Automatic Phone Number Formatting

[usmiclow]

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.

[usmiclow]

Hello All,

We are excited to announce that phone number formatting is now live to all users. 

 

How does it work?

Phone numbers can now be formatted automatically. Standard formatting and validation will be applied to phone numbers based on country code.

Value formatting:

For phone numbers values entered via CSV import or API use the following format: '+18779290687 ext123'

• This functionality applies to the default Phone Number, and Mobile Phone number properties.
• To use it, select a country code and enter the phone number in digits only. Formatting will be applied automatically.
• Existing phone numbers in your CRM that have a country code and are valid will be formatted automatically.
• If you prefer to not use automatic formatting, you can click "remove number formatting" below the field. This will remove all formatting and allow you to enter any characters. To apply formatting to an unformatted number, click "apply number formatting" underneath the field.

[usmiclow]

Hello HubSpot community! 

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.

[usmiclow]

Hello HubSpot Community, 

Thank you as always for your continued feedback, it helps us build a great product.

We are constantly evaluating and re-evaluating our priorities and roadmap to deliver as much value to our customers as possible. The request to format and validate phone numbers is a good one, I can certainly see how this would deliver value in many different ways. Based on the comments and use cases you all have listed, we are reviewing this request and its feasibility among other priorities on our roadmap. At this time I don’t have any details around timing or delivery, but thanks to the comments and votes on this post we’re actively looking into a solution.

[usmiclow]

Hi all! This idea is not marked as Delivered anymore. There was a misunderstanding a few months ago and I reopened it. We are definitely still working on a more holistic solution to this.

There is a bug with the timestamps of the pinned posts at the top of this thread that are making all my comments appear as if they just happened. Our community developers are aware of the issue. I apologize for any confusion this is causing! Please always reference the status at the top left of the main post for the most up to date info 🙂

[usmiclow]

Thank you all for your feedback! The first time we rolled this out, the changes did not not carry through the entire CRM as detailed in your comments. The team is now working on this and so I am putting this idea back to In Planning.

[usmiclow]

I'm pleased to announce that we have implemented automatic formatting for how phone numbers appear across the CRM, as well as a new "Show country code dropdown" configration option for phone fields in Forms! Any continuing inconsistencies should be brought to the attention of our Support team, and any other phone number related requests should be filed as new ideas. Thanks for your feedback!

[JasonGilkes]

Yes please, this is absolutely fundamental to a successful CRM.

The same way you format telephone numbers on your forms, you don't allow your paid users to do the same. It's mystifying.

[daveyankowiak]

Our sales team keeps requesting properly formatted/validated phone numbers on form submissions, so I keep coming back to this thread to see if the feature has been completed yet.

Hubspot, we need this feature ASAP.

Any update?

[JohnBergquist]

I've used other CRMs like ACT and Goldmine that allowed for this on any type of field, not just phone with a "Constrained Field" type.  That field type let the admin set the constraint of the new field by keying in nnn-nnn-nnnn for a phone number or aaaa-nnnnn for a 5 number part with 4 letter suffix for example.

[BenjaminSF]

I totally support this and was about to post my own thread on this very subject.  It kinda blows me away that every CRM I've ever used has this functionality... except for Hubspot.  My data and lists looks like **bleep** and dialing from the app is worthless if the phone number was input incorrectly.  Oh, and try dialing outside of the country without international code support.  Good luck.  

[brentswashburn]

@hroberts Like most, I'm very excited about this release, but I'm not seeing any difference aside from the country-code dropdown on forms. I think the orginal intent and largely the greatest need is to force formatting like (xxx) xxx-xxxx. Is that not the outcome of this soution? If not, I don't think it's fair to mark this as solved. 

[Anonymous]

@brentwashburn this truly is not solved. They have only added formatting to forms, but not the CRM user platform, which is equally if not more important. Admins should be able to enforce different formats depending on property type.

[brentswashburn]

@Anonymous Are you seeing forced form formatting for phone numbers? I just went through two dozen portals and I didn't see any changes aside from the country code drop-down. So now you can have that fancy +1 but the rest of your number still looks like 0000000000.

[Anonymous]

@brentwashburn no, they have not met this minimal expectation to date. Again, I am not even looking at forms, only the HubSpot CRM UI. What is interesting is they recognize the need because they do this with your phone number on the User Profile and Preferences screen, but then do not offer it anywhere else. If HubSpot themselves view it as necessary for data they are collecting, why would their users not need the same functionality?

[Wholesale-Solar]

@bhalligan It would be wonderful if someone from Hubspot could chime in on this thread. It feels like we are on our own here.

[hroberts]

Hi all! This idea is not marked as Delivered anymore. There was a misunderstanding a few months ago and I reopened it. We are definitely still working on a more holistic solution to this.

There is a bug with the timestamps of the pinned posts at the top of this thread that are making all my comments appear as if they just happened. Our community developers are aware of the issue. I apologize for any confusion this is causing! Please always reference the status at the top left of the main post for the most up to date info 🙂

[DidierG]

I definitelly like the suggestion of Erikblues .

It would be also a must to have  individual preference regarding phone formating (eg . spacing char "dot" or "space".)

This would make phone contact information more readable.

Thanks

[LinaMHerrera089]

It's really important!

Need country code in forms and all entries to phone number contact property.

[johnhenry]

HI Community,

Just picked up on this thread, like many others I share the enthuasim towards of this idea of having a set format.

Has there been any movement on this update?

[thisisdatis]

I see the option to add a country code, but i don't see a way to select how the format would appear. 

I need my phone numbers to appear like this +1 604 555 5555 

Is there any way of dictating the format? 

[thisisdatis]

anything happening with this?

[Sara_O]

Hi there! Any updates on this capability? 

[Jusbut99]

would be good to have!

[Dylan]

Hello HubSpot Community, 

Thank you as always for your continued feedback, it helps us build a great product.

We are constantly evaluating and re-evaluating our priorities and roadmap to deliver as much value to our customers as possible. The request to format and validate phone numbers is a good one, I can certainly see how this would deliver value in many different ways. Based on the comments and use cases you all have listed, we are reviewing this request and its feasibility among other priorities on our roadmap. At this time I don’t have any details around timing or delivery, but thanks to the comments and votes on this post we’re actively looking into a solution.

[kdemars]

We are getting repeated requests from our sales team to have the phone number field automatically formatted regardless of how a user enters the information into the field. Not only would we like to have this moving forward, but if this feature is rolled out, it would be great to be able to apply it to our existing HubSpot data.

[PeteAd]

Any news on this feature? This really should be standard.