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Times are tough for us all. Now more than ever we need to get close to our customers, employees, and communities.
We can't get close physically. But we can still create and foster meaningful relationships online. We know this because we've been doing it at Typeform—with Typeform, VideoAsk, and other apps that play nicely with our tools.
So we're sharing what we're doing with you, because we want you and your business to do well and get out of this crisis in one piece. And then we'll ask you for all your money.
That last bit was a joke.
Latest posts on Customers
Take a look at the different ways our teams are putting Typeform and VideoAsk to use. Each one is a genuine case that's working for us. Feel free to copy any of them—we've provided templates for you to get started—and put them to work to keep your own customers, employees and community close.
Interacting with our customers
Any company with a subscription-based revenue model is living in fear of the dreaded c-word. No, not that one, or that one—we're talking churn.
Whether you work in SaaS, subscription media, or subscription-based ecommerce (aka subcom), your new reality is that your "unsubscribe" button is becoming a tantalizing option for your cash-strapped customers.
At Typeform we understand that times are tight and we want to do everything we can to empathize with our customers—whether that's understanding why they use us, listening carefully to why they are leaving us, or helping them to get value by showing them what the product can do.
“Getting closer to your customer is everything now. Leading with empathy is not just a nice to have, it’s a must have, especially as we approach a new way of building more personal business relationships.”
1. Understanding what our customers are doing
It's key for us to understand why customers sign up in the first place, so we can personalize their product onboarding and get them started quicker.
Our "Welcome to Typeform" typeform is the first thing you see when you first launch the product after signing up. We ask a few simple questions about who they are and what they want to do. Then we offer personalized template recommendations based on their answers to get them started. We can also use this data to create personalized onboarding flows and lifecycle campaigns.
2. Finding out why people are leaving
We hate goodbyes. It's never nice to see customers leave, and in today's climate it's sadly becoming more common for businesses globally. The question is: why are they leaving?
Is it because of the financial impact of the coronavirus? Would they have left anyways?
We've used two approaches for our churn exit survey:
1) A custom typeform embedded into the offboarding flow that asks the customer why they're leaving. We added COVID-19 to the Multiple Choice options to help us monitor the effect this is playing on people's decision to leave.
2) A videoask from Typeform Co-Founder David inviting the customer to share via video or voice message why they're choosing to leave.
All of these precious answers are automatically sent to Google Sheets using our native integration. From here, our Data team analyzes the customer feedback and makes recommendations to the appropriate departments.
3. Helping customers who are helping others
We're offering a three-month free trial of Typeform for not-for-profits who are working on COVID-19 projects. We made a landing page with an embedded videoask from our Brand Director Paul to explain the offer, inviting people to contact us personally via video. We also included a typeform for people to apply for the trial.
We integrated the application typeform with Slack and Google Sheets so we can stay on top of the incoming responses.
4. Sharing customers' inspirational stories
We're excited to hear about the incredible work these not-for-profit customers are doing. So after they've signed up for the trial, we ask them to share their story through a typeform, along with some photos (via File Upload). We then share these heart-warming stories with other customers on our blog.
We connected the typeform to Slack so we get alerted when a new story comes in. The typeform is also connected to an Airtable via our native integration. The Airtable is embedded in the blog post (see example below), allowing us to gather inspirational case stories and publish quickly.
“It's amazing to see how many regular people like you and me are doing whatever they can to help. It's not NGOs driving these initiatives—it's everyone from doctors and CEOs to engineers and high-school students. This is a beautiful thing to see these days.”
Growing our team
We consider ourselves very lucky that we're able to keep growing our team even during the current crisis. Of course, hiring, onboarding and integrating new staff is a challenge at this time. So we tuned our tools to help us find great talent and welcome new folks.
5. Finding top talent
Interviewing job candidates in the flesh now feels like the stuff of myth and legend. Our clever recruitment team is adapting with the times though. They're using VideoAsk to make things a little more human—and also to see and hear candidates to get a better feel for their personality.
