Onboarding and Retain Automation

Most automation in AgencyZoom is tied to pipelines, whether it be Lead Pipelines, or Service Pipelines. Onboarding and Retain are two sections of automation that are not tied to any pipeline- instead, they’re a set automation sequence for client policies that will trigger from beginning to end based on the dates you set, untied to any stages in a pipeline.
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Onboarding Automation will be available to all AgencyZoom plans, while Retain automation will only be available on Growth and Pro plans.

On the surface, Onboarding and Retain automation are functionally very similar. Both trigger automation X number of days after the Effective Date, and X Number of days before Renewal. Those automation are then arranged in order of first to last, similar to automation in a pipeline stage. And automation can be set to only trigger for specific carriers, policy types, or customers/policies with certain tags. They are both automation specifically tied to policies and clients, rather than leads or contacts.
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The main difference between Onboarding and Retain automation is timing. Once a lead is sold and a policy is created, that policy will be automatically placed into Onboarding Automation. This will allow you to automate any necessary steps that need to happen after the sale, like a task requiring necessary documents, a welcome email, or a google review email. Then, you can also set up automation that will trigger, walking them through the lead up to their first renewal.
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Assuming you’re on a Growth or Pro plan, after the first renewal the policy will automatically switch from Onboarding to Retain automation. This does not require any manual input on your part, and will happen automatically once the policy renews (though you can manually switch whether a policy is in Onboarding or Retain automation from the Policy Card if needed). Once in Retain, a policy will continue to receive Retain automation every renewal from that point on, indefinitely, until the policy is cancelled or deleted.
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So in summary, onboarding automation is for automation that is specific to a new policy, welcoming them to their new policy and explaining things. Where Retain automation is intended to be more generic, designed to be repeated every renewal.
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If you’re on an AgencyZoom Pro plan, in addition to Onboarding and Retain automation, you also have access to Service Center Automation. And in Service Center, you can set up Onboarding and Renewal Pipelines.

If you do set up an Onboarding or Renewal Pipeline, these pipelines will be entirely separate from the aforementioned Onboarding and Retain Automation.
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Onboarding and Retain are set automation sequences, untied to any pipeline.

But on a Pro plan, you can also set up a separate Onboarding pipeline, or Renewal Pipeline, with stages, and unique automation tied to each of those stages.

The idea being that Onboarding and Retain are best for straightforward automation, where an Onboarding or Renewal pipeline would work better if your agency has multiple steps involved in the Onboarding or Renewal process, that you’d like to track the progress of.
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Your agency could use Onboarding/Retain Automation, in addition to using separate Onboarding/Renewal Service Pipelines. Or they could use one, and not the other. It just depends on your agency, and what works best for your workflow.