Salesforce. A name that needs no introduction. A brand that redefined Enterprise software. A force that has been reigning supreme for the last two decades. Even though the concept of CRM has been in existence since the launch of Goldmine in 1989, and several players came and went since, the one solution that stood the test of time is Salesforce.
These are possibly why the entire business community agrees in unison to the famous saying that goes:
“If it’s not in Salesforce, then it doesn’t exist”.
This phrase could be interpreted in multiple ways. It is used by sales operations managers to inspire discipline in their team. The same phrase is used by sales enablement to inculcate a sense of responsibility among their colleagues in order to receive clean and reliable data. It is used by the C-suite executives to receive a better forecast.
In short, decision-makers want their employees to enter information in the CRM to have a better understanding of what is happening in the organization.
But over the years many organizations have struggled to show the real importance of Salesforce to their employees. This has resulted in dummy entries, the inconsistency of data and many such problems, as the employee gets irritated by doing a job, they didn’t sign up for in the first place.
This brings us to an important question – what should be in Salesforce to make it exist?”
Well, the answer is In-app guidance.
Now, one may wonder how is it going to solve the problem?
In-app guidance tools like Apty have several features to guide an employee through a number of steps to complete their tasks.
If your employees get stuck in a step then in that case usually, they would look for help from guides, manuals, videos or from their colleagues. Sometimes employees out of shyness never seek help and spend a hell lot of time searching for documentation. All this consumes a lot of time and productivity of an individual. To counter all this hustle “Walkthrough” acts as a savior.
In this method, users are usually guided through each and every step to complete the task. Employees are informed with bubble tips that indicate what is to be done. After completing what is asked for in the bubble it takes the user to the next step. Likewise, the whole process is completed.
Let’s say the management wants to communicate a change in process or want to convey about new rollout across the organization then, in that case, communicating it becomes difficult. This becomes even more difficult if the size of the organization is more than 1000.
In most of the case, Emails are not an effective channel for internal communication as the open rate is low. So, any crucial change that could impact the organization’s revenue, if not communicated well could result in some serious damage.
So, Apty has this announcement feature where a new change with respect to software, application, process or organization can be communicated whenever the application is log on by the user. They cannot do any other functionality in the application until the message is acknowledged by the user.
This is one of the most important features. The announcement ensures better communication and makes it effective. What is communicated via email could be reinforced using announcements.
Negligence while entering data could create duplicate or messed up data.
Validation of data is a vital part as this ensures authentic and clean data. This way employee is shown what type of data is accepted in a particular field and in what format.
This format is set in accordance with the organization’s regulations. Clean data helps organizations get clearer insights on past, current and future performances.
Tooltips help a new user to know how to utilize some relevant features by pointing the cursor on the information icon. It usually guides users on how to fill the field and why to perform a particular action within the Salesforce application.
Here the organization can give a link to a document, policy, or to the guidelines that one has to follow. Though Salesforce has tooltips, the tooltips that are created using the Digital Adoption Platform(DAP) has its perks. The admin can customize the tooltips without interfering with the Salesforce application and also these are better than the default tooltips.
These tooltips could provide elaborate information precisely which is not possible with inbuilt application tooltips.
Once the Digital Adoption Platform is deployed within the Salesforce application, it empowers the employees with in-app guidance that has a ‘Help’- widget. It helps them to access the knowledge –content in pdf, ppt, workflow, video, or ppt format.
They can use this content or launch the Workflows as and when they want within the application without bothering their colleague or support. Eventually, it reduces the support cost as the employee becomes self-sufficient.
For admins, creating content in multiple formats is simple with Apty as you can convert and export the workflows in Powerpoint, PDF, Video, or even in SCORM format for the LMS
In the background, Apty analyze the user behavior and understand the touchpoints, if the user is not active over a period of time then based on their interactive history the help pops-up.
All these features help to:
Well with all these advantages of in-app guidance all we can say is “If in-app guidance is not in Salesforce it doesn’t exist”.
The future of CRM adoption looks bright with the new talk of the town “Digital Adoption Platforms ” like Apty. These tools make CRM adoption easy for both the organization and employees.
In short, you can kill 2 birds with one stone.
