Questionnaires
Business → Paperwork → Questionnaires. Build a form — timings, family groups, the address for the day, who is giving a speech — and send it to a client as a link.
It replaces the four emails you send before every wedding, and it means you have the answers in writing rather than scattered through an email thread.
Making one
- Press New questionnaire.
- Give it a Name (clients see this at the top of the page) and, if you like, an
Introduction.
- Under Questions, edit the questions already there, press Remove on any you
do not need, and press Add a question for your own.
- For each question, type the Question, choose the Answer type, and tick
They must answer this if it is required. For Choose one and Choose any, type the Options, one per line.
- Press Create questionnaire.
| Answer type | What the client gets |
|---|---|
| Short answer | One line |
| Long answer | A box for a paragraph |
| Choose one | A list, one answer |
| Choose any | A list, as many as apply |
| A date | A date picker |
| A time | A time picker |
| A number | A number |
| Yes or no | A yes or no choice |
A new questionnaire starts with questions already written — who is coming, what time to start, where to meet, anything they particularly want photographed, mobility needs, the feeling they are after, and whether they are happy for photographs to be used on social media. It is there so nobody faces a blank page, not because those are the right questions for your work.
You can have as many questionnaires as you like — one per kind of session is common.
Starting from one of ours
We have written nine ready-made questionnaires: wedding planning, family session, newborn intake, maternity, portrait and headshot, branding brief, engagement session, event or corporate brief, and post-shoot feedback. They are under Business → Paperwork → Templates, on the Questionnaires tab. Open **See the questions to read one, and press Use** to add a copy to your questionnaires. It opens ready to edit, and from then on it is yours like any other.
There is no model release among them: a release needs a signature, so it is sent from the booking instead (see shoot-day tools).
Sending one
- On Business → Paperwork → Questionnaires, find the questionnaire.
- Choose the client from the menu beside it.
- Press Send.
They are emailed a link. No account, no password, and it works properly on a phone, which is where most of them will fill it in. The list shows how many of each questionnaire are Answered and how many are Waiting.
The questions are fixed when you send
The questions are copied onto the client's copy at the moment it goes out. If you rewrite the questionnaire tomorrow, the client still answers what they were asked, and their answers stay beside the right questions.
Answers
When a client sends theirs back, you are emailed at your reply-to address (under Settings → Settings) with a link to the answers. They are also listed under Recently answered on the Questionnaires screen. Each answer is shown beside the question it answered.
A questionnaire can only be sent back once. If a client needs to change an answer, send them a fresh one — which keeps both, so you can see what changed.
If they leave a required question blank, they are told which ones before it will send, by name.
Editing afterwards
Press the questionnaire's name to edit it, then Save questionnaire. That changes what goes out from now on. Copies already sent, and already answered, are not changed.