How to create a user feedback form on Silex

Every website should include a few fundamental elements, and one of the most important is a way for your site visitors to contact your organization. Listing your organization’s contact information and providing a feedback form are great ways to encourage your customers to reach out. No matter your industry, feedback forms give you the chance to capture valuable insights from your customers, whether they come in the form of questions, comments, or concerns.

To place a feedback form on your website, you’ll need access to your website’s content. The website builder Silex is a free, easy-to-use, and open source what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editor that provides endless design possibilities. Here’s a breakdown of how to create a user feedback form on Silex — plus why it’s important to have a user feedback form in the first place.

Why user feedback forms are important

Every business should know what their customers think about the services and products they offer. Analyzing user feedback allows you to identify problems, concerns, or obstacles and address them accordingly. 

Ultimately, gathering, analyzing, and acting on this feedback helps you improve customer satisfaction. For example, when you know what your customers love about your product or service, you can highlight that in your marketing materials. Likewise, when you can pinpoint shortcomings based on consumer feedback, it’s easier to improve your future products and services to avoid those issues.

How to create a user feedback form on Silex

One of the simplest ways to create a user feedback form is by using an online form builder like Jotform. Jotform has a library of 400-plus user feedback form templates you can customize to meet your needs. If you prefer to build your own form from scratch, you can do that too.

Here’s how to create a user feedback form on Silex with Jotform.

Creating a feedback form from a template

First, log into Jotform, click Create Form in the upper-left corner of the dashboard, and choose Use Template. You’ll see a list of form types on the left side. Choose Feedback Forms.

Next, choose one of the available feedback form templates based on your purpose or industry. Once you find the best one for you, click on the template and customize it with your logo, branding elements, and specific form fields and questions.

Creating a feedback form from scratch

On Jotform’s top navigation menu, hover over Products and click Form Builder.

Next, click Add Form Element on the left side of the page to view the form element menu. From there, drag and drop any elements you’d like to include in your form. Some standard fields for feedback forms include name, email address, phone number, and a rating system (e.g., a Star Rating, Input Table, and/or Scale Rating).

Embedding your form within Silex

Once you’ve created your feedback form, you need to embed it on your website. Start by clicking the Publish button in the top navigation bar of Jotform’s Form Builder. Next, click Embed in the left navigation menu. Then click the green Copy Code button.

In the Silex editor, click Add elements (the plus sign) in the vertical menu on the left side of the page. Then, click HTML. Double-click the New HTML box that appears, then paste the code you copied from Jotform’s form builder into the HTML editor.

Once you exit the HTML editor, your feedback form should appear on the page, and you can position it to where you want it to be displayed. You can view all the responses to your form in one place with Jotform Tables.

Now that you know how to create a user feedback form on Silex, let’s go over some best practices to keep in mind as you build your form.

What to keep in mind when creating a feedback form

Feedback forms allow businesses to gather information on your customer’s experiences. What do they love? Are there any potential problems or obstacles (and if so, what are they)? Here are some tips to keep in mind as you build your feedback form.

Have a clear objective

What kind of feedback are you looking for? Do you want customer thoughts and opinions on a specific product or service? Are you looking for testimonials? Do you want to offer a general customer service survey?

One feedback form probably can’t accomplish all of these things, but start by identifying what you want to gather information on and shape your feedback form from there.

Keep it short and specific

The easier it is to navigate your feedback form, the more likely your site visitors will actually fill it out. Use multiple choice questions or a rating system whenever possible to keep things simple and help your users get through it more quickly.

Use conditional logic

You can make something as simple as a contact form more efficient with conditional logic (which changes the next question of a form based on how the user responds to the previous question or field).

Let’s say, for example, there are several potential departments your site visitors could be reaching out to. Conditional logic allows you to display only the fields relevant to what your visitor is looking for so they don’t have to scroll through a long form with many questions that don’t pertain to them.

Now that you know how to create a user feedback form on Silex, you’re one step closer to understanding your customers better. The more you know about them, the better you can focus your marketing, improve your products, and, ultimately, boost profitability.