Salesforce has the power to transform companies and how their employees function in their day to day responsibilities and tasks to be checked off their “to-do” lists. It can reduce clicks, assist with automation for menial tasks, and improve both time spent and accuracy for end users. The list of benefits of using Salesforce can go on and on, but none of it really matters if your users aren’t taking advantage of such a great platform.
There are numerous reasons employees may be reticent to adopt the Salesforce platform or any changes that have been made regarding their business processes. If you are implementing a new Salesforce instance, many employees may feel hesitant to give it a shot due to their familiarity with the previous methods, whether it was in an organized CRM or just information exchanged solely through email. They may feel intimidated by a new tool and overwhelmed at the prospect of having to learn a new system, on top of keeping up with their work. Although not often expressed, many end users do not feel confident with new technological tools, and may feel embarrassed to ask for additional training or help for resolving something they may not understand. This can lead to a lack of general adoption, or incorrect adoption, as they may only partially enter data, leaving gaps in your attempts to create healthy data hygiene. Even if you’ve had Salesforce for years, some employees just feel comfortable with their own methods, even if they’re not the most efficient or accurately executed.
A lack of successful user adoption can create many problems for companies. Not only are you paying for a tool that isn’t being fully utilized, but you may also have issues with analysis and decision making for the direction of the company, based on shoddy data from your end users. Employees’ hesitation to make the most of Salesforce can lead to thousands of dollars down the drain from these issues. This can also result in a negative customer experience, as employees may miss signs that point to risky customers in need of extra attention, or can delay proper communications, resulting in customers that may feel ignored or undervalued. It’s safe to say that user adoption is critical in driving success for companies striving to make business processes more efficient, as well as take care of their customers.
A key to working through this is to take a look at how your end users are interacting with Salesforce, and make changes to address the shortfalls and areas that stand out or point to issues your users may be having. But, how can you do all of this, while keeping the ship moving in the right direction? No one says you have to do this alone. Hiring a consultant to assist with user adoption is a crucial step in procuring happy Salesforce users and a healthy org.
How a Consultant Can Help with User Adoption
A consultant can utilize their years of experience and extensive knowledge to take a data driven approach at analyzing how to resolve any issues you may have with user adoption.
The Data Driven Approach
Consultants know that you need metrics to make solid decisions in how to approach changes within your org. Running a User Adoption Dashboard can provide data on user logins, how they interact with key objects such as Contacts, Accounts, and Opportunities, and their logged activities of completed or open interactions waiting to be addressed. Not only can a consultant help create a custom dashboard that fits the areas you want to focus on the most, they can walk you through how to use that dashboard to get the best results after their work is done and empower you or your Admins to take charge at addressing the necessary changes that need to happen.
Consultants can also analyze field usage, and can recommend the removal of fields that seem unnecessary or suggest ways to drive increased adoption of those fields, such as with validation rules. They can take an indepth look at page layouts, and either suggest how to parse out record types and page layouts, or how to make the pages more dynamic, so that they can be utilized more efficiently. Consultants can streamline pages, so that the end user sees a tidy, manageable view that allows them to function with less clutter.
They can also take full advantage of utilizing anonymous surveys for end users. This can allow them to gather impressions on how end users feel about their experience when navigating through the areas of Salesforce that demand their interactions day in and day out. Although this is more opinion based, it can be valuable to assess user complaints and praises to help identify where changes should be made for big, impactful wins in driving user adoption.
Consultants can also work with internal team members, such as Admins and Developers to identify processes that seem clunky or out of date. Addressing such processes that may also cause bottlenecks is a great way to make the end user experience more efficient, and thus, more enjoyable to use. If end users can see the value and feel the outcome has a positive impact on their workday, they are simply more likely to use it as it is intended.
Providing Materials
Another way consultants are influential in user adoption is by the materials and training they can offer, especially on any changes they are hired to make or guide your company to make. They have access to tools that allow creation of written how-to materials and videos, which can take a lot of pressure off of Admins for following through on. A surefire way to overwhelm end users is to send a notice that a change has occurred and expect a simple email to excite them on taking up those changes. Formal, well organized and documented training materials are a must-have to ensure your end users have what they need to make the most of your Salesforce org.
Consultants are well worth the consideration when it comes to driving user adoption in your Salesforce org. Their experience, access to tools and resources, and passion for what they do are just what you need to increase utilization and adoption.
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