July 2024 Updates

Churn is the critical challenge in SaaS. Preventing churn doesn’t just improve your Net Revenue Retention (NRR)—it also drives profitability and long-term customer loyalty. The question is: how can you set up a churn prevention system that’s both effective and scalable?

The answer lies in the combination of HubSpot and Upollo. This partnership combines the power of HubSpot’s robust workflow and task management features with Upollo’s industry-leading churn prediction and prevention capabilities.

In this post, we’ll explore how to orchestrate your customer success efforts in HubSpot while leveraging Upollo’s AI-driven insights to identify at-risk customers and take timely, targeted actions that work.

Why HubSpot Is the “How”

HubSpot’s CRM platform is a powerhouse for managing customer success workflows. Its automation tools empower customer success teams to set up structured processes to combat churn efficiently. Here are just some of the ways you can use HubSpot:

• Send Emails: Automatically reach out to customers with targeted marketing or re-engagement messages.
• Send Internal Notifications: Notify team members via email, Slack, or in-app alerts when a customer needs attention.
• Send SMS: Trigger SMS messages through integrated tools to connect with customers in real time.
• Create Tasks: Assign follow-up tasks to your team to ensure at-risk customers are proactively managed.
• Create Records: Log and track opportunities, tickets, or deals to better manage customer retention.
• Trigger Webhooks: Seamlessly integrate with third-party tools to enhance your churn management capabilities.
• Send Data to Connected Apps: Share critical churn-related data with platforms like Slack, Zoom, or CRMs.
• Trigger Meeting Links: Facilitate direct customer interaction by sharing scheduling links.

HubSpot provides the tools to act. However, identifying the who, why, and when requires deeper insights. That’s where Upollo comes in, delivering advanced customer health scoring, predictive models, and actionable insights to supercharge your churn prevention efforts.

How Upollo Amplifies HubSpot

Upollo is the most accurate churn-scoring model on the market, with AI trained on the behavior of over 55 million SaaS users and achieving over 90% accuracy in identifying churn risk. Here’s how Upollo fills the gaps in churn prevention:

• Who: Upollo identifies customers at risk of churning, prioritizing them for immediate action.
• Why: It pinpoints the reasons for churn, such as low engagement, payment issues, or dissatisfaction with product features.
• When: Upollo’s predictive insights determine the best time to intervene, ensuring your efforts are effective.

By integrating Upollo’s insights into HubSpot, you create a powerful end-to-end solution for churn prevention.

HubSpot vs. Upollo: Why AI-Driven Health Scoring Wins

HubSpot has introduced a health scoring feature as part of its new Customer Success workspace. However, like many CRM solutions, it relies heavily on human-configured scoring models. While useful, these models have significant limitations:

Human Error and Guesswork

• HubSpot’s health scores are often based on subjective intuition or historical assumptions rather than dynamic, data-driven analysis.
• Configuration requires customer success teams to identify key metrics and define thresholds manually, which can lead to bias or critical data points being overlooked.

Static, Not Dynamic

• HubSpot’s scoring model is not inherently self-optimizing. Once configured, it remains static unless someone reviews and updates it.
• This lack of iteration can result in outdated models that fail to adapt to changing customer behaviors or market conditions.

Limited to Rules, Not Insights

• HubSpot relies heavily on fixed scoring rules, which are not equipped to uncover nuanced trends or correlations.
• It lacks the ability to learn and improve predictions without human intervention.

Why Upollo’s AI-Driven Model Is Superior

Upollo eliminates these flaws by leveraging an AI model that works 24/7/365, continuously iterating on itself to deliver accurate, evolving insights. Here’s how it stands out:

Dynamic, Data-Driven Scoring

• Upollo’s AI analyzes all of your historical and real-time data (including all of HubSpot data) ensuring health scores are always up to date.
• No manual configuration is needed. Upollo automatically identifies the most predictive signals and adjusts its scoring model dynamically.

Comprehensive Insights Beyond Rules

• Upollo evaluates every event and interaction, providing a deeper understanding of customer behavior.
• Examples where traditional health scores fail:
  • When a customer becomes active after inactivity: Traditional scores will improve, but Upollo’s nuanced AI model will look for potential high-risk actions like data exporting.
  • A newly onboarded user is logging in daily: A legacy health model will boost the score, but Upollo will know if they haven't completed key actions and are actually struggling. 
  • A support ticket ‘successfully’ closed: Most models will automatically score this positively, but Upollo detects dissatisfaction through sentiment analysis.

Scale and Experience

• Upollo’s AI learns from the behaviour of 55+ million users, $500M in billed revenue, and over 3 Billion events. This scale enables unmatched precision.
• Upollo users retain 46% of customers that would otherwise be lost to churn.Upollo is 99% accurate at flagging at-risk customers, allowing teams to manage 10,000 customers per CSM instead of just 100.

Proactive Problem-Solving

Upollo doesn’t just highlight risks—it provides contextual insights and actionable recommendations.

The Power of Integration

Integrating Upollo with HubSpot unlocks a seamless workflow for churn prevention. Here’s how it works:

1. Churn Risk Alerts: Upollo automatically flags at-risk customers and sends this data to HubSpot.
2. Trigger Workflows: HubSpot uses this data to trigger workflows, such as sending personalized emails, scheduling calls, or assigning tasks to CSMs.
3. Track and Optimize: HubSpot’s reporting tools allow you to track the effectiveness of these interventions and refine your strategy over time.

By combining HubSpot’s operational excellence with Upollo’s predictive insights, you double your capacity to rescue at-risk customers and revenue.

Real-World Impact

Upollo has helped SaaS companies prevent millions of dollars in churn. Imagine being able to intervene before a major customer leaves or successfully converting a trial user into a long-term subscriber—all within your existing CRM. No additional tools to learn.

A Glimpse Into the Future

While this post focuses on churn prevention, the HubSpot-Upollo integration has broader applications. In future posts, we’ll explore how this collaboration can also:

• Facilitate account expansion through upselling and cross-selling.
• Boost free-to-paid conversion rates.
• Improve trial conversion, turning more trial users into paying customers.

Stay tuned for these insights and more.

Watch the Integration in Action

To see how HubSpot and Upollo work in harmony to tackle churn risk, check out our demo video below:

Get Started Today

Ready to crush churn and drive profitability? Start leveraging the power of HubSpot and Upollo today. Schedule a demo to see how this integration can work for your business.