Overview
We have rolled out changes to how Tern's Form 'Responder' and Contact Info fields work, to solve for a few of the larger pain points we've heard from advisors.
What we heard from you
On the Trip Request form, I want to make 'Traveler Details' required. We don't allow this today because we treat the "responder" field as "traveler #1".
I want to require more fields within "Responder" - like birthday and phone number. We don't do this today because we use the same Responder element across form types, and it would be duplicative with the other Contact Info elements.
There is no way to fill out the Contact Info form without an email, and no clear way to 'submit on behalf of someone else' (who may not have an email). This makes it difficult to submit the form for children, as one example.
It's difficult to fill out the Contact Info form for multiple contacts.
Our approach to solve
“Form Responder” should always represent the person filling out the form. Email should be required to allow communication about the form to take place.
Collecting Contact/Traveler information should be separated out from “Form Responder”. This will allow you to get all the info you want (like phone number and birthday), and make email optional (in cases where the traveler doesn't have their own unique email).
These updates shouldn't make it harder for clients to fill out your forms - and we should even improve efficiency where we can! We will pre-fill the responder's info (if they aren't submitting on behalf of someone else), and make it easier to loop through the contact info form.
Migrate all your existing forms so you don't have to do anything. Jump to our migration plan.
How it works
Your Experience: Creating Forms
1. The main change you will notice is that "responder" is now grouped within a "cover page" for all of your forms.
2. On the Contact Information form, you'll also notice a new required element that collects basic details.
Don't worry - if the responder isn't filling out the form for someone else, this information will be pre-filled.
By doing it this way, we can make email optional (to support cases like filling out this form for a child or someone without a unique email address).
3. That's it! Everything else about your experience is the same.
Client Experience: Trip Request Form
1. Page 1 will always be the "responder" element. This allows us to pre-fill traveler details on the next page, if the responder is also going on the trip (unless they uncheck that option).
2. If you add the "Traveler Details" form element, we no longer start with "Traveler #2". We do a smart pre-fill of responder info (first name, last name, and email) if they are traveling on the trip.
3. That's it! Everything else about the client experience is the same.
Client Experience: Contact Information Form
1. Just like on the Trip Request form, 'Page 1' will always be the "responder" element. You'll notice a new option for them to indicate they are "submitting someone else's contact information".
2. On whatever page you include 'Basic Details', we will pre-fill responder info (unless they select "I will be submitting on behalf of someone else" above).
3. At the end of the form there is a new prompt to allow them to loop through the form again. If they do this we don't require them to fill out the responder info again, and we automatically select "I will be submitting someone else's contact information".
4. That's it! Everything else about the client experience is the same.
Creating vs updating contact records from forms
Tern uses the following logic to decide whether to create a new contact record or update an existing contact record:
If the email, last name, and first name (first name OR preferred first name) are an exact match, we update your existing contact record.
Otherwise, we create a new contact record. So if a couple or family shares a single email address, separate contact records will still be created for them.
We do plan to make additional improvements here in the future, including -
Allowing you to easily merge contact records
Having a secondary "match" mechanism for contacts without email addresses
Making it easier for you to initiate a request to 'update' contact record information from your existing clients (the request we've heard is to be able to send a form directly from the contact record).