Stop contacts being added automatically after sending Gmail email

[IgniteMarketing]

Hi guys

I'm using the Gmail integration and love all the features EXCEPT the one that automatically creates a new contact within HubSpot CRM everytime I send an email to anyone not yet in the CRM from my Gmail account.

Is there a way to switch off just this one feature without losing any of the other integrations. All I have tried so far is unticking the 'Log In CRM' check box in the email compser window.

Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance!

[MayPascaud]

Hi @IgniteMarketing,

The Log in CRM fuctionality is in fact what causes new contacts to be created in your CRM. WHen the "log in CRM" box is unchecked, this will prevent emails from being logged, and thus contacts from being created when they do not yet exist in the CRM.

Is there a specific reason why you did not want to just uncheck the Log in CRM box to prevent these contacts from being created? At this time, there is no alternative solution, but it might be useful for us to know for the future if you have a specific use case that prevents you from simply unchecking the "log in crm" box.

May

[wimet]

Hi! I have a question related to this topic. Is there anyway I can keep this emails tracking and contacts private just for my user?

[MayPascaud]

Hi @wimet, so the EMail Tracking and Email Logging features are meant to be displayed in two places: your personal Activity Stream, which is only visible to you as a user, and the related contacts' timelines. For example, if you send a tracked and logged email to a contact, you will see the email open activity in your Activity Stream, and you will also see the logged email in the contact's timeline, with an additional activity if they have opened said email.

If you don't want anyone else to be looking at these types of activities, you could change the permissions of the users in your portal so that they can only see contacts that they own. This article explains how to change these permissions. In that case, only you will be able to see your contacts' timelines and the activities associated with them.

There is also a widget on the Sales dashboard called "Recent Activity" which will show sent and logged emails as well, but you can remove this widget from your dashboard if you don't want it to display this information to other users in your portal. 

May

[VineyardPaul]

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@maypascaud wrote:

Hi @IgniteMarketing,

The Log in CRM fuctionality is in fact what causes new contacts to be created in your CRM. WHen the "log in CRM" box is unchecked, this will prevent emails from being logged, and thus contacts from being created when they do not yet exist in the CRM.

Is there a specific reason why you did not want to just uncheck the Log in CRM box to prevent these contacts from being created? At this time, there is no alternative solution, but it might be useful for us to know for the future if you have a specific use case that prevents you from simply unchecking the "log in crm" box.

May

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Is it the same reasons for tracked emails? Can I leave the "track" box checked, but not have them added to the CRM?

[MayPascaud]

Hi @VineyardPaul, yes, there are two boxes: "track" and "log". If you check only the "track" box and not the "log" box, your emails will be tracked and not logged (they will not appear in the CRM).

[VineyardPaul]

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@maypascaud wrote:

Hi @VineyardPaul, yes, there are two boxes: "track" and "log". If you check only the "track" box and not the "log" box, your emails will be tracked and not logged (they will not appear in the CRM).

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Thank you Maypascaud,

I am trying to work out how to NOT add contacts to the CRM, but still "track" an email. Is possible?

Cheers

[MayPascaud]

@VineyardPaul as I mentioned in my previous response, if you do not check the "log" box, emails will not be logged, and so contacts will not be added to the CRM. Here is what this looks like:

[VineyardPaul]

Hi maypascaud,

I would like to know how to:

1. send a tracked email to a contact not in the CRM and
2. not have that contact added to the CRM after sending the tracked email

Is that possible? My CRM is bloating from contacts being added that I don't want to be added...

(I think this may not be possible...)

Cheers

VP

[MayPascaud]

Hi @VineyardPaul, I think that there must be a misunderstanding here.

As I have stated a couple of times in my previous response, there are two main features in the HubSpot Sales email extension: Log in CRM and Email Tracking. 

This article explain the Log in CRM feature: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/articles/kcs_article/email/how-to-log-your-email-in-the-crm-using-hubs...

This article explains the Email Tracking feature: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/articles/kcs_article/email-tracking/how-to-send-a-tracked-email

When you send out an email from Gmail with the "track" box checked, your email will be tracked. When you send out an email through Gmail with the "log" box checked, your email will be logged. When you send out an email through Gmail with the "track" and "log" boxes both checked, your email will be tracked and logged.

Checking the "log" box causes a contact to be created in the CRM if they do not exist already. If this box is not checked, a contact will not be created.

Therefore, it is possible to send an email that is tracked to a contact not in the CRM, and not have that contact added to the CRM, by sending an email from Gmail and checking the "track" box but not the "log" box. 

Please read this response carefully, as well as the articles I have included, and test this out in your own emails. If you encounter any issues after doing so, you can let us know.

[simonvdd]

Agreed, this is a pain in the ***.

You don't send only sales emails through your GMail account. And whenever you forget to uncheck the "Log in CRM" box, you end up adding dozens of irrelevant/unwanted contacts to the CRM... 😕

[norbertoyoan]

Hi, I have the same problem.

I know that unchecking 'log' it will prevent to create a contact but it is still a problem.