Salesforce CRM is a widely used application, with over 150,000 companies using it. While a great CRM solution such as Salesforce makes salespeople’s jobs easier, a company requires much more to get the most out of its Salesforce investment.
Salesforce is constantly updating and expanding its functionality. Therefore, whenever a new version is released, you must be able to respond to your employees’ inquiries. Salesforce is intricate but has limitless potential when used aptly.
Without adequate training, onboarding, and user adoption, it can have adverse effects throughout your company. Here, a DAP, aka Digital Adoption Platform, benefits you in various ways. With DAP like Apty, your employees can learn by themselves, thus helping enterprises maximize Salesforce ROI.
Apty focuses on assisting users in navigating and adopting digital technologies, such as ERP, CRM, human capital management systems, and many other web-based applications. Apty can drive your business towards digital transformation by regulating workflows, automating processes, and increasing productivity.
Companies can integrate Apty DAP with their knowledge base to assist employees in finding answers and accessing self-help materials rather than seeking help from the support team, thus lowering their frustrations. Incorporating Apty into your Salesforce ensures quick and effective end-user adoption rates.
Apty can encourage your employees to take advantage of the tech investments to improve their productivity. By providing effective analytics, Apty enables businesses to detect challenges employees face on Salesforce and help them overcome them with customized support content.
Apty Analytics is helpful for:
Apty analytics provides insights on the level of user engagement, as well as overall usage of the Salesforce application, for example:
Apty analytics help track users’ behaviors, monitor the adoption of strategies and processes, and examine the effectiveness of metrics. Businesses get a first-hand insight into judging their performances and identifying ROI based on which they can further set certain targets and KPIs to improve their outcomes.
With Apty for Salesforce, employee training is made efficient and straightforward. Guided walkthroughs help them easily navigate the system and complete their tasks effectively. Employee engagement and rapid ROI are assured. Data validations, on-demand guidance, and in-app announcements ensure data and task reliability.
For example, let’s say a company has an existing application with 500+ users. The company decides to launch Salesforce and wants the sales reps to leverage this new product to the fullest potential. The company can empower every user with Apty to start using Salesforce right from Day 1 without putting in any extra time or effort from IT staff.
Apty gives on-demand, real-time, contextual help within Salesforce to your end-users, thereby allowing them to easily understand Salesforce while having hands-on experience on Salesforce. It enables end-users to onboard, train, and understand the functions of Salesforce with ease and speed.
Salesforce is an awesome tool, but it can be complex and difficult to master without outside guidance and access to contextualized content. Employees can use Apty’s on-screen guidance to assist them in navigating the system by giving reminders, recommendations, and interactive software walkthroughs.
Apty’s on-screen assistance directs users and instructs them on what to do next. The tool also includes contextual advice in the form of tooltips and enhanced data validations that can encourage users to correct problems as they enter data into Salesforce. Apty improves employee engagement by providing resources to your employees even before they realize they have a need.
Apty can maximize Salesforce ROI by automating deploying and managing Salesforce across your organization. Apty can help you get up and run quickly without sacrificing system security or compliance. Additionally, it can help you track usage analytics to measure the impact of Salesforce on your business.
According to Anthony Mixides, Managing Director at Bond Media
“Salesforce is a sophisticated application, and getting the most out of it can be easy with Apty. Apty is a leading Digital Adoption Platform that educates and leads your employees on how to use technology effectively.”
Apty takes a holistic approach to analyze and improving your Salesforce adoption. Apty tracks how end-users interact with Salesforce and provides insights to increase their productivity, and helps you boost the overall outcome.
Adopting Salesforce using conventional methods requires numerous hours of training and supporting staff. With Apty, new employees can learn Salesforce with the help of in-app guidance.
Apty DAP combines in-app guidance with effective data validations to increase efficiency, productivity, and data quality. Apty goes beyond navigation and shows Salesforce users how to complete a task and proactively manages business process compliance.
The best way to maximize Salesforce ROI is to offer improved training and learning experiences to the employees. When employees are offered a comprehensive hands-on experience in learning Salesforce, they can bring more profit to the company in the long run. And it has to be done quickly, effectively, and scalable. In such a circumstance, Apty can be of assistance.
