How to encourage users to connect their inboxes

[DarrenScottUK]

We have recently begun showing our sales team how to connect their inboxes and calendars within HubSpot to help them share content, snippets etc and link to existing contacts to help add benefits to their interactions and increase efficiency. 

However a few colleagues have raised concerns that this is for tracking them centrally.

Is this something other users have experienced with their teams and how can these anxieties be managed and overcome to show this isnt a tool to track colleagues and we just want to evidence the engagement and activities with our contacts to help improve contact strategies.

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @DarrenScottUK,

Technically, their concerns are valid. Once inboxes are connected, it's possible for users with reporting access to see how many emails have been sent and also draw conclusions about activity and potentially even working hours for roles focusing on sending emails. It's also possible for users who have access to a record to see the communication logged to that record.

What you could do is assure them that these features are being used to generate insights and share best practices of high performers instead of focusing on identifying and penalizing low performers. This still be based on trust. If it's hard to build or gain that trust, maybe work with HR to formalize an agreement.

Generally, I would encourage the teams to have a look at the tools they would have access to, once their inbox is connected. For most roles, this is going to make their life a lot easier: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/connected-email/what-features-are-supported-by-my-email-provider-and-r...

Also, I'd recommend you use this feature to exclude internal email addresses and also communicate that you do to the team: Exclude recipients from CRM email logging

If there are concerns regarding the calendar sync, I'd recommend sharing these event sync criteria: Use HubSpot's calendar sync – see the yellow info box at the end. Events set to private, for example, won't be synced.

Best regards

[PAtlan]

Hi, I'm meeting the same resistance in my org. 

One point to note is that tracking email volume is a highly inexact metric for employee activity. So while you could probably generate reports, I'm not sure they'd tell you much. We DO track meetings and calls logged by "type of meeting" because our employees have objectives on the numbers of sales pitches they do ...

However, the legitimate concern that was brought up is that at least 25% to 50% of emails are not "commercial" in nature. They pertain to organisation, HR, employee benefits, outside activities etc ... 

These emails shouldn’t  be in the CRM since they have no bearing on our commercial activity.

The way we've done it is this:

- everything that's sent from Hubspot is tracked and logged

- everything that's sent from Outlook directly is not tracked nor logged (unless forwarded to the bcc address)

That way we've given a simple way for everyone to manage privacy and company interest.

Hope this helps.

[MrBean]

I would also add that you can tell Hubspot to not track certain email adresses in settings near where  you toggle the email connection on. I have all my personal emails there as "DO NOT TRACK" which allows me to keep any emails I send to my personal from my work email private and vice versa. 

And ultimately, with getting buyin/adoption of these sorts of integrations-- I'd reccomend creating lists/a layer of automation that show them tracking their emails.meetings makes their life easier (Not just their manager's)

[kvlschaefer]

Thank you for sharing these tips, @MrBean! 

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @DarrenScottUK,

Technically, their concerns are valid. Once inboxes are connected, it's possible for users with reporting access to see how many emails have been sent and also draw conclusions about activity and potentially even working hours for roles focusing on sending emails. It's also possible for users who have access to a record to see the communication logged to that record.

What you could do is assure them that these features are being used to generate insights and share best practices of high performers instead of focusing on identifying and penalizing low performers. This still be based on trust. If it's hard to build or gain that trust, maybe work with HR to formalize an agreement.

Generally, I would encourage the teams to have a look at the tools they would have access to, once their inbox is connected. For most roles, this is going to make their life a lot easier: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/connected-email/what-features-are-supported-by-my-email-provider-and-r...

Also, I'd recommend you use this feature to exclude internal email addresses and also communicate that you do to the team: Exclude recipients from CRM email logging

If there are concerns regarding the calendar sync, I'd recommend sharing these event sync criteria: Use HubSpot's calendar sync – see the yellow info box at the end. Events set to private, for example, won't be synced.

Best regards

[DarrenScottUK]

Thank you @karstenkoehler. That's the way we are trying to go forward. While the majority can understand the benefits we are just working with others to show the purpose and benefits to us but also to them with their engagements. And while the info is there at an individual basis we dont have the interest or capacity to look at inidividuals and instead we are looking at a higher aggregated view of activity across contact / segment types to better inform strategies etc. 

I just wondered if this is something experienced at other companies too given this type of functionality is becoming the norm. 

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @DarrenScottUK,

It's definitely a discussion which comes up frequently and I have customers which decided against connecting inboxes for this reason. Usually, these are Marketing Hub customers.

If you look at it in a very technical way, employee contracts and HR guidelines should provide guidance on whether connecting inboxes is something that can be requested from managers. I would assume this differs from country to country, due to different legislation.

Best regards!

[DarrenScottUK]

Thank you very much @karstenkoehler  this is very useful 😊