Customizing HubSpot for Multi-Branch Contact Organization

Kevin Campbell, Senior Platform Specialist at Hypha HubSpot Development, discusses creating custom-coded workflows to identify different branches within a single company—an elegant solution for companies working with educational systems, retail chains, supermarkets, hotels, and more.

Managing contact records for organizations with multiple branches can quickly become a logistical nightmare, leading to disorganized data and inefficiencies. 

HubSpot’s standard approach relies on email domains as unique identifiers—grouping all contacts with the same domain together. However, the platform offers powerful customization options, allowing organizations to create solutions that distinguish between different departments or branches within the same organization, preventing confusion. 

In our case, we were entrusted with helping a client in the educational technology sector—one contending with contacts from multiple departments in a particular school environment—establish better contact clarity. 

The Problem

Working with contacts in multiple departments within a single school setting proved challenging for our client in the EdTech space. That’s because each department had unique technology requirements, which required different team members to deliver tailored solutions. 

Within its HubSpot environment, however, it was impossible to discern which contact was associated with which department, as all contacts used the same email domain as their unique identifier. For example, Contacts “A” and “B” were associated with the email domain “@school.edu,” making it difficult to discern the relevant department.

Other challenges included: 

• Accurately targeting the right lead with the right campaign(s) 
• Accurately tracking engagement (For example, how to know where engagement was coming from beyond just the school.) 
• How to allocate resources strategically across leads
• Accurately segmenting data for reporting and analysis (More specifically, how to generate department-specific reports and insights.)  

Ready to supercharge your HubSpot automation? Discover how custom-coded workflows can transform your business operations.

Our Solution 

Our solution leveraged a no-code approach to create custom workflow actions that generated specific unique identifiers when contact records were created. 

The workflow essentially involved four components: 

• From data provided on a form, a proxy email property was created, consisting of an actual email address plus the additional identifying information in a second field: Email Field: contactA@school.edu + Department Field: physics = proxy email property “contactA@school.edu-physics.”
• The workflow then logged the proxy email property as the stock email address.
• During a brief workflow delay, HubSpot created a contact record using the proxy email property, which is standard.
• The workflow resumed by clearing the proxy email property from the stock email address and updating it with the original stored value from the form’s Email Field. In effect, in the stock email address, contactA@school.edu-physics is replaced with contactA@school.edu, the actual email address for the contact.

As illustrated, a unique identifier is different from the contact’s email address. An email address will not change, whereas the unique identifier uses the email address as its root but adds additional qualifiers for data management purposes.

HubSpot will allow up to 10 levels of unique identifiers that can describe any property: geographic location, branch ID, project ID, vendor code, and so on. Using single-line text, in particular, means your options are essentially limitless. 

The Breakdown

Creating custom-coded workflows in this context is possible with a Professional-level HubSpot CRM or Marketing Hub subscription with workflows. 

The specific steps involved include the following:

• Within Settings > Properties, create a property to set up your unique identifier field(s). 
• Ensure the automatic creation and association of companies with contacts is turned on. As is standard, this setting automatically associates contacts with companies based on the email domain.
• Update the Form with a placeholder “Email” field and a “Department” field.
• Create a workflow that updates the stock email address with the custom Email Field + Department Field (our proxy email property) and then slightly delays. During this delay, a new department-specific company record will be created.
• After the delay, include a workflow action that clears the stock email address and copies just the data from the form’s Email field into the stock email field.
• Use the appended unique qualifier (proxy email property) to route leads to appropriate reps or sales teams, email lists, reporting, and so on.

Contacts with unique identifiers can also be added via an imported CSV file or manually within the contact record itself.

The Results 

For our client, implementing custom-coded workflows to identify companies with multiple branches has resulted in significantly more consistent, clean, and well-organized data. By creating unique identifiers for each contact, the company can accurately differentiate between contacts within the same organization.

This solution has streamlined its operations, enabling employees to focus on core tasks without spending time manually identifying which contacts belong to which property. 

As a result, our client can better leverage its data for more effective service delivery, targeted marketing campaigns, and informed sales strategies. Generating precise, unique identifier reports and insights has further enhanced its ability to allocate resources strategically and track engagement accurately.

Partner With Hypha HubSpot Development 

Partnering with Hypha HubSpot Development means having access to a team of HubSpot experts who can help you maximize the potential of your HubSpot systems一like implementing custom-coded workflows. Whether you need assistance with service delivery, targeted marketing, sales optimization, or overall business growth, Hypha's specialists have the knowledge and experience to tailor solutions to your specific needs.

Discover how Hypha can transform your data-management processes, enhance customer engagement, and drive efficiency across your organization. With our expertise, you can unlock HubSpot’s full capabilities to support and grow your business, ensuring you stay ahead in a competitive market. 

Contact us today to learn how you can get the most out of the HubSpot platform.