What I Learned From Trailhead And Beyond - Part 3

Trailing through the Clouds - Destination ... DreamForce!

Trying to keep up with everything Salesforce through Trailhead andbeyond has been nothing short of amazing.. It makes me wonder why I had not started out a career in Salesforce a long time ago. Well, now i’m here so let’s go…

Managing duplicate lead records

New leads are created daily from various means throughout the organization such as emails, sign in lists at events like tradeshows, or the “contact us” form on a company website. In some of these situations, leads may be created through automation, while in other situations someone is using the data loader to upload data or creating records manually!

With all these (ane more) points of entry, duplications can sometimes occur.

This was the issue when I manually created a few leads one morning, and then realized these same leads had been created a couple days earlier! Unsure of what to do, I turned toDuplicate Management Trailhead for some insight.

Frequently admins say "the users should just search for the person before they create a new record" but we know that when you have a list of records, searching for each one can be a huge pain! Fact is, a lot of users find it easier to create something new than look for something that may or may not be there already.  Why not try to prevent the creation of duplicates from happening in the first place? Did you know that Salesforce already has some ways for you to do this?

One way of restricting the creation of duplicates is to create fields (such as email address) that only allows unique information. The user receives an error if a lead or contact with a particular email address already exists in the system.  A more recent way of managing duplicate records requires the creation of a matching rule, which is then paired with a duplicate rule to match the criteria. The Matching Rule identifies duplicate records while the Duplicate Rule, provides information on how Salesforce should handle duplicate records that are identified by the matching rule. Together, duplicate records can easily be identified before creation and in cases like mine, where duplicates are identified after creation, they could be merged easily.  Adding conditions to your duplicate rules can allow users to receive a warning before they create a duplicate and even allow users to override the warning.

Salesforce Knowledge

Salesforce Knowledge is a knowledge base (like an online library) for creating and managing content. Companies who use Knowledge can even share knowledge documents with website visitors (think of sharing FAQs and Self help articles), partners, and/or service agents. You can create and manage information and securely share it with those who need access to it.

When attempting to implement this in our org,  I came across some need-to-know information. The Knowledge implementation is made available at no additional cost for Performance, and Developer Editions, and in the Unlimited Edition with Service Cloud. That does not mean you are at a loss if you use a different edition! Service Cloud can be made available in Professional, Enterprise, and Unlimited Editions for an additional fee. If Service Cloud is something you have been considering for your org, be sure to check your Salesforce Edition or make the necessary additions. Once enabled in the correct org, I recommend you go through the the related Trailhead or the implementation guide to enable Salesforce Knowledge and begin creating articles for your organization. It is relatively easy (if I say so myself).

Thank you for being a part of this wonderful Salesforce 101 journey with a novice like me. It is time to get certified and make all this learning official - on paper. The Journey continues … see you on the TRAIL!!

Salesforce should not be difficult. It should match your everyday business processes and it should be easy for newcomers to pick up. If your team is jumping through hoops and bending over backwards to cram data into Salesforce don’t suffer in silence and endure the painful effects – contact us so that we can help you drive more business collaboratively, more efficiently and pain-free. Work Delivered.