The internet is in no short supply of interesting Salesforce aids. With the advent of their app exchange, developers are coming up with all kinds of addons, plugins and other such tools to optimize Salesforce and add functionality. This elegant CRM software is more efficient and and powerful than ever before. They’ve got gamification, advanced logistics, social marketing (and even direct integration with programs like MailChimp) down pat.
When it comes to Salesforce innovations, though, there is one thing you don’t often see: intuitive ways to make it easier to use.
Now, as far as CRM software goes, Salesforce isn’t really that hard to use. If configured properly, someone with little experience can operate it well, but someone with helpful tools can operate it like a pro.
Any software, no matter how well-designed and intuitive in its interface, can have its difficult moments.Here are a few Salesforce ideas on how to make it much easier to use, without sacrificing its capabilities.
#1 – Custom Forms and Fields for Automation
In the past, I’ve talked about how simple it is to create custom reports, forms and fields in Salesforce; the main reason they made this so simple was because they understood that making this sort of ‘library’, would make their software easy to use.
So, let’s say that you’re in charge of the customer service, support or other CRM-related departments; When you set up Salesforce, your job is now to observe your staff. Learn which tasks are frequently performed, which tasks are difficult, time consuming, or complex. Make a list of these tasks , and begin designing forms, reports and fields that handle most of the step by step predictable procedures – automatically. Store these reports in a library. Your staff can then refer to these reports whenever the need arises.
#2 – Visual Interfaces
Salesforce has a good UI as it stands; a traditional CRM interface, with tabular data, spread sheets and database concepts. These are all well and good, but a lot of people find this difficult to look at for long hours at a time. It’s very easy to go cross eyed, looking at data grids, even if you’ve used them for decades.
Along with custom automation, Salesforce actually offers customization of most of their pages and interfaces within their system. This allows you to create a less banal, more personal appearance. Aesthetics matter for ease of use, especially when it’s a program you use every day.
#3 – Onboard with WalkMe
This Saleforce aid is an outstanding. The app is free and integrates right into your Salesforce platform. If you haven’t heard of WalkMe yet, well..where have you been?
WalkMe was originally designed as a tutorial program (that integrates with any given SaaS design), to teach people how to use and complete tasks on a website- live. It is content aware; so it knows every move a user makes, predict mistakes, correct them, guides them and stays by a user’s side until the task is complete. WalkMe is a great learn-while-doing teaching tool, but it’s also amazing as a training assistant.
WalkMe has a plugin that integrates with Salesforce , so you can automate many complex processes. It has a customizable interface and a simple point and click scripting system for instruction, (Basically, it can be the smart personal assistant that Microsoft had in mind when it created ‘Clippy’ the paperclip.
I have outlined a few Salesforce ideas for making it easy to use. Custom forms, customizable UI and onboard systems are just the beginning, there are many more tools being developed to aid in operating Salesforce. Check these out and see which ones best work for you!