Top 5 Common Errors Salesforce Developers Make

Salesforce is a powerful CRM with many features to help businesses acquire and retain customers, but it can be challenging to use.

When using Salesforce, whether you are a seasoned pro or new to using the all-encompassing software, mistakes are common. However, errors in a CRM as powerful as Salesforce can have severe impacts on a business.

Whether it is a minor mistake where a contact may receive the wrong email or a significant mistake that costs your business millions of dollars, it is essential to be aware of the common errors and mitigate that risk.

1. Hardcoding IDs

In Salesforce, records use IDs for recognition. When you hardcode an ID, the ID will not be the same when creating a new record. Therefore, in the end, the formula will have multiple variations, which can cause extreme confusion.

Impact

The impact of hardcoding IDs is a loss of time and frustration as your developers hunt down which record they initially used.

Mitigate the risk

To avoid this issue, use lookup fields instead of IDs whenever possible or create a custom object containing all information about the contact. Hence, you have access to everything needed without searching through several things at once.

2. Lacking scope when starting the project

Having a project scope means that you at least have a general idea of your goal and outline the resources and timeframes that will allow the completion of the project.

Since Salesforce is so diverse, having a proper scope is crucial for project success.

Impact

Without the scope defined, developers will waste time figuring out how to resolve issues that arise when they don't know what the project entails. These sorts of mistakes can be costly if not corrected early on.

Mitigate the risk

One way to better understand the scope before starting your project is by using tools to help with an initial analysis.

Some great tools include Crystal Ball from Salesforce or Microsoft Excel with Imandra AI.

It is also important to communicate with stakeholders before the project begins and ask questions about their requirements upfront instead of assuming things along the way.

3. Incorrectly setting up data types and fields

In Salesforce, there are several data types used to store different kinds of information. Commonly these include text fields, lookup values, and picklist fields.

Typically speaking, a DATE field will be set up as Text or Date/Time, whereas INTEGER is the type for numbers in Base Ten String format like 1234567890 or 100000000000 (a number with an exponent).

However, if done incorrectly, it can lead to lost data because all those records that were stored incorrectly end up getting deleted by purge jobs automatically after 14 days.

This issue can also arise when setting up custom objects, so ensure you know which kind of object your database table type should be before using any automated tool from Salesforce.

Impact

Losing data can cost businesses millions of dollars. If the data is highly classified and without a backup, this can be a very serious issue for the business.

Mitigate the risk

Stick with the standard data types for text, date/time, and numbers. Know which type of object your database table should be before using any automated tool from Salesforce.

4. Using dirty data when integrating systems

Dirty data is when the data is not up-to-date with what is showing inside of Salesforce. For example, if a contact gets marked as an account, there will be duplicate records in both systems.

Dirty data introduces inaccuracies to your database, leading to inconsistencies or errors within other applications dependent on accurate information.

Impact

If the data is incorrect, decisions may be made with faulty information. This can be extremely costly if the data is highly important and the decision is of large capacity.

Also, if the data turns out to be dirty later in the project, it can take months to find where the inaccuracies in the data originated, using up time and money.

Mitigate the risk

The best way to avoid organizing records incorrectly is to clean the data before migrating through an ETL.

ETL's can save time and effort by removing duplicate records, pulling out all the fields you need to keep from your legacy database into Salesforce without doing it individually in each tab, or even changing field names.

5. Lack of support from your executive team

Getting support from executives is vital. Your leadership needs to be engaged throughout the entire implementation process to ensure that you have the budget and resources you need.

Their involvement in setting expectations helps everyone involved understand their responsibilities on your Salesforce team.

Impact

Not having the proper support and resources can lead to frustrations and missed deadlines which can be detrimental to your project and business.

Mitigate the risk

The executive team must do their part in understanding what needs to happen on their end of the implementation process by asking questions like "Who has access? Who will have ownership?" or "What's our plan if we need more resources?".

This way, they know how much time it takes to implement a new feature, so they can better prepare themselves instead of waiting until after you've made progress only then realizing several things are holding up development.

Conclusion:

Although the job of a Salesforce developer is incredibly vast due to the complexity of the software and the possibility of countless integrations, specific errors tend to occur repeatedly.

Some of these errors will have minor impacts on the project, whereas others may be detrimental.

Regardless of the effect, the same common Salesforce developer errors will happen, so you must be aware of these commonalities and what you can do to prevent them from happening on your next project.

We at Adservio are in continuous endeavor to help organizations avoid errors that might occur and assist on fixing those ones that already have occurred. Reach out and let see how we can improve and strengthen your organization.