Sales Hub Tools

dannio
Top Contributor | Diamond Partner
Top Contributor | Diamond Partner

Cannot search contacts or companies in task

The tasks feature is useful in sending reminders, however if you try to search for an associated property like contact, deal or company, it returns nothing. 

 

I have complaints from people about finding tasks specific to a company or contact and it's putting people off using this feature a lot. 

15 Replies 15
JKrauss
Participant

Cannot search contacts or companies in task

I could not agree with this more! Once leads become contacts, they tend to have continuous tasks. We work mostly from the Tasks page, since this is the best way to be efficient with follow-ups and other types of activities. We should be able to search by all fields that we have in the task table, the same way that we are able to do so in the contact and companies table. Searching by the contact name and company would increase efficiency immensely!

MFrankJohnson
Thought Leader

Cannot search contacts or companies in task


2000px-Ok_sign_font_awesomeDoes my post help answer your question?

Help the Community by marking it as SOLVED

 

Q: Cannot search contacts or companies in task

 

Short A: HubSpot Task search works very differently from Contact and Company search. Task search returns results based mainly on task TITLE and task NOTES.

hubspot-tasks-search-1000x500-v01.png 

Longer A:

While the following kb article clearly describes how to create and setup tasks it's completely devoid of any instruction about searching tasks.
- see How to use tasks

Let's do a few searches on the following tasks to see how results are returned. The rationale for the results returned is also shown. (see image)

hubspot-tasks-search-tasks.png

 

Search #1: Frank
Result #1: Call Frank Johnson at MFJLabs about new template
Rationale: The term "Frank" appears in the task title.

hubspot-tasks-search-result1.png

 

Search #2: HubSpot
Result #2: Camp Bow Wow
Rationale: The term "HubSpot" appears in the task notes.

hubspot-tasks-search-result2.png

 

Search #3: Example
Result #3: (no results returned)
Rationale: The term "Example" does NOT appear in either the task title or notes.

hubspot-tasks-search-result3.png

 

Search #4: MFJLabs
Result #4: Call Frank Johnson at MFJLabs about new template
Rationale: The term "MFJLabs" appears in the task title.

hubspot-tasks-search-result4.png

 

Search #5: your country
Result #5: (all results returned)
Rationale: The term "your country" appears in the task notes for all tasks.

hubspot-tasks-search-result5.png


Tip: Something to remember about tasks.
HubSpot is a contact-centric CRM, so tasks will always appear in the task list to be associated with a CONTACT even when other associations exist e.g., Company or Deal.

 

 

share-on-Linkedin-Button-75x19.png 


hubspot-forum-signature-badge-v01.png

www.MFrankJohnson.com

 

Please include @MFrankJohnson if you'd like me to respond.

 

Note: Please search for recent posts as HubSpot evolves to be the #1 CRM platform of choice world-wide.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Be well,
Frank


www.mfrankjohnson.com
dannio
Top Contributor | Diamond Partner
Top Contributor | Diamond Partner

Cannot search contacts or companies in task

Yes I understand all this, but the issue still remains the same. Users cannot search for the contact or companies they associated to the tasks.

 

This is quite a nuisance and although I understand since it's not on the record itself, it's difficult to search for as it's a separate entity. However, it's something they've already implemented in Deals (filter -> associated companies -> is equal to) so it shouldn't be that difficult in adding this feature to tasks.

MFrankJohnson
Thought Leader

Cannot search contacts or companies in task

While a bit clunky, the solution is to include personalization tokens in either the Task Title, Task Notes, or both -- e.g., Company Name, Contact Name, etc.. This is usually accomplished in a workflow based on other engagement factors. (see image)

hubspot-tasks-auto-personalize-in-workflow.png

 

Note: Please search for recent posts as HubSpot evolves to be the #1 CRM platform of choice world-wide.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Be well,
Frank


www.mfrankjohnson.com
0 Upvotes
dannio
Top Contributor | Diamond Partner
Top Contributor | Diamond Partner

Cannot search contacts or companies in task

Not really a solution as these tasks aren't automated. These are ones the sales person puts in themselves.

 

I cannot control what people enter in their own tasks, but I do request that they do associate the correct companies and contacts for record's sake. However, this is rendered quite ineffective due to the lack of search features. 

 

The users are all sales people who enter titles and descriptions quickly and often times with spelling mistakes. Only an absolute value like a contact or company record would suffice.

MFrankJohnson
Thought Leader

Cannot search contacts or companies in task


2000px-Ok_sign_font_awesomeDoes my post help answer your question?

Help the Community by marking it as SOLVED

 

 

While the offered solution may not fit your specific use case, it is clearly a solution currently available within the HubSpot tasks framework.

 

To suggest a lack of control over the data sales people enter into any system specifically designed to empower them seems a bit reductive. The vast majority of sales people we've worked with on HubSpot are more than willing to 'play by the rules' once they're advised what those rules are and how the system helps them close more deals.

 

In fact, I'd be willing to wager that most members of the sales team would welcome such a workaround if it answered the original query in this thread -- "how to search contacts or company's in tasks"!

