The new-customer intake without the back-and-forth

A new customer finds your booking page on a Tuesday evening. They’ve never groomed with you. They’re comparing three shops, and you’re the one with the form open at 9:47 p.m.

If the form makes them call to confirm a time, you’ve lost them. If it lets them pick a service, name a pet, hand over a phone number, and book a slot, they’re on your calendar before the kettle boils.

Slickerbook’s public intake is one form. A new customer fills it out at midnight on their couch and wakes up to a confirmed appointment.

What the form asks, in the order that matters

Service first, then pet, then contact, then slot. The form has already filtered the slots to the times a van can reach, so the customer can’t pick one you can’t honor. A deposit checkbox sits at the bottom of the same page if you’ve turned one on. Submit lands the appointment in your schedule and sends a confirmation email before you open the laptop.

The eight questions are the same ones you ask on the phone. The form asks them once, in an order that lets the customer answer the next one without scrolling back up.

Why the form is shorter than a phone call

A phone call has a five-minute warmup, two minutes of “hold on let me check,” and a callback when the customer doesn’t pick up. The form skips all three. The customer types the answer. The form validates it. The appointment lands.

Required fields reject the booking on the server, so you don’t spend the morning confirming a phone number that wasn’t there.

What the groomer sees on the back end

The appointment shows up in your schedule with the customer, the pet, the service, the slot, and the contact information. Anything the customer typed into the form’s notes box is attached to the appointment. A deposit, if you’ve turned one on, is already in your account by the time you open the laptop.

If the customer needs to reschedule, they get a link in the confirmation email. If they need to cancel, the same link. You don’t have to send either.

What the form doesn’t do

The form doesn’t upsell add-ons. It doesn’t ask for vaccination records before the first appointment. It doesn’t take a credit card for the full service. It asks the eight questions a new customer can answer in under three minutes, and it stops.

A returning customer with a pet on file sees a shorter form. A first-time customer with three pets sees one form that handles all three. The form is the same shape either way.