Spotlight 3: Read your audience with polls

Spotlight 3: Read your audience with polls



Delivering a presentation to an audience that's not engaged is like talking to an empty room. Asking questions during your session can definitely help by encouraging the crowd to get involved with you. However, it isn't easy to spark a conversation if audience members are not confident speaking in front of others, or if they only give closed-ended answers.

To make participation easier, solicit input from your audience by adding polls to your sessions. Plan the questions that you'd like to ask and set them up as polls before you begin your session, or create them on the fly while you are delivering your presentation. You can create different kinds of poll questions depending on the type of responses you'd like to get.



Gather targeted answers
Create a multiple-choice poll to get specific answers from your session audience by providing them with a list of options to choose from. To tally answers that aren't covered by the listed choices, you can consider including an 'Other' option.

Ask for a ranking
Create a star rating poll to evaluate audience members' experience on a scale or assess how they feel about a certain idea or thought. For example, you could ask people to grade the clarity of the presentation while it's in progress.

Gather opinions
Create a text box poll to give your audience a chance to speak their mind. Open-ended questions let you see your audience's responses in their own words and understand their views on an interesting or unexplored topic.



Project a poll question at a strategic time during your presentation to help your audience stay focused and to elicit candid answers.

Regardless of your settings, Backstage allows you to  collect feedback about the overall session at the end of the presentation. Audiences can tell you whether they benefited from the session and whether they were able to learn something new from it. This will help you know whether you need to spruce up your presentation before you deliver it again.

Learn more about setting up a poll and let us know how you used polls to understand your audience better. You can also write to us at  support@zohobackstage.com with your feedback or questions.

Happy organizing!




        • Recent Topics

        • End Date in Zoho Bookings

          When I give my appointments a 30 minutes time I would expect the software not to even show the End Time.  But it actually makes the user pick an End Time.  Did I just miss a setting?  

        • Custom confirmation message

          How can I change the message that users see after they submit the booking form? I have to confirm some details before their appointment is officially "confirmed", so I want to change it where it doesn't say their appointment is "confirmed" but rather

        • Issue showing too many consultations in my workspace link.

          Hi Team, I’ve set up two Workspaces to track meetings from different sources. So far, this has been working well, and the two Workspaces are differentiated without any issues. However, when I navigate to Consultations and share the link to my personal

        • Deluge sendmail in Zoho Desk schedule can't send email from a verified email address

          I am trying to add a scheduled action with ZDesk using a Deluge function that sends a weekly email to specific ticket client contacts I've already verified the email address for use in ZDesk, but sendmail won't allow it in its "from:" clause. I've attached

        • Zoho Learn & Zoho Connect

          Hi, Is there a way to sync the knowledge base we have in Zoho Learn with the manuals section is Zoho Connect? Thanks,

        • Addin Support in Zoho Sheet

          Is there any addin support available in zoho sheet as like google marketplace to enhance productivity by connecting with other apps, providing AI data analysis, streamlining business processes, and more?

        • Changing Corporate Structure - How Best to Adapt Current and Future Zoho Instances

          My current company is Company A LLC with a dba ("doing business as" - essentially an alias) Product Name B. Basically, Company A is the legal entity and Product Name B is what customers see, but it's all one business right now. We currently have a Zoho

        • how to add subform over sigma in the CRM

          my new module don't have any subform available any way to add this from sigma or from the crm

        • How to Install Zoho Workdrive Desktop Sync for Ubuntu?

          Hi. I am newbie to Linux / Ubuntu. I downloaded a tar.gz file from Workdrive for installing the Workdrive Desktop Sync tool. Can someone give me step by step guide on how to install this on Ubuntu? I am using Ubuntu 19.04. Regards Senthil

        • How to upload own video?

          How can you upload your own video on your zoho website? I do not want to use another host, but i want to insert my own files. how can i do this?

