Salesforce Best Practices

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Salesforce Best Practices

In July 2019, StarrData published a list of Salesforce Best Practices. It can be found here.

The document outlines 12 Topics and the accompanying Best Practices within each one. These practices should be quite familiar to your Salesforce Administrator, if you have one. If your company struggles with Salesforce implementation or maintenance, it could behoove you to consider hiring an Administrator who can help you maintain consistent usage in harmony with Best Practices. If you need assistance we are happy to speak with you more at Thompson Technology.

Below find the 12 Topics and a brief definition in order to help you navigate potential guidance.

Data Integrity

Your data should be accurate, organized, and secure. Some issues that may arise include duplicate entries, formatting issues, validation errors.

General Setup

On the Setup menu, users can customize organization settings and apps. Some challenges may include too many or too few fields, page layout errors, improper Role or Profile assignments, and misuse of custom objects.

General Usage

The average user may be versed in much of Salesforce but overlook, forget, or miss certain fundamentals that increase the ease of usage. Potential oversights may include forgetting to use Global Search, relating records, not using the Recycle bin, missing List views, not customizing tabs, and underusing Private folders.

Activity Management

An Activity is any event, task, logged call, or sent email. Activities can be related to records (such as accounts, leads, opportunities, or cases. If Shared Activities are enabled, an Activity can be related to multiple contacts, and this can help generate workflow and approval processes. Some Best Practices to remember with Activities include logging, calendar sharing, and filtering.

Lead Management

A Lead is a sales prospect who has expressed interest in your product or company, and managing Leads is essential for organization and growth. Some practices to look out for are Lead duplication, conversion, and maintenance.

Opportunity Management

Opportunities track your sales and pending deals. Some reminders you may need include keeping dates current and accurate, following the correct procedures, and using Quote features.

Case Management

A Case is a detailed description of a customer’s feedback, problem, or question, and it is essential to Manage these correctly. Some troubleshooting may be required to well define the process, interact with Cases daily, keep good notes, close cases upon customer approval, use a fail-safe, and many others. Case Management can be one of the larger elements to tackle in Administration.

Email Templates and Settings

Email Templates communicate a standard message that can be personalized and set to send on a regular basis. Best Practices remind you to standardize, organize and double check templates, and merge field properly therein.

Sales Forecasting

Sales can be Forecasted based on an organization’s fiscal year and previous data. Some issues you may run into include mis assigned Role Hierarchies, realistic quotas, and closed dates set in the past.

Report Management

A Report returns a set of records that meets certain criteria and displays it in organized rows and columns. Managing Reports may require you to brush up on utilizing folders, using the description fields correctly, filtering criteria thoughtfully, and exporting accurately.

Dashboard Management

A Dashboard shows data from source reports as visual components, which can be charts, gauges, tables, metrics, or Visualforce pages. Best practices include reminders to utilize folders, set Running User properly, keep Dashboards separate, remember the Refresh button, and customize your Home page.

Workflow and Automation

A workflow action (such as an email alert or field update) can be set to automate when designated conditions of a workflow rule are met. Some warnings include checking field updates, not relying on emails to alert the workflow, and the potential annoying nature of email alerts.

Desktop Integration

Every personal Desktop syncing must be done with proper folders and associations, depending on the user’s systems.

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