Digital Intake Forms: Change Your Shop for the Better

Need a way to get your clients into your piercing room without spending tons of time on paperwork? No problem.

Your state requires you to capture your client’s ID to accompany their consent form? No sweat.

Wish you could dispense with all the paperwork you have to retain onsite? No worries.

By transitioning your shop to digital release forms, you can help save the environment, tidy up your shop, create more space for products you can monetize, and help customers to have a faster, smoother intake experience–and you can do it with less expense than sticking with paper. Setting up a digital release form system in your shop, if you don’t have one already, is simple and easy.  

Digital release forms allow you to start the intake process for your clients as soon as they call to book their appointment. As you schedule them, you simply get an email address and send them a link to your release form. They can fill out the form prior to their appointment, and you can validate it before they ever arrive, allowing you to welcome them into your shop and focus on the piercing experience you are providing, rather than piles of pesky paperwork.

Systems like JotForm allow you to require clients to add a picture ID, and ensure that the form won’t be accepted until the picture is in place. JotForm’s piercing intake form will even allow the customer to schedule online and fill out their intake digitally, which both creates a frictionless process, and also helps you to screen for customers who are serious about getting their piercing by requiring them to accurately fill out a release form at the time of booking. For walk-in clients coming in, you can keep a tablet on premises with the form loaded so they can easily provide you with the needed information in easily trackable digital format as well. 

Most digital intake forms allow you to customize the fields you want customers to fill out, add your shop logo, and customize colors to match your shop’s branding. You can even embed the intake form on your shop’s website, to capture customer information neatly in one central place. Clients can provide you with everything from date of birth, to allergies, to jewelry preferences, so think of the digital intake form not just as a way to properly document your customer, but to really get to know her. Depending on the number of releases you need per month, your subscription might even be free. 

Don’t have an internet connection in your shop? That’s ok.

Apps like Piercing Release Forms allow you to download the app where you do have a connection and then work offline in your shop, if need be. You can even use it to make notes on the artwork or piercing being requested, and you can create separate areas for each of your artists, so that forms are specific to the questions each staff member wants answered. At last check, the download of this app is free and includes 25 free forms, and then moves to a subscription model or a pay-per-form option. You can customize your legal questions, health questions, and much more, so that the form is aligned with the experience you want for customers coming into your shop. 

And the best part about digitized forms is that the time you spend face to face with your customers can then be focused on things that generate money for your business. Rather than welcoming your customer with a piece of paper, you can walk them through your jewelry case, show them great jewelry options, explain to them the materials available for their initial piercing, help them to choose a celebration piece that they can change to once healed, and teach them about the aftercare options they can purchase from you to ensure they heal well and quickly. 

Digital intake forms can also be used for multi-session clients, making it easier for your loyal customers to return for more work without having to complete the intake form again, or allowing them to complete a shortened form for up to the minute information regarding their health. 

SHARE: