Flow / Admins

A Flow for Every Admin

By Stacy O’Leary

Salesforce flows are one of the most powerful declarative tools in the admin toolkit. However, it can often be confusing or overwhelming – especially when you’re just getting started!

In this post, we’re going to explore some of my favorite beginner-friendly Salesforce flows. These flows will focus on making life easier for your users and automating subsequent actions after a user takes a manual action.

What Are Flows in Salesforce?

Have you ever created a filter in your email inbox? Maybe something along the lines of “if an email comes from spam@junk.com, then route it to the trash”. If you have, then you’re already familiar with the basics of how flows work!

Flows are a way for admins to build custom automation in Salesforce. This automation can be triggered by something a user did, like clicking a button or modifying a field. It can also be triggered to run on a certain day and time. There are a lot of options when it comes to creating flows, and the more you learn to do with them, the more powerful they become.

In this post, we’ll review a few ideas for some flows that might be helpful to your users and what they do. Try building these out in your sandbox and see if they might work for your team!

If you’re looking for more details about flows, like what they are and what they’re capable of – make sure to check out Tim’s Complete Guide to Salesforce Flow.

Button-Action Screen Triggered Flows

Button-Action Screen Flows are a type of Flow that is launched when the user clicks a button. You will need several components for this type of Flow:

  1. Create and activate the Flow. Add in everything it is meant to do. Note: Screen Flows can have a screen that allows user interaction, but they do not have to.
  2. Create a custom button action on the object where this Flow will launch.
  3. Add the custom button to the page layout or Lightning page.

Move to New Company

Much admin work is around data quality. One scenario where data quality can be difficult to maintain is what to do when a Contact leaves their current job and goes to a new company. We want to preserve data and maintain good data quality, so the best thing to do is to archive the old Contact and create a new one under the new Account record.

However, there are many steps in doing this – and if a user forgets just one or two steps, it could cause poor data quality. In this case, we can use Flow to create a button on the Contact called “Move to New Company”. By clicking this button, we can modify multiple fields on the old Contact (like Status and Email Opt Out) and also create a new Contact record. This is one of my personal favorites – check out my YouTube video on this topic!

Pre-Closed Won

Moving an Opportunity to “Closed Won” is cause for celebration! This is when you’re committing to Salesforce that a sale has been officially completed, and revenue can be expected.

Committing to incoming revenue can be tricky – especially if paperwork is not done correctly or a signature is missed. Some teams require that only sales operations or admins can move an Opportunity to “Closed Won”. If that’s the case, how can your sales reps easily let you know that an Opportunity is ready for processing?

A button on the Opportunity object called “Pre-Closed Won” (or your preferred company terminology) can send an automated message to your operations/admin team via Slack, Email, or both – letting them know that the Opportunity is ready to be reviewed and moved to “Closed Won”.

Pause this Opportunity

As with moving an Opportunity forward, there may be times when you need to put work on an Opportunity on hold but do not want to mark it as “Closed Lost” (this also depends a lot on company culture and sales cycles).

A “Pause this Opp” button allows you to give users a one-click way to update some custom fields, indicating that while this Opportunity is still open, it is not actively being worked. The Flow can update the Stage to a custom value and a hidden date field for “Opp Paused Date”.

One-Click Opt Out

Data privacy and consumer rights laws are becoming stronger every year. When a customer opts out of emails, it’s important to respect their decision and process their request accordingly.

If you have people who opt out of both emails and phone calls, a custom button could manage both things with just one click. A custom button on the Lead (or Contact) would then trigger the Flow to check both the “Email Opt Out” and “Do Not Call” checkboxes with one easy click.

Churn Customer

It’s not fun – but at some point, most businesses will lose a customer. Terminating a customer in Salesforce can get difficult when you have a lot of records open for that Account.

You may need to take multiple actions, such as updating all related Contact records, Opportunities, Support Cases, and Tasks/Events. You may also want to send an email or Slack alert to any teams that need to be notified.

Using a button on the Account page (accessible only by admins or operations, of course) will save many hours of manual processing.

Record-Triggered Flows

Record-Triggered Flows are launched when a user does something in Salesforce. It could be a human user or an integration user. Typically, this is when a user changes a field value, but it could also be when a record is created or otherwise modified.

Closed Won Opportunities

Congratulations, your Opportunity is “Closed Won”! So, now what?

Nearly every org I’ve worked in has needed something to happen when an Opportunity moves to “Closed Won”. Here are some of the most common actions:

  • Notify finance, customer success, and sales leadership via email or Slack.
  • Update field values on the Account (Type: Customer, Status: Active, Most Recent Won Date).
  • Update related Contacts to Type: Customer.
  • Update Support Level.
  • Create next year’s Renewal Opportunity.

Closed Lost Opportunities

Similarly, when an Opportunity moves to “Closed Lost”, many people like to make updates to the related Contacts – like changing their Contact Status.

Naturally, there’s no celebration for a Closed Lost Opportunity – however, you may also decide to send an automated message to the team manager so they can review the circumstances of the loss and take or give feedback for future deals.

Date and Additional Field Stamping

Field History in Salesforce is useful, but there are some situations where you need a field that displays the data indicating the occurrence of an event.

For example, if you move a Lead to “Disqualified”, you might want to have a “Disqualified Date” and a “Disqualified By” fields to capture the person who made that edit.

Record Assignment

Assign records to the right owner based on criteria.

  • Leads might be assigned based on changes to the geographic location.
  • Accounts might be assigned based on geo – or you may additionally consider company employee count, annual revenue, and industry.
  • Flow can evaluate the criteria, determine the new owner, and assign the record to that person.

Summary

Flows empower admins to make sure their users and org are operating at peak performance. From automating repetitive tasks to enhancing data accuracy and user experiences, these flows offer a gateway to heightened productivity and efficiency.

Remember, the beauty of Salesforce lies in its adaptability – so don’t hesitate to customize and experiment with these ideas to suit your organization’s unique needs.

As you embark on this journey of flow-building prowess, embrace the spirit of innovation and collaboration within the vibrant Salesforce community – and watch as your organization thrives with newfound success.

The Author

Stacy O'Leary

Stacy is a 5x Certified Salesforce Consultant & Full Time Mom.

Comments:

    Bill Appleton
    September 18, 2023 9:41 pm
    Can we get these flows in a package somewhere?

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