The Challenge
Operating across a series of clinics across the country, DHI’s lead management process was manual, and spread across different systems. This gave rise to specific challenges:
#1 Siloed data
- Lead data was gathered and stored across disparate spreadsheets and standalone systems - Google, social media, emails, a call center number, website forms, JustDial and SocialBlue
- Compiling and unifying this data for greater visibility, was a manual and time-consuming process
#2 Inefficient lead management
- Leads leaked out of the system due to manual errors, and a percentage of leads generated by marketing teams were never contacted by the pre-sales teams
- Follow-up time was 10-24 hours due to slow manual processes, causing leads to go cold
#3 Low conversion rates
- Low visibility of the customer lifecycle for the sales team, which meant there were no concerted nurturing and engagement efforts to convert leads
- Manual management of follow-ups meant that a percentage of the leads were never optimally nurtured for possible conversion
The Solution
Niswey started off with a detailed discovery with DHI to understand their business processes, tools, and lead sources. It emerged that while they did have a standard lead management process, it was sprawled across multiple tools and spreadsheets. The leadership's vision was to bring this entire process to HubSpot, and then optimize it further to increase conversions.
Here's how we made that happen.
#1 Centralizing lead data in HubSpot
The first part of the solution was to ensure that HubSpot was used as a centralized contacts database, and that all contact entries into the CRM were automated.
- HubSpot forms, ads, and social media integrations were set up for the automatic entry of leads into the CRM.
- Custom HubSpot integrations with JustDial and SocialBlue were developed, to bring leads from these channels into HubSpot
- A custom integration of DHI’s calling software, Convoque, was developed with HubSpot, to enable contact creation of new leads via incoming calls.
Key Technical Intervention: HubSpot - Convoque Integration
Of these three automated lead channels, the HubSpot - Convoque integration is a highly customized solution that the Niswey team developed from scratch. We used HubSpot's Calling SDK and Convoque's API to develop this integration.
The client wanted to continue using Convoque as it was integrated with all their phone numbers and set up with their custom business logic for call routing, recording etc. This integration enabled the DHI teams to leverage their Convoque set-up right from their HubSpot portal.
- DHI teams now use the HubSpot calling icon to place calls to prospects and leads, and the calling operation is completed as per the rules set up in Convoque
- All incoming and outgoing calls recorded in Convoque get logged in HubSpot, in the respective contact timelines, as engagement records
- DHI calling agents can add notes about the call to each engagement record
- The integration also creates a new contact in HubSpot, if the call is from a new number
- Incoming calls outside of DHI office hours are also logged in HubSpot, ensuring that no incoming leads are missed and the agents get in touch with them at the earliest
- Teams can log in, pause and log out of Convoque from right within HubSpot
Calling teams are critical to DHI's lead generation and conversion. By ensuring that every single call and its content are accessible in HubSpot, this integration delivers:
- Greater efficiency for calling agents as they can place calls, update lead information, and add new leads to the system - all without ever leaving HubSpot
- Greater visibility for team managers as they can:
- Monitor team performance based on call volumes
- Monitor call quality with all logged recordings
- Plugged the lead leakage by ensuring that missed calls are also logged into the CRM
#2 Optimizing lead management in HubSpot
Once we ensured that all lead channel led to HubSpot, the second order of business was to set up an efficient lead management process. We looked at automating a range of lead management activities with HubSpot workflow combined with some custom applications.
- All incoming leads were automatically assigned to calling agents for further action and follow-up, via HubSpot workflows
- A custom app, Flow Builder, was developed to help calling agents to capture all necessary lead data/information into HubSpot, with zero errors
- Custom functionality was built within HubSpot for calling agents to schedule follow-up reminders based on date and time specified by leads
Key Technical Intervention: HubSpot Flow Builder App
At this stage, one of the key challenges shared by the DHI leadership was the fact that different calling agents were capturing lead data in different ways. Barring key contact details like name, phone number, emails, and a few standard questions, not all agents were collecting all the necessary lead data on their calls.
