How to Automate Client Intake Forms to CRM

Every new client relationship starts with intake. Whether you run a law firm, marketing agency, consulting practice, or medical office, the process is the same: collect information, enter it into your CRM, assign a team member, and kick off onboarding. When this happens manually, data gets lost in email threads, CRM records are incomplete, and onboarding tasks slip through the cracks. Automating client intake from form submission to CRM record to onboarding workflow eliminates all of these problems.

This tutorial walks through building a complete intake automation using Make.com with common form tools (Typeform, Jotform, Gravity Forms) and CRMs (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive).

The Automated Client Intake Architecture

A production-grade intake automation has four phases. Each phase transforms raw form data into progressively richer CRM records and triggered workflows.

Fig. 1 — Four-phase client intake automation from capture to notification

Step 1: Design the Intake Form for Automation

Most intake form problems start at the form itself. A form designed for humans to read is different from one designed for machines to process. Build your form with structured fields that map directly to your CRM fields.

• Use dropdown menus instead of free text for fields like "Service Interested In," "Company Size," and "Industry." This gives you clean data that routes correctly downstream.
• Require email and phone as separate validated fields. These are your CRM deduplication keys.
• Add conditional logic: If the client selects "Existing Customer," show a field for their account number. If they select "New Customer," show a field for referral source.
• Include a file upload field if clients need to submit documents (contracts, specifications, medical records). The automation will store these as CRM attachments.

Configure the form to fire a webhook on submission rather than relying on email notifications. Every major form platform (Typeform, Jotform, Gravity Forms, Tally) supports webhooks natively.

Step 2: Validate and Deduplicate the Submission

When the webhook arrives in Make.com, do not immediately create a CRM record. First, run validation. Check that the email address format is valid using a regex filter. Verify the phone number contains the expected number of digits. If any required field is blank (which can happen with API submissions bypassing form validation), send an error notification and halt the scenario.

Next, search your CRM for an existing contact with the same email address. This deduplication step is critical. Without it, you will create duplicate records every time a returning client fills out the form. If a match is found, update the existing contact with any new information and skip the contact creation step. If no match, proceed to create a new record.

Step 3: Create CRM Records and Assign Ownership

With validated, deduplicated data, create the CRM records in sequence. First, create (or update) the Contact record with all personal and company information. Second, create a Deal or Opportunity linked to that contact, using the "Service Interested In" dropdown to set the deal pipeline and stage.

For team assignment, use a round-robin router. Maintain a simple counter in a Make.com data store that cycles through your team members. Each new intake increments the counter and assigns the next team member as the deal owner. For more sophisticated routing, use the form's "Industry" or "Service" field to assign specialists. A legal intake goes to the litigation team; a corporate matter goes to the transactions team.

Step 4: Trigger the Onboarding Workflow

After CRM records exist, trigger onboarding actions in parallel:

• Welcome email: Send a personalized email with next steps, including a link to schedule their kickoff call (Calendly integration) and any documents they need to complete.
• Task creation: Create a checklist of onboarding tasks in your project management tool (Asana, Monday.com, ClickUp). Include items like "Review intake submission," "Prepare welcome packet," "Schedule discovery call," and "Send engagement letter."
• Internal notification: Post a message to a dedicated Slack channel or Teams channel with the new client details, assigned team member, and a link to the CRM record.
• Calendar booking: If the form included a preferred meeting time, create a calendar event directly. Otherwise, send the Calendly link in the welcome email.

Step 5: Handle File Uploads and Document Management

If the intake form included file uploads, the webhook payload contains the file URLs. Download each file using an HTTP module, then upload it to your document storage. For CRM-native storage, attach the files directly to the contact record using the CRM's file attachment API. For external storage, upload to Google Drive or SharePoint in a client-specific folder, then link the folder URL in a custom CRM field.

For industries with compliance requirements (legal, medical, financial), add a step that classifies the document type and applies appropriate access controls. Medical intake documents should be stored in a HIPAA-compliant location. Legal engagement letters need version control.

Step 6: Build the Feedback Loop

Measure the automation's performance by tracking key metrics. Log every intake submission, CRM record creation, and onboarding trigger in a Google Sheet or data entry automation dashboard. Track the time from form submission to first team response. Set up alerts when this exceeds your SLA (for example, 2 hours for high-priority leads).

"We cut our client onboarding time from 3 days to 4 hours. Every new client gets a consistent experience, and our team spends zero time on data entry." — Marketing agency, 40 new clients/month

A well-built intake automation also feeds your sales pipeline analytics. You can see exactly where leads come from, how quickly they convert, and which services are most requested. For firms that also need to automate what happens after intake (quoting and invoicing), see our guide on automating the quote-to-invoice pipeline. And for a real-world example, check out our accounting firm workflow case study.