Unified Customer View
Who are these people, really?
The first unified view answers the most fundamental question: beyond names and emails, who are these people in relationship to your business?
Beyond Contact Records
In a traditional CRM, you have contact records. Names, emails, job titles. Maybe some notes from the last call. It's better than nothing, but it's not understanding.
The Unified Customer View is different. It's the complete picture of who someone is in relationship to your business:
Their position and responsibilities
Connections to other contacts
Where they are in their path
How they prefer to engage
What Questions Does This View Answer?
The Unified Customer View should immediately answer critical questions about every person you work with:
"Who is this person calling us right now?"
"What's their history with our company?"
"Who else do they work with that we know?"
"Where are they in their journey with us?"
"What do they care about most?"
"What problems are they trying to solve?"
The Relationship vs. Transaction Distinction
Here's the key insight: transaction data tells you what someone did. Relationship data tells you who someone is.
Transaction Data
What someone did
Relationship Data
Who someone is
Both matter. But most systems over-index on transaction data because it's easier to capture automatically. Relationship data requires intentional configuration and consistent team behavior.
Building the Unified Customer View in HubSpot
The foundation is the Contact record, but it extends to three key areas:
Contact Properties
Beyond the basics, capture relationship context:
- • Value Path Stage: Journey position
- • Primary Interest: Problem they're solving
- • Relationship Owner: Responsible person
- • Engagement Preference: How they interact
- • Stakeholder Role: Decision role
Company Associations
Every contact links to their company, unlocking:
- • Organizational context
- • Connection to colleagues
- • Commercial relationship visibility
- • Account-level insights
Timeline Integration
Every interaction across all channels:
- • Email exchanges
- • Calls and meetings
- • Form submissions
- • Support tickets
- • Deal activities
- • Notes from any team member
The Multi-Stakeholder Reality
In B2B especially, you're rarely working with just one person. The Unified Customer View must account for complex organizational relationships:
Map all contacts at the same company with their roles and relationships
Tag as champion, decision-maker, user, blocker, or influencer
Track reporting lines and organizational hierarchy
Use HubSpot's labels to define specific relationship types
From View to Action
The Unified Customer View isn't just for reading — it drives smarter actions across your entire team:
Before a Call
Quickly see full context to personalize every conversation
During Handoffs
New team members instantly understand the relationship history
For Segmentation
Group contacts by relationship stage, not just behavior
In Automation
Trigger workflows based on relationship context, not just actions
Quick Check
Before moving on, test your understanding with these scenarios:
Scenario: Alex is back
Alex just opened your pricing page for the third time this week. What should you do?
Scenario 2
Your colleague asks: "Do we know anyone at Acme Corp who can introduce us to their VP of Sales?" What view helps you answer this?
→ Think through this...
Unified Customer View shows: All contacts at Acme Corp, their roles,
stakeholder relationships, and influence mapping. You'd see who reports to whom and identify
your champion who could make the introduction.
This is multi-stakeholder visibility — beyond individual contact records.
Your Turn
Think of a real customer you work with. What relationship data about them is missing from your current system?
(Journey stage? Decision role? Communication preferences? Problems they're solving?)
The Key Difference
Transaction data: Alex opened the pricing page
Relationship data: Alex is evaluating solutions for Q2,
prefers async communication, is the technical champion, and needs exec buy-in