Zach Brueck

Healthcare: it’s on everyone’s minds these days. Outside of virus treatments and vaccines, the relationship between healthcare and technology is at the forefront of the conversation.

In the midst of these dialogues is Salesforce, a CRM platform that does a whole lot more than just manage customer relationships. Salesforce Health Cloud allows healthcare organizations to translate Salesforce’s eclectic capabilities into better health outcomes for their patients.

So...how exactly are healthcare organizations using Salesforce in 2022? And if you’re a healthcare organization, why should you? As a 100% native Salesforce app, we’ve seen firsthand what Salesforce brings to the table for healthcare - now we want to share it with you. Let’s dive into real healthcare customer stories and see how Salesforce is improving the industry as a healthcare CRM.

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Why Do Healthcare Organizations Use Salesforce As A Healthcare CRM?

First of all, what is a healthcare CRM, and what benefits can it bring to healthcare organizations?

It’s simple, really. Think about what Salesforce offers to any regular sales or customer service team: enhanced collaboration, personalized experiences, and connected data, just to name a few. Turns out, these benefits are applicable across industries and departments.

When healthcare professionals are able to better collaborate with one another, make intelligent use of the abundant data available to them, and please their patients with personalization, the results can be outstanding. Patients receive better health outcomes, and organizations win lifelong customer loyalty.

For more information on the value of a healthcare CRM, check out our article on SalesforceBen!

How Healthcare Organizations Are Using Salesforce in 2022

Alright - we’ve established why Salesforce can be such a valuable asset to any healthcare organization. Now, let’s take a look at some real-world healthcare trailblazers.

Piedmont Healthcare Delivers Preventative Health Benefits

Piedmont Healthcare serves over 2 million patients across the state of Georgia, so this company is no stranger to growing expectations. In an effort to personalize their care and keep patients out of the hospital by identifying health problems earlier, they implemented Health Cloud.

Care providers use Health Cloud to access a comprehensive view of their patients’ social determinants of health, such as socioeconomic status, to address and mitigate preventable conditions before they become problematic. Easy access to this information also helps providers determine if a patient requires special accommodations, such as transportation, before the patient even needs to bring it up.

They also use Pardot to track and nurture physician leads, achieving cross-departmental benefits.

Colorado Health Care Policy & Financing Creates A Contact Center That Scales

Creating scalable solutions is another way Salesforce helps guide healthcare companies into the patient-centric future. Colorado Health Care Policy & Financing (HCPF) maintained a contact center for inquiries about healthcare services statewide. When the Affordable Care Act greatly expanded the number of residents eligible for Medicaid in 2012, it became clear that HCPF’s legacy system wasn’t going to cut it.

With the help of Service Cloud, HCPF developed a new contact center that integrated the department’s Medicaid eligibility system, voice response system, and Salesforce Knowledge. Agents get a holistic view of their customers and easy access to relevant help articles and recommendations.

Did we mention that they did it in just 3 months? That’s the power of the Salesforce platform. Configuring, customizing, and scaling come easier.

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Tribeca Pediatrics Delights Patients With Automation and EHR Integrations

Tribeca Pediatrics values great customer experiences, but it also serves thousands of patients across New York City and Los Angeles. In order to deliver personalization at scale without losing data protection, they turned to Salesforce Health Cloud.

Health Cloud allows Tribeca Pediatrics to integrate their electronic health record (EHR) systems together and give physicians a complete view of patients across different offices (this 360 degree view thing seems to be a trend, doesn’t it?). To delight customers even further, they also implemented Salesforce Experience Cloud to create patient and practitioner portals. These allow busy patients to communicate with caregivers on their own time.

Overall, Salesforce allows Tribeca Pediatrics to offer their customers personalized care, and let parents take a more active role in their childrens’ health.

Helping Healthcare Digitalize For The Future

There’s no doubt about it: the world is changing, and consumers have more say in the services they use than ever before. They’re demanding cross-channel availability based on their schedules, and they don’t want to feel like a number in a database. The healthcare industry is no exception to this.

Salesforce is a way for healthcare payers, providers, manufacturers, and businesses in other healthcare verticals to meet the rising demands of their customers - while improving overall health outcomes at the same time. It provides a better view of their patients, better opportunities for communication (both internally and externally), and personalization that helps gain and retain new business all the time.

The best part? It’s all done on a scalable platform that’s quick to set up, intuitive to customize, and completely HIPAA compliant.

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S-Docs: Secure Document Workflows For Healthcare

There’s one more reason we think Salesforce is great for healthcare: it allows healthcare companies to securely enhance its functionality with solutions from the AppExchange.

S-Docs is a 100% native document generation and e-signature solution for Salesforce designed to enhance healthcare documentation workflows while maintaining HIPAA compliance. Since it’s built entirely on the Salesforce platform, S-Docs never sends customer data outside of the secure Salesforce cloud. This makes it the number one choice for leading healthcare organizations around the globe - like Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, and Roche.

For more information on how S-Docs can help streamline your healthcare document and e-signature needs, request a demo today or contact sales@sdocs.com. Happy caregiving!

Data security is no laughing matter, but you don’t need to have a room like this one to keep your org protected.

Salesforce provides powerful out-of-the-box tools you can use to spruce up security without breaking the bank. There’s a reason it’s the #1 CRM across industries from consumer goods to government - there’s something for everyone when it comes to protecting your data.

Data Security, Designed In

It’s important to note that Salesforce is an incredibly secure solution to begin with. Its stringent security policies are backed up by certifications hailing from every industry.

This powerful platform designs security into its products from the get-go, and stays transparent by providing live incident updates at trust.salesforce.com. Keep this in mind - it will be important when we get to Step #4!

Without further ado, let’s dive into 6 easy ways you can make your Salesforce org more secure.

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#1: Start With A Salesforce Health Check

If you’re looking for quick wins, using Salesforce’s native Health Check is a no-brainer. This great feature shows you how your org stacks up against Salesforce’s Security Baseline Standard, and provides you with instructions on how to remedy any issues that it finds.

You can even upload your own security baseline standard and run periodic checks against that as well. Keep in mind, though, that Salesforce has had 20 years to develop theirs - and it’s always being updated!

