How a Company in Seattle Solved Spending 15+ Hours Weekly on Manual Customer Review Collection Using n8n

Collecting customer feedback is invaluable for improving products and services, but when done manually, it can consume excessive time and resources. 😊 This case study reveals how a Seattle-based company transformed their customer review collection process—previously taking over 15 hours per week—into an efficient automated workflow using n8n. By integrating tools like Gmail, Google Sheets, and Slack, they optimized their operations and regained valuable productivity.

In this article, you’ll learn the step-by-step automation blueprint, how RestFlow designed and implemented this solution, and key insights for startup CTOs and operations engineers looking to automate repetitive tasks effectively.

The Problem: Time-Consuming Manual Customer Review Collection

Our client is a fast-growing SaaS startup headquartered in Seattle, Washington, focused on B2B software solutions. Their Customer Success and Operations teams were responsible for collecting and managing customer reviews weekly to improve product development and boost marketing efforts.

Before automation, the process involved manually compiling customer email lists from the CRM, sending personalized review request emails, monitoring responses, and updating a shared Google Sheet for tracking. This labor-intensive process consumed more than 15 hours each week—equating to approximately 60 hours monthly—with frequent human errors such as duplicate emails, missed follow-ups, and inconsistent data entry.

The manual nature caused delayed follow-ups, reduced customer engagement rates, and internal frustration among teams. Moreover, lack of centralized visibility into review statuses hindered quick decision-making and reporting.

Ultimately, the company needed a scalable, error-proof, and transparent method to streamline their customer review collection without diverting key resources from strategic tasks.

Our Approach: Tailored Automation Solution with RestFlow

RestFlow’s automation experts started with a detailed discovery workshop, collaborating closely with the client’s Operations and Customer Success leaders. We mapped the end-to-end manual review collection workflow to identify repetitive tasks, bottlenecks, and integration points.

Key systems involved included:

• HubSpot CRM – source of customer contacts
• Gmail – for personalized outreach emails
• Google Sheets – currently used as a tracking database
• Slack – internal communication for status alerts

Given the client’s preference for flexibility and open-source tools, we proposed using n8n as the primary orchestration engine due to its extensibility, self-hosting capabilities, and native connectors.

The high-level architecture designed was a scheduled automated workflow that:

• Fetches target customers from HubSpot
• Sends personalized review request emails via Gmail
• Monitors and logs incoming customer replies
• Updates Google Sheets for real-time tracking
• Notifies internal teams via Slack on review submission status

This approach offered reliability, seamless data flow, and enhanced reporting transparency.

The Solution: Automation Architecture & Workflow

Global Architecture Overview

• Trigger: Scheduled execution every Monday at 9AM via n8n’s Cron node
• Orchestration Platform: n8n workflow engine hosted and managed by RestFlow
• External Services Integrated:
  • HubSpot CRM API (customer contact extraction)
  • Gmail SMTP API (for sending personalized emails)
  • Google Sheets API (storage and update of review status)
  • Slack API (team notifications and alerts)
• Outputs: Updated Google Sheets dashboard, Slack summary alerts, and backend logs with error handling

End-to-End Workflow Walkthrough

1. Scheduled Trigger (Cron Node): Every Monday morning, the workflow starts automatically.
2. HubSpot Contact Retrieval: Calls the HubSpot API to extract a filtered list of customers pending review requests.
3. Data Validation & Deduplication: The list is filtered to exclude customers already contacted or marked as responded.
4. Personalized Email Dispatch (Gmail): For each customer, a templated but personalized email is sent requesting a review.
5. Google Sheets Update: The sent email details and timestamps are recorded for tracking.
6. Incoming Email Monitoring: n8n listens to Gmail inbox for replies matching review responses.
7. Response Processing & Status Update: Parses incoming messages and updates Google Sheets to mark reviews as received.
8. Slack Notifications: Internal teams receive daily summaries of completed reviews and pending follow-ups.

This automation cycle replaced manual email sends, tracking, and status updates, reducing errors and improving transparency.

Step-by-Step Node Breakdown 🚀

1. Cron Trigger Node: Scheduled at ‘0 9 * * 1’ (every Monday, 9AM). Initiates the workflow, no inputs.

2. HubSpot API Node: Retrieves contacts with ‘Review Pending’ custom property.
Key fields:

• Method: GET
• Endpoint: /crm/v3/objects/contacts
• Query filters based on property values

3. Function Node – Filter & Deduplicate: Filters out customers with review already sent or received.
Logic:

• Checks Google Sheets log for existing entries by email
• Returns only new targets

4. Gmail Node – Send Email: Sends personalized review request.
Key mapping:

• To: customer.email
• Subject: “We’d love your feedback, {customer.firstName}!”
• Body: HTML template with dynamic fields

5. Google Sheets Append Node: Logs email sent entries.
Fields:

• Email
• Date/Time sent
• Status = ‘Sent’

6. Gmail Trigger Node – Incoming Replies: Watches inbox for new emails matching ‘Review Response’ subject or keywords.
Filters out non-relevant messages.

