# Feedback

Build forms and surveys, share them, and read every response.

Source: https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/plugins/feedback/

**Add-on**
Feedback is an add-on, so not every website has it. If it is not in
your menu, see [Add-ons](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/billing/add-ons/) to add it.

Feedback builds forms and surveys. A job survey, a sign-up sheet, a warranty
claim. You build the form, share it, and read what comes back.

Go to **Plugins**, open the **Forms & Leads** group, and click **Feedback**.

The screen has five tabs:

- **Forms**: build and manage your forms.
- **Responses**: what people sent you.
- **Analytics**: how many people open each form, and how many finish it.
- **Audiences**: lists of people allowed to fill in a form.
- **Field groups**: sets of questions you can drop into any form.

**Important**
Your contact form and quote form are not built here. Those came with your
website, and what they send lands in [Leads](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/plugins/leads/). Nothing on this
screen can change them.

## Feedback or Form Designer?

Some websites have both. They do not share forms or replies.

- **Feedback** does more. Each form gets its own web page. It can be kept to
  signed-in customers, or locked with a passphrase. It has analytics, email
  designs, and reusable question sets.
- **[Form Designer](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/plugins/form-designer/)** is the simpler, older one. Its
  forms only show inside a page.

Both add a block called **Form** to your pages. Read the line under the name.
The Feedback one says **Embed a published form on this page**.

If you have both, build new forms in Feedback.

## Building a form

Open **Forms** and click **New form**.

The editor has four parts: **Settings**, **Fields**, **Email** and **Delivery
actions**. Nothing you change is kept until you click **Save**. **Cancel**
throws your changes away. **Back to the list** takes you out.

![A form called Job survey, open in the editor. Five numbered marks: 1 on the Status box, 2 on the Who can submit choices, 3 on the Edit button of one field, 4 on the Add field button, 5 on the Save button at the top.](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/_astro/feedback-form-editor.Ri00NuGi_ZfCaQm.webp)

*A form open in the editor. The Email and Delivery actions parts sit further down.*

The numbers in the picture:

1. **Status** says whether the form is live.
2. **Who can submit** says who may fill it in.
3. **Edit** opens one question.
4. **Add field** adds a question of the kind picked beside it.
5. **Save** keeps your changes.

### Settings

| Box | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Title** | The name at the top of the form. |
| **Slug** | The web name. The form lives at `/forms/` plus this. Set it once. |
| **Status** | **Draft** hides it. **Published** puts it live. **Archived** and **Template** are covered below. |
| **Responses per person** | **As many as they like**, or **One only**. One only needs a signed-in form. |
| **Description** | A line under the title. |
| **Thank you message** | What people read after they send it. |
| **Redirect URL** | Sends them to another page instead. Leave it empty unless you have a thank-you page. |

### Who can submit

Pick one under **Who can submit**:

- **Anyone with the link**. Most forms.
- **Anyone signed in to an account**. Only your customers, once they sign in.
- **Signed in, and on a named list**. Pick the list in **Audience**. See
  [Audiences](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/plugins/feedback/#audiences) below.
- **Anyone with the passphrase**. Type a **Passphrase**. The form stays locked
  until a visitor types it.

### Layout

**With the site header and footer** shows the form as a normal page of your
website.

**Just the form, for campaign links** shows your logo and the form, and
nothing else. Good for a link in a social post or a flyer.

The layout only changes the form's own page. It does not change the block.

## Adding questions

Each question is called a field. Under **Fields**, pick a kind of field in the
box, then click **Add field**.

There are many kinds. **Text**, **Long text**, **Email**, **Phone**,
**Number**, **Date**, **Select**, **Radio**, **Checkbox**, **Rating** (1 to 5),
**Scale** (0 to 10), **Address**, **File**, **Matrix**, **Signature** and more.

To change the order, drag a field by the grip on its left. Or use **Move up**
and **Move down**. **Edit** opens the field. **Delete** takes it off the form.

When you open a field, you can set:

| Box | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Label** | The question, as the visitor reads it. |
| **Name** | The inside name. See the warning below. |
| **Placeholder** | Faint example text inside the box. |
| **Help text** | A short line under the box. |
| **Default value** | What the box starts out holding. |
| **Width** | **Full width**, or **Half width** so two sit side by side. |
| **Required** | They cannot send the form until this is filled in. |

Choice fields also get **Options**, one row per choice. **Style** shows them
as a **Dropdown** or as **Buttons**.

