Things to keep in mind to plan, run and report on visits well.
Visits must be enabled for you
Visibility of Visits depends on administrator setup and user permissions. If a team member cannot see the Visits menu, it has not been enabled for the account or for that user. Best practice: have an administrator enable Visits and grant access to everyone who will walk a run before the campaign starts, so nobody discovers the gap on the day.
The survey is chosen first, so build it first
The survey (Form) is picked in the first step of the Visit List Wizard, and every door uses the same one. Best practice: build and test the Form before you create the visit list. Keep it short — three to five questions suit a doorstep conversation — put the most important question first in case the conversation is cut short, and preview it on a phone, since most field work happens on a mobile device. Keep one goal per visit list; if you need to collect two unrelated things, use two visit lists with separate surveys.
Lists over 5,000 records cannot be selected
In the Audience step, lists over 5,000 records cannot be selected. Best practice: build the audience as a saved list in List Builder so it is repeatable and easy to check, and split large areas by suburb or postcode to stay under the limit. Add individual people only for one-off additions.
Restricted contacts are left out
Contacts with a restriction that blocks visits are left out of the visit automatically, even when they are on a list you add. Best practice: if the Number of contacts on the Review step is lower than you expect, check the contacts' restrictions before assuming something has gone wrong.
Only matching addresses are included
The Address types filter is optional — leaving it blank means every address on the included contacts is eligible. Primary address only limits the run to each contact's primary address. Address types are account-configured, so the options depend on your setup. Best practice: for door-to-door runs, select a street-style address type, and tick Primary address only to avoid visiting the same person at several addresses. Check addresses are complete and correctly formatted before you build the list — missing street numbers or suburbs affect the grouping and ordering.
The route order is fixed
You choose Group addresses by: Street or Suburb in the builder. Within each group, odd and even house numbers are split automatically so you can work one side of the street and then the other — this is built in, not a setting. The order suits on-foot runs rather than driving, and addresses cannot be reordered manually. Best practice: follow the order in the Locations panel and use the All streets and All status filters to see what is left. Print the Visit Area map from the Visits landing page as a handout for the person walking the run.
Size runs for one person
A very large visit list is hard for one person to finish and hard to track. Best practice: check the Number of locations on the Review step before you finalise, and create a separate visit list for each area or team member rather than one very large list. Use a consistent naming convention (for example, 2026-10 Renewals — Northern suburbs) so lists are easy to find on the Visits landing page.
Address tags have no defaults
Address tags are configured by each account. Nothing appears until your account sets them up. Best practice: agree the tags your team will use in the field (for example, Dog on property, No access or Call ahead) and set them up before the run, so tags stay consistent and useful for the next visit.
Every address needs an outcome
Addresses without an outcome stay Not visited, and you cannot tell them apart from doors nobody has reached yet. The outcomes mean different things for reporting:
- Contact made = you reached someone and completed the survey (rolls up to Successful).
- Nobody available = attempted, but no one was available (rolls up to Unsuccessful).
- Skipped = no attempt made at all (rolls up to Unattempted).
Best practice: record an outcome at every address you pass, and agree with the team when to use Nobody available versus Skipped, so the Visits landing page breakdown is meaningful.
Only a submitted survey posts to the contact
Only Contact made with the survey submitted adds a Visit post to the contact's activity. Recording the outcome and planning to finish the survey later makes the conversation easy to lose. Best practice: complete the survey at the door, and use Create task straight after submitting to hand any follow-up to a colleague.
What Someone Else creates depends on the Form
Someone Else records a conversation with a person who is not in your database. If the survey Form has a contact details block, that block appears (it is hidden for existing contacts) and must be completed; SwiftFox then creates the person as a new contact and logs the survey against them. Without a contact details block, the survey is saved as an anonymous submission. Best practice: include a contact details block in any Form you use for visits, so conversations with new people become contacts you can follow up. Use Someone Else rather than skipping the door or recording the conversation against the wrong contact.
Who and when drive reporting
Visited by me defaults to you, and Visit time records the date. Both are used for reporting. Best practice: check both before you submit, especially when entering results after the fact or on a colleague's behalf — choose the right team member in Visited by me.
Review results before closing a campaign
The Visits landing page breaks each visit list down into Successful, Unsuccessful, Unattempted and Not Yet Visited. Best practice: a high Not Yet Visited count usually means the run isn't finished or outcomes weren't recorded — check with the team before treating it as complete. Unsuccessful addresses are good candidates for a second visit at a different time of day; read the address tags on Unattempted addresses before sending someone back.
Building and resuming
You do not have to build a visit in one sitting. Best practice: use Save and close mid-build, reopen the list by clicking its name on the Visits landing page, and Finalise list only when you are ready to run the visit.
Related User Guides
- Visits — Overview (Document ID: 253)
- Creating a visit list (Survey → Address Types → Audience → Review) (Document ID: 251)
- Address types & address tags (Document ID: 258)
- Route & address ordering (street / suburb grouping) (Document ID: 256)
- Working a visit & recording who you spoke to (incl. "Someone else") (Document ID: 254)
- Visit outcomes & posts to a contact (Document ID: 249)
- The Visits landing page (columns & outcome breakdown) (Document ID: 257)
- List Builder — Limitations & best practice (Document ID: 217)