HubSpot Ideas

leebetts

Start sequence from a reply in gmail

I would like the ability to start a sequence from a reply in gmail.

 

Here is just one use case:

 

1. We start a prospect on a sequence, which encourages them to book a demo with us.

 

2. The prospect replies to one of the emails in the sequence and says:

 

"Thanks Lee, I'll book a time next week."

 

3. Now we want to enroll that prospect in a new sequence that says "thank you" and then follows up with him multiple times if the prospect forgets to book a demo.

 

 

We have multiple use cases like this.

 

Without the ability to do this in gmail, we'll have to jump in and out of the CRM tens of times per day. Not ideal.

HubSpot Updates
Not Currently Planned
January 20, 2021 01:38 PM

Hi Community, 

 

Just want to give an update here because it has been some time since the last update came though, I'm sorry about that. This is still being reviewed, and a problem that we plan to prioritize this year, however, it will likely come later in the year, so I am updating the status here to Not Currently Planned. 

 

We see a lot of value in solving this issue, especially in cases when folks are working from an email client. Once we have solved some core issues related to managing enrollments and reporting, we plan to priortize solving this problem.

 

Best,

Glen

Being Reviewed
April 19, 2020 04:33 PM

Hi Community, 

 

I'm updating this idea to "Being Reviewed". We're looking into a few variations of "replying with a sequence" and from some of the use-cases in your comments and from some customers I've spoke with, it sounds like there are a couple of ways folks think of "replying with a sequence".

 

If you'd be interested in providing some more feedback to help us scope out the work, you can fill out this form to participate.

 

1) After receiving an email, clicking "reply" and using a sequence to respond back instead of a one-off email. This seems to be the majority of feedback.

2) When sending an email to a contact, selecting an option to "follow-up" with a sequence.

 

We're primarily focused on #1, but would be interested to hear feedback on either. 

 

Best,

Glen

66 Replies
cbuth
Member

Not just in gmail, but from the CRM or Outlook too! 

bpprive
Member

Totally agree, and I see many people are asking the same thing different ways. I created a new account yesterday to test api calls in a sandbox environment and I receive a welcome email from hubspot asking me to choose between two options : 

Option 1 - Big email with lots of steps

Option 2 - 7 small emails along 7 days helping me configuring my account

 

HS, you're telling me one people of your team manually went to my contact in your CRM and enrolled me into the sequence? Ok, it might be a workflow, but the thing is : the features are not the same, reply on a workflow doesn't stop the workflow (that's ok) but there is no way of stopping a workflow with a email reply (workflow that is intended to replace a sequence I mean). Very frustrating.

 

Please stop the philosophy and start with some pragmatism, read a bit, it seems to be a really desired feature.

OhHello
Participant

I also 100% think a reply starting a sequence is a huge oversight for the hubspot. Here is an example of a scenario me and my sales team faces everyday that from speaking with other hubspot users is pretty standard. I think most just don't take the time to complain and suffer quietly. 

 

Customer emails us asking for a quote, I respond to email with a quote.

Customer gets busy and I forget to follow up because I am also busy. 

Sale Lost

 

How adding sequences to a reply would make my life better with hubspot

Customer emails for a quote

I respond with quote and enter into a sequence for a presentation followup

Sequence sends reminder two days later

4 days later a task is created to call

Deal won

Hubspot is the hero 

 

If I started with a fresh email that is what hubspot would suggest so adding steps with a workflow to do the exact same task seems like a bad solution because now we have two processes that slow the sale cycle and I know hubspot goal is not to add more work to my sales team.

 

Please please consider making this a priority. 

roma
Member

Painful this is not yet enabled. I have a prospect that has taken the exact action we want - REPLIED TO A SALES EMAIL - and we cannot continue the conversation with a sequence. torture. 

Indianadc
Member

This seems so logical! 

 

We receive a lot of company registrations via our website. Companies that want to receive more information. 50% of the times however, they do not respond to the information we send them afterwards. A sequence for follow up in case of no response would be perfect here.

oranges
Member

This is a vital feature. Would be great if they could implement it ASAP.

defranco
Contributor

This would help a lot in specific cases.

