5 ways to adapt social distancing this holiday season using online forms

5 ways to adapt social distancing this holiday season using online forms

Hello fellow form builders, 

Social distancing measures are being woven into the fabric of daily business practices, ending many forms of direct-contact business. To adapt to this, businesses might want to change their business practices, adding necessary measures that embrace the safety-first approach. Here are a few ideas for how online forms can replace face-to-face activities while increasing efficiency: 

1. Replace fundraising events with online donation forms 

Fundraising and donation collection is common during the holiday season. This year, the chances for hosting in-person fundraising events are essentially zero and collecting donations online can help make up the difference. With a donation form you can collect donor information and the donations themselves, using online payment methods. To get started right away, you can use the ready-to-go template from here. Besides sharing the form's direct link, you can get the word out in a variety of ways:  
  • Embed donation forms onto your webpages
  • Add the donation form link into promotional text messages
  • Add form links to your email and social media campaigns
  • Add forms into your blog posts 

2. Take holiday meetups to virtual space 

Staying connected with customers and clients should be a top priority for your business. Replacing face-to-face meetings with virtual events can keep your business relevant and show customers how much you care about them. The transition to the virtual events may seem difficult, but it doesn't have to be. Zoho Forms can help by making it easy to create online RSVPs and invitations using online forms. Sharing invitations this way lets your attendees quickly register for your events. Read more on this here. 

For examples, gyms can live stream workouts to all their members. To help members enroll for the live stream, they can offer a membership form with a special holiday discount. 

3. Host restaurant forms to encourage on-the-go pickup

As restaurants resume their business, adapting to social distancing is important. Setting up an ordering service lets customers to book online from their homes and collect the orders curbside, spending just a few minutes at the restaurant.

Implementing this service doesn't need to be as technical as it sounds. You can start building a form with ready-to-go templates from here. There are also plenty of themes and custom options in our theme builder, so you can design forms that match your restaurant's other branding. If you need assistance, read this detailed guide to getting started with our theme builder.

Here are a few things you can do while designing takeout order forms:
  • Collect customer orders and specific requests using various question types
  • Acknowledge the order using email confirmation
  • Add options to make order payments online or in person
  • Deliver an e-receipt automatically

4. Allow customers to schedule appointments

To avoid long lines winding through your storefront, you can make it quick and easy for your customers to make appointments with you. For businesses dealing with merchandise, jewelry, or other physical products, this can be a great way to reduce customer traffic at their store.

Giving an opportunity to book via online appointment forms lets customers give their preferred time, share what they are looking for, and receive instructions on how to prepare for the appointment. Once they book, you can confirm on your end, giving them the confidence they need to take the plunge. 

5. Replace physical feedback with scannable forms 

Scannable QR feedback forms are a great alternative to collecting verbal feedback. Using Zoho Forms, create feedback forms tailored to your needs and convert them into a QR code. Placing these codes on the walls of your restaurant, store, conference location, or wherever else you conduct business, makes it easier for your audiences to access the form with a quick scan. 

Later, they can fill out the survey and share comprehensive feedback on your service or product. This not only avoids physical contact, but also makes it easier to collect large amounts of feedback, so you can share it with others. 

Key takeaway: Work smarter 

This holiday season, grow your business easily and safely by using smarter workflows. As you use online forms to connect with your audience, you're minimizing direct physical contact, too! Let us know if these tips were helpful and what your favorite was in the comments below.

Happy holidays!


If you have any questions or feedback to share, feel free to comment below or drop us an email at support@zohoforms.com


    Access your files securely from anywhere

          Zoho Developer Community

              Bootcamp
              Community
              Pricing
              Webinars
              What's New
              Integrations
              Contact Support
              Contact Sales

                Zoho Survey Resources
                  Features
                  Survey Templates
                  Integrations
                  Community
                  iOS Mobile Surveys
                  Pricing
                  Android Mobile Surveys
                  Insurvey Blogs
                  Insight Blogs
                  Tips & Tricks





                                Latest Feature Updates


                                    Zoho Desk Resources

                                    • Desk Community Learning Series


                                    • Digest


                                    • Functions


                                    • Meetups


                                    • Kbase


                                    • Resources


                                    • Glossary


                                    • Desk Marketplace


                                    • MVP Corner


                                    • Word of the Day




                                        Zoho Marketing Automation
                                          Zoho SalesIQ Resources

                                                • Sticky Posts

                                                • 5 ways to adapt social distancing this holiday season using online forms

                                                  Hello fellow form builders,  Social distancing measures are being woven into the fabric of daily business practices, ending many forms of direct-contact business. To adapt to this, businesses might want to change their business practices, adding necessary