Apty is the most effective digital adoption platform for enterprise software and web-based applications on the market today. The distinctive characteristics that Apty provides are reduced support and employee attrition, faster and more effective onboarding, lower training costs, increased productivity and return on investment, and so on. Employee training and adoption on Salesforce becomes simple and effective with Apty.
An Enterprise Salesforce implementation can cost from thousands to millions of dollars depending on the scope and complication of the project. There are multiple factors involved that can make your Salesforce implementation a success or failure.
One such factor is onboarding. Post the deployment stage, it is common to think that the implementation is successful but this is where most companies go wrong.
The main ingredient for successful Salesforce implementation is effective Salesforce onboarding. There is no doubt that strategizing the onboarding process can be challenging but this process will determine the fate of your Salesforce implementation.
It is no secret that Salesforce onboarding is a costly affair that also requires a lot of time and effort. That’s why it is important to create a Salesforce rollout plan and strategies for the onboarding process well in advance and use tools and methods that can help you accelerate the onboarding process.
Before learning the salesforce onboarding mistakes, we have to acknowledge the fact that it is imperative for change enablers, and Salesforce Implementation partners to visualize or anticipate the potential mishaps that might occur, during the planning stage itself.
Doing so will help you to be prepared with the right resources and create a backup plan. Further, you won’t be taken by surprise if any mistake occurs and will be well prepared to tackle it.
Communicate, communicate and communicate – we cannot stress enough on this. A project as big as Salesforce implementation goes through a lot of changes in the initial stage and the complex processes involved could even send a wave of panic among your employees.
It is necessary to convey to them the importance of the Salesforce application and explain why the platform is undergoing continuous changes.
It will help them gain confidence and reduce the chances of employee frustration. Keep them informed about any change in feature, role, and process, using effective communication channels.
While in-person/virtual meetings may seem like an effective way to communicate these changes, it is impossible to pull this off in large enterprises with tens of thousands of users. The other alternative is sending out an email, but you can’t be sure of how many recipients have read the message and understood the changes that are in order.
To overcome these challenges, businesses need a solution like a Digital Adoption Platform that assures effective communication of important messages in Enterprises, thanks to this wonderful feature called In-app announcement.
It acts as a notification or pop-up that conveys any information related to the Salesforce application. Whether it is a process change, event date, maintenance information, or feature update you can pass on the message via an announcement.
The moment employees open the Salesforce application the announcement will pop up and blur the surrounding application until they acknowledge the message.
Moreover, you can put conditions and launch the announcement as and when they interact with a particular, tab, element, or field within the Salesforce application. Another advantage is that the timeline for the announcement can be set which reinforces the information to the employees over a period and the chance of missing out is removed from the equation.
Often employees are onboarded with vaguely defined goals. It is necessary to set the goals and track key metrics to ensure successful onboarding.
Understanding user behavior can prove extremely beneficial in the success of your Salesforce onboarding efforts. For eg: Knowing where the employees’ drop-off, how much time they spend on a particular task and step, which step has a higher drop-off rate, what type of processes are typically avoided, how efficiently users follow the process, etc.
Usually, in the initial phases, companies tend to measure the time spent within the application. If the time spent is more, it might be assumed that the onboarding is successful and that the employees are using Salesforce efficiently.
But this cannot be further from the truth. Spending time and completing tasks are two different things. You must see how many tasks are completed post the onboarding, whether there is an increase in the tasks completion rate or not.
Metrics and goals like these are important to find out whether you are headed in the right direction or not and defining the metrics and goals that are important to your organization can help you track your Salesforce onboarding journey better.
Since Salesforce is a monolithic application, it takes time to train sales reps and other employees on it. Usually, it takes few months to a year to train them properly.
After extensive training, businesses would expect their employees to enter data in the correct format in accordance with the company’s guidelines but unfortunately, that’s not the case.
Don’t believe us?
Well, according to IBM, 39% of the Salesforce customers feel that data cleansing applications are the most important app in the AppExchange.
There could be many reasons for poor data quality, but a major one is inadequate training. Now you might be wondering how can training the employees regularly for a whole year can be categorized as inadequate.
