A client intake form that gets what you need the first time

When a client intake form misses something, the next step is a second email asking for it: the billing contact, a business number, the name of someone else involved. Each of those is a question the form could have asked.

The opposite fault is a form so long that people abandon it or rush it. The work is deciding what to ask, when, and in what order.

What a client intake form has to collect

Sort every question by what you need its answer for:

• To reply: name, email, phone and the best way to reach them. Make these required, so nothing arrives without a way to answer it.
• To decide whether to take the work: what they need, by when, and what they expect it to cost.
• To check for a problem before you start: anyone else involved, such as another party or a related company.
• To bill them: the legal name to invoice, the billing contact and email, where these differ from the person filling in the form.
• What only your business needs: the details specific to the service.

Ask in stages

Acuity Scheduling's guide warns against sending a long form to a cold lead, and against waiting until the client is already in front of you. Its answer is progressive intake: a short form first, and more detail later.

1. First contact: how to reach them, what they need and when. Enough to decide whether to call back.
2. On engagement: billing details, anyone else involved, and the documents you will need.
3. Before the work starts: questions specific to the job, sent only to the clients they apply to.

Acuity gives a simple length test: if a form takes more than a few minutes to fill out, cut it back to the essentials. On timing, it names both failures at once: "Too early feels like homework, too late wastes appointment time." The right moment is after the client has shown they intend to work with you.

Group the questions into sections

Acuity suggests splitting a form into sections, such as personal details, service needs and policies, which makes it easier to follow and easier to update. Order the sections the way a person thinks about their situation: who they are, what they need, and then the paperwork.

Question by question

• One thing per field. A single box for name and company gets both, in whatever order the person types them.
• Plain words. Ask it the way you would on the phone.
• Show a question only when it applies. Ask about another party only if the client says there is one.
• Choices where the answers are known, so you can count them later.
• No question you will not use. If nobody reads the answer, remove the question.

Where a client can have several of something, such as other parties, properties or locations, use a section that repeats once for each. Cognito Forms lists repeating sections among its advanced form features. Without one, the client squeezes three parties into a single box, and someone has to separate them by hand later.

Fill it in on a phone

Acuity lists forgetting mobile users among the common intake form mistakes. Complete your own form on a phone, start to finish, before sending it to anyone.

What happens after someone submits

Cognito Forms suggests automating the steps that follow a submission: a confirmation to the client, a notice to your team, and a record created without retyping. The last one matters most. Anything retyped from an email can be retyped wrong, and the mistake then lives in your records.

Keep it current

Acuity also names outdated forms as a mistake: a form still asking about a service you no longer offer, or silent about one you added. Reread yours whenever your services change, and look back at the last few second emails you had to send. Each one names a question the form is missing.