Service Console and Case Management with Salesforce Lightning

Would you like to try something new and truly amazing? Of course, you would! How about the Salesforce Service Console in Lightning Experience? I can feel your excitement. So, let’s start! First things first…

What is a Salesforce Service Console?

The newLightning Service Console is designed to be extremely useful for case management and deflection. The Salesforce team has brought the best of Lightning to the Service Console, making customer service operations much easier. At its core, the Service Console is built to:

  • Centralize data – this is a place where all your customer service reps can get a unified view of customer info, handle customer queries in a jiffy, and boost overall customer satisfaction. Plus, you can see here all the relevant customer data: cases, accounts, contacts, and related records.
  • Boost productivity – your customer service reps can enjoy features like multiple case handling, screen pop, or customizable layouts to streamline their working routine.
  • Foster collaboration – who wouldn’t want to work in a team? You can use real-time collaboration techniques to share knowledge and solve problems efficiently.
  • Integrate with other Salesforce components – you can connect with other Salesforce items like Knowledge or Field Service for a broader picture of the customer journey. Plus, one of the greatest things about this Service Console app is that it’s fully customizable. Which means you can adjust it the way you’d like!

Note! You can’t upgrade a Salesforce Classic console app to Lightning Experience. You can display or hide the app in the Lightning Experience App Launcher. You can edit the app from the App Manager page in Lightning Experience Setup, by clicking the Edit button next to the app.

Where to find this new Service Console? In the Quick Find box, type App Manager. Here is when you enter Lightning Experience App Manager with the app options page. Your Service Console will be right there for you to edit. You’ll be transferred to the Lightning App Builder, which gives you an opportunity to change the app’s logo, color, and more.

service console app manager

The Key Parts of the Lightning Service Console

The Salesforce Lightning Service Console has numerous component parts, important for providing efficient service. Before we discern them, one of the key things to mention is the new workspace. It can be defined as a collection of primary tabs and subtabs. This is your main working area. So, what other details does this Service Console app hide? Let’s explore:

Salesforce Service Console
  1. Split view that represents a list view and shows tabs and subtabs. This makes the Lightning Service Console an ultimate tool for managing multiple cases on a single screen, without jumping between the tabs.
  2. The Salesforce Lightning Service Console has a three-column layout. With such a design, you can have all key customer data and other info at your fingertips which reduces dumb scrolling. The first column has case details, contact details, and cases for parent contact. They are displayed using Related lists and Related record components.
  3. The second column comes with a highlights panel which is right in plain sight.
  4. All your case updates are compiled in the case feed. Here, the Service Console displays everything from call logs, text messages, status changes, and other valuable data.
  5. The third column of the Service Console shows Related lists and Knowledge articles connected to the case.
  6. The Salesforce Lightning Service Console has also a prebuilt utility bar. This is where you can have access to your global applications with a simple click. Do you want to change some components on this bar? It can be easily done as the utility bar on the Salesforce Lightning Service Console is fully customizable.

Salesforce Classic vs Lightning Experience: Establishing the Key Differences

Compare Salesforce Lightning Experience and Classic. Uncover the key differences and determine which platform will best meet your needs.
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Lightning Experience Case Management: Main Features

There are several ultimate features to make case management with Salesforce Lightning a breeze:

  • Case creation and assignment – you can initiate cases from various channels and assign them to appropriate agents based on predefined rules or manual selection.
  • Lightning Experience – an intuitive user interface boosts agent’s productivity and accelerates their performance.
  • Lightning Knowledge for case management – transform knowledge articles directly into cases, ensuring quicker customer service operations and quick access to solutions.
  • Case lifecycle flow – you can automate repetitive case-related tasks, such as case creation, status updates, and more.
  • Case-related objects and Lightning Components – connect cases to other Salesforce objects like accounts, conatcts, and opportunities. Besides, you can leverage a brand new set of Lightning Components, such as Lookup and Related List, to customize your Service Console.

The Power of AI in Salesforce Lightning Service Console and Case Management

As technology doesn’t remain stagnant, AI has gained traction over the past few years. And such popularity has reflected on the Lightning Service Console and the way businesses manage cases. Take a look at the AI-powered features Salesforce Lightning Service Console offers:

  • Intelligent case routing – the system can automatically route cases to the most qualified agent or department based on the skill set, availability, and case specifications.
  • Case deflection – chatbots will take over the world?! Not today. However, they can ease your life by providing self-service options and deflect cases away from customer service reps. Besides, they can also suggest knowledge base articles for in-depth problem solving.
  • Case classification – AI makes it possible to categorize cases automacially based on content, which saves agents time and reduces human errors.
  • Sentiment analysis – AI helps you understand customer sentiment from cases comments and emails. Afterward, it can also help you shape a follow-up response.

How does Salesforce Lightning Service Console assist in Omnichannel Support?

We’ve come to the point in the evolution when customers expect nothing less that seamless interactions across multiple channels. The Service Console coupled with Salesforce’s omnichannel specs helps businesses deliver consistent customer experiences.

First, there is a unified inbox where you can gather all your conversations from various channels – be it email, phone, chat, or social media. Everything happens in a single interface.

Second, you can leverage channel-specific features such as social media listening and management. This way, you can monitor your company’s Twitter mentions, reply to Facebook comments, or see Instagram comments. Pretty convenient, isn’t it?

Third, you can use customer journey mapping to understand customer interactions across different channels. This give you an opportunity to detect pain points and improve customer experience.

Bottom Line

In general, Lightning Service Console is another step forward towards an even better user experience and more powerful functionality in the Salesforce platform. This can be your safest bet in your purpose to improve user experience and perfect customer service. But if you need any further assistance, contact Advanced Communities. We are always here to help you with your Salesforce endeavours.

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    Types of Membership: How to Form and Present Them to Your Audience

    Membership organizations often clutch their heads in despair: how to set up types of membership in order to satisfy every customer’s need? Where to start and how to present them to the audience? If you can relate to these rhetorical questions, then you have come to the right place.

    There are many details to consider when assembling a membership model. Everything starts with how to name it or what prices to quote and goes up to its successful promotion on your website.

    This is exactly why we decided to write this blog article. Keep reading to explore the difference between membership types, membership levels, and programs, what special treatment they need, and how to make it work in the Salesforce world.

    Types of Memberships, Programs, and Tiers: Where is the Difference?

    A membership business model is an intricate thing. When creating it for your association, you should take numerous factors into account. For instance, you have to pick an appropriate name for the package you offer to customers, establish a competitive membership price, and promote it correctly.

    However, one of the most important things to deal with before going to market is to know how to distinguish membership levels, types of membership, and programs. This is our next stop.

    1. Membership Program

    A membership program is an umbrella term for all activities and conditions your audience signs up for in your organization. Simply put, they contribute their money, and time, or perform other certain actions to get special treatment or perks from you.

    Sure thing, membership programs vary. However, their ultimate goal is to elevate the financial, social, or political growth of a membership organization. You need to create a program that aligns with your values and speaks to your mission. For instance, this can be connected to networking or advocacy, supporting charitable or research causes, or health and environmental goals.

    Besides, there are psychological or spiritual membership models, fostering member engagement in their own, peculiar way. Thus, you can see many gardening clubs, photography clubs, bowling leagues, etc. All of them coalesce people with certain backgrounds, skills, and expertise.

    An exciting example of a membership program done wisely is the one from the American Water Works Association (AWWA). They provide a referral program, which comes with a set of incentives aka rewards. Thus, if you refer 1 member, you get a commemorative label pin, 2 members mean you can enjoy a dry bag, and 3 to 5 members win you a $25 Gift Card. But for 6 or more members, you can have a $50 Gift Card. In fact, this is a cost-effective option to draw new members to the community and enlarge it.

