Product Update: Use forms to update existing records

Our developers have made a major improvement to our forms tool! Our forms tool originally could only create new records. Now, it’s possible to update records as well. When you are making or editing your form, you’ll now be able to choose whether this form is an “Intake Form” or an “Update Form.” Intake forms will only create new records in the CRM, whereas update forms will actually update information on existing records in the CRM if our system finds a match. If we don’t find a match, the update form will create a new record. (For contact records, matches are based on a matching email and/or phone number. For company records, the match is made based on the company name.)

We have heard from a lot of customers who were looking for this feature. With the ability to have forms update existing records, you no longer will have to worry about merging duplicates in the CRM each time an existing contact fills out a form.

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To use this new feature, simply navigate to the form settings. If you already have a form set up, you can change your form from the default “Intake Form” to “Update Form” when you edit your form settings. You can also make this choice when you are creating a brand new form.

You might be wondering when to use the intake option versus when an update form would be more appropriate. Here are some situations that are perfect for each type of form:

Intake forms:

• Lead Generation: Embed a form on your website for people to express interest in your product or service.
• Client Onboarding: Send clients a form to fill out before you start working with them.
• Events and Conferences: Have any new prospects you meet at events and conferences fill out a form.

Update forms:

• Client Update: Ask clients to complete a regular form to update any relevant information.
• Feedback Survey: Ask clients to fill out feedback surveys. Connect this survey to a feedback pipeline - each survey they fill out can be created as a new pipeline item.
• New Order Form: Have returning customers fill out new order forms. Each order form can be added to your customer’s record in the CRM as a new order pipeline item.

Some important notes on this feature:

• When someone fills out an update form, data in those fields will be overwritten. The only exceptions are the default email, phone, address, and website fields—if someone fills out a form field connected to one of those fields, data will be added rather than overwritten.
• Since data can be overwritten with update forms, this option is a more advanced tool than the intake forms.
• If a change is made to your record based on a new form entry, you’ll be able to see those changes in the history section of the record.

As always, if you have questions or need help setting up a form, please feel free to reach out.

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