Disable automatic contact creation for Conversations

[jehiguese]

HubSpot auto creates a contact for anyone that emails in - or is cc'd into a reply in conversations. For some customers who manage through support, this will mean a large number of contacts can enter the database. The only way to prevent this at the moment is by setting filtering rules, as all filtered emails do not create contacts. There is a use case from a customer in this post..

This is a request to build a "Create contact" rule giving us the option to disable automtically creating contacts for people we communicate with in Conversations.

[NCO]

Chiming back in here to get this rolling..

[DavidArias]

Es un mega problema de esta integración, perdemos mucho tiempo fusionando contactos duplicados y da una muy mala experiencia a nuestros clientes.

[krs360]

Does anyone know what the filters were from the original post?

I have another use case for NOT wanting to have contacts automatically created via ingoing/outgoing emails. I sometimes email referees for a Candidate from the contact via a template and this creates a new contact for the referee when it goes out, or when they reply.

This would be less of an issue if the amount of contacts didn't directly link to the cost of the CRM.

EDIT: Honestly guys, even just allowing us to add a wildcard for the incoming/outgoing conversions would fix this and buy you some time to fix the GUI to add the options/code something better.

[Millerd]

Thanks for this, the more comments the more motivation to change this.

No response from support !

[megananderson]

This sounds like a slightly different use case than what others have suggested, but disabling automatic creation of contacts who email in to a conversations inbox would be such a critical feature for us because we often have employees write in to our support inbox who then get added automatically as contacts to tickets and deals. This creates all sorts of problems for us in how we manage and track communication, and with what emails get logged within the CRM. 

I agree with what everyone else has said, in that having more control over how contacts get added to the CRM in general would be a huge benefit. In the specific use case I'm talking about, I'd love to have the ability to restrict creation of contacts when employees email in to the conversations inbox.  

[Millerd]

Thank you for all the comments. 

As an update I have been in contact with HS support, they have a division leader who is looking into this but have indicated that a fix will take time. And that this manager will post on this forum for an update, we are yet to hear anything in over 2 weeks, not really a good sign.

Obviously HS has a program of work they operate under, they have to plan fixes and changes as part of a broader strategy, the urgency of this change is dictated by a priority system that I am sure is determined by many things. A signifcant aspect will be the level of customer satisfaction/disatisfaction.

Therefore I can only encourage all persons who may be seeing this thread to post here and motivate for this change as many of you have already.

Thanks

[danielle2]

Having this feature would be a huge help to our support team. I manually have to remove contacts from each ticket and it is very time consuming. 

[JohanP]

This is a key fix needed urgently as it is basically preventing us from using Hubspot tickets at the moment due to the massive amounts of contacts being created from having multiple shared "info" boxes connected to Conversations.

It's been a known issue for a couple of years and I do hope you can provide a fix rather quick now.

[SimonH_Demodia]

@cdewey22  We have a similar problem using a shared inbox for our info@ email address. In our case, all addresses that come though this are being created as Contacts even though many are from spammers just trying to sell us things. I think this mainly maps to your use-case #1, but we don't want to me paying for these contacts either...

[graceotaiza]

+1

[grafton]

Agree that this is a problem. It's a problem because it automatically creates unnecessary clutter in the CRM, it requires time from our team to remedy, and it creates some financial urgency because Hubspot bills for extra contacts.

It's exploitative to bill based on # of contacts, and not provide autonomy to customers as to how their contacts are created and managed. 

[megananderson]

I just wanted to say "hear! hear!" to @grafton's comment above: 

"It's exploitative to bill based on # of contacts, and not provide autonomy to customers as to how their contacts are created and managed."

---

My reason for wanting to disable automatic contact creation is to avoid having employees/users created as contacts when they write in to our shared inboxes, but we would absolutely benefit financially from this, as well, and it's obvious HubSpot is incentivized *not* to address this issue due to the billing structure. 

[Millerd]

Guys

I have invested quite considerable time in motivating this change to HS directly, the last post by them indicates that they are working on this 

BUT

I sense that they dont quite get the level of fustration this is causing to their customers that is me and you so please can the community weigh in here, comment on this thread and motivate for the change.

I also sense that they believe that this issue is limited to team inboxes ! Personally I think this is as big an issue as personal emails linked to HS which are creating new contacts especially when one does a reply to all on a mail from a contact (then these contacts are also added), therefore please share your experience in duplications too !!!

Thanks

[hubby101]

I'm quite new to HS, but the first thing I noticed is the incredible amount of useless contacts that are being created even from spammers or others who will never be involved in a pipeline therefore don't need to stay in the CRM

Please introduce a rule to manage which contacts must be logged and which needn't.

[Muser]

.

[Millerd]

As a general update it appears as if this has been fixed but I do need input from all followers of this thread. I am in regular communciation with HS support on this issue and they assure me it has been sorted according to the following:

-Only for personal email inboxes that are connected to HS, I cannot vouch for shared inboxes as it appears as if they are excluded from this functio

-Where you log into (in my case) gmail and under the HS settings you remove the addition of logging/tracking for <new contacts>

Apparently this includes casese where you cc or reply all to emails 

Please can yo help confirm this is working

[megananderson]

@Millerd I'm not sure I understand what exactly should be working or how to configure HubSpot based on your latest post. 

Are you saying that contacts now won't be auto-created when emails are sent to/from a personal inbox that is connected to HubSpot? But that they will still be created when emails are sent to/from a shared inbox?

And where in the HubSpot settings do you disable logging/tracking for <new contacts>? Is this in the individual user's configuration of the email extension?

In any case, if this has only been fixed for individual email addresses and not shared inboxes, it doesn't really address the problem commenters here are having, which is that sending an email to a conversations inbox like "support@mycompanyname.com" or "info@mycompanyname.com" always creates a contact and we have no control over when and how those contacts get created. 

[Millerd]

Megan

The setting are imbedded in the gmail plugin settings under tracking. This may well be a beta feature so I would simply ping the support use the chat function in Hubspot and ask them to enable for you. When you have this simply deselect the "new contact" option in these settings.

As indicated this is for personal mail only, perhaps take up enabling this for a shared inbox, not quite sure why it would not apply to both.

Duncan

PS I suggest other participants to the thread also try this to see if it works

[Morgane]

I just created a new chat support on our website. But I don't want to have any of the contacts from this chat in my Hubspot file. It's a real mess if my prospects and the others mix.
You should be able to select a copy of the YES or NO file or with a filter.

[Hyumi]

This thread is going on for 2 years, is there any update available on this, using a crm should simplify and save us time. But now I am wasting several hours each week in deleting spammy contacts.