New Client Intake Questionnaire Builder for Coaches

Every coach knows the first session goes better when you already understand the client. The problem is the intake form: you either reuse a generic one that doesn’t fit the program, or you rebuild it from scratch every time you launch something new.

This coaching intake questionnaire skill fixes that. You tell the AI your niche, your program, and what a good outcome looks like, and it returns a complete, sectioned questionnaire plus a client-facing intro and a private cheat sheet of what to watch for. By the end of this page you’ll also understand why it produces a good form, so the next one you build is even sharper.

When to use this

• You’re launching a new program or package and need an intake form that fits it.
• You’ve been winging onboarding with a generic Google Form that doesn’t tell you much.
• You want to walk into every kickoff session already knowing the client’s real goal and biggest fear.
• You’re standardizing onboarding so it feels consistent as you take on more clients.

The skill

Paste this whole block into a ChatGPT Custom GPT, a Claude Project, or the start of a Gemini chat:

ROLE
You are an expert coaching onboarding strategist. You design new-client intake questionnaires that gather exactly the information a coach needs to run a confident, personalized kickoff session, while feeling warm and easy for the client to complete.

INPUTS
Before building anything, ask me up to 3 clarifying questions if any input below is missing or unclear. Otherwise, proceed. You need:
- My coaching niche: {{NICHE}}
- The program or package this is for: {{PROGRAM}}
- What a successful client outcome looks like: {{GOAL}}
- What I most want to understand in the first session: {{KICKOFF_FOCUS}}
- Desired form length: {{FORM_LENGTH}}
- Tone of the questions: {{TONE}}

PROCESS
1. Map the goal backward. From {{GOAL}} and {{KICKOFF_FOCUS}}, decide what I must know about the client before kickoff to coach them well.
2. Group questions into clear sections (for example: About You, Current Situation, Goals & Motivation, Obstacles, Logistics & Working Style).
3. Write each question to be specific and open where insight matters, and quick (multiple choice or scale) where speed matters.
4. Front-load easy questions and place the most reflective ones in the middle, not at the very end.
5. Add one final open question that invites anything the client wants me to know.

OUTPUT FORMAT
1. A titled questionnaire with named sections and numbered questions, each marked (open), (short answer), (scale 1-5), or (multiple choice) with options.
2. A short friendly intro paragraph the client reads first that explains why the form matters and how long it takes.
3. A 'Coach's cheat sheet': 3-5 bullets telling me what to watch for in the answers and which questions to dig into during kickoff.

RULES
- Match the requested tone exactly: {{TONE}}.
- Respect the requested length: {{FORM_LENGTH}}. Do not pad.
- One idea per question. No double-barreled questions.
- No jargon the client wouldn't use about themselves.
- Do not ask for sensitive data (medical, financial account numbers) unless the niche clearly requires it.
- No buzzwords. Plain, human language.

How to set it up

This is a reusable skill, so install it once and run it for every program. Replace the six {{VARIABLES}} with your details when you run it:

Then install it where you work:

1. ChatGPT: Profile menu, ‘My GPTs’, ‘Create a GPT’, open ‘Configure’, paste the skill into ‘Instructions’, name it, save as private.
2. Claude.ai: New Project, ‘Project instructions’, paste the skill. Every chat in that Project now runs it.
3. Gemini: Paste the skill as your first message, then send your inputs next. Keep the skill text in a note to reuse it.

See it in action (full example)

Here is the exact skill, filled in for a career coach. This is the whole input, nothing hidden:

ROLE
You are an expert coaching onboarding strategist. You design new-client intake questionnaires that gather exactly the information a coach needs to run a confident, personalized kickoff session, while feeling warm and easy for the client to complete.

INPUTS
Before building anything, ask me up to 3 clarifying questions if any input below is missing or unclear. Otherwise, proceed. You need:
- My coaching niche: career coaching for mid-career professionals changing industries
- The program or package this is for: a 12-week 1:1 career transition program
- What a successful client outcome looks like: land a role in a new industry without taking a pay cut
- What I most want to understand in the first session: their real motivation, biggest fear, and a clear 90-day target
- Desired form length: 12-15 questions, around 10 minutes to complete
- Tone of the questions: warm, professional, encouraging

[PROCESS, OUTPUT FORMAT, and RULES unchanged]

And here is the complete output the model returns:

Welcome — let’s make our first session count

Thanks for joining the 12-week career transition program. These questions help me understand where you are, where you want to go, and what’s getting in the way, so our first session starts with real momentum instead of small talk. It takes about 10 minutes. Be as honest as you can; there are no wrong answers.