To run a health check on your org, head over to Setup > Security > Health Check.

#2: Use Multi-Factor Authentication For Reports

When proprietary data is condensed into one single place (a report), it’s even easier for unauthorized users to take advantage of it. You can enable MFA for report access to tighten up security even more.

To do so, navigate to Setup > Feature Settings > Analytics > Reports & Dashboards > Access Policies, and select High assurance session required.

Then, navigate to Setup > Security > Session Settings, and ensure that Multi-Factor Authentication is added to the High Assurance box.

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#3: Set Up Trusted IP Ranges

Employees are now logging into Salesforce from more locations than ever before, and this can create vulnerabilities. To remedy this, you can set up Trusted IP Ranges that tell Salesforce which login locations are normal, and which ones are suspicious. For example, you can tell Salesforce to trust your company’s office IP address and other select locations where employees are working - and to challenge users logging in from any other addresses.

To increase your Salesforce security with trusted IP ranges, navigate to Setup > Security > Network Access, and set a custom range of trusted addresses.

Profile-Based Trusted IP Addresses & Login Hours

If you don’t want trusted IP ranges to apply to your entire org, you can modify them based on user profiles. For example, let’s say you only want support users to log in from your company network, and only between the hours of 8AM and 6PM on Monday through Friday.

That’s easy! Just head over to Setup > Users > Profiles, select your Support profile, and set your IP ranges and login hours there.

#4: Use Native Salesforce Apps

When you start browsing the AppExchange in search of new Salesforce functionality, it can be challenging to find solutions that comply with your data security policy.

Native Salesforce apps like S-Docs can help you out here. Remember when we established the incredible security of the Salesforce platform at the beginning of this article? Native apps are built directly on that platform.

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That means that they never send your data outside of Salesforce. There’s no API calls to worry about, no third-party web servers to authorize, and no compliance concerns. If you trust Salesforce (which, if you’ve invested in the platform, we’re assuming you do), then you can trust native apps to handle your data just as securely.

How Do I Know If A Salesforce App Is Native?

Salesforce provides a Native App tag that you can filter by on the AppExchange to quickly find native apps in the category that you’re searching in. However, you can’t always trust this tag since it’s self-reported.

The best way to tell if an AppExchange app is native is to initiate the download process. If you’re asked to authorize third-party site access, then that app isn’t native.

#5: Use Clickjack Protection

Clickjacking is the process by which users are tricked into clicking on legitimate-looking links that actually perform malicious actions - such as modifying your Salesforce data without your consent.

While Salesforce protects against clickjacking out-of-the-box, you can bump up these protections in Setup > Security > Session Settings by ensuring all checkboxes under the Clickjack Protection section are checked.

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#6: Use Strong Password Policies

Our last quick Salesforce data security quick win is to spruce up your password policies. While you don’t want to make your password requirements too strict (if users have to create new passwords every few days, they won’t be happy), you can still up your security game with small changes.

Here are some optimal settings (which you can configure in Setup > Security > Password Policies):

• Password Length: 15 characters (Salesforce’s default is 8)
• Password Complexity: Must include alpha, numeric, and special characters
• Password Expiration: 90 days
• Password question requirement: Cannot contain password (if users set the answer to their security question as their password, anybody could gain access to their account)

If you’ve followed this guide, passwords should be additionally backed up with MFA - meaning that these settings will significantly reduce the chances of breached accounts.

6 Easy Ways to Make Your Salesforce Org More Secure

If you follow the 6 easy steps in this guide, you’ll be well on your way to a more secure but functional org. When it comes to security, though, there’s an endless amount of potential enhancements. Subscribe to the S-Docs blog for more great tips throughout the year!

Start Securing Your Salesforce Document Workflows With S-Docs

S-Docs is the only 100% native document generation and e-signature solution for Salesforce. We help our global partners simplify their document workflows in Salesforce while maintaining the highest level of security, since all processing occurs on the Salesforce platform.

Looking to get started with lightning fast and incredibly secure document workflows in Salesforce? Request a demo today or shoot an email to sales@sdocs.com.

CRM may be a modern term, but what it stands for isn’t new - the importance of nurturing customer relationships is as old as trade itself.

In recent years, however, the role of the customer experience has shifted. Channels available for customer interactions have exploded, multiplying opportunities to make or break a great experience. And 73% of consumers would switch brands if they didn’t receive a consistent experience across these channels.

Because of this, the customer experience is now one of the most important brand differentiators. And it’s only getting more important. Let’s take a look at how you can leverage your Salesforce investment to create customer experiences that exceed expectations and win you long-term relationships (and more stable recurring revenue).

What Does Customer Experience Mean?

When we say “customer experience,” we’re talking about every interaction a prospect or customer has with your business. Whether that’s through a chatbot on your website, a conversation on Twitter, or a formal onboarding process, the customer experience encompasses it all.

With that definition in mind, let’s dive into how to improve the customer experience with Salesforce.

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1. Use Salesforce To Understand Your Customers Better

To impress your customers and keep them coming back for more, understanding them is key. This is an all-hands-on-deck requirement: every role should have a clear picture of who your customers are.

This might’ve been difficult when each team kept track of their work in separate spreadsheets, but the days of siloed data are gone (or at least they should be). Use Salesforce to keep all of your customer data in one place.

One of the best ways to do this is to leverage integrations. For example, if your sales team uses Sales Cloud and your marketing team uses HubSpot, you can integrate the two platforms to keep everyone up-to-date and armed with knowledge.

Source: Hubspot.com

You can also make fields that hold valuable data required - such as a contact’s industry or location - so that you can segment your database and provide more personalized service.

Surveys

Another way to glean information about your customers is to simply ask them. Salesforce Surveys allow you to poll your customers for feedback. This can make your customers feel heard and provide you with data that can help improve your service.

The more information your entire team has, the easier it will be for them to deliver consistent experiences no matter the channel.

2. Use Data To Create Personalized Experiences

Ever receive a mass email that had nothing to do with you? Yeah, us too. It doesn’t leave the greatest impression. According to Salesforce, 66% of consumers would switch brands if they were treated like a number rather than an individual.

