Automation pipeline and chatbot all connected to a CRM

We are a growing home services company serving both English- and French-speaking customers in Canada. We are looking for an automation specialist to build an AI-powered chatbot and lead management workflow connected to our existing CRM. Our goal is to reduce the amount of manual work required from our office team while making sure every new website inquiry is properly qualified, recorded, and followed up with. What We Need We need someone to design and implement an automation pipeline that can: Add an AI chatbot to our website. Ask visitors a series of qualifying questions, including: Name and contact information Type of service required City / service location Urgency Preferred appointment date Short description of the problem Answer basic questions about our services, service areas, availability, and general pricing ranges. Detect when a question is outside the chatbot's approved knowledge and hand the conversation off to a human instead of guessing. Automatically create or update the contact in our CRM. Create a new lead or opportunity with all information collected during the conversation. Assign the lead to the appropriate team member based on location or service type. Send an automatic email or SMS confirmation to the customer. Notify our internal team when a new qualified lead is created. Track the source of the lead and save the chatbot conversation or a summary inside the CRM. CRM & Tools We currently use HubSpot CRM, but we are open to discussing the best architecture for the automation. Possible tools may include: HubSpot API n8n, Make, or Zapier OpenAI API or another suitable AI provider Webhooks Twilio for SMS Email API integration Website chat widget or custom frontend We are not looking for someone who simply connects a few Zapier steps together. We want the workflow to be reliable, maintainable, and easy to troubleshoot if an integration fails. Important Requirements The system should include: Proper error handling Retry logic for failed API requests Logging of failed or incomplete workflows Duplicate contact prevention Validation of customer information before sending it to the CRM Secure handling of API credentials Clear documentation of the workflow An architecture that we can expand later We would also like the ability to update the chatbot's service information, pricing ranges, and FAQs without having to hire a developer every time we make a small change. Future Possibilities If the first project goes well, we may later want to add: Automated appointment booking Follow-up sequences for leads that do not respond AI-generated lead summaries Call transcription and CRM logging Voice AI for after-hours calls Customer reactivation campaigns Internal reporting dashboards We would prefer someone who can build the initial system with these future integrations in mind. Ideal Candidate You should have experience with some combination of: Workflow automation APIs and webhooks CRM integrations AI / LLM integrations n8n, Make, or Zapier JavaScript or Python REST APIs Lead management workflows Error handling and debugging Experience with HubSpot is preferred but not mandatory if you are comfortable working with CRM APIs. Because a significant portion of our customers are located in Quebec, we would ideally like to work with someone who can communicate comfortably in both French and English. Being able to understand French customer conversations and help us configure the chatbot naturally in both languages would be a strong advantage. Deliverables At the end of the project, we expect: Fully functional website chatbot CRM integration Automated lead creation and assignment Customer confirmation workflow Internal notifications Error handling and logging Basic documentation Testing of the complete workflow Short handover explaining how we can update the system ourselves When Applying Please briefly explain: A similar CRM or automation project you have worked on. Which automation platform you would recommend for this project and why. How you would prevent lost leads if an API or automation step temporarily fails. Your experience working with AI chatbots or LLM APIs. Whether you are comfortable communicating in both French and English. We value practical solutions and reliability more than unnecessary complexity.