We all know that customer retention greatly impacts your company’s revenue. Having a customer relationship management tool or CRM system helps build that bridge between you and the customer. The kind of link that encourages loyalty. 

Salesforce customization will definitely help you achieve that. It is not only cost-efficient but also reliable. However, purchasing a subscription alone does not give you a one-way ticket to success. You will have to conduct training sessions, seminars, and the like for your employees to implement your strategies correctly and efficiently.

What is Salesforce?

 

Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM platform that can be customized according to the needs of your business. It offers solutions for all department functions like procurement, marketing, business development, support, delivery management, and others. 

What’s great about this is that it can be used by small business owners and large enterprises. Plus, most would prefer using salesforce because you get to share the platform with your clients. Additionally, system updates are almost always instantaneous and security is guaranteed.

Other than having access to a wide range of tools, another feature of this CRM is that you get to create apps within Salesforce as well.

What is Salesforce Customization vs Configuration?

When you are implementing your CRM strategy on Salesforce, you should be detailed in planning the steps you need to take. This is why it is crucial to know the difference between Salesforce customization and configuration and which one will satisfy your CRM workflow best.

 Find out how to easily differentiate the two below.

Salesforce Configuration

Configuration means changing or adding user-defined values to an already existing feature of Salesforce. For example, adding an email field to a marketing tool within Salesforce.  

Another case is making changes to in-app processes.  In a nutshell, a Salesforce configuration is an addition to a tool to produce the result you want without changing the basic structure of the app.

This includes adding 

• Profiles
• Tool permissions
• Templates
• Tabs
• Apps
• Workflows
• Page layouts

Salesforce Customization

 

In contrast, when you talk about Salesforce customization, this includes functions that are not available within any function or app in the Salesforce platform. This is despite performing all of the configurations possible.

The result you desire is still not achievable. So, to attain the result that you want, you will need to customize them.  You will be expected to do custom coding to add features to your platform.

This includes working with

• Developing websites
• Low code applications
• CSS 
• Apex triggers and classes
• Visualforce
• JavaScript
• Lightning components
• Object-oriented programming
• SOSL or SOQL
• Web services
• Application Lifecycle Management

What are the Benefits of Hiring Salesforce Customization Experts?

 

The Salesforce platform is filled with so many tools with different capabilities that are all useful for your business. Additionally, there are a lot of tutorials and guides available online on how to easily perform configuration.

Doing this yourself means that you will need to understand how all the features work and how they perform together. With that said, you will also need to know what expertise is required for each function. 

You have to take into account, as well, the time it takes to learn, master, and successfully apply all of the needed skills on Salesforce to use it to its full capacity. Although, it may cost you a little extra, hiring a Salesforce customization consultant will save you time and effort.

Here are more advantages to hiring a Salesforce consultant

 

Improve Salesforce workflow

A salesforce customization consultant will find ways to successfully deliver goals.  One of the first things they usually do is to learn as much as they can about your business and its workflow. 

This team of experts is also well versed in different project management styles. Since they are not from the company, steps that cause bottlenecks in your workflows can also be easily identified. As a result, they can provide you with the best course of action to take. 

Furthermore, part of their job is to develop an implementation blueprint that will ensure that each action is well defined and targets are met in the most efficient way possible.

Quick troubleshooting

Incorrectly customizing your Salesforce may cause you to lose thousands of dollars worth of time, data, and client interaction, and many more. Although hiring customization consultants entails an extra fee, you will not have to worry about all these. Plus, it will save you a lot in the long run.

Additionally, they offer precise and innovative solutions to even the most complex Salesforce problems. Whether you have to migrate a large amount of data from your previous CRM to Salesforce or fix errors in your workflow.

Reduce talent acquisition costs

 

Other than boosting your business’s productivity, outsourcing a team of Salesforce customization experts will save you money and time. The cost of finding the right talent and training them can easily incur expenses. 

Rather than hiring individual developers, a team would offer much more flexibility and rates. You can either hire by project or go for an hourly rate.  Either way, you will get to reduce expenses.

Skill-building for employees

Salesforce customization experts bring with them experience and a specialized skill set that aid in smoother integration and operations. Your employees will learn a lot while working alongside them. You can also ask them to hold a module training to increase your staff’s Salesforce proficiency.

Where Can You Hire Salesforce Customization Consultants?

 

According to a survey conducted by IDC, there is an expected increase in Salesforce market share by 2022, generating 3.3 million jobs. But, with so many specialists out there how do you find the right one and get it right the first time?

You can go for a more traditional route and find Salesforce developers by posting on yellow pages and your local newspapers. However, this can be quite expensive and can take a long time.

Social media websites like LinkedIn and Facebook are also great avenues to find talent. But you have to dedicate a little more effort to find the right person that will fit seamlessly into your team. This also applies to hiring developers from freelance websites and job portals. 

Furthermore, you also have to take into consideration that they can easily end the contract if they want to. 

Another great option is hiring a team of Salesforce customization developers from a staffing company. The advantage of this option is that you get to have a whole team of developers that are dedicated to working on your salesforce solutions. 

And because the cost is comparatively low compared to in-house staffing, this method works well for all business types no matter the size.

Get it right the first time around. Start your Salesforce customization and implementation with RipeConcepts. You can expect out-of-the-box ideas and innovative solutions for all types of business.

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