When it comes to closing a deal or providing a vital service to your customers, sometimes an email just isn’t enough. There are occasions where you’ll need to provide that personal touch to a customer interaction to truly delight the customer and move them through your sales funnel. That’s where the HubSpot Calling tool can be handy!
What is HubSpot Calling? What features does it offer? How can you use it to enhance your sales and service capabilities? Let’s take a deep dive into the tool to answer these questions.
What Is HubSpot Calling?
HubSpot Calling is a feature that allows users to make calls to contacts directly from within the contact record in HubSpot in their HS portal or app. These calls can use a HubSpot-provided phone number, an outbound number that you’ve registered for calling, or a third-party call service provider number.
What Are the Benefits of Making Calls in HubSpot?
The primary business benefit of making calls from within your HubSpot platform is that doing so enhances your ability to track data about your call-based interactions with customers.
For example, when you make a call within the HubSpot platform, it is automatically logged as an activity in the contact record for that contact. If you made the call outside of the HubSpot platform, you would need to manually create and log that activity in HubSpot.
HubSpot also has a feature that allows you to transcribe your calls—giving you a text-based record of what was said on the call for future reference. This helps to increase accountability and traceability for customer interactions. In turn, this can be useful for efforts to improve your calling scripts, identify frequent customer issues that could be used for FAQs (or may need to be addressed in your product/service), or recognize sales and service team members who go above and beyond.
Who Can Use HubSpot Calling Features?
So, how can you unlock HubSpot Calling for your portal? There are a few requirements. First, you need to have one of the following HubSpot subscriptions:
- Sales Hub. At a Starter ($18/month with 500 calling minutes**), Professional ($450/month with 3,000 calling minutes**), or Enterprise ($1,500/month with 12,000 calling minutes**) subscription tier*.
- Service Hub. At a Starter ($18/month with 500 calling minutes**), Professional ($450/month with 3,000 calling minutes**), or Enterprise ($1,200/month with 12,000 calling minutes**) subscription tier*.
*Prices listed are for when the subscription is billed annually. Additionally, HubSpot subscription costs and features are subject to change. Please check the HubSpot Pricing Page for current pricing and subscription features.
**Calling minutes reset on the first of each month.
In addition to having a Sales Hub or Service Hub subscription, the person using calling features will need a paid service seat or a paid sales seat in the HubSpot account. Starter accounts come with two paid seats, Professional accounts come with five paid seats, and Enterprise accounts come with 10 paid seats—though additional seats can be purchased separately if needed.
So, if you cannot use HubSpot calling features, be sure to check your subscription and verify that you have been assigned an active Sales Hub or Service Hub seat and that you have calling minutes available—though you will receive a warning if you’re nearing your limit for the month.
Technical Requirements for the Calling Feature
In addition to having an active HubSpot subscription on the Sales or Service Hub, a paid Sales or Service seat, and calling minutes available, there are some minimum technical requirements needed to use the HubSpot Calling feature on your computer or mobile device—and yes, there’s an app for your mobile device to use HubSpot Calling!
The base technical requirements are:
- Minimum Internet Speed: 10mbps download/upload.
- A Supported Web Browser: In Windows: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge (current version, not legacy). On MacOS/iOS devices: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari. On Linux or Android devices: Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
- Network Requirements: HubSpot works with a third-party service called Twilio for calling services. Twilio has specific network requirements to operate:
- Firewall: The network firewall needs to allow outgoing TCP and UDP traffic from your applications.
- TLS and SRTP Connections. Twilio signaling connections require a secure TLS (transport layer security) connection to send and receive control information to set up a call. An SRTP (Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol) connection is needed to send and receive audio.
- Bandwidth: 40kbps upload/download on Opus codec, 100 kbps upload/download on PCMU codec. Latency should be under 200 milliseconds with under 30 milliseconds of jitter.
As of December 5, 2023, Twilio is migrating its Voice Media Server, and the migration will be completed by January 23, 2024.
How to Make a Call in HubSpot
So, how can you make a call in HubSpot? It’s actually pretty easy! You can make a HubSpot call from your computer or from a mobile device. Here’s how:
Making a Call on Your Computer
To make a call on your computer, go into your HubSpot portal and:
- Go to “Contacts” in your main HubSpot portal nav menu and click on it.
- Click on “Contacts” from the dropdown.
- Search for the record of the contact you want to call.
- Click on the name of that record.
- In the left sidebar, click on the call icon.
- Assuming you do not need to update any calling settings, you can click on a phone number from the dropdown menu and the call will immediately begin.
Here’s a quick video guide:
Alternatively, if you do need to update your call settings, you can click on the “open call settings” option under the phone numbers to start that process. This will open a pop-up window where you can add extra phone numbers for the contact or change the calling provider (such as changing from HubSpot to another third-party solution that you’ve connected to your HubSpot account).
Here's a short video showing the option popup:
Calling from the HubSpot App
You can also place a call from the HubSpot App on your phone (or other internet-connected mobile device that meets the technical specification requirements). To do this, you need to:
- Open your HubSpot app.