“We're using VideoAsk for our general application form. When someone applies, they’re asked if they want to continue with the 'traditional' way of applying or through videoask.”
Who wouldn't want to work here after experiencing such a warm and fuzzy application process? Actually, would you? Seriously, if you think we might make a good team then apply now!
6. Making an offer they can't refuse
Accepting a new job while in confinement must be a scary thing. Not only have you not met your future colleagues in the flesh, but you've also probably never even set foot on the company premises. I mean, how do you even know this is a real business? Could it all be some bizzaro dream?
Our Strategy team has devised a cool way to make someone feel wanted. When they made an offer to candidate Pablo, the team used a videoask to give feedback on his interview and explained why they thought he was right for the team. Needless to say Pablo said yes.
"Personalization matters," said Pablo. "Receiving that videoask was the most personal moment I’ve had during a process like this."
7. Introducing new starters to the company
Under normal circumstances we'd welcome new typeformers over a cold one in our barception. (yes, our reception's a bar—isn't everyone's?) But in confinement, it's easy for a new colleague to be yet another name you don't need to remember.
Onboarding Specialist Kasia gets around this by sending an email to new employees a couple of weeks before they start to make sure they're all set. Here, she includes a videoask from Cofounder David who says 'hi' and asks them to share a bit about themselves in their own words.
Kasia then shares these little intro videos in an email to all Typeform employees a few days before the new starters "arrive." So when they start, they get pounced on by friendly colleagues keen to know just how many Audrey Hepburn movies they've really seen, or how they get their beard so shiny.
Here's an example of the email we receive:
“One of the most crucial parts of the employee Lifecycle is the Onboarding. The first impression counts. I focus on making it engaging and educational in sync with our values.”
Kasia also uses VideoAsk to welcome the newbies when they join, sending them this videoask to make them feel at home when they start:
8. Getting to know those little heads we see in Zoom
Kasia also works hard to make typefomers seem less like avatars and more like real humans (which most of us are).
She created an interactive "Meet the team" typeform where you can find fun facts about your colleagues across the different departments. Newbies find this an enjoyable way to get to know who to book their next virtual coffee date with.
Keeping typeformers happy
Typeformers are generally a happy bunch, but lockdown does strange things to people. I freaked out the other day because I accidentally ordered a jigsaw puzzle to the office instead of my home. And it's a bit hard to do a puzzle that's quarantined on the other side of town.
First world problems aside, there are real issues with not having social contact while we're isolated. But thankfully Typeform can bring us all closer together at this time.
9. Organizing a remote "Got Talent" event
What better way is there to keep spirits up than by singing and dancing in your bedroom in front of 100+ watching colleagues on Zoom? Thankfully the participants in Typeform's inaugural "Got Talent" contest were all wonderful so there was no awkwardness. Don't believe us? Check out some of the show-stopping performances here:
"I couldn't believe how many artists we have at Typeform. It was a great event!" said Office Coordinator-turned host of Typeform's Got Talent, Pep Sanz.
Pep used a dazzling typeform to drum up entrants and their performance plans so he could set the stage for their moment in the spotlight.
10. Creating picture paw-fect social media campaigns
One of the first Slack channels that popped up when we went fully remote was, naturally #pets_of_typeform.
Dedicated to all friends furry, feathery, and scaly, this channel helped lift our teams’ spirits in spite of the distance—and gave us hope that we weren’t the only ones dealing with a cat falling asleep on our keyboard.
Our sharing, caring Social Media Specialist Lindsey created a typeform to collect pictures of critters for #NationalPetDay. Using the File Upload feature to collect pictures, and adding a couple of questions about people's pets, she was able to create cute content for social media. You may recognize Salami if you follow our social channels.
“My first question was "why haven’t we done this before?" My second question was "WHY HAVEN’T WE DONE THIS BEFORE?"”
11. (Social) sharing how we work
When our doors slammed shut on the first day of lockdown, one of the first on the scene to foster the spirit of togetherness was Lindsey, again. She quickly launched a social media campaign for typeformers to share pictures of their new makeshift offices with each other—and the wider world, via a typeform.
