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Workspace Invaders

[WORKSPACE INVADERS 👾] Meet the typeform that's saving scientists 6 months of work

[WORKSPACE INVADERS 👾] Meet the typeform that's saving scientists 6 months of work
Liz
Community Team
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  • Tech Community Advocate
  • 14451 replies

Hello, community folks! It’s nearly summer and our Workspace Invaders series is heatin’ up! 🔥🔥🔥

 

Helping scientists plan experiments faster

 

A little over a month ago, @JustinV22  from Locus.ly asked for some recommendations from the community on how to send different emails based on answers. While there isn’t a direct way to send different emails based on the answers respondents provide, Justin found a crafty solution using Typeform Webhooks and Zapier

 

Locus.ly helps scientists find tests to run their experiments through an outcome quiz typeform. The form asks a few questions based on the data they’d like to obtain, then presents them with a beautiful customized PDF of the test they’ll need to run as well as the costs of each test. Previously, this data had to be scoured by the scientists on their own by contacting each company individually and asking the sales rep similar questions.

 

Our idea was to bill it as "6 months of research in 6 minutes" – Justin Valley

 

We were blown away by both the idea and the solution so James and I caught up with Locus.ly Founder Justin and his Scientific Consultant Brian Steffy to find out how (and why!) they did it!

 

In this video, we’ll talk about: 

 

  • What Locus.ly is and how they found Typeform

  • Using the outcomes quiz template to simplify the questionnaire

  • How to use Webhooks, Zapier, and Typeform to send custom emails based on answers

  • Setting up different email templates within Zapier
     

 

 

How to do it yourself

 

Want to build your own quiz with multiple outcomes or want to share different products with your customers based on their preferences? Here's a quick guide to setting up Zapier + Typeform Webhooks to send different emails based on the outcome your respondent received – just like Justin did…
 

1. Set up your zap 


The first step is to set up your zap. You’ll want the trigger event to be “Catch Hook” in Zapier, followed by “Utilities,” then ending with “Send Email” in your email service provider. For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll be using Gmail. 

 

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2. Turn on webhooks and submit a real response 
 

You’ll first want to submit a real response to your form in order to capture the endings within the results. A test webhook won’t capture this data for you. 

 

After you submit a real response, you can grab the webhook URL within your zap and add this to your Typeform like this: 

 

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Be sure to test the trigger in Zapier in order to move to the next step!

 

3. Find the Outcome IDs to setup Zapier Utilities

 

The ID is a unique string of letters and numbers assigned to each ending on the form. This will help Zapier identify which ending was submitted to the results and then send a different email accordingly. 

 

You can find the Outcome ID by searching through the Webhook data. 

 

xX16YG1CJZ6nsUZHFRCGVRAIyGMGFw6yothdUYt3vBuZdmWCi2VhNeVdF3erdNQ2dr2ry5wA2dZ2IL7RocXU5-CwH5QYnzRfWef5YRyy1HYEe1qPU9CnN75IibF6-jz-0NN9oPUh

 

We’d suggest adding the outcome IDs to a Google Spreadsheet so it’s easier to keep track of. 

 

L0f8FQLoKlK_7EXu40CDtLGdutELWABGI3QCrvJL7n73QTM8Ie_9NU7HQ35QdM3SCbFv9Zp4PDf9iCHwtz3NSShmj18B_40q0QQL520lA8gEfV0cNGdW3Lhv5W5Oktnl0PiXUj7R

 

4. Create a lookup table
 

Create a lookup table with the IDs and the information you’d like to have in your email. For this tutorial, we’re changing the URL within each email, but you could add specific text instead, too. 

sN7dnOLl-gQ_vIi9MKrd6ZM47PAZZCnYZiLMz0u1p_5rPWsQt38XDNnitVG19xT08nbG6XlLGx6DtbmMWU-nZm1FXav1FcrtHKZD3nddoKQOBQZ_Mq9ce2TTNNgckeK4qak_Sklk

 

In case anything changes with your form, be sure to add a Fallback value underneath the Lookup Table options. This will provide a default value in case the zap can’t match any of the IDs within the table. 

