HubSpot Spring Spotlight: Service Hub Reinvention

Today marks the much-anticipated launch of the reinvented HubSpot Service Hub at Spring Spotlight. This is more than just a product update; it's a revolution in customer service.

Service Hub Reinvention

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The Service Hub Revolution: From Reactive to Proactive

Customer experience (CX) leaders are under immense pressure to deliver delightful support at scale while controlling costs. The old way of doing things – throwing more reps at the problem and relying on isolated tools – simply doesn't cut it anymore. It creates data silos, slows down response times, and relegates customer service to a cost center.

The reinvented HubSpot Service Hub ushers in a new era of the post-sales experience. It's AI-powered, omnichannel, and designed to transform your customer service operation into a revenue driver.

Here's why Service Hub is the only solution you need:

  • Scale Support:

    • AI-powered self-service: Empower your customers to find answers on their own time with an intelligent chatbot and an improved knowledge base.

    • Omnichannel help desk: Offer seamless support across channels, including phone, live chat, email, and social media, with a unified workspace for your team.

  • Drive Retention:

    • Proactive customer engagement: Identify at-risk customers and proactively reach out to them with personalized support using customer health scores (in beta).

Consider these statistics from HubSpot:

  • Service Hub boasts an impressive 13x faster ticket resolution time and 42% more tickets closed per agent (HubSpot Annual ROI report, 2023).

  • Customers using Service Hub report an average of 84% increase in CSAT and 83% increase in retention (HubSpot data).

A Sneak Peek at What's New

The all-new Service Hub isn't just a facelift; it's a complete overhaul designed to revolutionize how you deliver customer service. Packed with powerful new features and functionalities, Service Hub empowers your support team to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently, leading to happier customers and a thriving business. Let's delve deeper into some of the most exciting additions:

1. Help Desk Workspace: Your Central Hub for Support Operations

Say goodbye to juggling multiple windows and information overload. The new Help Desk Workspace provides a unified platform to manage all your customer interactions in one place. Tickets and conversations from various channels like email, chat, and social media seamlessly flow into a single streamlined view. This eliminates the need for context switching, allowing your support reps to focus on resolving customer issues quickly and efficiently.

With real-time ticket updates, you'll see new messages and updates instantly reflected within the ticket list view. This ensures your team is always on top of customer inquiries, allowing faster response times and improved customer satisfaction. Imagine a world where your reps don't have to ask, "Did anything new come in on this ticket?" – they'll know immediately.

2. Manage Large Support Teams: Empower Efficiency and Effectiveness

Scaling your support team shouldn't mean sacrificing efficiency or effectiveness. Service Hub equips you with the tools to manage even the largest teams seamlessly:

  • Improved SLA Customization: Set clear expectations and track performance with enhanced Service Level Agreement (SLA) customization options (Enterprise plans). You can now define SLAs based on any ticket property, ensuring your team prioritizes critical issues effectively.

  • Capacity and Skills-Based Routing: Ensure the right ticket goes to the right rep every time with intelligent capacity and skills-based routing (Enterprise plans). This feature considers a rep's expertise and availability when assigning tickets, leading to faster resolution times and improved customer satisfaction.

  • Workforce Management: Streamline scheduling and optimize team performance with native workforce management (Professional plans) settings and APIs for the User object. You can set rep availability, automate scheduling based on workload, and ensure your team is always staffed appropriately.

3. Omnichannel Communication: Connect with Customers on Their Terms

Today's customers expect seamless support across their preferred channels. The new Service Hub caters to this multi-channel reality with a robust suite of omnichannel communication features:

  • Calling: For businesses that rely on phone support, Service Hub (Professional and Enterprise plans) now integrates calling functionality directly within the help desk. This allows reps to make and receive calls without ever leaving the platform, streamlining workflows and improving efficiency.

  • In-app Messaging: Provide real-time support to customers where they are with the new in-app messaging feature (currently in beta). This is perfect for businesses with mobile apps, allowing them to offer instant and personalized assistance within the app itself.

  • "Bring Your Own" Messaging Channel: Seamlessly integrate any messaging channel via API (Enterprise plans). 

4. AI Assistant for Support Reps: Your Smart Support Sidekick

The all-new Service Hub introduces a powerful AI assistant designed to make your reps' lives easier and empower them to deliver exceptional customer service. Here's how:

  • AI Reply Recommendations: Are you struggling to find the right words? No problem! Leverage the power of AI to receive real-time suggestions (Professional plans) for crafting faster and more relevant responses to customer inquiries (beta). This feature analyzes the ticket context and suggests pre-written responses or snippets, saving reps valuable time and ensuring consistent messaging.

  • AI Call & Conversation Summaries: Ensure smooth call handoffs and accurate ticket routing with AI-powered call and conversation summaries. This feature automatically summarizes key points and action items from calls, allowing for a seamless transition between reps and improved ticket resolution times.

  • Multi-language AI: Break down language barriers and cater to a global audience with multi-language AI support. This empowers you to offer efficient and accurate customer support regardless of their location or preferred language.

5. AI-powered Self-service Tools: Empower Customers and Lighten Your Load

The future of customer service is self-service, and Service Hub equips you with the tools to make it a reality:

  • AI Chatbot: Deflect common questions, empower customers to find answers independently, and reduce support ticket volume by introducing an intelligent AI chatbot (beta). This feature utilizes AI to understand customer queries, provide relevant answers and knowledge base articles, and create support tickets if needed (Starter plans).

  • Improved Knowledge Base: The cornerstone of self-service, the knowledge base has received a significant upgrade. You can now create, edit, and manage multiple knowledge bases (Professional and Enterprise plans) to cater to different customer segments or product lines. Additionally, based on valuable customer feedback, the editing experience has significantly improved, making creating and maintaining high-quality knowledge-base articles easier than ever.

