Automates customer onboarding from the CRM status change through to a ready-to-send welcome email, turning a classic small business bottleneck into one clean, repeatable workflow.
automatingplanningwriting
Description
In most small and mid-sized businesses, onboarding is a manual patchwork: sales hands off a new customer, but the checklist gets built ad hoc, tasks land in the project tool with delay, and by the third customer of the week the welcome email noticeably loses its personal touch. This workflow addresses exactly that bottleneck.
As soon as a deal in the CRM moves to customer status, the workflow pulls the relevant customer data (name, industry, product, company size, contact person), has an industry and product specific onboarding checklist generated from it, creates the individual tasks in the project management tool, and in parallel prepares a personal welcome email as a draft. It concludes with a notification to the responsible customer success manager containing all the links, so that person only needs to review and approve the results.
A human stays in the loop at two points: approving the tasks on the board, and sending the email, which is deliberately saved as a draft rather than sent automatically. This keeps the tone under control while removing the manual grind.
Consistent process: Every new customer goes through the same complete onboarding process, regardless of who is handling the request.
Quick start: The checklist, tasks and email draft are ready as soon as the deal in the CRM moves to customer status.
Clean handoff: The responsible customer success manager receives customer data, a task link and the email draft bundled in a single message.
Personalization that scales: The checklist and email are tailored to industry, product and company size, even as customer volume grows.
Steps
Every step shows who carries it out: icon, colour and label together indicate whether a person acts, whether it runs automatically, whether a result is produced, or whether an approval is required.
01 · Person
A deal in the CRM moves to customer status and triggers the process.
02 · Automated
Name, industry, product, company size and contact person are pulled from the CRM, along with the responsible customer success manager.
03 · Automated
A language model generates five to eight industry and product specific tasks, including a time estimate.
04 · Automated
The checklist is created as individual tasks on the onboarding board and assigned to the responsible customer success manager.
05 · Automated
A language model writes a personal welcome email introducing the customer success manager, outlining the next steps along the checklist, and proposing times for the kickoff call.
06 · Result
The responsible customer success manager receives a message in the team chat with the customer data, a link to the tasks, and the email draft for review.
Key
PersonAutomatedResultApproval
Requirements and operations
Requirements
CRM systemHubSpot, Salesforce or a comparable system provides the customer data and the trigger.
PM toolAsana, Trello or Monday for the onboarding tasks.
Email toolGmail, Outlook or a comparable tool for the welcome email.
LLM access and team chatAccess to OpenAI, Claude or Gemini, plus a team chat tool such as Slack or Teams for notifying the customer success manager.
Testing
Test customerCreate a demo contact with complete data and set the status to customer.
Checklist and tasksCheck whether five to eight industry specific tasks are created and assigned to the responsible customer success manager.
Welcome emailCheck whether the email is personalized, the data is correct, the kickoff slots fit, and the draft is ready for the customer success manager.
Edge casesTest requests without an industry specified, solo businesses versus enterprise customers, other languages, and multiple contact persons.
Go-live
ApproveActivate the workflow only once the checklist, tasks and email are reliably correct.
Segment startBegin with a single customer segment and add further segments step by step.
Draft modeLet the first run save the email as a draft only, so the customer success manager can adjust the tone.
ExpandAdd a calendar invite, follow-ups and a notification for especially important customers later on.
Common issues
CRM trigger does not fireCheck the webhook and the customer status value.
Tasks land in the wrong projectCheck the target board and permissions.
Email with empty fieldsFill in the required fields in the CRM before the customer is created.
Checklist too genericEnrich the prompt with industry specific examples.
Builder Prompt
Copy the prompt below in full into your automation tool or agent builder. As a file: onboarding-strecke.en.json
GOAL
Build a workflow that, for new customers in the CRM, automatically generates a tailored onboarding checklist, creates the corresponding tasks in the PM tool, prepares a personalized welcome email as a draft, and notifies the responsible customer success manager with all the links.
Adapt the structure to the concepts of your automation tool (for example nodes, steps, zaps or agent actions). While doing so, preserve the trigger logic, the sequence and the data flow.
TRIGGER
Type: CRM trigger (HubSpot, Salesforce or comparable). Fires when a deal or contact receives customer status.
STEPS
1. Retrieve customer data: pull customer name, company, industry, purchased product, company size, contact person (name and role) and the responsible customer success manager from the CRM.
2. AI step: onboarding checklist. Use exactly the Onboarding Checklist working prompt (see the Working Prompts section). Output: a numbered list with five to eight tasks, including a time estimate.
3. Create tasks: create one entry per task on the onboarding board and assign it to the responsible customer success manager.
4. AI step: welcome email. Use exactly the Welcome Email working prompt (see the Working Prompts section), with the checklist from step 2 as input. Save the output as an email draft, no automatic sending.
5. Output: notify the responsible customer success manager in the team chat, with the customer data, a link to the tasks and a note about the email draft.
