Best Practices For The New Client Form

When you have your Portal Settings configured to allow clients to create their own accounts, you can select any fields from the Client Details to be included in your new client form. Here are our tips for best practices for customizing your new client form.

Keep The New Client Form Simple

While it’s possible to add every Client Details field to this form, prospective clients are much more likely to complete the form the shorter and simpler it is. Every field on the new client form will be required regardless of whether you have it marked as required in Client Fields, so don’t include fields that do not apply to all clients to avoid confusion. Also, remember that prospective clients who have never met you may be reluctant to fill out the more personal information. For example, if you only need a client’s zip code or city to determine whether they are in your service area, you could leave off the field for the client’s street address.

Filling out a longer form is also a waste of your prospective client’s time if it turns out you won’t be able to service them. Your goal should be to gather enough information to quickly determine whether the client may be a good fit and get their contact information so you can get in touch with them to schedule a Meet & Greet. For most pet-sitting companies, that means gathering address information to determine if the client lives within your service area and a name, email address, and phone number so you can contact them.

Creating “New Client Only” Form Fields

There may be certain information you’d like to gather from prospective clients who are filling out your new client form but don’t need from your existing clients. You can create fields that are visible on the new client form but not visible in the client portal by adding the fields in Client Fields and making the fields “Client Editable” but not “Client Visible”.

If you have a set of fields that are only used on the new client form, you can group them together and move them to the bottom of your Client Fields so they take up less space on the main part of the client profile: