Most booking links hand you two facts: a name and a time.
So every intro call opens the same way. "Tell me a bit about what you're looking for." Ten minutes go by before you know what the client wants, and some of those calls turn out not to be a fit. If you take five intro calls a week, that's most of an hour spent on questions you could have had answered in advance. It's also ten minutes you could have spent sounding like you'd done your homework.
Forms have their own problem. Long intake forms are a chore to fill in, and short ones tell you nothing.
I run Stepthrough, free hands-on AI and software training for white-collar workers, and I built a lesson on a different approach using Yoya, a booking page with a chat on it. (Disclosure: Yoya is a Stepthrough partner. The founder and I were in touch about the lesson, and no payment was involved.)
The example is Priya, who runs a made-up operations consultancy. The guest is Dan, a made-up COO. The screens are real, and the method works for any service business that takes intro calls.
Part 1: build the page, and write the one box that matters
- On your Yoya dashboard, click Consultant discovery call, a ready-to-edit starting point.
- Under Basics, set the Link to something you'd put in your email signature.
- Set the Title guests see at the top. Host name is a Business plan feature. On other plans, Yoya uses your account name, so skip it.
- Replace the Description with one line on who the call is for. It screens out people you don't work with.
- Check Meeting options. Connecting Google Meet also grants calendar access, which lets Yoya see when you're busy. I skipped that in my practice run, so Yoya couldn't check a calendar there. Do it on your real page.
Then the important box: What should Yoya find out from guests? Here's the text from the lesson:
Ask which part of their operation they want to improve, how many sites or
staff are involved, what they have already tried, and whether there is a
target date. Keep the introduction short. Do not promise a quote, an outcome,
or project availability beyond this consultation.
Note the last sentence. The assistant is talking to your prospects before you are. It should never be in a position to promise them a price.
Click Create booking page, click Start with weekdays, check the Time zone, then Save hours. Without hours, nobody can book.
Part 2: book it as a guest
This is the part to do yourself. Click Preview, and be the client.
There's no form, just a chat. As Dan, I said I was COO at a freight company and that our two warehouses keep missing dock appointments. Yoya followed up on that, guided by Priya's questions. I answered that trucks arrive in clumps, staff book dock times on a shared spreadsheet, color-coding didn't help, about 60 staff are involved, and we want it fixed before peak season in March.
Then a calendar appeared in the chat. Only Priya's hours are offered, and only days inside the 14-day booking window can be clicked. I picked a time, entered an email and a meeting place, and clicked Confirm booking.
Two practical notes from testing:
- Use a real inbox you can open, or you won't see the emails. With a reserved test address such as name@example.com, Continue stays greyed out.
- The wording of the chat varies from run to run. Yours may go straight to the calendar.
Part 3: read what the host gets
The guest gets a confirmation with the time, the place, a link to change it and a calendar file.
Priya gets New booking with a Meeting brief: Who, Why, Agenda, Background and where to meet. She knows the problem before she says hello. The same brief is on the dashboard under Bookings.
Compare the opening of that call. Before: "Tell me what you're looking for." After: "You've got two warehouses, double bookings from a shared spreadsheet, and March is the deadline. What did the color-coding attempt teach you?"
Check the brief against the chat
A brief is a summary written by AI, so click Transcript and read the full chat. In my run the brief matched: the double bookings, the spreadsheet, the 60 staff, the failed color-coding and March all made it in. That's one run, though. Read the transcript before a call that matters.
What I'd watch before using this for real
- Connect your calendar first, so Yoya can see when you're busy.
- Keep the intake questions few. Four was plenty. It's a conversation, and nobody wants an interrogation before they've met you.
- Say what it isn't. The description line and the "do not promise" rule do more for you than any clever question.
- Plans change. Check Yoya's pricing page for what yours includes.
Practice it step by step
The free lesson has 25 steps in 4 parts and takes about 8 minutes. You click through a practice copy of Yoya, it checks your work as you go, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Top comments (1)
Checking the brief against the transcript is the habit to keep. Before the call, read the full chat once and cross out any brief line that is not in it, so you open with the problem the guest actually described instead of a polished guess.