Workaround for reporting on form submissions

[AFormigoni]

Hey everyone,

Here's an SOS call for the HubSpot experts out there.

Since HubSpot doesn't allow us to create custom reports on form submissions, what's your workaround for the following issue?

We want to report on the number of qualified demo requests per period (month, quarter, etc.). Since HubSpot doesn't allow me to create custom reports on form submissions, I've been using a report based on contacts' (that submit a demo request) "Create Date." filtered down by a set of properties (that we use to un/qualify these demos).

The issue with that is that the report shows (obviously) the date a contact was created in HubSpot rather than when the form was submitted. For new users, that's ok since the created date in HubSpot is the same as when they requested the demo (form submitted).

But we're losing track of contacts created "periods" ago, which submitted a demo request just now. - E.g., for the report on the right, someone added into HubSpot before 2022, but that requested a demo after that would be excluded from it.

Have you found any workarounds on this?

Or you can help me deconstruct the problem. I've been trying to solve this for a while, so my mind might be biased and narrowed by now 🤯

[TomM2]

Hey @AFormigoni Customer journey mapping is likely what you're looking for. However this is only available in HubSpot enterprise. 

Is it just a number you're looking for? If so an active list might help. 

You could create a list of Contacts who "submit form more than x days ago". 

Something like this:

This would show a list of all contacts who have submit the specific form in your set time period with a total on display in the list and lists dashboard. 

[AFormigoni]

Thank you for helping me out here.

Actually, I'm looking to build an MoM (or QoQ) report with the number of demo requests,
So I guess the list option wouldn't be the best solution, right? 

[TomM2]

It would not you're correct! I'd definitely lean towards Karsten's idea of creating a custom date property to use for your reports then! 

[Franklandsam]

Hi Tom, 

We are an HS enterprise customer. It is somewhat difficult to understand why Hubspot wont allow us to report on Form activity data? In my contact activity feed I can see a summary of the form submitted, the page it was submitted on and the date and time. So obviously this data is being stored in the database. 

Can you please provide an explanation as to why this is not something we can do? Is there a best practice approach that hubspot recommend for form conversions? 

Hubspot is all about inbound, which means slow build gentle sales. If we get a leads details via one form then the chances of them resubmitting are high in the future. 

[JeremyV]

An other approach is to create a ticket for each submission by hidding tickets properties in the form. Create a simple pipeline with 2 stages Open and close and you 'll have a replica of reporting this object.
I tend to recommend that option to all my clients to avoid overwriting data in contact fields when you have multiple forms using similar properties and/or restrictions on who can view certain properties. It's usally really helpfull with Enterprise customers. Hope this helps.

[AStrong5]

Im intrigued. Curious to know more about how to build out this solution. If I want to report on multiple forms, would each form need it's own ticket pipeline? Or could I use a hidden property to tag which form the ticket is counted towards? 

Example: someone filled out Form A in June and Form B in December, I want to be able to see both submissions and see specifically that it was Form A in June and Form B in December. 

Currently I add contacts to a list for each form when they fill it out and pull those into a report. But when I create a report based on count of contacts by conversion date filtered down by the list, it will show the most recent conversion and include them in it -  even if the earlier form was the one that qualified them for the report. 

[JeremyV]

AStrong,

Sure, No problem!

No you don't need a new pipeline for each form, simply hide the same ticket pipeline & Stage in all your forms for exemple " Forms Submissions Pipe" but then create a seperate dropdown ticket property (for exemple Form Submitted:  FORM A ; Form B; Form C) which you also place in each form as a "HIDDEN property" AND with a "default value" of your choice per form.

It requires a bit more work for new forms, because you will have to go in the property settings and add the required new value in the drop down before being able to select the "tag" to apply on your hidden fields but in the end, you would have all form submissions in a ticket pipeline nice and clean!

You can even set up the name of the ticket to match your dropdown concatenated with the date of creation 😉

You'll also be able to use some pre-built ticket reporting for your form submissions

Hope this helps!

[AStrong5]

Perfect, thank you for clarifying. Looking forward to trying it out!

[TomM2]

Hey @Franklandsam I don't work for, or reprisent HubSpot. So I can't speak for their product decisions. But as a HubSpot user I can say that. unfortunately forms reporting has just been a neglected feature across the platform. 

Again, I can't explain why this is as I don't work for HubSpot. So can't explain why the product team make the decisions they do. 

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @AFormigoni,

There are currently two approaches here:

• Use a workflow to set a custom date property value whenever the form is submitted. You can then easily report on this custom date property and visualize the count of contacts over time. The disadvantage is that this will automatically deduplicate by contacts and contacts with multiple requests only appear once.
• If you're logging these qualified demo requests as meetings, you can build activity-based reports. These are not deduplicated by contact and you would see multiple meetings per person. I assume not all requests make it to your meeting stage however?

In terms of working with what HubSpot offers out of the box, there isn't much, unfortunately. Personally, I prefer the first option outline above. You could backfill the date property by exporting the form submissions and after cleaning up the export a bit, re-importing the date values into contact records.

Best regards!

[AFormigoni]

Thanks, @karstenkoehler !

"I assume not all requests make it to your meeting stage however?" Yes, that's correct. 

I guess the first option would be the best solution then. 

Really appreciate your help. Thanks.