- Navigate to your records through one of the three following routes:
- Contacts: tap on the menu button (the hamburger icon) in the bottom nav menu, then click on “Contacts” in the left sidebar.
- Companies: tap on the menu button in the bottom nav, then tap “Companies.”
- Tasks: tap on the menu button in the bottom nav, then tap “Home.” If one of your upcoming tasks is a call task, tap on the “Call” button to initiate a call. You can also see more upcoming tasks by tapping on “Tasks” after tapping the menu button.
- Tap the contact, company, or task record name from the list.
- In the record, tap on the “Call” button.
- A dialog box will open at the bottom of the screen with some call options.
- Tap the “Call method” dropdown menu to choose a calling method: My Phone, HubSpot Calling, etc.—“HubSpot Calling” is the default option for Sales Hub and Service Hub users with a paid seat.
- Note: Calls cannot be recorded when using the “My phone” option.
- Tap the “Outgoing Number” section to choose a phone number to use for the outgoing call.
- Tap the call icon to begin the call.
- Note: if the contact has opted out of communications, you will receive an alert before being allowed to proceed.
- When using HubSpot Calling, you can mute calls, use the speaker phone, open up a number pad, record calls, or take notes by clicking on the corresponding button icons that appear in the calling interface.
- Note that some states and countries have “two-party consent” call recording laws that may affect your ability to record a call. In essence, all parties on a call must agree to being recorded before recording can begin. An alert will appear asking if you have informed the other party before recording begins. You must tap the “I have informed them” option to begin recording. When in doubt, always ask for permission before recording a call.
- At the end of the call, you will have the option to save a log of the call using the “Log Call” dialog box. Here, you can review or write notes, verify contact or company properties, check call data (such as call date/time), create a follow up task, and tag other HubSpot users in your portal.
- Tap “Save” to save the call log.
How to Receive Calls in HubSpot
Did you know that you can receive calls in HubSpot? Well, you can! If you have a Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, or Operations Hub subscription at the Starter, Professional, or Enterprise level, you can answer inbound calls in HubSpot. Here’s how:
Step 1: Set Up Inbound Calling
Before you can take calls in HubSpot, you need to do some prep work.
- Configure/Generate a HubSpot-Provided number.
- If you’re a super admin user on your account, you can acquire a HubSpot-provided number yourself and assign it to others. Otherwise, you will need to contact a super admin user on your account to acquire a HubSpot phone number.
- Click the Settings (the gear icon) button in the top menu nav of your HubSpot portal.
- Click on “Calling” in the left sidebar menu under the “Tools” heading.
- On the “Phone numbers” tab, click on “Get a HubSpot number.”
- Review the information on the slide-in screen (including how many numbers you have available), and click “Next.”
- Choose a country and area code, then click “Generate a Number.”
- Click “Get this number” once a number has been generated.
- Set up inbound calling in the HubSpot browser:
- Go to the Settings menu in your main HubSpot Portal navigation.
- In the left sidebar, click on “General.”
- Click on the “Calling” tab.
- Add a phone number by clicking on “Add phone number.”
- Set your working hours to determine when calls can be forwarded to you.
- Set a ring preference, such as “Ring in HubSpot browser” or “Forward to phone number.”
- If using the “Ring in HubSpot browser” option, click the “Inbound Calling” icon in the top right nav to open a call window where you can receive inbound calls in the browser. This window must remain open to receive calls.
Step 2: Managing Inbound Calls
There are two ways to answer an incoming call in HubSpot once you’ve set it up.
- In your HubSpot portal, you’ll see a “Call remote” dialog box under your “Inbound Calling” icon in your top navigation menu. Click on “Answer” to answer the call.
- In your open Call window, a popup will appear allowing you to answer or decline an incoming call.
In both cases, you’ll see the phone number associated with the incoming call. If the number is associated with a contact in your HubSpot database, you may also see their name, company name, and a link to their contact record. This may not work as intended if you have multiple contacts with the same phone number—be sure to clean up your contact database to eliminate duplicates!
To answer an inbound call:
- Click on the accept/answer button in the call remote dialog box or the call window popup.
- To take notes during the call
- From the Call remote dialog box, click “Call details.”
- From the Call window page, navigate to your HubSpot account on your browser, and the navigate to “Contacts” and click on “Calls.”
- From the “Calls” screen, the call record will appear. Click the title of the record to access it.
- In the call record, you can take notes by clicking on “Edit note” and typing your notes in the text box.
- When you’re finished taking notes, click “Save.”
- You can also associate CRM records with the call by:
- Clicking on “Associations” in the right sidebar of the call record screen.
- Clicking the “+ Add” option next to companies, contacts, deals, or tickets.
- Clicking “Save” when finished.
- Sales HubHub and Service Hub users on a Professional or Enterprise subscription tier can also review transcripts and write comments after a call is complete. This can be accessed from the call record screen.
What If I Miss a Call?
What happens if you miss a call? The caller will get a message letting them know that you were unavailable and that they should try again soon. If you set up call recording, the caller will be able to leave a voicemail for you in HubSpot.
