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Coaching check-ins: a practical approach for professional coaches

Coaching check-ins: a practical approach for professional coaches

Coach reviewing an interim client check-in

A check-in is a brief, recurring update in which a client reports between sessions on how things are going: what's working, what's stuck, and which action items need attention. It helps you track progress, restore focus when someone drifts away from the goal, and maintain accountability without waiting until the next session. Choose a short weekly check of three to five questions and test it for a week with your active clients.

In brief:

  • A check-in is a short interim moment that gauges the client's progress, obstacles, and action items, allowing problems to be spotted sooner.
  • Scientific studies confirm that regular check-ins improve the coach-client relationship and lead to greater satisfaction and better results.
  • An effective check-in contains three to five questions, for example about feelings, completed action items, and support, which can be filled in in under five minutes.
  • Using a portal or apps for check-ins increases follow-up and clarity, especially with multiple clients.
  • Start small by choosing one goal and a short questionnaire, and make the check-in part of your regular coaching routine for the best results.
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Table of contents

What is a check-in and where does it fit in the coaching journey

A check-in comes after the phase in which you have jointly set goals and agreements. Your client has received action items from the previous session, and the check-in is the moment when you gauge whether those actions have been picked up and what they have produced. So it isn't a replacement for the session itself, but an interim moment of contact that bridges the gap between two appointments.

A check-in is clearly different from an intake and from a final evaluation. The intake maps out the starting situation; the final evaluation looks back on the entire journey. The check-in sits in between and is small, quick, and focused on the here and now. The Dutch ICF guidelines describe this part of the process as monitoring progress and testing whether actions actually contribute to the end goal, alongside needs analysis, contracting, and goal setting.

What a check-in delivers for the collaboration:

  • Your client feels seen between sessions, even when there is no appointment.
  • Small obstacles come to light faster, before they dominate a session.
  • The coach gets concrete input to prepare the next session more precisely.
  • Accountability becomes tangible: agreements are visibly kept or not.

Why structured check-ins work

Coaches who doubt whether a check-in is worth the effort can look at what research says about the working relationship between coach and client. Scientific literature shows that the quality of that relationship is strongly linked to satisfaction and to the results of the journey, as shown by research into the working alliance and coaching outcomes. A check-in is a low-threshold way to keep that relationship alive between sessions.

Research into monitoring between sessions shows that smartphone-driven, ambulatory monitoring is usable and acceptable as a supplement to person-to-person coaching, and yields valuable data about how the journey unfolds in practice, according to Morass's dissertation.

In practice you often see three benefits recur: better follow-up on action items, higher satisfaction because the client feels heard, and more concrete actions because vague intentions are adjusted sooner. For coaches who want to test their process against a broader framework, there is also a standardized questionnaire, Check-the-Coach, which enables evaluation and benchmarking of the coaching process.

Practical check-in templates and example questions

A good check-in is short enough to be filled in every week, but sharp enough to produce something useful. Below are three usable formats.

  1. Weekly short check (three to five questions). How do you feel this week on a scale from one to ten? Which action did you complete? What is holding you back? What do you need support with this week?
  2. Monthly reflection (scale questions plus one open question). How satisfied are you with your progress toward your goal, on a scale from one to ten? What is the most important insight of this month?
  3. Short journaling prompt. Write down in three sentences what your biggest win this week was and what you want to approach differently next week.

Alongside questionnaires, light formats also work well to unlock reflection:

  • Blitzlicht: each participant gives a direct impression of the past period in a single sentence.
  • The Thank-you flower: the client briefly names what they are grateful for and what they still need, an approach described in the practical literature on continuous feedback in writing coaching as a way to gather frequent, visual feedback.
  • A photo or emoji that sums up the feeling of the week, followed by a brief explanation.

Adapt the tone and form to the niche. In career coaching, a check-in with concrete action steps works well; in personal coaching, a question about energy and feeling often fits better than a hard numeric scale. Those looking for ready-made formats will find free downloadable templates on the coaching tools page.

Pro tip: Keep each check-in under five minutes of completion time, otherwise the response rate drops quickly.

Which format should you choose: form, email, app, or portal

There are various ways to offer a check-in, and each format has its own strengths and weaknesses.

  • A standalone form is quick to set up and works well for a pilot, but offers no automatic reminders or overview over time.
  • Email is low-threshold and familiar, but answers end up scattered across an inbox and are hard to compare.
  • An app or client portal offers reminders, history, and an overview per client, but requires an investment in a system.

When choosing a format, a few practical criteria help: is it accessible to your client without hassle, does it fit your calendar so you don't forget to send the check-in, can you easily follow up if someone doesn't respond, and is the way of storing data secure enough for personal information?

A minimal checklist for any format:

  • Can the client respond within two minutes without logging in to something complicated?
  • As a coach, do you see in a single overview who has and hasn't responded?
  • Are answers stored with the right journey, instead of loose in an inbox?
  • Is it clear who has access to the answers and how long they are kept?