    AWWA referral program

    Don’t be blinded by that. Such referral program may be tricky. The reason for that is that they are limited in their reach and aimed at existing members referring new ones. Plus, they are closely tied up to such incentives as discounts, cashback, and other related stuff which is not always the case for an organization (if it’s a startup, for that matter).

    2. Membership Tiers

    Membership tiers (or levels of membership of some kind) reflect the strict membership structure. Or a hierarchy, if you will. Let me elaborate on this one.

    Once you sketch your membership model with all its perks, networking opportunities, professional development packages, and other details, you can grade it.

    Thus, you can specify what your member is entitled to according to features in the program they purchase or their title (patron, advocate, etc.). Your membership levels can be something as simple as Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. A vivid example is found at the ISACA organization:

    ISACA_membership tiers

    But you can let your creativity float and come up with some fancy names for each membership level, such as Wizard, Champion, Innovator, Trailblazer, or any other you see fit.

    However, it’s paramount to remember you can provide your membership tier with a generic name and call it a day. Each naming should reflect the tier’s main objectives, mission, and resonate with your target audience. To give you a perfect head start, here is an example of membership tiers powered by IEEE:

    IEEE_membership pricing tiers

    3. Membership Types

    Here is when it’s getting interesting. Membership types is the last string in this hierarchy and the finest one. This is the step where you gather all your findings and plans, and start defining the exact details for each of the membership packages.

    In the picture below, you can see the example of membership types in EuRA – a non-profit company, providing professional relocation services. As a side note, most membership organizations have the same types, highlighting their value proposition in each of them.

    EuRA_membership types

    How to Arrange the Types of Membership: a Cheat Sheet

    Association membership management can be tough. But you can ease the burden by simply following the cheat sheet before implementing the types of membership in your organization. Comb through these things to consider:

    1. Target Audience

    Who are those people who would like to pay money for your service or products? Do you know them well? This is your starting point.

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    A membership organization has to realize what the audience wishes for and its demands. For instance, if you are a health organization, your membership types shouldn’t be called something like Beginner, Starter, and Advanced. Just because these names don’t correlate either with the industry specifics or your operations.

    In this case, consider something rather neutral, such as Full Membership, Group Membership (for families, for example), or Student Membership (for educational institutions).

    2. Membership Benefits and Values

    It’s an open secret that there is no one-size-fits-all benefits for every membership organization. Why? Because each of them specifies their own member benefits, depending on the size of association, its demographics, and even monthly fee. One remains unchanged: you have to show enough value while designing a membership model.

    How to point out different benefits your association provides to its members? The trick is in seeing the organization through their eyes. So, you should answer these questions before choosing between membership models:

    • What would make me sign up as a potential member?
    • How does my membership model stand out from the crowd?
    • How would I encourage members to register?
    • Does my organization offer free tickets to upcoming events (if there are any)?
    • Why would the audience sign up for a professional tier if I provide one?
    • Do I organize a local community where my members would have a plethora of networking opportunities?

    And this list can go on and on!

    3. Pricing Policy and Value Proposition

    Of course, you should work out the budget. It should correlate with your associations’ goals and reflect the benefits you defined. Moreover, the set price should satisfy both you as a leader or manager and your audience.

    Where to start? My recommendation would be “spying” after your competitors. In a good sense, of course. See what membership models other professional associations in your industry have, if they suggest paid membership and premium membership, what special techniques they use, and what prices they set. Once you’re done with that part, you may consider a value proposition.

    While a constant cash flow is marvellous, you have to think wider: what is it that in your proposition potential members would stick to? Is it enough? For instance, if you have a sports club, you might want to offer free training sessions to your members or additional items they could purchase before training (such as towels, drinks, etc.).

    4. Technology Backup

    Alright, so you gathered different social groups in your organization and thought over a membership structure. How to scale and manage it? This is when you need to think over decent membership management software.

    When it comes to Salesforce association management, I can’t but mention the perks you receive along with this. Given that Salesforce is a robust platform, it can help you manage members, automate routine tasks, and track member data. But if you need more, you can always check out some membership management add-ons that accelerate your associations growth.

    For instance, there is one from Advanced Communities – AC MemberSmart. As it is 100% native-to-Salesforce and built with force.com in mind, the solution can revolutionize your association management:

    • Real-time analytics and customizable dashboards;
    • Payment and donations management;
    • Advanced member directories;
    • Job boards…

    With AC MemberSmart, you can design a streamlined and straightforward subscription process. This is what a membership plan choice looks like.

    membership subscription process with AC MemberSmart

    How to Promote Your Membership Types?

    For a membership organization, setting up its membership types is only half the battle. The next part is to promote and go to market with them. And this is when the victory is!

    After recruiting its prospective members, membership organizations might turn a blind eye to their online presence, building not user-friendly, poor in information, and generic websites. This is the 21st century and the tech is in its peak! By using Salesforce for associations, you can design a member portal on Experience Cloud, highlighting your mission, unique value, member benefits, and enlisting membership types to attract new members.

    With a member portal (like the one you see below), you can:

    • Demonstrate expertise in your industry;
    • Create a subject-matter blog with educational resources;
    • Build an extensive member directory;
    • Point out exclusive member benefits;
    • Promote networking events within your community;
    • Support a fundraising cause.
    MemberPortal built with AC MemberSmart on Experience Cloud

    Salesforce Experience Cloud as a Nonprofit and Donation Management Solution

    In this article, we'll explore Salesforce and its Experience Cloud DXP platform as a solution for nonprofit and donation management. We'll guide you on using Salesforce CRM for nonprofits and show you how it helps achieve philanthropic missions through custom Experience Cloud solutions.
    Post image

    The sky is the limit. After your membership types have appeared on your Experience Cloud site, you can spread the word further. Share them with the audience via newsletters, publish posts on social media, or add them to your AppExchange page. Any way for good promotion will do.

    Final Words

    Types of membership is a multifaceted thing, so you should fine-tune them according to your community members! Think of each of the type, its benefits, and what potential members would receive in return. Besides, you can do a little research and check what membership levels other similar organizations offer to their members. It has nothing to do with stealing! A pure observation and analysis.

    Reach out to Advanced Communities and we will help your professional organization manage its membership program, elevate user experience, and unlock the full potential of Salesforce Experience Cloud for you.

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      1. What is a Membership Type?

      A membership type is an umbrella term for the membership hierarchy, with membership levels and programs included. When you decide on your association’s membership type, it means that you clearly understand different benefits, certain membership dues, and other details needed for each of them.

      2. What are the Tiers of Membership?

      Membership tiers are the same as membership levels and stand for the membership structure. In simpler terms, they are the privileges you assign to members. For instance, if you are an educational association, holding up to a person-based membership, you can provide student members with full access to your library resources for a year.

      3. What are the 5 Attributes of Membership?

      A healthy community can’t live without powerful membership. Thus, there are researches revealing five common attributes of membership. There are 1) boundaries, 2) emotional safety, 3) a sense of belonging, 4) personal investment, and 5) a unified symbol system. So, stick to them when you consider your membership levels.

      Idea Management on Salesforce: How to Improve Your Product with the Help of Your Customers?

      Do you know that customers are the treasure trove of valuable feedback and ideas you can leverage to boost your product’s bottom line? This was our agenda for the latest Zoom webinar we successfully hosted on Tuesday, July 23rd.  

      Our excellent speakers Oleksii Iuzviak (Product Owner at Advanced Communities) and Olha Lapa (Account Executive at Advanced Communities) were joined by the special guest Mary Greening (Director of Community Programs at WalkMe). They discussed the importance of customer feedback, how businesses can easily manage ideas with AC Ideas Ultimate and Salesforce, and how to motivate users to submit their ideas. 