DY
Member

It's crazy to me that this isn't a feature yet!

sflowden
Member

This would be immensely useful. Is anyone from HS still on this thread?

Meekaeel
Member

I can see this has not been addressed in last 2 years. I dont understand why the sequences start a new thread. I have created a sequence to follow up with a client after I have shared a proposal with him. I enrolled him to a sequence I created specifically for this purpose. Its a 4 event sequence with 2 follow up emails and 2 tasks to give him calls. 

 

If the sequence is not replying to the original proposal email, it does not serve the purpose of following up. 

 

Sequences should have the ability to amend to the ongoing conversation. 

MarcusWennmo
Contributor

This would be a great feature and make sequences even better and more useful. Perfect for modern sales prospecting. 

glencornell
HubSpot Product Team

Hi Community, 

 

I'm updating this idea to "Being Reviewed". We're looking into a few variations of "replying with a sequence" and from some of the use-cases in your comments and from some customers I've spoke with, it sounds like there are a couple of ways folks think of "replying with a sequence".

 

If you'd be interested in providing some more feedback to help us scope out the work, you can fill out this form to participate.

 

1) After receiving an email, clicking "reply" and using a sequence to respond back instead of a one-off email. This seems to be the majority of feedback.

2) When sending an email to a contact, selecting an option to "follow-up" with a sequence.

 

We're primarily focused on #1, but would be interested to hear feedback on either. 

 

Best,

Glen

kevinwphelps
Participant

I would love this feature. I use sequences sometimes to make sure there are automatic follow ups. Being able to enroll a contact in a sequence that just continues within an existing email thread would rock.

AlykaDigital
Member | Diamond Partner

Hi @glencornell ,

 

Hope you are well. Any news on this one? The original conversation started in 2018.

 

We also desperately need this feature and it makes complete sense as a feature.

 

Please let us know.


Thanks

brianfrumberg
Member

This is one of our top needed use cases for sequences. Specifically what was defined as use case 2: sequence as a follow-up to an email. For example, we are asking prospects to book a meeting. One of those prospects replies saying "will do". We want our first email to them to be a custom email written in Gmail (i.e. "Thanks John, we look forward to speaking.") and for him to receive 3 more emails with reminders if he didn't book a meeting.  Thanks for the help!

VenProPartners
Member

We support this request as well! love the access to sequence in Gmail when creating a new email and thought is it should be an easy implementation into the reply within Gmail.

 

We have multiple layers to Sequences and the reply to one dictates the direction a subscribers goes into the next Sequence so this would be a great convenience and time saver!

 

Cheers!

Vicky-Bowie
Participant

Would love to see this for Outlook email as well!

Being able to enroll a contact based on replied email versus having to start a new email is so much more efficient!

Thanks!

glencornell
HubSpot Product Team

Hi Community, 

 

Just want to give an update here because it has been some time since the last update came though, I'm sorry about that. This is still being reviewed, and a problem that we plan to prioritize this year, however, it will likely come later in the year, so I am updating the status here to Not Currently Planned. 

 

We see a lot of value in solving this issue, especially in cases when folks are working from an email client. Once we have solved some core issues related to managing enrollments and reporting, we plan to priortize solving this problem.

 

Best,

Glen

SacredPathsYoga
Member

Wow, just found out, after the fact, that I cannot add someone to a sequence from a reply email.  This is couteractive to the whole reason we added hubspot sales to our account.  Seems like this should be bumped up to a priority.  Feels like more of an oversight issue then a design issue.

SacredPathsYoga
Member

I saw a request from HS for more clarification on what is meant by "reply with a sequence"  We would like the ability to add a customer to a sequence at any point in the converstation.  If that sequence has an automated email as the first task then an emial would be sent right then.  Or if you set up a task you can delay emails.  But the point is that at anytime in the conversation we should be able to add to a sequence.