Introduction: Breaking Through the Noise
“Didn’t you see the message that went out last week?”
A question that is always followed by ten minutes spent digging around in email junk folders and Slack or Teams channels.
Many businesses rely heavily on timely communication to keep operations running smoothly. But what happens when an important message gets lost in the noise of emails and routine notifications, and when the usual communication tools we use don’t give you any idea if the message was read and absorbed?
For instance, telling the sales team about urgent pricing or regulatory updates to avoid providing outdated information to clients. Or updating your customer service team when a key account’s status has changed, such as a change of management, a change in customer SLA’s, or even a suspension of the contract.
How can you ensure critical information is delivered promptly and acknowledged right within Salesforce, reinforcing its role as a single source of truth?
It seems that we need a solution specifically designed to ensure critical alerts reach their intended audience. Whether it’s a security alert, a compliance update, or an important support case notification, organizations need a reliable mechanism to deliver and track critical alerts.
In this article, we will review leading solutions for delivering critical alerts and notifications in Salesforce: native Salesforce notification options and a custom solution from Improved Apps.
- The Importance of Effective Alerts in Salesforce
- Overview of Built-in Salesforce Tools for Sending Alerts to Users
- A More Versatile, Custom Solution to Critical Alerts on Salesforce
- Setting Up Custom Alerts Application
- Benefits of Using Custom Notifications With Third-Party Apps
- How Can We Use Custom Alerts: Universal and Cloud-specific Applications
- Native Salesforce Solutions vs. Custom Alerts Third-Party App
- Top 5 FAQs about Improved Noticeboard App
- Summing Up: Making Sure Critical Messages Get Through
We aim to find a solution that will allow us to answer the above questions and figure out how to ensure that business-critical messages are delivered to the intended recipient with pinpoint precision, ensuring that they are received and acknowledged directly inside Salesforce.
The Importance of Effective Alerts in Salesforce
Consider a situation where a security vulnerability arises and your IT team needs to act immediately. Delays or missed communications can lead to significant risks, from financial losses to reputational damage. Or consider a compliance update requiring acknowledgment by all affected employees. Without proper acknowledgment tracking, ensuring 100% compliance becomes nearly impossible.
Effective Salesforce alerts help businesses to:
- Minimize risks: Timely notifications ensure a swift response to situational and other high-risk situations.
- Improve accountability: Track who received and acknowledged messages.
- Enhance operational efficiency: Reduce downtime by keeping teams informed.
- Boost employee responsiveness: Ensure teams act quickly on urgent updates, reducing delays in execution.
Overview of Built-in Salesforce Tools for Sending Alerts to Users
Salesforce provides a few standard tools that allow users to send alerts and notifications within the platform. Below is an overview of some of the key built-in notification methods in Salesforce:
1. Standard Salesforce Notifications
Salesforce offers built-in notifications for events and record changes. These notifications can appear as pop-ups, emails, or within the Salesforce app. They help keep users informed about system updates, workflow changes, and approvals.
Standard Salesforce Notifications in Salesforce Org
2. Email Alerts
Email alerts are part of Salesforce’s workflow and process automation capabilities. Admins can configure email alerts to notify users when specific conditions are met, such as when an opportunity reaches a certain stage or a case is escalated.
3. Chatter Notifications
Chatter is Salesforce’s built-in collaboration tool that allows users to follow records and receive updates on changes. Users can be tagged in Chatter posts to ensure they see important information.
Chatter Post Notification in Salesforce Org
4. In-App Guidance and Prompts
Admins can create custom in-app guidance messages to help users navigate Salesforce more efficiently. Though these are not purpose-built alerts, these messages can serve as notifications to inform users of updates, process changes, or critical actions they need to take.
In-App Guidance Builder Interface in Salesforce Org
5. Flow Notifications
Admins can use Salesforce Flow to automate notifications based on specific triggers. These automated alerts can be sent as emails, in-app messages, or even Chatter posts, ensuring users receive timely updates.
6. Approval Process Notifications
Salesforce provides automated notifications when records require approvals. This helps streamline workflow efficiency and ensure approvers take action promptly.
7. Push Notifications for the Salesforce Mobile App
Salesforce offers push notifications for its mobile app, allowing users to receive alerts on their devices for urgent updates, approvals, and record changes.
Challenges with Standard Methods
These built-in tools provide a foundation for sending alerts and ensuring communication remains streamlined within Salesforce. But are these tools enough to implement a system in which transferring critical communication is the goal? A system that, for example, can become part of measures to ensure business compliance with regulatory policies?
Possible pitfalls of using only generic in-app notifications in Salesforce:
- Email overload : Important messages can get buried under piles of unread emails.
- Lack of urgency : Standard notifications often fail to convey the criticality of an alert.
- Limited tracking : There is no way to confirm who has seen or acted on the information.
- Inefficient follow-ups : Without automated tracking, employees may need constant reminders to act on critical messages.