You can access these recordings from the call index page by:
- Clicking on “Contacts” in your main HubSpot nav menu.
- Clicking on “Calls” from the dropdown.
- Click “+ Add View” and select “Voicemails” or click on the Voicemails view tab if you’ve already created it.
Can I Record Calls in HubSpot?
Yes. You can record calls made in HubSpot or received through HubSpot. However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind when making call recordings:
- Recording Consent Regulations. Some states or countries have laws requiring that all parties on a call consent to the call being recorded. If one of the parties involved doesn’t consent, you cannot record the call. This varies from state to state. The best practice is to always ask for permission before recording a call and respect the other party’s wishes.
- You Can Toggle Call Recording On or Off in HubSpot. If you want to turn call recording on or off as a feature so you don’t accidentally record a call, you can do so from the “Call Configuration” tab of your “Calling” tools in your HubSpot Settings menu:
When call recording is enabled, you can record a call by clicking on the button in the HubSpot Calling interface. If it is disabled for your account, the option will not appear.
How Can Sales and Service Teams Use Calling Features in HubSpot?
So, how can your sales or service team use HubSpot Calling in their day-to-day? Some ways that these teams can use these tools include:
Using Call Transcripts and Recordings to Strategize
One of the best ways to improve sales or services to meet a customer’s priorities is to have a discussion with that customer where you can discover what those priorities are. But, if you have a call with a customer and miss taking an important note because of how much gets covered during the call, what can you do?
If you’re using HubSpot Calling features, you can recover this information using call transcripts and recordings. This helps your team flesh out their meeting notes and capture valuable insights that might have been missed without that transcript or call recording. These insights can then be added to notes and used to enhance future strategies.
Tracking Calling Activities for Sales and Service Teams
When an outgoing or incoming call is handled through HubSpot, that activity can be automatically associated with a contact or company record and the profile of the team member who handled the call.
This helps you stay on top of your sales and service teams—tracking their call-related activities so you know when and how they’re speaking with prospects and customers.
Identifying the Most Successful Sales Tactics
For sales teams, what kind of messaging most frequently results in closed deals and clients that are retained long-term? Interviewing your top-performing sales reps is one way to learn about the sales tactics they use to achieve success, but looking at a transcript and listening to the call recording lets you know exactly what was said and how it was said.
This can be useful for picking out useful ways to enhance your calling scripts and train new sales reps (or current reps who need a little help) in the most effective calling tactics.
Common Reasons for Call Issues in HubSpot
Sometimes, you might encounter an issue with the calling tool in HubSpot. For example, you might have a call fail to complete, experience poor call performance, or not get a complete transcript after the call. Why do these things happen? Here are a few possible issues to look out for:
- Not Calling a Valid/Live Phone Number. If placing an outgoing call, the call cannot connect if the target number is invalid. This could be because of having an inaccurate number or attempting to use a phone number that isn’t properly formatted in your contact database.
- Internet Connectivity Issues. Problems with your Wi-Fi network router or your internet service provider (ISP) could result in lower-than-optimal network bandwidth, causing a loss of connection, stuttering during calls, or an inability to fully record or capture call transcripts.
- Not Using a Supported Browser. If the internet browser you use on your device is not supported by Twilio or the HubSpot platform, then the call recording feature may not work as intended (or at all).
- Not Setting Your Call Recording Feature to On. If you haven’t enabled call recording in your settings menu, then you will not be able to record your calls.
- Running Out of Calling Minutes. Remember, each tier of Sales Hub or Service Hub comes with a different amount of calling minutes—500 minutes per month at the low end, and 12,000 minutes per month at the high end. However, if you frequently find yourself running out of minutes, it is possible to purchase a calling limit increase as an add-on. For Professional and Enterprise Sales or Service Hub subscriptions, it costs $50 to add another 1,000 minutes of call time per month.
Can You Integrate Third-Party Software with HubSpot Calling?
Yes. It is possible to connect a third-party calling provider with your HubSpot account to make calls within HubSpot using the third-party service. To do so, the solution you want to integrate will need to have an integration available on the HubSpot App Marketplace.
When using a third-party software to place calls, you will not consume your HubSpot Calling minutes—you will be using the calling interface and minutes/fee structure of the app you integrated.
Please note that some HubSpot Calling features, such as call recording or transcriptions, may not be available when using a third-party calling solution. However, call recording and transcription features of the app may still be available.
For example, the Aircall integration allows users to view call and voicemail transcriptions made through Aircall’s native AI.
How to Connect a Third-Party Calling Provider with HubSpot
- Start by connecting the app you want to use to your HubSpot account in the App Marketplace:
- Click the Marketplace icon in the main nav menu of your HubSpot account.
- Select the App Marketplace.
- Use the search function to type in the name of the third-party calling partner you wish to use and select the app if it appears.
- In the upper-right corner, click on “Connect app.”
Here’s a quick video showing the basic process:
Once the app is connected to your HubSpot account, you can select the third-party app as a “Call provider” in the calling dialog box.
HubSpot Calling Resources