Adding a second action, and a filter

The instant reply is live. Now build the half of this automation that helps you, not just the customer: a running list of everyone who has enquired, so nobody gets forgotten in a busy week. Along the way you will add a filter, the piece that gives an automation a bit of judgement instead of doing the same thing every single time.

Why a filter, and not just “log everything”

Not every form fill deserves the same treatment. Someone asking “what are your opening hours” is not the same as someone asking for a quote, and if your follow-up list fills up with every passing question, it stops being useful for the thing that actually matters: chasing real leads. A filter lets the automation make that call for you, automatically, using the dropdown field you built into the form back in lesson two.

Add the filter step

Click the + below your email action to add a new step. Search for Filter by Zapier and choose it, there is no separate “event” to pick, filters only do one job.

Set the condition:

1. Choose the field: click into the box and pick the What can we help with? field from your form data.
2. Choose the condition: (Text) Contains.
3. Type the value: Quote.

Read that back as a sentence: “Only continue if the enquiry field contains the word Quote.” Anything else, someone just asking a question, stops here. Note what this does and does not affect: the email reply you built in lesson four already ran, for everyone, before this filter. The filter only controls what happens next, which is exactly right, everyone deserves a reply, not everyone needs to be chased.

Test the filter the same way as every other step: click Test. If your sample data says “Get a quote”, it should pass. If you want to see it correctly block something, submit a second test entry through your form with “Just a question” selected, then re-test.

Add the second action: log it to your sheet

Click + again, below the filter. Search for Google Sheets and choose the event Create Spreadsheet Row, then Continue.

Connect your Google account if you have not already, then:

1. Pick the spreadsheet you created in lesson two (“Enquiry follow-up list”).
2. Pick the worksheet, usually “Sheet1” unless you renamed it.
3. Map the columns. Zapier shows you the column headers you set up (Name, Email, Enquiry, Date) and asks what goes in each. Click into each one and insert the matching field from your form, the Date column can take Zapier’s own submission timestamp, which it offers automatically.

Test the step. Go and check the actual sheet, a new row should have appeared with the right details in the right columns, not shuffled into the wrong ones.

What you have built so far

A form that replies to everyone instantly, and quietly builds you a tidy, filtered list of the enquiries actually worth chasing, with nothing copied by hand. That is the whole shape of the automation. What is left is making sure it survives contact with a real customer, which is exactly what the next lesson tests properly.