      Comb through this webinar recap or watch the whole video version of the session!

      The Importance of Customer Feedback 

      It’s an open secret that customer feedback is paramount as customers are people who buy your product and most of the time, they know what they need. On a completely different side of the process, there is a product owner who has to be creative and needs structured data to predict what customers want.

      Here is when it gets real. 

      Where do they receive feedback from? The sales and support team give it to them. Plus, there are stakeholders who might have a completely varied picture of the product roadmap. All of it makes getting the ultimate customer feedback a battle to win. 

      Idea management webinar_ideas sources

      As Olha and Oleksii have rightfully put it, there are several challenges product managers and sales executives struggle with to gather and manage ideas customers share:

      • Managing ideas in spreadsheets
      • Losing ideas in the buzz
      • Having no direct access to customers
      • Inability to assess ideas effectively 
      • Failure to track the progress and calculate ROI 
      Idea management webinar_challenges product managers

      How to overcome those challenges easily, within the Salesforce ecosystem? The answer is…

      AC Ideas Ultimate and Salesforce Experience Cloud for Managing Customer Feedback 

      AC Ideas Ultimate is a 100% native-to-Salesforce app that makes collective insights, ideas, and feedback from your customers a real pleasure. Besides, the solution lets you prioritize ideas so that you can see the bigger picture and adjust your roadmap accordingly. 

      With features like Lightning Experience support, Jira integration, Idea zones management, and others, product managers/owners, stakeholders, sales teams, and every other part involved in Salesforce can work together toward the enhancement of the product.  

      There are major results you can achieve with ideation done the smart way with AC Ideas Ultimate and Salesforce: 

      • Foster user-centric innovation for the sake of your product 
      • Build bridges with customers and motivate them to submit their ideas
      • Track the progress of those ideas 
      • Cultivate a culture of innovation
      • Prioritize ideas with optimized resources 
      Ideas management webinar_AC Ideas Ultimate
      Note!

      You can watch a quick AC Ideas Ultimate demo and find out how different employees within one company can manage ideas like pros. The insightful demo presented by Oleksii starts at 8:28 on the webinar recording.

      What was the WalkMe’s Journey with Ideation? 

      WalkMe is a SaaS digital adoption platform and has been our loyal customer for about 2 years now. Since the first touch point, the AC team helped WalkMe implement ideation step-by-step, assisted with project management, and provided ongoing support along the way. 

      WalkMe journey with ideation

      Olha interviewed Mary on the WalkMe’s experience with ideation live and apparently, things have been going great for the company since then! Thanks to the concerted efforts of the AC and WalkMe teams, the company runs at 999 ideas, over 640 votes, andthe community customers promote their own ideas during webinars, on the forum, etc. 

      Our support team doesn’t open feature requests. Instead, we ask our support team to push our customers to the community and let them initiate the idea. Our community is very active, very vocal, the crowdsourcing and the promoting across the community helps create enthusiasm for it. And also feedback that they get in statusing the ideas as well. They can see the ideas at stand, at any time.

      Mary Greening, Director of Community Programs at WalkMe
      Note!

      Watch the whole conversation and WalkMe’s magnificent experience adopting AC Ideas Ultimate starting at 18:19 on the webinar recording. Plus, don’t forget to jump to the Q&A session at 28:32

      We Appreciate Your Interest!  

      Thank you for showing interest in our webinar! We do hope, this session was a game-changer for you and walked you through the ways you can implement ideation with AC Ideas Ultimate and Salesforce hands down. 

      In case you have further questions on the webinar or any other insights, please feel free to drop us a line here: it will be our pleasure to help. Meanwhile, stay tuned for our next webinar, and don’t miss the teasers!  

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        Alternative Sources of Revenue for Associations Ebook: Download It Now

        Do you own an association and rely strictly on your membership dues as the one and only source of funding? What if we tell you there is an opportunity to expand your horizons and use some other, offbeat avenues to maximize your revenue? We explained all the secrets behind it in our latest ebook on alternative sources of revenue for associations. It’s ready for download!

        Our exclusive ebook was designed with associations like yours in mind. Grab it now to discover how to:

        ✅ Address the challenges of dependence on traditional funding sources with innovative revenue ideas

        ✅ Leverage technology to enhance member engagement and boost your financial ground

        ✅ Win your members with new offerings, such as advanced member directories, job boards, and more

        ✅ Nurture a thriving community and improve member satisfaction with a personalized approach

        Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? We suggest you not to waste another second and download this free ebook!

        Alternative Sources of Revenue for Associations

        Explore new possibilities beyond traditional sources and start transforming your association revenue today!

        Download Now

        Meet the AC Events Enterprise Version 3.1: Key Improvements Breakdown

        As always, we strive to make your experience with our products as smooth as possible. That said, we’d like to present the AC Events Enterprise Version 3.1! What’s so special about this new edition? We reconsidered the data model and added new, important features.

        Note!

        Check out all the technical specs implemented into the AC Events Enterprise Version 3.1 and current changes to permission sets in this document

        Major Features Breakdown

        1. Impersonalized Group Registration 

        Impersonalized group registration opens up an opportunity to purchase tickets for an in-person event in bulk, without filling in all the contact details for each attendee. This saves the time and effort required to register large groups of people and eliminates ticket shortages or other mishaps afterward.

        Just enable the Impersonalized Registration checkbox while you create an in-person event in your Salesforce organization. Once a user registers for your event, they can pick as many packages (or tickets) as needed and receive an email with them as links. Thus, they can just copy and send the link to other attendees, with no extra actions required.  

        impersonalized group registration

        2. Zoom Attendance Duration Tracking

        Have you always wondered how long your event attendees stayed connected on your webinar or other online event? The upgraded AC Events Enterprise Version 3.1 allows you to collect this data and monitor audience engagement! 

        We added a new field to the Event Participation object called “Zoom participation duration in minutes”. It’s populated automatically and you can clearly track the overall Zoom attendee duration at your events. 

        Zoom attendance duration tracking

        It is an often case when a user connects and disconnects from the event multiple times. How to track their attendance duration then? Our new functionality has a superpower: it sums up all duration data each time a user connects to the event.

        3. Event Booking 

        We know how hard it can be to technically organize upselling and cross-selling at events. Moreover, many event management systems don’t provide the opportunity to create custom discounts and perks alike for event registrants. In our new AC Events Enterprise edition, you won’t face those problems! 

        Version 3.1 comes with a revamped event registration flow, making it possible to use a custom discount logic, add your branded swag as an extra step during registration, and see the total number of events, sessions, vouchers, etc. a person has purchased. For that, we changed the Event Transaction label to Event Booking with the following items:      

        • Event Booking – here, you can check the total amount of purchases a user made during their registration (sessions, discounts, vouchers, etc.)
        • Event Booking Items – this is where all your additional items and products for the event are stored. For instance, you can add an extra step to the registration where a user chooses branded swag and proceeds to checkout. 
        • Event Booking Amount Change – this is the field where all your discounts are calculated and stored. 
        event booking
        Note!

        These event registration items are created automatically once a user kicks off the registration process. Besides, they are dynamically added.

