Contact tracing and registering our details every time we visit a place (e.g. restaurant, bar, cafe, etc) is now the “new normal.” We have noticed that many of our clients are still using pen and paper for this. While there is nothing wrong with that, there is a very easy way to speed up the process for both you and your visitors to your office.
Many people do not realise that Microsoft Forms is included in Office 365, which means pretty much every business we know has access to it in one way or another.
Because of this, we wanted to highlight how easy it is to use Microsoft Forms to make the sign in process “contact less” and speed things up along the way.
What is Microsoft Forms?
Forms is Microsoft’s version of an online survey/form creation tool.
This will also allow you to easily create surveys, quizzes and polls, and export the collected data into Excel to be analysed.
Building the Form
To start using forms, go to https://office.com and sign in with your email address and password.
- Click the Forms If you can’t see it, click All Apps first.
2. Click New Form under My Forms and give your form a name.
You can also add a description or add a photo as a title instead. Just click the Photo button on the right of the form name field.
3. When you are happy with the form name and description, click Add New to a add a question to your form.
4. Forms will recommend certain fields to automatically add. Select First Name, Last Name, and Email Address and click Add Selected.
5. To capture the visitor’s phone number, add a form item for this by clicking Add New and select Text.
Check the box marked Required to ensure the person completes this field.
6. Click anywhere outside the box to save the changes.
Forms will automatically record the date and time the form was filled out, so there is no need to ask people to enter this, however you are welcome to add any other questions you wish!
Once the form is built, it’s time to share it so the visitors can complete it.
Sharing the form
To share the form
- Click the Share button in the top right corner of the form
2. You will be presented with a few different options.
By default, the form will be set to only work for people in your organization. This is obviously not what we want for visitors to your office, so let’s change it to allow anyone to fill out the form.
Click Only people in my organisation can respond to drop the selection box, then select Anyone with the link can respond
3. You need to generate a link that visitors will browse to so that they can complete the form from their own mobile device.
Forms can generate QR Codes that the visitors can scan with their mobile phone.
To generate one, simply click the QR Code button:
You can download the generated QR Code and insert it into a Word document to create your signage.
A QR code is simple, since almost every phone can support scanning it with the built-in camera. That said, there will be visitors that will not be able to utilize this, so we will also create a link to the form.
Forms, by default will generate a link to use. Here’s an example link:
You may shorten the link through a free URL service like Bit.ly to make it easier for the visitors to enter the link into their phone.
4. First, generate the link by clicking the Link Click Copy to copy the link to your clipboard
5. Open a URL shortening service (e.g. Bit.ly), paste the link to generate the short URL.
6. Copy the new shortened URL into a Word document and create your message. You can now print this out and present it to your guests. For example:
Using the form
To fill out the form, visitors can simply open the camera app on their mobile and scan the QR code or may enter the shortened URL.
Forms automatically formats the form to fit the end users device so your form will look great regardless of whether it is viewed on a mobile, tablet or desktop.
You may wish to use an iPad or similar device at reception as a fall back in the event the user has issues with their own device.
Reviewing collected information
To review and export all collected information:
- Open the form from the My Forms page
- Click Open in Excel
- An Excel document will download with all of the information, dates and times that the form was completed.
Other settings
Forms give you the ability to preview your form, customise the theme and set a custom “Thank You” message.
Click Preview to see how the Form will look on a computer or mobile device.
To change the theme, click the Theme button on the toolbar within the form.
To set a customised “Thank you” message click the 3 dots on top right of the form and select Settings
If you have any questions or need further assistance with Microsoft Forms, please feel free to contact our Help Desk by calling 1300 138 762 or email support@rodin.com.au