In some cases, an integration may be working correctly, while a contact or custom field value is not appearing where you expected it to.
When an integration triggers successfully, the submission data is often being sent as expected. The next step is usually to check where the connected app stores the contact or review whether the integration fields are set up in the expected format.
This article covers the most common scenarios and the steps you can take for each one.
Finding a contact in your connected app
If the integration has triggered but you cannot find the contact, here are a few things to check.
Search for the contact on the app you've integrated with.Start by finding a submission with a contact that was not added to your integration’s list, then search for that contact directly in the app you integrated with.
Most of the time, the contact has been created, but the app may display it in a place or format that is not immediately obvious. This is common with Klaviyo.
Klaviyo has a search function, and the tool you use should offer a similar way to look up contacts.
Check whether the contact already exists. If the contact already exists on your list, group, or similar destination, a new submission with the same email address will usually update the existing contact details instead of creating a new contact.
There can be exceptions to this behavior, so we recommend checking the dedicated help article for the integration you are using.
Check whether the contact was previously deleted. This is more specific to Mailchimp. If an email address was already on your Mailchimp list and was later deleted, it cannot be subscribed again, even if the participant creates another submission.
In that case, no matter how many submissions the participant creates, the contact will not appear on the list.
Reviewing custom field data
Custom field behavior is usually more specific to reporting integrations, but it can also apply to other integrations.
Check how the custom field was created
When mapping certain custom fields, make sure the field name is written correctly. In some cases, you also need to select the correct field type.
If the field looks correct, check for details such as spaces. Spaces can be difficult to notice, but they can make a difference.
The field type is also important. If the wrong type was selected, the data may not be received as expected.
To keep the setup aligned, check the relevant help article for your integration and follow the instructions for creating and mapping fields.
Reporting integrations: Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, Airtable, and more
For reporting integrations such as Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, Airtable, and similar tools, submission data is always sent to its matching column in the sheet.
For example, the participant’s first name is sent to the column with “First name” as the header title.
The integration automatically sets up the header titles, so you do not need to create them manually.
In some cases, you may want to remove columns that are not needed or rename headers to organize the data differently. Since these integrations do not let you choose which data is received, this can feel like a useful way to customize your sheet.
However, we recommend keeping the automatically created columns and header titles as they are. Data will still be received if columns are deleted or headers are renamed, but the sheet formatting can become harder to read.
More specifically:
If a column is deleted, it will be automatically re-added to the right end of the sheet.
If a header title is changed, a new column with the original header will be created on the right end of the sheet.
The column with the changed header title will remain empty and will not receive data.
For example, if the “Name” column is deleted and the “Last name” column is renamed to “Family name,” new submissions, such as rows 5 and 6, may show empty cells under “Family name,” while two new columns are added on the right side.
When only a small amount of data is collected, this may still be easy to review. When a lot of data is collected, the sheet can become harder to navigate. In some cases, there may be so many columns that the newly added ones are easy to miss, which can make it look like data is no longer being received, even though it is being added on the far right side of the sheet under the newly created columns.
Restore the sheet formatting
If the formatting changed because columns were deleted or header titles were renamed, you can restore the sheet structure in one of the following ways.
First, revert the sheet back to how it looked before the changes were made. If the Undo option is no longer available, make the changes manually.
If the formatting changes are extensive and restoring the sheet manually would take too much time, creating a new sheet from scratch may be the best option.
Customize your data safely
Sometimes a sheet needs additional customization so you can review the data in the way that works best for your team.
To customize your reporting while keeping the involve.me integration sheet structure intact, we recommend syncing the spreadsheet created by the involve.me integration with another sheet. You can then customize the second sheet as needed.
This lets you organize and customize your data while keeping the original integration sheet formatted correctly.
Alternatively, if you only want certain columns to stay out of view, you can hide them instead of deleting them.
Did the above troubleshooting help? If not, reach out to our support team for help.