What should it ask a new enquiry?
A booking is easy — you need a time. An enquiry is harder, because whoever rings back needs enough to be useful and the caller will not sit through a questionnaire. Most businesses ask too much and lose people, or too little and ring back blind.
The four that nearly always matter
In their own words, not a category. "The tap in the downstairs loo keeps dripping" tells you more than "plumbing".
Today, this week, or some time. This single answer sorts your callbacks better than anything else on the list.
For anything involving travel, before you quote. A job forty minutes away is a different job.
And the best time to use it. A callback to a phone in a bag is a callback wasted.
Why asking more costs you
Every extra question is a chance to hang up. A caller who came to find out if you do something does not expect an intake form, and the fifth question is where they decide to try somebody else. Capture what the callback genuinely needs and leave the rest to the human conversation — that is what the callback is for.
Spotting a price-check without being rude
Some callers are gathering quotes and will not book whatever you say. You can usually tell from how the call opens: a specific problem with a timeframe is a customer, "how much do you charge for X" with no context is often a survey. An assistant should answer the price question honestly, note which kind of call it was, and not spend four questions establishing something you can read in the summary.
Where qualification should stop
Budget, in most trades. Asking what somebody is willing to spend on a first call reads as a filter, and it is — but it is a filter people resent on the phone in a way they do not on a form. Leave it to the conversation with a person, who can raise it once there is a relationship to raise it in.
Frequently asked
What they want in their own words, when they need it, where they are if travel is involved, and a number that will actually be answered. Four things is usually enough for a useful callback.
Enough for a useful callback and no more. It can capture what you need and note how serious the enquiry sounded. It should not run an interrogation — every extra question is a chance for the caller to give up.
Usually not on a first call. It reads as a filter and people resent it on the phone in a way they do not on a form.
Timeframe sorts them better than anything else. Someone who needs it today goes ahead of someone thinking about spring.
Take what they will give and let them go. A half-captured enquiry is still better than a missed call, and pushing is how you turn a maybe into a no.