6. Customer Success Workspace: Proactive Success, Predictable Growth

Move beyond reactive ticketing and embrace a proactive approach to customer success with the all-new Customer Success Workspace (currently in beta). This innovative workspace allows you to:

  • Manage a Book of Business: Assign specific customer accounts or groups (a "book of business") to individual reps, fostering stronger customer relationships and personalized account management (Professional plans).

  • Drive Proactive Customer Value: Identify at-risk customers with the help of customer health scores (in beta). This allows you to proactively reach out to customers who might be experiencing challenges or at risk of churning, preventing issues before they arise (Professional plans).

  • Product Usage Integrations: Gain deeper insights into customer behavior by integrating product usage data through custom events. This allows you to track user activity within your product (Professional plans).

Choosing the Right Service Hub Tier for Your Business

The HubSpot Service Hub is designed to scale with your business, offering a tiered pricing structure with features tailored to meet the needs of growing and established companies. Here's a breakdown of the available tiers:

Perfect for startups, small businesses, or those wanting to test the waters of HubSpot Service Hub, the free plan provides a solid foundation for building positive customer interactions. Key features include:

  • Limited Ticketing System: Manage a basic volume of customer inquiries through a ticketing system with core functionalities.

  • Simple Knowledge Base: Create a basic knowledge base to empower customers to find answers on their own.

  • Email Support: Offer email as your primary communication channel.

  • Limited Reporting: Gain basic insights into your team's performance with limited reporting tools.

It's important to note that the free plan has limitations compared to the paid tiers. For example, you'll have a restricted number of users, limited automation capabilities, and won't have access to advanced features like AI-powered tools or omnichannel support.

Starts at $20/month per seat.

Building upon the free tier, the Starter plan offers a comprehensive suite of features for streamlining operations and optimizing team performance for a growing business. It includes everything in the Free plan, plus:

  • Enhanced Ticketing System: Manage customer inquiries with a more robust ticketing system with additional functionalities.

  • Improved Knowledge Base Creation: Create and maintain a more comprehensive knowledge base for self-service.

  • Live Chat Support: Offer real-time support through live chat functionality (limited number of chats per month).

  • Basic Reporting & Coaching: Gain deeper insights into your team's performance with basic reporting tools. Leverage these insights to identify areas for improvement and coach reps more effectively.

  • AI-powered Self-service Tools (limited): Leverage a basic AI-powered chatbot to deflect common questions and route tickets (beta).

Starts at $100/month per seat.

Ideal for scaling businesses with growing customer support needs, the Professional plan offers a comprehensive suite of features for streamlining operations and optimizing team performance. It includes everything in the Starter plan, plus:

  • Omnichannel Communication: Expand your support channels with features like live chat and in-app messaging (beta) to meet customer expectations.

  • Improved SLA Management: Set and track SLAs based on various ticket properties for enhanced performance management.

  • Skills-Based Routing: Ensure tickets are routed to the most qualified reps with skills-based routing.

  • Workforce Management: Automate scheduling and optimize team availability with workforce management settings.

  • Advanced Reporting & Coaching: Gain deeper insights into your team's performance with advanced reporting tools. Leverage these insights to identify areas for improvement and coach reps more effectively.

  • AI Assistant for Support Reps: Boost rep productivity with AI-powered features like real-time reply recommendations (beta) and AI call summaries.

  • Improved AI Self-service Tools: Empower customers with a more advanced AI chatbot capable of resolving basic inquiries and creating tickets (beta).

Starts at $130/month per seat.

Designed for large enterprises with complex customer support requirements, the Enterprise plan offers the most robust set of features for scaling efficiently and delivering exceptional service at a global level. It includes everything in the Professional plan, plus:

  • Multiple Knowledge Bases: Manage and segment knowledge bases for different brands, products, or internal audiences.

  • Advanced SLA Management: Create and manage complex SLAs with advanced customization options.

  • Enterprise-grade Security & Scalability: Benefit from enhanced security features and infrastructure designed to support large volumes of customer interactions.

  • Call Routing (Beta): Offer phone support with advanced call routing capabilities, including IVR phone trees (beta) and simultaneous ring for up to 100 agents.

  • Bring Your Own (BYO) Messaging Channel Integration: Integrate any messaging channel you use (e.g., WhatsApp, WeChat) via API for seamless omnichannel communication (alpha).

  • Multi-language AI Support: Deliver exceptional customer service globally with multi-language AI capabilities.

 

Your business's best Service Hub tier depends on your specific needs and budget. Consider factors like the size of your support team, your customer base, and the support channels you offer. If you're unsure which tier is right for you, HubSpot offers a free trial to explore the features and see how they fit your needs.

The Future of Customer Service is Here: Embrace the Service Hub Reinvention

The all-new Service Hub is a game-changer for customer service. Its powerful AI capabilities, omnichannel support, and focus on customer success give you everything you need to scale support, drive retention, and turn your customer service team into a strategic revenue driver.

Ready to learn more? Visit the HubSpot website to see Service Hub in action and let us give you a free demo today!

PS. Are you looking for a HubSpot partner to help you implement and leverage the new Service Hub? Look no further than Aspiration Marketing! With a HubSpot onboarding accreditation and a proven track record of helping businesses succeed with HubSpot solutions, contact us today to discuss your Customer Service needs.

 

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Nicole
Nicole
Nicole is a HubSpot Operations Lead. She also works on campaign management for clients. A Pittsburgh native, she is a lover of the outdoors, good food, and taking advantage of every travel opportunity that comes her way.
 

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