Choosing Salesforce Premium Solutions

How do you choose the best data management solutions for your Salesforce org? While we can’t go over every aspect of every possible feature, we can give you a solid framework in which to base your analysis and help you get closer to your conclusion. Let’s look at some of the most important things you should consider when shopping for your perfect Salesforce data quality solution. We’ll end off by checking out some case studies showcasing success from premium solutions.

First Things First - Criteria for selection

1. Native Integration - One of the foremost considerations when choosing a data management tool for Salesforce is its integration capabilities. Native integration helps ensure a seamless interaction between the tool and Salesforce, minimizing compatibility issues and data transfer complexities. On top of that, native solutions tend to offer smoother user experiences, faster implementations, and better performance compared to non-native integrations.
2. Scalability and Handling Capacity - Businesses should always be thinking about the future, and so the volume a data tool can handle is critical, especially for growing businesses or enterprises dealing with vast datasets and large data volumes. When we say volume, we are referring to how many records you can process in bulk jobs. If you’re working with a large volume of data, you want to be sure the tool can work without bugging out. Assessing a tool's scalability ensures that it can accommodate increasing volumes of records and large data volumes without compromising on performance. A great example is Plauti Cloud, which allows for processing millions of records at lightning speed.
3. Data Quality and Cleansing Features - Maintaining your overall data quality is a strategic no-brainer for effective decision-making and customer engagement. Any solution you’re investigating should offer robust data quality features, including deduplication, normalization, validation, and automation capabilities -although there are more features to be aware of. These functionalities ensure that the data within Salesforce remains accurate, consistent, and free from errors, which should be the primary goal.
4. Customization and Flexibility - Every business operates uniquely, grows and contracts according to different rhythms, and so the ability to customize the data management tool according to specific requirements is essential. Look for tools that offer flexibility in configuration, allowing for tailored workflows, custom fields, and personalized dashboards. A highly customizable tool ensures alignment with the organization’s processes, boosting user adoption and overall efficiency.
5. Reporting and Analytics Capabilities - Insights derived from data can drive strategic decisions and boost sales performance. A data management tool equipped with robust reporting and analytics features empowers users to generate actionable insights from Salesforce data. Look for tools that offer advanced analytics, visualization options, and the ability to create customizable reports tailored to the organization’s needs.
6. Security and Compliance - Data security and compliance with regulations (such as GDPR, CCPA, etc.) are non-negotiable aspects in today’s data-driven environment. Ensure that the selected tool adheres to stringent security measures, including encryption, access controls, and compliance certifications. Robust security features safeguard sensitive information and maintain regulatory compliance.
7. User Interface and Ease of Use - When something is easy and intuitive to use, it’s more likely that someone is going to use it, right? User adoption is crucial for the success of any tool implementation. An intuitive user interface and ease of use can significantly impact how effectively the tool is embraced by sales teams. Look for tools that offer a user-friendly interface, easy navigation, and comprehensive training and support resources to ensure smooth onboarding and utilization.
8. Cost and Return on Investment (ROI) - While it’s all good to tout the wonders of premium solutions and place them on an esteemed pedestal, when it comes to budget time, the ROI is what really matters to those in control of the financial levers. And rightfully so – after all, if you can’t easily demonstrate the value of something, how can you be certain there is any value at all? To be sure, consider the cost implications and the potential return on investment (ROI) of the selected tool. Assess not only the upfront costs but also ongoing expenses such as maintenance, upgrades, and support fees. Don’t worry, in the next chapter we are going to give more information about this.

Real World Success Stories

It’s time to share some success stories about how focusing on data management for Salesforce can have a proven positive impact on overall business objectives. These are a collection of stories from Plauti customers, highlighting how Plauti Data Management solutions helped them overcome the challenges they faced in their Salesforce data.

Case Study One – Seamless.AI

Seamless.AI and Salesforce form an ideal partnership for boosting sales. While Salesforce has effectively handled the management of Seamless.AI's contacts, accounts, and cases, the Seamless team encountered two fresh challenges as the company expanded. Specifically, the issues revolved around duplicate data and the manual merging process within Salesforce. The default merge feature in Salesforce presented a limitation, as it could only merge up to three records. Consequently, Seamless' Revenue Operations team found themselves grappling with a troublesome accumulation of duplicate data, leading to significant time wastage on the cumbersome task of manual merging.

After doing some investigating, Plauti Duplicate Check emerged as the ultimate solution to Seamless.AI's duplicate data challenges. Duplicate Check empowered Seamless.AI to centralize customer data seamlessly and automate the merging process for contacts, accounts, and cases. Now, the Seamless.AI team can effortlessly merge cases by selecting the desired ones in a related list, clicking merge, and allowing the system to handle the consolidation automatically. The native integration of Duplicate Check with Salesforce eliminated the need for third-party integrations, simplifying usage and minimizing the risk of data inconsistencies. Thanks to Duplicate Check, Seamless.AI can consistently uphold data cleanliness by running weekly merges or utilizing merge actions directly on record pages.

“ When we implemented Plauti, it worked perfectly. I can tell you, for the support team, merging contacts has gone from a five-minute process down to a 30-second one. ”

Shaya Silvers Salesforce Credited Administrator, Seamless.AI

Case Study Two – Booksy

Next, we’re taking a look at Booksy, a prominent beauty marketplace who faced challenges with fragmented and duplicated customer data affecting their customer journey and sales productivity. They adopted Salesforce Sales Cloud and Service Cloud to enable an omnichannel approach, but diverse entry points for customer interaction led to multiple, disjointed customer records.

Their Salesforce instance suffered from duplicate records due to various sources of leads and interactions, resulting in wasted resources and suboptimal customer experiences. Booksy sought a solution to unify and deduplicate customer data within Salesforce and found Plauti. Plauti's data management solution enabled real-time deduplication and consolidation, utilizing scenarios to define matching rules and merge settings tailored to Booksy's business needs.

The implementation of Plauti's solution streamlined Booksy's customer journey by ensuring a personalized and smooth experience for merchants. It significantly reduced duplicate data, improving sales productivity and accuracy in commission assignments. With clean and consolidated data, Booksy achieved its goal of delivering a unified customer experience and optimizing sales operations.

The merge rules and scenario functionality provided by Plauti were hailed as game-changers, offering convenience and customization without requiring extensive coding. Booksy also benefited from automation, reducing manual processing and enhancing efficiency in handling data.

“ Although this omnichannel approach brings initial convenience for leads and merchants, those various sources of leads and multiple ways of interacting with Booksy also translated into the loss of a single customer view. (Jakub Klimaszewski, Global Salesforce Manager @ Booksy) ”

Jakub Klimaszewski Global Salesforce Manager at Booksy

A lot of Salesforce solutions claim to be native, but how true is that? In the next chapter, we’ll be looking at what native vs non-native Salesforce 3rd party solutions. What ties them together, and what separates them. We’ll help you in selecting criteria that will aid you in discerning between these different solutions, as well as how you can make sure an application is in fact native.