HubSpot Ideas

amchartman

Required email and form fields before chat or bot conversations

I have seen several merged chats suggesting that people leave their email so companies can follow up. I understand this idea was delivered, and a prompt to leave an email was added to the chat feature. However, I am wondering if we can add a mandatory email field to the chat so we have a way to follow-up with leads who do not leave an email voluntarily. My suggestion would be to make this feature optional so companies can choose whether or not they'd like to enable it. 

152 Replies
tilly
HubSpot Product Team

Hi all! My name is Tilly, I'm on HubSpot's Service Hub product team. Thanks so much for the feedback. There are currently some workarounds using chatbots to collect visitor information before passing the conversation to a user in the inbox; that said, I understand this is a bit different than what you are looking for.  A closer integration between chat and forms is not currently prioritized for the short term, but that does not mean we won't revisit it longer term. Again, thank you for the feedback, it is much appreciated.

MichaelC
Guide | Partner

@tilly 

Thank you for your honesty even though it might not want to be what we want to hear. Then atleast we know to look for alternatives if it is a requirement to have the name and email before the conversation starts. 

 

/Michael

TC_MI
Participant

Thank you for responding, Tilly.  Disappointed, but appreciate the response nontheless.  Can you share the "work-arounds" that you mention? And what else can we, as HubSpot users do to escalate the need for this implementation?

repumartek
Participant
  • First, we think the chat feature should not be under Services Hub's feature, it should be in Sales Hub first. I think Service Hub is new and is not high priority in HubSpot Product roadmap
  • Your product team should not merge current Form feature with Chat feature, your team should think about some Required Fields insert to Chat feature

Event FREE forever Chat software such as Tawk.to can do the easest thing like this but the expensive, high classs HubSpot can not do for a long long time 😄

tilly
HubSpot Product Team

Hi @TC_MI & @MichaelC -- Thank you both for your replies and I appreciate your understanding. 

 

In terms of workarounds, bots can do a fair amount of qualifying before you use the "Send to team member" action, though these appear like a conversation rather than a form field, which can lead to visitors inadvertently having their query saved as their name. Alternatively, you could gate the live chat website page behind a landing page with a form, so only those who have submitted the form can access the page with chat. I recognize that these are not perfect options, and while I can't provide an exact timeline, we do hope to implement a solution more along the lines of what you are looking for longer-term. Thank you both again for the feedback!

MCardenas
Participant

Any updates on when this feature will be in place? It seems like an easy thing to code and a no-brainer...

LTParis
Member

Given how long this request has been out there, something tells me that it will not be tended to.

Heather_h319
Member

2 years later and this is still a major blocker. We spent a long time making intricate chat flows for every type of prospect on our site, but still cant validate the name and email? We are about to remove the bot completley due to this! 

CPSCB
Contributor

We were reluctant to implement chatflows, but determined it was the best way to improve the quality of interactions coming thru FB Messenger. What we've found is that many people miss the first prompt for email, go thru the rest of the series of questions, and we have no way to follow up.

 

Impact: SLA missed and Brand reputation is taking a hit because customers feel ignored. We're also seeing double up in ticket volume as contacts reach out on another channel asking why they did not receive a response.

 

 

Django
Member

This is extremely important.

without that, we can't get back to the interested leads.

 

We just transferred from Zopim to HS, and the entire sales team is fussy about that! 

 

These are simply "lost opportunities"! as we have a rule to follow up with 100% of the inbound.

Abhishek0204
Member

Hi  @tilly , 

 

Do we have an update on this? Also, is there any documentation or reference case if we would like to ask the two pieces of information i.e. Name and email address through Bot?

 

 

ARhoads
Member

Any updates on this? It's extremely valuable to our company as well to have a gate that requires email and name before the chat starts. We migrated from another CRM using a third party chat that had this option. It'd be nice to utilize Hubspot's chat but without this, it's not the right move for us.

NicoleJ
HubSpot Moderator

Also looking for an update, as this is desperately needed!Screen Shot 2021-11-12 at 11.26.50 AM.png

saaron
Member

Just signed up for Hubspot yesterday.  Livechat is the first thing I tried to implement.  Only to find that it really is inadequate compared to, well, just about every other livechat tool (including free tools).  Now I discover that Hubspot is one of those companies that says things like "we're gonna release a new feature" and then doesn't for years.  Talk about instant buyer's remorse. 😞

 

saaron
Member

Cassie.  I just signed up yesterday for a paid plan.  Livechat is the first thing I tried to implement.  I see the product team has been sitting on this much needed and requested (and basic) chat capability since ast least September 26 of 2019!  Wow.  I picked the wrong product.  More than two years and you guys still don't have this basic chat functionality?  Unbelievable.

saaron
Member

Every chat provider considers this a basic requirement.

saaron
Member

We are very much past next year. 😞

saaron
Member

Later this year has come and gone, too.  😞

saaron
Member

The next few weeks have come and gone.  😞

saaron
Member

This is telling on a couple of fronts.  First, it shows the flaw of Hubspot's "all-in-one" approach.  Having "all" capabilities only works if you build them as real tools.  Hubspot's live chat does not qualify as "real".  It checks a box.  Second, it shows the flaw in the way Hubspot operates.  They have had people screaming for this feature for more than 2 years.  Something is broken inside this company.  And to top it off, they are a CRM company that can't ask an inquiring customer for their email address.  Wow!