Data deleted from Playbooks after edit

Hi all,

I’m working to set up a Playbook to use for capturing data associated from MEDDPICC questions on a per deal basis and found that all data associated with a Playbook question gets deleted across all Playbooks if the associated question is edited AT ALL. I found where it’s in the documentation as well:

  • If a playbook question is edited, the value in the notes field will be deleted.

So if we start to associated this Playbook with deals and capture data in multiple questions, and one of those questions has any sort of modification (even a space added), then ALL data for that quesitons across ALL those deals will get deleted?? I’ve confirmed that this is what’s occuring, but that’s crazy. Why is this data getting deleted? I can’t think of a good reason why. Even if the Playbook is being used to capture responses from initial calls you still wouldn’t want that deleted.

Anyone know of any sort of workaround or way to prevent this?

Thanks in advance.

Hi @Paul_B,
Thank you for asking the Community!
I’m sorry to hear about your experience regarding this.
Also, I’d like to thank you for sharing your valuable feedback! This means a lot to us.
I have shared it internally to bring more visibility to it.
Have you tried exporting the property value? I understand it’s not ideal but this might let you see the previous data?
Hi @danmoyle, @HubSpot_Corey and @Shadab_Khan can you think of a workaround that would work for @Paul_B in this situation, please?
Thanks a lot and have a brilliant day!
And please @Paul_B, let me know if there is anything else I can help with. I’ll be delighted to do so!
Best,
Bérangère

Thank you @BérangèreL for your response and I’d love to see anyone you tagged in your post have any ideas. I haven’t tried exporting the value, but given that it would only be needed when a question is *potentially* going to change, that would be tricky to do and risky to have as a solution.

To take this a step further, there are two default playbooks in HubSpot (at least in mine): Discovery Call Script and Qualification Call Script. We’re not actually using them, but same issue with these that I’m running into with my custom playbook: When data is gathered across numerous accounts using these playbooks by multiple people (I’m thinking a BDR that then transitions the account to an account rep), then someone rewords/rephrases one of the questions, all the data will be lost.

@Shadab_Khan - I haven’t created a ticket yet (but will), but this doesn’t seem to be a known issue. It’s by design. If you look here: Use playbooks and search for ‘will be deleted’ you’ll see where this is called out as expected.

Thanks,

Paul

@Paul_B, I hope this is not a known issue - can you check with chat or call support?

Quick update for this one. I created a ticket and was told that this is expected behavior with no immediate plans to change. I’d caution anyone on using the Playbook functionality before this is changed as it will be very easy to lose all data that’s been added to any given question. The support person I was working with created a post in the ideas forum for this that you can find here: HubSpot Community - Ability to edit playbook question without losing information - HubSpot Community

Hi @Paul_B, I hope that you are well!
Thank you so much for sharing this idea with the Community!
I have just upvoted it!
And thanks @Shadab_Khan for your help!
If anybody has a workaround to help @Paul_B, please feel free to share, that would be great!
Have a lovely day!
Best,
Bérangère

@Paul_B Hey Paul!
I believe this issue was resolved. The line from the knowledge base you referenced has been removed, and when I just tested updating a question after it had data in it the data was preserved in the Call notes and in the property I had set to update. I imagine a whole year later you’ve found other workarounds but I happened to stumble across this post and figured an update might be helpful if you weren’t already aware!