PROMPTS
Take over both working prompts from the section of the same name unchanged. Pay particular attention to the double meaning of [COMPANY_NAME]: in the Onboarding Checklist working prompt it refers to the customer's company, in the Welcome Email working prompt it refers to your own company. Map both separately.
DATA FLOW
Trigger to step 1: CRM record of the new customer.
Step 1 to step 2: customer name, customer company, industry, product, company size, contact name, contact role.
Step 1 to step 4: contact name, customer company, product.
Step 2 to step 4: onboarding checklist.
ERROR HANDLING
CRM trigger does not fire: check the webhook and the customer status value.
Required fields missing, for example industry or contact person: stop the run and notify the customer success manager with a note, instead of sending the email with empty fields.
Tasks land in the wrong project: check the target board and permissions.
Checklist too generic: extend the prompt with industry specific examples (placeholder [ADDITIONAL_REQUIREMENTS]).
Multiple contact persons present: use the primary contact from the CRM.
PLACEHOLDER CONVENTION
All customer data as well as [ONBOARDING_CHECKLIST] are mapped dynamically from the CRM or from step 2, as described in the data flow. Not dynamic, to be set manually before activation: [CSM_NAME], [CSM_POSITION], [CONTACT_DETAILS], your own [COMPANY_NAME] in the Welcome Email working prompt, [TONE], [ADDITIONAL_REQUIREMENTS], and [TIME_SLOTS] (ideally dynamic from the customer success manager's calendar, otherwise manual). The square brackets in the example format of the Onboarding Checklist working prompt are formatting instructions to the language model and remain unchanged. List all placeholders that require manual configuration separately at the end.
SELF CHECK BEFORE COMPLETION
Check, before you report the workflow as finished:
1. Are all steps connected correctly, and is the welcome email saved exclusively as a draft?
2. Are both working prompts inserted in full and unchanged, and is the double meaning of [COMPANY_NAME] resolved correctly?
3. Are the tasks assigned to the right customer success manager, and does the notification contain all the links?
4. Are all points listed that require manual configuration: CRM webhook, onboarding board, CSM details, tone, the source of the time slots, and LLM access?
Working prompts
Onboarding Checklist
Creates an industry and product specific checklist with five to eight tasks and a time estimate from the customer data.
You are an experienced customer success manager. Create a personalized onboarding checklist for the following new customer:
Customer data:
- Name: [CUSTOMER_NAME]
- Company: [COMPANY_NAME]
- Industry: [INDUSTRY]
- Product/service: [PRODUCT]
- Company size: [NUMBER_OF_EMPLOYEES]
- Contact person: [CONTACT_NAME] ([CONTACT_ROLE])
Your task:
Create an onboarding checklist with 5 to 8 concrete tasks tailored to the industry and the product. In doing so, take into account:
- industry specific best practices
- product specific setup steps
- company size (smaller companies need simpler processes)
Format:
Output the checklist as a numbered list. Each task should be concrete, actionable, and include an estimated time.
Example format:
1. [Task name]: [Short description] (Duration: [time estimate])
[ADDITIONAL_REQUIREMENTS]
Welcome Email
Writes a personal welcome email with proposed times for the kickoff call, based on the onboarding checklist.
You are the customer success manager [CSM_NAME] from [COMPANY_NAME]. Write a warm, professional welcome email to a new customer.
Customer data:
- Contact person: [CONTACT_NAME]
- Company: [CUSTOMER_COMPANY]
- Product/service: [PRODUCT]
Onboarding checklist:
[ONBOARDING_CHECKLIST]
Email structure:
1. Personal greeting and welcome
2. Brief introduction as the responsible customer success manager
3. Overview of the next steps, referring to the onboarding checklist
4. Invitation to a kickoff call, with two to three proposed time slots: [TIME_SLOTS]
5. Contact information and availability
6. Motivating close
Tone: [TONE] (for example professional-friendly, casual-modern, formal)
Important:
- Keep the email to a maximum of 250 words.
- Use a clear structure with paragraphs.
- Include a clear call to action for the kickoff call.
- Sign off with: [CSM_NAME], [CSM_POSITION], [CONTACT_DETAILS]
JSON export
Setup
Two routes lead to the same result. Pick the one that fits your setup.
Suitable when you want to build the workflow in your own automation tool.
Open your workflow tool, for example n8n, Make, Zapier or Langdock.
Create a new workflow and give it a name.
Choose the AI-assisted build option if your tool offers one.
Paste the builder prompt from above in full.
Check the result against the step sequence in this document, then add your access credentials and channels.
Suitable when you want to take the workflow over unchanged.
Download the JSON file from the JSON export section.
Open the workflow area of your tool and create a new workflow.
Give it a name and confirm.
Open the menu on the workflow name and choose to import a JSON file.
Upload the file, then add your own access credentials.
Run a test before you activate the workflow.
Last reviewed:
In the workshop this becomes your method.
A single prompt becomes a repeatable method. We show that in the workshop From Prompt to Method.
