Delay Calendly submission until Typeform submission, or an alternate solution?

  • 18 January 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 172 views

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TLDR: The Typeform status-quo is that un-submitted responses are deleted after 15 days. The Calendly app doesn’t follow the status quo, and is finalized immediately regardless of whether the Typeform is submitted or not. Existing workarounds are insufficient to resolve the inconsistency.

 

My situation is actually a combination of two common Typeform complaints: Calendly submissions ≠ form submissions (resulting in clients who think they’ve submitted both, when only having completed one), and partial completions are unavailable (except Calendly app submissions within partial completions). 

Several solutions have been proposed. 

  1. Solution 1: @guyb spoke to this when commenting on the original announcement: “It would be even better if it could be adjusted so that the Calendly meeting is not actually scheduled until the Typeform has been submitted.”

    This solves my problem because submitters, Calendly, and Zapier aren’t misled to think the submission is done when they, in fact, are only partially done. 

  2. Solution 2: Allow for partial completions to be actualized/submitted automatically after a delay. While this is a Qualtrics feature, it seems it may not be in line with the Typeform product vision.

A commonly suggested workaround is to break the Typeform into two, using a redirect on completion (and hidden fields, if needed). Let me explain why that doesn’t work in the context of integrations:

If I have two parts of my Typeform: the scheduling part and the free response part. I need everything to submit at once, otherwise it breaks integrations (tested via Zapier), and confuses both those being booked and those booking via Calendly.

Here’s why:

  1. The Calendly event, upon booking, triggers a Zapier integration that pulls information from the Typeform into actions that prepare materials for the Calendly meeting.
  2. If the Calendly event is booked before the Typeform is submitted, there aren’t any values in the Typeform for Zapier to pull out.
  3. Splitting the Typeform (via the workaround) may artificially allow for partial response collection inside the Typeform UX, but doesn’t allow for Zapier to collect any responses from the sections after the Calendly booking is submitted.

You might say “well, just move the Calendly booking to the end!”

We’re back to issue #1, where clients frequently confuse submitting the Calendly booking with submitting the Typeform. Once again we end up with a Calendly confirmation and no data in the un-submitted Typeform. 

Additionally, in our situation (no longer hypothetical) Calendly can potentially have no availability, which would prohibit the submission. Moving the scheduling to the end results in their clients completing the lengthly free response questions, only to find that there are no openings to book. Not a good way to start a client relationship!

 

I’m looking for additional workarounds, or (if we’re lucky) an implementation of one of the solutions I’ve pulled from other Typeform users. 


4 replies

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@Liz and @Mariana I know you’ve been covering this topic.

@Paulo and @insiteful I’ve seen you suggest workarounds, perhaps your brains can help here with the Zapier integration situation?

@Kristy, you’ve had a similar issue, were you able to solve it with something not already mentioned here?

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@talon256 - it’s a dilemma: it didn’t exist before the ability to add a Calendly question into the Typeform existed! How did we manage before Typeform responded to user demand to put in a Calendly question and integration inside a typeform?

I agree with you that it would be nice if it would work exactly the way that each of us wants it to work, in our given use case. But it cannot be that dynamic - no way that Typeform could invest that much money to solve this one integration issue. 

I have had to work with clients to revise their Zapier integrations so that they COULD leverage the existence of the Calendly question type. And they split their typeforms into two, with the Calendly booking in the second form. 

Yes client calendars are more closed than our own, BUT if what you are providing is compelling enough and that you can outline up front that ‘bookings are scarce due to high demand’ maybe what you get is a more committed participant. Someone who will take the quiz/assessment to see if it does provide value first and then wants to book a meeting with you, understanding that scarcity exists … 

just a thought on changing mindsets 

 

des

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Thanks for the input, @john.desborough 

To focus on the core issue: Typeform has reiterated time and time again that all responses become available upon final submission, and that partial responses are not available. The issue is that the Calendly app breaks that mold. 

I’m not calling for personalization of the Calendly integration, merely that it be forced back into alignment with the general Typeform function; that being anything un-submitted is un-finalized.

 

Now, in answer to ‘How did we manage before Typeform responded to user demand to put in a Calendly question and integration inside a typeform?” Well, at least in our case, we didn’t set our clients up with Typeform! In order for Typeform to capture revenue from existing Calendly clients, the Calendly integration is going to have to work at least as well (or better) than Calendly on it’s own. We’ll be headed back where we came if this doesn’t end up working. Not a big deal, just wanted to see if it was fixable before we close our account and write it all of as R&D. 

Thanks for contributing!

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@talon256 - it’s an app that is embedded inside typeform. I get your point. So maybe they did not do what we want perfectly. BUT there is a way to do that by adding it in a second form at the end.. so that all the typeform data is routed to the various trigger apps we have running behind the typeform and that the calendly data follows it right behind. 

“in the old days”, i used to have the button on the ending page of my typeform take the user to a Calendly booking page cuz my recommendation was to book a meeting to discuss further. That worked too. It worked really well for me and my clients. Once i figured out what the new question type was doing, i just did the same thing with the new version. 

Typeform is not a silver bullet to all the use cases in the way we want them to work. And sometimes we have to look at the outcome we want to achieve - ie get the client to book a meeting - and figure out what pieces of kit we have to use to get what we want and to give the client the value he needs. 

all you can do is some A/B testing on the process flows and see if the clients will accept the workarounds… just sayin’

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