HubSpot's Customer Agent: 6 Crucial Checks Before Turning it On

HubSpot dropped its new Customer Agent Beta in early April, and it shows amazing promise: an AI agent capable of answering customer questions, deployable in less time than it takes to brew your morning coffee. And while the speed of activation is impressive, hitting that "on" switch without careful consideration is like launching a ship without checking the hull.

Editors Note: Already turned on Customer Agent? Don’t freak out, you can deploy some of these fixes quickly. Point 4 is a good place to start.

Drawing on years of conversational marketing expertise, we see HubSpot's Customer Agent as a fantastic leap forward into this new frontier. It leverages generative AI to understand context, connect follow-up questions, and draw information from your Website and Knowledge Base – capabilities that traditional if/then chatbots could only dream of.

But before diving headfirst into this exciting new frontier, it's wise to pause and think strategically. This isn't about whether AI can help – it's about how to ensure it helps in the right way. The goal isn't just efficiency; it's enhanced customer value. Yes, efficiencies will likely follow, but never at the expense of the customer experience.

So, let's walk through six critical things to consider before empowering your Customer Agent.

1. Content is Still King (Especially the Right Content)

Customer Agent works by summarizing information it finds within your HubSpot ecosystem. Simple enough, right? But here's the catch: what information does it actually have access to?

Often, many HubSpot portals are heavily weighted towards top-of-funnel, awareness-stage content – think blog posts and pain-point-focused website pages. This is great for attracting prospects, but often leaves a significant gap when it comes to the specific, practical questions prospects and existing customers ask.

Your Customer Agent needs fuel, and the best fuel comes from a robust, thoughtfully built-out HubSpot Knowledge Base. This repository of how-tos, FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and product details is precisely the kind of information customers seek post-purchase. Feeding your Customer Agent with a strong Knowledge Base is paramount to its success.

A bit of a "chicken or the egg" situation. Building the knowledge base helps the Customer Agent, and understanding the Agent's needs helps prioritize knowledge base & content creation you need. HubSpot's Knowledge Base Agent can your support tickets and pinpoint areas where knowledge base articles are needed. - That's a whole article by itself :-) 

2. Know Thyself: Conduct a Thorough Content Audit

You can't feed the agent what you don't know you have. Before launching, a clear picture of the current content landscape is essential.

Perform a content audit. Inventory every publicly accessible page on your website. Go beyond just listing URLs; capture titles, maybe even scrape key content sections. Then, critically, add columns to categorize each piece:

• Buyers Journey Stage: Awareness, Consideration, Decision

• Customer Journey Stage: Add categories like "Onboarding," "Usage," "Troubleshooting," "Renewal" (or "Deliver & Delight").

This exercise reveals the distribution of your content. You'll quickly see if your agent will have enough ammunition to answer questions across the entire customer lifecycle, not just during the initial sales process. Remember, the Customer Agent doesn't inherently know if a user is a prospect or a long-time customer; it just tries to find the best answer from the content available.

Need assistance understanding your current content landscape and identifying gaps? The team at Impulse Creative can perform a comprehensive content audit to put you on the right track for Customer Agent success.

3. Spring Cleaning: Ensure Content Accuracy and Freshness

An AI agent is only as good as the data it learns from. Feeding it outdated or inaccurate information is a recipe for customer frustration.

Your content audit should flag older content too. That blog post from 2014 about a feature that's since been updated? It needs attention. Either update it with current information or remove it from the pool of content the Customer Agent can access. You don't want your shiny new AI providing old answers to new (or existing) problems.

4. Location, Location, Location: Strategic Deployment & Targeting

Where and to whom will your Customer Agent appear? Don't just turn it on everywhere immediately. HubSpot's chat flows offer powerful targeting options.

Be deliberate. You can control which website pages the chat widget appears on and even segment which types of users see it.

• Start Internally: Consider a "soft launch." Set up the Customer Agent on an internal-only page accessible only to your support or customer success team. Let them be the first users.

• Benefits of an Internal Pilot:

  1. Test Drive: See how the agent responds to real customer questions typed in by your team.

  2. Aid Your Reps: It becomes an internal tool, helping your team find answers faster.

  3. Identify Gaps Safely: Discover where the agent lacks information without exposing those gaps to actual customers. Your team can flag these instances for content creation.

This phased approach builds confidence and allows for refinement of the agent's knowledge base before it interacts directly with your customers.

5. Beyond the Hype: Define Success Holistically (Not Just Ticket Deflection)

HubSpot highlights "ticket deflection" as a key benefit, and reducing repetitive inquiries is valuable. However, focusing solely on this metric can be misleading and potentially harmful.

The Actionable Insight: Measure success through a customer-centric lens. Yes, track deflection, but also monitor:

• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Are users finding the interactions helpful?

• Resolution Rate: Does the agent actually solve the problem, or does it just delay human contact?

• Qualitative Feedback: What are users saying about their experience with the agent?

Aim for a balance. Achieve efficiency, but prioritize positive, helpful interactions that genuinely add value to the customer's journey. An efficiency gain that leads to frustrated customers is a net loss.

Pro-Tip: Make a new CSAT survey in ServiceHub for clients that interact with Customer Agent

6. The Human Touch: Plan for Seamless Handoffs & Oversight

Even the best AI agent will encounter situations it can't handle or where a human touch is simply preferred. Ignoring this reality is a critical mistake.

Configure clear and easy handoff paths.

• Keywords: Set up triggers (e.g., "talk to a human," "speak to support", “talk to sales”) that immediately route the chat to a live agent.

• Availability: Do not configure the agent to simply say humans are unavailable, especially initially. Ensure your team is ready and knows how to use the HubSpot Conversations Inbox to take over.

• Shadowing: Your team can monitor the agent's conversations in real-time and jump in seamlessly if needed. From the customer's perspective, the transition is smooth (often just a change in the chat icon). Once a human intervenes, the agent typically steps back.

This human oversight is crucial for quality control, training the agent (by identifying its weak spots), and ensuring no customer feels stranded by the technology.

The Exciting Frontier: External Integrations & Trust

Beyond these foundational steps lies even greater potential. Customer Agent can be configured to interact with external systems via APIs. Imagine a customer asking "What's the status of my order?" The agent could prompt for an order number, query your Shopify or fulfillment system, and provide a real-time update directly in the chat. Connecting to project management tools or other CRM data points opens up endless possibilities (though this typically requires developer assistance).

Feeling hesitant? That's natural. Use the preview mode extensively. Run that internal pilot. Test it rigorously with your most frequently asked questions. Remember, with smart targeting and a solid content foundation, you control the rollout and the experience.

Ready to Grow Smarter?

HubSpot's Customer Agent represents a significant opportunity to enhance customer interactions and support scalability. But "easy activation" doesn't equal "instant success." Success comes from thoughtful preparation, a deep understanding of your content, strategic deployment, and an unwavering focus on customer value.

It might feel like a new frontier, but it doesn’t have to be scary. By considering these six points, you can navigate it confidently and unlock the true potential of AI in your customer service operations.

Need help strategizing your Customer Agent rollout or exploring those advanced integrations? The team at Impulse Creative is happy to help. Reach out today!