Long forms can be intimidating. An easy way to increase form conversions is by using conditional form fields (CFF). Conditional fields’ visibility is based on earlier fields: they are hidden by default and appear when they become relevant. This conditional logic is a great way to make forms shorter and more personalised.
For example, suppose you want to collect data on your customers' coffee habits. Here is a demo with conditional fields, try it out:
This article will teach you how to create forms with conditional fields like the above example.
Conditional form fields are an advanced feature. To enable it in your account, click Settings from the Qualifio menu bar. In the Advanced features area, you will be able to enable it by toggling the switch to ON.
Step 1: Create a form
The first step is simply to create a form that includes all possible fields. Your form will be rather long. At this stage, our form looks like this:
Step 2: Indicate the field's conditions
To add a condition to a field, click on that field's link icon (🔗) and indicate your condition.
Some important points to keep in mind
- This feature has to be enabled from the Advanced Settings. If you don't see it in your campaign, please contact the Admin of your Qualifio account.
- To date, conditional form fields only work for closed questions and date fields; not for open-ended ones.
- You can only use one level of this conditional logic. It is currently not possible to have a conditional field that depends on another conditional field.
Step 3: Relate conditional fields to their trigger field
Select the conditional field, then simply drag and drop it below its trigger field.
If you change your mind about a field, you can just drag and drop it back in place.
Conditional Forms, GDPR and the "age of consent"
The conditional logic applied to a "birthdate" field can be very useful in the context of GDPR compliance. For instance, it can allow you to isolate minor participants and ask them to enter their tutors' contact information, as shown in the example below:
According to Article 8 of the GDPR, companies that process personal data of minors must request consent from parents when the child is under 16 years of age (the lawyer Axel Beelen explains it to you in this video).
However, each country has the possibility to lower this age limit to at least 13 years, which many Member States have done, including Belgium and Spain. "The age of consent" is set at 16 in The Netherlands and Germany.
Learn more about age verification in Qualifio →
Important note about using CRM variables with CFFs
Please note that CRM variables are not automatically checked in conditional fields. It may happen that you have multiple fields linked to the same CRM variable.
Consider the following scenario:
- "How many children do you have?"
- The participant selects "2".
- Conditional fields appear:
- "Is your first one a boy or a girl?" and "Is your second one a boy or a girl?"
- The participant selects their children's genders.
By default, both gender fields may be linked to the same CRM variable (e.g. {gender}). Therefore, you can get 2 different values for that field. One value may thus overwrite the other, as the system cannot save 2 different values for one field. Think of it this way: it's like getting two different answers to a unique question... You wouldn't know which one is the right answer that you should save ;-)
So, what’s the solution? While configuring your conditional form in Qualifio, you need to create custom CRM variables (go to Settings > CRM custom variables) and link those to your fields. That way, you will have a unique variable for each field (i.e. the gender of both children) and ensure better data quality.