5 Best Practices for Successful Salesforce Post Implementations

Now that your Salesforce or any other major implementation is done, to maximize the ROI from your Salesforce investment, make sure you have a strong plan in place to fully support your team during post-deployment.

Groundswell provides a complete support system for our customers in order to see long-term value, regularly informing them of new products, updates, and ongoing changes required for the continued success of organizations.

1. Post-Deployment Budget & Resources

Although the majority of your budget will go towards the actual implementation of Salesforce, it is important to make sure your post-deployment budget and resources are not scarce. Following this company-wide digital update, we recommend planning a long-term roadmap with resource allocation, user adoption, and training budget, plus continued upgrade support from your Salesforce partner.

Your new shiny platform with all its powerful data analytics depends on your team adopting it within their daily tasks to increase data capture and workflow efficiency. Migrating from legacy technology to your new Salesforce instance can be a daunting process so we recommend using the resources available online to compare the successful implementation methods others have used and achieved.

2. Salesforce Post-Implementation Roadmap

The most important part of any implementation project is creating a roadmap and executing an official communication plan. This includes communicating clearly and precisely how long each stage of user adoption will be, and what your team can expect at each stage. Take advantage of resources available online to design an effective post-launch roadmap. You can start by reviewing Salesforce case studies online, as well as the Success Community.

A key aspect of your communication and adoption plan needs to be skills assessment courses. We recommend conducting these on a regular basis to make sure your team knows how to use the system, and is using all features to their fullest potential. To stay ahead of any roadblocks, make sure to keep user adoption at the forefront of your post-launch processes and allocate the right budget to achieve those needs.

3. User Adoption

To ensure this system is useful for your team, following the training that your Salesforce partner should have provided, it is vital to have additional documentation so that no information is forgotten. We recommend working with your HR team to build a resource library that is easily accessible and searchable when questions and issues arise. This will require keeping this library updated continuously. Don’t forget to link to already created content with a wealth of knowledge available from Salesforce experts.

Groundswell goes beyond regular demos to feature training that helps showcase how the newly implemented Salesforce will improve team tasks and how they can use the user-friendly interface and company-specific features to streamline their work. Don’t forget to utilize the Salesforce performance metrics to track user adoption. This can include information such as data quality, usage, and business performance, as well as extensive reports that help you monitor user logins, accounts created, or opportunities created.

4. Prioritize User Feedback

It is vital to regularly keep a record of the pain points faced by your users. You can form internal user groups that can help to chart out the change requests, and also update your training modules accordingly. Remember that ample time is needed to investigate modification requests and communicate reasonable expectations. Work with your management team to better future-proof how to prioritize user feedback. Some of the processes you need to consider include how you will handle evaluating, prioritizing, and analyzing the feedback.

As your team is engaged with the Salesforce platform, capitalize on the momentum you’ve achieved by revealing the results of everyone’s hard work on a regular basis. This will allow transparency for not only your management but the whole team. Begin by focusing on specific metrics, such as cost management, revenue growth, increased productivity, or faster analysis, as well as the benefits moving forward for the company as a whole.

5. Improvements & Updates

One of the main goals of any post-implementation plan is to maximize the usability of your new Salesforce platform. This means you will also need to manage how new enhancements and updates are communicated and implemented. Every new change will affect user buy-in, which means that your team has to consider how to introduce the change gradually and in stages. 

It is no secret that Salesforce pushes out about three updates per year, and they contain a massive amount of new features that will drastically alter how your team operates day-to-day tasks. It is important to make sure that you always stay on top of these updates, and also to assign the right internal project manager or external partner. Groundswell takes time to share their expert knowledge and insights about new releases coming out and how they affect processes in general. You can find most of these details in our Tips & Tricks section.

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Our professional and trustworthy team, with over 200 certifications, ensures that all clients get what they expect. Your post-implementation journey is vital to move your team forward and better handle inaccurate data, delayed responses, and increased friction. Groundswell is ready to help you execute the right strategies for your company and team. Contact us today to find out how we can be partners for a successful Salesforce implementation: info@gscloudsolutions.com.