Using preorder forms for contactless customer pickup

The business landscape will likely never return to the way it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving forward, businesses will need to alter the ways they interact with their customers to facilitate safer, quicker, contactless exchanges. A great way to start is by creating an online preorder form for your business.

Whether your company is in the food and beverage industry or retail, encouraging preorders can benefit both you and your customers. Ordering ahead not only ensures contactless selections, it’s also more efficient, giving you time to prepare your customer’s order in advance. This makes pickup smoother and reduces the amount of time customers might have to wait for their orders, resulting in better service and a safer workplace.

Jotform has 600-plus order form templates to choose from. You can start using one for your business today, or you can make a form from scratch using our drag-and-drop Form Builder. Follow the steps below to make sure you include all the necessities on your preorder form.

Step 1: Customer information

Make sure you have fields to capture any relevant information you’ll need to identify your customer. This can include their name, email, phone number, and their physical address, if necessary (all of which you can drag and drop from the Form Elements menu on the left side of the Form Builder).

These fields can go at the top or bottom of your order form, depending on how you would like it to flow.

Step 2: Product list and payment

Here’s where the customer selects what they would like to order. Populate a Product List field with your preorder options for customers to choose from. You can also integrate a payment method so that they can prepay (or you can skip this step and have them pay at pickup).

You can customize your product list with as many items in as many categories as you wish, along with images, prices, and many more options. This article goes into detail about implementing product lists successfully on your form.

Step 3: Schedule pickup (optional)

Once customers select their items, you can ask them to indicate when they’ll come for pickup. If your business has a capacity limit or you have to time when a food order should be ready, you can include an Appointment field on your form. This field enables you to set parameters for available pickup time periods, integrate with Google Calendar, and much more.

Alternatively, if you just need a general idea when a customer will pick up their order, you can simply have them answer in a short text box.

Finally, you’ll be ready for customers to hit Submit and place their orders! You can publish and share your completed preorder form in several ways, such as through a link, by embedding the form into your website, or even using a QR code.

As just like that, you’ll be ready to receive your customers’ information, their order selection, their payment, and even their intended pickup time — all in advance, ensuring a contactless order experience. And don’t forget, you can assign completed preorders to specific members of your team as well.

When implemented properly, preorder forms are a fantastic way to run your business safely and efficiently, while meeting consumer demand. During times like these, who doesn’t want help with that?