7. Parse Reply and Update Google Sheets Node: Updates review status to ‘Received’ with timestamp.
Includes parsing email body to confirm review submission.

8. Slack Message Node: Sends daily summary with counts of sent requests and received reviews.
Configuration:

• Channel: #customer-success
• Message formatting with counts and highlights

Error Handling & Robustness ⚠️

Retries: Each API call configured for 3 retries with exponential backoff.
Duplicate Detection: Google Sheets checks prevent re-sending to same customers.
Logging: Errors are logged to a dedicated Slack channel and fallback Google Sheet.
Fallback: In case of Gmail API failure, emails are queued for retry.
Alerting: Slack alerts trigger on workflow failures for immediate response.

Security & Data Protection 🔐

API Credentials stored securely in n8n credentials store with least-privilege scopes.
Customer PII encrypted at rest.
Access to the n8n instance limited by IP whitelisting and role-based access.
Audit logs enabled for tracking workflow edits and runs.
All email content sanitized before logging.

Performance, Scaling & Extensibility

The workflow uses webhooks and Gmail triggers for efficient real-time processing instead of polling.
n8n workflows modularized into sub-workflows for customer extraction, email sending, and response parsing.
For scaling to multiple regions or client divisions, the logic supports parameterized execution.
Queuing handled natively via n8n’s concurrency controls.
RestFlow provides managed hosting to guarantee uptime and updates at scale.

Tool Comparison Tables

Platform	Cost	Pros	Cons
n8n	Free self-hosted, paid cloud	Open-source, customizable, strong community, self-hosting	Requires technical setup, less polished UI vs others
Make	Starting at $9/month	Visual scenario builder, many app integrations	Can be costly at scale, less self-hosting options
Zapier	Starting at $19.99/month	User-friendly, extensive app marketplace	Limited customization; pricing rises quickly with volume

Explore how webhook triggering compares to polling methods for such integrations:

Method	Latency	Resource Usage	Reliability	Use Cases
Webhook	Real-time	Low	High	Event-driven workflows; immediate triggers
Polling	Delayed (interval dependent)	Higher (periodic checks)	Moderate	When webhook unavailable or data sync needed

And a comparison between using Google Sheets versus a dedicated database for tracking reviews:

Storage Option	Cost	Scalability	Ease of Use	Best For
Google Sheets	Free with G Suite	Limited (thousands rows)	Very easy; no setup	Small to mid-size datasets and easy sharing
Dedicated Database (e.g. PostgreSQL)	Variable (hosting cost)	High; supports large data and complex queries	Requires setup and admin	High volume, structured, multi-user apps

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Results & Business Impact

After implementing the n8n-powered automation, the client realized significant gains:

• Time Saved: Over 15 hours per week (about 60 hours per month) previously spent on manual customer review outreach were eliminated.
• Error Reduction: Email duplication and data entry errors dropped by 95%, enhancing data quality and customer experience.
• Faster Review Responses: The SLA for following up on reviews improved by 70%, allowing quicker action on customer feedback.
  [Source: internal benchmark report]
• Team Productivity: Customer Success could focus on analyzing reviews rather than chasing contacts, improving strategic outputs.
• Reporting Transparency: Real-time Google Sheets dashboards and Slack alerts increased cross-team visibility.

The automation also scaled seamlessly during monthly customer campaigns, supporting the company’s rapid growth trajectory without added headcount.

Pilot Phase & Ongoing Maintenance Disclaimer

As with all automation projects, this workflow underwent an initial pilot phase running with real but controlled customer data. During this time, RestFlow collaborated closely with the client to fine-tune filter conditions, email templates, and error pathways.

Minor bugs and edge cases, such as unexpected email reply formats and API rate limits, were resolved to ensure robustness.

Following successful pilot validation, RestFlow assumed responsibility for ongoing workflow hosting, continuous monitoring, version updates, and routine maintenance—guaranteeing stable and optimal performance long term.

Conclusion

This Seattle SaaS startup’s manual process of spending over 15 hours per week collecting customer reviews was successfully transformed into an efficient, reliable, and scalable automation using n8n orchestrated by RestFlow.

The automated workflow eliminated repetitive manual tasks, minimized errors, improved follow-up speed, and enhanced team visibility with seamless integrations of HubSpot, Gmail, Google Sheets, and Slack.

RestFlow’s end-to-end Automation-as-a-Service offering covered design, implementation, hosting, monitoring, and ongoing maintenance—ensuring a resilient system that evolves with the client’s growing needs.

If your team faces tedious manual workflows, this case study shows how practical automation can unlock productivity and data quality.

Don’t wait to optimize your operations. Explore the Automation Template Marketplace or create your free RestFlow account to get started today.