Data Quality Alerts in HubSpot: what to track and how to fix

One-liner: Clean data isn’t hygiene. It’s a revenue safeguard.

TL;DR

• Build a focused alert taxonomy: duplicates, formatting errors, missing fields, anomalies, sync errors, workflow failures, and routing gaps.
• Route each alert to the right owner via Slack/email/tasks with clear SLAs.
• Fix with property validation, Data Quality tools, sync-error dashboards, and workflow error logs; use partner tools for bulk/advanced dedupe.
• Prove impact with before/after dashboards: fewer bounces, higher MQL→SQL, faster time-to-remediation, cleaner pipeline.
  
  

What “Data Quality Alerts” Mean in HubSpot (and where they live)

HubSpot’s Data Quality capabilities centralize duplicate detection, property insights (including anomalies in Pro/Enterprise), and a weekly data-quality digest that summarizes issues and trends. Treat this as your signal hub, then extend with workflows, lists, and reports to monitor what matters for your business motion.

Alert Taxonomy (use this as your blueprint)

1. Duplicates & Merge Needed
   Contacts/companies flagged for merging; monitor spikes and keep an eye on daily capacity for merges.
   
   
2. Formatting/Standardization
   Invalid phone, email, numbers, or dates; prevent “junk” input using validation rules.
   
   
3. Missing/Enrichment Gaps
   Critical properties blank (Owner, Lifecycle stage, Country, Industry, UTMs). Track and remediate systematically.
   
   
4. Property Anomalies/Outliers
   Values outside expected ranges (ARR, ACV, probability). Investigate both data entry and business logic.
   
   
5. Sync/Integration Errors
   Breaks between HubSpot and external systems (e.g., Salesforce). Triage by error category and fix type.
   
   
6. Workflow/Webhook Failures
   Failed actions and webhook timeouts. Spot recurring failures and notify owners.
   
   
7. Routing & SLA Breakers
   Unassigned leads/tickets, deals missing Amount/Close date, lifecycle inconsistencies. Enforce with validation and required fields.
   
   

Sources & Signals (how alerts are generated)

• Native signals: duplicate banners, property anomalies, “properties to review,” and the weekly data-quality digest.
• Custom logic: workflows that create tasks, send Slack/email notifications, and maintain “at-risk” lists for repeat offenders.
• Partner tools: advanced/bulk dedupe and normalization when volume or logic exceeds native capabilities.
  
  

Routing: who gets what (and where)

Channels: Slack/email for P0/P1 issues; auto-create tasks in a “Data Stewardship” queue; internal “Data Fix” tickets for cross-team remediation.

Ownership

• RevOps: validation rules, governance, anomalies, cross-system consistency.
• Sales Ops: account/deal hygiene (Amount, Stage, Owner), pipeline readiness.
• Marketing Ops: form hygiene, UTMs, email readiness, consent.
• Support Ops: ticket fields, priority, SLA metadata.
  
  

Priorities

• P0: blocking sync failures or workflow outages.
• P1: duplicate spikes or routing breaks impacting speed-to-lead/forecast.
• P2: formatting/standardization gaps.
• P3: low-risk hygiene for monthly cleanups.
  
  

SLAs for Remediation (copy/paste policy)

• P0 (blocking): mitigate within 4 hours; document root cause within 24 hours.
• P1 (material): resolve within 1 business day; quarantine or bulk-fix as needed.
• P2 (moderate): normalize within 3 business days; add/adjust validation.
• P3 (minor): fix within 7 business days or batch into monthly sprints.
  
  

Publish these SLAs in your RevOps playbook and align alerting to the owners above.

How to Fix (playbooks by category)

Duplicates

• Daily: clear the duplicate queue.
• Weekly: review spikes vs. baseline; adjust collection points causing dupes.
• At scale: apply bulk matching (email + name + domain + similarity); schedule merges; log exceptions.
  
  

Formatting / Standardization

• Enforce property validation rules (text/number/date, phone patterns, picklists).
• Block bad inputs at forms/imports; add normalization workflows for legacy data (e.g., case, country/state standardization).
  
  

Missing / Enrichment Gaps

• Build dynamic lists for critical properties = unknown; assign tasks or Slack pings to owners.
• Run enrichment against your source of truth and create “fix-it” forms for sales and CS to fill gaps quickly.
  
  

Anomalies / Outliers

• Define acceptable ranges; alert on drift (e.g., deal Amount, close probability, ARR/ACV).
• Investigate whether it’s data entry error, picklist drift, or a true business signal.
  
  

Sync / Integration Errors

• Triage by category: mapping, picklists, permissions, API limits, record ownership, lifecycle conflicts.
• Assign owners; add preventive guardrails (mapping reviews before field changes, picklist governance, user permission audits).
  
  

Workflow / Webhook Failures

• Check workflow history and error tables; set notifications for recurring failures.
• For webhooks, monitor response codes/timeouts; implement retries and backoff; notify the integration owner.
  
  

Governance & Prevention

• Standards: data dictionary, naming conventions, canonical picklists (Industry, Country, Lead Source), merge rules.
• Guardrails: validation rules, required fields in pipelines, controlled forms, permissioning by role.
• Cadence: monthly audits in Data Quality; weekly digest to track trends; publish a RACI so there’s no ambiguity on who fixes what.
  
  

Dashboards & Before/After Metrics (prove value)

Track a 4–8 week baseline vs. post-remediation:

Data health

• Daily duplicates (contacts/companies)
• % complete on critical properties
• Anomalies per week
• % valid emails/phones
  
  

Ops performance

• Mean time to remediation (by priority)
• Open vs. resolved sync errors
• % workflows without errors in the last 7 days
  
  

Revenue impact

• Email bounce rate
• MQL→SQL conversion rate
• Win rate / forecast accuracy
• Speed-to-lead (if routing issues were common)
  
  

Use these to quantify the impact of “HubSpot data quality alerts” in your QBRs.

Starter Alert Pack (8 essentials)

1. Duplicate spike vs. baseline (contacts & companies)
2. Record owner is unknown (lead/deal/ticket)
3. Invalid email or phone (fails validation)
4. Country/State not in picklist (mismatched value)
5. Deal missing Amount or Close date
   
6. Ticket missing Priority
   
7. Missing UTM source/medium on new contacts
8. Integration sync errors > X in last 24h (notify RevOps)
   
   

Implementation note: pair each alert with a workflow notification and a dashboard tile; escalate to partner tools when volume exceeds manual capacity.

Advanced Alert Pack

• Anomalous ARR/ACV vs. expected range
• Stage mismatch across systems (HubSpot ↔ external CRM)
• Workflow failure rate > X% over 60 minutes
• Picklist drift (new values entering via API/imports)
• Lead source spike (possible bot or tagging issue)
  
  

Instrument with anomaly checks, integration error views, and workflow logs.

FAQs

Does HubSpot send a weekly data quality summary automatically?
Yes. Turn on the weekly digest to get a snapshot of duplicates, formatting suggestions, and properties to review.

Can I prevent bad data before it hits the CRM?
Yes. Use property validation rules, required fields, and controlled picklists in forms/imports.

Where do I fix Salesforce (or other) sync errors?
In the integration’s sync-error area. Diagnose mappings, picklists, permissions, and API-limit issues.

Do workflows alert me when something breaks?
Workflow history and error views help you spot failing actions; add notifications for recurring failures and review webhook logs.

When do I need a partner tool for dedupe?
When volume is high or matching logic must go beyond default fields—bulk/scheduled deduplication is faster and safer.