Customizing Salesforce: Unlocking its Full Potential

Salesforce can help you improve customer relationships and gain valuable insights into your operations. But out-of-the-box Salesforce features may not always meet the unique needs of your business. This is where customization comes in.

Customizing Salesforce to suit the specific requirements of your business can help you get the most out of the platform in a way that works for you. But there are many aspects to this that need careful consideration. Incorrect implementation can mean disaster for your organization.

So, in this guide, we will talk about how you can customize Salesforce to make it work for you and not the other way around.

How to Customize Salesforce

Salesforce's out-of-the-box features are already powerful. But if you want more control over your data, you can always customize the system to accommodate your needs. Here is how you do it.

Plan Your Customization

Every project needs planning. That includes Salesforce customization. Outlining your business goals and objectives is the first step in the planning stage. This ensures the changes you make will help support your organization's growth and success. Salesforce is already complex on its own. Not planning your customization efforts can lead to costly mistakes.

So, when planning your Salesforce customization, make sure to identify the objects, fields, and relationships that need to be created or modified, as well as the layouts, validation rules, and workflows that need to be implemented.

Create Custom Objects and Fields

Creating custom objects and fields in Salesforce allows for more flexibility and customization in organizing and managing data. Custom objects can be used to store data specific to your business, such as products, customers, or projects. Custom fields can be added to these custom objects to capture additional information.

This allows you to custom-fit the Salesforce platform to meet your organization's unique needs and make the data more actionable. Additionally, custom objects and fields can be used to create custom page layouts, reports, and dashboards that provide end-users with a more personalized and user-friendly experience. This can be done through the Salesforce user interface or the Salesforce API.

Create Custom Layouts

Custom layouts can be created to control the layout and organization of data on a page, such as how fields are displayed, grouped, and labeled. This lets you show only the relevant information to your business, making it easier for users to find and work with the data they need.

Custom layouts can also be used to create different page versions for different types of users or profiles. This way, different teams can have the information they need to do their jobs. You can use them to create more intuitive and user-friendly interfaces, increasing user adoption and satisfaction with the Salesforce platform.

Personalize Data and Information

Data is only useful if it is accurate. Salesforce allows companies to manage massive customer data on the backend. You can use out-of-the-box features to customize big objects for easier data management. But if you want more customization options, you can leverage the power of Schema Builder.

This allows users to visually create and manage the data model of your Salesforce organization. It provides an intuitive user interface that makes creating and managing custom objects, fields, and relationships easy. And while you are at it, create validation rules to ensure the information entered is correct. This helps preserve data integrity, preventing errors that could cause problems down the road.

Implement Workflows and Automation

Workflow and automation refer to the process of creating custom rules and processes that automate certain actions or tasks within Salesforce.

Workflow is a set of rules that are used to automatically perform actions such as sending an email, creating a task, or updating a field when certain conditions are met. For example, you can create a rule that automatically sends an email to a customer when their account balance reaches a certain threshold.

Automation in Salesforce refers to the creation of custom processes that automate tasks such as data validation, lead management, record creation, and field updates. For example, you can use it to automate updating a lead's status as they go through your sales funnel. You can also use it to send alerts and notifications to users automatically.

Manage Notifications

Notifications are a simple way to send information to users. But keeping track of them manually is both time-consuming and tedious. Salesforce lets you control when, how, and to whom notifications are sent without breaking a sweat.  

They can be sent as email alerts, in-app notifications, and SMS messages. You can also set triggers to automatically send notifications based on specific actions or events, such as when you have successfully converted a lead, or an opportunity is closed.

Create Reports and Dashboards

Salesforce allows you to store big objects. But that won't do you any good if they aren't accessible. That is why you need to create reports and dashboards to present complex data in an easy-to-understand format.

Customizing the data you want to see makes it easier to identify trends, patterns, and key performance indicators. Plus, they can be shared easily with other stakeholders, improving team communication and collaboration.

Test and Deploy

Before deploying to the production environment, you must test all the changes you have made in your CRM platform to identify and fix any errors or bugs. This helps prevent data loss or corruption, minimizing the risk of system downtime.

Salesforce provides a test environment called the sandbox. You can use this for testing before implementing anything in the production environment. This way, the changes won't affect your production data should anything go wrong. You can also use it to train new users and test new processes.

Monitor and Maintain

After deploying your changes, you will need to keep a close eye on the system. Although you have already tested everything in the sandbox, you can't discount the possibility of errors happening in production. You should also keep in mind that Salesforce is a constantly evolving platform. So you need to stay up to date with new features and improvements to keep your customizations running smoothly.

Salesforce Customization Benefits for Businesses

Salesforce's out-of-the-box features offer many default capabilities that can help get you started immediately. But customizing it gives you more flexibility. So, how does Salesforce customization benefit your business?

Improved Efficiency

Salesforce customization improves efficiency by automating processes and workflows. This helps simplify business processes as it removes unnecessary steps. It also makes integration with other systems easier, allowing them to access and use data from multiple systems from one central location. As a result, you get more cost savings and improved productivity.

