How to automate follow up email tasks using Convin action items feature

Ever finish a sales call, promise a follow-up email, and then totally forget about it? Or maybe your to-do list is a mess of “Send email to...” reminders that never get cleared. If you’re tired of letting follow-ups slip through the cracks—and don’t want to spend your life copying notes from calls into your inbox—this guide is for you.

I’m going to walk you through exactly how to use the Convin action items feature to automate your post-meeting follow-up email tasks. You’ll learn what works, what’s just hype, and how to avoid busywork. This isn’t magic, but it’ll save you a ton of time if you set it up right.

Who Should Use This

  • Sales reps, account managers, or anyone who spends too much time sending post-call emails
  • Small teams without a fancy CRM, or folks who just want to squeeze more out of tools they already have
  • People who want less manual work and more actual selling (or just fewer things to remember)

How Convin Action Items Work (And What They Don’t Do)

Let’s clear up the basics before we jump in:

  • What it does: Convin automatically scans your recorded calls or meetings, picks out “action items” (like “Send John the pricing sheet”), and creates tasks for you.
  • What it doesn’t do: It won’t write or send the actual follow-up email for you—at least, not without some extra setup or tools. It also won’t catch every single action item perfectly (AI isn’t psychic).
  • Why it matters: You get a neat, automatic list of things to do after every meeting, instead of relying on memory or frantic note-taking.

Step 1: Set Up Convin and Connect Your Meeting Platform

First things first—you need Convin running with access to your meetings.

  1. Sign up or log in. If you haven’t already, create an account on Convin.
  2. Connect your calendar and meeting tools. Convin works with Zoom, Google Meet, and others. You’ll need to authorize it so it can join or record your calls.
  3. Check your permissions. Make sure your company’s IT or security team is cool with this—some organizations are strict about recordings.

Pro tip: If you’re only doing one-on-ones, you might have to manually upload recordings. Automated capture works best for recurring team calls or demos.

Step 2: Enable Action Item Detection

Now, the magic bit—getting Convin to find your follow-up tasks.

  1. Go to settings in your Convin dashboard.
  2. Find “Action Items” or “Task Extraction.” The wording can vary, but you’re looking for the feature that pulls out tasks from call transcripts.
  3. Turn it on. Make sure it’s enabled for all your meetings, or at least the ones where follow-ups are likely.
  4. Customize keywords (optional). Some systems let you add phrases it should watch for (like “send email,” “follow up,” or “circle back”). This helps the AI nail down what matters to you.

What works: The action item detection is surprisingly good at finding clear tasks, especially if you or your team use consistent language (“I’ll send that over,” “Let’s touch base next week,” etc.).

What doesn’t: If someone’s vague (“Let’s connect soon”), the tool may miss it. It’s not a mind-reader—if you want it to catch something, say it out loud during the call.

Step 3: Review and Clean Up Detected Action Items

Don’t trust any tool to do your thinking for you. Here’s where you sanity-check what Convin pulled out.

  1. After a call, open the meeting summary in Convin.
  2. Look at the “Action Items” list. You’ll see tasks like “Send follow-up email to Sarah” or “Share onboarding docs.”
  3. Edit or delete as needed. Sometimes it’ll catch something irrelevant, or word tasks awkwardly (“Discussed: send email”). Clean these up.
  4. Assign owners if you’re part of a team. If you’re solo, this doesn’t matter, but it’s handy in group settings.

Pro tip: Block five minutes after each call to review and tidy up action items. It’s way faster than scrambling later.

Step 4: Automate Follow-Up Email Tasks

Here’s where things get interesting. You want action items like “Send follow-up email” to actually remind you—or better yet, trigger the right workflow.

A. Use Convin’s Built-In Reminders

  • Set reminders for action items directly in Convin.
  • Get notifications via email or in-app when a task is due.

This is basic, but it works. If you’re the kind of person who checks notifications, you’ll get pinged when it’s time to follow up.

B. Push Action Items to Your Email or Task Manager

If you want to get fancy (and actually automate things):

  1. Export action items as tasks. Most platforms let you export to CSV, or connect to tools like Slack, Asana, or Trello.
  2. Set up email forwarding or integrations.
    • Use Zapier or native integrations to push new tasks into your Gmail, Outlook, or a to-do app.
    • You can set up a rule like: “When a new action item is created with ‘email’ in it, create a draft email/reminder in my inbox.”
  3. Automate email drafts (advanced). If you’re comfortable with no-code tools, you can trigger a draft email using Zapier or Make, using the action item as the subject line or body.

What works: Integrations with to-do apps or Slack are rock solid. They keep your follow-up tasks in the same place as your other work.

What doesn’t: Full automation of sending personalized emails is tricky. The AI can’t write context-rich follow-ups for you (yet). You still need to check and polish any drafts.

What to ignore: Don’t bother with over-complicated email templates or trying to automate every single message. It’s usually more hassle than it’s worth.

Step 5: Actually Send the Follow-Up (and Keep Track)

Even the best automation is pointless if you don’t act on it. Here’s how to keep it tight:

  • Check your action item list daily. Block a few minutes each morning or after meetings.
  • Mark tasks as done in Convin (or your synced to-do app) once the email is sent.
  • Archive or delete old tasks. Don’t let your list turn into a graveyard.

Pro tip: If you’re sending the same kind of follow-up a lot, save a few lightweight templates in your email. But don’t overthink it—a simple, personalized note beats a canned message every time.

Real-World Tips (from Someone Who Hates Manual Follow-Ups)

  • Say your to-dos out loud: If you want Convin to catch something, actually say it during the call (“I’ll send you that info by tomorrow”).
  • Don’t over-engineer: Automated reminders and simple tasks work better than trying to create a Rube Goldberg machine with dozens of tools.
  • Check privacy: Make sure you’re not recording or sharing calls with sensitive info unless your client and company are okay with it.
  • Keep your action items short: If a task takes more than a sentence, it probably needs to be broken up.

What to Watch Out For

  • False positives: Sometimes Convin will grab a non-task (“Let’s think about it”) as an action item. Always review.
  • Missed tasks: If you or your team are vague, it won’t catch everything. Be explicit.
  • Integration headaches: Not all CRMs or email tools play nicely with Convin. Be ready for some manual setup if your tech stack is weird.

Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate As You Go

You don’t need a PhD in automation to stop dropping the ball on follow-ups. Start by letting Convin pull out your action items, review them for a minute after each call, and use basic reminders or integrations to keep you on track. Don’t waste hours trying to automate every edge case—focus on what actually saves you time.

Try it for a week, tweak your workflow, and see what sticks. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s fewer missed follow-ups, less busywork, and more time for the stuff that actually matters.