Categories / Lead Follow-up & Sales
Lead forms and pre-trip emails
Surf holiday operator · leads from 10 to 26–27 a week, marketing costs down 80–85%
- Task
- capture leads around the clock and cut the per-customer time spent on pre-trip information
- Result
- leads grew from about 10 to 26-27 per week; marketing costs dropped 80-85%; sales time per client from about 14 minutes to 8; customers ask fewer questions and leave more online reviews
- Tools
- Pipedrive (deal stages, reminders, automations); LeadBooster (Web Forms, Chatbot, Live Chat); Pipechat (WhatsApp)
- Setup
- add several web forms plus Chatbot and Live Chat so leads enter the funnel when staff are away → map booking stages to the holiday customer journey → reply on WhatsApp through Pipechat → automate the welcome-information email and a have-a-great-trip email
Send this to your AI
A ready-to-send prompt built from this card. Your AI will ask a few questions about your business, then give you a beginner setup plan.
Copy prompt
Help me set this up for my business: "Lead forms and pre-trip emails".
Example business: Amsterdam surf holiday company selling package trips in Europe and beyond. Task: capture leads around the clock and cut the per-customer time spent on pre-trip information.
Reported result: leads grew from about 10 to 26-27 per week; marketing costs dropped 80-85%; sales time per client from about 14 minutes to 8; customers ask fewer questions and leave…
Tools: Pipedrive (deal stages, reminders, automations); LeadBooster (Web Forms, Chatbot, Live Chat); Pipechat (WhatsApp)
Setup outline:
1. add several web forms plus Chatbot and Live Chat so leads enter the funnel when staff are away → map booking…
Starter prompt from the guide (use it as a base):
Write a pre-trip welcome email for a surf holiday: what to bring, meeting point placeholder, contact number placeholder and a short good-luck line. Under 150 words.
First, ask me up to 5 questions about my business and tools. Then give me a beginner step-by-step setup plan, plus copy-paste prompts/templates I can use. Plain English, and tell me if any step needs a tech helper.
via autopilotbusiness.ai/use-case/surf-holiday-operator-pipedrive-leadbooster-whatsapp-automated-trip-em/Step-by-step setup guide
> Cost: Paid. Pipedrive starts at $14 per user per month (annual billing); automations need Growth ($39) or higher, and LeadBooster and Smart Docs come with Premium ($59) or as add-ons on lower plans.
Honest note: Rules, not AI. Marketing cost "down 80%" and the lead counts are vendor-published, and the story used a third-party WhatsApp connector (Pipechat), while this guide shows Pipedrive's native WhatsApp beta instead.
Prerequisites
- A Pipedrive account on the plan the steps below need (they say which).
- Admin rights, because pipelines, automations and web forms are admin-only.
Step-by-step setup
Step 1. Rename the pipeline stages to your real process. Open the Deals pipeline view and click the pencil icon to edit stages. Use your own words (for example Inquiry, Tour booked, Proposal sent, Won). Keep it to the steps your team really does.
Step 2. Capture web inquiries with a form. Go to Leads → Web Forms → New Web Form, pick a template, click Create form, style it, and choose whether submissions save as a Lead or a Deal. Then Share and embed → Copy to clipboard and paste the code into your site. Web Forms are part of LeadBooster (Premium and up, or an add-on). Creating one needs deals admin rights.
Step 3. Add a Chatbot to qualify visitors. Go to Leads Inbox → Chatbot → New playbook. Pick a colour palette, set the bot name, picture and language, then choose a template (Get more leads, Book more meetings, Qualify and route leads or Chat with your leads) and click Create playbook. Edit cards with the pencil, add one with the + between cards, Save, and switch the active toggle on. Then open the playbook's Installation section and embed it on your site (manual code, WordPress, Squarespace or Google Tag Manager). Only one playbook per page. The Chatbot follows scripted rules; it is not AI.
Step 4. Save your standard emails as templates. With email sync on (Growth and up), open an email composer (Sales Inbox → + New email, or the email tab on a deal) and click Choose template → Save draft as template, or Choose template → Manage templates → Add new template. Write them yourself in Pipedrive rather than pasting from elsewhere.
Step 5. Build the automation. Open the account menu → Tools and apps → Automations → + Automation, choose an Event trigger (deal, person, activity, lead, organization or project; added, updated or deleted) or a Date trigger (exact, before or after a date field), and click Apply trigger. Add optional conditions, then actions: create or update records, create an activity, send email (from your synced email account), or other actions the menu offers. Actions run top to bottom. Save and switch it Active. Automations need Growth or higher.
Step 6. Connect WhatsApp (beta). Open Tools and apps → WhatsApp (Growth and up; it is still beta, so if you do not see it switch it on in the Beta program page). Click Open setup assistant or Connect and link a Meta Business Portfolio and WhatsApp Business Account with a business phone number. Create text templates at Tools and apps → WhatsApp → Templates (Meta must approve them); a new conversation always starts from an approved template.
Easier: let your AI do it
Pipedrive has an official MCP server, a secure plug that lets an AI chat like Claude look up and update your deals with your permission.
- In Claude, open Customize → Connectors, click +, then Add custom connector. Name it "Pipedrive MCP", paste
https://mcp.pipedrive.ai/mcpand click Add (Claude's free plan allows one custom connector). Pipedrive is also in Claude's connector directory. - Sign in to Pipedrive and click Allow and install.
- Try: "Show me deals that haven't had an activity in 14 days, grouped by owner."
What success looks like
Fewer questions and a faster handoff on every trip.
Common issues & fixes
- An automation did not fire: importing data does not trigger event-triggered automations (only date triggers and lead updates), so test with a record you create by hand.
- Feature missing from your menu: check your plan; several items here are add-ons on Lite and Growth.
- Welcome email not sent: email sync must be connected first.
Optional: Maintenance
- Before each season: review the template wording.
Copy-paste prompt
Use this with any AI chat. It helps you write the pre-trip email.
Write a pre-trip welcome email for a surf holiday: what to bring, meeting point placeholder, contact number placeholder and a short good-luck line. Under 150 words.Sources
- Case: Pipedrive case study (surf holiday operator). Credit: the company's co-founder (vendor-published).
- Pipedrive Help: Workflow automation
- Pipedrive Help: Pipedrive MCP with Claude
- Pipedrive pricing
- Pipedrive Help: Web Forms
- Pipedrive Help: Chatbot
- Pipedrive Help: WhatsApp integration: how to set it up
- Pipedrive Help: Email templates
Results as reported by the source; not independently verified. Community-sourced from public sites and attributed to the source platform. Original author? Ask us to correct or remove it. Read the disclaimer.