Your Salesforce org is full of valuable data - use it to its full potential to create personalized experiences. One great way to do this is to personalize your customer communications through S-Docs email templates (but you can use Salesforce Mail Merge templates too!).

S-Docs lets you create attractive email templates with dynamic content to create lasting impressions on your customers - without requiring hours of work. It’s as simple as opening a list view and clicking a button.

Then, you can choose which email or document you’d like to send to your customer from a list of premade templates.

Finally, you can simply click Start Mass Merge to generate your customized docs and emails and get them sent out.

Customers can receive emails and documents customized like crazy - by anything from their name to completely unique formatting and content based on the information stored about them in Salesforce.

Research shows that prospects are 80% more likely to make a purchase when they receive personalized experiences - and they’ll be much more likely to stick around for more later.

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3. Use Salesforce Service Cloud To Its Full Potential

Salesforce Service Cloud is an integrated customer service platform that gives service reps a 360 degree view of their customers. Aside from simplifying case management, Service Cloud ensures that customers receive a unified experience across the service channel.

While Salesforce Service Cloud improves the customer experience out of the box, there are a few things you can customize to take it to the next level.

Integrate Service Cloud With A Salesforce Experience Cloud Site

Helping your customers help themselves can satisfy DIY customers and reduce case resolution time for others. Create a branded Experience Cloud site (formerly Salesforce Community) to serve as a customer service portal or forum.

Customers can log cases and get updates on their own time, help one another, and feel confident in your brand’s commitment to helping them succeed.

Source: Salesforce.com

Plus, Experience Cloud sites give you the flexibility to add more integrations and functionality over time, such as collecting payments or auto-generating invoices.

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Use Support Analytics and Account Health Monitoring

To stay ahead of the customer service game, data-driven decisions are a must. Take advantage of Salesforce’s out-of-the-box tools like reports & dashboards to start analyzing your support KPIs. Salesforce Labs provides 4 free Service Cloud dashboards to get you started.

Source: AppExchange.com

Implementing an Account Health Monitoring System (AHMS) can also help you stay on top of the customer experience. It can generate account health scores that allow you to make proactive decisions about which customers to reach out to and when. This enables you to catch dissatisfied customers early and even upsell happy customers who may be ready to expand their account.

Create Automated Workflows

Anything that improves your team’s productivity can easily translate into improved customer experiences, so look for areas in your customer service workflows that could be automated.

Find quick wins first - the little workflows that might not save hours in one day, but add up significantly over time. For example, you could set up a workflow rule to automatically assign follow-up tasks to service reps one week after a case is closed.

Then, think about bigger-picture items that take up big chunks of time but must get done. For example, you could use a document automation solution like S-Docs to automatically send case summaries to customers when cases are closed.

Use Your Customer Feedback

Your customers are an important source of feedback and ideas for improvement - after all, they’re the ones using your products/services every day! You likely have a treasure trove of ideas hidden in your org’s case records.

Consider integrating Service Cloud with a product management tool, such as Jira, to give developers easy access to information that helps prioritize new features. This can help your team become more customer-centric, and drive development based on customer needs.

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4. Adopt A Customer-Focused Mindset Above All Else

75% of customers expect companies to use technology to create better experiences, but technology is only a reflection of an organization’s priorities. The best way to improve the customer experience is to adopt a customer-focused mindset from the top down.

When customers are the focus of everything you do - from executive leadership to business development - great experiences will follow. You’ll be positioned to use the right tools to hone, enhance, and perfect customer interactions through every channel and every stage.

100% Native Document Generation & E-Signature For Customer Success

If you’re ready to start boosting your customer experiences and exceeding expectations, S-Docs is here to help you on your journey. As a 100% native document workflow solution, we help businesses around the globe personalize and automate their documents so service reps can spend more time on customer service - and customers get the communications they need, faster and more accurately.

If you’re looking for a customer service win this year, let’s talk! Request a demo today or contact sales@sdocs.com for more information. We look forward to speaking!

Picture this: It’s 2022. Your inbox lights up with a new email requesting your signature on a statement of work. You click the attached file, ready to electronically sign the document and get back to being productive. Then, you’re met with this:

There’s no blue link, no Click Here to Sign, only a sad blank line asking you to jump through hoops just to signify your agreement.

If this sounds like an inconvenience for you, it’s a potential deal-breaker for your customers. Electronic signatures are now ubiquitous in the business world. Those who still don’t embrace them stand out from the crowd (and not in a good way).

Luckily, it’s never too late to get in on the e-sign game. If you are using Salesforce, it’s actually easier than ever to integrate an e-signature solution into your workflows - you just have to know what to look for.

Whether you’ve been considering using e-signatures for a while or are just starting to read up on the benefits, this is the guide for you. We’ll go over the main benefits of e-signatures, the different types, their legality, and what to look for in a perfect solution. Read on to turn this list:

Into a solution that helps your business exceed your customers’ expectations.

The Main Benefits of E-Signature for Salesforce

Before we get into the what, let’s start with the why: why should you consider implementing e-signature software for Salesforce in the first place? What’s in it for you?

We’re glad you asked! Businesses that use e-signature apps see countless benefits, but there are four that we’ve pinpointed as our favorite:

1. E-Signatures deliver better customer experiences, which can translate to higher customer loyalty, lower churn rates, and increased revenue.
2. E-Signatures deliver better employee experiences. With the headache of tracking and storing documents wiped away, productivity shoots upwards. In addition, deals can close faster and you can get paid quicker.
3. E-Signatures are more secure, meaning your risk of breached contracts or data leaks is significantly reduced, keeping your legal team happy.
4. E-Signatures are extremely cost-effective, saving you money through less wasted time, increased productivity, and getting to closed-won faster.

These four main benefits can help any business build a case for implementing an e-signature solution into their Salesforce workflows, but if you’re not convinced yet, check out the top 10 things an e-signature solution for Salesforce can do for you.

Types of E-Signatures

Now that the potential impact of an e-signature solution is clear, you should be aware of the different types of e-signatures themselves. The type that you require could affect which solutions you evaluate.

