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.
We understand how important it is to have phone numbers stored in valid formats in the CRM. Since my last update in March 2020, we have renewed our focus to improving our calling specific functionality. We do not have a concrete timeline or details that we're comfortable committing to yet. However, I am moving this idea to the "in planning" stage to better reflect our commitment to this improvement, as we currently are researching and prioritizing the work required to validate proper formatting for numbers stored in the CRM.
We'll continue to monitor the use cases and needs submitted on this thread and will post updates as we have them. Your patience and continued feedback is very much appreciated as we work towards delivering a solution!
Thank you as always for your continued feedback and support, it helps us build a better product.
we have renewed our focus to improving our calling specific functionality. We do not have a concrete timeline or details that we're comfortable committing to yet. However, I am moving this idea to the "in planning" stage to better reflect our commitment to this improvement, as we currently are researching and prioritizing the work required to validate proper formatting for numbers stored in the CRM.
It's not a tough ask. Really really simple solution. Takes half a manday to implement. Much less, if you see HubSpot Community - International telephone number input - HubSpot Community I am willing to bet that the implementation takes less time than the "researching and prioritizing" that you are claiming to be engaged in.
Remember, done is better than perfect. If you deliver a solution that fixes the issue for 90% of the customers, that's pretty good - don't go into the rabbithole of 100%, i.e. things like...well, IP addresses are not 100% reliable for all locations...blah blah.
even by default, the phone number format with coutry code is locked in the phone number created by hubspot. this should be available as an option to either the number or short text input.
For us this would be a super important feature, as we would need to have all phone numbers formated in E.164 format.
We are using the 3CX Hubspot integration and our phone system (3CX) cannot find the right record, as soon as spaces are added to the phone number, because the hubspot API only supports an equal match.
I really don't know, why cant they just make this a format option? they already did it for one, the default phone number. Heck, even the different form plugins on worpress have this feature, including email formatting and the complete address breakdown which is something that we requested as well. You know, there are a lot of functions that hubspot already has, I can't just get the logic of why they are making this hard for their customers by not giving access to it.
Any update on this as it is exactly what we are looking for to set for Australia +61 our customers only ever add the area code if we are lucky. for us it would be +61 remove the 0 from the number area codes can be 02 03 07 08 etc and mobiles are 04 so it should be achievable.
Just to put my two cents in: there is a standard for this, E.164, that HubSpot should adhere to.
Put simply, this an international ITU-T recommendation for the worldwide public switched telephone network. In other words, it's what the telephone companies use. No more than 15 digits, excluding the international call prefix. Prefix with + to indicate that the country calling code is included.
The neat thing about this approach is that DNS mapping is then possible, i.e., any phone number can be mapped into a domain name, after which DNS queries can can locate the Internet service facilities to accept and process phone calls to the owner of record of the number, allowing direct end-to-end internet connections without passing to the public switched telephone network (and any fees they might charge. Unfortunately, not all countries support this, but some major European countries do...
Really hope to see an update to this soon. We have big ideas that are being scratched because of way too many different ways our phone numbers are formatted into our portal.
This would be very helpful and a pretty basic need for any CRM. Hope an update is coming soon.
CRM maintenance is a constant bane for many companies. Anything that can be done to assure the data is correct and formatted consistently is well appreciated and a selling point.
This seems like such a simple fix, i'm a bit shocked that Hupspot does not add this feature. I'm now having to look at outside resources to help maintain the uniformity of our inputted data.
Hubspot already has a drop down format option when creating a property. It would seem logical to include a choice between different styles of phone numbers right within the drop-down list.
Folks - I've mentioned it before, but the simple fix for most (if not all) of your issues is to check out https://www.insycle.com/. We use them extensively for many of the reasons mentioned and it's a simple no-brainer.