In this episode of “How I Solved It” on Salesforce+, #AwesomeAdmin Preena Johansen solves a customer insights problem using CRM Analytics and App Builder. Learn how she approached building her solution and her tips for developing admin skills.
Rumor had it that account teams were frustrated because there wasn’t a quick and easy way for them to get a complete picture of their customers. They were having to look in multiple places to track down service cases, opportunity pipelines, and account information to piece together a full view of what was going on with each customer. Account teams are busy people who are laser-focused on closing deals, so they don’t have time to dig around for hours trying to figure this out. After doing some investigation of my own, I realized the rumor was true and I had to create a solution that provided a full 360 view of each customer.
I’m an #AwesomeAdmin who loves data analytics and solving problems, so I knew I could build a solution that got the account teams everything they needed. In order to pull together all the data from across different parts of Salesforce, I used CRM Analytics with a few different queries, widgets, and filters. I then embedded the snapshot version of the full dashboard right onto the account page so the team could see everything they needed right where they do their work.
You can see the full solution in action by watching my episode, but while you’re here, I’ll share how I approached the problem using a few of my favorite skills from the Salesforce Admin Skills Kit: data analysis, user management, and product management.
Analyzing data is all about storytelling. You need to figure out what stories you want to tell, and then you can figure out what data to collect and work on how to transform it to tell that story. In this project, I made sure to understand what information the account teams needed to know in order to make decisions for the business. Then I found a way to surface this information in a dashboard that told the story they could use to take action and ultimately deliver a great customer experience while helping the business.
Your solution is successful only if people use it. That means no matter what you build, you need to think about how your users will feel when they use it. Is it memorable? Do they like using it? If you build something they like, they will become advocates for your solution and help others adopt it across the business. In building this solution, I focused on how I could boost my account teams’ productivity because they could spend less time tracking down data in other places. At the end of the day, you want to build a solution that makes your users happier. By building a way to get my account teams the information they needed to better serve our customers quicker and easier, I made them happy and helped the business be more effective.
An #AwesomeAdmin skill that isn’t talked about enough is product management. As an admin, it’s my job to manage Salesforce as a product. I need to know what the platform can do, how I can extend it, and how it evolves with each release. This knowledge enabled me to use CRM Analytics and App Builder together to build this solution, and it helps me set a long-term vision for how to use Salesforce to transform other parts of the business. It can be a bit overwhelming to keep up with how the platform continues to expand, but I recommend using Trailhead and getting involved in Trailblazer Community Groups to learn about new features and keep up to date. One of my favorite groups (unbiased, of course) is the Salesforce User Group, Brisbane Australia.
Make sure you check out my episode and the rest of “How I Solved It” on Salesforce+!
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