DIRECT ANSWER
A customer should be able to complete each action the business offers, or reach the person who completes it: visiting, calling, booking, buying, requesting a quote, subscribing or asking a question. Planning starts with that list. For each action it records who takes it, how ready they are, what they must know first and what the business must receive. Pages, forms and tools are chosen to complete those actions.
Key terms
- Customer action
- Anything a customer does with a business through or because of its website, such as visiting, calling, booking, buying, requesting a quote, subscribing, paying or asking a question.
- Action inventory
- A list of every customer action a website should support, recording who takes each one, how ready they are, what they must know first, what the business must receive and where the action is handed off.
- Readiness
- How close a visitor is to committing: learning, comparing, ready, or returning as an existing customer. The action a page offers is matched to the readiness of the visitors it serves.
- Handoff
- The point where a customer action leaves the website and reaches the person or system that completes it, such as an inquiry arriving in an inbox or a booking appearing on a calendar.
- Next step
- The action that moves a visitor toward doing business, such as visiting, calling, booking, ordering or requesting a quote. Full entry: How Many Customer Pathways Does Your Website Need?
Why actions come before pages
A page list describes containers. An action list describes what has to happen for a business to gain a customer, serve one or keep one. Planning from a page list tends to produce the pages every website has, such as About, Services and Contact, while missing actions the business depends on, such as rescheduling an appointment, reordering a product or sending photos of a job.
Task analysis, an established method in interaction design, studies the observable steps people take to reach a goal so a product can support them. A task has a clear beginning and end, which separates it from the broader goal behind it, and a design built around the wrong tasks fails however polished it looks [1]. A customer action is the website-level version of a task. "Request a quote" begins when the visitor decides to ask and ends when the business has what it needs to answer.
Customer actions are also a recognized structure in data. The Schema.org vocabulary used for structured data defines action types for trading, including ordering, buying, paying and requesting a quote [2]; for planning, including reserving and scheduling [3]; and for interacting, including registering and subscribing [4]. The vocabulary names actions. Choosing which ones a business offers is a planning decision.
The action inventory
An action inventory lists every customer action a website should support. Each row answers six questions.
| Column | The question it answers | What it decides |
|---|---|---|
| Action | What does the customer do? | The work the website has to support |
| Who | Which kind of visitor takes it? | The customer pathway the action ends |
| Readiness | How close are they to committing? | How prominent the action is and what sits beside it |
| Must know first | What must they see before acting? | The content on the page that holds the action |
| Business receives | What must arrive for the business to respond? | The fields, files or details the action collects |
| Handoff | Where does it go once submitted? | Who or what completes it, and how it is tested |
The inventory is built from what customers already do: the calls the business answers, the emails it receives, the questions asked at the counter and the steps that follow a sale. Actions the business wants to offer but cannot yet fulfill reliably stay off the list until it can. An action that fails, such as a booking calendar nobody keeps current, costs more trust than an action that was never offered.
Readiness
Visitors arrive at different distances from a decision. The inventory uses four levels.
| Readiness | What the visitor is doing | Actions that fit |
|---|---|---|
| Learning | Understanding the problem or the options | Read a guide, subscribe to updates, save or share a page |
| Comparing | Weighing this business against others, or against doing nothing | Check fit, review proof, use an assessment, ask a question |
| Ready | Prepared to commit | Book, buy, order, request a quote, apply |
| Returning | Already a customer | Reorder, reschedule, pay, reach support |
A page that offers only a commitment action leaves learning and comparing visitors without a step to take. A page that offers only reading material slows down a visitor who is ready. A dependable pattern is one primary action matched to the readiness the page is built for, with one lower-commitment action beside it, such as "Request a quote" paired with "See how pricing works." The homepage applies the same rule to its first screen, and a short self-assessment gives comparing visitors a step that is useful to them and informative to the business.
Choosing what completes each action
Once an action is on the inventory, the way to complete it follows from two facts: what the business must receive and where the action is handed off.
| Action | Usual way to complete it | What has to be true |
|---|---|---|
| Visit in person | Address, hours, directions and arrival details on the page | Hours and location are kept current |
| Call, text or email | A tappable phone link or email address with stated response hours | Someone answers within those hours |
| Book an appointment | A booking tool, linked or embedded | Availability in the tool matches the real schedule |
| Order or buy | The business's store or ordering platform, linked or embedded | Prices and stock are maintained in that platform |
| Request a quote or consultation | An intake form that asks for what the business needs to respond | Each field changes the reply, and the form reaches a monitored inbox |
| Subscribe | An email signup with clear consent | The list is used, and the first message is ready |
| Pay, reorder or reschedule | A link to the account, portal or platform that handles it | Returning customers can reach it in one step from the homepage |
| Ask a question | A short form, email link or chat | A stated response time the business meets |
Whether an outside tool is linked, embedded or connected is a separate decision, covered in links, embeds and integrations. The choice between an assessment, an intake form and a calculator is covered in which of the three fits.
