Gathering Visitor Information [Sample Form]

Forms can allow you to gather information from people outside of your members, too!  For example, you could provide a form to visitors to share their information so the church can keep in touch with them.  Such a form could include a welcome message in the description field in the header as well as:

Name of respondent

Phone number, email and address

Birthday

And text fields for things like prayer requests, and anything else the respondent might like to share about themselves and their family

  Below is an example of how you might set up a form for this kind of event.  

Create a New Form

1. Click the Forms icon.
2. Select Add Form at the top of the page.
3. In the New Form dialog, enter a name for the form and click Create.

You will be taken to the Edit Form view. The form name is automatically populated in the header section.

Configure Form Header

In the header section, select the edit pencil icon to configure additional settings:

• Name
  You can change the form name here, to something like "Welcome, visitors!"
• Description
  Provide details about the purpose of the form, for example in this case:
  • "Thank you for joining us - we'd love to get to know you better. Please fill in any information you feel comfortable sharing."
• Expiration Date
  Set a date to stop accepting responses if desired.  In this case, you may choose not to enter a date, so it does not expire and you can use the form perpetually.
• Connection (Optional)
  You can use the Connect to dropdown to associate the form with a Calendar or an Event, or leave it unconnected.  For this example, you might leave it as "No Connection", or you could tie it to a Calendar,  or to a specific Event.
• If you choose to make the connection to a Calendar:
  • Click the Connect to dropdown.
  • Select Calendar.
  • Click the new dropdown that appears below.
  • Select the Calendar you want to link.
  • Note that selecting an event associated with this calendar becomes required field, so connecting it to a Calendar may limit responses, if for example the calendar selected is Worship, but a visitor attended something on your Education, Outreach, or other calendar instead.
• If you choose to make the connection to an Event:
  • Click "Select Event".
  • Then using the calendar and list as necessary, highlight the event in question and click Update to tie the form to the event.
  • Note that this form will then be about the event in question.
• If you don't want to make the form specific to a particular event or calendar, leave this option as No Connection.

Click Save when you have finished editing the header.

Add Fields

1. To collect the information for our sample Visitor form, you can add fields such as:
2.  Name and Contact Information fields: 
   • Name.
     • Click Add Field at the bottom of the list of fields.
     • Select Name
     • Set the Label to Name
     • Set the Prompt to "What is your name?"
     • You may want to check the box to make this a required field.
     • Click Save.
   • Email.
     • Click Add Field at the bottom of the list of fields.
     • Select Email.
     • Set the Label to "Email"
     • Set the Prompt to "If you would like to receive emails from the church, please provide an address here."
     • Click Save.
   • Address.
     • Click Add Field at the bottom of the list of fields.
     • Select Text.
     • Set the Label to "Address"
     • Set the Prompt to something like "What is your mailing address?".
     • Click Save.
   • Phone number. 
     • Click Add Field at the bottom of the list of fields.
     • Select Phone.
     • Set the Label to "Phone Number"
     • Set the Prompt to something like "What is the best phone number to reach you?"
     • Click Save.
   • Birthday.
     • Click Add Field at the bottom of the list of fields.
     • Select Date
     • Set the Label to "Birthday".
     • Set the prompt to "When is your birthday?".
     • Click Save.
   • One or more free text fields for the respondent to give more personal types of information.
     • Click Add Field at the bottom of the list of fields.
     • Select Text.
     • Set the Label to something like "Prayer Requests?", or "Tell us about you!".
     • Set the prompt to "Is there anything we can pray about for you?", or "What should we know about you?".
     • Click Save.
   • Feel free to add more fields as needed.
3. Once you've added all the fields, you may want to rearrange the order of the fields on the form.  To do this, use the arrows to the far right of each field's entry to move it up or down until everything is in the order you need.

4. Once you've added and arranged all the fields as desired, you can click "Back to form" and copy the link to share so people can access and fill out the form.