1. Guides
  2. The small business guide to automation
  3. Form and surveys

Form and surveys

By Zapier • Published March 1, 2021

Forms and surveys are filters for collecting information from your customers or prospects. Instead of using paper, email, texts, and calls to gather details and then logging them somewhere else, forms and surveys let you ask standard questions and store the answers in one place for easier follow-up. This eliminates the human error that comes from handing information off too many times and is especially valuable for time-sensitive data, like a customer complaint or new client information.


A great form or survey app can help you scale the work you’re already doing, too. Online form builder Typeform helped a university collect teacher feedback in online forms instead of paper forms. The switch to online surveys saved them $250,000 per year, increased student participation in feedback, and got teachers their results quickly instead of taking months.

Table of contents

How to use forms and surveys to your advantage

Automate forms and surveys to save time collecting and storing information, reduce human error in data entry, and improve your customers' experience with seamless follow-ups.

Don't see your software here? Zapier works with thousands of apps, so there's a good chance that your tools work on our platform. Learn more about the form and survey apps on the Zapier platform by visiting our App Directory.

Standardize information


Standardizing any business process at the beginning is likely to save you time later. Collect basic information like phone numbers, job applicant info, field service details, and project requirements with a form app, then easily search this information or pull reports later without having to manually correct data. Automated forms and surveys make it easier to ensure your data is standardized.


Try one of our favorite form builders and automate it:

Bring in new leads


Engage your potential customers with a beautifully designed, easy form for getting in touch, then follow up with them with the right info in hand—or even better, automate responses to incoming leads to keep their attention and show you care that they reached out.


Use a form builder to build lead generation quizzes, then try one of these Zaps:

Do even more with leads generated from quizzes by automatically segmenting them using Zapier.


Collect feedback at scale


Healthy feedback loops help you constantly improve your products and services, but without an automated system for requesting and documenting that feedback, one-off comments and complaints can easily get lost. Use business automation to request feedback from every customer at the right time, then take action easily when themes emerge from that feedback.


“Clients love it when you show that you care,” writes Alexey Aylarov for the Voximplant blog.


“By collecting their reviews in a non-intrusive and respectful way, you can express your appreciation and be able to constantly fine-tune your service.”


Pick a top survey app to try automating these workflows:

Previous chapter:

Business automation for small businesses

Automation that moves your work forward

Try Zapier free for 14 days or contact Sales.

Sign up for free