app in Zapier's library of approved apps. Our technical team has to "invite" you/your Zapier account behind the scenes to access the CRM app.
- Please Note: there is some lag time between a survey being filled out and the data appearing in your CRM account. That lag time is dictated in large part by your Zapier account type/level. The basic (free) account has a lag time of fifteen minutes. The higher priced accounts have a much shorter lag time. Check your Zapier account pricing details and features for the specific lag time associated with your account.
Comments
0 comments
Article is closed for comments.