9 tasks that Salesforce cannot perform. And how you can solve them.

Salesforce is currently the most powerful CRM on the market. It's no coincidence that it's used by so many companies, from start-ups to large corporations. And it's no coincidence that we use it every day.

Nevertheless, during our many years of working with this CRM system, we have repeatedly encountered basic tasks that Salesforce unfortunately does not support natively.

The good news first: there is a solution for everything! And of course, we don't want to keep it from you. So here are the nine most basic tasks that Salesforce cannot do and how you can still get them done:

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#1. Document creation in Salesforce

The world's most successful CRM currently available cannot natively generate documents filled with data from Microsoft Office templates. In our experience, document creation is by far one of the biggest efficiency bottlenecks in our customers' business processes.

You have probably had to manually create a quote, presentation, invoice or other document at least once. Input errors, the familiar battle with formatting, converting to the correct final format... All of this eats up one thing above all else: your time.

The solution: Use external tools that can be integrated into Salesforce!

These include popular AppExchange tools such as Conga Composer, Docomotion and WebMerge. Or you can use our own solution, cloudworx.compose, which allows you to automatically create context-sensitive documents. PowerPoint, Word, Excel or HTML templates are converted in real time into documents that are populated with your data from Salesforce and can be used immediately. And in the format you need.

#2. Web forms

Another fundamental requirement is dynamic web forms, such as those found on landing pages or customer portals. These are used to request information from your prospects or users, which is then automatically transferred directly to your Salesforce system.

Admittedly, Salesforce does have its own native solutions in Web2Lead and Web2Case. However, in our opinion, these leave too much to be desired. For example, data can only be transferred to Salesforce, but existing data cannot be read or updated. Forms are also static and cannot respond to customer input. This means that fields cannot be shown or hidden depending on other fields. Authentication is also not possible. As a result, customer portals cannot be created.

In addition to AppExchange solutions such as 123FormBuilder and FormTitan, there are integrations with online form services such as Formstack. Or you can ask us about our solution cloudworx.interact, which allows you to generate data records from forms on landing pages. Or send online questionnaires to get process-relevant feedback from your customers. You can also create a portal where your customers can view and edit data. Synchronised with Salesforce. And in real time.

#3. Webhooks without authentication

Please note that this section is a little more technical, but it is still fundamental. For those who associate the term ‘webhook’ with pirates, it is simply a web address that you provide to third-party services to transfer information to your own system.

This can be useful, for example, if you want to know from a third-party provider whether and when an SMS has been delivered.

First, the good news: Salesforce supports webhooks! The bad news: only with authentication. And every third-party service we have implemented so far that can address webhooks has only enabled this without authentication. This guarantees a break in the process when integrating with third-party systems.

Unfortunately, AppExchange cannot help you here either. However, our component cloudworx.listen can: it allows third-party services to easily transfer information to your own system. Via webhook and without HTTP authentication. This makes it 90% more compatible than native webhooks.

#4. Automated email dispatch with attachments

You want to send emails automatically. And you want to include customer-specific attachments. But is that even possible in Salesforce? Unfortunately not. At least not out of the box. Unfortunately, Salesforce does not allow you to send dynamically generated documents such as authorisations or invoices.

The solution: Code/APEX can be used to program applications that make it easy to send automated emails with attachments. You can save time here with cloudworx's own intelligent code standards, which save you time during implementation and therefore money.

#5. Sending email attachments larger than 3 MB

As you can see, sending emails from Salesforce comes with a few challenges.

Another one: For email attachments larger than 3 MB, Salesforce no longer sends files, but links. This saves resources on the Salesforce infrastructure and is a really smart solution.

However, many IT departments and email clients block these links for security reasons. Automated further processing (e.g. by providers who generate and send faxes or letters from emails) is also impossible.

The AppExchange solution out.bounz can help you here by sending emails via your company's own SMTP server. However, this does not come with the usual restrictions on attachments, sender marking, delivery rates and the number of emails sent. Directly from Salesforce.

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#6. Context-sensitive email template selection

One of the biggest efficiency killers in small and medium-sized businesses is having to rewrite nearly identical emails every day. Using email templates can save you up to 85% of your time!

When using email templates in Salesforce, emails only need to be customised and no longer need to be written from scratch. However, this only works if templates exist for all essential communication channels. Different process types, multiple languages and individualised salutations can quickly increase the number of email templates to several hundred.

Here too, out.bounz offers an optimal solution. Thanks to the integrated DeepL translation function, the templates only need to be maintained in a single language. Translation into the desired target language can then be done directly in the tool with a single click!

As an alternative, Visualforce and Apex can also be used to program your own interfaces for sending emails that solve your immediate problems. Here, too, a lot of time can be saved by using existing code standards.

#7. Email inbox monitoring

As you can see, sending emails via Salesforce works quite well. Contextual documentation of outgoing emails also works well in Salesforce. This is essential for tracking communication with customers and service providers at all times.

However, what is missing is the documentation of incoming emails. These are just as important for the history. Think of the accounting employee who does not notice the customer's email response to the reminder and calls the customer instead. Unfortunately, Salesforce does not offer the option of automatically documenting incoming emails in your employees' mailboxes in a context-sensitive manner.

The solution: the AppExchange app in.bounz. With this app, you can create records from incoming messages, automatically import attachments into your system and save the emails in all relevant places in the system.

How does this help you in everyday life? Take customer support, for example: an incoming enquiry is then recorded directly in your system as a ticket and your support team is informed about the new ticket.

Or in human resources: applications that arrive by email with attachments are automatically created as applicant records and the attachments are saved in the record.

#8. Account monitoring and automated payment reconciliation

What many people don't know: finance departments can also benefit enormously from Salesforce!

This is because one process gap we frequently encounter with customers is the processing of invoices and incoming payments.

Sifting through bank statements and transaction lists on three different accounts in search of the right payment can waste valuable time. Smart automation provides a remedy here.

However, the basis for this is the provision of account transaction data in Salesforce.

And Salesforce itself does not offer this natively.

The solution can be found on AppExchange: millio provides you with a ready-to-use, Salesforce-native interface and links your German and Austrian bank accounts to your Salesforce system via finAPI. And it's 100% secure.

This allows you to view your transactions in Salesforce and automatically link them to the correct invoice in your system. This means you always know when a customer has paid their invoice and can automatically trigger further process steps, such as reminders or warnings, if necessary.

#9. SMS messaging

Alongside WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and (good old) email, we tend to forget about SMS as a communication channel. However, we believe that its raison d'être is growing again. Why?

Because this channel allows you to reach your customers independently of an existing internet connection and without getting lost in a flood of competing messages. Period. In our experience, this has proven particularly useful for status messages or two-factor authentication messages to customers.

Unfortunately, Salesforce does not support this channel.

However, there are numerous providers that enable SMS to be sent via interfaces. One of these (in our opinion, the most mature and reliable) is Twilio, whose service can be seamlessly integrated into Salesforce via Apex.

9 fundamental process gaps that we believe the world's most successful CRM system has. However, these gaps can be closed quickly and often easily.

I hope this article has helped you identify some of the gaps in your processes that you can close in the future.

Would you like an assessment of your tools or processes? I would be happy to help you with any other questions you may have about Salesforce. Feel free to get in touch with me at any time or contact us directly here.