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Hi,

I work within the internal statistical consulting group at my institute. In order to optimize resources, we are currently drafting an initital consultation form that our clients should fill in and send before contacting us.

I know there are others who use such a  form, I would much appreciate if anybody could provide me or point me to some examples. Also, it would be interesting to hear comments or experiences (good and bad) on using such a form.

Thanks.

/Sharon

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Sharon Kühlmann-Berenzon, PhD
Sr Biostatistician
Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control
Stockholm
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Hi Sharon, 
As a new consultant, I have also considered creating this type of form, but in my field (mostly nonprofits and community clinics) clients usually don't know enough to describe what they want or need initially. I'd be very interested to know how others deal with this issue or if they have a form that might work for this situation.
Best, 
Pam

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Pamela Kelley, PhD
Consultant
Kelley Analytics, LLC
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Hi Sharon,

End of the day, I think there's no good substitute for face to face meetings to find out what clients really want. We do have an initial form that investigators fill out, but it only captures basic contact info and then whether they want help with grant preparation, data analyses for manuscripts etc., or grant editing help (just to direct the project to appropriate staff). I then usually follow-up via email to see if they have a draft protocol put together, or for any background literature that could be useful (and to set up a meeting). So I would recommend keeping any form rather minimal.

Nick  
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Nicholas Pajewski
Assistant Professor
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-20-2012 08:13
From: Pamela Kelley
Subject: Initial consultation form

Hi Sharon, 
As a new consultant, I have also considered creating this type of form, but in my field (mostly nonprofits and community clinics) clients usually don't know enough to describe what they want or need initially. I'd be very interested to know how others deal with this issue or if they have a form that might work for this situation.
Best, 
Pam

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Pamela Kelley, PhD
Consultant
Kelley Analytics, LLC
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We have a form to collect info like deadlines and general needs. We also ask clients to send documents such as proposals, research questions, data if they have it. We review then have a phone call to discuss needs. This generally works really well. W also have nondisclosure forms ready to go so they feel comfortable sending the documents. ------------------------------------------- Jacquelyn Pennings Statistician, Director of Nonprofit Research Elite Research, LLC -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 08-20-2012 08:13 From: Pamela Kelley Subject: Initial consultation form Hi Sharon, As a new consultant, I have also considered creating this type of form, but in my field (mostly nonprofits and community clinics) clients usually don't know enough to describe what they want or need initially. I'd be very interested to know how others deal with this issue or if they have a form that might work for this situation. Best, Pam ------------------------------------------- Pamela Kelley, PhD Consultant Kelley Analytics, LLC -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 08-20-2012 04:10 From: Sharon Kuhlmann-Berenzon Subject: Initial consultation form Hi, I work within the internal statistical consulting group at my institute. In order to optimize resources, we are currently drafting an initital consultation form that our clients should fill in and send before contacting us. I know there are others who use such a form, I would much appreciate if anybody could provide me or point me to some examples. Also, it would be interesting to hear comments or experiences (good and bad) on using such a form. Thanks. /Sharon ------------------------------------------- Sharon Kühlmann-Berenzon, PhD Sr Biostatistician Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control Stockholm -------------------------------------------

The form for our center is located at http://statconsulting.uci.edu/statistical-consulting/initial-meeting-request.  It's tailored for an academic setting, and is very minimal.  We use it to schedule the initial meeting.  As a previous sender noted, there's no replacement for a face to face meeting.  We find having the form very helpful as it gets the client to think about what they really need help with and what how to convey that to us.  UC Davis's form is at http://www.stat.ucdavis.edu/files/Statistical_Laboratory_Consulting_Form.doc. 

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Vinh Nguyen
Director, Center for Statistical Consulting
University of California, Irvine
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