A **File** field takes files up to 10 MB unless you set a smaller **Maximum
size (MB)**. **Accepted types** limits which kinds of file.

A **Matrix** field is a grid. Each row is a question, and each column is an
answer every row offers. For example, rows for "Price", "Speed" and "Care",
with columns for "Poor", "Fair" and "Great". **Allow more than one answer per
row** lets people pick several in a row. **Require an answer in every row**
makes them fill in the whole grid.

A **Signature** field lets a visitor sign with a mouse or a finger. They can
choose **Type my name instead**.

**Warning**
**Label** is the wording. Change it whenever you like.

**Name** is how the answer is filed. Rename it and old responses show that
answer as *"field no longer on form"*. Rules that point at it are updated for
you, but exports will not line up.

Change the label. Leave the name alone.

### Showing a field only sometimes

Open a field and click **Only show this field when…**. Pick an earlier field,
a test, and a value. For example: show **Company name** when **Who is this
for?** is **A business**.

The tests are **is**, **is not**, **contains**, **does not contain**, **is
filled** and **is empty**.

A field can have more than one rule. Click **Add rule**. Then pick how they
join:

- **all of these are true**: every rule must match.
- **any of these is true**: one rule is enough.

**Add group** adds a small set of rules that joins the other way. That covers
a case like "a business, and in town or out of town".

**Always show** takes every rule off.

A rule can only point at a field above it. It cannot point at a **File**,
**Signature** or **Matrix** field.

If you delete a field that others depend on, you are warned first. Their rules
are removed too.

### Forms with more than one page

A long form is easier in steps. Click **Add page break** under **Fields**.
Every field below the break moves to a new page.

Click **Edit** on a page break to give that page a title. A page can also have
rules, the same as a field. Visitors skip a page whose rules do not match.

Visitors see which step they are on, with **Back** and **Next** buttons. Each
page is checked before they move on. **Submit** sits on the last page.

**Remove page break** joins its fields to the page before. A form can have up
to 20 pages.

## Putting the form live

1. Set **Status** to **Published**.
2. Click **Save**.

The form is now live at `/forms/` plus its slug. Click **View the form** to
open it in a new tab. Share that link anywhere: an email, a text, a QR code.

**Warning**
On a published form, **Save** changes the live form at once. There is no
separate publish step. Someone may be halfway through filling it in.

Make big changes at a quiet time of day.

### Putting it inside a page

1. Open the page under **Content**, then **Pages**.
2. Type `/form` and choose **Form**. Check the line under it says **Embed a
   published form on this page**.
3. Pick your form in the **Form** box. Only published forms are listed.
4. Click **Publish changes**, then **Publish changes** again in the box that opens.

[Pages](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/content/pages/) covers blocks, and [saving and
publishing](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/start-here/saving-and-publishing/) covers that last step.

If the form is later unpublished, the block shows nothing.

A form for signed-in customers or people on a list does not show in full on a
page. The page shows its title and an **Open the form** button instead. The
button opens the form's own page.

A form can also open in a popup. See [Popups](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/plugins/popups/).

## Emails

### Who hears about a response

Under **Email**, type addresses in **Notify these addresses**. One per line.
Each one gets an email for every response.

Your site-wide alerts still go out too. Those are set in
[Notifications](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/plugins/notifications/).

**Notification email template** sets how that email looks.

### Sending the visitor a reply

An autoresponder is an automatic reply to the person who filled in the form.

**Warning**
The autoresponder goes to whatever email address the visitor typed. It does
not check that the address is theirs. Someone can type a stranger's address,
and your website emails that stranger.

Keep the reply short and plain. Never put anything private in it.

Switch on **Send an autoresponder to whoever filled the form in**. Then open
**Autoresponder template** to write it. The form needs an **Email** field, or
there is nowhere to send it.

### Designing an email

Both templates work the same way. Type a **Subject**. Then add blocks: a
**Heading**, a **Paragraph**, a **Button**, a **Divider**, or **All answers,
as a table**. Pick one and click **Add block**.

**Merge tags** lists short codes that drop an answer into the email.

**Preview** shows the email on screen, and it changes as you type. **Hide the
preview** closes it. It does not send anything.

