How to improve the use of Salesforce [Interview]

CRM usage is a critical when using a tool for business operations such as Salesforce. But without proper adoption, quality data collection is hindered and productivity takes a toll.

To learn how to solve the CRM usage problem, we enlisted the help of industry experts. We contacted Matías Leandro Kruk, Salesforce Senior Technical Consultant at BASF, who shared with us his vision on the adoption of this platform.

Bloobirds: Within the specific area where you are, what are the main objectives?

Matías Kruk: I have technical objectives such as trying to keep, as much as possible, the developments or solutions in the standard. I don’t use custom unless it is something extremely important. Second, to try to ensure that what is implemented has the quality of Salesforce best practices. Those are the clearest and most obvious technical objectives. Then, try to maintain a good team, a knowledge base, to be able to share experience in the team. 

Bloobirds: When you started at BASF, were there already Salesforce managers?

Matías Kruk: Shortly before I arrived, they didn’t have Salesforce adoption. Salesforce was gaining strength within the organization, and that made the priority of management and operations move to this platform. Today there must be. (…) The strength it has is its simplicity from the user’s point of view, to be able, for example, to manage accounts, contacts, and so on.

Bloobirds: If you had to rate from one to ten, how important is the use of CRM to the company’s operations?

Matías Kruk: Salesforce is fundamental. I think an eight, yes. It has a very weighty importance? Maybe a ten.

Bloobirds: How do you maintain data hygiene considering the volume of users? 

Matías Kruk: There is a team specialized in the master data part (accounts, contacts…). The core part of what would be the application and use of Salesforce CRM is handled by a specific team that is also in charge of adding fields, changing the AI… In case you want to add or modify something, you need the approval of that team. There are meetings between teams to decide those modifications. That allows a better solution or development of solutions and data quality. 

Sometimes it has to do with the business units that are our customers, who use the system and say “I don’t need this field, I need another one”. Those requests are added to the work pipeline and from there it is implemented and done, from the sprint the development is done, and the launch is done. 

There is also a proactive approach of improving, for example, improving some solution, development or some limitation that was found that cannot be done the way the customer wants. Then something different is proposed.

Bloobirds: And once these changes are implemented, how do you ensure that the adoption and CRM usage is correct so that data is entered correctly?

Matías Kruk: Good CRM usage has to do with the user visually having what he/she needs. In the case of data entry, that there are no fields that are not well understood, that there is no saturation of information. We also try to make the layouts clear and simple. Any data loading process that needs to be done, should be done through a wizard or Screenflow. This helps the end user to load the information and this improves the quality of the data. When the user has a platform that really has development and opportunities for him to do his job well, it also motivates him to do it well.

Bloobirds: The wizards and all those kinds of tools to do, for example, onboarding, do you develop them yourselves or do you adopt an external tool?

Matías: We have used in-app guidance for example, which are out-of-the-box standards. To inform our entire user platform, we use content libraries. If something more specific is needed, we use Screenflow, but no, we are not closed to the option of looking for a ready-made development. What happens is that we have to go through more processes, because it is an external package, and maybe we have to see it, that it is not a security problem and that it brings a compromise (…).

The whole hierarchy of accounts, from the user’s point of view, is a challenge because it is very tiring and makes the adoption more difficult and unwilling (…). The magic word automation, doing some things so that the user does not have to do it manually. That improves the experience a lot. The user has to learn how to use the platform, and sometimes he doesn’t feel like it because he just wants to work and that the system is not a wall or an impediment.

The correct use of CRM is a vital piece for every company and each one has a different way of facing this challenge. To discover how the correct adoption of Salesforce improves the performance of companies, download our whitepaper on Sales Enablement and the use of this platform.