Lindsey collected the images via a File Upload block and asked typeformers to share a remote working tip. After taking these tips and turning them into social content via Canva, she shared them as an Instagram story thread to help boost spirits and inspire others during these strange times. The tips were also later re-purposed as content for LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
12. Celebrating books. And dragon slayers.
Once a year in Barcelona folks go out and buy each other books and roses in celebration of the patron saint of Catalonia, Sant Jordi. Think of it like a kind of literary Valentine's Day.
Sant Jordi falls on April 23, meaning that this year there were no book stands, no flower sellers, and no words to describe the disappointment of the Catalan people. Thankfully, Typeform has its own saints, who stepped forward to lift our spirits. Not only did our Home Team send out treat packages to everyone in the company (including bookmarks!), but Lindsey helped us summon our inner reader with yet another social campaign.
She sent a typeform to all staff to collect a photo of people's bookshelves and poll people on their favorite books. It all went into an Instagram Stories thread, encouraging Typeform’s followers to share their favorite books and quotes.
Doing our work—remotely
When we're not busy singing, reading, or gawping at cats, we find time to work to make our product even better and more useful. Work is hard at the best of times. But it's harder when you're all holed up in your respective bedrooms/gardens/bathrooms.
Here are some typeforms that keep us coordinated across different departments.
13. Submitting creative briefs
Our wonderful design team helps make Typeform look good—even when the workforce is stuck home looking like scruffy neanderthals. This time has been exceptionally busy for them as they juggle with brand updates, launching campaigns, and designing a new homepage among many other things.
One of the keys to keeping the team productive and efficient is the Creative Briefing typeform. This conversational form is a pleasure to fill in (I can testify to this). The questions are geared towards concrete outcomes, helping the team to prioritize projects and deliver the right results for the business.
“We make our best work when we truly understand the problem we're solving, and the people we're addressing. Our briefing typeform is key for smoothly gathering that essential input and kick-starting our creative thinking.”
14. Handling data requests
Typeform's Data team has been hit with request after request as all areas of the company seek to understand the impact of the coronavirus crisis.
As you might expect, the Data team has a well planned, remote-friendly process for managing and prioritizing all these requests. It looks a little like this:
The requester (i.e. internal stakeholder) completes the Data team request typeform, which asks for their department and the type of request they want to make.
The requester is then redirected to another typeform based on the information they gave—thanks to the Logic Jump and Redirect to URL features. This second typeform belongs to the department lead who handles that particular type of request. So for example, if the request has to do with measuring new signups, it will load the Marketing Insights team request typeform.
This second, team-specific typeform collects more detailed information about the request.
These responses are fed into the team's JIRA board for them to be reviewed and prioritized.
Since launching the typeform just before the lockdown, the Data team has collected more than 100 requests through it—that's a lot of SQL commands.
“The typeform has helped to make our request process more efficient. Requests are getting to the correct person quicker so teams can manage their workloads better.”
➕ Add example to your Workspace - (remember to create separate versions of the team-specific typeforms linked in the Thank You Screens.)
15. Collecting new feature ideas from typeformers
The Typeform offices are always a melting pot for new ideas for improving our product. But even though the offices are shut down, it doesn't mean we can't share our ideas for innovating the product, right? Right.
Group Product Manager Tyze set up a typeform to collect bright ideas for improvements. After someone submits an idea, it gets sent automatically to a Trello board—via our integration—for the product development team to review and prioritize as needed.
16. Getting customer feedback on new features
We can build a product that we think is cool, but who are we to say if it's actually useful? So, we listen to what our customers say about the changes we make to Typeform. And we get fantastic feedback.
For example, we recently launched product feedback surveys about both the Share and Results sections of Typeform. The Product team made these surveys look great using the Layouts feature to add images, backgrounds, and videos.
The typeforms are embedded into the product, so we catch the user right at the moment they're using a particular feature to get their thoughts on it. We can capture and send the customer's user ID in a Hidden Field so we don't need to ask for their email if we already know them.
