I had an interesting experience with Hubspot about a week ago which leaves me a bit disenchanted with them as a result.
I completed the HubSpot Inbound Marketing University last summer, which I do recommend and have recommended to many friends and colleagues. After completing the course, I joined Hubspot’s LinkedIn group for alumni of the course.
On March 12, Hubspot posted a call for video testimonials of the course. I emailed the contact saying that I would create a video and gave a short three paragraph testimonial.
I was somewhat anxious to see the reply specifically because of one statement that I had made in my email. I wanted to hear what Hubspot had to say.
To my surprise, I received a templated reply with instructions on how to make and submit the video with a deadline of March 16 (only a few days). Not only did the issue I raised to Hubspot go unanswered, but I’m fairly certain that Hubspot didn’t read past the first line of my email after seeing that I was willing to make a video.
Confirming my suspicions of a copy and paste response (which is a big annoyance when I take the time to ask specific questions or raise specific issues), I saw that the exact content of the reply email was later posted in the same LinkedIn group.
I understand that Hubspot employees are busy
But guess what…so am I.
I was willing to take time out of my day to help, only to find my willingness to connect shut down. I’m not angry, just disappointed.
This experience has helped me understand one simple lesson. For Hubspot, inbound marketing is about making money and finding new clients, not about connecting with individuals and building a community. I normally wouldn’t care since the goal of business is to make money, but Hubspot is a vocal proponent of connecting with potential leads.
Until now, I’ve been a potential lead.
I think I’ll remove myself from that list for the time being.
UPDATE: I’ve had the pleasure of corresponding with Rebecca from Hubspot through email ;) about my experience and am happy to say that she has quickly and handily addressed my concerns. I look forward to a continuing relationship with Hubspot.
Hey Adam,
That email was from me. And if you ask other folks who made videos, I did send each volunteer a very similar note. You're correct, it was to save myself time and I wanted to make sure I gave folks specific instructions in the most timely fashion I could.
With that, I did read your email. In fact, I was looking forward to receiving your video because it was so specific to a business you and your wife had created. It was very personal. I was bummed you never sent it.
Anywhoo, you're correct: if I first mentioned that I appreciated your idea before including instructions, it would have been more personal. I would feel the same way.
However, I think your IMU peers would agree that I work very hard to respond to the many emails I get from the IMU community the best I can. I hope you can understand.
With that, if you'd still like to send your video I'm happy to edit the final product and include yours.
Best,
Rebecca
Hey Rebecca,
I appreciate your response. I've been a big fan of Hubspot and proponent of its tool within my organization. As a fan, I developed trust in the brand through previous interactions with Hubspot employees. Which is why I think I felt that that trust was misplaced.
I was excited about the opportunity. And despite four very busy days, I had intended to carve out a few minutes whenever I needed to in order to make the video.
So I understand the copy and paste, but as you pointed out above, one line would have made all the difference.
So thank you.
I think this is a Great Discussion, like Adam I too am very busy and a IMU certified Pro in Social Media Marketing. I had originally wrote my Certification from IMU because I got sick and tired of waiting for the Hubspot Partnership Program to be re-launched. My only intent was to have our company Numantis Technology Solutions make Hubspot even more money than they do now. Long story short, too busy to care… after months of hounding them I finally got a solid reply from a real person. They have since been apologetic and have given me another 30 days to run the trial software in hopes of partnership, which if I could have written the partner exam in the first place would have been unnecessary.
here is Hubspots response:
Chris,
You're not alone. We've been working diligently to relaunch the program, which we did earlier this month. The personal touch you desired simply wasn't do-able with the bandwidth we had. We're going to continue to rapidly add additional resources to our VAR team to better support our prospective partners.
Thanks for your comment Chris. It would appear that Hubspot may need to staff up a bit more.
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We have become a Hubspot partner, completed the university and partner training. So far it has been a good experience. Glad yours has worked itself out.
I love what Hubspot does and I'm also glad we were able to work things out. Thanks for commenting.