The two main types of e-signatures are electronic signatures and digital signatures. Although they sound similar, they have important differences.

• Electronic signatures are generally recognized as any sound, symbol, or process that shows the intent to sign something. This could range from a simple checkbox to an electronically drawn signature backed up by an audit trail and two-factor authentication.
• Digital signatures are a form of electronic signature that ensures the identity of a signer is valid and the document hasn’t been modified since it was signed, using Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) encryption. Click here to find out more about digital signatures.

Both types of e-signatures are considered valid by most major laws and directives worldwide. The type that you choose to use depends on your organization’s security requirements.

E-Signature Legality

The final thing to consider before diving into the AppExchange in search of a great Salesforce e-signature app is legality. What’s the legal status of e-signatures in your location?

Luckily, e-signatures carry the same authority as wet-ink signatures in most countries around the world. Take a look at a few major laws governing electronic signatures worldwide:

• United States: The ESIGN Act specifies that signatures cannot be denied validity or enforceability because they are electronic.
• Canada: The PIPEDA Act establishes that electronic signatures and documents have the same legal authority as paper documents.
• European Union: The eIDAS regulation defines three types of electronic signatures and when they are acceptable to use. The most basic type, Standard Electronic Signatures, are generally acceptable in most business transactions.

Although electronic signatures are generally recognizable around the globe, exceptions exist. Be sure to consult with your legal team before deciding upon implementing them into your workflows.

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What Should You Look For in an E-Signature Solution for Salesforce?

After you’ve built a rock-solid business case for e-signatures and established their legality for the agreements your business uses, it’s time to do some shopping.

As you navigate the AppExchange in search of the perfect Salesforce e-signature app, look out for solutions with a few of these key features.

Seamless Integration Into Existing Workflows

E-Signature applications are supposed to make your life easier, not harder. If you’ve already set up workflows in Salesforce, choosing a solution that (1) doesn’t take you outside of Salesforce and (2) allows you to maintain the same general flow of work will ensure a smooth setup and minimal hiccups in the future.

Quick tip: look for native e-signature applications like S-Sign first. Since they’re built on the Salesforce platform, native applications blend more easily into your existing processes and mirror the Salesforce UI. If you’re using products like Salesforce CPQ & Billing, for example, a native application can fit into your process right away with minimal configuration.

Document Generation Capabilities

E-signatures are great, but they’re only one component of a much larger workflow. Why save time on the signature collection process if it still takes hours to pull together the documents that need to be signed?

The best e-signature solutions for Salesforce include document generation capabilities that allow you to create agreements with one click. These solutions save you time by compiling your Salesforce data into premade templates that already have signature tags mapped out.

Instead of switching between different apps or copy-pasting information, everything you need to succeed will be bundled into one solution - making creating, sending, tracking, and storing agreements much easier.

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Security Features

Legal issues aren’t fun or cheap, so this one’s a no-brainer: your Salesforce e-signature integration should have rock-solid security. While it might be tempting to look for a digital vs standard electronic signature solution and call it a day, there’s more to consider than that. Look for a solution that includes:

• A detailed audit trail with information like signer names, IP addresses, and an event log that captures acts like document opens, signature submissions, and date/time stamps.
• 
• Two-Factor Authentication options that require signers to prove their identities. This might take the form of an emailed code required to view the document.
• Document encryption options for enhanced security.
• No third-party site authorization requirements that send data outside of Salesforce. When you use an e-signature app hosted on an external server, you open up the surface area for data breaches (not to mention add more work for your IT security team that needs to evaluate the solution’s architecture). Here again, native apps can be of assistance: since they’re built on the Salesforce platform, the entire e-signature process takes place on Salesforce servers (which you’ve already evaluated and approved).

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Multiple Input Field Types

When you sign a paper document, you might also need to sign your initials, write a date, or check a few boxes too. The e-signature solution that you choose should let your customers do the same thing.

Choose an app that lets you collect multiple types of data from your customers in addition to signatures, such as initials, dates, checkboxes, and freeform text. Not only will this give you maximum flexibility, but it might even spark ideas about using the app for more than just signature collection workflows.

Write Back to Salesforce

More field input options means more opportunities to collect valuable data - but more data usually means more data entry. However, if you choose an e-signature solution that writes data back to Salesforce, this task will be taken care of for you.

Let’s say your document requests a customer to enter their department and company name. Using an e-signature solution that writes back to Salesforce, you could map these fields from your document to a Salesforce record. That way, your data will always be up to date.

Dynamic Content

Agreements never follow a “one size fits all” approach. Customers in different industries or different locations may require different clauses or components be included before they’re able to sign. Rather than maintain a library of hundreds of variations of a single document, you should look for an e-signature solution that supports dynamic content. That way, you can configure a single document template to include or exclude sections based on your own business rules.

Apps like S-Sign even let you dynamically include or exclude entire signer profiles conditionally for even greater flexibility.

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Automatic Reminders

Nobody likes waiting days for a signature. The Salesforce e-signature app that you choose should offer automatic reminders to keep your deals on track. These also function to create urgency and get your documents signed faster.

Mobile Support

With “Sent from my iPhone” becoming an omnipresent email signature in the business world, you need to be prepared for customers that engage with you on mobile devices. The e-signature solution that you choose should look and feel great on a phone or tablet.

Automation Options

Like we said earlier in this article: e-signature solutions are supposed to make your life (and your customers’ lives) easier. If you have agreement workflows that are consistent and repetitive (always sending an MSA when an opportunity reaches a certain stage, for example), automating these processes allows you to stay on track while your agreements are sent in the background.

E-signature apps that allow you to automate your workflows are also in the best position to scale with your business. As your processes grow more complex, automation will be necessary to maintain an efficient team and keep customers happy.

Choose Native E-Signature Solutions for Salesforce

Our last piece of advice: go native. Native e-signature solutions for Salesforce offer all of the benefits listed above - and they’re built on the platform that you use everyday.

You’ve already invested in Salesforce, approved its security infrastructure, and integrated your business processes. Why choose an app that sends your data off-platform?

