Using "The Machine"

So we have all seen the web sites with customer testimonials they are a great form of marketing and are very popular for many service based businesses and restaurants.  This two part series is about Using The Machine to create a easy application to help you collect, manage customer feedback and display customer testimonials on your web site. This way all you have to do is read the collected feedback and flip a switch for it to be displayed on your web site. No need to copy and paste the text or edit any html/web pages on your web site every time a new testimonial needs to be added.  Plus you will have all the feedback stored in one place for easy access in the future. 

This post will cover creating the web form and displaying it on your web site to collect customer feedback.  The second post of the series will focus on managing the information submitted from the form and displaying the customer testimonials.

First, a little information on Web based forms, there are literally hundreds of services that offer some level of form functionality.  Often your web site hosting company or web site software will have a feature to create a web form.  However, these forms traditionally work by emailing the information collected to an email address you specify when the form was created. 

Most Web Based Forms:
Web Form --> Information Collected --> Information Emailed

We on the other hand need something that will allow us to collect the data, determine if it is good or bad so we can choose the appropriate feedback to display on the web site then based on this determination display it in the "Customer Testimonials" section of your Web site. 

What we Need Automated Customer Testimonials:
Web Form --> Information Collected --> Information Management --> Information Display

There are several services that could be used to accomplish our task.  However, as I want to provide detailed instructions this post will only provide them for a specific service. The service we are going to use is called Zoho Creator which is an online database creation tool which will allow us to collect, store and display the information.

Step: 1 - Creating the Web Form

So enough with the explanations, lets get down to Using The Machine. First, you need to go and sign up with the service. 

Go to the site: creator.zoho.com

Click on the Sign Up link on the right hand side of the screen. After submitting the form you will see the screen below.

 

Now lets create a new application and build a web form to allow customers to submit their testimonials on your web site.

Click on the Create New Application button or the <creating your application> link and give the application a name like "Customer Feedback".  You also need to create a name for the form this can also be "Customer Feedback" or any other name of your choosing.

> View a Video example that shows the Application being created.

Now that the application and form have been created the next step is to begin creating fields that will be on the form.  This will be both fields that we use for customers to submit their testimonials as well as some "hidden" fields in order for us to organize the feedback information once it is submitted.

So using the interface drag and drop the following fields types and Name appropriately:

Field Type:	Field Name:	Notes:
Single Line	Name	Required
Single Line	Location	Optional
Email	Email	Optional
Multi Line	Feedback	Required
Dropdown	Type: New, Good, Bad	Hidden
Decision Check	Show on Web Site	Hidden

> View a Video example that shows the fields being added to the form.

Fields like location can either be a single line of text or if your business has specific locations you can create this field as a dropdown with all your specific locations listed.

The next step is to setup some properties for the form, on the <More Actions> menu select <Form Properties>. You can now name the form and also put in a success message which will be displayed after a customer submits feedback.  As for the verification code. don't worry about enabling or checking this for now, these verification codes are common with web forms so programs won't automatically submit your form.  For most businesses this is not needed and will only make it one step harder for your customers to submit feedback.  You can always turn it on later if you do notice SPAM or automatic submissions. 

Now go back to the <More Actions> menu and select <Set Email Notification>

 

Here you can setup an email address to receive a notification when a customer submits feedback with your form.  Now that the feedback form has been created the next step is to put the newly created form on your web site.

Step: 2 - Putting the Form on your Web Site

On the top right hand side of your screen should be the <Access this application> button, click it and you will then see your form which was just created.  Now access the <More Actions> menu above the form and select  <Embed in your Website>.

Make sure you click the <Click Here> link to access the form without login. The dialog box should be green otherwise your form will not be displayed. Next click on the <Customize Look> section, here you can change the labels on your buttons on the form if you wish. 

The "Next URL:" field, this is the URL that your user will be redirected to after they submit the form.  However, the "Next URL:" field is not required and simply leaving it blank will keep the user on the same page and upon submission your "Success Message" field will be displayed. If you do use the "Next URL:" make sure it is a valid URL for example to your sites home page or some other common page within your web site.

Now copy and paste the code into your web site, in the video example below I am using a blog but any web page will suffice. Just make sure you paste the code where you want your form to be displayed.

> View a Video example that shows the embedding process.

That is end of all of the steps, make sure everything works by testing the form.  The key thing here is to log out of Zoho completely and then go where you posted your form and validate that it comes up and it doesn't show a login page.  If you are having trouble go back into Zoho to the <Share> tab and make sure your form is set to Public. 

Note: Make sure the form only is set to public and not the entire application as shown in this video example.

So that is the end of Part 1 of Automated Customer Testimonials series, I hope that was fairly straight forward ...  If you are having issues feel free to submit a question and I will help you out as soon as possible.

The next post will cover managing the data collected from the feedback form and then using a Zoho view to display the "good" comments on your web site.