Connecting your Typeform automations to Zapier opens the door to thousands of integrations, allowing you to seamlessly pass your Typeform contact data to the tools your team already uses. Zapier lets you connect apps through a series of automated connections, called Zaps. By using contact activity/updates or form submission as a trigger for your automation, you can set up Zapier as an action to ensure your workflows stay up to date and responsive without manual effort.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to set up an automation that starts whenever a contact is created or updated. From there, Zapier will take your Typeform contact data and send it wherever it’s needed. We’ll use an example of how to connect your automation to Zapier to automatically pull contact details into a Google Doc, helping you keep records organized and instantly accessible.
What you’ll need:
- A Typeform account on the Plus, Business, Growth Pro, Talent, Growth Custom, or Enterprise plan
- The Contacts & Automations add-on
- A Zapier account
Create contacts and map form responses to contact properties
You’ll first need to set up your contacts database with contact properties to store and organize information about your contacts. The data stored in your contact properties can be used in the Zap you create. Standard contact properties you can use consist of:
- Subscription status
- Name
- Job title
- Company name
- And more
Additionally, you can create custom properties to store the information you need from your contacts.
Learn more about how to create and manage your contact properties here.
Next, you’ll need to add contacts to your contacts database to create contact profiles. You can add contacts in several ways:
- From form responses
- Importing them from a CSV
- Create them individually
Learn how to create and manage your contacts here.
When you add contacts to your contacts database through form responses, you can map form responses to your contact properties. This means that when someone answers your form, their answers will update the relevant contact properties in their contact profile. You’ll need to map form responses to the following contact properties for a contact profile to be created:
- Subscription status
When you’re done mapping your form questions to contact properties, click the Share/Publish edits button to make your form live.
Create an automation from a contact update and connect to Zapier
After mapping form responses to contact properties, you can create an automation that triggers when a contact is updated (for example, when a new contact is created). You can then connect this automation to Zapier, which allows you to integrate with other apps such as Google Docs.
1. From your workspace, click Automations.
2. Click + Create automation.
3. Select what will trigger this automation, Form submission or Contact activity or updates. We’ll select Contact activity or updates.
4. Give your automation a name by clicking the default name in the top left corner.
5. Select what will trigger this automation from the dropdown list. We’ll select Contact is created.
6. Optionally, add a contact list and contact property filter if you want to filter this automation for a specific group of contacts.
7. Click the + icon in the middle to add an action.
Then select Send to integration.
8. Click on the Zapier icon.
9. A new tab will open prompting you to log into your Zapier account if you’re not already. If you’re already logged into Zapier a new tab will open with your Zapier account and directly in a new Zap. Select your trigger event and Typeform account. Then click Continue.
10. Your Automation Step ID will automatically populate. Click Continue.
11. Click Test trigger. This will pull a test record from your contact database.
12. Click Continue with selected record.
13. Select which app/tool you want to connect to. We’ll select Google Docs.
14. Select your action event and account. Then click Continue.
15. Select which Drive, Folder, and Document Name you want to use. This may be different depending on your use case and what app you selected to connect to. Click Continue when you’re done.
16. Test your Zap by clicking Test step.
17. Check if the test worked. Click Publish if everything worked as expected.
18. Head back to your automation in your Typeform account and click I’ve completed setup.
19. Click Activate to turn this automation on.
Now when a respondent becomes a contact in Typeform, a Google Doc with the contact details we’ve entered will automatically populate.
Add a time delay or another action
With automations, you can add a time delay to actions and add additional actions. For example, when a contact is created, you can send contact details to a Google Doc and in 1 day send an email to the contact.
To add a time delay, click the + button and select Time delay.
In the right side menu, select the time delay for when you want the automation to continue. In the dropdown you can select to delay by Minutes, Hours, or Days.
Then click the + button to select what action you want to occur. You can send an email, send a webhook, or send to another integration.
Delete or edit Zapier automation
To delete the Zapier action, click on the Zapier action and then click Delete action.
If you need to edit your Zapier automation, click Open Zapier.
This will open your Zap in your Zapier account in a new tab where you can edit it.