Idea Gathering: Complete Guide On Managing Ideas in Salesforce LEX

Regardless of the type of business you have or how big it is, getting feedback from customers or partners can make a huge difference in making your products and services better. It provides you with valuable information about what customers and partners like and the problems they deal with to help you make smart choices and improve their satisfaction with your solutions.

You can offer your own Ideas community for your customers and partners to submit product feedback and suggest new features for brainstorming. With Salesforce, you get just that through its Ideas feature. In this blog post, we’ll explore the idea gathering concept in Salesforce and how Experience Cloud makes collecting and organizing ideas even easier for you.

Sharing Ideas: What is Ideation in Salesforce?

When we talk about ideation in Salesforce, we are referring to the process of collecting new ideas from community users, whether they are customers, employees, or partners, and utilizing all the ideas and feedback to shape products and services.

For most businesses, ideation process is all about brainstorming new ideas and turning them into new features. For example, technology companies often use customer input to enhance user experience and identify bugs or glitches in their products. Financial institutions gather ideas and feedback to improve online banking experiences, customer service, and develop new financial products. Manufacturers collect ideas to refine product designs and improve production processes. Any organization that values continuous improvement and customer satisfaction can benefit from incorporating customer/partner ideas and reviews.

Salesforce Limitations and a Possible Solution

It’s important to note that the Ideas object in Salesforce is only accessible in Salesforce Classic, and users cannot access it in Lightning Experience (LEX) user interface. Consequently, when Lightning users want to utilize Ideas to gather feedback, they are required to switch back to the Classic version, a process that can be quite daunting and time-consuming.

There’s a solution – a custom Salesforce idea management software, for example, AC Ideas Ultimate. The app is LEX-native and allows for establishing efficient review management in Salesforce Lightning Experience user interface without experiencing any system performance issues. All you need to do to start collecting ideas in LEX is to install the app into your Salesforce org from the AppExchange platform.

Maximizing Feedback and Ideas to Enhance Products and Services

No matter what industry you're in or the size of your business, customer feedback and idea sharing are absolute game-changers when it comes to enhancing products and services. In this article, we will highlight the remarkable capabilities of AC Ideas Ultimate, a powerful Salesforce ideas management app designed for Experience Cloud.

Key features included in the AC Ideas Ultimate LEX-native package:

• Zones support for personalized ideation processes.
• Idea prioritization feature for ranking and prioritizing ideas based on factors like votes, development effort, or monetary value.
• Ideas matrix for feedback analysis and identifying top-performing ideas.

• Idea campaigns for creating idea collections linked to a specific topic.
• Kanban view support to easily move ideas between the different statuses.
• Jira integration for easier idea tracking.

• Reputation support to encourage your team and stakeholders to share ideas for brainstorming.
• Email notifications for efficient email communication.
• Idea Flagging. Users can flag one idea or multiple ideas for support or opposition.

• Custom fields support to gather the information that you need.
• Customizable reports & dashboards.

Why Do You Need Experience Cloud for Collecting Ideas?

Experience Cloud is a Salesforce DXP platform used for building stunning sites connected to Salesforce data. By using Experience Cloud, coupled with Salesforce apps like a custom Lightning tool for idea gathering AC Ideas Ultimate, you can create a comprehensive review and feedback management system in Salesforce that will help you gather ideas directly from your site. Essentially, by using Experience Cloud, you enable users to share and post their ideas and suggestions right on the community site. Moreover, to collect ideas, you no longer need to switch to Salesforce Classic — it’s all managed in Lightning!

Why Is Idea Management Essential for Your Business?

Coming up with new ideas and looking at business processes from a different perspective is a valuable way to improve and grow. If a business doesn’t open up to new approaches and innovations, it might become stuck in the past. That’s where efficient idea management can help.

Let’s explore several reasons why gathering ideas and feedback from your customers, partners, or internal teams can be beneficial for your business:

• Innovation and growth. Good idea management is really important for making your business successful. New and creative ideas will help you find new ways to grow your business and always stay competitive.
• Engagement. Online idea management system on the website encourages your customers, partners or internal teams to be creative and come up with new solutions that can be turned into new and clever business strategies.
• Continuous improvement. By welcoming fresh idea collections and promoting innovation, you not only stay ahead of the competition but also create a place where your business and your team members can do really well.
• Customer satisfaction. Implementing customer-driven ideas enhances products and services, leading to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Efficient poblem-solving. Collecting ideas and feedback can help you identify weak points in your solutions and take immediate action to eliminate them.

Remember, idea management is not just a tool; it’s a strategic approach that empowers your business to thrive, innovate, adapt to market changes, and meet the needs of both your team members, partners, and your customers.

Learn more about idea management strategies for business innovation and efficiency in our blog below.

Idea Management Strategies for Business Innovation and Efficiency

A systematic approach for managing ideas can skyrocket the business innovation process, helping with efficiency and growth. Read our blog to discover our best tips on how to implement a successful idea management strategy.

Concluding: Great Ideas Make Great Experiences

Whether you’re writing project, working on new product release or looking for ways to improve your existing solutions, creating an ideas community on Experience Cloud for collecting and brainstorming ideas would be your best choice. This way, you’ll get an online, transparent way for you to attract, manage, and showcase innovation delivering better customer/partner experiences and bringing your business to new heights.

If you need help establishing an idea gathering platform on your Experience Cloud site, feel free to reach out. We’re here to assist you with all your Salesforce needs.

Q&A

What is idea gathering?

Ideas gathering is a process of collecting thoughts, suggestions, and creative concepts from different people whether customers, partner or internal team members, to find new and better ways of doing business. Whether it’s for a project, product, or improvement, collecting and organizing ideas helps gather a variety of perspectives, making it easier to come up with the best solutions or innovations. It’s a way to tap into the collective wisdom and creativity of a group to make products and services better.

How do you collect ideas from your team?

If you are using Salesforce CRM, you can create an online space where website users can easily share their thoughts and suggestions. As a business, you can manage all ideas in Salesforce Lightning without the need to switch to the Salesforce Classic user interface. All you need to do is install a LEX-native idea management app like AC Ideas Ultimate into your org and start collecting feedback right from your support/partner or customer portal.

What are the different methods of generating creative ideas?

Creativity often flourishes in a relaxed and open-minded environment. Allow your community users to share their thoughts and collaborate on new ideas and suggestions online in a secure and comfortable space – your Experience Cloud portal.