1. Sometimes I forget to uncheck this and the contact is created.

2. If the contact is created and I delete it, when the contact replies to me, the contact is created again (this is very annoying).

I hope there will be an option to prevent creating contacts at all and the log option just limit its functionality to add email information ONLY if the contact exists. Is there any option to do this?

[jveler_ecrs]

I would like to expand on the most recent comment by "norbertoyoan".

I am in 100% agreeance with them. This is definitely an option that could be added to the Sales settings page where you can retrieve the "logging" email address used by HubSpot for your particular hub. Why not just have a checkbox that says "create new contacts when they do not exist"? It would be a simple user interface addition AND the logic code in the logging process should be as simple as "if the checkbox is unchecked, then skip the code that adds the contact".

May, you specifically asked the question "Is there a specific reason why you did not want to just uncheck the Log in CRM box to prevent these contacts from being created?" and I think norbertoyoan answered it well.

a) we do not always remember to uncheck the logging / tracking boxes with every email and by default the behavior to turn it on and turn it off with each email sent is very cumbersome.

b) a lot of emails we send go to a "contact" we have in hubspot for a company and then we may need to CC one or more of our or their vendors. Well, those vendors do not need to be put in there at all. 

There are many other situations I can think of where this is the case.

Regardless, when you have a less-than-optimally-tech-savvy sales team of 30 people and you prefer they concentrate on selling new products to grow our business, I don't want to spend a lot of time drilling in their heads to uncheck / check these boxes constantly in their email reader.

30 people x 15 clicks per day (conservatively) x 2 seconds per click = 15 minutes of lost time per day, 1.25 hours per week, or 62.5 hours per year. 62.5 x an average $60K salary = a cost of $1,875 / yr. If 100 companies have this same undesired behavior, pay their sales reps, has the same size team, then you're talking about adding $187,500 of combined, unnecessary labor cost per year. In addition that lost time could be used for inbound training and/or additional prospecting.

In addition to the labor cost from conservative time estimates, I feel it is a way for HubSpot to quickly inflate (unnecessariy and unwanted) our number of contacts in our account forcing us to go over our contact limit and pay for additional contact allotments.

If the same 100 companies have this issue and over the course of one year adds 1,000 contacts to each of their accounts at $10/mo/1000 for Hubspot overages, then Hubspot just made $12,000 additional revenue because they won't provide an option that a base of customers desire.

Our costs dwarf your revenue, and your true cost of dissatisfied customers isn't even accounted for. 

So, my answer to your question, we don't want this feature because it:

• costs us extra time,
• reduces time spent prospecting and selling,
• inflates our contacts,
• is undesirable behavior by adding contacts we DON'T want tracked,
• is an easy fix for Hubspot to make,
• and is something we are ASKING for.

Bottom line, a newer CRM needs certain features that allow it to continue to be more competitive in its industry.

Please add this to your list of planned enhancements to the Hubspot platform.

[Borja]

Dear friend. Thank you for your efforts. The problem here and the reason we don't understand your explanation is because you keep saying thal "log" is for logging and "track" is for tracking... which is not much of an explanation really. To me both could be exactly the same feature.

At the end of the day it is fairly simple. We would like to have a button we could click for switching off that feature. Also, it would be great to be able to filter the domains so I could exclude. I keep re creating my evernote email account as a contact... 😞

PS. I will check your links to finally understantad logging and tracking

[jennysowyrda]

Hi all, 

If you would like to see this feature implemented in the future, I would recommend hopping over to the ideas forum and either creating a new idea or voting for an existing idea. This idea requests a similar functionality: https://community.hubspot.com/t5/HubSpot-Ideas/Option-to-set-email-to-private-and-not-log-it/idi-p/2.... If you can all provide use cases, examples, and work together by voting you will improve the likelihood of this being implemented in the future. 

Thank you,

Jenny

[cmartinez264]

Hello! I have the same issue, the thing is sometimes I already have a contact added with that email, and hubspot creates an additional contact for the same person if I send an email. 

[etiennemtl]

Seriously guys this is a must,

The product is amazing and very easy to use, but I think it just does not make sense to automatically create a contact in HubSpot when I write an email from my Gmail account. A sales/marketing database is critical and it cannot be populated with wrong data comming from all of the users associated with a Hub. Also, as someone metionned in a reply ealier it's also not a complex feature to implement. 

Thanks!

[RuairiMcN]

I'd love to see this feature as well - as someone mentioned already we're all emailing people through Gmail who aren't leads or potential leads, and who we do not want added to the CRM. When I or a colleague forget to tick log it inflated our CRM with unwanted contacts who we've to go and delete!

[kimberlyholmes]

It would be great if it could LOG emails with people who are already in Hubspot, but NOT log emails with people who are not. 

[louisreid]

+1 to the above. I'm currently disabling the Gmail extension to stop it auto-adding contacts, then re-enabling it when I need the HubSpot features.

[VineyardPaul]

I see this as still not resolved.

If I have an email that is not a contact and:

• Log un-clicked
• Track clicked

it will create a new contact in the CRM. 

I may want to track the email open/not opened but not add the contact to the CRM. Is this possible?