Creating an Intake Form That Saves You Time as a Coach

Intake forms establish the professional tone of your practice before the session begins. When a client fills out questions about their goals and challenges, they start thinking about those things more clearly. They arrive with sharper focus.

The form also signals that you take your work seriously. A coach who asks good questions before the session feels more credible than one who just sends a calendar link.

You Protect Your Time

If you're doing 10 sessions a week and spending 15 minutes of each one on background questions, that's 2.5 hours every week spent gathering information that could have been collected asynchronously. Over a year, that's more than 100 hours. Intake forms give you those hours back.

Types of Questions to Ask

Not all intake questions are created equal. The best ones are specific enough to give you useful information but open-ended enough that clients don't feel boxed in.

Here are the core categories every coaching intake form should pull from.

Goals and Desired Outcomes

This is the most important question on your form. What does the client want to accomplish?

• "What's the #1 thing you want to walk away with from this session?"
• "If this session went perfectly, what would be different for you afterward?"
• "What goal are you currently working toward?"

Keep it focused on one thing. If you ask "What are all your goals?" you'll get a brain dump that's hard to act on. "What's the single most important thing?" forces clarity.

Current Challenges

Understanding where someone is stuck tells you where to direct the conversation.

• "What's the biggest obstacle standing in your way right now?"
• "What have you already tried that hasn't worked?"
• "On a scale of 1-10, how stuck do you feel? What would move you one number higher?"

The "what have you already tried" question is especially valuable. It prevents you from suggesting things they've already done, and it shows you how resourceful they are.

Background and Context

You don't need a full life story, just enough to speak their language from minute one.

• "Briefly describe your current situation (role, industry, experience level)."
• "Is there any context I should know before our session?"

Keep these optional. Some clients will write a paragraph. Others will skip them. Both are fine.

Previous Coaching Experience

Knowing whether someone is new to coaching changes how you approach the session.

• "Have you worked with a coach or consultant before? If so, what was most helpful?"

A client who's been through three coaches has different needs than someone booking their first session ever.

Budget, Timeline, and Commitment

These questions are most relevant for discovery calls where you might discuss ongoing packages.

• "Are you looking for a single session or ongoing coaching support?"
• "On a scale of 1-10, how committed are you to making changes in this area?"
• "Is there a specific deadline or event driving this? (Job interview, product launch, etc.)"

The commitment question is a softer way to gauge seriousness without directly asking about money. A "3" signals someone exploring. A "9" signals someone ready to invest.

Intake Form Examples by Coaching Niche

Generic questions give generic results. The best intake forms are tailored to your specific niche. Here are templates for three common coaching categories.

Life Coach Intake Form

1. "What area of your life do you most want to improve right now?" (Required, select: Career, Relationships, Health/Wellness, Personal Growth, Life Transition, Other)
2. "Describe where you are now and where you want to be." (Required, text area)
3. "What's held you back from making this change on your own?" (Optional, text area)
4. "Have you worked with a life coach before? If yes, what did you find most helpful?" (Optional, text)

Why this works: The first question immediately categorizes the client so you can prepare relevant frameworks. The second gives you the gap between current state and desired state, which is the foundation of any life coaching conversation.

Business Coach Intake Form

1. "What type of business do you run, and how long have you been running it?" (Required, text)
2. "What's your most pressing business challenge right now?" (Required, select: Revenue growth, Operations/systems, Team management, Marketing/sales, Product development, Burnout/work-life balance)
3. "What's your current monthly revenue range?" (Optional, select: Pre-revenue, Under $5K, $5K-$20K, $20K-$50K, $50K-$100K, $100K+)
4. "What would make this session a success for you?" (Required, text area)

Why this works: Knowing business stage and revenue range lets you calibrate your advice. You wouldn't give the same recommendation to someone doing $3K/month that you'd give to someone at $80K/month. The challenge selector helps you prepare specific strategies before the call.

Health and Wellness Coach Intake Form

1. "What health or wellness goal are you focused on?" (Required, select: Weight management, Nutrition, Fitness, Stress/sleep, Chronic condition management, General wellness)
2. "Describe your current daily routine around food, movement, and sleep." (Required, text area)
3. "Do you have any medical conditions, injuries, or dietary restrictions I should know about?" (Required, text area)
4. "What have you tried before that didn't stick? What do you think got in the way?" (Optional, text area)

Why this works: Health coaching requires understanding someone's baseline habits and any medical considerations. Question 4 reveals patterns (they've tried five diets, they always quit after two weeks) that point directly to what needs to change.