                                                • Online donations: Encourage your audience to give back this holiday season

                                                  Hello fellow form builders, The holiday season isn't just about shopping and festivities. There's a special zeal to give back to the community as a gesture of gratitude. While donation boxes are still around, many businesses are focused on their online

                                                • Getting your forms ready for the holidays

                                                  Hello fellow form builders! With the holidays coming up, we've all started to get the hang of the new normal as people get ready for all the festivity around. This year is different from others in the past, which means businesses are trying out new ways

                                                • 5 Ways to pull off holiday events like a pro using online forms

                                                  Hello fellow form builders, This is the fifth post of the five-part series on "Getting ready for the holiday season with Zoho Forms." This series aims to help you make the best of your forms and grow your business this season. Holiday events are suppose to be fun, and so is hosting them. So if you are overwhelmed and it seems like your event organizing is all over the place, then something has gone wrong. Yet, sweat not - we've got you!   The entire event planning process can be made easy by automating

                                                • 5 ways to improve your holiday fundraising with online forms

                                                  Hello fellow form builders,  This is part four of our five-part series on "Getting ready for the holiday season with Zoho Forms." This series aims to help you make the best of your forms and grow your business this season. Asking for money isn't easy, yet it's a crucial step for any fundraising group or organization. During this holiday season, make collecting donations fun and more effective with our list of the top five ways to improve your overall fundraising process. Let's dive in. 1. Create


                                                Manage your brands on social media
                                                Access Zoho Social

                                                  Zoho Pagesense Resources


                                                      Zoho TeamInbox Resources

                                                        Zoho DataPrep Resources



                                                          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                            Zoho Books Resources


                                                              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                    Qntrl Resources


                                                                      Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                          Zoho Campaigns Resources


                                                                            Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                            • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                              CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                            • Kaizen

                                                                              Kaizen

                                                                            • Functions

                                                                              Functions

                                                                            • Meetups

                                                                              Meetups

                                                                            • Kbase

                                                                              Kbase

                                                                            • Resources

                                                                              Resources

                                                                            • Digest

                                                                              Digest

                                                                            • CRM Marketplace

                                                                              CRM Marketplace

                                                                            • MVP Corner

                                                                              MVP Corner





                                                                                Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                Get Started Now


                                                                                  Zoho Show Resources


                                                                                    Zoho Writer Writer

                                                                                    Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                    Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                      Zoho CRM コンテンツ






                                                                                        Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                            ご検討中の方





                                                                                                  • Recent Topics

                                                                                                  • Locking Certain Feilds

                                                                                                    Hello! I was wondering if there was a way to lock certain fields from being changed until another field had been filled in. For example, my origination has a chain of blueprints that have to be filled in for someone to properly convert from the "Leads"

                                                                                                  • Display your zoho contact name when they call your mobile number

                                                                                                    As per the title If a contact calls the office number, the contacts name shows on mobile as long as I have their contact details registered in my crm. Is there a way that if the contact calls my mobile, their name can be displayed? Currently just their number shows when they call.

                                                                                                  • Questions about To Do

                                                                                                    1. I created a To Do note on Android and there is a line sorting option in the options drop down menu. But I didn’t find such an option in the PC client. I really need this option. 2. Why is there no search in To Do on the PC client? 3. Why is there no

                                                                                                  • attributed automatically database section

                                                                                                    Hello everyone and happy holidays... here in zoho CRM, I created 3 bases: - Properties (House, apartment ...) - Transactions (Notaries, ...) - Real estate ads I want when the address is identical on these three bases, that in "Properties" the transactions

                                                                                                  • Need Help with Journey in Zoho Marketing Automation

                                                                                                    Hello everyone, I’m new to Zoho Marketing Automation and am trying to build a journey that triggers based on the contract end date of customers. My goal is to send them an email with an ebook one day before their contract ends. To achieve this, I used

                                                                                                  • Zoho Books API Limit Is RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                                    The 2,500 API call limit in Zoho Books is about as useful as AOL dialup.  Seriously Zoho, not only can I use up 2,500 API calls in no time with my own app but YOUR OWN STUPID IPAD APP blows through them super fast too, so if any one of my clients wants

                                                                                                  • Announcing Trident desktop app for Zoho Mail & Zoho Workplace users

                                                                                                    Hello Community, I hope you are doing well and staying safe. As you know, our Mail & workplace teams have been constantly working on adding more value to our offerings to ensure you and your organization continue enjoying your Zoho experience. As part

                                                                                                  • Kudos to the Zoho Flow Team!

