Salesforce's powerful CRM platform continually evolves with new releases that bring updates, innovative tools, and enhanced functionalities to boost productivity and improve business processes. To make the most of your Salesforce investment, it’s essential to stay up-to-date on these updates and learn how to use new features effectively.
TechForce Academy is here to guide you through the latest Salesforce release, sharing top Salesforce platform tips and tricks to maximize your ROI and elevate your CRM experience.
1. Stay Informed on Salesforce Release Cycles
Salesforce introduces major updates three times a year: spring, summer, and winter. Each release brings new features and adjustments that can impact your workflows, data management, and user experience. Staying informed about these releases allows you to proactively plan for changes and implement features as they become available.
Tip from TechForce Academy: Mark your calendar with release dates, and review the release notes from Salesforce or the Release Readiness Trailhead. Planning in advance allows you to assess which features will best suit your organization and test these in a sandbox environment to ensure smooth implementation.
2. Get Hands-On with New Features
Salesforce’s learning platform, Trailhead, provides an interactive way to learn about new release features. With every release, Salesforce creates Trailhead modules to walk you through updates, making it easy to learn what’s new.
TechForce Academy Tip: Set aside time to complete the Trailhead modules for each release. Encourage your team to explore these modules to stay proficient with Salesforce’s latest tools and best practices.
3. Enhance User Experience with Dynamic Forms
A recent game-changing addition to the Salesforce platform is Dynamic Forms, which allows users to customize form fields and layout based on different criteria. This feature can improve your CRM’s interface by showing only relevant fields to each user.
TechForce Academy Platform Tip: Use Dynamic Forms to streamline data entry and reduce information clutter. By customizing the layout to meet user needs, you can ensure greater data accuracy and efficiency.
4. Automate Processes with Flow Builder
Salesforce’s Flow Builder is a powerful automation tool that allows users to create workflows for repetitive tasks. Each Salesforce release introduces enhancements to Flow Builder, enabling smoother, more advanced automations.
Salesforce Tip from TechForce Academy: Explore the new capabilities in Flow Builder after each release and set up workflows to automate lead assignments, approvals, and customer onboarding. Automation maximizes productivity by allowing your team to concentrate on high-impact jobs.
5. Leverage Einstein Search for Smarter Data Access
Einstein Search utilizes AI to deliver personalized search results within Salesforce, making it easier to find relevant data quickly. Better search features can improve decision-making and save consumers time.
TechForce Academy Tip: Customize your Einstein Search settings for optimal results based on each team member’s role. This will ensure your team can quickly access the data they need without navigating multiple records, improving workflow efficiency.
6. Simplify Onboarding with In-App Guidance
In-App Guidance is a Salesforce feature that lets admins add walkthroughs, prompts, and tooltips within the platform to assist users. This is especially valuable for training new team members and easing the transition to new features.
TechForce Academy Trick: After each release, add In-App Guidance tips to familiarize users with new tools and workflows. By providing in-app tips, you reduce onboarding time and encourage faster adoption of new features.
7. Examine New Lightning App Builder Components
The Lightning App Builder offers expanded customization options with each release, including new components that provide enhanced functionality for creating custom pages and layouts.
Salesforce Tip from TechForce Academy: Check for new Lightning App Builder components in each release and use them to tailor dashboards and pages to your team’s needs. A well-organized layout helps users access relevant data and workflows more easily.
8. Optimize Mobile Capabilities for Remote Teams
Salesforce continues to enhance mobile features, ensuring users can access the platform seamlessly on the go. The Salesforce Mobile App and features like Mobile Offline Access are essential for users who frequently work remotely.
TechForce Academy Tip: Ensure that field reps and remote teams have mobile access to critical data by setting up offline capabilities and mobile-optimized pages. Regardless of connectivity, this enables workers to continue being productive.
9. Maintain Data Quality with Enhanced Duplicate Management
Salesforce offers tools to prevent and clean up duplicate records, which is essential for accurate reporting and data-driven decisions.
TechForce Academy Trick: Enable Duplicate Management and set up rules to detect and merge duplicate records automatically. Clean, accurate data is key to effective CRM operations and insightful analytics.
10. Optimize Permissions with Permission Set Groups
Managing permissions can be complex in large organizations. Salesforce’s Permission Set Groups simplify this process by allowing admins to group permissions, making access control easier to manage.
Platform Tip from TechForce Academy: Group your permission sets for specific roles or departments to streamline user permissions. This ensures consistent access controls and simplifies role management.
11. Boost Analytics with Enhanced Reports and Dashboards
Each Salesforce release brings new analytics features that allow users to create more detailed, customizable reports and dashboards.
Salesforce Trick from TechForce Academy: Regularly review your reports and dashboards to incorporate new visualization tools and metrics. Set up custom dashboards for real-time tracking of KPIs to provide teams with valuable insights into performance and goals.
12. Tap into the Salesforce Community for Best Practices
The Salesforce community is a valuable resource, offering webinars, release readiness sessions, and Q&A opportunities with Salesforce experts.
TechForce Academy Platform Tip: Join the Salesforce Trailblazer Community to connect with other users and stay updated on new features. You’ll gain access to tips and tricks from seasoned Salesforce users and find answers to common questions.
13. Create a New Release Change Management Plan
Each Salesforce release presents an opportunity to improve your CRM strategy, but implementing changes requires careful planning. A well-structured change management approach can smooth the transition to new features and ensure all team members are on board.
TechForce Academy Tip: Design a change management strategy that includes testing, training, and gathering feedback. Run new features in a sandbox environment before full deployment and provide training to ensure users are ready to adopt the updates.
Conclusion: Maximize Your Salesforce ROI with TechForce Academy’s Tips and Tricks
Navigating Salesforce releases with confidence is key to maximizing the platform’s potential for your organization. By adopting proactive strategies—such as scheduling time to review release notes, exploring new tools with Trailhead, and testing in a sandbox environment—you can make the most of Salesforce’s ongoing innovations.
TechForce Academy is here to guide you through each Salesforce release, offering Salesforce tips and tricks to help you streamline workflows, maintain data accuracy, and enhance productivity. By implementing these platform tips, you can continue to see returns on your Salesforce investment, ensure a positive user experience, and stay ahead of the competition.
Top comments (0)