Bulk Edit Phone Number Validation

[michaeljay201]

The new auto-formatting and validation feature for phone numbers is a step in the right direction.

However, the current integration seems to be missing the mark with regard to user experience. I was unable to find any articles or posts in the Help Center announcing the new auto-formatting feature. The only Knowlege Base article that pops up when searching "phone number validation" is a detailed breakdown of editing default contact properties, and then there is only a reference to the validation and formatting being applied "automatically by Hubspot based on the country code."

This feature is certainly a step in the right direction, but several improvements are needed to improve the user experience and make the feature more functional overall (noting that recent comments on an "old" idea thread are already being discussed here; skip to page 7).

Suggested improvements include:

1. Global Setting to Enable/Disable auto-formatting at the account level - currently, the feature is enabled by default with no disable setting available
2. Global Setting to assign a default Country Code - currently, the Country Code must be selected manually for every new contact (see screenshot below)
3. Bulk edit phone numbers to apply Country Code format & validation -- currently, only able to apply formatting & validation when editing one individual contact at a time OR when adding to new contacts manually added (not via web forms -- this is needed, too)
4. Retain "number only" format for export and/or sync to other apps or integrations to remove non-number characters (parentheses, plus sign, spaces)

Default behavior of phone number formatting & validation when creating a new contact:

There are likely other enhancements that other users, especially those not based in the US, would appreciate.

[brittanyCP1]

I completely agree with this! Being forced into "validating phone numbers" with no solutions for having Hubspot help us accomplish this, is a huge waste of time. Contacts fill out Hubspot forms on our website, and their phone numbers still come in "invalid." If we are forced into this change, Hubspot needs to make changes that allow Hubspot Forms to validate numbers on the forms themselves.

[TuffaCharlie]

Really frustrating change that has caused this issue which can not easily nor quickly be rectified on mass.

[RBozeman]

Hey @michaeljay201,

I came across your post and thought I should respond. Full disclosure, I work for Insycle, but the software is able to handle many of these issues that are not yet available in HubSpot. I do love the additions that they have made in this area though. Definitely a step in the right direction for a decevingly complex issue that many people deal with (phone number formatting). 

Based on your suggestions, here is what Insycle can help with:

• Bulk edit phone numbers and applying country codes. With Insycle, you can filter and update your phone numbers in bulk. For instance, you could filter by country, and then inject the correct country code and format the phone number to your desired format. Insycle offers numerous pre-built formatting options, or you can even customize your own. Here is our documentation on phone number formatting and injecting country codes.
• Globally assign a default country code based on country. Using the templates you build above, you can schedule them to run automatically on a set schedule (or even integrate them with HubSpot workflows) to ensure that new incoming phone numbers are having the country code added automatically. 
• Strip the phone number down to digits-only for integrations. Insycle has simple functions for removing non-digits and stripping a phone number down to the bare numbers format. You may have to copy the data to a new field and strip the non-digits out there if you would like to store the same data in two different formats, but this could be automated as well. 

Hope that was helpful.

Thanks!

Ryan

[Olivia_Bagnall]

@michaeljay201 I beleive the programmable automation that comes with Ops Hub Pro would allow you to achieve all of these goals. Have you explored this option already?

Olivia Bagnall Inbound Consultant and Project Manager Baskey   o.bagnall@baskey.eu www.baskey.eu Rheingasse 14, 50676 Köln

[rcallan9]

Ya, this is wild. Completely necessary to be able to update in bulk through a workflow. This is breaking my SMS integrations and CRM calling. Honestly a little crazy this would get pushed without thinking about the ramifications and need for customization. 

[CarlssonElkins]

This is causing our team a real challenge.  Currently the way the system forces you to add the country code means that you cannot dial out directly via mobile as the number is considered invalid.  We have to manually sort all the numbers and this is a major headache.  Getting lots of complaints from our sales team.

HubSpot, please fix this!! 

