Create an online suggestion box

An online suggestion box is a form that people can use at any time to share ideas and feedback with your team. This article shows you how to set one up, make sure responses stay anonymous if you want them to be, and get new suggestions sent to Slack or your inbox.

Looking for advice on what to ask and how to act on suggestions? Read our blog post on how to run an online suggestion box that actually works.

Everything in this article is available on all plans, including Free, except Response summary reports, which need Basic or higher, and Smart Insights, which needs Talent, Growth, or Enterprise. Compare Typeform plans to see what’s included in each.

Are Typeform forms anonymous?

Yes. Forms are anonymous by default, and Typeform doesn't store respondents' geolocation. A response only shows who someone is if:

• Your form asks for it and the respondent answers, for example with an Email, Contact Info, or Short Text question
• You pass it into the form with URL parameters, for example a name or email address added to the form link

So to keep a suggestion box anonymous, remove any questions that ask for identifying details and don't add identifying URL parameters to the link you share. Learn more in How to identify your respondents.

Create your suggestion box

You can build your suggestion box from scratch, create it with Typeform AI (see above), or start from a template. This section uses the template, which includes a Welcome Screen, two Long Text questions (the suggestion, and how it could help), and an Email question at the end so you can follow up (we'll also look at how to remove this in the next section if you want to create an anonymous suggestion box). See Question types for a list of all our question types.

1. Go to the online suggestion box template and click Use this template.

2. Select the account and workspace you want to save the form in. Then click Save template.

3. The form opens in the Content panel. Edit the Welcome Screen and questions to fit what you want to collect. For example, add a Dropdown question that asks people to pick a category, like Workplace, Product, or Processes. Categories make suggestions easier to sort and pass on to the right team.

For more information about templates, see Use a template.

Make your suggestion box anonymous

The template's last question asks for an email address. To make your suggestion box fully anonymous, delete it. If you want to give people a choice, keep it but make it optional.

Remove the email question

1. In the Content panel, click the Email question at the end of the form.

2. Click the three dots next to the question and select Delete.

3. Also delete any other questions that ask for identifying details, such as name, team, or job title.

Warning! Small details can identify people too. In a small team, a question like "Which team are you on?" combined with a specific suggestion might be enough to tell who wrote it. Only ask what you need.

Let people choose whether to leave their email

1. Click the Email question.

2. In the Question settings on the right, make sure Required is toggled off. See Make your questions required.

3. Edit the question text so it's clear that leaving an email address is optional, for example: Want us to follow up? Leave your email address. You can skip this to stay anonymous.

Check for anything else that could identify respondents

Before you share your form, check that:

• Your form doesn't use URL parameters that pass names, email addresses, or IDs. See Using URL parameters
• You share a plain form link, not a personalized link from an email marketing or CRM tool that adds contact details to the URL

Share your suggestion box

A suggestion box only works if people can find it. Share the link somewhere your audience already goes, and keep it there:

• For employees: your intranet, an internal newsletter, or a pinned message in a Slack or Teams channel
• For customers: your website, or a follow-up email

See Share your form for all the ways to share or embed your form.

Get new suggestions sent to Slack or email

Suggestions are easy to forget if nobody's looking at them. Send each new response to the people who'll review it.

Send suggestions to a Slack channel

Connect your form to Slack to post every new suggestion in a channel as soon as it's submitted.

1. Open your form and click on the Connect tab.

2. Search for Slack and click Connect.

3. Follow the steps to connect your Slack account, choose a channel or direct message, and select which answers to include. Click Finish.

For full instructions, see Send form responses to Slack in real time.

Get an email for every new suggestion

1. Open your form and click the settings icon in the toolbar.

2. Scroll down to Notifications and toggle on Send email for new responses.

3. Select Complete responses only.

4. Click Save.

You'll get an email at your Typeform account's email address each time someone submits a suggestion. Each person in your team who wants these emails needs to turn the setting on for themselves. See Receive email notifications from form responses.

Review your suggestions

All suggestions are saved in your form's Results. To review them regularly:

Use the Response summary to see answers to each question, including how many suggestions came in for each category.

Use Smart Insights to get an AI summary of recurring themes across suggestions.

Use a Response summary report to share suggestions with stakeholders. On the Response summary tab, click the share icon, toggle on Report visibility, and copy the link. Reports are available on the Basic plan and higher.