The Definitive Beginners Guide to Salesforce User Onboarding

Salesforce has become one of the leading CRM software platforms for businesses large and small. The software has managed to attract several users and retain them. If you are a manager of any department that includes a level of customer relations – whether it be sales, customer support or something else – you are most likely familiar with the platform and aware of both its benefits and the difficulties in operating it. Of course, as an IT manager or team leader can tell you, there is more to getting started with Salesforce than just the installation and set-up process. Training employees (both new users entirely and those who may have some experience but are unfamiliar with some specific Salesforce specifications for your company) on how to perform Salesforce tasks, to look up or input data, perform irregular action, and other processes can be a challenging and frustrating time. Yet effective and strategic Salesforce user onboarding will allow you to get more out of the platform, benefiting both individuals and teams alike. This guide offers some important tips to successful Salesforce user onboarding, to beginners who might not have a lot of experience in it. Hope you find it useful! 1. App Exchange Salesforce user onboarding is made a lot easier with some of the numerous business applications and complimentary options found on the Salesforce App Exchange. Among the apps offered are Salesforce automation, employee incentives and gamification tools, many of which make onboarding and training much more engaging and long-lasting. While some companies only use the basic features on the core Salesforce platform itself, this limits the kind of operations they are able to carry out. Take the time to truly search the available options on the App Exchange to see how they can work for your specific needs. 2. Utilize Unique Onboarding Systems Effective CRM usage relies on adequate training and support services. Think of training almost like you think of customer support. You want to – as much as possible – reduce costs and incoming support requests by getting customer to “self-service”, i.e. to help themselves. So too with training. When onboarding new users to Salesforce, you want to minimize both the time and costs required for the training, but also to lower the amount of time spent by employees asking and waiting for helpdesk assistance. This is where online guidance solutions, WalkMe being a good example, can play a unique and valuable role in onboarding new users quickly and smoothly. WalkMe helps to simplify Salesforce usage, enabling new and existing Salesforce users, as they work, to easily and successfully complete their desired tasks. During the initial training Salesforce onboarding process and beyond, managers can empower their users so they no longer need to focus on the technical aspects of operating the software, freeing them to become more productive and avoid errors through even the most complex processes. Online guidance technology can help to allow users to receive direct and specific assistance in the moment of need, which in turn accelerates the onboarding process and gets new users up to speed quickly. 3. Mobile Applications As a manager who oversees Salesforce use, you need to understand the role of mobile applications in onboarding users. We live in a mobile-centric world, in particular with the explosion of smartphones and tablet computers in the past few years. The increasing adoption in the workplace of BYOD policies (enabling employees to utilize office materials via consumer mobile devices) has made it easy for professionals to access information when they are on the move. This of course makes the onboarding process more comfortable and less “restrained”, bring a healthy dose of informality and portability. Take advantage of mobile Salesforce apps which increase the flexibility, and efficiency offered by the software, and make the onboarding process easier to digest, wherever a user might be. 4. Chatter App One of the apps that make Salesforce a more effective software is the Chatter application. This app is designed to place new hires in a chatter to make it easy for them to engage, interact and collaborate with their colleagues. The application makes it easy for new hires to access advice from different people within an organization. Salesforce also assigns a mentor to every new hire to make it easy for them to settle down. The benefit for onboarding of course is that it takes away the pressure from the traditional “trainer-trainee” relationship, and allows new users to access necessary learning information from a diversity of sources. This reminds me, you can fully encourage them to utilize social learning – from a wide variety of internet channels – as well. 5. Communication Salesforce onboarding can only be effective when a good communication plan is in place. It is important to provide regular communication to all the parties involved. Communication is important because it helps users to understand the transition from other software to Salesforce. Users need to know what is required of them and the kind of training they will go through. Remember to get their feedback, value their suggestions, and make them feel like they are being heard. A more engaged user is a more motivated and productive user. 6. Identify Super Users Salesforce user onboarding should only take place after you have identified super users in the particular group that you want to onboard. To look for super users, you need to identify those who are already aware of technological innovations. Super users can be users who have influence over a group. Once you have identified super users, it is easy to deploy the right resources and train them. Super users need to have access to insider information. This is because they will play an important role in the training process. 7. Training Strategic training is part of Salesforce user onboarding. Managers need to be trained first because they are the people who will offer direction to the rest of the members. The super users you identified should be trained after the managers. Salesforce has thought about every aspect of customer relationship management and the wide range of applications that you can onboard simply enhance its efficiency. Further information can be found on salesforce training material page. Enjoy.