HubSpot Launches Customer Hub, Conversations,

HubSpot last week at its annual user conference officially launched HubSpot Customer Hub. The move expands the HubSpot platform, which also includes CRM, sales, and marketing tools, into customer service.

Customer Hub is designed to help companies understand, respond, and grow through the success of their customers. In addition to the standard features like customer inquiry management, live chat, and ticket escalation, Customer Hub will also offer tools for automated customer feedback and Net Promoter Score tracking, sentiment analysis and churn forecasting, customer testimonial capturing, and knowledge management. Also included is HubSpot Conversations, HubSpot's new solution to unify conversations from Facebook Messenger, onsite chat, social media, email, and other messaging outlets into one shared inbox. Conversations will also enable companies to build chatbots and scale responses to match high-volume inquiries.

"Whether it's between two humans, or a human and a bot, one-to-one messaging is the future of communications. Messages are simpler, smarter, and truly essential for creating an amazing customer experience," said Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and chief technology officer at HubSpot, in a statement. "With Conversations, we're going beyond a single solution, like site chat, to build something that centralizes all of a business's communications with customers and prospects into one, collaborative environment."

HubSpot Conversations draws insights from the company's CRM and marketing data to give teams the full context of every interaction. With Conversations, teams can stay connected with customers and prospects at any time, wherever they are. Now a customer interaction that starts on Facebook can be picked up via live chat on the company site, for example, with all communications synthesized in one central inbox.

"Let's face it, too often, companies pay lip-service to customer service and success. Customers are the lifeblood of a successful business, and based on the experience you provide them, they can be your biggest advocates, or your loudest detractors," Shah added. "With Customer Hub, businesses can now rally their teams around the customer, allowing them to have better conversations, develop deeper customer insights, and strengthen their relationship with your business."