 

5. Finally, format the body of your email! 

 

QN2p82KeJY__T8tMbfUgqGZjdFalAmIDPQpWSBiOMQaIY25_ulRPmuypyag15EY1Uzrll5XSQJY1v3APINPGC9gn_NqK_VKFxQU93_H49qa6YC9KgndFgQ0gUtHOS8rzVpos3Zkh

 

When a respondent submits your form now, the body of the email will change according to the zap you’ve setup. Be sure to test this before sharing the form live with respondents to make sure everything is working! 

 

Helpful resources 📚📚📚

 

If you’re curious about Locus.ly, be sure to check them out and follow their progress here


Got a cool use case like Locus.ly's? We'd love to hear from you and share what you're doing with our community like Justin and Brian did. Just hit us up via this typeform.

15 replies

john.desborough
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  • Certified Partner & Champion
  • 5161 replies
  • May 27, 2021

@Liz @James - very cool!! 

des


Gabriel
Ex–Typefomer
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  • Community Team
  • 858 replies
  • May 27, 2021

This is mind boggling. Congrats Locus.ly and team!!! 

@Liz what's their community handle? She should mention them here! 


Liz
Community Team
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  • Author
  • Tech Community Advocate
  • 14451 replies
  • May 27, 2021

Ah, thank you @Gabriel ! I meant to update the post afterwards when it let me tag people. Updating now!


JustinV22
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  • Socializer
  • 5 replies
  • May 29, 2021

Thanks so much for the shoutout and awesome write-up/video @Liz and James!  Hope this is helpful to others, too!  


john.desborough
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  • Certified Partner & Champion
  • 5161 replies
  • May 31, 2021

@JustinV22 @Liz @James - great job on this. pretty cool use case. 

I like the ‘relative simplicity’ of the set up in Zapier.. well done. 

cheers

 

des


Liz
Community Team
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  • Tech Community Advocate
  • 14451 replies
  • June 1, 2021

@john.desborough Same!! I’m thinking of using this setup now for a new form I’ve been thinking of building! The process is way easier than I ever thought it could be. :rofl:


john.desborough
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  • Certified Partner & Champion
  • 5161 replies
  • June 1, 2021

@JustinV22 - one quick question about the ‘outcome reports’: based on what i could see in the video, and not having gone and run the typeform, are all the outcome report/lists static or is there some dynamic content that is included into the actual report body based on the typeform data (ie merging any data into a template that produces a customized version of the report)? 

cheers

des


JustinV22
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  • Socializer
  • 5 replies
  • June 3, 2021

@john.desborough great question.  We started with trying to make it dynamic and then realized that was going to complicate things with so many different outcomes.  Now they are all static.  Hope that helps!


john.desborough
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  • Certified Partner & Champion
  • 5161 replies
  • June 3, 2021

@JustinV22 - thanks for the update. I figured as much but was just checkin’.. that’s a lot of doco to keep up to date if and as prices changes but i really do love the concept and what you have implemented to date. 

kudos to you folk!

 

des


  • Navigating the Land
  • 2 replies
  • March 20, 2023

Hi, I’m pretty much trying to replicate what Locus.ly has done as it fits my needs exactly. The issue I am encountering is that when I create the Lookup Table in Zapier, I don’t see a field “Form Response Definition Outcome Choices ID:<list of IDs>” as shown in the example. I only see a single ID corresponding to the a quiz answer as seen in the screenshot below. 

Any pointers on what I am doing differently? Thanks!


Liz
Community Team
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  • Tech Community Advocate
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  • March 21, 2023

Hi @shree_pk Thanks for stopping by! For all of the outcome choices to appear, you have to have at least one response submitted with that outcome. Then, you’ll see the options for each. Let me know if that doesn’t work!


  • Navigating the Land
  • 2 replies
  • March 22, 2023

Hi @Liz - thank you so much. I was a little confused with the naming of the lookup key that corresponded to the endings. I was looking for Outcome Choices, but Nicolas from the Typeform dev team confirmed that Response Ending Id was indeed correct. I am in the process of configuring the Zap with the outcome choices as you have suggested. Thank you again.


Liz
Community Team
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  • March 22, 2023

Woot! Let us know how it goes, @shree_pk !


This is exactly what i’m looking for - amazing!! 

 

One quick question - does anyone have any idea if this will work with Zapier Tables instead of Google Sheets?

 

Thanks as always,

Luis


Liz
Community Team
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  • August 21, 2023

Hi @luisjbdouglas Thanks for stopping by! I haven’t personally tried with Zapier tables, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work with it. I’d go ahead and give it a try!


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