Automating Candidate Feedback Collection: A Practical Guide Using Zapier and Google Forms

In today’s competitive talent landscape, timely and structured candidate feedback is paramount for refining recruitment processes and enhancing the candidate experience. Yet, many organizations still grapple with manual, inconsistent methods that lead to delays and overlooked insights. This guide provides a practical, step-by-step approach to automate candidate feedback collection using the powerful combination of Zapier and Google Forms, empowering your recruitment team to gather actionable data efficiently and consistently.

Step 1: Define Your Feedback Objectives and Questions

Before diving into tool configuration, clearly articulate what kind of feedback you need. Are you evaluating interview performance, assessing cultural fit, or gathering insights on the overall candidate journey? Define the specific data points you wish to collect from interviewers, such as candidate strengths, areas for development, final recommendation, and any compliance-related questions. Craft clear, concise questions for your Google Form that directly align with these objectives. Avoid ambiguity and ensure the questions are easy for interviewers to understand and answer quickly, promoting higher completion rates and more accurate data for your HR team. This foundational step ensures your automated system gathers truly useful information.

Step 2: Create Your Candidate Feedback Form in Google Forms

Next, build your feedback form in Google Forms. Start with essential fields like Candidate Name, Position Applied For, Interviewer Name, and Interview Date. Then, add the specific questions you defined in Step 1. Utilize various question types: short answer for open-ended comments, multiple-choice or dropdowns for predefined ratings (e.g., “Strong Yes,” “Yes,” “No”), and linear scales for numerical evaluations (e.g., 1-5 for skill assessment). Crucially, mark all required fields to ensure comprehensive responses. Design the form to be intuitive and visually appealing, minimizing friction for your busy interviewers. A well-structured form is the bedrock of effective automated data collection.

Step 3: Set Up Your Zapier Trigger: New Google Form Submission

Now, it’s time to connect Google Forms to your desired destination using Zapier. Log into Zapier and create a new Zap. The Trigger will be “Google Forms” and the Trigger Event will be “New Form Response.” Connect your Google Forms account and select the specific feedback form you created. Zapier will then ask you to test the trigger by fetching existing responses. It’s advisable to submit a test entry to your Google Form beforehand to ensure Zapier can successfully pull in sample data. This confirmation is vital; if Zapier cannot detect new submissions, your automation will fail. This step establishes the listening mechanism for your feedback system.

Step 4: Configure Zapier Action: Send Feedback to a Centralized Location

With the trigger set, define where the collected feedback should go. Common actions include adding a row to a Google Sheet (for easy data analysis and reporting), creating a new item in a project management tool like Trello or Asana, or even updating a candidate record in your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) if it has Zapier integration. For a simple and effective approach, add a “Google Sheets” action to “Create Spreadsheet Row.” Map the fields from your Google Form (Candidate Name, Interviewer, Feedback, etc.) to the corresponding columns in your Google Sheet. This centralizes all feedback, making it easily accessible for review and analysis, transforming raw data into actionable insights for your recruitment process.

Step 5: Enhance and Refine Your Automation with Additional Actions

To further optimize your feedback loop, consider adding more actions to your Zap. For instance, you could configure an email notification (using the “Email by Zapier” or “Gmail” action) to alert the hiring manager or recruiter immediately after a new feedback form is submitted. This keeps stakeholders informed in real-time. Another valuable enhancement is to send a thank-you message to the interviewer upon submission, confirming receipt and appreciating their input. You could also set up conditional logic within Zapier (using Paths) to route feedback differently based on the interviewer’s recommendation (e.g., high-priority candidates trigger an immediate Slack notification). These refinements reduce manual oversight and enhance overall communication efficiency.

Step 6: Test Thoroughly and Deploy Your Automated System

Before going live, rigorously test your entire Zap. Submit multiple test entries through your Google Form, varying the data to ensure all fields are correctly captured and routed as expected. Check the connected Google Sheet for accurate row additions, verify email notifications, and confirm any additional actions like ATS updates or Slack messages are functioning flawlessly. Pay close attention to data mapping and ensure no information is lost or misplaced. Once you’re confident everything works as intended, turn on your Zap. Regularly monitor your Zap history in Zapier for any errors, especially in the initial weeks, and make adjustments as needed. This final testing phase ensures reliability and provides peace of mind.

Automating candidate feedback collection not only saves significant administrative time but also provides a structured, consistent dataset crucial for informed hiring decisions and continuous improvement of your talent acquisition strategy. By leveraging Zapier and Google Forms, 4Spot Consulting helps you transform a traditionally cumbersome process into a seamless, efficient operation, freeing up your team to focus on high-value candidate engagement.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: The Automated Recruiter’s 2025 Verdict: Make.com vs Zapier for Hyper-Automation