Two forms, two jobs
There is the form a client fills in to book, and there is the form they fill in before the appointment. Most businesses merge them into one long questionnaire at booking, and it costs them bookings. Every extra field at the moment of booking loses a share of people, and the health history nobody wants to type on a phone in a car park is the field that loses the most.
Separate them. The booking form asks only what is needed to hold the slot. The intake form comes afterwards, by email, once the booking is confirmed and the client is committed.
The booking form: the minimum
- Name.
- Mobile number, for reminders. The single most valuable field.
- Email, for confirmation.
- The service, which they have already chosen.
- New or returning? One tap. It tells you whether to send the intake form and how long to allow.
- One free-text line: "Anything we should know?" Optional. This is where the useful things arrive: "I'm pregnant", "I'm nervous", "parking?".
That is it. Five fields and an optional sixth. Anything else moves to the intake form.
Do not ask at booking: address (unless you travel to them), date of birth, how they heard about you, marketing consent as a required field, health history, ID numbers, or anything that requires them to look something up.
The intake form: what actually helps
Send it in the confirmation email, or as a link the day before, for new clients and for services that need it. Ask only what changes how you deliver the appointment.
For treatments and therapies: relevant medical conditions, medications, allergies, injuries, pregnancy, previous reactions, what they want from the session. Frame each as why you are asking: "So we can choose suitable products, do you have any allergies?"
For coaching and consulting: the situation, what they have tried, what a good outcome looks like, anything they want to make sure you cover.
For lessons and classes: experience level, goals, physical considerations, emergency contact for minors.
For trades and home visits: address, access instructions, parking, pets, photos of the problem.
Keep it to one screen on a phone. If a question would not change what you do, cut it.
The questions that need care
Health information is sensitive data in most privacy regimes (special category under GDPR, protected under HIPAA for covered entities). Collecting it means you need a lawful basis, usually explicit consent, a clear statement of why you collect it and how long you keep it, secure storage, and the ability to delete it on request. A booking tool's generic form field is not designed for this.
If you collect health data:
- Use a form tool or booking system that states it handles health data appropriately, and check whether you need a data processing agreement with them.
- Ask only what you need for the appointment.
- Do not store it in your email inbox. Route it into the client record in a system built for that.
- Say, on the form, why you ask and what happens to it.
- Set a retention period and actually delete.
Children's data needs a parent or guardian to complete the form and usually a stated consent.
Marketing consent must be a separate, unticked, optional box. Never bundle it into booking terms.
"How did you hear about us?" is genuinely useful and harmless. Ask it on the intake form or at the appointment, not at booking.
Where the form lives
Options, best first:
- Inside the booking system, if it has a proper intake form feature that attaches responses to the client record and handles sensitive data. Fresha, Acuity, Timely, Jane, Cliniko and others do.
- A dedicated form tool (Typeform, Jotform, Tally) with the response linked to the client by email or booking reference. Works with simpler booking tools. Check its privacy terms for health data.
- A PDF or paper form at the appointment. Slower, but for some businesses and some questions, sitting with a person is the right place to ask.
Avoid: a Google Form collecting health data into a spreadsheet, or answers arriving as plain emails in a shared inbox.
The client's experience
A good version: book in five fields and thirty seconds. Confirmation arrives immediately. "Since it's your first visit, here's a short form so we can make the most of your appointment" arrives with a link, takes two minutes, done. On the day, the practitioner already knows what they need to.
A bad version: a fourteen-field form at booking, half of it mandatory, on a phone. Abandoned at field eight. No booking, no client, and you never knew.
Designing the split is part of how we set up booking flows. The booking form is for booking. Everything else can wait until they have.