The point is that the traditional training is not very effective and so the results it produces are inadequate. And because of the forgetting curve, employees forget 70% of whatever they learn in 24 hours and 90% within a month. The ideal approach is to complement traditional training methods with modern ones to ensure effective learning. Modern training methods should be intuitive, on-demand, and blended.
You get all this by using new Salesforce training methods like Digital Adoption Platform. It helps you to maintain process compliance, and data integrity by training and precisely guiding the employees. It has Walkthroughs that guide employees from one step to the other and ensure that they follow the defined process. Once they are familiar with the processes, you can ensure that they enter the data correctly.
A Digital Adoption Platform ensures that data is entered in the correct format without any prior training. The moment the employees enter the wrong input within the field it passes a warning signal and guides them to enter the data correctly.
It is one of the best ways to train your employees on the job and helps them complete their tasks without getting overwhelmed. It not only ensures successful training but also Salesforce adoption.
Salesforce onboarding can get complicated as there are several user groups and creating an onboarding plan for each one of them is no cakewalk.
It is difficult to get the onboarding right in the initial stage. Organizations create the onboarding plan based on the consultant’s recommendation, company goals, and assumptions.
While it is not a bad way to begin with, this method will definitely not result in onboarding success. Each organization has different Salesforce requirements and the efficiency of employees varies from company to company and department to department.
It is necessary to understand the needs of your employees and align them with the business goals. Most of the onboarding methods create an experience that is too generic or too specific. Either of these is not ideal as the generic one does not add value and the detailed one consumes time.
A better approach would be to use a tool like Digital Adoption Platform to understand the requirements of your employees and create a customized onboarding experience.
With Apty, you can create a customized onboarding flow and launch it within the Salesforce application. To get familiar with the application and their role, employees have to complete all the flows which make the Salesforce implementation successful.
Initially, the Salesforce onboarding process could look overwhelming but with the right tools, methods, and strategy you can overcome the challenges and help the employees onboard Salesforce in an intended manner.
Salesforce updates and process rollouts can seem overwhelming, but with the right tools, updates are much more manageable.
Successful change management in Salesforce typically requires:
Apty is designed to simplify change management in Salesforce and other web-based applications. Apty’s guide users step-by-step through a task, prompt them to correct errors and streamline how they search for support content.
Apty is the ideal solution for faster Salesforce adoption, simplified user onboarding, and seamless change management.
Whether you’re preparing to modify your sales process or planning a major rollout such as switching from Salesforce Classic to Lightning, these five tools will decrease the time and costs associated with making the change while improving outcomes.
With a Guided Workflow, you can turn even the most complicated Salesforce tasks into a self-guided wizard. Users just have to ask Apty a question, and the workflow walks them through each step. Guided Workflows are especially useful during a new rollout.
First, they can show users how to complete a task. Most people learn best by doing. Workflows are like having training guide them through completing the process on their own screen. Second, a Guided Workflow can be instantly exported as a PDF guide with screengrabs and instructions.
You no longer have to spend hours taking screengrabs and updating user guides. Apty can automate that process.
For most major rollouts, you’ll want a way for people to see all the help content you’ve created. The Apty Knowledge Center creates a central repository for people to search for help content – without leaving Salesforce.
Without the Knowledge Center, employees have to navigate to a shared drive, intranet, or other company resources to locate help documents. With Apty help, content is always one click away.
Communication is key when making any process change or Salesforce update. Apty announcements allow you to display a message directly on users’ screens while they’re using Salesforce. Most managers have experienced the frustration of having users overlook an email memo.
Announcements can be configured to pop up when a user navigates to the section where you made the change. You also have the option to let the user launch a workflow to guide them through the new process or link to a video or document explaining the update.
Tooltips are another way to provide additional context on the sections or pages you’re updating. Apty gives you the ability to add custom tooltips with text or rich media to any page inside Salesforce.
Sales managers frequently mention data quality as one of their top concerns with Salesforce – especially after a major rollout. Apty’s validations prompt users to fix errors in real-time as they’re working in Salesforce. Validations ensure your new processes are being followed by each user.