Forms that collect information work best when they tell the visitor what they will need before starting, ask only the questions that change the response and put the most important questions first. Nielsen Norman Group's guidance on reducing effort in forms recommends each of these, and notes that every optional question adds to the effort a form demands [7]. Which fields earn their place is covered in understanding who is reaching out.
The handoff
An action is complete when it reaches the person or system that acts on it. A click on a button records an attempt. Completion is the inquiry arriving in the inbox, the booking appearing on the calendar or the order reaching the store. That is why a contact form needs to be tested from end to end, and why clicks and received inquiries are measured separately.
Two accessibility requirements in WCAG 2.2 apply directly to actions. Pointer targets such as buttons must be at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, with exceptions that include links inside a sentence [6]. For actions that create a legal commitment or a financial transaction, at least one safeguard must be in place: the submission can be reversed, the input is checked with a chance to correct it, or the visitor can review and confirm before finalizing [5].
Some actions should leave the website before any sensitive information is entered. Identification numbers, financial records and health information belong in a secure system built for them, such as a client portal, which the website links to.
Applications
A mobile dog groomer
Illustrative example. A mobile groomer planned a homepage, a services page and a contact page. The action inventory found five actions.
| Action | Who | Readiness | Business receives | Handoff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Check the service area | New customer | Comparing | Nothing | Answered on the page |
| Ask about a nervous or senior dog | New customer | Comparing | Breed, age, concern and contact details | Owner's inbox |
| Book a first appointment | New customer | Ready | Address, dog details and preferred time | Booking tool |
| Rebook a regular appointment | Returning customer | Returning | Account details | Booking tool |
| Pay a balance | Returning customer | Returning | Payment through the processor | Payment platform |
Two of the five were missing from the original page plan. The question about a nervous dog is one comparing visitors need answered before they book, and rebooking had been handled entirely by phone. Neither needs a new page. The question becomes a short form beside the service area answer, and rebooking becomes a link on the homepage for returning customers.
A custom sign shop
Illustrative example. A shop that makes business signs receives most of its work through quote requests. Its inventory showed that one "Request a quote" button was carrying three actions with different requirements. A storefront sign needs dimensions, photos of the wall and permit status. A vehicle wrap needs the make, model and year. A reorder of an existing sign needs only the original order details.
Separating the three let each form ask only the questions that change its quote [7], and let reorders skip the form entirely through a short reorder request. The business receives complete requests, and no customer is asked for details that do not apply to them.
Limits and edge cases
- Actions that happen off the website. A walk-in customer may never visit the site, and a phone-first customer may visit only to find the number. Their actions still belong on the inventory, because the website supplies the address, hours and number they rely on.
- Actions the business cannot fulfill reliably. Online booking with an unmaintained calendar, or chat that nobody watches, produces failed actions. They stay off the website until the business can support them.
- Too many equal actions. A page with many buttons of equal weight asks the visitor to sort them. Each page holds one primary action, with any others visually secondary.
- Actions that belong to another platform. Marketplace orders, delivery apps and third-party booking networks run their own flows. The website links to them and records where the handoff happens.
- Regulated actions. Professional intake, payments and health information carry rules set outside the website. They are planned with whoever owns those rules before they join the inventory.
- Changing actions. A new service, a new booking system or a new payment method changes the inventory. It is worth reviewing whenever the way customers buy changes.
Build an action inventory
Add up to eight actions. For each one, choose the readiness level, what the business needs to receive and where the action goes. The worksheet suggests a way to complete each action, flags gaps and checks whether learning, comparing and ready visitors each have an action.
Build an action inventory
For each customer action, write who takes it, their readiness (learning, comparing, ready or returning), what they must know first, what the business must receive and where the action goes. Then check that learning, comparing and ready visitors each have an action.
The suggestions follow the tables in this entry. They are planning recommendations based on your entries, and they do not review an existing website.
How So It Sticks applies this
We build every website from an action inventory. It decides which pages exist, which questions each form asks and which outside tools are linked, embedded or connected. Forms and connected tools are tested before launch and verified again on the live site. Start a Project Brief and list the actions your customers take today.
Sources and method
The action inventory, the readiness levels, the completion table, the examples and the tool are So It Sticks editorial frameworks. The examples are illustrative and describe no real business. Each linked source supports only the statements numbered beside it. Sources verified October 15, 2026.
- Nielsen Norman Group: Task Analysis: Support Users in Achieving Their Goals
- Schema.org: TradeAction
- Schema.org: PlanAction
- Schema.org: InteractAction
- W3C: Understanding Success Criterion 3.3.4, Error Prevention (Legal, Financial, Data)
- W3C: Understanding Success Criterion 2.5.8, Target Size (Minimum)
- Nielsen Norman Group: Few Guesses, More Success: 4 Principles to Reduce Cognitive Load in Forms