A Guide to Running Customer Success in HubSpot: Insights from Our Webinar with Fathom

We recently sat down with our friends at Fathom to talk about something we're pretty passionate about - running customer success in HubSpot. Both of our teams have built our CS operations entirely within HubSpot, and we wanted to share everything we've learned along the way. If you're thinking about making HubSpot your CS home base (or just curious about how it all works), grab a coffee and let's dive in.

Why HubSpot for Customer Success?

During our chat, Ryan Hoskin from Fathom put it perfectly: "It starts primarily with where your data lives and where it's going to be updated." Think about it - your sales team already lives in HubSpot. Your customer communications are there. Running CS there too just makes sense.

Here at Arrows, we've gone all in on this approach. We use High Touch to sync our product usage data directly into HubSpot properties, which gives us real-time visibility into how customers are engaging with our platform. For example, we track metrics like the number of onboarding plans created, task completion rates, and user engagement levels - all visible right alongside our customer communication history and deal information.

One game-changing aspect is HubSpot's workflow capabilities. We can create sophisticated automation sequences that trigger based on any combination of these data points. For instance, when a customer's usage drops below a certain threshold, we can automatically schedule check-in calls, send targeted resources, or alert our CS team to potential issues.

Making Sales-to-CS Handoffs Work Like Magic

Let's talk about handoffs - you know, that crucial moment when a customer moves from sales to CS. We've built a workflow at Arrows that kicks into action the moment a deal moves to Closed Won:

• A new onboarding record appears with all the important deal details
• The customer slides into our onboarding pipeline
• Our CS team gets their tasks automatically
• All the vital info (goals, requirements, stakeholders) comes along for the ride

During our webinar, Fathom showed us how they've taken this even further. They use Fathom's AI call summaries to analyze sales call transcripts, so their CS team can quickly get up to speed by reviewing actual conversation snippets right in HubSpot. Pretty cool, right?

Here are more resources to help you out!

• The Sales-to-Customer Success Handoff: What It Is and How to Create One That Works
• Design Effective Sales to CS Handoffs in HubSpot

Building an Onboarding Process That Flows

At Arrows, we've learned that the best onboarding processes are flexible but structured. Instead of rigid stages, we track real progress: initial setup, kickoff completion, technical configuration, training, and success criteria review.

The real magic happens with our automation rules. When customers complete tasks or hit usage milestones, they automatically move forward in their journey. No manual updates needed - the system just flows.

A few other resources that might help:

• How To Document Your Process For Customer Onboarding
• 7 Playbooks To Run Customer Success in HubSpot

Health Scoring Without the Headaches

Let's be real - health scoring can get messy fast. Through our own experience and our discussions with Fathom, we've found that simpler is usually better. Start with what really matters: product usage. Are your customers actually using your product? Are they adopting key features?

We use automated workflows to alert our team when scores drop, creating tasks and triggering the right responses automatically. It's like having an early warning system for customer health.

Check out some Vault templates to help you better understand how your customers are progressing in their onboarding:

• Identify and support customers stuck in onboarding
• Track time to onboarding kickoff call booked
• 8 Essential Reports Your HubSpot Onboarding Dashboard Needs

Spotting Expansion Opportunities

Fathom shared a really smart approach to handling expansion opportunities during our webinar. Their CS team handles the smaller expansions (under 25 users), while bigger opportunities go to sales. At Arrows, we use similar usage-based triggers to spot when customers might be ready to grow.

How AI Makes Everything Better

The AI conversation really got us excited during the webinar. Fathom showed how they use AI to analyze conversations and spot key action items automatically. At Arrows, we're exploring AI for predicting churn risk and identifying expansion opportunities. It's amazing how much time this saves our teams for actual customer interactions.

Want to Give This a Shot?

Starting this journey doesn't have to be overwhelming. We always tell our customers to begin with their biggest headaches - what's taking up too much time? Which manual processes drive you crazy? Start there, automate one thing at a time, and build on your wins.

You don't need to implement everything at once. Start with the basics, get comfortable with your automation, and add more as your team grows into the system. The goal is to make your customer success work smoother and more effective.

We love seeing how different teams adapt these ideas to their own needs. Whether you're just starting out or looking to level up your existing processes, HubSpot can grow with you.