3 Questions Admins Can Ask to Optimize Salesforce

A lot of things change quickly in our business-meets-virtual world, and it’s important that we, as admins, check in to make sure that Salesforce continues to meet the needs of our organizations. Processes shift online every day, and the usual ways of doing things change to better serve our customers. As a result, there are new opportunities for you to optimize your day-to-day operations, and have Salesforce be the single source of truth for your company. 

So that you don’t have to start from a blank slate, I’ve come up with a few recommended questions for you to share with your companies to spark discussion and identify those key areas for improvement. This can not only help you be a leader at your company but also kick-start an exploration of solutions in places you may not have anticipated. Let’s dive in!

To help guide you through this exploration, here are some questions that will serve as a jumping-off point for those conversations.

Question 1: How has your users’ workflow changed?

This requires understanding how people’s day-to-day roles have changed, and where Salesforce may be even more useful and functional. Start by having a video call with your key stakeholders to understand the details of what’s changed in the process. In these conversations, you’re looking to understand exactly what’s changed, determine what you’ll need to build as a result of what’s changed, and prioritize the potential solution(s) based on business needs.

This might be as simple as adding a new custom Opportunity Stage picklist value for your Sales team, or it might be as complex as adding a new sub-process or entire department into Salesforce. Try to focus on understanding how things have changed and where Salesforce may not be used as effectively as before. After determining the process change details, you can dive into conversations about what to build and how to build it.

Question 2: Where are there opportunities for automation that can save users time and clicks? 

This is your chance to have a conversation about improving people’s productivity in every nook and cranny of the system. Have your users virtually walk you through everything they do in Salesforce (and out of Salesforce!) step-by-step. This way, you can see where they are getting held up and spending an extra minute or two entering redundant data or clicking unnecessarily. You can also see which tools are working best for them and where they are most efficient.  

When talking about Automation, we typically default to Process Builder or Flow, but automation can be much simpler than that; you could create a Quick Action that prefills frequently used fields or creates a specific Record Type with one click. You could even just add default values to picklists that are often used. Again, it’s important to understand how you can make people’s jobs easier when considering solutions. 

Question 3: What part of your users’ jobs could be supported with updated reports and dashboards? 

Using data to make decisions is critical to an effective organization. This is a great time to revisit your existing reports and dashboards and update them based on your users’ needs. You can also subscribe people to these reports and dashboards directly, so they are emailed to everyone’s inboxes. Additionally, if they want the underlying details, then they can click straight into Salesforce to take action. Revisiting frequently used Reports and Dashboards can reveal areas for improvement. Run the Salesforce Optimizer Report to find those top reports and dashboards for your organization and start there.

You can also check out LeeAnne Rimel on Trailhead Live sharing Admin best practices for Reports and Dashboards.

These questions are a starting point for you to optimize the ways that your business uses Salesforce. Remember, the most important thing is to ensure that you understand the process changes before you start building solutions. Once you’ve helped answer the questions above, I promise you’ll find all sorts of unexpected benefits for you and your company. Let me know what you think and about your own guiding questions that have proven helpful at your company.