Additionally, for DHI, contacts get created in HubSpot as soon as a lead calls any of the clinics. However, 80-85% of the required data is captured by an agent while talking to a lead on the phone. And there was no native way in HubSpot to define any properties as required properties to be collected after a lead is already in the CRM.
We designed the Flow Builder to counter this challenge. Implemented as a CRM card, and with an easy-to-use interface, this custom app allows:
- DHIs admins to:
- Strictly define data input flows for their calling agents
- Set up what properties need to be filled on the call with the lead, and which of them are required and which are optional. This covered properties pertaining to basic contact information, data pertaining to their treatment requirements, and data to be captured during the consultation
- Building the data input flows by directly pulling the contact properties available in their HubSpot
- Implementing dependent fields, i.e. certain fields or properties will be available for updation based on the existence of other properties, enabling managers to define dependent relationships within contact properties
- DHI calling teams to easily enter necessary data into the CRM while on call, with a user-friendly interface within HubSpot
- Allowing all entered data to be compiled into a consultation document to be sent to the lead, with just one click
Correct lead data is crucial for DHI teams to effectively nurture and convert their leads. The Flow Builder app:
- Ensured data sanity and standardization across multiple clinics and calling teams.
- Increased efficiency and reduced errors in the data input process, as each agent knew exactly what information to ask and enter
- Gave managers greater control over the data-capturing process, that simplified compliance and reporting
#3 Automate marketing communications
Now that lead management was set up and optimized on HubSpot, the final piece was to enable a set of automated marketing communication channels to keep leads engaged, and prompt conversions. Going beyond just phone calls, we set up:
- Scenario-based automated workflows were used to send emails to prospects and communicate about their appointments.
- The Netcore SMS + HubSpot integration deployed to manage automated SMS communications for marketing and customer support
- Niswey’s HubSpot WhatsApp Business API automation solution for HubSpot was also deployed for real-time acknowledgement and notifications to the contacts
Key Technical Intervention: HubSpot - NetCore SMS for HubSpot
In India, SMS is a key communication channel for DHI and they use NetCore as their platform of choice to manage their SMS marketing campaigns. In keeping with their ongoing changes, they wanted to be able to manage SMS communications via HubSpot.
The Niswey team decided to build the first NetCore-HubSpot integration to make this happen.
This integration allowed DHI's marketing team to:
- Run bulk SMS marketing campaigns for HubSpot contact lists
- Personalize SMS with the range of contact properties available in HubSpot
- Send automated SMS to visitors based on website activity or any other trigger criteria, via HubSpot workflows
- And finally, track all SMS conversations in the contact timeline
While we first built this for DHI, the NetCore SMS + HubSpot was later among the chosen apps in the HubSpot App Accelerator Program 2022, and is now listed on the HubSpot App Marketplace.
The Results
It took about four months for Niswey to create a well-defined strategy and build custom solutions to get the complete DHI business process up and running on HubSpot.
Today, DHI's marketing, pre-sales, sales, delivery and accounts use HubSpot-based processes to manage the end-to-end customer lifecycle.
Powered by HubSpot and the immense possibilities it offers for customization, Niswey enabled a digital transformation at DHI. Bringing their processes onto a digital platform, enabling automation, and deploying custom integrations to solve key business challenges - all this helped DHI achieve:
#1 Increased Consultations
With process optimization, DHI was able to reclaim several leads that previously used to drop off across marketing and sales functions. This led to their number of consultations booked per month surpassing their previous best of 600 consultations, with an average of 672 consultations/month in the months after the solution was implemented.
#2 25% Increase in Lead Generation
With process automation, marketing and sales teams now had more time to focus on lead generation, leading to a 25% rise in incoming leads with no increase in marketing spends
#3 Reduced Follow-up Time
Automatic assigning of leads to calling agents enabled instant follow-up instead of the earlier 10-24 hours, thus improving conversion rates.
DHI is rolling out these solutions across remaining the clinics, and their team now independently leverages HubSpot to continually optimize their processes and orchestrate digital campaigns. And we can’t wait to see the new benefits that HubSpot brings for their business.
Want to know more about how HubSpot custom integrations can enable your business too? Get in touch with us at business [at] niswey [dot] com.