Section 1 — About You 1. What’s your name and current job title? (short answer) 2. What industry are you in now, and which industry are you hoping to move into? (short answer) 3. How long have you been thinking about making this change? (multiple choice: Less than 3 months / 3-12 months / 1-2 years / More than 2 years)

Section 2 — Where You Are Now 4. In a sentence or two, how would you describe your current work situation? (open) 5. On a scale of 1-5, how satisfied are you with your career right now? (scale 1-5) 6. What’s prompting you to make this move now, rather than a year ago or a year from now? (open)

Section 3 — Goals & Motivation 7. If this program works exactly as you hope, what does your life look like in 12 weeks? (open) 8. Beyond the job itself, what are you really after — more meaning, more money, more freedom, less stress? (open) 9. What does a successful 90-day outcome look like to you in concrete terms? (open)

Section 4 — Obstacles 10. What’s your biggest fear about changing industries? (open) 11. What has stopped you from making this change already? (open) 12. On a scale of 1-5, how confident are you that you can make this transition? (scale 1-5)

Section 5 — Logistics & Working Style 13. How many hours a week can you realistically put toward this? (multiple choice: Under 2 / 2-5 / 5-10 / 10+) 14. How do you like to be held accountable — gentle nudges, firm deadlines, or somewhere in between? (open) 15. Is there anything else you’d like me to know before we start? (open)

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Coach’s cheat sheet (private — for you, not the client): – Compare answers to Q5 (current satisfaction) and Q12 (confidence). Low satisfaction with high confidence is your easiest client; low on both needs reassurance early. – Q6 and Q11 together reveal the real trigger and the real blocker. The gap between them is usually where coaching happens. – Q8 surfaces the true motivation behind the job change. Lead the kickoff with this, not the job title. – Q10 (biggest fear) is your most important answer. Name it out loud in session one so it stops running the show. – If Q13 shows under 2 hours a week, set expectations about pace before week one, not after.

That is ready to drop into a Google Form, Typeform, or your onboarding email with a couple of minutes of tidying.

Why this works

A few LLM principles do the heavy lifting here. Learn them and every skill you build gets better:

1. Role priming. The opening line (“You are an expert coaching onboarding strategist”) tells the model which slice of its knowledge to use. “Write me some intake questions” pulls from the bland average of every form online; assigning an expert role pulls from the good stuff. Always start with a role.
2. Specificity in, specificity out. The model can only be as targeted as your inputs. A vague goal (“help them with their career”) yields generic questions. A concrete one (“land a role in a new industry without a pay cut”) lets it write questions that actually map to that outcome. Your {{GOAL}} and {{KICKOFF_FOCUS}} cap the quality of the form.
3. Constraints are quality control. The rules aren’t decoration. “One idea per question” kills double-barreled questions that confuse clients. “Respect the length, do not pad” stops the 40-question monster nobody finishes. Telling the model what NOT to do is as powerful as telling it what to do.
4. Ask before guessing. The “ask me up to 3 clarifying questions first” line lets the model fill gaps by asking instead of inventing. That single instruction is the biggest fix for generic AI output, because a missing detail gets surfaced instead of papered over.

Do this now

1. Paste the skill into a ChatGPT Custom GPT or a Claude Project so it’s saved for reuse.
2. Fill in the six variables with one real program you run.
3. Run it, and answer any clarifying questions honestly.
4. Drop the questionnaire into your form tool and save the cheat sheet where you prep for sessions.

Pro tips

• Keep the cheat sheet private. It’s the highest-value part of the output. Review it five minutes before every kickoff call.
• Run it once per program, not per client. Build the template once, then reuse it; only rebuild when the program changes.
• Tighten the length on purpose. If completion rates drop, re-run with a shorter {{FORM_LENGTH}}. A finished 8-question form beats an abandoned 20-question one.
• Feed it a real client story. Tell the model about a past client who struggled, and ask it to add one question that would have caught that early.

Related

• Client Intake Questionnaire Generator for Coaches
• New Client Intake Form Question Builder for Coaches
• Client Intake & Onboarding SOP Builder for Coaches
• 30-60-90 Day Client Onboarding Roadmap System for Coaches