When you send a form to collect information, you need people to finish it. The numbers on your formssh analytics dashboard show you exactly what happens after someone opens your link. By reading these metrics, you can spot where people get stuck and make changes to improve your completion rate. Every number points to a specific action you can take to fix a broken questionnaire. Understanding your data takes the guesswork out of writing good questions.
Track your views, starts and submissions
Three basic numbers track the overall performance of your form:
- Views count how many times people open your link.
- Starts show how many people begin typing or clicking.
- Submissions record the people who reach the end and send their answers.
Your completion rate comes directly from dividing your submissions by your starts. If you have high views but low starts, your opening statement might be confusing or ask for too much commitment upfront. A wide gap between starts and submissions means people abandon the form halfway through, which tells you the questions are too hard or the whole thing takes too much time.
Measure your median completion time
The median completion time tells you how long a typical person spends filling out your form. This number is a strong signal about length and mental effort. If the median time is ten minutes for a basic contact form, your respondents are struggling to figure out what you want from them. You can lower this time by cutting unnecessary questions or using conditional logic to keep follow-up questions hidden until they are needed. A shorter completion time usually leads to a higher completion rate because people do not get tired and close the page.
Find the best time to send your link
Tracking your responses per day helps you understand the best time to ask for information. You will notice patterns in when people actually sit down to answer your questions. If your chart shows a spike on Tuesday mornings and flatlines on weekends, you know exactly when to send your next batch of emails. Timing your requests to match these active periods ensures your link arrives when people are ready to work. You can schedule your communications to align with the days your audience is most responsive, which increases your chances of getting a fast reply.
Fix leaks with per-question drop-off
The per-question drop-off rate is the most precise tool for fixing a form. This metric shows you the exact question where people close the page and walk away. When you see a high drop-off on a specific field, you know that question needs to be rewritten or removed entirely. People often abandon forms when a question asks for sensitive information like a phone number, or when a text box demands a long typed answer. Changing a required long text field to an optional one or switching to a multiple choice question will often fix the leak.
Read your grids as a heat table
A grid question asks people to rate a list of rows against the same set of columns. Because grids contain a lot of data, formssh displays these answers as a heat table in your dashboard. The colours show you the most common answers at a glance, highlighting patterns across different rows. If one column is consistently dark, you immediately know the majority opinion without reading every individual response. You can always export your results to Excel or CSV to look at the raw data in detail and share it with your team.
An example of fixing a form
Consider an example to see how these numbers work together. As an example, say you send a survey link and your dashboard shows 1,000 views, 800 starts and 400 submissions, giving you a completion rate of 50 percent. The median completion time is eight minutes, which is high for a short survey, so you check the per-question drop-off to find the problem. Your data shows that 300 people abandoned the form at question four, which asks them to type out a long answer. Changing question four to a dropdown menu solves the issue, and your completion rate rises on the next send.
Try it on a template
You can test these analytics features by starting with a pre-built form. The Customer feedback template gives you a standard set of questions to collect opinions from your clients. Once you publish it and share the link, watch the dashboard to see how people interact with your questions. You can adjust the fields based on the drop-off rates you see in your first few days of data. Reviewing your numbers regularly helps you build better forms over time, which means you collect more useful information for your business.