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Automate restaurant reviews and marketing with Telegram and Google Sheets

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Created by: Davide Boizza || n3witalia
Davide Boizza

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Last update 15 hours ago

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This workflow is designed to automate customer interaction and marketing for a restaurant using Telegram and Google Sheets.

It is possible to integrate it with WhatsApp instead of Telegram and use any CRM or relational database instead of Google Sheets.

Key Advantages

1. ✅ Full Automation of Customer Journey

From the first interaction (menu request) to follow-up (review request), everything is automated—no manual effort required.

2. ✅ Centralized Customer Database

All clients are stored and updated in Google Sheets, making it easy to manage contacts and track interactions.

3. ✅ Personalized and Timely Marketing

Marketing messages are:

  • Scheduled
  • Targeted only to active users
  • Sent automatically at the right time

4. ✅ Increased Customer Engagement

  • Instant replies improve user experience.
  • Follow-up messages (like review requests) increase customer interaction and retention.

5. ✅ Scalability

The use of batching and automation allows the system to handle many customers simultaneously without performance issues.

6. ✅ Cost Efficiency

By automating messaging and marketing, the restaurant reduces:

  • Manual workload
  • Marketing costs
  • Need for external tools

7. ✅ Flexibility and Easy Management

Marketing campaigns can be updated directly in Google Sheets without modifying the workflow logic.

How it works

It combines real-time messaging with scheduled marketing automation:

  • Customer Interaction (Telegram Bot)

    • The workflow starts when a user sends a message to the Telegram bot.
    • It detects the type of content (text, audio, or image).
    • If the user asks to see the menu, the bot automatically replies with a digital menu link.
    • The customer is then saved into a Google Sheets database as a new client.

  • Post-Interaction Follow-up

    • After 2 hours, the system automatically sends a review request message, encouraging customers to leave feedback.

  • Automated Marketing Campaigns

    • Every day at a scheduled time, the workflow:

      • Retrieves marketing messages planned for that day from Google Sheets.
      • Filters active clients (excluding unsubscribed users).
      • Sends personalized marketing messages via Telegram.
      • Marks the campaign as completed in the sheet.

Here is the description of the n8n workflow based on the provided Marketing restaurant.json file.

How it works

This workflow automates restaurant marketing and customer interaction on Telegram. It operates on two parallel tracks:

Track 1: Customer Interaction (Menu & Review)

  1. Trigger: A customer sends a message to the Telegram bot (Telegram Trigger).
  2. Message Routing: A Switch node checks if the message contains Text, Audio, or an Image.
  3. Menu Check: If text is received, a second Switch node checks if the message exactly matches "I would like to see the menu".
  4. Menu Delivery: If the menu is requested, the bot sends a predefined menu link (e.g., https://go.forkmenu.com/demo).
  5. Client Logging: The Add new client node saves the user’s Telegram ID and the current date to the "Clients" sheet in Google Sheets.
  6. Delayed Review Request: The workflow waits for 2 hours (simulating post-dining time) and then automatically sends a follow-up message asking the customer to leave a Google review.

Track 2: Automated Marketing Broadcasts

  1. Trigger: A Schedule Trigger runs daily at 7:00 AM.
  2. Fetch Campaigns: It reads the "Marketing" Google Sheet to find rows where DATE = today and DONE is empty.
  3. Fetch Recipients: It retrieves all active clients from the "Clients" sheet (excluding those marked as UNSUBSCRIBE).
  4. Loop & Send: The Loop Over Items node iterates through each active client. For each client, it sends the marketing message via Telegram.
  5. Mark as Complete: After sending, it updates the original row in the "Marketing" sheet, marking it as DONE to prevent re-sending.

Set up steps

  1. Telegram Bot Configuration:

    • Create a Telegram bot via @BotFather and obtain the API token.
    • In the n8n Telegram Trigger and Telegram nodes, select or create a new "Telegram Api" credential named Telegram account Fastewb and paste the API token.
    • Set the bot's webhook URL (n8n will provide the production URL for the Telegram Trigger node).

  2. Google Sheets Setup:

    • Create a Google Sheet
    • Create two sheets (tabs) inside it:
      • Sheet 1: Named Clients. Must contain columns: CLIENT (Telegram ID), DATE, and UNSUBSCRIBE.
      • Sheet 2: Named Marketing. Must contain columns: DATE, MESSAGE, and DONE.
    • In the Google Sheets nodes (Get Marketing, Get active clients, etc.), select or create the OAuth2 credential named Google Sheets account and authorize access to the drive.

  3. Workflow Customization:

    • Menu Link: Edit the Send Digital Menu node. Replace https://go.forkmenu.com/demo with your actual digital menu URL.
    • Review Link: Edit the Send request review node. Replace placeid=xxx with your actual Google Place ID.
    • Marketing Message: The Send Marketing message node automatically pulls text from the MESSAGE column in the Google Sheet.
    • Schedule Time: Adjust the Schedule Trigger node (triggerAtHour) to your preferred broadcast time (currently 7 AM).

  4. Activation:

    • Toggle the workflow status from "active": false to Active in the n8n editor.
    • Ensure the webhook for the Telegram Trigger is successfully activated (check the node execution panel).

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