        Minor Features Breakdown

        • You don’t need to worry about compatibility with your LWR site, as AC Events Enterprise supports LWR sites within the existing Salesforce limitations. If transitioning to LWR is part of your future plans, we’re here to support you with our events solution!
        • Event Attendees are able to decide whether they want to be seen on the list of attendees for an event or not. For that, we added the “Hide myself from the event attendee” list option that can be added to the registration flow; 
        • Customize your event page exactly the way you want by adding custom tabs with the information you wish to share. Include details on travel options, nearby accommodations and hotel rates, weather forecasts, FAQ sections, testimonials, and past event highlights—any information you believe will be valuable and helpful to your attendees. Event Manager or Admin can add a custom Lightning Web Component (LWC) to the Event Tab;
        • Those who have several Experience Cloud sites can now track which site the registration came from and adjust their follow up emails accordingly. A new Network ID field is automatically filled after a user registers from the Experience Cloud site. The field can be filled manually if the participant is created from an internal Salesforce environment;
        • Now guest users can easily add the event to their personal calendars (Apple, Google, Office 365, Yahoo, Outlook, Outlook.com) with a single click, ensuring they remember the date and time without needing to go through the full registration process.
        Note!

        Should you want to upgrade to Version 3.1 and experience new amazing functionalities, you can use this link for the sandbox environment and this link for your production.

        You can always reach out to the Advanced Communities team to find professional assistance.

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          How to Create Salesforce Assignment Rules: a Step-by-Step Guide

          Last Updated: October, 7, 2024

          Salesforce is a strong and even irreplaceable tool when it comes to modern customer relationship management, customer service, and sales. Since it has an array of functionalities, one might feel overwhelmed by them. No worries!

          Today we’d like to highlight one of the most important features for your marketing and service activities: Salesforce Case Assignment Rules and Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules. What is the difference between them? Keep reading.

          Assignment Rules in Salesforce Explained

          First things first, assignment rules are a great instrument to better organize your sales and support teams’ work. It’s also a perfect tool for improving your lead generation. As you already know, there are two types of assignment rules in Salesforce: Lead Assignment Rules and Case Assignment Rules. By using them, you can automate the process of assigning appropriate users or queues to Leads and Cases. 

          To better understand the Salesforce terminology, we’ll give you a short definition of what is a Lead and what is a Case in Salesforce:

          • Lead – this is a prospect, meaning that this is someone who is interested in your product or service, but not yet ready to buy.
          • Case – this is literally a customer’s question, complaint, or suggestion about your product or service.

          How to locate Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules and Case Assignment Rules? Easy. First, go to the Setup tab in your organization. Start typing Assignment rules in the Quick Find box and there you are: you can view assignment rules under Marketing (Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules) and Service (Case Assignment Rules) tabs.

          lead assignment rules and case assignment rules in Setup

          With assignment rules, you can automatically deliver specific Cases to the right people in the team or departments who are specialized in a certain area (aka subject-matter experts), so that the customers receive timely and qualified responses. A Case Assignment Rule can assign cases without the connection to the case creation source. The thing is that a case can be submitted through a customer portal, a self-service portal, or by email, to name just a few options.

          Plus, assignment rules in Salesforce also enable you to sort cases by priority according to the customer’s support package (Platinum, Silver, etc.).

          The same thing applies to Lead Assignment Rules in Salesforce. By leveraging lead assignment criteria, you can specify how leads will be assigned to users or queues. They can do that regardless of whether leads are created manually or imported with the Data Import Wizard.

          Salesforce Classic vs Lightning Experience: Establishing the Key Differences

          Compare Salesforce Lightning Experience and Classic. Uncover the key differences and determine which platform will best meet your needs.
          Post image

          Assignment Rules Limitation

          You can’t build as many assignment rules as you see fit. There are certain limitations in Salesforce. For instance, there are limits for the number of rules, entries, and actions allowed by the rule.

          Thus, there can be up to 2,000 total rules across objects (applies to any combination of workflow, assignment, auto-response, and escalation rules, active or inactive), 50 actives rules per object (applies to any combination of active workflow, assignment, auto-response, and escalation rules, as well as record change processes), 3,000 entries per rule, and 300 formula criteria entries per rule.

          Besides, there is a limitation on actions when creating assignment rules in Salesforce – up to 200 actions allowed per rule. As for filter criteria, you can specify up to 25 per rule entry.

          Creating Assignment Rules in Salesforce

          Now that you know what assignment rules are for, we’ll show you how to set them up. After reading this paragraph, you’ll understand how to create a Case Queue, Case Assignment Rules, and Lead Assignment Rules in Salesforce. Spoiler alert: this is no sweat!

          1. Case Queue in Salesforce Creation

          Note!

          What is a queue? It allows groups of users to manage a shared workload more effectively. A queue is basically a location where records can be transferred for processing by a group member.

          Now, let’s get the ball rolling.

          1. Navigate Setup in your Salesforce organization. Type “Queue” in the Quick Find box and then enter its Name and Label. 
          Queue assignment
          1. Leave the Queue Email field empty if you want the support employees included in the queue to receive emails when new cases are created or type the email addresses of the people who will receive this kind of notification.
          2. Choose Case and add it to the Selected Objects column.
          Case queue assignment rule
          1. Choose members and add them to the Selected Members column. After everything is done, click Save.
          queue members

          2. Case Assignment Rule Creation

          1. To create one Case Assignment Rule, acess Setup in your Salesforce organization. Type Assignment Rules in the Quick Find box and choose Case Assignment Rules. After that, click the New button and enter the Rule Name. Once you’re done, hit Save. Make sure you tick the Activate field to make your new assignment rule legitimate. Remember that this action will deactivate any other current Case Assignment Rule.
          Case Assignment Rule creation
          1. Click on the rule you just created. In the Rule Entries section, click the New button.
          case based on a rule_rule entries
          1. This is when all the magic starts. The Sort Order section defines the order in which entries will be processed. If you enter “1”, it means that this entry will be processed first.
          2. Select the criteria for this rule entry. Here, you have several options: to run this rule if the criteria are met or if formula evaluates to true. In our case, I selected the criteria. This pretty much a standard Case Assignment Rule with such criteria as Case Number, Case Origin, and Case Reason.
          Case Assignment Rule_criteria
          1. After that, you can choose the User or a queue this rule entry will be assigned to. I will select a User.
          2. Choose the Email Template this user will receive when the new case will be assigned to him. After that, hit the Save button.
          Case Assignment Rule_user selection
          1. Do not omit the testing phase – you need to clearly understand if everything is working correctly or you need to change assignment rules.

          3. Lead Assignment Rule Creation

          1. With Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules, the process is pretty much the same. Navigate to Setup in your Salesforce organization. As previously done, start typing Assignment Rules in the Quick Find box and select Lead Assignment Rules. Click the New button.
          2. Specify the lead assignment rule name and do not forget to check the Activate box.
          3. In the Rule Entries section, choose New. Here, you specify the order in which the rule entry will appear and define the criteria for the given rule entry. For this lead assignment, I will specify such criteria as Lead:City equals New York, Lead:Email contains examplecompany, and Lead: Lead Status equals Open – Not Contacted.
          Lead Assignment Rule_criteria
          1. Next, we need to select a User or a queue for this lead assignment. Let it be Olesia Melnichenko.
          2. After that, we also choose an email template and click Save.

          Tips and Tricks for Creating Assignment Rules in Salesforce

          • Test your assignment rule in a sandbox before running it on your production org. This way, you can prevent yourself from glitches and inaccurate data.
          • Leverage custom formula fields to simplify complex assignment rules. This might be the case if you need to enlist the states by regions.
          • Set up round robin assignment rules for avoiding bottlenecks in your work routine. It means that the system will allocate each new case or lead to a different user or a queue until everyone has been assigned the same amount and the process repeats.
          • Consider a final rule entry with no criteria. This way, you can gather everything that didn’t match the criteria you define and assign it to a user or a queue.

          Bottom Line

          Hopefully, we managed to unscramble the assignment rules in Salesforce for you. They are the best for streamlining your business operations. Just imagine how sleek and error-free your work can be! Newly created leads and cases are assigned to an appropriate team member or queue, no chaos.

