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Industry-Specific

New Client Intake & Project Scoping Survey

Gathers what a prospective client needs, why it matters now, and how ready they are to move forward — built for agencies, consultants, and professional services firms onboarding new business. The AI follow-up interview digs past the surface request to uncover the real problem, constraints, and definition of success behind it.

Sample questions

A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.

12 questions · ~7 min
Q01
Message

Welcome! Before we kick things off, we'd love to understand what you're looking for so we can scope things properly and match you with the right team. Your responses are completely confidential and anonymized. This will take about 5 minutes.

Q02
Multiple ChoiceRequired

What type of project or service are you looking for help with?

  • Strategy or consulting
  • Design or creative work
  • Marketing or growth
  • Legal or financial services
  • Technical or development work
Q03
Long TextRequired

In your own words, what's the main challenge or goal driving this project?

Q04
Opinion ScaleRequired

How urgent is this need for you right now?

Scale: 15
Min:Not urgent, exploring optionsMax:Extremely urgent
Q05
Multiple Choice

What's your estimated budget range for this project? (Template note: replace the tiers below with ranges that match your typical engagement size before launching.)

  • (Replace with tier 1, e.g., Under $5,000)
  • (Replace with tier 2, e.g., $5,000–$15,000)
  • (Replace with tier 3, e.g., $15,000–$50,000)
  • (Replace with tier 4, e.g., $50,000+)
  • Not sure yet
Q06
Best–Worst Trade-off (MaxDiff)Required

When choosing who to work with on a project like this, which of these matters most to you, and which matters least?

  • Speed of delivery
  • Price or overall value
  • Quality of work
  • Communication and responsiveness
  • Relevant industry expertise
  • Flexibility to handle changes
  • Support after the project ends
Pick best & worst per setBest:Matters mostWorst:Matters least
Q07
Multiple ChoiceRequired

Who will be involved in deciding whether to move forward with this engagement?

  • I'm the sole decision-maker
  • I need buy-in from a colleague or partner
  • This requires approval from leadership or a board
  • A committee or formal procurement process is involved
Q08
AI Interview

Dig into the real problem behind the client's stated goal or challenge: what triggered the need now, what they've already tried or considered, and what a successful outcome would look like in concrete, specific terms. If they mentioned urgency or budget constraints, probe the deadline or trade-off behind it. If their answer was vague or generic, ask them to walk through a recent, specific example of the problem in action.

Q09
Multiple Choice

How would you prefer we communicate during this engagement?

  • Email
  • Phone calls
  • Video calls
  • Messaging app (e.g., Slack)
  • In-person meetings
Q10
Short Text

When would you like this project to start, or is there a deadline we should know about?

Q11
Multiple Choice

To help us tailor our approach, how large is your organization?

  • Just me / solo
  • 2–10 employees
  • 11–50 employees
  • 51–200 employees
  • 201+ employees
  • Prefer not to say
Q12
Message

Thanks for sharing all this! Your answers go straight to our team so we can prepare a proposal that actually fits what you need — we'll be in touch shortly.

What’s included

  • AI follow-ups

    Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.

  • Attention checks

    Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.

  • AI-drafted copy

    Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.

  • Auto report

    Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.

How it compares

We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.

Why this template

  • Combines structured screening (project type, budget range, urgency, org size, decision-makers) with an open-ended question on the core challenge or goal driving the project
  • Includes a dedicated AI follow-up interview that digs past the stated request to uncover the real trigger, constraints, and definition of success — something static forms can't do
  • Uses a max-diff question to reveal what prospects actually prioritize when choosing who to work with (price, expertise, responsiveness, etc.), not just budget
  • Wraps the flow in friendly chat-style intro/outro messages so it reads like a conversation with your firm, not a bureaucratic form, while still routing every answer straight to your team

SurveyMonkey

Client Intake Form Template

A generic, static client intake form template covering standard contact and project fields. It's ready to field quickly but is built as a one-shot form rather than an adaptive interview, so it can't probe deeper into a prospect's stated needs. No agency/consulting-specific framing around budget, urgency, or decision-making structure.

What it does well

  • Fast to deploy with SurveyMonkey's mature form infrastructure
  • Familiar, simple interface for respondents
  • Backed by broad reporting/analytics tooling across the platform

Where it falls short

  • Static question set with no adaptive follow-up to uncover the real problem behind a request
  • No voice AI interview or screen-share task option
  • No automated per-response quality scoring or transparent AI prompt methodology

SurveySparrow

Sample client intake form template

A conversational-style intake form template aimed at general client onboarding, with SurveySparrow's chat-like UI. It's positioned as a printable/fielding-ready form template rather than an interview built to dig into underlying business drivers. Coverage is generic rather than tailored to agency/consulting project-scoping needs.

What it does well

  • Conversational chat-style UI improves respondent experience over plain forms
  • Printable format offers flexibility for offline intake
  • Simple to customize within SurveySparrow's builder

Where it falls short

  • No adaptive AI interviewer to dig past surface answers into real problem/constraints
  • No voice AI or guided screen-share task capability
  • No automated quality scoring or transparent prompt disclosure

Typeform

Accounting client intake form

A polished, professional-services-specific intake template (built for accounting firms) with Typeform's signature conversational one-question-at-a-time flow. It's a static template — well-designed for collecting structured intake info, but not built to adaptively interview prospects about underlying goals or readiness. Narrower vertical focus (accounting) than a general agency/consulting scoping tool.

What it does well

  • Clean, professional conversational form design tailored to accounting firms
  • Typeform's strong logic-branching for structured question paths
  • Good mobile-friendly respondent experience

Where it falls short

  • No adaptive AI follow-up interview to surface the real problem behind a stated request
  • No voice AI interview or guided task/screen-share option
  • No automated response quality scoring or transparent AI prompt visibility

Frequently asked questions

What questions are in the “New Client Intake & Project Scoping Survey” template?

The template includes 12 ready-to-use questions, starting with: “Welcome! Before we kick things off, we'd love to understand what you're looking for so we can scope things properly and…” · “What type of project or service are you looking for help with?” · “In your own words, what's the main challenge or goal driving this project?”. The full set is previewed above, and every question is editable.

How long does this survey take to complete?

Respondents typically finish the 12 questions in about 7 minutes.

Can I customize this template?

Yes — every question, answer option, and the ordering is editable before you launch. You can add or remove questions, or ask the AI editor to rework the survey around your research goal.

Is this template free to use?

Yes. Open it in the editor and start customizing right away — no account required to try it, and the free plan covers launching your survey.

Ready to launch?

Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.

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