Native Salesforce e-signature apps are:

• Faster, since they process all data within your Salesforce environment.
• More secure, since they never send your data or documents outside of Salesforce.
• Easier to use, since they fit into your workflows naturally and mirror the Salesforce interface.

Native apps help you work faster, stay compliant, and deliver exceptional customer experiences. Look for the Native App tile under the Features section as you browse AppExchange listings.

As always, be sure to consult with your legal team before making any decisions about which app is best for you.

S-Docs: 100% Native Document Generation & E-Signature for Salesforce

If you’re ready to start automating your agreement workflows and closing deals faster with a solution built exclusively for Salesforce, look no further than S-Docs and S-Sign. Create, send, e-sign, track, and store documents in Salesforce. S-Docs lets you skyrocket productivity without worrying about compliance or downtime, since it’s built on the platform you’ve already approved.

Get started today with a customized demo - we’re one click away. Request a demo today or contact sales@sdocs.com to find out what S-Docs and S-Sign can do to help your business excel.

Salesforce is a powerful tool, but its real value comes from its users. Just like a car without gas can’t drive, an org without users can’t provide value to a company.

Increasing (or kickstarting) Salesforce user adoption can up your team’s productivity, create more accurate data for better decision making, and ensure that your investment into the platform pays its dividends.

Getting to the root cause of your user adoption issues can be tough, though. Is it a people problem? A technology problem? Most of the time, it’s a mixture of both.

The User Adoption Matrix

Take a look at the following graphic. Many times, your users can be segmented into one of four quadrants:

Willing and Able: These users want to use Salesforce and have an easy time doing so. Oftentimes, they were part of the original implementation project.

Able, but Unwillling: These users could easily use Salesforce, but don’t want to. For example, if management places high value on conversion rates, users might not want to enter early-stage Opportunities into their pipeline.

Willing, but Unable: These users want to use Salesforce, but have a hard time doing so. A poor implementation, bad training, or unusable reports and dashboards could result in users falling into this quadrant.

Unwilling and Unable: These users don’t want to use Salesforce, and have a hard time doing so. This is often indicative of a bigger problem that goes beyond adoption.

The ultimate goal is to move as many users to quadrant 1 (Willing and Able) as possible. Let’s explore how to get there.

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First, Ensure You Can Track Adoption Adequately

When you embark on a new project, the first question on your mind should be “How do I measure success?” Before attempting to increase user adoption, you should plan which metrics you want to track and how you’ll track them.

Tools like Salesforce Labs’s Adoption Dashboard can give you valuable visibility into your users’ adoption.

Source: Trailhead.com

However, make sure you don’t analyze the wrong data. It can be tempting to look at login rates and call it a day -- but those don’t always tell the full story.

Consider tracking additional metrics such as:

• Overdue Opportunities: These can indicate that users aren’t really tracking their deals with Salesforce.
• Unrealistic Stages/Close Dates: If you’ve got Opportunities closing this week that are still in the prospecting stage, they’re probably not being updated.
• Record creation rates: If new Leads, Contacts, or Opportunities aren’t being created, Salesforce likely isn’t your business’s single source of truth for your employees.
• Fields populated: If your users are populating a low percentage of fields, they’re not using Salesforce to its full potential.

Tracking specific, telltale metrics like these will help you plan who to target with your increased adoption project, and how.

Create Advantages to Using Salesforce

With your metrics defined and your dashboards set up, the next step is to start thinking about how you can create an advantage to using Salesforce over not using it. Add the motivation, and the users will follow. This might involve:

• Providing valuable insight unavailable elsewhere, such as well-designed reports and dashboards or intelligent lead scoring
• Capture leads in Salesforce that can’t be accessed through another system
• Introduce gamification initiatives that reward users for completing tasks or other activities in Salesforce
• Use apps from the AppExchange to enhance user experience and provide value

People will only use Salesforce if it helps them do their job, so ensure that’s the case.

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Create Disadvantages to Not Using Salesforce

On the opposite side, creating disadvantages to not using Salesforce is another tactic that can help with user adoption. While it may sound negative, it’s actually something that should come naturally once managers and executives are on board with Salesforce. A few ways to do so include:

• Phasing out legacy systems
• Conducting team or 1-to-1 meetings based on dashboards
• Requiring the use of tools like Salesforce CPQ for deal approvals
• Providing apps like S-Docs for automated quote, proposal, and invoice creation

When it’s harder to get work done outside of Salesforce than within, or more difficult to keep up with Salesforce-savvy colleagues, adoption will grow.

Commit to Ease and Simplicity

The way your org is designed could have a huge impact on how much it's used -- and we’re not just talking about its coat of paint. As Steve Jobs once said, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

Do your users have the correct profile assignments, or are they constantly running into frustrating errors? Are records concise and helpful, or are they full of outdated fields that never get used? Is your data clean, or can you find 10 different ways to abbreviate a state?

Simplicity is the name of the game. Drive Salesforce user adoption by making it functional but simple. Why do you think Salesforce redesigned Classic into Lightning?

Here’s another tip for creating great UX experiences & improving adoption: always think like an end user. When designing new features, ask yourself: Is the functionality desirable? Would it help users do their jobs better? Does it fit seamlessly into existing workflows, or would it be clunky? If you find yourself unable to answer these questions, poll users with tools like Salesforce Surveys, or hold meetings to gather that information.

Here at S-Docs, we don’t just love native apps because our app is native -- we love them because they integrate seamlessly and compliment the Salesforce platform rather than grind against it.

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Provide Optimized Training

Sometimes, a lack of adoption is the result of a lack of training. If your training program consisted of a single walkthrough meeting at the end of your Salesforce implementation, users probably won’t be jumping at the chance to start using Salesforce for everything.

You can optimize training and increase user adoption by communicating with users often. Hold regular meetings and find out what they find easy to use and what they’re having difficulty with. A more personalized approach to educating users will always work better.

If regular meetings with the right stakeholders aren’t feasible, try creating short videos explaining new functionality and how to use it.

While it should be supplemented with other forms of training, Trailhead can be another great resource for users to learn on their own time. This trailmix was designed specifically to help end users learn how to use the platform.