          That is why you shouldn’t miss the benefits you can get from using assignment rules. Give them a try on your organization! In case you have any troubles, ask the Advanced Communities team. We can help you with everything from the Salesforce integration and configuration or further technical maintenance.

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            Q&A

            1. How to Create Assignment Rules in Salesforce?

            To create assignment rules in Salesforce, you have to log into your Salesforce org, find Setup. In the Quick Find box, type in Assignment Rules, select it, and click New. Define Rule criteria (name, object, active), add evaluation criteria, assign records, and save.

            2. How Many Assignment Rules Can be Active in Salesforce?

            There is no limit to the number of active assignment rules you can have in Salesforce. However, only one assignment rule can be applied to a given record.

            Being Member-Centric: What Does It Mean in 2024?

            Imagine your generic working routine. As always, you are bombarded with emails, phone calls, and other notifications from a dozen members. As soon as the clock strikes 6 pm, you sigh with relief, close every tab on your laptop, and call it a night. All those unanswered chats remain waiting till the sun comes up. Is this the right member-centric approach? I doubt so.

            What IS then? This is what we are going to talk about today. In this blog article, I explain a member-centric definition, what hides behind it, and what steps an organization should follow not to stunt its growth.

            What Does Member-Centric Truly Mean?

            Member-centric means that an association prioritizes its members’ wishes and experiences. It provides them with everything they need and can anticipate their demands. Thus, everything from a flexible pricing policy to donations, a friendly community, and personalized communication at every touch point counts.

            Off the top of my head, Amazon Prime or Netflix are perfect examples of solid membership structures. If you are a member of the Amazon Prime program, you get free shipping, discounts, subscription auto-renewals, and early-bird access to exclusive content. With Netflix, it’s all about personalization. Once you sign up and specify your preferences, you can enjoy the shows that align with your attitude and liking.

            In the Salesforce landscape, membership organizations work the same. However, you should be well aware of specific tactics. So, keep reading.

            How to Increase Membership Engagement in Salesforce: 12 Winning Ideas

            Membership engagement is what organizations in Salesforce put a premium on. How to boost it? We spill the beans in this article.
            Post image

            5 Challenges to Becoming Member-Centric

            I know it sounds hard. You can think of them not as challenges but as steps to follow while taking a member-centric approach. Here are five common challenges to battle and shape a meaningful member experience.

            1. Grow a Helpful Online Community

            What’s the first thing that jumps to mind when you think of a membership organization? I bet it’s a community. Not for a reason! A powerful sense of community can engage members, encourage them to share expertise and knowledge, and even make them renew their memberships or recommend your association to their families.

            You can use Salesforce for membership management, though it may require customization and third-party solutions for greater results. Advanced Communities and its AC MemberSmart app is the safest bet.

            With AC MemberSmart, you can deal with anything community members (and you as a business!) might need:

            • Advanced member directory where member data is stored in one place and can be used efficiently. For instance, members can run through the directory to seek a subject-matter expert and guidance. Take a look at a member library powered by AC MemberSmart:
            membership-directory_ac-membersmart
            • A job board where your volunteers, donors, and other members can post openings, fill in their applications, and connect peer-to-peer for other opportunities. As AC MemberSmart job boards come with a filter logic, you can set up such criteria as type, industry, location, and others.
            wma_job board
            • Simplified payment and donation management, where you can collect a membership fee right through a member portal, track your revenue, and see fundraising sources.
            • Robust event management with the ability to create multiple events to meet varied members’ needs, intuitive Event Creation Wizard to ease the lives of both members and your team.
            • Auto-renewal option to make both members’ and your team’s lives much easier. By the way, members management software powered by Advanced Communities offers such a functionality.

            AC MemberSmart

            See product details

            2. Develop a Member-Based Culture

            And perpetuate it! As soon as you start reasoning out a membership system, you should think about things you would like to be known and appreciated for.

            Is it something connected to membership plans? Should it be strongly about your membership team, such as customer success or project managers? Or is it solely about an exceptional customer service you deliver to members?

            While these elements matter, you should make sure customer support and other front-line employees translate your customer-centric culture into their day-to-day communication.

            Building a Salesforce association culture might seem obvious. “You just bear your members in mind all the time, that’s it!”. However, this is a false statement. You should factor in everything from how you create a membership cycle, their onboarding to deboarding and follow-up messages. Here is a cheat sheet many member-based organizations follow:

            • Make it easy for new members to join your association: once they land on your website, put a clear CTA in front of them, with straightforward copy. This is the first thing they will notice and the most important one. Plus, your membership structure should consist of a clutter-free form. As an example, here is how a membership flow is built with the AC MemberSmart solution – a Salesforce native app:
            wma_application-form_2
            • Put a premium on a member-centric onboarding: do not forget to thank newcomers for coming on board. Send them a thank you letter, provide them with a quick list of expectations they get with your association, and guide them through membership benefits. This is the perfect chance to invite members to your online community or any other themed forum.
            • Encourage members to submit their honest ideas: members’ feedback can tell you a lot. Your audience is the source for improvement so make it count. Constantly solicit and act on the feedback they provide you with – this will help you shape a culture of continuous feedback. If you have trouble collecting and managing member feedback, consider AC Ideas Ultimate as a great tool for that. Our LEX-native solution helps you gather, manage, and prioritize ideas flooding your organization.

            AC Ideas Ultimate

            See product details

            3. Segment Members Properly

            As the saying goes, you can’t make everyone happy. With proper customer segmentation, you sure can! To provide meaningful member experience and satisfaction, you should clearly understand which message you communicate to which group of users. Your audience may have completely opposite interests, hobbies, occupations, and behavior. So how could you shape a personalized member journey for each of them?

            Member segments are the answer. They help you see if you produce relevant content and communication for them. With different member segments, you can sort customer data according to versatile factors:

            • How many new members are there? Are they long-term?
            • What are their demographics?
            • When did they join your association?
            • What products or services do they prefer in your organization?
            • What types of content do they enjoy the most (newsletters, blog posts, webinars, etc.)?
            • Are there any milestones you could celebrate?
            • When is their subscription due?

            To give you a head start to fetch data and segment members, here are four main member segment that could make this activity more targeted:

            • New members – send them a welcome email to show them the ropes of your organization. Choose a personalized path to wow them.
            • Prospective members – you can invite them to any event (online, offline, hybrid) your association is organizing. Thus, they can mingle with the crowd, dive deeper into your company’s specifics, and understand what they might be missing out on.
            • Long-term members – member engagement shouldn’t be limited only to new customers in your association. Brand advocates want to feel valued, too! Recognize their contribution, add their testimonials to your homepage, enable members to have a say via surveys and polls. This is what I call a strong member perspective!
            • Churned members – it’s hard but sooner or later, you’ll have people who decided to part ways with your business. It’s OK! The most important thing now is to win them back. Send them regular newsletter with updates, offer them to rejoin your membership program, and rethink communication with them.

            5 Challenges Faced by Member Organizations And How AC MemberSmart Can Help

            In addition to an effective membership engagement strategy, every membership organization requires a robust system to manage its members and deliver the desired experience. In this article, we will explore five common challenges faced by member organizations and introduce a solution that effectively addresses them all.
            Post image

            4. Build Your Membership Structure

            Alright, so you segmented members but do they know about your membership structure and levels?

            The rule of thumb is that trade associations, nonprofit organizations, and other businesses alike have the following membership levels:

            • Free
            • Paid
            • Free with donations
            • Paid with donations
            • Group/bundle

            Feel free to come up with your own structure! Because only you know what your association aims and what would be beneficial. However, remember some basic elements to add to those membership levels: specify membership benefits for each of them, communicate clear membership dues, and create separate plans for renewals.