How Many Questions to Ask

This is where most coaches go wrong. They build a 15-question intake form because they want to know everything upfront. The client opens the form, sees a wall of questions, and abandons the booking.

The Sweet Spot: 3 to 5 Questions

• Fewer than 3: You don't get enough information to prepare meaningfully.
• 3 to 5: Clients complete the form quickly, you get the essentials, and the booking flow stays smooth.
• More than 5: Completion rates drop. Clients feel like they're filling out a medical history. Some will abandon the booking entirely.

Start with 3 and add one more only if you consistently find yourself missing a key piece of information.

Put your most valuable question first. If a client fills out only one question and leaves the rest blank, you still have the information that matters most. For most coaches, that question is: "What's the #1 thing you want to accomplish in this session?"

Required vs. Optional: Getting the Balance Right

Making every question required feels thorough but creates friction. Making everything optional feels easygoing but leaves you with incomplete forms. The right balance is straightforward.

Make 1 to 2 Questions Required

The goal/outcome question should always be required. This is the minimum information you need to run a productive session. If you have a niche-specific question that's equally critical (like medical conditions for health coaches), make that required too.

Make the Rest Optional

Background questions, previous experience, and timeline questions should be optional. Clients who are detail-oriented will fill them in. Clients who are quick decision-makers will skip them. Both types can still have a productive session.

Label Optional Questions Clearly

Don't just mark required fields with an asterisk. Label optional questions with "(Optional)" or add helper text like "Skip this if you'd prefer to discuss it on the call." Clients are more likely to complete the form when they don't feel pressured to answer everything.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Asking questions you won't use. If you ask "What's your Myers-Briggs type?" but never reference it in sessions, remove it. Every question should directly inform how you prepare.

Being too vague. "Tell me about yourself" is not an intake question. It's an invitation to ramble. Be specific: "What do you do for work, and how long have you been doing it?"

Being too personal too early. "What's your biggest fear?" might be appropriate in session 5 of an ongoing relationship. It's not appropriate in a pre-booking form from a stranger. Keep it professional and focused on the upcoming session.

Duplicating information you already have. If your booking system collects the client's name, email, and selected service, don't ask for those again in the intake form.

Setting Up Intake Questions on Talkspresso

If you're using Talkspresso, intake questions are built directly into the platform. You don't need a separate form tool, a Google Form, or a third-party survey.

Here's how it works:

• Add questions from your dashboard. You can create text fields, text areas, dropdowns, multi-select options, radio buttons, and checkboxes.
• Mark questions as required or optional. Toggle per question.
• Choose when questions appear. Show them during booking, when a client messages you, or both.
• Add helper text. Give clients guidance on what you're looking for ("2-3 sentences is perfect").
• Review responses before the session. Client answers are attached to the booking, so you can review them while preparing.

The questions appear seamlessly in the booking flow. Clients answer them right when they book, so there's no separate step, no additional email, and no forgotten Google Form link.

You can also customize questions per service. Your discovery call might ask different questions than your deep-dive strategy session. This keeps the intake relevant and prevents clients from answering the same questions every time they book with you.

Set up your intake questions on Talkspresso →

Making the Most of Intake Responses

Collecting responses is only half the equation. Block 10 minutes before each session to review the client's answers and jot down 2-3 talking points. Then open the call by referencing something they shared: "I read through your notes, and I want to dig into the challenge you mentioned about managing your team through this transition." This immediately signals that you prepared and that the session will be focused.

Over time, review your intake responses as a group. If 80% of your clients struggle with the same three challenges, that's your content strategy, your workshop topic, and your positioning all in one data set. The exact language clients use in intake forms is the exact language you should use in your marketing. Their words describe their problems better than yours ever could.

Getting Started Today

You don't need to overthink this. Here's a five-minute version:

1. Pick 3 questions from the examples above that fit your niche.
2. Make one required (the goal/outcome question).
3. Make the other two optional.
4. Add them to your booking flow.
5. Before your next session, review the responses and open the call by referencing something the client shared.

That's it. You'll immediately notice the difference in session quality, and your clients will notice that you showed up prepared.

If you're looking for a platform that handles intake questions, scheduling, video, and payments in one place, Talkspresso has everything built in. Set up your questions once, and every client who books with you will go through your intake process automatically.

See the full feature breakdown on Talkspresso for Coaches, or read our step-by-step guide for creators selling paid video calls.

Create your free account on Talkspresso →

Trauma informed cultural language tutor & Art Life Coach