I have an order form with a few conditional logic date fields that are shown/hidden based on time. What would be the best way to restart the form if a user hasn’t completed the form within a set time frame?
The problem: If a customer starts to fill out a form, doesn’t complete the form, and comes back the next day (browser refresh I’m guessing), some of the required fields that were previously filled or that need to be filled have disappeared (due to time logic). This allows for some incomplete submissions to be processed with vital information needed to render services.
Even if I can redirect to another form would be good, as I have a zip validation that has to be filled out prior to reaching this form.
Thanks in advance, I look forward to all of your suggestions!
Gravity Forms has a couple tools which may help. You can offer a proactive method for the user to save their progress and continue. That is built in to all Gravity Forms versions. It’s the Save and Continue functionality detailed here:
That requires that the visitor save their progress. Then they are given a link to come back at a later time to complete the form.
The other possibility is our Partial Entries add-on detailed here:
That add-on is available to Elite license holders only. It will capture progress periodically, without user intervention. If they leave your site without submitting the form, you still capture the information they submitted thus far. If you have the name, email, phone, etc, early in the form, and then they abandon the form, you will still get that information. However, that does not make it any easier for the user to come back and continue their submission. They would be starting over from scratch and that information which was captured in the partial entry would not help them at all.
I’ll leave this open in case anyone else has a comment or suggestion for handling this. Thank you.
Since the entries are time sensitive and involve same-day and next-day service days, saving forms for a later date might cause submissions that are entered with too short of a notice and potentially past the service time requested.
The form itself is not long, and shouldn’t take no more than a minute or two to complete. Would you happen to know an option that makes the user start from scratch if the form is not completed regardless if they save it or not?
By default, they should have to start over if they leave and come back to it. Are people leaving the tab open with the fields partially filled in, walking away for a cup of coffee, then coming back to complete the form? I’ve never been asked this question before, so I am not sure where the issue is coming from or what the issue actually is!
Yes that is my guess, people are leaving fields partially filled in, and coming back at a later time.
The specific entry had a time stamp of 6:30 PM previous day (I have a field keeping time), but the actual entry was made next day at around 11:00am and had missing required fields that I’m guessing were hidden with the time difference.
Gravity Forms does not have any control over what the browser retains and when that information is cleared or not. Based on that information, what sort of fix would you like to see that would make this more reliable for your customers?