United States – Global customer relationship management (CRM) platform HubSpot has announced new features and updates to help businesses create deeper, more meaningful connections with their customers in its annual INBOUND event.
HubSpot said that fundamental shifts in buyer behaviours have made it increasingly challenging for organisations to create meaningful connections with their customers. In fact, research from Gartner found that when considering a purchase, B2B buyers spend only 17% of that time actually meeting with the potential suppliers. A major driver of that disconnection is the proliferation of new software and technology, making it hard for companies to connect with their data and systems, as well as with each other. HubSpot’s latest releases are a response to this current crisis of disconnection.
Yamini Rangan, CEO of HubSpot, noted that they believe the businesses that will win in the future are the ones that focus on customer connection, not customer management, and they are committed to helping their customers grow in this new world by providing strategies, technology, and communities that foster deeper connections.
“I’m excited about the product developments we announced today at INBOUND because they empower our customers to do even more to solve this crisis with HubSpot’s connected CRM platform,” said Rangan.
According to HubSpot, when looking to connect with customers, companies need to look beyond the software, and focus on what customers actually want – ownership, flexible buying experiences and deeper connections with companies and one another. As a CRM platform, HubSpot addresses this need by enabling merchants to connect with their own customers when and where they want.
With newly launched payment schedules, HubSpot merchants can customise their payments through a collection of dates and amounts. Additionally, HubSpot’s quote-to-cash solutions help teams save time through the quoting, billing and contracting process. Targeting operational efficiencies, these enhancements create a fast, seamless experience for customers.
Moreover, HubSpot also released new data management enhancements to provide customers with transparent and timely data insights through import error handling and enhanced automation. The newest data import experience flags and resolves data errors before they are ever published. Data quality automation recommendations also eliminate the manual burden of fixing data errors. Using the power of HubSpot AI assistance, customers can now set up automation to resolve issues as they surface. As a result, teams can now spend less time on manual work and reactive problem-solving, giving customers more time and confidence to level up their impact.
Additionally, having a comprehensive view of the entire customer journey is a key part of fostering customer connections, which is why HubSpot announced the upcoming launch of customer journey analytics at INBOUND. The new feature, available in public beta later this year, will provide marketers with detailed visualisations that make it easier to identify moments in the customer journey that can be optimised for better conversion and deeper insights into customer behaviours. HubSpot also announced enhancements to campaigns to provide marketers with a consolidated view of all initiatives together.
HubSpot also announced new features to help customer service teams create more connected experiences. Teams using Service Hub can now interact with their customers through a fully connected service desk, complete with a helpdesk, channels, and automation. Through the new WhatsApp integration, currently available through public beta, teams can connect a WhatsApp business account to their shared inbox to communicate with prospects and customers without leaving the HubSpot platform. With the introduction of inbound calling, customers can make and receive calls right from HubSpot without exposing their personal phone numbers.
The platform also addresses the need for connected customer data for sales organisations through new data quality features to keep customer data connected, clean, and secure. With the custom object builder, teams can now craft customised data models without code, and enforce consistent data entry with property validations. Prioritising data hygiene is easier than ever with HubSpot’s data quality command centre, where teams can get insights on the health of all data in one place.
Kat Warboys, HubSpot’s marketing director for APAC, said, “Creating meaningful, lasting connections is the future. HubSpot is on a mission to create a powerful and easy-to-use product that gives you the insights you need to drive growth in this changing landscape. At INBOUND, we announced a wide range of innovations all to this end – tools to identify and connect with your customers, and insights to drive growth.”
In addition to new product updates, HubSpot also announced the launch of connect.com, a newly connected community for growth professionals that helps them build strong relationships with their peers and community.