Obtain Executive Buy-In

You know what they say -- “Culture, Change, and Salesforce Adoption start at the top” -- or something like that. No matter how perfect your UX or how informative your training, if executive stakeholders are resistant to Salesforce, it’s going to be hard increasing adoption and getting real value out of it.

From the beginning, it’s important to make a great business case for Salesforce. Ask yourself:

1. How does Salesforce help our company with its top priorities?
2. What are the main problems it solves?
3. Can I quantify the value it brings to our organization?

Speaking in terms of your organization’s main goals and bringing hard data to the table will make it much easier to find an executive sponsor to drive Salesforce usage forward.

Check out this great article from the Salesforce 360 blog on how to build a winning business case to advance a project.

Continuously Monitor and Improve

Salesforce user adoption is never a one-and-done deal. As companies grow and change, you’ll always find new challenges coming your way. Continuously monitor adoption rates and test out different ways to improve them. The best part is, you’ll be improving your Salesforce org in tandem with adding more users that give it value in the first place.

S-Docs: 100% Native Document Generation and E-Signature for Salesforce

For a fast, intuitive, and easy to use document generation and e-signature solution for Salesforce, look no further than S-Docs. S-Docs is 100% native to the platform, so it’s easier to configure and blends seamlessly with your current workflows. Get started today on the AppExchange, request a demo, or contact sales@sdocs.com for information about a customized demo. We look forward to hearing from you!

The Salesforce AppExchange is one of the most important places a business using Salesforce can go (barring maybe the help section of the Trailblazer Community!). Its 5,000+ solutions -- which include applications, application components, community and automation templates, and database integrations -- allow Salesforce customers to enhance, extend, and evolve their Salesforce functionality to solve virtually any business challenge.

While the breadth and diversity of the AppExchange offers something for everyone, it also requires businesses to carefully consider which apps are right for them. The quality and complexity of Salesforce AppExchange apps varies widely, especially when it comes to the crucial vetting and implementation process.

The benefits of discovering a great new business solution will be negated if the app doesn’t pass your organization’s security review. And an app that takes months to implement, or doesn’t fit into your Salesforce environment correctly, won’t grant you much ROI. Vetting/implementations gone wrong can reduce executive buy-in, stagnate user adoption, and nullify the benefits the app was supposed to bring to the table.

So how can you find quality apps that also make vetting and implementation a breeze?

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Not All Apps Are Created Equal

Salesforce AppExchange apps can be boiled down to two categories: native apps and non-native apps.

Non-native apps:

• Are built on external clouds and interfaced to Salesforce through APIs
• Require authorization of 3rd-party web connectors so data can be sent between Salesforce and the app’s servers
• Aren’t necessarily built for Salesforce exclusively, and may function on other platforms

Native apps:

• Are built entirely on the Salesforce platform
• Process all data within Salesforce and never require data to be sent off-platform
• Are built exclusively for Salesforce

Native apps allow you to accelerate the solution implementation process because they are built on the Salesforce platform, exclusively for Salesforce.

Don’t believe us? Just take a look at S-Docs, the only 100% native document generation and e-signature solution available on the AppExchange. Because of our native architecture, our customers are able to get set up and start seeing ROI immediately. G2 even awarded us these shiny badges for the Winter 2021 Salesforce CRM Document Generation Implementation Index!

But if that’s not enough for you, let’s get into the details on why native Salesforce applications can be implemented faster and start benefiting their customers before they’re even deployed to production.

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1. Security Vetting is Easier with Native Salesforce Apps

Like we said before, native Salesforce apps are built on the Salesforce platform (formerly known as the force.com platform, now rebranded as the Lightning platform). This means that, quite simply, native apps never send customer data outside of Salesforce. Everything is 100% processed, delivered, and stored on Salesforce servers.

Since Salesforce has already been vetted and approved as a secure application, businesses evaluating native apps don’t have to worry about going through another lengthy platform assessment. Native apps run on the platform that they’ve already validated.

This can be especially liberating for IT teams in security-conscious industries like government, healthcare, or financial services.

2. Native Apps Require Zero Third-Party Integrations

Once you’ve installed an app into Salesforce, the last thing you want to worry about is jumping back out and configuring different accounts and connectors on third-party websites. Dealing with an entire separate interface, not to mention configuring APIs correctly, can be incredibly challenging, frustrating, and time-consuming.

Luckily, native apps allow you to skip all that. Once your native app is installed in your org (which only takes a few clicks from the AppExchange), the rest of the configuration steps happen right there where you work everyday. And there’s no need to get approval for third-party remote site authorization, since native apps function entirely within Salesforce.

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3. Native Apps Are Built Using Tools You Know

Even if you’re not a developer, you are probably familiar with the terms Apex, Visualforce, and custom objects. These are standard Salesforce development and customization tools -- your business likely has a few of them working in your org today. They’re also exactly what native apps are built with.

Because of this, native apps are much easier for Salesforce IT teams to implement -- they’re structured in a familiar way. Native apps also tend to mirror Salesforce’s look and feel, making the implementation process that much easier.

If you’re using a consulting firm to assist with your Salesforce implementation, native apps make their lives easier too. Salesforce consultants are Salesforce experts, so they’ll know exactly how to set up and navigate your app from day one.

4. Application Tests Are Faster with Native Apps

Every new Salesforce application that you download will likely need to go through testing in a sandbox org.

Whether your requirements necessitate one or one-thousand tests, native apps make it easier. For one, since they’re designed specifically for Salesforce, most native apps will allow you to easily migrate your application data from sandbox to production. Once testing is complete, you won’t lose any work and you can begin solving business problems with your app immediately.

In addition, native apps simply run faster. They operate entirely within your Salesforce environment, meaning that you don’t have to wait for web traffic between different clouds. This can exponentially speed up the testing process since you won’t be constantly stuck waiting for your app to process data. It will also probably reduce your stress levels, too.

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5. Users Will Adopt Native Apps Faster

Users will only adopt a product if it helps them achieve a goal or makes their lives easier. If the product is too complex, takes too long to learn, or just doesn’t fit into their workflows, the likelihood of your business seeing ROI from it drops significantly.

