An automated lead intake and client onboarding workflow that triggers on Google Form submission — checking for duplicates, creating records across Airtable, Notion and Google Drive, and sending a personalized welcome email.
Watch Project WalkthroughThe challenge
Businesses were spending significant time manually handling every new lead. Each onboarding required copying lead details into multiple tools, creating a client workspace in Notion, setting up a project folder in Google Drive, sending a welcome email and updating internal records. Six separate manual tasks per lead, every time. As volume grew the process became slower, inconsistent and prone to errors. Duplicate client records were being created with no detection logic in place. Some leads received welcome emails hours late. Others were missed entirely.
The solution
Built an automated lead intake and client onboarding system that triggers the moment a new lead submits a Google Form. The workflow checks for duplicates, creates the client record in Airtable, generates a Notion client page, creates a Google Drive project folder, sends a personalized welcome email and updates the automation status to confirm completion. Every lead goes through the same consistent process automatically with zero manual intervention.
Workflow diagram
System architecture
What I built
Single structured entry point for every new lead.
Standardizes lead capture across the business.
Searches Airtable for an existing record matching the lead email before any downstream action runs.
Prevents duplicate client records from ever being created.
Lead details mapped and stored as a new client record automatically.
Single source of truth for every client.
Dedicated client page generated from lead data instantly on intake.
Every client has a workspace ready before onboarding starts.
Project folder created and organized automatically for each new client.
File structure ready without manual setup.
Gmail sent using Formatter by Zapier to extract the first name and personalize the message.
Every lead receives an instant, personal touch.
Airtable record updated to confirm onboarding complete once the workflow finishes.
Internal visibility that every lead was fully onboarded.
Automation engine
Operational impact
Measurable results
Reduction in manual onboarding steps
Duplicate client records
Welcome email response time
Screenshots
Google Forms trigger feeding an Airtable duplicate check, then splitting into New Lead and Existing Lead paths.
Purpose · Shows the branching logic that protects data integrity.
Complete workflow across both branches, from intake through Airtable, Notion, Google Drive, Formatter and Gmail.
Purpose · End-to-end view of the onboarding engine.
Client project folders created automatically for each new lead inside the Client Projects directory.
Purpose · File structure ready without manual setup.
Client database with a generated workspace page containing name, email, company and project description.
Purpose · Every client has a workspace before onboarding begins.
Gmail confirmation sent instantly with the lead's first name extracted via Formatter by Zapier.
Purpose · Instant, personal acknowledgement for every lead.
Master lead records with status and automation status showing Completed and Duplicate Detected outcomes.
Purpose · Internal confirmation that every lead was fully onboarded.
Key outcomes
A repetitive six-step manual onboarding process that created duplicate records, delayed welcome emails and inconsistent client setup as lead volume grew.
A single Zapier workflow with 12 steps across 2 conditional branches connecting Google Forms, Airtable, Notion, Google Drive and Gmail — with duplicate detection and personalization built in.
This project shows automation solving a real operational bottleneck end-to-end. Duplicate detection built into the workflow protects data integrity, while dynamic personalization and multi-tool provisioning turn a fragmented six-step process into a single trigger. The result is a consistent, production-ready onboarding system that scales with lead volume.
All data shown in screenshots is sample data used for demonstration purposes.