Write onboarding emails for new customers
A practical way to use AI for this job in a small business, with a prompt you can copy.
New customers sign up and then hear nothing until the invoice arrives. They don't know what happens next, so they ring you with questions, or quietly wonder if they made the right choice.
The prompt
Write a 3-email welcome sequence for new customers of my [business]. Email 1: thanks and what happens next. Email 2 (day 3): a helpful tip about [topic]. Email 3 (day 10): check-in and how to get help. Each under 150 words.
Replace everything in [square brackets] with your own details. Don't paste in anything you wouldn't want stored by the AI provider.
Steps
- Run the prompt.
- Edit for your process.
- Load into your email tool as an automation.
- Send to yourself as a test.
A worked example
A Sydney accounting practice wants a welcome series for new clients. The owner lists what clients need to know: what documents to send, how the client portal works, key dates (BAS lodgement, tax time), and who to contact. Claude writes three emails: a welcome on day one, a 'what we need from you' email on day three, and a 'here's what happens next' email on day ten.
She loads them into her email tool as an automation. New clients now arrive at their first meeting with documents ready.
Where it goes wrong
AI writes welcome emails that are long and gushing. Keep them short and practical. It also invents steps in your process. Check every 'next step' matches what actually happens. Test the automation on yourself before turning it on, so you see what customers see.
Time saved
Writing three onboarding emails takes 2 to 3 hours from scratch, once. AI gets you there in about an hour. Then it runs for every new customer. These are my estimates for a typical small business, not measured results.
What it costs (AUD)
Email automation costs depend on your tool. Mailchimp, MailerLite and similar tools offer free or low-cost plans for small lists, roughly A$15 to A$40 a month on paid tiers (approx., October 2026, check the vendor).
The free plans of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini handle this fine. If you end up using AI every day, the paid plans are roughly: ChatGPT Plus approx. A$30 a month, Claude Pro approx. A$29 a month billed monthly (US$20, or about A$24 a month if you pay yearly), and Google AI Pro approx. A$33 a month through the App Store. Prices approx., October 2026. Some are billed in US dollars, so your bank may add a foreign transaction fee. Check the vendor's pricing page before you buy.
Australian notes
Onboarding emails about a service someone has signed up for are generally transactional, but if you include marketing (offers, upsells), the Spam Act 2003 applies: consent, identification and an unsubscribe. For accountants and BAS agents, be clear about which dates are standard ATO dates and which depend on lodging through an agent.
Privacy: the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) cover most businesses turning over more than $3 million, plus some smaller ones such as health providers. Even if you're under the threshold, treat customer details with care: strip names, phone numbers and addresses before you paste anything into an AI tool.
Want this to happen automatically? See the step-by-step guide on our sister site: How to set up a new customer onboarding bot.
My verdict
Set-and-forget value. Revisit every 6 months.
Common questions
How many onboarding emails should I send?
Three is a good start: welcome, what we need, what happens next.
Should they be automated?
Yes, once you're happy with them. That's the point.
Can I personalise them?
Use merge fields for name and service type. Add a personal note for big clients.
Do this today
Write down the five questions new customers ask in their first week. Run the prompt and turn the answers into your first welcome email.
More customer service use cases
Next: Create a customer feedback survey · All customer service · Want a bot to do this automatically? See bot setup guides.