                                                                                                    Hi Zoho Flow Team, Way to go on the new design—it looks fantastic! We especially love the festive touch with the Christmas decorations. It's a delightful and thoughtful addition that brings a bit of holiday cheer to the experience. Keep up the amazing

                                                                                                  • Website not found when trying to unlock Zoho vault with fingerprint(authenticator) in windows 11

                                                                                                    Whenever I try to unlock the Zoho vault with fingerprint(authenticator) it shows the Website not found on the server. To replicate the issue follow the below steps: Download the zoho vault extension and login. And now open the zoho vault extension ->

                                                                                                  • Add an action to set agent as a member of a team in zoho desk

                                                                                                    Hi, Please add an action to zoho flow to set agent as a member of a team in zoho desk (add to a team or remove from a team). Regards, Ram

                                                                                                  • Kaizen #170: FAQs on Notification APIs

                                                                                                    Hello all!! Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series! In this post, we will address the most frequently asked questions about Zoho CRM's Notification APIs from the Zoho CRM Developer Community Forum. Notification API This API allows you to subscribe

                                                                                                  • Extracting data from cells in zoho sheets for zoho books

                                                                                                    I am currently uploading my bank statment in excel format to zoho workdrive. I would like flow to extract certain data and send it to zoho books. Would scripting in zoho flow be able to help me with this? By this I mean should I attempt this in zoho flow

                                                                                                  • Spotlight series #25 - Create presentation outlines using Zoho Show's Chrome extension

                                                                                                    Hello all, the feature in this month's spotlight is Zoho Show's Chrome extension. The first step to creating a good presentation is outlining your ideas—a crucial process that sets the foundation for everything that follows. But this often involves extensive

                                                                                                  • Multiple templates (Settings > Email templates)

                                                                                                    Hi Zoho, We would like to have more options to select a template when sending an email in Zohosign. Currently we can only add 1 template per option: Is this possible? Kind regards, Tristan

                                                                                                  • Functions - How to pass Dynamic Parameters / Arguments?

                                                                                                    I am trying to create a generic function that I can use to update a given field with the name of the user and a given field with a datetime. The purpose of this is to have a history of major actions within the CRM record itself so it is easier to query

                                                                                                  • How to find the number that appears most often in a list (the Mode of a list)

                                                                                                    I have a list that contains a list of 5 string values. I want to find which value is repeated most often and place that value into a single line text field Example List1 = Learning,Learning,Shaping,Leading,Learning In List1 the value “Learning” appears

                                                                                                  • Been getting this error, every now and then "Get count limit exceeded, please try again after 3 mins"

                                                                                                    it is really annoying.

                                                                                                  • Is Bigin Really Free - Confused by notifications?

                                                                                                    I started to look at Bigin as I was under the impression it was free, but as I started using it I kept getting messages that my trial period was X number of days and to upgrade. When I see something like this I assume I am not on a free version of anything

                                                                                                  • Sorting and previewing notes

                                                                                                    I use the method of sorting notes by edit date in both the desktop and android clients, newest notes on top. When I edit a note on Android and exit it to the notebook, it does not move to the very top. Only when I exit the notebook and enter it again,

                                                                                                  • Allow Multiple Scheduled Appointments with Zoho Support

                                                                                                    Dear Zoho Team, I hope you're doing well. First, thank you for introducing the option to schedule support calls via the Zoho CRM booking link. This has been a fantastic enhancement, eliminating the need for back-and-forth coordination when scheduling

                                                                                                  • Pivot table with Text values - "Matrix Report"

                                                                                                    User Story - As a user, I would like the ability to display textual data in a two-way table, matrix format (text datatypes, not numerical datatypes displayed as a dimension) One major feature missing from the Pivot tables in Zoho Analytics is the ability

                                                                                                  • Domain not usable

                                                                                                    We have not used this domain because the Chrome systems on our office devices are not compatible with your technology. I am sorry if no one has never advised you of this. Please cancel if it has not already been canceled. Ticket# 7526594 Please see

                                                                                                  • Bigin iOS, macOS and Android app update - File Cabinet

                                                                                                    Hello Everyone! In the most recent iOS (v1.7.1) and macOS (v1.5.1) updates of the Bigin app, we have included support for the File Cabinet functionality. You can access this feature as a topping within the web app (bigin.zoho.com) and conveniently use

                                                                                                  • Noto Sans numericals appearance changed?

                                                                                                    Before the update on Christmas the numbers looked a little skinnier and in my opinion it looked really nice. Why did it change?

