Using Forms to Help Clients Achieve Goals

The start of a new year often calls for resolutions, goal-setting, and developing healthier habits! Many of your clients are likely eager to set new goals to help them improve their well-being. As their practitioner, how do you help your clients set sticky goals and set the foundation to track their progress along the way?

For this month’s Feature Highlight blog, we dive into how to use forms to help clients stay accountable to their goals! Forms can help clients:

Log activity and reflect on their progress
Share feedback, including obstacles, so you can take action to help clients stay on track

Read on to learn about the creative ways you can use the form feature to help your clients achieve their goals!

Leverage Client Intake Forms to Learn About Your Clients

You’re growing your client list and have a few new clients ready to kick off the new year with you as their practitioner! You want to ensure you have all the information you need to help them achieve their goals. Enter client intake forms!

This form can include family history, previous health plans, any supplements or medication they’re currently taking, what they’re looking for support with, and more. Not only will collecting this information help you develop a better understanding of the client’s needs, but this will allow you to determine if you’re a good fit for each other. To help get you started, you’ll have access to pre-built intake form templates on Practice Better!

Example of a client intake form — Use the form builder to create a client intake form that collects all the vital information you need.

Help Clients Set Goals With A Goal-Setting Template

Before you create a plan for clients, you want to ensure you know their end goals so that you can help them get where they want to be!

Tip: Create a goal-setting form so clients can specify what they want to accomplish. This form should provide space for clients to set SMART goals. By breaking down their goals into specific, measurable, and achievable steps, you can better support their journey toward achieving them!

A key benefit of having a goal-setting form is that it can serve as a reminder of your clients’ “why.” Achieving goals isn’t often a linear journey; having something tangible to inspire clients when they need it can be a game-changer in moments of doubt. Plus, this is a great way to create accountability.

Bonus: Download Your Free Goal-Setting Templates

Need a refresher on effective goal-setting? We have all the details you need to help your clients succeed in our goal-setting blog post. In this post, we’ve put together four free templates for you to add to your Practice Better account.

Check out this video to learn how to download the form bundle using the code CLIENTGOALS2023 and how to update the Canva templates to match your brand.

Check-in On Client Progress

As their practitioner, it’s your job to help keep clients on track with their goals. One way to do this is to follow up with a goal check-in form.

This form can be used to collect information from clients on any obstacles that are preventing them from reaching their goals. You can then work with clients to address these obstacles and develop strategies to combat them. These check-ins are also an excellent opportunity to review the initial goals and adjust them to ensure they are still achievable in the set time frame. Clients can also record updates so that they can make note of any changes they may already be seeing. This form can be sent midway through the time frame you set to give clients ample time to act on any recommended adjustments to the initial goal.

How to Keep Clients Accountable

Habit Tracker

Another type of form that can be created is a habit-tracking form. You can create a form to track the specific goals that clients need to accomplish on a daily or weekly basis. For example, working out a specific number of times a week or logging the number of fruits and vegetables consumed in a day.

You can use the various form-building elements to create a table that includes columns for clients to log their activity, leave notes on the task’s difficulty, and add any feedback they wish to pass along. This form can be set up with room for an entire week’s worth of data, or even sent daily. To send the form on a set schedule you can send it as a recurring form.

Here are a few examples of a habit tracking form:

Recurring Forms

Recurring forms allow clients to regularly check in and reflect on progress. Having clients complete these forms at regular intervals also allows the practitioner to see if the routine and goals set for clients are realistic and achievable within the set time frame. Clients can also view their forms from week to week to see how they are progressing. While small changes won’t feel like much over a short period of time, having the client focus on what’s improving can encourage them to stick with their plan. With each completed form, the clients can celebrate the small wins each week. You can use the built-in automation within Practice Better to send the goal check-in form at regular intervals.

An example of a recurring form — Choose how often you would like recurring forms to be sent.

Recurring Tasks

To ensure clients are regularly completing their forms, you can set up recurring tasks to remind them. This can help keep clients engaged and coming back to the platform by sending them notifications to complete certain tasks. Also, by having another item to mark as done, practitioners can gamify the experience and make clients see that they are one step closer to their goal.

The recurring tasks also allow you to send reminders to complete the task, which alerts clients as soon as they are assigned a task and reminds them to complete it.

An example of a recurring task — Customize how you would like the tasks to recur.

You can automate sending a form before a session to ensure you and your client are prepared for the next appointment. For example, if your new clients are booking a discovery call, you can bundle an intake form and a goal-setting form together so that they will be sent a few days before the session. This will save time over manually sending these forms to clients and will give you this information before the first session. Knowing about your clients’ goals ahead of time can help you start thinking about ways you can help them, or research topics that might be new to you.

An example of how you can automate your forms — Set up automations to send forms as soon as a client books a discovery call.

Automate Your Goal-Setting Plans With the Programs Feature

With the programs feature within Practice Better, you can keep all your goal-setting resources in one place. When the program starts, you can set the goal-setting forms to be sent along with the first module teaching them to set SMART goals. Then, with each weekly module release, you can include a goal check-in form to allow clients to record their progress toward their goals. This module can also include some helpful tips on accomplishing that week’s tasks.

The goal completion form can then be added to the last module so that clients can reflect on their journey. Automating this process within programs will ensure clients get their forms on the correct schedule, with minimal effort on your part. You can then bundle this program into a package if you’d like to add 1:1 coaching sessions to help support your clients with their goals.

Within the program, you can include a group chat where clients can discuss obstacles they are facing and crowd-source solutions to achieving their goals, motivating clients to share their experiences with each other and build a sense of community. The community can help keep clients accountable and ensure they are not falling behind the group. The shared experience and support of a group is an invaluable resource.

An example of how to leverage the programs feature in practice better — You can embed videos and images directly into your modules.

With the variety of features that are built into Practice Better, you can ensure that clients are getting the best experience when achieving their goals. Forms can be created to ensure that clients are regularly reflecting on progress and tracking any changes. This way, you sure have the most up-to-date data on your clients’ habits and activities and tailor their experience to their needs.

Throughout the client’s journey, you can utilize the tasks to remind clients to complete forms and keep clients coming back to the platform.

Final Step: Celebrate Your Clients’ Success

To complete the goal-tracking process, you can also create a goal completion form. In this form, clients can reflect on the journey that they have taken and record the progress that has been made. With this information, you can compare their results to their original goal. Your clients can make note of what recommendations worked best for them so that they can continue to use them going forward, reinforcing the positive habits they’ve developed along the way. Then, you can help clients appreciate their hard work and celebrate their success. You can also add a section to the form where clients can set their next goals based on what they learned.

Practice Better is the complete practice management platform for nutritionists, dietitians, and wellness professionals. Streamline your practice and begin your 14-day free trial today.