        • Support new line in CRM Multiline text field display in Zoho Deluge

          Hi brainstrust, We have a Zoho CRM field which is a Muti Line (Small) field. It has data in it that has a carriage return after each line: When I pull that data in via Deluge, it displays as: I'm hoping a way I can change it from: Freehand : ENABLED Chenille

        • Announcing new features in Trident for Windows (v.1.32.5.0)

          Hello Community! Trident for Windows just got better! This update includes new features designed to improve and simplify email and calendar management—and it includes a feature you’ve been waiting for. Let’s dive into what’s new! Save emails in EML or

        • How to render either thumbnail_url or preview_url or preview_data_url

          I get 401 Unauthorised when using these urls in the <img> tag src attribute. Guide me on how to use them!

        • Zoho CRM Calendar | Custom Buttons

          I'm working with my sales team to make our scheduling process easier for our team. We primary rely on Zoho CRM calendar to organize our events for our sales team. I was wondering if there is a way to add custom button in the Calendar view on events/meeting

        • Create Lead Button in Zoho CRM Dashboard

          Right now to create Leads in the CRM our team is going into the Lead module, selecting the "Create Lead" button, then building out the lead. Is there anyway to add the "Create Lead" button or some sort of short cut to the Zoho CRM Dashboard to cut out

        • Searching customer field

          Hello, When entering a receipt, we select customer information. The customer information is synced with Zoho CRM. However, we can't find the customer information because it searches for words that begin with the entered value. It needs to search for words

        • Introducing Version-3 APIs - Explore New APIs & Enhancements

          Happy to announce the release of Version 3 (V3) APIs with an easy to use interface, new APIs, and more examples to help you understand and access the APIs better. V3 APIs can be accessed through our new link, where you can explore our complete documentation,

        • Zoho CRM Tracking Google Enhanced Conversions

          Can anyone @Zoho, consultants, or users help me understand if Zoho CRM is going to support Google's Enhanced Conversions? I included some information from Google below about it. We use Google Adwords for our pay per click advertising for lead generation,

        • zoho click, and nord VPN

          Unfortunately, we've been having problems with Zoho Click, where essentially the line cuts off after about a minute's worth of conversation every time we are on VPN. Is there a way we can change this within the settings so it does not cut the line off

        • Connecting Portals from different Zoho apps

          Hi, I note that Zoho has functionality for customer portals for several of the Zoho apps, like CRM, Projects, Desk etc. Is there any way to connect these portals?  It would be great if we could give our customers access to a portal in which they could

        • Billing Management: #5 Usage Billing

          After understanding the nuances of Advance Billing and Retainers, we will explore one of the booming billing models. Long ago, villagers drew water from a shared well in a small village. The well was a lifeline for the entire community. Ravi, the well

        • Function #10: Update item prices automatically based on the last transaction created

          In businesses, item prices are not always fixed and can fluctuate due to various factors. If you find yourself manually adjusting the item rates every time they change, we have the ideal time-saving solution for you. In today's post, we bring you custom

        • Inventory Adjustments

          Hi, How to transfer the material from one head to another ? Like materials purchased for manufacturing the laptop need to transfer from consumption inventory (Quantity of raw materials reduced) to destination inventory ( Quantity of Laptop increased)

        • Zoho CRM Community Digest - Aug 2025 | Part 1

          Hey everyone! The first half of August went by, and we have a few announcements and some good noteworthy discussions. So, let's take a look at them! Product Updates: Introducing Connected Records feature: Zoho CRM’s Next-Gen UI now includes Connected

        • Please make it easier to Pause syncing

          right now it takes 3 clicks to get there. sounds silly, but can you make it just 2 clicks to get it done instead? thats how dropbox does it, 2 clicks to pause instead of 3.

