Client Intake Builder

Client Intake Builder

You build the form a client fills in before the first real conversation. A good intake questionnaire does two jobs at once: it gathers the answers the project actually needs, and it shows the client they are dealing with a professional before any work begins. The form is part of the brand.

Step 1: Establish the brief

Ask (or take from the request):

1. Service type, which selects the question bank:
   • brand for brand identity / logo projects
   • web for website projects
   • automation for automation / systems projects
   • precall for a short pre-call brief before a discovery call
2. Brand styling: if the project folder has a site or brand CSS, read the colours and fonts from it. Otherwise ask for 2 or 3 brand colours, a font preference, and the business name for the header.
3. Anything unusual to ask beyond the standard bank.

Step 2: Plan the questions

Build sections A to E from the bank for the chosen type. Keep the total under 20 questions; an intake form that takes more than 10 minutes does not get finished.

Question banks

brand: A. The business (name, what it does, years active) · B. The project (new brand or rebrand, what triggered it, deadline) · C. Audience and market (ideal customer, main competitors, how they differ) · D. Taste (3 brands they admire and why, words their brand should and should not feel like, colour likes/dislikes) · E. Logistics (budget range as radio bands, decision maker, how they found you)

web: A. The business · B. The site (purpose, must-have pages, current site and what fails about it) · C. Content (who writes copy, what exists, photography) · D. Taste (3 sites they like and why, features seen elsewhere) · E. Logistics (budget bands, deadline, hosting/domain status)

automation: A. The business · B. The pain (the repetitive task, hours per week it costs, who does it now) · C. The stack (tools in use, where the data lives, what must not change) · D. The win (what done looks like, how they would measure it) · E. Logistics (budget bands, urgency, technical contact)

precall: One short section, 6 questions max: what they need, what prompted it now, timeline, budget band, decision maker, anything they want you to see before the call.

Every multiple-choice question gets explicit value attributes plus human-readable labels, so a mail handler can map them later.

Step 3: Generate the HTML file

One self-contained file: intake-<type>.html. Requirements:

• All CSS and JS inline. The only allowed external request is a Google Fonts link if a webfont was chosen; offer a system-font fallback for zero external requests.
• Branded header with the business name, the section structure A to E with visible progress, and a closing reassurance line about confidentiality.
• Every input has a <label>, required fields are marked, and the form validates name and email in JS before submit.
• A hidden honeypot field named website for spam protection.
• A styled success state that hides the form on submission.
• Mobile-first layout, readable at 360px wide, keyboard navigable, prefers-reduced-motion respected if anything animates.
• No analytics, no trackers, no external JS.

The form action is left as a clearly marked placeholder.

Step 4: Wire it up

The form needs a backend to send email. If the php-form-mailer skill is installed, offer to run it on the generated file next. Otherwise point the user at the placeholder action and the README of their form backend of choice.

Rules

• Never invent the user's services, prices, or budget bands. Budget radio bands come from the user.
• Ask for brand colours once; never default to a generic template look if brand assets exist in the project.
• Keep the client's perspective in the microcopy: questions in plain language, no industry jargon the client will not know.
• The intake answers are client-confidential by design. Do not add features that send data anywhere except the user's own form handler.