Guide
Using Intake Forms to Qualify Leads Before They Book
An intake form should not be a survey. It should collect the facts that change price, duration, route feasibility, access, or whether the job should happen at all.
Ask only questions that affect acceptance, price, duration, or prep.
Use hard stops for deal-breaker answers.
Route ambiguous answers to review instead of auto-confirming them.
Define the decision each question supports
Every intake question should earn its place. If the answer does not change the service, price, duration, route, equipment, or policy risk, it probably belongs in a later customer profile, not the booking flow.
Shorter intake is not automatically better. The right intake asks a small number of consequential questions.
- Mobile detailing: water, power, vehicle size, condition, photos for heavy soil.
- Home cleaning: square footage, bedrooms/bathrooms, pets, access, first-time deep clean status.
- Beauty and wellness: service contraindications, prep acknowledgements, location setup needs.
- Repair: issue description, photos, appliance/model details, parts or diagnostic expectations.
Use answer states, not free-text chaos
Free-text fields are useful for nuance but bad for automation. Where possible, use structured answers that can trigger accept, reject, price change, duration change, or manual review.
Free text can remain as supporting context after the booking path has the facts it needs.
Stop bad jobs early
If a required condition is missing, the system should stop the booking before the customer reaches the calendar. Showing times first creates false momentum and makes rejection feel personal later.
The message should be direct: explain the missing requirement and what the customer can do if there is an alternative.
Frequently asked questions
- How many intake questions is too many?
- Too many is any question that does not affect the booking decision. Many operators can start with three to six high-value questions.
- Should I require photos?
- Require photos when visual condition changes price, duration, equipment, or whether the job should be accepted. Do not require them for simple repeat services.