Introduction
For sales teams running product demos, collecting and organizing customer feedback promptly and efficiently is crucial. Manual feedback recording is often delayed or incomplete, making follow-ups and product iterations slower and less informed. Automating the capture of demo feedback into a centralized, structured system like Airtable can greatly improve visibility, streamline post-demo processes, and accelerate decision-making.
This article walks you through building an automation workflow using n8n—a powerful open-source automation tool—to automatically record demo feedback received via email into Airtable. This guide targets sales managers, automation engineers, and operations specialists aiming to reduce manual data entry, ensure consistent feedback tracking, and gain fast access to actionable insights.
Why Automate Demo Feedback?
– Centralizes feedback data for easy access and analysis.
– Reduces manual work for sales reps, allowing focus on closing deals.
– Standardizes data entry to reduce errors and omissions.
– Enables faster response times to customer concerns or feature requests.
Tools and Services Integrated
– n8n: Automation platform to orchestrate the workflow.
– Gmail (or any IMAP email service): Trigger to detect new feedback emails.
– Airtable: Database to store and organize feedback data.
Workflow Overview
1. Trigger: New feedback email arrives in Gmail.
2. Parse: Extract relevant fields like customer name, demo date, feedback content, sentiment.
3. Post-process: Format and validate data.
4. Action: Insert parsed and cleaned feedback as a new record in Airtable.
Step-by-Step Technical Tutorial
Prerequisites:
– An n8n instance (self-hosted or n8n.cloud).
– Access to Gmail account with demo feedback emails.
– Airtable account and base set up with appropriate fields.
Step 1: Set Up Airtable Base
1. Create an Airtable base named “Demo Feedback.”
2. Add a table called “Feedback” with these fields:
– Customer Name (Single line text)
– Email (Email)
– Demo Date (Date)
– Feedback (Long text)
– Sentiment (Single select: Positive, Neutral, Negative)
– Recorded At (Created time)
Step 2: Configure Gmail to Receive Demo Feedback
– Have customers or sales reps send feedback emails with a consistent subject format, e.g., “Demo Feedback: [Customer Name] – [Demo Date]”.
– Feedback emails should be sent to a dedicated Gmail address.
Step 3: Create a New Workflow in n8n
1. Trigger Node: Gmail IMAP Trigger
– Add the Gmail node configured with OAuth credentials.
– Set it to watch the inbox folder for new emails.
– Apply filters to only trigger on emails with subject starting with ‘Demo Feedback:’.
2. Parsing Node: Function
– Add a Function node to extract key information from the incoming email.
– Extract customer name and demo date from the subject line using regex.
– Extract feedback content from the email body (preferably plain text).
– Optionally, run sentiment analysis (using a third-party API or simple keyword-based logic) to classify feedback sentiment.
Sample JavaScript code snippet inside Function node:
“`javascript
const subject = $json[“header”][“subject”];
const body = $json[“bodyPlain”];
// Regex to extract Customer Name and Demo Date
const match = subject.match(/Demo Feedback:\s*(.+)\s*-\s*(\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2})/);
if (!match) {
throw new Error(‘Subject format incorrect’);
}
const customerName = match[1];
const demoDate = match[2];
// Simple sentiment analysis based on keywords
const feedbackText = body.trim();
let sentiment = ‘Neutral’;
const lowerBody = feedbackText.toLowerCase();
if (lowerBody.includes(‘great’) || lowerBody.includes(‘love’)) sentiment = ‘Positive’;
else if (lowerBody.includes(‘bad’) || lowerBody.includes(‘issue’)) sentiment = ‘Negative’;
return [{
json: {
customerName,
demoDate,
feedbackText,
sentiment
}
}];
“`
3. Airtable Node: Create Record
– Configure the Airtable node with API key and base ID.
– Set the operation to ‘Create’.
– Map fields:
– Customer Name → customerName
– Demo Date → demoDate
– Feedback → feedbackText
– Sentiment → sentiment
4. (Optional) Slack Notification
– Add Slack node to notify the sales team whenever new feedback is recorded.
Step 4: Test the Workflow
– Send a sample feedback email with proper subject formatting.
– Watch the workflow execute in n8n.
– Verify the new record appears with correct data in Airtable.
Common Errors and Tips for Robustness
1. Subject Parsing Failure
– Ensure the email subject strictly follows the predefined format.
– Add error handling in the Function node to catch parsing issues and route errors to a Slack alert.
2. Incomplete Email Body
– Require sales reps to fill all feedback fields.
– Use validations or reminders if feedback is missing important data.
3. Airtable API Limits
– Batch create records if processing bulk feedback.
– Throttle requests or use n8n’s “Wait” node to avoid hitting rate limits.
4. Authentication Expiry
– Monitor OAuth tokens for Gmail and Airtable to refresh before expiration.
Scaling and Adapting the Workflow
– Expand to support additional feedback sources (e.g., Typeform, Google Forms).
– Integrate sentiment analysis using ML services (Google Natural Language or Azure Text Analytics) for deeper insights.
– Add automation for follow-up tasks based on sentiment or keywords (e.g., create a task in Jira or send Slack reminders).
– Parameterize the workflow to handle multiple sales teams or product lines with conditional logic.
Summary and Bonus Tips
Automating demo feedback capture using n8n and Airtable can dramatically improve sales efficiency and collaboration. By centralizing feedback data, sales teams can respond faster, track trends, and drive product improvements.
Bonus Tip: Implement data validation and enrichment by cross-referencing customer emails with your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce) within n8n. This enables linking feedback with customer segments and deal stages, enhancing the sales strategy.
This approach is cost-effective, flexible, and extensible, making it an ideal first automation for startup sales teams looking to reduce busywork and increase actionable insights.