This article explains how to use the Requested to Join Group workflow trigger in ZipLeads Communities to handle membership requests automatically. You'll see how to filter requests by group and by membership question responses. You'll also see how to build workflows that approve or reject people based on their answers.

By the end, you'll know how to cut down on manual review, spot spam submissions using AI, and set up smarter membership automation for your community groups.
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The Requested to Join Group trigger is a workflow trigger in ZipLeads Communities. It fires whenever someone asks to join a community group. This lets admins automate how join requests are reviewed, routed and approved.

Instead of checking every join request by hand, you can build workflows that process requests based on criteria you choose. The trigger captures the moment someone requests access and makes the related data available to your workflow, including their answers to your membership questions.

This turns group membership from a manual job into a system that scales as your community grows, while you stay in control of who gets in.
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Automating group join requests saves admins time and gives members a better experience. Here are the main benefits:

The Requested to Join Group trigger has two types of filters. They decide when the workflow fires and what data your automation can use. Understanding them helps you build precise, targeted workflows.
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Choose the community group the workflow watches. When someone asks to join that group, the trigger fires. This lets you set up different automation rules for different groups in your community.
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Once you choose a group, every membership question set up for that group becomes available as a dynamic filter. Each question appears as its own filter option, so you can build conditions based on how people answer specific questions when they ask to join.
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Membership question responses are available throughout your workflow, not just as trigger filters. This means you can build automation that responds to exactly what people submit when they request access.

Here's how you can use membership question responses in different parts of your workflow:
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Add If/Else workflow steps that check people's answers. For example, you can check whether someone's answer to "Why do you want to join?" contains certain keywords, then send them down different approval paths depending on the result.
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Pass membership question responses into GPT workflow actions to analyse the quality and intent of each submission. For example, you can send the person's answers to a GPT prompt asking, "Does this response look like spam or a legitimate request?"

Based on the AI's answer, the workflow can automatically approve genuine requests, flag suspicious ones for manual review, or reject obvious spam – all without an admin stepping in.

Build smarter membership workflows: combine group filters, membership question responses and AI-powered logic to create approval systems that grow with your community.
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Follow these steps to create a workflow that processes group join requests automatically, based on people's answers to your membership questions.
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Go to the Workflows section in your ZipLeads account. Click Create Workflow and give your workflow a clear name, such as "Auto-Approve Premium Group Requests".

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In the workflow builder, choose Requested to Join Group as your trigger. This tells the workflow to start whenever someone submits a join request for a community group.

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Use the Group filter to choose which community group this workflow watches. Once you choose a group, all the membership questions set up for that group load automatically.

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If you only want the workflow to fire when people give specific answers, use the Membership Question Responses filters. Each question set up for the chosen group appears as a filter option. Set conditions such as "Industry = Marketing" or "Experience Level = Advanced" to narrow down when the workflow fires.
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Add the workflow actions that should happen when the trigger fires. Common actions include:

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When your workflow is ready, switch the toggle to Publish. The workflow will start watching join requests for the chosen group and run the actions you set up.
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Yes. You can create as many workflows as you need, each targeting a specific group using the Group filter. This lets you customise approval logic, routing rules and actions to suit each community group.
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If a group has no membership questions, the Membership Question Responses filter won't appear in the trigger settings. The workflow can still fire when people ask to join that group, but you won't be able to filter or check answers because there aren't any.
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Yes. You can pass membership question responses into GPT workflow actions as custom variables. For example, create a GPT prompt that asks, "Does this response look like spam?" and include the person's answers as input. Based on the AI's answer, send the workflow down a path to approve, reject or flag the request for manual review.
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Yes. Use the Membership Question Responses filters in the trigger, or add If/Else conditions in the workflow to check for specific answers. If the conditions match, add a workflow action to approve the request and add the person to the group automatically.
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Yes. The trigger captures answers from every type of membership question set up for the chosen group, including text fields, multiple choice questions and other input formats. Each question becomes available as a filter and workflow variable once you choose the group.
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Yes. Add email, SMS or internal notification actions to your workflow. For example, if a membership answer meets a certain condition (such as VIP status), send an alert to your admin team so they can personally welcome high-value members.
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You can use any workflow action available in ZipLeads. This includes approving or rejecting the request, adding the person to other groups or tags, sending welcome emails, creating CRM records, triggering other workflows, or routing requests to different approval paths based on their answers.
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