Unless you’re Robert Frost or training for an endurance race, there’s little reason to take the longer path over the shorter one. Enter Form Logic, Submittable’s fix for long, rambling forms. Save time and simplify your process with this conditional logic feature—both your team members and your submitters will thank you.
Here’s why:
1. Custom Experience
When you incorporate conditional logic within application forms, submitters will only see certain questions when they’ve responded to previous questions in a specific way. For example, you may want to know if applicants have applied to your opportunity in the past. If they have, you may not need their Tax ID number and you can probably skip the question about how they found you.
You’ve put thought into the questions you ask, the data you require, and the demographics of your applicant pool—Form Logic lets you show that off. Applicants enjoy a custom experience that saves them time and your organization can hone in on the information you want and need most.
2. Streamlining
Because you’ve been to a doctor’s office, you know how tedious it can be to sift through pages of forms full of questions that don’t apply. It seems fair to assume the data entry staff don’t love this process either.
Help your applicants cut to the chase using Form Logic. With a custom application, they’ll only interact with questions and requests that are relevant to them, and your team can easily, swiftly follow their course in the backend.
3. Screening
Though your application guidelines may be clear and comprehensive, sometimes people will miss or disregard them. Picture a plane cabin full of earbuds during the airline safety features presentation.
With Form Logic, you can incorporate “qualifying” questions to ensure that applicants are a good fit. For example, if your application is only open to residents of a certain state, you can ask whether the applicant is a resident. Only when submitters answer qualifying questions correctly will secondary questions be offered. Weeding out unqualified or inappropriate applications early on saves everyone time and energy.
4. Versatility
Regardless of your field, Form Logic can assist. If you offer grants, quickly divide new applicants from returning applicants, or sort submitters by the type of grant they’re seeking and how much funding they require. For publishers, avoid multiple submission categories by asking writers up front which genre they’ll be sharing with you. Scholarship managers can divide applicants by grade, geography, or specific categories of merit.
The possibilities are endless—you can currently create up to 100 conditional logic branches within each application. Avoid creating multiple, custom submission forms for the same opportunity by incorporating Form Logic.
5. Seamless Integrations
Once you’ve divided the applicant pool using Form Logic, Submittable makes it easy to follow up with specific submitters in a customized way using Additional Forms. Perhaps you want returning applicants to offer feedback one last time, as well as send you an updated budget. Combine Form Logic with Additional Forms to improve and simplify your process.
Not only is this feature available in the Form Designer, but you can also use it to customize your review form. For example, if a reviewer believes that “yes,” this applicant should be a finalist, you can follow up and ask them to state why.
Ready to try it? Contact us anytime to find out more.
Rachel Mindell is a Special Projects Editor at Submittable. She also writes and teaches poetry. Connect with her on LinkedIn.