How Birger N. Haug streamlined 15,000+ monthly service reminders with HubSpot SMS automation

Birger N Haug, one of Norway’s leading car dealerships with seven locations around Oslo, depends on reliable communication with thousands of customers every month. From service reminders to inspection notices, SMS has long been a critical channel.

“We’re very dependent on using SMS and especially using SMS as a reminder after an e-mail. We often have certain emails going out and if people don’t respond to them, we send an SMS reminder. Those reminders are very effective,” Camilla explains.

But as the team moved to HubSpot as their CRM, they needed an SMS solution that could keep up with their scale, integrate seamlessly, and deliver the right message with the right details to the right customer. They needed an SMS solution that:

• Integrates easily and seamlessly with HubSpot

• Could affordably send their large SMS volumes (15,000+ units per month)

• Supports complex personalization, such as linking messages to specific vehicles

• Provides transparent reporting and analytics

Whatever solution they chose had to fit these needs above, while also providing a texting experience that’s trustworthy and secure enough for their Norwegian customers.

For an SMS solution overall, gaining their customer’s trust is key. “In Norway, people usually like they view SMS as a bit spammy. So it’s very important that we don’t come across as spammy when we send out these things,” Camilla explained.

Generally, SMS isn’t typically used for marketing in Norway as much as it is in other regions. But for transactional messages like maintenance and inspection reminders, it’s indispensable. And though the dealership had relied on SMS for years, their old CRM made the process frustrating:

• Reporting was poor, forcing manual counts of every message sent.

• Personalized SMS send-outs were cumbersome and manual, not dynamic at all.

• Customers with multiple vehicles risked receiving the wrong information.

• Two-way SMS was also very difficult to set up and required external consultants.

“It was so outdated,” Camilla recalls. “We needed a better way to handle scale, ensure accuracy, and avoid coming across as spammy.”

When the company transitioned to HubSpot, Camilla evaluated several SMS providers.  While there were quite a few of them on the market, Sinch Engage stood out for a few key reasons:

• Ease of setup: “super easy,” according to Camilla

• Seamless integration with their existing HubSpot workflows

• Affordability, especially considering its large range of capabilities

• Hands-on support during implementation to solve complex requirements

In addition, a specific feature in Sinch Engage that Camilla and her team found to be extremely useful (that wasn’t offered in their previous SMS provider) is the ability to see your sent messages to confirm exactly what your customer received.

Overall, Sinch Engage’s strong integration with HubSpot – the center of their operations and customer data – was a significant part of their decision-making process.

“All the content and all the data we have on our customers, we can use that both to trigger the SMS and to personalize the SMS with Sinch Engage. That’s been a big positive for us.” Camilla says.

Previously, Birger N Haug’s use of SMS was limited to one-off campaigns, sending all customers the same reminder at once. This was inefficient and lacked personalization.

But now, after implementing Sinch Engage as their complete solution for sending SMS  from HubSpot:

• Messages are triggered automatically based on CRM data (e.g., maintenance due dates, inspection reminders).

• SMS can follow email campaigns as reminders, which has proven to drive stronger response rates and ROI.

• Each SMS is tied directly to the correct vehicle and license plate, avoiding confusion for customers who own multiple cars.

“Things that weren’t possible before are now possible. Before, SMS was about sending one off send-outs and that’s it. There really wasn’t much else there.” But now, we’re able to have fairly complex workflows where customers can receive reminders after a certain amount have time has passed or based on certain events and interactions that we can choose.” Camilla says.

By adopting Sinch Engage, the dealership has now reduced the time it takes to setup smart SMS campaigns while ensuring messages never feel spammy:

• Campaigns are now almost twice as fast to set up and send compared to the old system.

• Every SMS can be personalized and tied to the correct vehicle, avoiding confusion.

• Customer communication is more transparent, with the team able to see the exact message each customer received.

• Automated workflows in HubSpot ensure that SMS follows email reminders, boosting response rates and ROI.

 “Because Sinch Engage integrates so well into HubSpot, we’ve gone from manual one-offs to advanced, automated communication without a lot of manual effort. It has opened up a lot of workflows that we couldn’t do before.” Camilla says.

Camilla and her team are now preparing to adopt RCS messaging for richer, more interactive conversations while still keeping trust and security top of mind.

And overall, as customer communications continues to evolve, Camilla encourages other CRM and marketing professionals to regularly re-evaluate their tools:

• Don’t stay with a system that hasn’t evolved in years.

• Even if one feature isn’t available, there are often smart workarounds.

• Evolving your tools should go hand-in-hand with evolving your way of thinking.

As she puts it: “Everything is changing so fast – from AI to RCS – and you need to stay curious. If you’re stuck in old ways of working, you’ll fall behind. But with the right mindset, it’s not only effective, it’s fun.”

Fortunately, with Sinch Engage’s HubSpot SMS integration, Birger N. Haug can now deliver timely, personalized SMS across every stage of their customer journey a lot more easily, all while saving valuable time on setup and even having fun doing it.