There is more demand for products than ever before, as consumer spending in the United States increased to $14,418.83 B in the second quarter of 2023. This growing demand is why modern-day businesses are looking to invest in solutions that maximize their productivity, with Cloud platforms such as Salesforce emerging as a cost-efficient and reliable solution.
Let’s look at the importance of streamlined processes within the Salesforce platform that efficiently schedule and manage assets. Plus we’ll share the best practices for businesses that can help maximize revenue and productivity across the fiscal year – without burning a hole in your wallet.
Why Salesforce?
Salesforce is directed towards businesses that deal with constant customer engagement on a daily basis. Retail, education, healthcare, and wellness…. almost every industry has maximized profitability and efficiency with Salesforce’s features for sales, customer service, marketing, automation, and so much more.
With so many integrations, features, and customization options available, it’s no wonder that Salesforce is trusted by over 150,000 companies.
But there are still many manual tasks that can be automated. As we will learn below, one key feature of Salesforce, scheduling software, can enable businesses to shorten response times and reduce the hours spent on fringe tasks that can be automated.
What are Schedulers?
A good scheduler allows customers to manage meetings, appointments, and staff availability, so customers are paired with the right person, at the right location, at the right time.
Imagine you own a health clinic in your city’s busy center. Your daily responsibilities would include tasks, such as:
- Planning employee schedules.
- Determining appointment lengths.
- Prioritizing appointment requests evenly.
- Contacting patients or customers.
- Updating appointments or meeting times.
- Preparing timely offers or newsletters.
Not only can a good scheduler give you an at-a-glance view of all customer and staff interactions, but it can also be advantageous for technical specialists. By implementing scheduling automation, administrators can reduce the hours of manual work time and decrease the number of human errors.
With information like that at your fingertips, you and your staff can deliver a highly efficient and personalized service.
5 Ways to Optimize Your Scheduler in Salesforce
1. Identify your customer types
By appropriately identifying the type of customers that your brand is trying to attract, you can set up your scheduler to prioritize the key customer personas that your products or services are focused towards.
For example, a university can set up its scheduler to prioritize appointments with the students who qualify with a minimum-required GPA, or who are looking for a specific educational program that the university wishes to promote in the next quarter.
2. Focus on the correct data metrics
The objective is to focus on the relevant metrics that provide the most accurate data, which can then be correlated with your objectives. This way, you can shortlist the customers who are most-aligned with your key business goals.
Validation rules verify that the data a user enters in a record meets the standards you specify before they can save the record. So a phone number must have a certain international code, or the “company name” field must be filled.
For example, a massage parlor would set up standards that require an email address to sign up for appointments, or request a surname to allocate a family discount within its data fields.
Moreover, a hospital can schedule its appointments by requesting the client to fill in an area code in order to distinguish the best appointment time when considering commute or rush hour.
3. Automation
Salesforce comes with a wide range of built-in automation options that can be used to outsource the more ‘brain-numbing’ tasks to a machine – leaving you to focus on closing sales and making profits.
For example, a health clinic can automatically send personalized emails through your Salesforce scheduler to customers after they sign up for an appointment with their desired health specialist.
4. Clean the clutter
Keeping your database clean means keeping your data up-to-date. By prioritizing good data integrity, your team can make informed decisions that drive better business results.
Using features such as standardized formatting, case-sensitive fields, or simply archiving backlogs, you can efficiently declutter your database and even rediscover ‘sleeping’ clients that can be contacted via newsletters or offers.
For example, a local gym can update its login fields within the scheduler to include a secondary email address or phone number, thus gaining an additional way to verify the authenticity of its long-term users.
5. Connect Salesforce with the available tools
Unleash the full potential of your Salesforce setup by connecting to other software.
This can allow you to create data flow between platforms that easily integrate your business objectives, reduce manual labor, and make your processes more efficient.
The Salesforce AppExchange includes over 7,000 integrations that can make your business better equipped for every kind of challenge. Over 90% of Salesforce customers regularly use AppExchange apps, including 91% of the Fortune 500 companies existing in the portfolio.
Extending Your Salesforce Scheduling Capabilities
These tips will allow you to get the basics of Salesforce scheduling right, and help you develop healthy, consistent, and efficient business processes. But, you can go one step further with a Salesforce scheduler trusted by brands such as Amazon, Aflac, and Cornell University…
SUMO Scheduler is a powerful 100% Salesforce native scheduling platform that provides a 360-degree view of every appointment you’ve booked. Allow your business to gain complete control over its scheduling process from the get-go and significantly reduce the admin time.
If you want to find out more, visit the SUMO Homepage or start your free trial on Salesforce AppExchange.