Our Engineering team is currently poring over the responses to identify tweaks we could make based on this feedback.
17. Listening to how customers see our brand
In real life, the idea of knowing what everyone thinks about you would be horrific. In business it's a necessity.
Typeform's Strategy Team sent out a brand perception survey to our users via email, inviting them to share their thoughts on how they see us. To get a full picture of ourselves, the survey uses a mixture of Opinion Scale, Multiple Choice, and open-ended questions. Logic is applied to route the respondent down a certain path through the typeform based on what they answer. Responses are automatically sent to a Google Sheet, making it easy for the team to analyze the answers and gain clarity on our identity as a brand.
“We need to know how our customers define us, what they think about us, and how strong our brand is. We are in a world where brands are everything, and as a company, we need to own this conversation. This survey is a way to begin to own who we are—by understanding what our customers say about us.”
Extracurricular typeforms
We don't just use our products for work stuff—we integrate it into the things we do in our communities too.
Here are some neat examples of projects and events that folks here have been organizing with the help of Typeform
18. Working with students in our local community
Oscar is helping to organize two online events that Typeform is running for students at a business school here in Barcelona. He put the Layouts feature to great effect in an eye-catching typeform.
The interactive typeform includes a quiz, which tests the student's knowledge of marketing strategy. At the end of the quiz they get a personalized assessment with links to sign up for the events, where they get to learn more about how to engage an audience and build meaningful relationships with customers.
"It helps us to show that we are different and that we care," said Oscar. "We want to engage students in a journey that nobody has brought them on before. We make them part of the experience: the main characters of our hiring process.”
19. Hacking solutions for COVID-19
In April, the European Commission set a challenge to hackers around the world to find solutions to issues brought on by the COVID-19 crisis. Over the course of the weekend more than 25,000 participants worked on an incredible 2,163 projects as part of the EUvsVirus event.
As a Barcelona-based company with employees coming from many European countries, it felt natural for Typeform to get on board.
EUvsVirus organizers used Typeform to gather interests to participate from hackers, mentors, and corporations before the event. And they ran a satisfaction survey at the end of it. Also, there were a dozen projects that used Typeform as part of the solution, which you can check out here.
“This was the biggest remote hackathon ever organized. I was really impressed by the incredible coordination and the results. It proves anything is possible if you put people together!”
20. Officiating at weddings
When she's not untangling customers' Logic Jumps, Support Advocate Elizabeth Babinski helps couples to tie the knot. Liz runs a wedding business where she presides over ceremonies and oversees a team of officiants.
Of course there aren't many weddings happening at the moment, which has given Liz some time to put together a typeform survey to share with her officiants. The beautiful, conversational survey allows them to submit stories about the ceremonies they perform at so she can share their stories on her blog.
“To increase their publicity, I created a form to get information about a wedding and speed up the number of blog posts I can write without having to email them. This will be used once the virus is over and it's appropriate to share wedding information again.”
21. Making loved ones smile on their birthday
My wife made me a video compilation for my birthday two weeks ago, stitching together video greetings from my friends and family into a moving 30-minute montage. Imagine what an ungrateful jerk I looked like when I asked her why she didn't use VideoAsk to collect the videos.
Customer Outcomes Manager Andrew scored brownie points with his partner and his company when he put together his touching tribute to Joy using VideoAsk. I should've married him.
"Since we couldn't have a party and we have friends from all over the world, I built this to help bring some joy to my fianceé on her birthday," said Andrew. "It was a great surprise! She was so happy to hear from our friends across the globe and was very emotional as she watched the videos."
What next?
Let us know how you've been using Typeform to build meaningful relationships with your customers, employees, and communities. We'd love to share your story with the world! Simply fill in this typeform, we'll take a look and let you know if your story is selected for our blog.
If you haven't used Typeform yet and are eager to get started after reading about what can be done, check out these helpful resources:
Check out our template gallery, where you'll find a wealth of pre-made typeforms to get you up and running.
Visit our Help Center to learn more about how to use Typeform.
If you're interested in using VideoAsk, head here to find out more and see examples.