Since native apps are built using the same building blocks as many of the other tools that Salesforce users interact with everyday, adoption will be a much easier process. Users will feel more comfortable learning and using a native app, since they’re designed to blend into your current workflows -- not clunkily integrate.

Faster adoption = a quicker end to the implementation process = speedier ROI.

Native Apps for Better Enterprise Solution Implementation

All in all, native Salesforce apps simply make the solution implementation process better. They’re easier to evaluate for data security purposes, faster to implement and test, and better at gaining immediate user adoption.

As with all things, you should always follow best practices when it comes to solution implementation to ensure it’s as seamless as possible. This includes:

• Defining specific needs and objectives, as well as who will be using the solution
• Surveying potential users for their input
• Gaining executive buy-in early
• Identifying potential risks of using the solution and challenging the solution provider on those issues
• Evaluating the implementation resources offered by the solution provider, and planning for resources that your organization will need to supply
• Establishing realistic expectations with your team
• Continuously monitoring adoption and maintaining communication with the vendor

By following these guidelines and evaluating native apps first, you’ll be well on your way to a better and more functional Salesforce org.

S-Docs: 100% Native Document Generation and E-Signature for Salesforce

Speaking of native apps, S-Docs is the only 100% native document generation and e-signature solution available on the Salesforce AppExchange. Create stunning documents with data pulled from anywhere in Salesforce, automate your workflows, and collect e-signatures -- 100% natively.

If you’re ready to get started with native document generation and e-signature (and implement quicker!), contact us today at sales@sdocs.com, or request a demo. We can’t wait to see what we can do to help your business succeed!

A digitally-empowered government workforce -- sounds buzzwordy, doesn’t it? What does “digitally-empowered” even mean? The opposite of “analogue-empowered?”

Well, technically -- but let’s hope nobody actually uses that phrase. A digitally-empowered government workforce is one that has taken control of the digital technologies revolutionizing the private sector and used them to adapt their operating model to the modern era.

As the pace of change increases, citizen expectations rise, and unforeseen events shake our world, leveraging the latest digital technologies is now compulsory. The public sector needs to digitalize to operate as efficiently as possible, scale in the face of disaster, and remain relevant as an essential part of functioning societies.

The consequences of avoiding digital transformation in government are formidable, and the benefits of embracing it are clear. Let’s take a look at the 5 biggest advantages of digitally-empowered government workforces.

1. Improve Citizen Experiences

At the end of the day, citizens are customers, and they expect to be treated like modern customers are treated. According to an Accenture Survey, 85% of U.S. citizens hold the government to the same or higher standards as their commercial providers. Without the right solutions, these standards are impossible for governments to meet.

Take the sheer number of channels available for interaction: social media and text for instant communication, online portals and apps for self-service, not to mention phone calls and emails.

Governments that leverage the right technology not only make all of these channels available to their citizens, they connect them all together on the backend so that the data can be used effectively. Using a CRM like Salesforce, government organizations can integrate multiple channels and systems into a singular view.

Citizens are happier when they can interact with the government on their own terms, and employees can provide better, more personalized service when it’s all connected together. What’s more, tools like Tableau CRM (formerly Einstein Analytics) can analyze the data and help agents make better decisions.

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2. Maximize Return on Public Investment

While governments and private businesses differ, a similarity can be found in the need to optimize ROI. No organization likes wasting money, and the consequences of doing so are especially strong for the public sector, where budget problems and stalled projects can actively harm constituents.

Investing in digital technologies like an integrated government CRM can dramatically improve resource management and lead to more informed spending decisions. Automated reports and dashboards can link different investments to the outcomes they produce, creating a system of accountability and a model of what to change next time.

Employing things like document automation can indirectly boost ROI through saved time and reduced errors. Automating critical government documents (and other similar workflows) can free up time for higher-value tasks and turn government workforces into more efficient machines. In turn, public value will be increased and opportunities for new innovations will become more abundant.

3. Improve Citizen Data Security

Traditionally, data security has been one of the biggest limiting factors for governments looking to move away from legacy IT systems -- cloud computing just wasn’t safe enough. But with the advent of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), government organizations are now able to leverage innovative cloud solutions without compromising data security.

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Solutions like Salesforce Government Cloud provide government-specific functionality on a platform that allows government entities to be more efficient and keep their data more secure. Instead of housing data in multiple siloed systems, which increases the surface area for potential cyberattacks, everything can be consolidated and safeguarded in one place.

In addition, the Salesforce AppExchange hosts a large number of native applications that run within the secure Salesforce environment. Government organizations can extend the functionality of Salesforce without worrying about losing control of their data. S-Docs document generation and e-signature is just one of the many native Salesforce applications built with the data security needs of the public sector in mind.

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4. Attract Better Talent

A digitally-empowered government workforce is more efficient, innovative, and aligned with the direction the business world is moving. This enables digital-first government organizations to attract and retain top talent that would otherwise be pulled by faster-moving private businesses.

While technology that empowers valuable work is lucrative to prospective employees, so is the culture that it brings with it. Governments that embrace the digital age are able to create a culture of growth and innovation from the top down. These benefits attract the kind of innovators required to keep government agencies adapting and relevant.

5. Prepare For The Future

The pace of change is speeding up. Adapting to today’s challenges will only carry an organization so far. Government entities need systems that are ready to pivot and scale at a moment’s notice when the issues of today morph into those of tomorrow.

Organizations with a digital-first approach are in the best position to weather the storms that blow their way. Cloud technology is built to update and scale quickly, allowing governments to stop lagging behind and start providing the services citizens need, making the most of their resources, and ultimately creating a better world to live in.

S-Docs: Document Generation and E-Signature for Salesforce Government Cloud

S-Docs is the only 100% native document generation and e-signature solution available for Salesforce Government Cloud. S-Docs was built by leaders in Salesforce architecture and data security, which is why it’s architected entirely on the Salesforce Lightning platform. Customer data is never sent outside of Salesforce for processing, and our solution requires zero external integrations.

As a trusted partner to government organizations around the globe, we’re here to answer any questions about your digital document needs. Reach out to sales@sdocs.com or request a demo today. Happy digitalizing!

