Not every potential customer will be a good fit for your company. It can come down to a lack of resources, a poor attitude, or a lack of understanding of the advantages you might provide them. For this reason, implementing a website intake form to your onboarding process is essential. A client intake form is a questionnaire used to help you identify the precise project requirements and decide if a potential client is a good fit for your web design company.
It is also a great tool to help you draft a tailored website proposal template that meets their needs and clearly addresses every pain point. An intake form can be presented in paper when you are first meeting your potential clients, however, in today's on-the-go world, an online form is a better and more efficient way to do it.
To help you create an effective website intake form, we'll go over some of the essential information you must cover so you can start off with the right foot.
Note: Use Bonsai to take your website design business to the next level. Get the best fully customizable client forms, contract and invoice templates, tax estimates, payment integrations and much more! Claim your 14-day free trial here.
6 Vital Elements to Include in Your Client Intake Forms
Your client intake form should cover the basic information such as the client's name and contact details as well as project-relevant information including budget, SEO requirements, target audiences, etc. In order to do so, try to cover the following aspects when creating your own form.
Client Information
Start off your intake form by gathering your client's basic contact information. This will help you maintain your client profiles well organized and get in contact with them to follow up on their interest to do business with you. This includes your client's full name and/or business name (DBA) if applicable, mailing address, email address, phone number and even company registration details.
Brand & Industry Insights
Understanding your client's business and their competitors will give you a great foundation to create a website that is in harmony with their brand. Here are some examples of questions you could include to help you discover their competitive advantages and the type of customers your client is looking to attract.
- What services and products do you offer?
- What is the purpose of your company?
- Who are your main target customers?
- What makes you different from the competition (unique selling proposition)?
- How long has your company been around?
- How many businesses are you directly competing with? (please provide links to their websites)
- Are there any brand assets or guidelines that we should use as reference?
- What kinds of pictures best represent your company? (photographs of businesses, markets, products, the outdoors, etc.)
Project Details
One of the main purposes of a website intake form is to find out what project your client has in mind. You want to know if they need a brand new website or if they need a website redesign of the current one and what specific features the client wants to incorporate. In short, these questions will help disclose the client's expectations.
- What's the general focus of this project?
- How many pages or sections will there be overall on your website?
- How quickly do you want the website to be built?
- Do you need a company logo or wordmark for this project?
- Does your company have a color scheme or do you wish to establish a color preference?
- Do you need assistance with content strategy or copywriting?
- Please specify the website features you need in place. (For example, volunteer sign ups, homepage slideshow, Facebook badge, donation forms, etc...)
- List your desired menu items such as 'home', 'about', 'services', etc.
- Will you need email and hosting?
Challenges & Goals
Your website intake form should include a set of questions to discover the current state of their website (if any), the type of end product they're looking for, and how this website should be of use for their customers. Here are some examples.
- Currently, do you have a website? If so, what's working for you and what's not?
- What is the main objective of your website?
- Have you prepared any web content?
- Do you currently have a logo or other branding elements?
- Do you have a favorite website in particular? Why? (For instance, sidebars, colors, headers, menus, typography, images, etc.)
- Do you require assistance keeping your website up to date?
- How crucial is SEO to the success of your website?
- What features should your website have in order to be successful? (For example, CTA (Call To Action) buttons, live chat, incorporating social media or browser compatibility)
- What do you want users of your website to do with it?
- Do you have any concerns or worries regarding the project?
Estimated Budget
Next, let's find out if your prospective client can actually afford your services and just how much they value your work. Aside from directly asking what their budget is for both the website and the project as a whole, you can assist them in estimating a budget by providing a dropdown list starting with the smallest amount you would consider. This would usually be your least preferred budget and you might choose to decline it depending on how much work the client is expecting you to do.
Questions & Comments
Finally, you don't want to leave any doubts unresolved before you decide to take on the project. Don't forget to end your intake form by allowing your potential client to add any extra information they might find important regarding the project. They might have some relevant thoughts that your form failed to address, or may want to know more about you and your services, so leave enough space for them to also ask questions.
Improve Your Client Intake Process With Bonsai
An effective onboarding process can help you ensure you're working with the right client and make it easier for you to keep all the information you need handy. A lack of proper documentation can make you lose leads and gives the wrong first impression to your new clients. If you want to avoid this, use Bonsai's all-in-one product suite to seamlessly create professional documents that ensure consistency in your processes.
We help you create an intake form template that you can simply customize and your clients can easily fill online. You can also use Bonsai to create proposals, contracts, invoices and even send out a feedback form at the end of the project to get valuable testimonials. Start your 7-day free trial to get access to these and many more amazing tools especially designed for independent professionals across all industries.