[Coverage]

The new number formatting field is terrible.  It is very difficult to copy and paste from this field, it is very difficult to save an updated phone number if there are corrections or changes now since you have to "verify" it is correct twice now to "confirm" and then "save" at the bottom of the page, so its not always apparent to save the changes.  I usually was able to save a few patient phone numbers before, home, cell, spouse and now it is a pop up box that makes it very difficult to save from, or get the correct information to copy and paste to call them when you can't see everything in the pop up box.  And the pop up box stays open making it harder to see the rest of the information until you have to click and close the pop up box.  All extra steps.   Why can't you have 2 options to select:  a phone number field that has the formatting and then a phone number field that does not have the formatting so we can select the one we want to have listed (shown) in our "about this companies fields" and then deselect the formatted option so it doesn't show anymore.  Easy fix.  Please Fix it.

[Arthur-Le-Tiec]

Hi all,

Our two cents from Masteos, regarding inconsistencies for phone number processing in Hubspot.

- Data validation is done on email fields for forms (or meeting tool), but not for phone # (you can't book a meeting with email:kjbsdfiu but you can with phone:kjbsdfiu)

- Lacking a clear way to format phone # account-wide, object-wide, etc. Data cleaning workflows seem a bit heavy-handed for this and since it already is being done on emails, why not phone #?

To an extent,  this is reformulation of existing problems surfaced in previous posts. However, we're quite puzzled by the two-speed approach and this subject is becoming a pain point for us.

Looking forward to reading back from the community and Hubspot interlocutors both.

[RyanAndrew]

I echo the frustrations of the others in this post.   Please provide some bulk edit/validate tools to make this functionality more valuable and less cumbersome!

[87Norton]

All I want is to list out how many of each Area code I have.  I have been trying to create a 3-digit area code field but this is a lot of manual (and or excel) work.  If HubSpot has a "apply number formatting" and "Validated" flag then I should be able to sort my contacts by "validated = true" and so on.

[leoncalverley]

100% in agreement.

I've just set up a Twilio SMS integration (via Ulgebra).

This system, as far as I can tell, requires formatted mobile numbers, with country code.  

HubSpot forms make NO attempt to validate this, and there is no easy way to quickly edit mobile numbers, without manual 1 by 1 record handling... unless I'm missing a HubSpot feature!

[CHansen7]

As a Diamond Solutions Partner, we work with clients who need clean data. We spend lots of time with them working on cleaning data. This bulk formatting for phone numbers would help us and our clients save so much time. Something to consider is, this could be built into the 7 formatting automation that come with Ops Hub. This could be number 8.  We need this.

[coconnorALPS]

Completely agree with need to bulk update phone number formats. We have a sync that sends everything over minus country code, so now everything is invalid.

[HButler]

I'm shocked this thread was started in the spring and there STILL isn't a solution at the end of November. This seriously needs to be at the top of their list of things to fix, it's an enormous issue. We can't be going through manually validating thousands of phone numbers.

[TNadolski]

Completely agree with everything in this thread! Even with Ops hub you still can't validate these numbers in bulk. 

[bunners007]

Great suggested improvements. This needs to be prioritized! Today's phone number verification severely impacts salespeople's user experience. 

[hkfreem]

Please fix this!

[rebelrock]

It would also be great if we could at the very least set a default format on the forms so the phone numbers can be stored in the preferred format (i.e. U.S., U.K., etc)

[IONeill8]

This would also support HubSpot's investment in AirCall: because of this formatting issue, contacts already in HS (with the AirCall integration enabled) show up as phone numbers instead of known contacts with names.

This is a solved problem.  Embarassing that HubSpot hasn't solved this issue already.

I only do business in the US.  Let me set a default in my Contact objects that all phone numbers should have a +1 country code extension unless otherwise set on the specific contact.

[TUtecht]

At a very simple level, in other user experinces I have- I'm very accusstom to when I type in a 10 digit number it defaulting the format for me. For instance, I only type nubers and the dashes (-) or parathensis () are there for me. It looks so messy to have phone numbers be jumbled into different formats. Please give us more options to fix this at adminstor level so we don't have to manually fix numbers each time they come in!  Please help!!!