Customer onboarding isn’t rocket science, but it gets messy fast—especially when you’re stuck juggling five tools and endless manual steps. If you’re reading this, you probably want a way to automate all that repetitive grunt work. This guide is for folks who want to use Tray integrations to make onboarding actually work—without drinking the automation Kool-Aid.
Let’s walk through a real-world onboarding workflow, step by step. I’ll call out what works, what’s mostly hype, and how to keep things simple.
Why bother with Tray for onboarding?
Tray is a workflow automation tool that connects a bunch of apps—think CRMs, email, Slack, spreadsheets, and more. It’s pretty flexible: you drag, drop, and wire up logic, and it runs in the background. In theory, this means fewer manual tasks, fewer mistakes, and faster onboarding.
But here’s the thing: Tray isn’t magic. You still need to map out what should actually happen for onboarding. Tray just helps you stitch the steps together, so you don’t have to do it all by hand.
Step 1: Map out your onboarding process (seriously, do this first)
Don’t just dive into Tray and start connecting stuff. That’s how you end up with spaghetti workflows you can’t maintain.
Grab a notepad or whiteboard and jot down: - Where do new customers first show up? (CRM, signup form, etc.) - What needs to happen next? (Welcome email, setup call, account activation…) - Who needs to know? (Sales, support, customer success) - What tools are involved? (Gmail, Slack, Salesforce, whatever) - What’s manual right now that you want to automate?
Keep your first workflow simple—pick one clear “trigger” (like a new customer in your CRM) and 2–3 follow-up steps.
Step 2: Pick your trigger
Tray automations always start with a trigger—something that kicks off the workflow.
Common onboarding triggers: - New record created in CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, etc.) - New signup via web form (Typeform, Google Forms, your own app) - Payment received (Stripe, Chargebee)
Pro tip: Start with the place you already track new customers. Don’t try to “future-proof” for every possible trigger—just pick the main one.
Step 3: Connect your apps to Tray
You’ll need to hook up your tools to Tray using API keys, OAuth, or whatever the connector wants.
Typical connections: - CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce) - Email (Gmail, Outlook, Mailgun) - Internal chat (Slack, Teams) - Docs/spreadsheets (Google Sheets, Airtable)
What works: Most major apps are supported, and setup is usually straightforward if you have admin access.
What to watch for: Some tools (especially older CRMs or niche apps) might need extra configuration or custom API calls. Don’t assume every weird SaaS you use has a plug-and-play Tray connector.
Step 4: Build your onboarding workflow
Here’s where the rubber meets the road. In Tray, you’ll drag steps onto a canvas and wire up the logic.
A basic onboarding example:
- Trigger: New customer record in Salesforce.
- Send welcome email: Use Gmail or Outlook connector. Personalize with customer name and details.
- Create Slack post: Notify sales or onboarding channel.
- Add row to Google Sheet: Log the customer for tracking.
- Schedule follow-up task: Create a task in Asana/Trello for the CSM.
How to do it: - Use data “mappers” to pass info (like customer name, email) from your trigger to each step. - Add “if/then” logic for branching (e.g., send different emails for different customer types). - Use delays or scheduled steps if you want to space out emails or reminders.
Avoid: Don’t try to cram every possible edge case into your first workflow. Keep it linear and readable. You can always add more later.
Step 5: Test with real data (not just sample data)
Tray lets you test your workflow using real events. Don’t skip this.
What to do: - Run your workflow with a test customer. - Check every output: Did the email go out? Did the Slack message look right? Was the Google Sheet updated? - Look for small stuff: Typos, missing data, weird formatting.
Common gotchas: - Data doesn’t map the way you expect (e.g., missing email address, wrong field names). - Permissions errors (Tray can’t access a tool because you’re not an admin). - Duplicate notifications (if you trigger on the wrong event).
Fix these before you let the workflow run for real customers.
Step 6: Add error handling and notifications
Things break. That’s just reality. Don’t wait for a customer to tell you something got missed.
Best practices: - Add error branches: If an email fails to send, post a message in a private Slack channel or email yourself. - Log errors to a Google Sheet or Airtable for easy tracking. - Use Tray’s built-in notification steps for failed runs.
What to skip: Don’t obsess over logging every single event to a database unless you have to. Focus on catching the big, obvious failures first.
Step 7: Document your workflow (future you will thank you)
You don’t want to be the person who built a “black box” workflow that nobody else understands.
- Give every step a clear label (“Send Welcome Email,” not “Step 3”).
- Note what each branch is for (“If customer is Enterprise…”).
- Save a simple flowchart or bullet list somewhere your team can find it.
Pro tip: Even just pasting your main workflow steps into a team wiki is better than nothing.
Step 8: Keep things simple (and don’t automate everything)
It’s tempting to automate every single step in onboarding. Don’t.
- Start with the obvious time-savers (emails, notifications, logging).
- Leave the “hand-off to customer success” or “personal setup calls” as manual for now.
- Add more automation only after you see where things actually slow down.
Tray can automate a lot, but not everything is worth the effort. Sometimes a personal touch (like a real welcome call) is better than another automated email.
What works, what doesn’t, and what to ignore
What works: - Automating repetitive stuff (emails, notifications, tracking) - Connecting most mainstream SaaS tools - Keeping onboarding steps consistent (no more “oops, forgot to email them”)
What doesn’t: - Handling super complex logic out of the box (think: multi-step approvals, weird exceptions) - Making onboarding “set-and-forget”—you’ll still need to tweak and update - Fixing bad processes—Tray can’t fix a broken onboarding plan, just automate what you have
Ignore for now: - Advanced Tray features (custom scripts, webhooks to obscure systems) until you’ve nailed the basics - Over-engineering “if/then” logic for every possible customer type
Wrapping up: Start small, iterate often
You don’t need a perfect onboarding workflow on day one. Get the basics working with Tray, see what saves you time, and improve from there. Keep your automations dead simple at first—clear triggers, clean steps, no spaghetti logic.
Automate what’s boring, skip what's not, and don’t buy the hype that automation will solve all your onboarding headaches. But with the right setup, you really can save a ton of time and make onboarding smoother for everyone.
Ready to give it a shot? Map your process, start small, and see where you can take it.