This is what a diagnostic actually looks like
Not a slide deck. Not a list of best practices. A ranked friction audit with specific findings, evidence, and a sprint brief you can act on immediately.
Below is a redacted walkthrough from a real diagnostic for a local service business. Names and exact figures are anonymised, but the structure, depth, and format are identical to what every paying client receives.
Diagnostic output
The friction matrix
Every issue ranked by impact, effort, and funnel stage. This is the first thing the client sees — a clear answer to “what do we fix first?”
| # | Issue | Stage | Impact | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Booking form has 7 fields on mobile — name, DOB, NHS/private, insurance, preferred clinician, treatment, and preferred time | Conversion | High | Low |
| 2 | Google Business Profile has 14 reviews vs nearest competitor's 91 — suppressing local pack position | Visibility | High | Medium |
| 3 | Core service pages average 190 words — too thin to rank for high-intent treatment searches | Visibility | High | Medium |
| 4 | No sticky CTA on mobile — users who scroll past the hero have no visible route to book | Conversion | Medium | Low |
| 5 | No post-appointment review request — satisfied patients leave without prompting | Retention | High | Low |
| 6 | Site loads in 6.8s on mobile — nearest competitor loads in 2.3s | Visibility | Medium | Medium |
A real diagnostic typically surfaces 8-15 ranked issues. This shows the top 6.
Deep dive
Annotated finding: #conversion bottleneck
Each priority issue gets this level of breakdown. Not just “fix the form” — the reasoning, the evidence, and the expected outcome.
Issue #1
Booking form has 7 fields on mobile before the patient can confirm
The online booking form requires name, date of birth, NHS or private preference, insurance provider, preferred clinician, treatment type, and preferred appointment time before showing a confirmation screen. On mobile, this spans 3 scroll lengths and requires switching between keyboard and dropdown inputs. Heat mapping shows 64% of mobile users who reach the form abandon before submitting. Desktop abandonment is 28%.
Why this matters
At the point someone opens the booking form, the decision to book has already been made. Every field after that is friction applied against intent that already exists. Asking for insurance provider and preferred clinician at this stage serves the practice's admin workflow, not the patient's journey. The result is that the practice's own booking system is its biggest source of lost enquiries.
Recommendation
Reduce the initial form to three fields: name, phone number or email, and preferred date. Collect clinical and administrative detail in a follow-up confirmation message sent immediately after booking. This moves admin friction to after commitment, not before it. Add a sticky 'Book Now' button on mobile that persists as the user scrolls.
Expected impact
Based on comparable interventions across similar appointment-based service businesses, expect a 35-50% reduction in mobile form abandonment within 2 weeks of deployment.
Key metric
Mobile form completion rate (currently ~36%, target 60-70%)
Implementation scope
Sprint brief
The diagnostic ends with a scoped sprint brief for the highest-priority fix. Not a roadmap. A shipping plan with a single success metric.
Bottleneck
Mobile booking form abandonment
Objective
Reduce form friction and recover enquiries being lost at the point of intent
Changes to ship
- Strip booking form to 3 fields: name, contact, preferred date
- Move clinical and admin questions to a post-booking confirmation flow
- Add sticky mobile CTA that persists on scroll across all service pages
- Set up automated review request via SMS 48 hours after appointment
Success metric
Mobile form completion rate moves from ~36% to 60%+ within 14 days of deployment
Timeline
4 working days: 1 day design, 2 days implementation, 1 day QA and monitoring setup
Owner
Encanta (design + implementation) with client for deployment sign-off
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