            5. Sacrifice Sales for the Sake of Your Members

            As ugly as it may sound, you shouldn’t think of sales first. Once you got distracted, are snowed under with meetings, and review a quarter sales plan yet again, your member’s success is melting away. You may even find it hard to prioritise people over the constant urge to conquer every possible opportunity.

            What you should do instead?

            As a CEO, an association executive, or a manager, you need to think about a loyal customer base. Members expect the best possible experience from you, not your profit margins. Just try to shift focus from sales pitches and meetings to exceptional service or a new event program you’ve always wanted to present to your staff and association members. It’s these things people will talk about later on.

            Bonus: Self-Test for Member Centricity

            Now that we talked the talk, it’s time for a self-check. Grab a sheet of paper or tick off your fingers if you:

            • Have member-centricity weaved into your association’s culture;
            • Track and measure the success of your members throughout their journey in your organization;
            • Know your members like the palm of your hand;
            • Use a decent technology stack to meet your members’ needs to the fullest.

            Final Thoughts

            How many fingers have you ticked off? Hopefully, all of them! To recap, being member-centric in 2024 means you should REALLY know your audience. For that, segmentation is key. Try to shape your member personas and build effective member communications for a more member-centric approach.

            If you would like to boost your organizational growth with some accelerators, reach out to Advanced Communities. We can not only help you put your members in the frontline but also improve user experience a hundredfold.

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              Q&A

              1. What are member-centric goals?

              Member-centric goals are focused on delivering the best experiences to members at every step of their journey. However, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. It hinges on who your audience is and business objectives. For instance, if you’re an organization that usually helps members troubleshoot issues with onboarding, payments, donations, etc, you might want to put emphasis on customer service.

              2. What is a member-driven organization?

              A member-driven organization puts its members’ needs first. An organization must clearly understand its member profile and adopt all the tools needed to measure member satisfaction and behavior. Besides, a truly member-centric association personalizes its communication, from new members onboarding to follow-ups and even taking care of churned members.

              3. What is an example of a membership organization?

              Great examples of a membership organization that considers themselves member-centric are Amazon Prime, Costco, American Heart Association, American Red Cross, and UNICEF. All of them have something in common, namely

              Getting Started with Experience Builder: How to Create Your First Page

              We are excited to kick off a new series of posts that focuses on Salesforce Experience Builder for beginners. Whether you are new to the platform or have some experience, this series by Advanced Communities will guide you through the fundamentals of the Salesforce Experience Cloud. Besides, we show you the ropes of its great tool Experience Builder, and provide insights to help you leverage its many features.

              What is Experience Builder?

              At its core, Experience Builder is a powerful tool that enables you to design and develop your own custom site on Experience Cloud (formerly known as Salesforce Community Cloud) without requiring any coding knowledge.

              You don’t need to be an experienced programmer or designer to create a site that suits your business needs perfectly. Experience Builder is a site constructor integrated into the Salesforce Experience Cloud DXP platform that allows you to easily rearrange components on a page and customize the design to your liking.

              In this series, we’ll cover everything from basic functionality to advanced features, giving you the knowledge and skills needed to create a dynamic and engaging website for your organization. So, let’s dive in and explore the limitless possibilities of Salesforce Experience Builder!

              Advantages of Using Salesforce Experience Builder

              Salesforce Experience Builder delivers personalized experiences all over. Just look at the advantages coming along:

              1. Flexible customization – you can add pages and customize them the way you like to an Experience Builder site. No coding is needed! Use the drag-and-drop logic, generate a color scheme for your pages by uploading your company logo, and preview your site on various devices.
              2. Third-party apps – any Experience Builder template you choose for your site can support some additional functionality for your community. For example, you can comb through AppExchange and consider apps for event/knowledge/idea management and many others.
              3. Personalization and audiences – the Salesforce platform lets you create various experiences for one site by setting up page variations. This way, different audiences can see a different theme layout, Lightning components, and other elements. Everything will depend on the content you want your audiences to deal with.
              salesforce experience builder

              2 Types of Experience Builder Site Pages

              Before creating a new page using Experience Builder, it’s important to understand the different types of pages available within the platform. In Experience Builder, all pages are displayed in the Pages menu and fall under two main categories: object pages and standard pages.

              On the one hand, Object pages are specifically designed to display data from Salesforce objects and come in three different types: list, detail, and related list pages. These pages are grouped by their respective object titles, making it easy to navigate and manage content.

              On the other hand, Standard pages are designed to display everything else and provide a more customizable option for creating pages. Whether you want to create a landing page, a contact form, or a blog, standard pages give you the flexibility to design and create pages that suit your specific needs.

              Object title

              Understanding the difference between Object pages and Standard pages will help you choose the right type of page for your content and ensure that your pages are organized and easily accessible within Experience Builder.

              Building Sites Without Code: The Power of Experience Builder in the Salesforce Experience Cloud

              Salesforce provides a set of cloud-based resources so you can build your own applications and websites easily, cheaply, and fast. This is where Salesforce Experience Cloud comes in.
              Post image

              Creating a Page on the Salesforce Experience Cloud Builder

              Creating your first page with Salesforce Experience Builder is a straightforward process that can be accomplished in just a few steps. Here’s what you need to do:

              • Go to the Pages menu (1) at the top of the page and click on “New page” at the bottom of the list of pages.
              “New page” menu item at the bottom of the list of pages
              • Choose the type of page you want to create: standard or object.
              two types of pages: Standard and Object
              Note!

              Note! For standard pages, you can select a pre-configured or blank layout, while object pages are specifically designed to display data from Salesforce objects on the Experience Site. Once you select an object page, Experience Builder will automatically create a List, Detail, and Related List page for that object.

              • Select the layout that best suits your needs, whether it’s a pre-built layout or a custom one that you create yourself.
              Select the layout

              For Standard pages, it is possible to select the layout while you are creating the page or change it later.

              For Object pages, however, you can change the layout only after the pages have been created.

              • Drag and drop the components you need onto the page to display the information you want. You can choose from a wide variety of standard and custom components, which are conveniently grouped by topic on the Components tab.
              Lightning components

              Here is an example with the Rich Text Editor component. You can add text, images, video, or links:

              Rich Text Editor
              • If you need additional components, you can find them on the AppExchange. Simply click on the “Get more on the AppExchange” button at the bottom of the Components menu to browse the Component store for extensions that meet your needs.

                For example, say, you want to add event management functionality to your page. You can easily drag and drop components from the AC Events Enterprise app onto your page, giving you access to a comprehensive suite of features like online and offline event creation, package management, speaker management, and integration with Google Maps, Zoom, Stripe, and your Google Calendar.

              AC Events Enterprise

              See product details
              • Choose the component from the components list and drag-and-drop it to the page:
              salesforce experience builder

              With Salesforce Experience Cloud Builder, you can create custom online spaces for a variety of business processes without any coding required. Follow us on social media to stay up to date on our next post about Experience Cloud and Experience Builder!

              Need Help with Your Salesforce Experience Cloud Site?

              If you’re encountering any difficulties while creating pelages with Experience Builder or installing and configuring AppExchange applications on your Salesforce Experience Cloud site, it’s advisable to seek assistance from professionals.

              Advanced Communities is a partner that offers both ISV and SI services and has extensive experience in developing and configuring Experience Cloud sites and AppExchange applications for businesses of various industries and sizes. Our team is proficient in all aspects of Experience Cloud and AppExchange and can provide effective solutions for your Experience Cloud needs.

              In addition, we provide different Salesforce-native solutions to improve the functionality of your Experience Cloud sites to meet your specific business requirements. Whether you’re looking for a powerful ideas management solution, Salesforce knowledge management tool, or member management software for your Salesforce PRM, support portal, or membership portal, we’re here to help you with all your Salesforce Experience Cloud needs. So do not hesitate and drop us a line!