As the insurance industry navigates the complexities of a digital-first world post-pandemic, the significance of strategic expense management and embracing efficient practices becomes paramount. Among the myriad challenges, the industry grapples with the immense reliance on paperwork, a facet not inherently conducive to remote work, efficiency, or productivity—crucial elements in today's competitive landscape.

Document automation emerges as a beacon for the insurance sector in 2024, offering enhanced cybersecurity, compliance assurance, increased efficiency, and seamless adaptability to remote work—a confluence of imperatives for sustaining competitiveness.

Where Does Document Automation Come In?

Insurance companies need to manage their expenses carefully in today's economic climate, being strategic about how they embrace the digital-first world.

Few industries are as reliant on paperwork as insurance. Thousands of documents need to be processed each day, including policy applications, policyholder agreements, claims forms, customer correspondence, and much more. Paperwork is not friendly to remote work, nor is it particularly warm toward efficiency and productivity -- all of which have become vital to get right.

Document automation software for the insurance industry is one of the few digital solutions that needs to be prioritized in 2024. It brings better cybersecurity and compliance, increased efficiency, and seamless remote work to the table -- all necessities for moving the bottom line and staying competitive this year.

Let’s dive a little deeper into why insurance companies should invest in document automation in 2024.

Ensure Compliance With Document Automation

Insurance companies are bound by regulatory policies -- lots of them. Documentation errors can result in legal action, expensive fines, and negative customer experiences. “Not in good order” (NIGO) documents can cost 3-4 times more to process than documents that are error-free.

Unfortunately, maintaining compliance with every applicable law by hand isn’t just difficult. It’s nearly impossible. That’s where document automation comes in to save the day: it takes the guesswork out of compliance concerns. How does this work?

1. Document automation solutions like S-Docs use premade templates with data tags that automatically pull information from your CRM and place it exactly where it needs to be. No copy-pasting = no human errors.
2. Document automation solutions can run business rules that catch errors before they happen. These same business rules can be used to dynamically modify your insurance documents based on predefined conditions.
3. Document automation solutions ensure that your remote workforce maintains compliance with your policies and the law. You can control who has access to create which documents, when they can be created, who they can be sent to, and much more.

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Increase Efficiency and Meet Consumer Expectations with Document Automation

There’s a reason manual paperwork is always used as the “boring work” trope: it’s tedious, and it takes much more time than it should.

Document automation can drastically cut down the time it takes to create documents like claims and litigation forms, loss adjuster documentation, policy quotes, and notification letters -- in some cases, from days to minutes. You get increased productivity for less effort, and free up your employees for more important tasks.

As consumer expectations rise, only the most efficient companies will be able to keep up. In an industry that does business through paperwork, efficient document processes are a must.

Improve Your Cybersecurity with Document Automation

Cybersecurity was a growing concern for insurance before the pandemic, but now that employees are accessing your data systems remotely, it’s more important than ever. Data breaches are costly (as much as $14.8 million on average), and they’re much more likely to happen when sensitive data is in transit, such as from your CRM to a document stored on an employee’s local device.

Document automation applications compile your documents in the cloud, meaning your sensitive customer data doesn’t need to be handled manually. They’re also able to encrypt documents for added security.

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To really supercharge your data security efforts, look for document automation apps that are native to the platform where you store your customer data. Native apps ensure that your data is never in transit; they process everything within the system where it’s already stored.

Take S-Docs for example. It’s 100% built on the Salesforce platform, meaning that if you use Salesforce for insurance, your insurance documents are created entirely within your Salesforce instance. There’s no whitelisting 3rd party web connectors or using up API calls required. By using an app like S-Docs, you’re able to give your IT team peace of mind, and ensure that the vital process of document creation won’t compromise your business.

Improve Your Customer Communications and Gain a Competitive Advantage with Document Automation

Customer service is an important part of the insurance industry. As consumer expectations grow and fast, relevant engagement continues to become the norm, manual communications are quickly being phased out. Remaining competitive requires digital transformation.

Document automation solutions allow you to automate the generation and distribution of your customer communications, from emails to notification and renewal letters. Customer actions on your website or insurance portal can trigger different forms to be sent out at the appropriate time. And because insurance document templates pull data from your CRM, they’ll always be customized and tailored to each individual.

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Increase Your Bottom Line With Document Automation

Document automation can help increase your bottom line in a few ways. For one, the immense amount of time saved by automating insurance documents increases productivity in more valuable areas.

Additionally, document automation can help move sales quicker. Automated insurance policy quotes, contracts, and bills help salespeople provide relevant information to their customers quicker and keep deals moving. Most insurance document automation solutions allow reps to track metrics for their documents like number of opens, giving them the opportunity to make intelligent decisions about next steps in the sales process.

Finally, many document automation applications offer proprietary e-signature applications, or easily integrate with third-party providers. E-signatures remove the bottlenecks associated with closing deals, allowing anyone to sign an agreement no matter where they are.

Empower Remote Work With Document Automation

Remote and hybrid work will likely be with us for some time to come. Equipping your employees with the best tools to get their jobs done from home is essential to business continuity. For the insurance industry, this means enabling the remote workforce to create and distribute documents in a safe and secure way. Outside of tedious, complex workarounds, document automation solutions are the way to go.

2024 & Beyond

Insurance companies should be focusing on developing strategies to enable productivity, collaboration, and innovation now so that they can emerge on top. Those who prioritize digitally transforming the right way will ultimately be the ones to succeed.

S-Docs: Document Automation For The Insurance Industry

S-Docs is the only 100% native document automation and e-signature solution for Salesforce. S-Docs allows you to create, edit, and automate data-driven insurance document templates in just a few minutes.

Since it’s native to the Salesforce platform, your data stays within your org. If you trust Salesforce, you can trust S-Docs, too. Hundreds of leading insurance organizations have partnered with S-Docs for their Salesforce document automation needs because of the increased speed and security that our solutions bring to the table.

If you’re ready to experience the native difference with S-Docs, reach out! Request a demo today or contact sales@sdocs.com. Happy automating!