Manual data entry costs time and accuracy
Before Commerce Hub, Ronbow’s sales process was complicated. Katharine Ruoxi, Head of Staff & Online Business, recalls how her team juggled disjointed platforms.
“The sales team used HubSpot’s Sales Hub to track the customer and the deal. We used Square to process and invoice each transaction. We also used NetSuite for accounting. We had to enter the same set of information in three different places, so the whole process was super long,” she says.
Manual data entry inflated operation time. Worse, it opened the company up to potential mistakes—and when a customer sees errors on their invoice, that damages trust.
Katharine says, “Square doesn’t have customer information. It’s not a CRM. So we had to copy and paste information like customer name, contact info, and amount into the invoice. When you work with multiple customers who have similar names, or when numbers are just a decimal or a digit off, it’s really easy to make mistakes.”
Trust in data accuracy was so low that Ronbow designers habitually double or triple-checked every invoice. This added a lot of extra time to an already labor-intensive process.
A single source of truth to streamline systems
Katharine realized that HubSpot, a tool already in their tech stack, could ease the burden of manual data entry and reduce errors through automation.
“With HubSpot, all of the information is in a single place, even customer information, which means that our designers don’t need to switch to different platforms.”
Different teams already used Marketing Hub Professional, Operations Hub Starter, and Service Hub Professional. By connecting Commerce Hub, with built-in tools and integrations to manage payments and invoicing, HubSpot became the single source of truth for managing leads, contacts, and deals.
“Previously, we needed to use different systems. Now, everything is consolidated in one system. After a deal, we can send a quote. After the quote, we can generate an invoice. After the invoice, customers can pay directly through the payment link. We can do all of those things through HubSpot and report on any part of the funnel,” Katharine says.
Quote templates save time and ensure consistency
Brand consistency across quotes used to be a major struggle for Ronbow. Different team members leveraged whatever tool they found most comfortable, which meant quote presentations might be delivered in Word, Excel, GDoc, or PDF formats.
Using Commerce Hub, Ronbow streamlined this process and added consistency by creating quote presentation templates directly in HubSpot. Quotes built in HubSpot allow for e-signatures and prompt payment options, which enhances the customer experience.
Katharine says, “As a brand, we want consistency. Templates remove the guesswork from content and formatting, which reduces the time we spend drafting emails or creating custom quotes. I think that’s the beauty of having all this functionality in one single platform.”
Simplified billing and payment processes
After crafting an agreement with clients, Ronbow can generate native invoices directly within HubSpot. Commerce Hub pulls CRM data directly into the invoice, which gives Katharine and her team peace of mind that all data is up-to-date and accurate.
User-friendly and intuitive features, such as payment links embedded directly in the invoice and automated billing, create a better customer experience and help Ronbow get paid faster. With less time spent drafting and chasing invoices, Katharine’s team can spend more time focusing on each customer.
“Now, our team can spend more time on current customers in the pipeline. We’re spending less time on clerical work and more time on design, rendering, and customer conversations.”
Scalability supports future growth
Scalability is another major benefit of switching to Commerce Hub. Ronbow’s team enjoyed using Square as a transaction tool during its start-up stages, but as the company grew, employees frequently felt the need for a more scalable solution.
Katharine explains, “Transactions that were $50,000 or $100,000 in value occasionally triggered the anti-fraud alert. We had to manually reach out to Square and wait for them to unlock the account. This struggle increased as we grew.”
With Commerce Hub, those limitations are gone. Ronbow uses Commerce Hub to collect payments from customers in the CRM using quotes, invoices, and payment links. They can process an unlimited number of transactions each day. And, after collecting payments, they can automatically trigger workflows or download payment and payout reports—all without leaving HubSpot.
40% boost to operational efficiency
Katharine says that finally having most of their systems interconnected and speaking to each other has been a huge net positive for Ronbow. Now, marketing teams and sales teams are more aligned than ever before, and they spend less time chasing minute details and more time using data insights to identify and iterate on what’s working.
“My favorite thing is the automation function in HubSpot. It reduces manual work by up to 40% as measured by employee productivity metrics—an average of three hours per person per week. We’re seeing higher efficiency and fewer errors.”
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