Creating Your First Funnel
A funnel is a container or holder for the question that will be sent to a customer after they purchase your product or service. It is the invitation for them to tell you how your company did.
Every funnel contains a question for the customer to answer as well as instructions on what will happen when a customer provides a positive response and a negative response.
It is extremely important to word the funnel question as a Yes/No or positive/negative response. Doing so allows you to create different actions based on whether they say they had a good experience or a bad one.
A good question might be:
“Thank you for using our service. Would you recommend us to your friends?”
For this example, we can route customers to Facebook (or another review site) to leave us a positive review.
A poor question might look something like this:
“We hope we met your needs.”
In this example, a question is not asked. The customer will be confused when they are prompted for a positive or next response.
Now that we understand how a funnel is used, let’s walkthrough the creation of your first funnel.
Please note that some of the concepts discussed are part of the paid plugin and are not available in the free version. This includes customizing prompts and displaying your company logo.
The following video will show some highlights of creating a funnel: https://youtu.be/pFy5Pp2uwfY.
Further details of the funnel creation process is provided below:
Once you are logged into your Wordpress site, click on Starfish Reviews, then Funnels in the left-hand navigation menu. Once you are on the Funnels page, click Add New.
A new funnel will be created. You will see the funnel configurations which mainly consists of the Title, Question, Positive Response, and Negative Response sections.
Notice that it looks very similar to a WP Post. The configuration for the funnel is where your blog post content would normally be. There are Publish options to the right as well as some Funnel tools. We will discuss each section below.
Title
First, we will name the Funnel. The funnel name should be some way for you to identify what this funnel will be used for. It is not displayed as a title that a customer will see other than the Permalink that is used to host the page.
Permalink
Once the Title is created, the funnel’s Permalink is displayed. This is where the funnel can be accessed from. The permalink can be modified if you want it to be something different than the title.
The permalink can be used to preview your funnel as you build it. This helps you see what each section of the funnel will look like to a customer. You can click on the Permalink or click Preview in the Publish options to look at the page as you configure the funnel just like when you create a post or page.
Question
The most important part of the funnel is the initial question. As stated earlier, it is extremely important to word the funnel question as a Yes/No or positive/negative response. Regardless of the Funnel title, enter a question for your customer to answer.
Example: “Would you recommend our services?”
Next, choose an Answer Button style…Choose from thumbs, faces, or circles.
- Thumbs: Thumbs up/down
- Faces: Smile/sad face
- Circles: Green circle with checkmark/Red circle with X.
the next field is your funnel logo - the logo appears up here at the top of the funnel, so if you want to display a logo to help remind people then you can display that at the top
then we have our funnel shortcode - that is if you want to embed this funnel inside a different page or post or something on WordPress then you can do that you don't have to just use the funnel URL here to send that out to your clients or your clients if you're managing this for somebody else.
Positive Response
The positive response settings come into play when the customer selects the positive answer (i.e., thumbs up, smiley face, or green checkmark) to your question. This is where you will direct the customer to leave a review.
Review Prompt: Enter a prompt to thank the customer and direct them on what to do next. This field accepts HTML so you can customize how the prompt looks and make it fit within the parameters of your company. For example, you can change the font, font size, and font color, if you choose.
Example:
<font color="red"><h3>Excellent! Please Rate us 5-stars</h3>...and leave a helpful review.</font>
Number of Destinations: Here you will decide how many review destinations you will provide for your customer to choose from, one or multiple.
Destination Layout: If you have chosen multiple destinations, do you want them to show horizontally or vertically under the question? Select Horizontal or Vertical.
New Window: Select the New Window checkbox if you want the review site to open in a new browser window when the customer clicks on it.
Review Destination: Enter the URL of the page the customer will be directed to leave a review. For example, a Facebook review page will have a URL similar to the following: https://www.facebook.com/[YourFacebookPage]/reviews/
Tip: It is best to go to the review page you want to direct the customer to and copy the URL, then paste it into this destination field.
Auto Redirect (seconds): If you only specify a single destination, you can immediately forward the customer to the review site, or you can specify the number of seconds before they are forwarded. You can send the customer to the review site immediately by specifying 0. This alleviates them having to make a decision and click on the site.
However, if you have multiple destinations, they must click on one to leave a review.
Submit Button (Positive): Enter the text to display on the positive Submit button. This will bring the customer to the Review site selection page or directly to the review site, depending on the Destination configuration.
Set Destinations: If you have chosen to give your customer multiple destinations to choose from they are configured in the Set Destinations section.
Select the review site icon you want to direct your customer to.
- Preview: Once a review site is selected, a preview of the icon will display.
- Icon colors: Specify the Color of the icon and background color.
- Name: Enter the name of the review site. It will display under the icon.
- Destination: Enter the URL of the page the customer will be directed to leave a review. For example, a Facebook review page will have a URL similar to the following: https://www.facebook.com/[YourFacebookPage]/reviews/
Tip: It is best to go to the review page you want to direct the customer to and copy the URL, then paste it into this destination field.
Click the green plus sign to add more destinations.
Click the red minus sign to remove a destination.
Negative Response
The negative response section comes into play when the customer selects the negative answer (i.e., thumbs down, sad face, or red X) to the funnel question. Here you can ask the customer for more information so you can personally follow up with them.
Review Prompt: Enter a prompt to apologize to the customer and possibly get them to give you contact information so you can follow up with them. As in the Positive Response, this field accepts HTML so you can customize how the prompt looks and make it fit within the parameters of your company. For example, you can change the font, font size, and font color, if you choose.
Example:
<h3>We are sorry we did not meet your expectations. >/h3>
Additional Fields: Select any of the additional fields, Name, Email, and Phone, to prompt the customer for their information. Additionally, select the Required box to require the customer to enter the information.
Email Feedback: This is the email address the feedback will be sent to, including the additional fields, if prompted for. One or more email addresses can be specified by separating them with commas.
Submit Button (Negative): Enter the text to display on the negative Submit button. When the customer clicks this submit button the feedback will be emailed to the specified email address.
Thank You Message: The thank you message is displayed once the customer clicks the submit button.
Review Gating: Most review sites, as part of their terms and conditions, do not allow you to as for only positive reviews. Legitimately, you can ask for reviews that are both positive and negative. Review Gating is a way to stop customers from leaving negative reviews. We allow you to enable review gating to stop any negative reviews. By default, Review Gating is disabled allowing customers to leave negative reviews. We recommend you check with the review site's terms and conditions before disabling the ability for your customers to leave a negative review.
Skip Feedback Text: Customers can optionally not leave you their information and feedback and choose to leave a public review. This text instructs them they can skip the feedback and proceed to the selected review site.
Public Review Text: This text is displayed if the feedback option is skipped.
Logo (Paid version)
You can opt to add your company logo to the landing page of the funnel. Depending on various WP environmental things, the logo section can be found either just above the Title of the funnel or to the right of the main funnel section (under the Publish settings). Simply click on Set Funnel Logo and upload your company logo file.
Preview:
Funnel Shortcode
The funnel shortcode is used to embed the funnel in a page or post on your WP site. A good way to use this shortcode is to create a specific landing page for your funnel. The URL of the landing page can be sent to any customer for them to respond to the funnel question.
Embed Code
The funnel can be used in any HTML webpage. Copy the embed code and paste it into the HTML page.
Save Draft/Publish
Dont forget to save a draft of your funnel as you are working on it. Once the funnel is completely configured, you can Publish it, just like any other Page or Post.
Feedback
When a customer leaves negative feedback an email is sent to the email address specified in the negative response configuration. It also appears on the Starfish Reviews > Feedback page. Where you can review the information.