What should a clinic enquiry form ask?
Ask for what reception needs to reply, and nothing else. For a general treatment enquiry, that's usually:
- first name and last name (separate fields)
- phone number
- email address
- the branch, pre-selected from the page and changeable
- optional: the treatment, with a "Not sure yet" choice
- optional: "What would you like help with?"
Example · Alder's form, before and after
Before: eleven required fields: first name, last name, phone, email, date of birth, home address, postcode, branch, a compulsory treatment dropdown, a medical history box and "How did you hear about us?"
After: five required fields, two optional ones and a note: "No medical history needed yet."
Why: reception only ever used the name, contact details, branch and question to reply.
Match required fields to the way you reply: if you always reply by email, the phone number can be optional. Put each label above its box rather than inside it, where it vanishes as someone types.
Save the enquiry before any extra questions
The first button should send the details to the clinic's system, so nothing is lost if the person stops. Optional questions can follow on the confirmation screen.
Example · Alder's second stage
Your request has been received. Nothing is booked yet. Bristol reception will reply within an hour between 9am and 6pm, Monday to Friday, or by 10am the next working day.
Would you like to add anything? These questions are optional.
- How soon would you like a consultation?
- When's a good time for us to call?
- Would you prefer our first reply by phone or email?
Buttons: Add these · Skip and finish
Skipping must leave the enquiry saved and in the same place in the queue. A second stage that blocks completion is just a longer form.
Alder can promise an hour because it staffs the inbox to meet it. Set your own promise from your staffed routine, as our reply guide shows.
Leave medical history for the clinical forms
Detailed medical history belongs in the consultation forms your clinical team controls, not the first enquiry. Say on the form that it isn't needed yet.
Keep the optional "What would you like help with?" box, because reception needs the question to reply. People will sometimes mention a health detail there anyway, so keep enquiries in the clinic's own system, readable only by the people who reply.
Let the phone fill in the details
Use standard field settings so phones can fill in name, phone and email automatically. Ask your developer for the autocomplete values "given-name", "family-name", "tel" and "email", as web.dev's autofill guide describes.
The phone field should open the number keypad, and the email field the email keyboard. Test it on your own phone with autofill switched on.
Explain privacy in one line, and decide about marketing now
A short line under the button usually does the job: "We'll use these details to answer your enquiry. Read our privacy notice." A compulsory "I consent" box doesn't replace deciding how you'll actually handle the data.
If you might send marketing later, decide now how you'll get permission. The simplest route is a separate opt-in box, unticked, that isn't a condition of sending.
The "soft opt-in" is the other route: it works if the form itself shows a clear opt-out box when people enquire. Our follow-up guide explains how to use it.
Make errors fixable and confirmations truthful
When something's wrong, say what to fix beside the field and keep everything already typed. A mistyped email address should get "Check the email address: it needs an @", not a blank form.
The confirmation must match what happened. "Your request has been received" and "Your appointment is booked" are different promises. Alder's old form said "Booked!" and two people turned up; our booking button guide covers that fix.
Send a confirmation email that says the same thing, from an address the clinic reads.
Record the source without asking for it
Leave "How did you hear about us?" off the first form and record a source label in the background instead. People rarely remember accurately, and the question costs a field.
A treatment-page address can itself reveal what someone is interested in, so don't send page labels to advertising tools without checking. Keep an "unknown" category, because no tracking catches every visit.
One rule you can't skip
Keep enquiry text and health details out of analytics and advertising tools, and never use them to target marketing. The source label travels with the enquiry; what someone wrote stays in your clinic's system.
Show reception what arrived
The enquiry that lands in reception's inbox should be readable at a glance: the name, phone, email, branch, message, the page it came from, the time and any second-stage answers.
Ask reception to read one test enquiry aloud and say what they'd reply. If they need anything else, add it to what arrives, not to what you ask.
To see how far that can go, PatientPulse's 40-second film shows the briefed enquiry a clinic team receives from its Finder: the concern, a shortlist and a suggested next step.
Give your developer one brief and five tests
Hand over the form as a brief, with tests that prove it works.
Alder's finished form brief
- Required fields: first name, last name, phone, email, branch (pre-selected)
- Optional fields: treatment (with "Not sure yet") and "What would you like help with?"
- Save: on the first button, with an optional second stage that can be skipped
- Privacy: one line under the button linking the privacy notice; a separate, unticked marketing opt-in
- Autofill: given-name, family-name, tel, email
- Confirmation: "Your request has been received. Nothing is booked yet. Bristol reception will reply within an hour between 9am and 6pm, Monday to Friday, or by 10am the next working day."
- Source: page and campaign label captured in the background, kept in the clinic's system
- Test 1: a complete enquiry reaches the Bristol inbox within a minute
- Test 2: skipping the second stage still saves it
- Test 3: a mistyped email shows a clear error and keeps the other answers
- Test 4: autofill fills name, phone and email on a phone
- Test 5: replying to the confirmation email reaches a monitored address
Do this today
Count your form's required fields and ask reception what they do with each one.
Done when: every required field has a reason written beside it on the form brief, or a line through it.
Questions owners ask
Should we ask for date of birth?
Not at enquiry stage. Ask in booking or clinical forms, where your clinical team needs it and controls how it's kept.
Would a call-back form work better?
It can, if reception reliably calls when the person can talk. Add an optional "best time to call" and say when calls happen.
Do longer forms give us better enquiries?
Extra questions create extra work and give people more places to stop. Keep a field only if the team uses its answer at this stage.
Alder is an example clinic. Its form and replies are illustrative.
