Ever felt like your WordPress website’s contact form is just… basic? You’re using Everest Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form, Quiz, Survey & Custom Form Builder, a fantastic tool, but it’s not quite doing exactly what you need. Maybe you need more complex validation, conditional logic that’s driving you nuts, or a smoother integration with your CRM. Customization is the answer, and with the power of AI, it’s more accessible than ever. This article will guide you through the process of tailoring the plugin to your specific needs, leveraging AI to simplify the development process. We’ll explore common customization scenarios and show you how AI can make them a breeze, even if you’re not a coding expert.

What is Everest Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form, Quiz, Survey & Custom Form Builder?

Everest Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form, Quiz, Survey & Custom Form Builder is a user-friendly WordPress plugin designed to help you build all sorts of forms for your website. Think beyond just basic contact forms – this tool allows you to create payment forms, conversational forms, custom forms, surveys, and even quizzes, all through a simple drag-and-drop interface. It’s designed for ease of use, but also powerful enough to handle complex form requirements. The plugin has garnered significant praise from its users, boasting a 4.9/5 star rating based on 361 reviews and is currently active on over 100,000 websites. This proves that it is both popular and reliable.

It provides a wide range of pre-built templates and field options, making it simple to get started quickly. However, the real strength lies in its flexibility. You can customize the look and feel of your forms, add custom fields, and integrate it with other services. For more information about the plugin, visit the official plugin page on WordPress.org.

Why Customize it?

While the plugin offers a solid foundation for creating various forms, its default settings often don’t perfectly align with the unique needs of every website or business. Think of it as buying a suit off the rack – it’s good, but tailoring it makes it great. Customization allows you to fine-tune the plugin’s behavior, appearance, and functionality to match your specific requirements, providing a more seamless and effective user experience.

The benefits of customization are numerous. For example, imagine you’re running an e-commerce site selling personalized products. Standard forms might not be equipped to handle complex product customization requests. By customizing the plugin, you could create dynamic fields that display different options based on previous selections, ensuring accurate and detailed order information. Or, perhaps you need to integrate form submissions directly into your specific CRM system, something the default integrations don’t cover. Customizing the plugin allows you to build that bridge.

Take a local bakery, for example. They might want to create a custom cake order form that calculates the price based on size, flavor, and decorations. They could use conditional logic to show different decoration options based on the chosen flavor, and then automatically calculate the total cost based on the selections. That’s the power of customization – making the plugin work exactly the way you need it to. Customizing is worth it when it solves a specific business problem, improves user experience, or creates a competitive advantage. It transforms a generic tool into a powerful, bespoke solution.

Common Customization Scenarios

Implementing Complex Validation Logic

Out-of-the-box validation often covers basic requirements like ensuring an email address is properly formatted or that a field isn’t left blank. But what if you need more nuanced validation? Perhaps you need to verify that a entered serial number matches a specific pattern, or confirm that a user-selected date falls within a certain range based on their age.

Customization unlocks the ability to implement truly complex validation rules. You can ensure data integrity, reduce errors, and improve the quality of information collected. Think of a loan application form – you could validate that the entered social security number is in the correct format and hasn’t been previously used, reducing the risk of fraud.

For instance, a company offering software subscriptions might need to validate that a user’s chosen username isn’t already in use, and that it meets specific criteria (e.g., minimum length, allowed characters). Without customization, this level of validation would be impossible to achieve within the plugin’s standard settings. AI tools can drastically simplify the creation of these validation rules by generating the necessary code based on plain language descriptions of the desired logic. You simply tell the AI what you need to validate, and it creates the code to do it.

Creating Dynamic Conditional Fields

Static forms are boring and inefficient. Dynamic conditional fields change their appearance or behavior based on user input, creating a more engaging and relevant experience. Imagine a survey where subsequent questions change based on a user’s initial response, or a contact form that only asks for specific information depending on the department they’re trying to reach.

Customization enables you to build truly intelligent forms that adapt to the user. This reduces form fatigue, improves completion rates, and collects more relevant data. Think of an event registration form – you could show different fields based on the selected event type (e.g., workshop vs. conference), gathering only the necessary information for each scenario.

Let’s say a non-profit wants to create a donation form. They might use conditional logic to display different donation amount options based on whether the user is a first-time donor or a returning supporter. They might also show a field for comments/suggestions only if the user selects “Other” as their donation amount. AI tools can help automate the generation of the conditional logic code, saving developers time and effort. Instead of manually writing complex JavaScript, you can use AI to generate the code based on your desired behavior.

Integrating with CRM and Marketing Tools

The default integrations offered by this system may not always cover your specific CRM or marketing automation platform. Manually exporting and importing data between your forms and other systems is time-consuming and error-prone. You want form submissions to automatically flow into your CRM, trigger email marketing campaigns, or update customer profiles.

Customization bridges the gap between your forms and your other business tools. This streamlines workflows, improves data accuracy, and enables personalized marketing efforts. Imagine a lead generation form that automatically adds new contacts to your CRM and triggers a welcome email sequence. No more manual data entry – everything happens automatically.

Consider a real estate agency that wants to integrate the forms with its specific CRM system. The customization would allow them to map form fields directly to corresponding fields in the CRM, ensuring data consistency. Furthermore, the form submission could automatically trigger a follow-up task in the CRM for a sales agent. Using AI, developers can easily create custom API integrations to push form data to any system. This greatly simplifies tasks which would normally take hours.

Building Custom Form Layouts

The standard form layouts provided by the tool are functional, but they may not perfectly match your website’s design or branding. You might want to create a unique form layout with multiple columns, custom styling, or specific element arrangements that are not possible with the default options. A consistent user experience is important for a professional website.

Customization enables you to design form layouts that seamlessly blend with your website’s aesthetic and enhance user engagement. You can create visually appealing forms that guide users through the submission process, improving completion rates and brand perception. Think of a high-end fashion brand that wants to create a contact form with a minimalist design, custom fonts, and a unique button style that reflects its brand identity. Or an interior designer creating a survey form embedded directly into a gallery.

For example, an online magazine may wish to customize the form layouts in order to embed subscription forms directly into their articles. AI can assist by generating the CSS code needed to achieve the desired form appearance, saving designers time and effort. Instead of manually tweaking CSS properties, AI can produce the code to match specific layout preferences.

Adding Multi-Step Form Functionality

Long forms can be intimidating and lead to abandonment. Multi-step forms break the submission process into smaller, more manageable chunks, improving user experience and completion rates. A complex form split into smaller steps is much easier to digest. Think of a complex application form or a detailed product configurator – breaking it down into steps makes it less overwhelming.

Customization allows you to create multi-step forms that guide users through the process, reduce cognitive overload, and collect more complete information. Imagine an insurance quote form that asks for information in a step-by-step manner, making it easier for users to provide the necessary details. This also provides a better UX for users, making it less cumbersome.

A university, for example, might want to create a multi-step application form for prospective students. Each step could focus on a specific aspect of the application (e.g., personal information, academic history, extracurricular activities). This simplifies the process and reduces the likelihood of applicants abandoning the form midway. AI can drastically simplify the creation of multi-step forms by generating the necessary JavaScript code to handle step navigation and data management. Simply provide the form structure and transitions, and AI will take care of the complex coding.