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!

[Will42]

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

[Roger]

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]

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]

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]

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

[BuyGoldAndBTC]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

@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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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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