              Subscribe to our Newsletter

              Receive regular updates on our latest blog posts, news, and exclusive content!

                Q&A

                1. How to Create a New Page in Experience Builder Salesforce?

                It’s easy! Log in to your Salesforce org –> Setup –> Digital Experiences –> All Sites –> Your site. After that, go to Builder –> Pages –> New Page. From here, you choose whether to build a Standard page or an Object one.

                2. How do I Switch Pages in Experience Builder?

                It can be done in a few clicks. In the Navigation menu at the bottom of the Builder window, select a page in your experience.

                Salesforce Classic vs Lightning Experience: Establishing the Key Differences

                Salesforce Classic vs Lightning: which one to choose? That is the question. Some claim there is nothing more stable than the old design. It’s basically in the name – classic. However, others say we should go further, explore new features and fresh ideas, and receive the gifts of technological progress.

                Jumping a bit ahead, Salesforce Lightning (LEX) offers a completely new, fast, and beautiful user experience. The initial release from Winter ’16 focused on reinventing the desktop environment to support sales processes even better than before.

                Yes, the moment this release dropped, the Salesforce community met a sales-centric mindset and a beautiful, intelligent interface. The overall aim of the release was to help sales reps and to make their work easier.

                However, is it so straightforward? Why bother switching to something unknown before? This is why you landed on this article and this is why I am here to help you choose the right call. First things first…

                What is Salesforce Classic?

                Salesforce Classic represents an outdated user interface of the Salesforce CRM. It’s text-oriented, tab-based, bulky, and not intuitive at all. Besides, you will never notice the attention to detail and special design elements here. Unlike in Salesforce Lightning, though we will get to that in a minute.

                Contacts_Classic

                We can’t deny the fact that Salesforce Classic was a hit during the 2000s. And it still remains widely used! Even though Salesforce Classic features are not as progressive as the ones on the Lightning interface, Salesforce users still have access to the old design.

                There is nothing eternal and so isn’t Salesforce Classic. At some point, this user interface might cease working. So, you’d better be prepared beforehand.

                What is Salesforce Lightning Experience?

                Upgraded user interface, intuitive user experience, and other great functionalities – this is what Lightning Experience is about. It is a modern, dynamic, and component-based user interface with more advanced features. With this framework, you can forget about complex app development and build responsive apps even if you don’t have special knowledge.

                Salesforce Lightning offers a broad range of customization options. For instance, using pre-built Lightning components, the Lightning App Builder lets you build Lightning pages without a single string of code. Besides, you can use Experience Builder to create online communities with tailored templates, meeting the unique needs of your business. Everything happens without a single string of code – so you don’t even need a Salesforce developer for that.

                What separates Lightning components from Classic ones is their flexibility. Plus, this new Salesforce Lightning platform offers an Einstein functionality, making it an unbeatable pro point.

                Salesforce Classic vs Lightning: Main Differences to Explore

                Despite the new, impressive interface that offers a number of benefits for sales teams, you should consider one important fact – Salesforce can’t make everything perfect at once.

                But before you jump to any conclusion, let’s compare LEX and Salesforce Classic to see the differences between them. There are 12 criteria that help us stumble these two together. Each of them has its wins and drawbacks but together they just paint a complete picture.

                Note!

                For your convenience, we have added this downloadable Lightning Experience VS Salesforce Classic comparison table to the text. Feel free to grab it or check out the tables below.

                1. Salesforce Data: Paramount for Any Organization

                Sure thing, the first criteria to compare is Salesforce data in both Salesforce Lightning and Classic. The rule of thumb is that we usually talk about such basic data as Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities, Cases, custom objects, and others. See for yourself!

                FEATURELIGHTNING EXPERIENCESALESFORCE CLASSIC
                Sales data for:
                Accounts
                Contacts
                Leads
                Opportunities
                Price books
                Products  
                Quotes

                 

                 

                Cases (basic support)
                Custom objects
                Chatter feeds, groups, and people
                Salesforce Files
                Other Sales and Service objects✔  

                2. Home: New Page Field that Highlights the Most Important Thing for Each Day

                Are you tired of constantly seeking valuable information once on the home screen of your Salesforce org? The Lightning Home page is more personalized so that everything you need is at your fingertips. Let’s check which options are available in the Lightning UI and which you will see only in the outdated Classic interface.

                FEATURELIGHTNING EXPERIENCESALESFORCE CLASSIC
                Performance Chart 
                Assistant 
                Account Insights 
                News
                Key deals
                Feed and Publisher
                Customizable dashboards
                Tasks
                Items to approve
                Calendar and Events
                Recent Records
                Customizable home page components✔ 

                3. Calendar and Events: For Successful Event Management

                What about such key elements of the home screen as Calendar and Events? Both are supported. However, if I were you, I would choose a modern design.

                FEATURELIGHTNING EXPERIENCESALESFORCE CLASSIC
                Enhanced calendar 
                Events

                Speaking of, if you feel like the Salesforce functionality isn’t enough and you want to accelerate it, Advanced Communities might fit the bill for you. AC Events Enterprise – a 100% native-to-Salesforce solution – is ideal for those who want to streamline their event management, dive into valuable insights after events, and receive pre- and post-event analytics. Besides, it’s fully compatible with LEX.

                AC Events Enterprise

                See product details

                4. Accounts and Contacts: Number 1 for Your Sales Processes

                As Accounts and Contacts are especially important for sales reps and their customer relationship management, they are paramount for analytics. When we talk about Lightning, the interface enables enhanced Account and Contact management with interactive records, a highlights panel, an activity timeline for effortless lead gen, and other specs. Without further ado, here are the features compared:

                FEATURELIGHTNING EXPERIENCESALESFORCE CLASSIC
                News
                Path
                Account Logos
                Account Insights 
                Automated Account Fields
                Contact Insights 
                Highlights panel 
                Activity timeline 
                Contacts to multiple accounts✔ 
                Distinct ‘reference’ page layout 
                Related lists
                Enhanced Notes
                New Files 
                Twitter highlights
                Quick view (hover) 
                Integrated email and templates
                Find and merge duplicate contacts
                Accounts and contacts hierarchy
                Collaborate
                Person Accounts
                Account Teams
                Matching and duplicate rules for business accounts, person accounts, and contacts

                5. Opportunities and Leads: Great Space for Sales Reps

                Again, these criteria are basic yet major for sales teams. You need them to detect the initial interest of potential customers, deals that are the closest to being closed, and adjust your company’s offerings accordingly.

                FEATURELIGHTNING EXPERIENCESALESFORCE CLASSIC
                Opportunity Teams
                Opportunity Splits ✔ 
                Add similar opportunities 
                Big Deal alerts
                Find and merge duplicate leads 
                Change lead owner to a queue
                Lead campaign history
                Create leads 
                Assign leads to campaign 
                Customize lead conversions via API 
                Customizable highlights panel
                Sales path
                News
                Notes
                Create related records in context
                Matching and duplicate rules for leads
                Quick view (hover)
                Integrated email and templates 
                Workspace template page layout
                Activity timeline
                Enhanced Notes 
                New Files
                Collaborate
                Visual view of opportunities (Kanban)

                7. Opportunity Board: a Visualization Tool for Opportunities

                Let’s admit: a diagram is worth many words. Luckily, the Salesforce Lightning user interface makes it possible. Thus, you can have an opportunity board right at your disposal, with such data as charts (donuts, bar charts, line charts, etc.), intelligent alerts, and enhanced list view search.

