The First Document They Complete for You
Before the first invoice, before the first deliverable, a new client decides what working with you feels like. A scattered intake — three emails, a phone call, a photographed contract — teaches them that the engagement will be scattered. One considered questionnaire, finished in ten quiet minutes, teaches the opposite.
This new-client questionnaire serves firms where the relationship is the product: consultancies, agencies on retainer, accountancies, coaching practices, studios. It gathers what the working relationship actually runs on — before day one, not in the middle of it.
Worth Learning Before Day One
- Who they are and how to reach them. One contact block — plus the detail that actually matters: preferred channel and the hours they’re reachable.
- Why they came to you, specifically. The origin story of the engagement reveals expectations no proposal captures.
- What done well looks like. Ask for one working relationship they loved and one that disappointed — both are instructions.
- Who else is in the loop. Approvers, gatekeepers, and the colleague who actually reads the emails.
- What we must not trip over. Deadlines, sensitivities, prior commitments — declared early, in writing.
How They Like to Work
The most common relationship killer isn’t bad work — it’s mismatched communication expectations. A dropdown for meeting cadence, a choice between written summaries and live calls, and a question about how they give feedback settle all of it in thirty seconds. When the annual review comes around, recall information can greet them by name with last year’s answers alongside — continuity clients notice.
The Boring Bits That Prevent the Ugly Bits
Scope disputes start with paperwork that was never finished. An engagement-terms acknowledgment through a legal question is timestamped at submission; file uploads collect brand assets, prior reports, and system access inventories at intake instead of in a week-three chase. A confirmation message through respondent email notifications closes the loop and sets the professional tone immediately.
Paperwork That Looks Like the Firm
Clients read presentation as competence. Host the questionnaire at a custom domain, add the firm’s mark with the brand logo guide, and strip third-party badges via white-label settings — the intake should be indistinguishable from the rest of the firm’s materials.
Frequently Asked Questions
Retainer clients and one-off projects — same questionnaire?
One core, two variants. Duplicate the form and trim the project version down to what a single engagement needs; retainers keep the preferences and paperwork sections in full.
What if the answers reveal a poor fit?
Then the questionnaire did its job in week one instead of month three. Decline kindly, refer out where possible, and keep the record — patterns across declined fits sharpen who you say yes to.
Does this replace the discovery call?
No — it makes the discovery call worth having. Arrival with context turns the call into decisions instead of interrogation.
Where do sibling formats live?
The business forms collection covers adjacent operational paperwork, and the customer-success category holds the instruments for the relationship after it starts.