 

You now have a currently available solution in your possession. Your move. Good luck on your projects.

 

Always happy to help you build on HubSpot.

 

Best,
Frank

#nlmtt #nlmtu


hubspot-solutions-signature-mfrankjohnson-v03.png

www.MFrankJohnson.com

 

Note: Please search for recent posts as HubSpot evolves to be the #1 CRM platform of choice world-wide.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Be well,
Frank


www.mfrankjohnson.com
0 Upvotes
rosyoutlook
Participant

Cannot search contacts or companies in task

Sorry to butt in here, but your aggresive response to a genuine (fault) need, by LPM, just because your sales people have implemented a "work around". Being able to implement a work around does not make for a productive work place.

In our utilisation of Hubspot Tasks we call 100's of customers everyday and not being able to filter tasks by contact (or Company Name) is a real pain. We deal with Supermarkets and it would be really useful to us for example to pull up all the Tasks associated with "Super Barn"

I'm hope full that one day Hubspot will enhance the Task filter/search

PamCotton
Community Manager
Community Manager

Cannot search contacts or companies in task

Hello @rosyoutlook,

 

Investigating more about it, I was not able to find the exact idea in our community but a similar one that is currently being reviewed by our product team here.

Upvoting there will alert our Product Team to the popularity of this request. Doing so will also auto-notify you if/when this functionality becomes available within HubSpot. You may read more about how that review process works here.

 

Kindly,

Pam

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dannio
Top Contributor | Diamond Partner
Top Contributor | Diamond Partner

Cannot search contacts or companies in task

Not quite "My move" as you put it there.

 

This is a large client with dozens of sales people. All their tasks were migrated from Salesforce, which allowed the search of companies and contacts within their tasks.

 

Through multiple requests and warnings issued before, they still enter their tasks as something like "Call them" or "Email them". Again, I cannot control what they do,  I am merely a 3rd party.

 

Also your solution wouldn't work here as again, these tasks aren't meant to be automated. Leads and new companies are created all the time in this company and they don't necessarily need to be interacted with. It's up to the sales person how and who they decide to pick up, and also set their own dates.

 

The main reason the users wants to search for companies/contacts is to:

  1. Go through old notes on the lead (maybe before a call)
  2. Find the last time they interacted with the lead, to see if there was a chance of re-engagement
  3. Remind themselves why they abandoned the lead 

This can all be solved if hubspot inserts a search option for this, but alas I think I'll have to tell them to just go find the company/contact record and check the tasks from there.

MFrankJohnson
Thought Leader

Cannot search contacts or companies in task

Excellent suggestion. You may wish to add to a new or existing thread in HubSpot Ideas.

 

You'll typically get much more traction from the HubSpot Community AND the Ideas Forum is where HubSpot Product Teams monitor suggestions for popularity -- i.e., VOTES! 🙂

 

Note: Please search for recent posts as HubSpot evolves to be the #1 CRM platform of choice world-wide.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Be well,
Frank


www.mfrankjohnson.com
0 Upvotes
Josh
Recognized Expert | Diamond Partner
Recognized Expert | Diamond Partner

Cannot search contacts or companies in task

 



Did this post help solve your problem? If so, please mark it as a solution.

Josh Curcio

HubSpot support and inbound marketing for OEMs, contract manufacturers, and industrial suppliers.
HubSpot Diamond Partner & HubSpot Certified Trainer

0 Upvotes
Josh
Recognized Expert | Diamond Partner
Recognized Expert | Diamond Partner

Cannot search contacts or companies in task

Hi @dannio,

 

You should be able to search for a contact or company as long as it is associated with a task. 

 

This worked for most of the contacts or companies I searched for, however there were some instances when it did not return a result when searching for a company, even when the company was associated. So from what I can tell, the functionality exists, there just may be some glitches. 

 

Search-Tasks.PNG




Did this post help solve your problem? If so, please mark it as a solution.

Josh Curcio

HubSpot support and inbound marketing for OEMs, contract manufacturers, and industrial suppliers.
HubSpot Diamond Partner & HubSpot Certified Trainer

dannio
Top Contributor | Diamond Partner
Top Contributor | Diamond Partner

Cannot search contacts or companies in task

The name you searched is in the title of the task, that's why it appeared.

Screenshot (11).pngScreenshot (12).png

Josh
Recognized Expert | Diamond Partner
Recognized Expert | Diamond Partner

Cannot search contacts or companies in task

Here's an example in which it is not in the title. I used company name. 

Search-Tasks-2.PNG




Did this post help solve your problem? If so, please mark it as a solution.

Josh Curcio

HubSpot support and inbound marketing for OEMs, contract manufacturers, and industrial suppliers.
HubSpot Diamond Partner & HubSpot Certified Trainer

0 Upvotes
dannio
Top Contributor | Diamond Partner
Top Contributor | Diamond Partner

Cannot search contacts or companies in task

Is it in the task description?

 

That property is still index in the search.

 

I'm pretty certain that they didn't build in search for associated objects.