                FEATURELIGHTNING EXPERIENCESALESFORCE CLASSIC
                Charts ✔ 
                Drag and drop ✔ 
                Intelligent Alerts ✔ 
                Type-ahead list view search ✔ 
                Sharing settings ✔ 

                8. List Views: For Analyzing Your Records on the Go

                List views are an effective tool for prioritizing and analyzing your organization’s records. With their help, you can clearly see and sort records, pin them for faster reach, add new ones, and do so much more. What does tell list views in the Lightning user interface from the ones in Classic? It is the ability of “Visible only to me” and “Visible to all users” list views to be shared. However, you can’t share them with certain groups of users. Anyway, let’s see the full picture.

                FEATURELIGHTNING EXPERIENCESALESFORCE CLASSIC
                Charts 
                Create and modify filters
                Type-ahead list view search 
                Find data with the list view search bar
                Resizable columns
                Sharing settings
                Pin a favorite list view as a default list
                View records visually (Kanban)
                Create and edit lists
                Sort columns
                Resize columns
                Filter logic
                Inline editing

                9. Reports: Your Access to Salesforce Data

                Reports in Salesforce provide you with access to the data that you can structure and combine the way you see fit. As a quick crash course on reports you can create with Salesforce, there are tabular (the simplest ones), summary, matrix, and joined. Depending on your objectives, these reports help you organize and display info in tables and charts, or add them to a dashboard.

                FEATURELIGHTNING EXPERIENCESALESFORCE CLASSIC
                Create interactive filters while viewing a report 
                Enhanced report charts 
                Row-level formulas (beta)
                Hide totals and subgroups from report view page 
                Interactive filters when viewing reports
                Matrix, Summary, Tabular, joined report formats
                Stacked summaries in the Matrix report format
                Column (non-stacked) summaries
                in the Matrix report format
                Report Builder
                Currency selector in the Report Builder
                Table, funnel, and scatter chart types
                Hide totals and subgroups from report view page
                Schedule report refreshes 
                Follow reports 
                Report folder sharing
                Create report folders
                Report notifications✔ 
                Bucket fields
                Custom summary formulas
                Report editing
                Role hierarchy filters
                Export reports
                Historical tracking reports
                Conditional formatting

                10. Dashboards: For Visualizing Data

                Dashboards are closely connected to reports. Once you gathered the data in reports, you can now create a dashboard to visually understand trends in your organization, take active measures if need be, or just smooth things down for your team. Do they have equal customization options in Salesforce Lightning vs Classic? We are going to find that out.

                FEATURELIGHTNING EXPERIENCESALESFORCE CLASSIC
                More than 3 columns supported 
                Dashboard Builder
                Tables with 200 rows and 10 columns
                Flexible layout 
                Schedule dashboard refresh
                Dynamic dashboards
                Post dashboard components to feeds
                Follow dashboard 
                Dashboard filters 
                Enhanced dashboard list views 
                Some visualization components 
                Themes and palettes

                11. Salesforce Einstein

                Salesforce has recently jumped on the hype wagon and incorporated Einstein (Wave) Analytics for predictive analysis. This AI-powered functionality can help you rethink your organization’s strategy, making marketing, sales, customer service, and support a breeze. Here is the catch: not all Einstein capabilities are available with Salesforce Classic.

                FEATURELIGHTNING EXPERIENCESALESFORCE CLASSIC
                Einstein Discovery
                Einstein Recommendations
                Einstein Related Articles
                Einstein Prediction Builder: Setup
                Einstein Prediction Builder: Predictions on Records
                Einstein Activity Capture
                Einstein Lead Scoring
                Einstein Opportunity Scoring
                Einstein Opportunity Insights
                Einstein Automated Contacts
                Einstein Search
                Einstein Bot Builder

                12. Other Features and Products: For Maximizing Your Experience

                Being a robust platform, Salesforce can push the limits further and let you enhance your experience. Check out what other specs and features are available in the new interface and the old one.

                FEATURELIGHTNING EXPERIENCESALESFORCE CLASSIC
                Experience Cloud sites*
                Create and edit records
                Inline editing of fields (lists, records)✔ 
                Custom brand images and color scheme 
                Personalized Navigation Bar
                Enterprise Territory management✔ 
                Service cloud✔  
                Data.com 
                Work.com 

                *A couple of years ago, Experience Cloud sites were called Communities. Today, they are a potent tool for boosting business online presence. You can create customizable sites using pre-built templates or build one from scratch.

                Thus, there’s an opportunity to design a self-service portal, partner portals, and others. Of course, you can choose standard Salesforce functionalities but if you want to move further, consider different accelerators and add-ons that are native-to-Salesforce. Like the one from Advanced Communities: AC MemberSmart for membership management, AC Ideas Ultimate for encouraging idea generation company-wide, or AC Knowledge Management Enterprise for preventing your organizaton’s knowledge from chaos.

                Why Should You Switch to Salesforce Lightning?

                We know that managing customer relationships on a legacy Salesforce platform might come with a few challenges. Chaos in your database, deprived team productivity, lower security, and other possible roadblocks. That is why doing the Salesforce Lightning migration is your lucky chance to change the situation for the better.

                If you are still on the fence, just look at these powerful things you get with the Lightning migration – they might tip the scale for you:

                • New interface
                • New features
                • Full access to any Lightning component for no-code development
                • Drag-and-drop functionality in the Lightning App Builder for greater app customization
                • Lightning Process Builder to break free from manual tasks (record change process, email sending, etc.) and configure special flows to do them on autopilot. Plus, it provides you with a graphical representation as you build a process.

                Bottom Line

                That’s it! We have just compared Classic and Salesforce Lightning, and might I say the winner is obvious. Salesforce Lightning features give you freedom, flexibility, and stability, while the Classic ones only drag you away.

                Do you feel like you have not enough knowledge on that matter? Fear not! Contact the Advanced Communities team – we will not only enhance your Salesforce user experience but also help you tweak the entire Lightning interface so that it aligns with your organization’s needs.

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                  AC Partner Marketplace Product Sheet

                  Download the fact sheet now to explore:
                  • How the app streamlines the entire channel sales process, from onboarding to selling.
                  • How it enhances partner management with a self-service platform, real-time updates, and lead generation.
                  • How it supports network expansion and automates business workflows.
                   

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                  AC Knowledge Management Enterprise Product Sheet

                  Download the fact sheet now to explore:
                  • Key features – See how AC Knowledge Management Enterprise empowers your support team.
                  • Benefits – Understand the value it brings to your customers.
                  • Real results – See the impact AC Knowledge Management Enterprise can have on your organization.
                   
                   

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                  AC Ideas Ultimate Product Sheet

                  Download the fact sheet now to explore how AC Ideas Ultimate helps you:
                  • Capture – Easily collect ideas from customers, team members, and stakeholders.
                  • Evaluate – Use built-in tools to score, prioritize, and review ideas based on custom criteria.
                  • Implement – Track progress, convert cases into ideas, and turn the best ideas into actionable projects.
                   
                   

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                  AC MemberSmart Product Sheet

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                  • Key features – See how AC MemberSmart empowers your team.
                  • Benefits – Understand the value it brings to your members.
                  • Real results – See the impact AC MemberSmart can have on your organization.
                   
                   

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                  AC Events Enterprise Product Sheet

                  Download the fact sheet now to explore:
                  • Key features – Learn how AC Events Enterprise automates registration, marketing, and analytics.
                  • Benefits – Learn how it improves attendee satisfaction and helps your event shine.
                  • Proven results – See how the app transforms your event outcomes.
                   

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                  Webinar

                  Simplifying Payments for Your Members with a Unified Checkout Experience on Salesforce

                  Join our webinar to discover how a seamless, one-cart checkout can simplify transactions, boost member satisfaction, and streamline operations for your association.

                  Nov 08, 2024 at 04:00 PM GMT