In the competitive world of medical CRMs, HubSpot is emerging as the preferred platform for many healthcare leaders despite its broader focus. The decision often boils down to the rich experience HubSpot offers—a blend of usability, comprehensive features, new AI tools, and exceptional support that often surpasses specialised medical-industry software. While it's clear that HubSpot doesn't cover all the niche functionalities of a dedicated medical CRM, the platform's broad capabilities in managing customer relations and automating complex processes make it a valuable tool in the medical field.

Below: G2 ratings for web content management platforms in May 2024

Benefits of using HubSpot:

For Clinics and Healthcare Providers (B2C)

• Content Hub: Known for its unmatched user experience, extensive support, and top-tier security features, it excels in content management and website operations. HubSpot now outranks almost all global CMS systems as ranked by G2 (in the screenshot above). If you have a website that has been around for a few years, you should definitely consider HubSpot Content Hub as a top pick over traditional platforms like WordPress, which don’t have the same robust security and support features.
• Marketing Hub: This tool offers various functionalities for engaging and educating patients. From automated email campaigns to advertising and social media integration, it ensures that medical practices can maintain effective omnichannel communication with their patients. Having all your data in one place is invaluable, and this also means more opportunities to educate patients and upsell on elective procedures, other services, or products. Not to mention the powerful AI integrations that will empower your marketing team or practitioners to create more content.
• Service Hub: This system streamlines patient interaction with automated NPS surveys and follow-up protocols, reducing the manual workload and enhancing patient care quality. You can even boost your clinic's Google ratings with automated WhatsApp reminders for patients to leave reviews online.
• Sales Hub: Ideal for clinics that manage corporate services or need to maintain a referral pipeline. Sales Hub gives you access to deal pipeline management, ABM tools, meeting links, target accounts, email templates, sequences, and more.
• Operations Hub: Perfect for integrating and cleansing data from various sources, such as other CRMs or databases, ensuring accurate and efficient data management. If you are migrating from another CRM and are worried about the quality of your data, Operations Hub might just be the tool to clean things up.
• HIPAA Compliant: As of June 4th 2024, HubSpot is now HIPAA compliant (in public beta).

For Medical Manufacturers, Suppliers and other Service Providers (B2B)

• Content Hub: As above, for B2C, HubSpot Content Hub provides an industry-leading website CMS and content management tools. If your website is performing poorly and you’re considering an update, HubSpot Content Hub shines where no other CMS can in that it natively integrates with all your other HubSpot Hubs. This means all your data is in one place.
• Marketing Hub: Provides extensive campaign management and lead generation features tailored to B2B markets. HubSpot’s features, along with its ease of use, make it the best possible platform to ensure your team can do the most with the time that they have. The new AI features are incredibly powerful and will save your marketing team tons of time (and a ChatGPT subscription!).
• Service Hub: Delivers exceptional tools for managing customer enquiries and tickets, ensuring excellent customer service. This can include NPS surveys on product or service performance so that your team can stay ahead of bad reviews and leverage good reviews to improve brand credibility.
• Sales Hub: Effective in managing deals, tracking leads, and executing targeted ABM campaigns, Sales Hub is an absolute must for a business that is not already using a sales platform like Salesforce or Pipedrive. For those who are already using one of these tools, HubSpot Sales Hub provides a premium experience with advanced AI features, making it an easy decision to switch.
• Operations Hub: Assists in integrating and managing business data from various sources, optimizing operational efficiency. Excellent for cleaning or managing large volumes of legacy data, especially during CRM migrations.

New important HubSpot features:

AI integration for content management

One of HubSpot’s standout features is its AI integration with tools like GPT-4, which can significantly enhance operational efficiency in any business. These tools automate many tasks in the day-to-day operations of a marketing, sales, or customer support rep. For example, AI can help draft new content, create social posts, converse with patients via the chatbot, and analyse your HubSpot portal, freeing healthcare professionals to focus on patient care.

Patient record privacy feature

HubSpot has introduced a beta feature for handling sensitive data, allowing super admins in private clinics using HubSpot to securely store and manage sensitive information by creating custom properties with enhanced encryption. This feature includes stringent user access controls and is compatible with certain HubSpot integrations but excludes sensitive data from some HubSpot tools and AI capabilities. Adhering to specific geographic and data type limitations is crucial, and once enabled, the sensitive data setting cannot be disabled. This capability can significantly impact a medical business by bolstering data security and compliance with regulations, although it cannot be used for storing personal health information under HIPAA.

Whatsapp integration

HubSpot's WhatsApp integration can significantly enhance communication in a medical business. By connecting a WhatsApp Business account to HubSpot, medical clinics can manage patient interactions from a shared inbox, automating and personalizing messages such as appointment reminders or health tips. This integration supports efficient patient engagement on a widely used platform, fostering better relationships and streamlined service delivery.

You can visit HubSpot's WhatsApp integration page here for a more detailed overview. If you’re a larger practise with more functionality requirements, you might want to consider Sleekflow in addition to a HubSpot subscription for more workflow tools.

AI chatbot for customer service

HubSpot's new AI assistants (in Service Hub) can significantly enhance the management of clinic enquiries and support front desk teams. The tool allows staff to generate, edit, and refine responses to customer queries directly within HubSpot’s conversations inbox. Features include rewriting, expanding, shortening, or changing text tone. This can improve communication efficiency and consistency, ensuring patient interactions are handled effectively and professionally.

Limitations of HubSpot

This wouldn’t be a complete list without also addressing some of the limitations of using HubSpot, especially in regions outside of the US or Europe:

• Cloud Server Locations: HubSpot’s data must be hosted on US or European servers, which may not meet some users' local data storage requirements.
• Customisation Needs: Customising HubSpot to handle specific tasks like insurance claim management requires some effort and features like Custom Objects in HubSpot, which may require an Enterprise plan and technical knowledge.
• Seat Costs: HubSpot recently switched to a per-seat model for many of its Hubs, so you will need to consider how many seats your team might require when determining pricing.

Despite these limitations, the benefits of using HubSpot, an industry-leading CRM with advanced automation tools and AI functionalities, outweigh the drawbacks. The platform's capabilities significantly enhance operational efficiency and patient engagement.

Are you interested in hearing how medical leaders are using HubSpot to succeed? Check out our case study here on how OT&P has used HubSpot to become a digital leader in Hong Kong.