Qualifying questions by industry: the four to ask before you book

A qualifying question is one whose answer changes what you do next. For most service businesses, four are enough: what the person needs, whether they are new, when they want it, and the one detail that decides the price or the urgency. Ask them in the first minute, in plain language, and stop. More questions before booking lose leads; fewer leave your team guessing.

The rule for a good qualifying question

If the answer would not change the reply, do not ask it. "How did you hear about us" is a nice-to-know; it can wait until after booking. "Is your pet unwell right now" changes everything and comes first.

Dental

1. Are you a new or existing patient?
2. Is this a routine visit, or is something hurting?
3. Do you have dental insurance, and which plan?
4. What days and times work for you?

The second question sorts scheduling from same-day emergency before anything else is asked.

Med spa

1. Which treatment are you interested in?
2. Have you had it before, here or elsewhere?
3. Are you looking to book a consultation, or do you have questions first?
4. What days work for you?

No medical questions by text. Contraindications are for the provider at the consultation.

Home services

1. What is the address or ZIP code?
2. What is going on, and is it an emergency?
3. Is this a repair, an estimate, or maintenance?
4. When would you like someone to come out?

The ZIP comes first because everything else is wasted if you do not serve the area.

Law firm

1. What kind of matter is it?
2. Is there a deadline, court date or notice involved?
3. Who is the other party? (For the conflict check.)
4. How do you prefer to be contacted?

No facts of the case by text. The consultation is where the story is told.

Salon

1. Which service, and with a particular stylist?
2. Have you been here before?
3. For colour: is this a first visit or a maintenance appointment?
4. What days and times work?

The third question sets the duration; a first colour visit needs a consultation and a longer slot.

Real estate

1. Are you looking to buy, sell, or both?
2. Which area?
3. What is your timeline?
4. Are you already working with an agent?

The last one is the polite version of "is this lead actually available".

Veterinary

1. What kind of animal, and their name?
2. Is this routine, or is your pet unwell right now?
3. Existing patient?
4. Preferred days?

Anything unwell goes to a person before question three.

Accounting

1. Personal, business, or both?
2. Existing client?
3. Is there a deadline or notice?
4. In person or online?

Documents never come by text; the secure portal link goes out at booking.

How to load them

Put the four questions wherever your tools let you: an AI receptionist's intake settings, a web form, or the script your front desk follows. Ask them in order and skip any the customer has already answered. If your team keeps asking a fifth question on the phone, add it; if they never use one of the four, drop it.

Frequently asked questions

Should the AI ask all four at once?

No. One or two per message, in conversation. Four questions in one text reads like a form and gets a form's response rate.

What if the customer answers before being asked?

A good AI skips the question. "Hi, I am a new patient and I need a cleaning next week" has answered three of the four already.

Can the questions differ by location?

They can, and for multi-location businesses they sometimes should. Load per location where the services differ.

What Frontiva does here

Frontiva's industry templates seed qualifying questions for twenty kinds of business at signup, and lead management scores each lead from its source, service value and urgency with the breakdown shown. The AI does not extract answers to these questions automatically yet. The industries pages list the questions for each. See lead scoring for small businesses.