Predict churn risk from customer data and send retention emails via OpenAI

👥 Who’s it for

This workflow is designed for Customer Success Managers, Growth Teams, and SaaS Business Owners who want to proactively reduce churn using AI. It automates the analysis of customer health and the delivery of personalized retention offers without manual intervention.

🚀 What it does

This template acts as an intelligent retention system that connects your data, AI, and communication channels.

1. Aggregates Data: Pulls customer profiles from your CRM, support ticket history via API, and product usage logs from PostgreSQL.
2. Predicts Risk: Uses OpenAI to analyze the combined data and calculate a "Churn Risk Score" for each customer.
3. Automates Action: For customers identified as high-risk (score > 0.7):
   • Generates a unique, dynamic discount coupon via Stripe.
   • Drafts a highly personalized retention email using OpenAI.
   • Sends the email via Gmail.
4. Tracks Effectiveness: Logs all actions to Google Sheets. It also checks back (via SendGrid and CRM data) to track email opens and verify if the customer was retained after 30 days.

⚙️ How to set up

1. Prepare Google Sheet: Create a sheet with columns for customer_id, risk_score, offer_type, email_status, and retention_result.
2. Configure Credentials: Set up your credentials for OpenAI, Stripe, Gmail, Google Sheets, SendGrid, and PostgreSQL.
3. API Endpoints: Update the HTTP Request nodes to point to your specific CRM and Support tool APIs (replace the placeholder URLs).
4. Customize Logic:
   • In the Postgres node, adjust the SQL query to match your product's event table.
   • In the Code node (Offer Decision), define your rules for discounts (e.g., "Give 20% off if MRR > $10k").
5. Activate: The workflow is set to run daily at 3:00 AM. Toggle the Schedule Trigger to Active when ready.

📦 Requirements

• n8n (v1.0 or later)
• OpenAI API Key
• Google Workspace (Gmail, Sheets)
• Stripe Account (for coupon generation)
• SendGrid Account (for email tracking)
• PostgreSQL (or similar database)
• Access to CRM and Support Tool APIs

🎨 How to customize the workflow

• Adjust the AI Prompt: Edit the OpenAI node system message to match your brand's tone of voice.
• Change the Threshold: Modify the If node to target customers with a risk score higher or lower than 0.7.
• Internal Alerts: Instead of emailing the customer directly, replace the Gmail node with a Slack node to notify your CSM team to reach out manually.
• Swap Database: If you use MySQL or Snowflake, simply replace the PostgreSQL node with the corresponding n8n node.