Every online coach has a story about the client who seemed fine in DMs and turned into a 6-month headache. The ones who argue with every program change, disappear for three weeks then demand a refund, or want a competition prep in 8 weeks with no training history.
Most of those clients could have been filtered at intake. Not by being picky, by asking five questions that surface the patterns early.
The 5 questions
1. "What did your last coach (or program) do wrong?"
This is the highest-signal question on any intake form. Clients who say "nothing, it just wasn't the right fit" are usually fine. Clients who write a paragraph about how their last coach was an idiot are telling you what you'll be in three months. Past behavior with coaches predicts future behavior with you.
2. "How many days per week can you train, honestly, in your worst week?"
Not their best week. Their worst week. The gap between "I can do 6 days" and their actual schedule is where your programming dies. Design for the worst week and they hit every session; design for the best week and they're "behind" by week two, which is when the guilt spiral and the ghosting start.
3. "Have you ever been told by a doctor to stop exercising, or do you have any injury that still affects you?"
This is the liability question dressed as a programming question. If the answer is yes, the right move is often a referral, not a plan. Coaches who skip this question are one flare-up away from a conversation they are not qualified to have. Flag it, document it, refer out when it's above your scope.
4. "What happens if you miss two weeks?"
Not their answer to the question, their reaction to it. Clients who say "that won't happen, I'm committed" have no plan for reality. Clients who say "I'd want to adjust, not quit" understand that life happens. You're listening for whether they have a gear between "perfect" and "gone."
5. "Why now?"
The timing question. "My wedding is in 8 weeks" is a different client than "I want to be strong for the next 20 years." Neither is wrong, but the first one has a deadline your programming may not be able to meet safely, and you need to say that before money changes hands, not after.
What the questions buy you
They don't just filter. They also write your first program for you: the worst-week schedule sets the training days, the injury answer sets the exercise exclusions, the "why now" sets the programming goal. Intake done right means you never start from a blank doc.
And the policy part matters as much as the questions. Every one of these patterns (disappearing, arguing, unrealistic timelines) needs a policy behind it: pause terms, cancellation terms, refund terms, written in plain language, shown before payment. The awkward money conversation you have without a policy is ten times worse than the five minutes it takes to send one with a policy attached.
I built a $49 pack called CoachKit for online coaches: a 40+ question intake questionnaire (these five included, plus the referral-out flag list), a programming template, a weekly check-in script that gets real answers, a pause/cancellation/refund policy template, and testimonial request scripts. Files by email within 24 hours, 7-day refund. Details here: https://coachkit-nw.netlify.app.
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