Better Data Management

By creating custom objects and fields, you get to capture the specific data you need. This ensures the information stored is accurate and complete, reducing the risk of errors. It also enables data integration with third-party tools, allowing access to data from multiple systems. This helps streamline data management and improve the efficiency of data access and usage.

Enhanced User Experience

Salesforce is great, but it isn't easy to use. One of the biggest challenges reported by many users is its usability. They find it hard to navigate. That, unfortunately, eats into their time. And with sales, every minute counts. That extra step the sales team needs to take to close a deal can lead to lost opportunities.

Customization allows you to simplify the navigation structure of the platform, making it easier for users to find the information they need and complete their tasks. It also helps automate repetitive tasks to streamline workflows, leading to better user adoption.

Improved Communication

Many organizations struggle with communication between departments. Without effective communication, departments may not be aware of what other teams are working on. This lack of coordination can lead to confusion and duplication of effort.

Salesforce customization provides tools and features that enable communication and data sharing among different teams and departments. For example, creating custom reports and dashboards can help teams stay informed about important data and metrics. Workflow automation also helps streamline and automate tasks, reducing the need for manual coordination.

Easy Integration with Existing Systems

After implementing Salesforce, you may be scratching your head and wondering what to do with your legacy system. Fortunately, Salesforce provides a variety of integration options, such as APIs, middleware, and third-party tools to integrate cloud services like G Suite and HubSpot. This means you can choose the best integration method for your needs and existing systems.

Better Insights

Unreliable reporting is the bane of all organizations. It doesn't just cause stakeholders to lose confidence in the business. Making decisions based on incorrect data can also lead to wasted resources and lost opportunities.

Salesforce customization allows businesses to create custom data validation rules and workflows. This helps ensure data is accurate and complete, giving you better analytics. It also lets users create customized dashboards that display relevant data in real-time, providing valuable insights into your customer interactions and data. This can help you improve your overall business performance.

Cost Savings

Instead of using multiple software solutions to manage different aspects of customer relationships, Salesforce provides a centralized platform that can be tailored to fit your specific needs. This helps reduce the amount of money spent on software subscriptions and maintenance. Salesforce customization can also help organizations automate certain processes to reduce the need for manual labor, further cutting costs.

Improved Customer Retention

Customers are the lifeblood of any organization. That is why customer retention is just as important as attracting new ones. A properly customized Salesforce account can help you track important information such as purchase history, communication preferences, and feedback.

This gives you insights into customer behavior, allowing you to identify and address potential issues before they lead to lost business. Automation and workflows can also be implemented to ensure that customer needs are addressed promptly and efficiently.

Top Salesforce Integration Solutions

Salesforce is a powerful tool, but it can't do everything on its own. You need to integrate it with other platforms to get the most out of it. Here are some tools to make integration easier.

Integrate.io

Integrate.io is a cloud-based integration platform that enables businesses to automate data flow between different systems, platforms, and applications. It is easy to use with its no-code, drag-and-drop user interface.

It also has over 100 pre-built connectors for different platforms, including popular CRMs, ERPs, and e-commerce platforms. This makes it easy to connect Salesforce to other systems without the need for extensive coding or development work.

One unique thing about integrate.io is its two-way Salesforce-to-Salesforce connector, which enables you to integrate and synchronize data between two Salesforce instances. This is useful for businesses that have multiple instances for different departments, regions, or subsidiaries.

Salesforce AppExchange

The Salesforce AppExchange is an online marketplace that lists third-party applications that integrate well with Salesforce. This includes popular software tools, such as Zapier, Slack, Asana, Outlook, Mailchimp, and many more. If you are looking for a single quick integration, this is perfect for you.

MuleSoft

MuleSoft is an API and data integration platform. Its Anypoint platform is a hybrid integration platform that allows businesses to connect their applications, data, and devices across on-premise and cloud environments. It comes with features such as enterprise service bus (ESB) and integration platform as a service (iPaaS), which are great for more advanced integrations. But it has a steep learning curve that may even require extensive training.

Salesforce Connect

Salesforce Connect is a feature within Salesforce that enables businesses to connect and share data between Salesforce and other systems. But instead of pushing data out, it brings external data into the platform.

It removes the need for complex integration or custom code, making it easy for businesses to access and use data from external systems. This helps improve operations, increase productivity, and drive growth by providing a unified data view across multiple systems.

Conclusion

Salesforce is the most popular CRM platform in the world, with a market share of over 20%. But don't just use it because everybody else does. Learn to customize it to unlock its full potential. By tailoring the layout and fields of your records, automating workflows, and integrating with other systems, you can streamline your operations and gain valuable insights that can help you make data-driven decisions.

Whether you are a small business just starting out with Salesforce or a large enterprise looking to optimize your existing Salesforce implementation, customizing the platform to meet your specific needs can help you get the most out of it and improve your overall business performance. Remember to involve your team. Take time to plan and test your customizations to ensure they meet your business needs and goals. With the right customization strategy in place, you can leverage the power of Salesforce to help your business thrive.

‍