To see it in a real inbox, type your address in **Send a test to** and click
**Send test**.

### Delivery actions

**Delivery actions** can send each response to another system. Contact us if
you need one. We will set it up with you.

## Reading responses

Open **Responses**. The newest are at the top.

The boxes above the list filter it: **Every form** or one form, **Any status**
or one status, and **Starred only**. Click the star on a row to mark it.

Click a row to open it. You see every answer, plus the sender's country and
where they came from. From here you can:

- **Star** it, to find it again later.
- **Mark read**.
- **Archive** it. It leaves the main list but is kept.
- write **Private notes**, then click **Save notes**. Only you see them.
- open any file they sent. Each link works for one hour. Open it again for a
  fresh one.

To act on many at once, check the boxes on their rows. A bar appears with
**Mark read**, **Star**, **Unstar**, **Archive**, **Mark spam** and
**Delete**.

**Warning**
**Mark spam** also stops any email or delivery for that response that has not
gone out yet.

**Delete** removes the response for good. Nothing can bring it back, and
neither can we. Your browser asks you to confirm first.

### Downloading them

**Export CSV** saves a file for Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets. **Export
JSON** is for handing to another system.

An export holds what your filters show, up to the newest 500. For more than
that, filter by form or by status and export each part.

### What your customers see

On a form for signed-in customers, each customer can see what they sent. It is
on the **Forms** tab of their account page, at `/account`.

## Analytics

Open **Analytics** and pick **7 days**, **30 days** or **90 days**.

Each form gets a row. **Visits** is how many opened it. **Starts** is how many
began typing. **Completions** is how many sent it. **Conversion** is the share
who finished. **Partials** is how many gave up halfway.

Click a form for more. **Where people stop** shows the question people quit
on. If one question loses a lot of people, make it shorter or make it
optional.

Analytics stores nothing that could name a visitor. It works whatever
visitors chose on your cookie banner.

## Audiences

An audience is a named list of email addresses. A form set to **Signed in, and
on a named list** only lets in people on that list.

1. Open **Audiences** and click **New audience**.
2. Give it a **Name**, such as "Service plan customers".
3. Type the addresses in **Addresses**, one per line. Or use **Or load a CSV**
   to read them from a spreadsheet file.
4. Click **Save audience**.

A person on the list still has to sign in to their account to fill in the form.

## Field groups

A field group is a set of questions you use again and again. Three come ready
made: **Contact info**, **Address** and **Company**.

To use one in a form, pick it in **Insert group…** under **Fields**, then click
**Insert**. The questions are copied in. Changing the group later does not
change forms that already have it.

To make your own, check the fields you want in a form. Then click **Save
selection as group** and give it a name. Or open **Field groups** and click
**New group**.

## Copies, templates and the archive

At the top of **Forms**, check the boxes next to one or more forms. Then:

- **Duplicate** makes a copy as a draft.
- **Save as template** makes a template copy. A template never shows on your
  website. It is a pattern to start new forms from.
- **Archive** takes them off your website but keeps them and every response.

The **Show** box switches the list between **Active**, **Archived** and
**Templates**. On a template, **Use template** makes a new draft from it. On
an archived form, **Restore** brings it back.

**Warning**
**Delete** removes the form and every response it ever got. Nothing can bring
them back, and neither can we. Pages with the form on them are left with a
gap.

Export the responses first. Archive the form if you only want it gone from the
site.

**Delete this form**, at the bottom of the editor, does the same thing for one
form.

## How long responses are kept

Responses are deleted on a timer. The timer starts at 365 days. A response
older than that is removed on its own, with any files it had.

The setting is **Keep responses for (days)**. It is under **Admin**, then
**Plugins**, on the gear of the `feedback` row. Zero keeps them forever.

**Warning**
Lowering **Keep responses for (days)** deletes every older response the next
time the timer runs. They do not come back.

Export first if you might need them.

**Contact support**
Contact us before you:

- rename a field's **Name** on a form that already has responses
- lower **Keep responses for (days)**
- need a delivery action or a new way to send responses on

Email [support@lookoutridgeit.com](mailto:support@lookoutridgeit.com).
[Getting support](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/help/getting-support/) says what to put in the message.