HubSpot Ideas

usmiclow

Automatic Phone Number Formatting

When a phone number field has data put into it, it is up to the User to format it the way they deem appropriate. That is not the most user-friendly or data-centric approach. This is a good way to allow users to enter incorrect or sloppy data and cause possibly difficulty with search results while also affecting adoption. There are many other CRM platforms out there (At least 12 I could find) which will automatically format a telephone number.   Hubspot does not currently have this basic feature.

 

Suggested solution: When a telephone number is typed into a phone field, the number should automatically format to the Contact's standardized country format with a country code in front of it.  So, for US, +1 (555) 555-5555, for UK, +44 5555 555555, etc.  Some countries do not have standardized formats, but widely accepted formats, or multiple formats depending on when the phone number was assigned. I do not know of an easy solution for that, but choosing one format or at the minimum, placing the correct country code in front of the numbers according to the selected country on the Contact or Company would be helpful. Possibly a non-editable drop-down with country abbreviation and code which auto-fills but is still selectable in case of error. This could also help with the calling feature if calling out of the country.

 

An admin User should be able to toggle in settings whether or not the field will auto format with country code. At the bare minimum, as a US based company, it should at least format any 10 digit numbers into standard US format (555) 555-5555.

159 Replies
Will42
Participant | Platinum Partner

Half way through 2020 and still not done?  It's somewhat ridiculous this feature hasn't been added yet.

Roger
Contributor

Is there any progress in this matter? Or has anybody a nice workaround on that issue? With the new api 3.0 we have a lot more possibility to search for phonenumbers to popup the appropriate contact, but the number format still remain a problem. 

Thank's a lot. 

mikloso
Participant

Any updates on this? Ideally we could set custom formatting for phone numbers in the property settings by choosing from a selection. Ex: (xxx)xxx-xxxx , xxx.xxx.xxx , xxx-xxx-xxxx. Keeping this and other data formatted the same across the CRM is extremely important to me.

BuyGoldAndBTC
Participant

Yes, please!!

 

Even if no backend data is changed, just an option to show phone numbers the same and for search purposes!

 

This a very irritating issue!

NBS
Member

Our phone number formats are all over the place. This feature would be so helpful!

BuyGoldAndBTC
Participant

YES, this remains an issue

 

I get that changing backend data is going to be a huge issue, but implementing a wrapper so it just displays as with the 1 in front, if there isn't a 1 there already, with a toggle in settings to turn this feature on or off, or at the very least enforce it with new data, should take a dev maybe an hour, while not being an issue to legacy data that is not formatted correctly.

 

Thank you!

CBingham
Participant

It's been almost a year, and it still doesn't look like this has been rolled out to everyone. Is that still the case?

BuyGoldAndBTC
Participant

It is the case, no fix so far!  Again, this doesn't have to modify legacy data, it just has to be an optional input requirement for new data, which businesses with international numbers can freely turn off in Settings.

kelkaddouri
Member

This would be a very great feature; Certainly with the COVID pandemic. A lot of companies are investing in new phone centrals, CRM systems and so on and it would be very handy that the phone numbers are in same format. 

 

In our particular case, we want to tweak it so that users can't make mistakes. Sometimes we find even words in the phonenumber field.

Our phone central is connected with Hubspot, but when the phone number is not formatted as the phone central wants it, the integration is not working.

 

I see this inquiry started in 2017, let's hope there will be a solution in 2021!

Mike_Donnelly
Top Contributor

Not sure how I've missed this idea.  I'd suggest everyone who's on this check out Insycle.com as they could solve this one thing for you very quickly (among other dirty data issues).  

DeBa
Member

The feature would save us a lot of manual effort. We have over 20k contacts and our sales reps have to manually enter the country code every time before they can make a call. Please implement urgently.

Mike_Donnelly
Top Contributor

@DeBa Have you checked out Insycle?  I'd imagine if your sales reps are having to input this manually, the price of a subscription will pay for itself in day.  P.S. - No I don't work for them, but am a huge fan as it solves all kinds of dirty data problems.

Darling5280
Member

This would be extremely helpful... Even though it works for us technically, our location managers aren't as tech savy and feel they would be better able to read the numbers in the (###) ###-#### format. If you guys can create that, it would be great. 

BPorter5
Member

This is not only a good idea it seems like common sense. To not format telephone numbers is just lazy programming.

Formatted phone numbers are common practice across the planet. We would like to see this change made. It is so much easier working with data that is clearly formatted. When you receive an invoice for something isn't $423.56 easier to read than 42356?

The call back request contains a phone number that is free form text some customers will format it most don't. there should be a way to do a basic check that what is entered at least could be a phone number as well as formatting it as one.

 

Thanks Bill

BuyGoldAndBTC
Participant
Spot on Bill!!

No database data needs to be changed, (as I suspect this is the
holdup), only new incoming data!

I'm over at a new company now where we use Salesforce, which doesn't
have this issue! If Salesforce can do it, so can Hubspot!

--
*Nicholas Sexton*
*IT Admin and CRM **Manager*
*P*
*E *nick@nobleira.com
*A* 1 S Fair Oaks Suite 207 Pasadena CA 91105



BPorter5
Member

Right, I don't view this issue as a feature request. This is a bug fix issue.

The lack of formatting of phone numbers is a problem not some new fancy feature.

Lets get this fixed.

 

Thanks Bill

Sdiddy407
Contributor

Is this something that has been completed, the formatting inside of the left sidebar for deals shows an unformatted number, with no phone option in the settings.

DDavis13
Participant

Is there any update on this feature? I am looking to have the default phone number fields have this format (xxx) xxx-xxxx instead of just a line of text. Is this something that is being looked into, we had this set-up within SalesForce when we used their CRM, so we are hoping this is an option with HubSpot.

BuyGoldAndBTC
Participant
Maybe you could use a custom field? I am guessing the reason they
don't implement it is it may make old data incompatible with the new
field

Maybe just make a new (custom) field called Phone Number Formatted,
and swap it out in the UI?

--
*Nicholas Sexton*
*IT Admin and CRM **Manager*
*P*
*E *nick@nobleira.com
*A* 1 S Fair Oaks Suite 207 Pasadena CA 91105



BPorter5
Member
even a custom field doesn't allow for formatting a phone number.

You can create a field that is a number and choose between many number
formats, none of which are anything close to a phone number.

Bill


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