The Cost of Manual Onboarding
For a typical B2B SaaS, onboarding a single customer involves:
- 3-5 welcome/setup emails
- Account configuration checklist (8-12 items)
- Internal handoff from sales to CS
- Progress check-ins at day 1, 3, 7, 14, 30
Multiply that by 20 new customers per month, and you're looking at 40+ hours of repetitive work.
The Automated Onboarding Stack
| Layer | Tool | Purpose |
|---|
| Trigger | Stripe webhook | New subscription event |
| Orchestration | n8n | Route and coordinate |
| Email | SendGrid | Drip sequences |
| Tasks | Linear / Asana | CS team action items |
| Tracking | Google Sheets | Progress dashboard |
| Alerts | Slack | Escalation and milestones |
Email Sequence Blueprint
Day 0: Welcome + quick-start guide
Day 1: "Did you complete setup?" + help link
Day 3: Feature highlight #1 (most valuable action)
Day 7: Check-in + NPS micro-survey
Day 14: Advanced tips + invite teammates CTA
Day 30: Review call invite + case study
Tracking Activation Milestones
Define 3-5 key activation events and track them automatically:
- Account created (Stripe webhook)
- First integration connected (app event → n8n)
- First workflow executed (app event → n8n)
- Teammate invited (app event → n8n)
- Billing info confirmed (Stripe webhook)
Escalation Logic
If a customer hasn't hit milestone 3 by day 7, the workflow:
- Sends a personalised "need help?" email
- Creates a high-priority task for the CS manager
- Posts in Slack
#onboarding-at-risk
Results
Companies that automate onboarding see 25-40% higher activation rates and dramatically lower churn in the first 90 days.
For the technical setup, see our n8n startup guide and webhook patterns.