Coaches who work with multiple clients at once often find that a client portal greatly simplifies the overview compared with standalone forms or emails, as described on the page about check-ins in a client portal.

Design your own check-in in three steps

You don't have to build a complete system straight away. A working check-in usually comes together within a week if you start small.

  1. Determine your goal and what you want to measure. Do you mainly want to track progress on the goal, gauge mood, or check whether agreements have been kept? Choose one main question per check-in, not everything at once.
  2. Draft three to five questions and make a test version. Combine a scale question with an open question, so you get both a number and context.
  3. Test the check-in with a few clients and adjust. After the first week, ask whether the questions were clear and whether filling it in didn't take too much time.

A check-in once a week fits journeys with many action items, while once every two weeks is often enough for longer-running, calmer journeys. Keep the completion time under five minutes, because a short check-in increases the chance that your client actually fills it in and keeps the rhythm of accountability alive.

Communicate clearly in advance why you are introducing the check-in and what you do with it: clients fill it in more seriously when they know their answers are genuinely read and taken into the next session. Actively follow up on missed check-ins with a brief reminder, rather than letting them slide. Those who want to record this structurally can look at how follow-up on agreements works within accountability features for coaches.

Pro tip: Start with a trial period of two to three weeks before offering the check-in to your entire client base.

Measuring and evaluating: from answers to concrete action

Check-in answers are only useful once you do something with them. First make a distinction between two types of measurement: process measurements, such as how the client experiences the collaboration, and outcome measurements, such as how far someone has come on the actual goal. Both are needed to get a complete picture of how a journey is progressing.

For practical use:

  • Simple scales of one to five or one to ten, so you can quickly see trends over multiple weeks.
  • One open question alongside each scale, so a number always gets context.
  • A fixed periodic review, for example monthly, in which you lay the collected answers side by side.

For coaches who want to assess their quality more broadly than just their own check-ins, Check-the-Coach offers a standardized questionnaire with scales and reference values from a sample, usable for benchmarking against other coaching journeys. That makes it possible to compare your own scores with a broader picture, instead of looking only internally.

Signals from check-ins translate directly into coaching actions: a downward trend in energy may be a reason to slow the pace of the journey, while a stagnating progress score may call for an interim conversation instead of waiting until the next scheduled session. Those who want to keep track of goals and scores clearly per client will find a worked example on the page about coaching goals and score tracking.

Illustration of check-in signals leading to coaching actions

A practical perspective: what often goes wrong during rollout

The most common mistake is putting too many questions in a check-in. Coaches want to map out everything and end up with a list that a client ignores after two weeks. Starting small works better: three questions that are consistently filled in produce more than ten questions that are ignored after a month.

A second pitfall is sending the check-in without ever coming back to it. If a client notices that their answers go nowhere, the motivation to fill them in seriously disappears. The simple gesture of briefly referring in the next session to what someone had filled in makes the difference between a ritual and an instrument that genuinely contributes to the journey.

— Martijn

Exantur: organizing check-ins and progress together

Those who would rather not keep check-ins, goals, and progress separate from one another can opt for a single workspace where it all comes together. Exantur is built around the coaching process itself, not as a general system adapted for coaches.

  • Clients fill in check-ins through their own portal, linked to their journey and goals.
  • Progress and accountability are visible in the same overview as your session notes.
  • Calendars sync automatically with Google Calendar or Outlook, so check-ins and sessions line up with each other.
  • Data is hosted within the EU, with organization isolation and a data processing agreement as part of GDPR-aware processing.

Using software does not automatically make your practice fully GDPR-compliant, but it does provide a structure in which personal data is processed carefully and transparently. A free trial period is available; after the trial period, the chosen subscription starts automatically unless you cancel. See the options on the subscriptions page or read more about how the client portal supports check-ins.

Key sources for further reading

Sources

Frequently asked questions

What are good check-in questions?

Good check-in questions combine a scale question, for example how someone feels on a scale from one to ten, with an open question about what did or didn't work out. Keep the number of questions limited to three to five, so the check-in can be filled in within a few minutes.

What are fun check-in exercises?

Light formats such as blitzlicht, where someone gives an impression in a single sentence, or the Thank-you flower, where a client briefly names what they are grateful for and what they need, make reflection accessible. These formats are described in the practical literature as a way to gather frequent feedback without it feeling like a mandatory piece of homework.

What is a check-in format?

A check-in format is a short, structured format through which a coach or client shares the current state of affairs, such as a scale question, a brief journaling prompt, or a visual exercise like an emoji that sums up the week. The goal is always the same: to gain a quick and honest view of progress and feeling.

What is a check-in conversation and what is discussed during it?

A check-in conversation is a short, informal moment of contact between coach and client in which progress on action items, obstacles, and any need for support are discussed. It does not replace the full session, but bridges the period in between so that small problems don't linger until the next appointment.

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