        • How to create a Zoho CRM report with 2 child modules

          Hi all, Is it possible to create a Zoho CRM report or chart with 2 child modules? After I add the first child module, the + button only adds another parent module. It won't let me add multiple child modules at once. We don't have Zoho Analytics and would

        • SalesIQとPageSenseの利用について

          初めての投稿で場違いだったらすいません。 弊社ではSalesIQを運用しているのですが、追加でPageSenseの導入もしたいと現場からの声があります。 両サービスともクッキー同意バナーが必要なサービスなのですが 弊社では同意無しに情報はとりませんという方針なので 2つ入れると2つバナーを出す必要がでてきます・・・ 両サービスを運用されてる方があれば運用状況とか教えてほしいです。 PageSenseについては詳細まで機能を理解してないなかでの質問です。

        • How to integrate Zoho Forms with Zoho CRM on Standard Plan

          Hello Zoho Support Team, I am using the Standard Zoho Forms plan (USD 30/user) and I would like to integrate Zoho Forms with Zoho CRM so that certain fields in my forms can be automatically prefilled using data from Deals in CRM. Specifically, I want

        • Export PDF File Name

          Is it possible to change the default Zoho .pdf naming scheme for inventory items like quotations? Would like to use the the Subject as the default quote name. Is this possible?

        • How to change the from address from 'no reply' for an email template in CRM

          Hi, We have our CRM set up with the from field as sales@XXX. I have just created a series of email templates and sent a test and they are sending from noreply@zoho I have tried searching for how to change the email template but don't have the options

        • Zoho CRM Client Script - SetCriteria in lookup Field

          Hello All One More Zoho CRM Client Script Tips & Trick. Now you can Set the Criteria on Your lookup in zoho CRM, It Comes With a Create Page, Edit Page, and Details Page (Standard). Example:- We have a Room Module that includes Room Name, Status, Campus,

        • Kaizen #71 - Client Script ZDKs for Detail (Canvas) Page

          Hello everyone! Welcome back to another interesting Kaizen post. In this post, we can discuss Client Script ZDKs support for Detail (Canvas) Page. What is Detail (Canvas) Page? A Detail(Canvas) Page allows you to customize the record detail page to your

        • Rich-text fields in Zoho CRM

          Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce an important enhancement that will significantly enhance the readability and formatting capabilities of your information: rich text options for multi-line fields. With this update, you can now enjoy a more versatile

        • Zoho Reports Duplicating Entries

          I have a custom costing tab with a table where we entre invoices. These are under a Heading (PO Subject) and notes added in the form with different line items. In the reports, I have organised the report to group per PO Subject, with the total of the

        • Validation Rule Not Working for Mandatory Field in Zoho Blueprint

          As a Zoho user, we created a validation rule for a specific field. However, we noticed that when we made the same field mandatory within a Blueprint, the validation rule we defined did not work. When we reported this issue to Zoho Support, they stated

        • Notes Issues

          Been having issues with Notes in the CRM. Yesterday it wasn't showing the notes, but it got resolved after a few minutes., Now I have been having a hard time saving notes the whole day. Notes can't be saved by the save button. it's grayed out or not grayed

        • Export from Contacts module to Products module in Zoho CRM

          Good afternoon, I would like to send a number of contact info from the Contacts module into the customized module (tickets to an event) in one operation. I have selected several contacts in the Contact module (people who I have labelled as people I want

        • Zoho Commerce

          Hi, I have zoho one and use Zoho Books. I am very interested in Zoho Commerce , especially with how all is integrated but have a question. I do not want my store to show prices for customers that are not log in. Is there a way to hide the prices if not

        • Can’t receive emailI c

          I have generated a basic for but when I submit it I don’t get a email, I’ve been in the settings and tested me email, all appears correct, can you please help me

        • Data Capture for Historical Activity (Especially One Lead Downloading Variois reports without Overwriting the info)

          Is there a better way in Zoho CRM to capture and archive a lead’s historical activity—specifically whenever they download reports—so that the data is stored without being overwritten?”

        • Next Page