Sending consultation forms and using kiosk mode

Most consultation forms send themselves: when an appointment needs one, the link goes out with your client's booking confirmation and reminder, and they fill it in on their phone before they arrive. You can also send any form by hand, or hand your client the salon iPad and let them fill it in there in kiosk mode. Feedback forms go after the visit instead: see asking for feedback after a visit.

#How consultation forms reach clients automatically

When an appointment needs a form (form rules), its link is added to the booking confirmation and the reminder, by text or email, whichever you send. A text adds "Please fill in your form:" and the link; an email names the forms ("Before your visit, please fill in your New client consultation:"). If you've changed the confirmation or reminder wording, keep {forms_line} in it, or the link has nowhere to go (message wording).

• A booking request waiting for your approval sends no form link yet: it goes with the confirmation when you approve.
• Feedback forms are never in the confirmation or reminder: they go with the After the visit message, after the visit.
• With several forms for one visit, the message links to the first; when your client finishes it, the page offers the next one.
• If you turn on the client area, forms waiting to be filled in are listed there too, under Forms to fill in (a feedback form while its link is open).

#What your client sees when they fill in a form

The link opens the form on your booking page, with your logo and colours. It shows the form's name, the appointment it's for, and "Hi Sarah!" before your introduction. Web addresses in your introduction and help text are links. Your client answers, signs and presses Submit, and sees "Thank you, Sarah!", that the form has been sent to your salon, and "See you" with their appointment, then any thank-you page you've added (thank-you pages).

• Missing answers are highlighted, with "One question still needs an answer" above Submit.
• Photos upload while they carry on with the form.
• If they close the page part-way, their answers and the photos they've added are kept on that phone for 30 days, and come back when they open the link again. The signature needs doing again.
• Once it's sent, the link shows "Already done – thanks!" if they open it again, with your thank-you page.
• A form that's been withdrawn shows "This form is no longer needed – thanks!"

#Sending a form from an appointment

1. Open the appointment in the calendar. Its Forms card lists the forms for this visit.
2. Press Add and choose a form to add one that isn't there. With feedback forms too, the list has Before the visit and After the visit. If the same consultation form is already waiting from another visit, it moves to this one rather than being sent twice.
3. On a form that's waiting, open its ⋯ menu (Form options) and choose Text the link or Email the link, or Copy link to paste it into a message of your own.

Once a link has gone out, the menu says Text the link again and Email the link again. A form added this way goes in the appointment's next confirmation or reminder too.

#Sending a form from a client's profile

1. Open the client and go to their Forms tab.
2. Press Send a form.
3. Choose the form (feedback forms have a Feedback badge). If one is already waiting, it says "already waiting – sends the same link again".
4. Under Send the link by, choose to text their mobile or email them.
5. Press Send link, or Fill in now to hand them this device instead.

A new form sent from the profile isn't tied to an appointment. If the client has no mobile or email on file, you can only fill it in at the salon. A feedback form can't be sent to a client who has said no to feedback requests, but Fill in now still works (sending feedback by hand).

#Kiosk mode: filling in a form on the salon iPad

Kiosk mode turns your screen into the client's form: full screen, big text, and nothing else of the app in reach.

1. Press Fill in now on a waiting form (on the appointment or the client's Forms tab), or in Send a form.
2. Hand over the device. Your client sees "Please fill this in, then hand the device back."
3. They press Submit, and see "All done. Please hand the device back." Press Close.

If another form is waiting for them, they're offered Continue, or Not now – hand back. The screen stays awake while they fill it in, where the device allows it.

Close at the top is for you. If they've started, it asks Close without saving?: the answers so far are lost, and the form stays on their record to fill in later.

A form filled in this way is marked At the salon, with the name of the team member signed in on the device.

#Following up a consultation form that hasn't been filled in

Each waiting form shows where it's up to:

• Not sent yet: the link hasn't gone out in a message.
• Not filled in yet · sent 2h ago: the link has gone out (with a confirmation, a reminder or by hand).
• Filled in online or Filled in at the salon, with when.
• Not answered · the link has closed: a feedback form whose link closed before the client answered (when a feedback link closes).

On the calendar, an appointment with a form still to fill in shows an amber clipboard (reviewing answers). To nudge your client, use Text the link again or Email the link again, or hand them the iPad when they arrive.

If a text or email can't go, you're told, such as "Couldn't send:" and the reason (how texts and emails are sent).

#Withdrawing a consultation form

Open the ⋯ menu on a waiting form and choose Withdraw. Its link stops working and the form is no longer asked for. A form you withdraw from an appointment isn't added back if the appointment changes later, so use it when a form isn't needed this time ("she did her patch test in person").

#Changing the wording of a form link message

The text and email for a link sent by hand use the Form request wording in Settings → Reminders & SMS, where you can change it, and a feedback form uses the Feedback request wording there. Both can use the client's first name, the form's name, the form link, your business name and phone. See message wording.

#Who can send consultation forms

Anyone in your team can send a form, add one to an appointment, hand over the iPad and withdraw a form. Building and changing forms needs Edit consultation and feedback forms (building a form). Feedback forms are only listed on appointments and profiles for people with "See clients’ feedback" (who can see feedback).

#Common questions

#Why doesn't the form link work for my client?

It shows "This form is no longer needed" when the form has been withdrawn: the appointment was cancelled, its services changed, someone withdrew it, the form was switched off or archived, or it was an Every visit form whose visit's day is over. A Once or Every few months form isn't withdrawn when the client has another appointment that needs it: it moves there, and the same link keeps working (several appointments). A feedback form shows "This feedback form has closed – thanks anyway!" once its link has closed. Send it again from their profile.

#Can my client fill in the form at the salon instead?

Yes. Press Fill in now on the appointment and hand them the iPad.

#Can two clients use the kiosk one after the other?

Yes. Close the first form when it's done, then press Fill in now on the next client's form.

#Can I change a client's answers after they've sent the form?

No. A filled-in form is kept exactly as it was sent, signature and all. If something needs correcting, send the form again for them to fill in afresh, or note it on their profile.