                                                                                                  • Power of Automation :: Automatically close the associated tasks once the Issues are closed

                                                                                                    Hello Everyone, A Custom Function is a user-written set of code to achieve a specific requirement. Set the required conditions needed as to when to trigger using the Workflow rules (be it Tasks / Project) and associate the custom function to it. We have

                                                                                                  • Meeting vs Zoom and why we are moving

                                                                                                    Dear Meeting team,                                   I want to share my thoughts on Meeting vs Zoom and explain why we are moving back to Zoom for all our video conferencing, even though it is part of our Zoho One Subscription. 1). Video & Audio quality - We see a significant downgrade in video quality when using Meeting vs Zoom, even when using the same internet connections.  Meeting video is blurry and not sharp compared to Zoom.  Audio is also hit and miss on Meeting with frequent drop outs and

                                                                                                  • Import from GoHighLevel to Zoho CRM

                                                                                                    Has anyone been successful with this? I don't want to integrate with GoHighLevel just import/migrate everything over to Zoho

                                                                                                  • booking link that expires

                                                                                                    I have a suggestion that is  crucial. When i send booking URL to clients they keep the link and they book appointment whenever they want multiple times. You should give us the Booking URL feature. We should be able to send it and the user can use it only

                                                                                                  • Webform & spam

                                                                                                    Hi, We set up 2 webform on our website, fowarding the content to Zoho CRM. Since it has been opened up, we are getting lot of spam message (for now about 20 a day). To lower the  amount of false new leads we added the captcha field and new enquieries are send to the Approval Leads list. However we still get some spam. Is there any "anti spam" mechanism built in Zoho CRM, or how is the best way to avoid these kind of spam ? Thanks

                                                                                                  • US to EU Data Migration done / Workflows and Custom Functions stopped working

                                                                                                    Hello, I need help to restore my workflow rules and custom functions to work. My data was transferred from the US to the EU (Data center migration). Now all Workflow Rules and Custom Functions not working. I have no idea how to restore them to work again.

                                                                                                  • Accessing Subform Data using getRecordByID

                                                                                                    I am getting data from Zoho Creator using deluge zoho.creator.getRecordByID task, from another application. The report contains a subform, and that subform is in the detail view of the report. I do not appear to have any subform data in the JSON response,

                                                                                                  • Track Contact's Employment/Account History

                                                                                                    Thank you in advance for all of your help! Is there a way, within Zoho, to keep track of a contact's employment history? For example, if John Doe is my contact at Account 1, but leaves the company and is hired by Account 2, can I... ...maintain John Doe as a former employee under Account 1, while simultaneously listing him as a current employee of Account 2? ...view John Doe's employment history on his contact page in addition to the account he is currently associated with? I'm sure there is a way

                                                                                                  • Pre-fill TO and CC fields for Email Templates

                                                                                                    This would be a game changer to be able to set either specific email addresses or merge fields based on deal role titles into email templates. Please pass this along to *hopefully* add to future features of Zoho CRM.

                                                                                                  • Leads and Deals Issue

                                                                                                    Hi! Is Zoho having trouble today? I've been experiencing issues today. When I move a deal to closed/won, it previously would require a closing date but today the screen just went blur and the closing date did not pop up. And then under leads, I was trying

                                                                                                  • QR codes in templates

                                                                                                    I'm excited about the new QR code generator. I have included a QR code that contains the record ID setting "${ID}" as input data. In the report detail it works perfectly but when printing it in a template the code is not shown.

                                                                                                  • How do I hide all leads from Standard users in my CRM ZOHO

                                                                                                    I want to configure my crm zoho in such a way that standard users will only see leads owned or assigned to them. How do I go about doing this? I have tried all i could, but nothing...can anyone help me?

                                                                                                  • Custom view for Milestones

                                                                                                    Hi, Just an idea for the future... would it be possible to create custom views for the Milestones view under Work Overview ? I usually need to look at this view filtered by project group but the filter doesn't remain when navigating away. A custom view

                                                                                                  • How to Implement Time-Based Filters in Zoho Workflows?

                                                                                                    Hi everyone, I’m looking for a workaround to implement time-based filters in Zoho workflows. Specifically, I need a workflow to trigger only within certain hours (e.g., between 10:00 AM and 8:00 PM, Sunday to Friday). Currently, Zoho workflows execute

                                                                                                  • is there a better way to routinely export my project timesheets?

                                                                                                    Hi there, I am somewhat happy with how Zoho books handles time.  One thing that is missing is more user driven control over my data.  I have a workflow where I constantly need to give customers feeds of work done.  So I pick a project, and would ideally

                                                                                                  • Portal Default View

                                                                                                    Hello! My company is about roll out portals for some users, but we were wondering if it was possible to set the Record Detail Page View to default to a custom view that we made. That way the information they need would be streamlined and easier to see.

                                                                                                  • Next Page