A client's comment about my consultation sheet made me change my whole approach

I was doing a facial on a regular client, Sarah, last Thursday and we got to talking about the intake form. She said, 'You know, I always feel like I'm just checking boxes on these things. I never know if you really read the part where I write about my stress levels.' That hit me hard because she was right. I'd been using the same generic sheet for years, just glancing at the written notes. Now I make a point to read her written answers out loud at the start of the session and ask one follow-up question based on them. It adds maybe two minutes, but the connection is totally different. She feels heard, and I get way better info for customizing her treatment. Has anyone else tweaked their consultation process to feel less robotic?

2 comments

2 Comments

johnson.willow1mo ago

Honestly, that's such a good point and it's everywhere. It's like we've built these little systems for everything, forms at the doctor, online checkouts, even talking to customer service bots, and the human part just leaks out. We're all just feeding data into slots. What you did, actually reading the words she took time to write, that's the fix. It's treating the information like a person wrote it, not a computer scanning it. I bet that small change makes her feel way more like a client and less like a file.

keith2791mo ago

Totally, a podcast called this the "human in the loop" problem.