- Lack of message prioritization : Important updates may get lost among routine notifications, leading to missed deadlines or compliance issues.
These examples show why the concept of custom notifications and alerts, which ensures that important alerts are prioritized and reacted upon in time, is necessary.
A More Versatile, Custom Solution to Critical Alerts on Salesforce
Salesforce Developers know well that if a user has a need, you can always create a solution that will satisfy this need. But the process of developing a customized software solution is an ambitious task: hiring a team, designing, creating a concept, and numerous product iterations and unknown support costs lie ahead.
On the other hand, Salesforce Admins also know that if a user has a need, you can always look for a ready-made solution on the AppExchange. So let’s turn to third-party applications in search of the right tool.
Custom Alerts Apps on AppExchange
For the purpose of this article, we will look at the capabilities of custom alert solutions for Salesforce on the AppExchange. The description of the app on the AppExchange and the official website helps inform our decision.
The solution from Improved Apps, a UNARIC company, is designed to simplify and enhance critical communications right inside Salesforce. It enables admins to create and distribute critical alerts using a user-friendly interface while providing robust tracking and reporting tools to monitor acknowledgment and compliance.
Find it on the AppExchange
Key Features of Improved Noticeboard
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Customizable Salesforce Notification Banner:
- Display tailored messages directly on Salesforce pages.
- Choose from various formats like ticker, carousel, or list.
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Rich-Text Alerts:
- Include images, links, and formatted text to increase engagement.
- Make messages visually appealing and easy to understand.
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Targeted Notifications and Recipient Segmentation:
- Decide who will see your notifications, alerts, and banners by segmenting by users’ profiles, job roles, public groups, and more.
- Target specific users based on how you already set up Salesforce.
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Context-Aware Automated Notices:
- Tailor communications to specific user needs and situations, such as onboarding new team members or providing training and development resources.
- Any standard or custom object can trigger a custom Notice to custom targeted users with the firing object (records) data automatically inserted (like mail merge) into the Notice.
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Tracking and Reporting:
- Monitor acknowledgment rates.
- Utilize the packaged Dashboards & Reports to ensure compliance and assess the effectiveness of custom notifications.
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User Engagement Options:
- Recipients’ required action can be in the form of acknowledging, dismissing, flagging alerts for follow-up, or visiting a specific URL.
- Promotes interaction and ensures accountability.
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Revisit a Dismissed Message:
- With Einstein Global Search, finding notifications is simple – they’re just Salesforce records!
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Ease of Use:
- A simple setup and intuitive interface make it accessible for all user levels.
- Customization options provide flexibility to meet business needs.
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Multi-Device Compatibility:
- Ensure alerts are visible across desktops, tablets, and mobile devices.
- Responsive design guarantees an optimal user experience on any device.
Visit Improved Apps’ Official Website
Let’s check how easily we can set up custom alerts in Salesforce with Improved Apps.
Setting Up Custom Alerts Application
Installation and Configuration
After familiarizing yourself with the app, it’s time to install it and look “under the hood” of the Improved Apps. Follow these steps:
Step #1. Install the App :
- Download it fromAppExchange.
- Choose the appropriate installation option: Admin-only, specific profiles, or all users.
Process of Installing the Improved Noticeboard App
Step #2. Configure Permissions :
- Assign roles such as Administrator, Owner, Notice Owner, and Notice Recipient, using the relevant Permission Sets created by the App developer.
- Use Permission Sets to manage individual user access or Profiles for group-level management.
Improved Apps Permission Sets
Step #3. Define Sharing Settings :
- Create public groups for publishing teams and assign appropriate Sharing Settings.
- Adjust Sharing Settings for Objects, ensuring controlled collaboration while keeping all objects private by default.
Step #4. Add Components :
- Integrate notification banners into user page layouts. Optionally configure them on your Salesforce Mobile app and/or any Experience Cloud deployments.
- Use Lightning App Builder to customize banner placement in the form of a ticker, carousel, or list.
Improved Apps various Banners on the Lead Record Page
Step #5. Allocate Licenses :
- Assign licenses to all users who will interact with the app.
Improved Apps Licenses in Setup
Additionally, the Improved Apps contains a tab with links to detailed documentation on how to set up the application.
Setup Page With Links to Documentation in Improved Noticeboard App
Creating and Managing Notices
Creating Notices:
- Start by creating a NoticeBoard record to group related notices.
- Define the message content, audience, and required action.
- Use rich-text formatting to enhance clarity and engagement.
Improved Apps Notice Builder Interface
Publishing and Scheduling:
- Publish notices manually for immediate delivery.
- Schedule notices for future publication to align with planned events.
- Use approval workflows to ensure messages meet quality standards before going live.
Notice Detailed Information Can Be Provided in the Notice
Tracking Engagement:
- Use the app’s reporting tools to view the status of notices’ acknowledgment by recipients or the average time taken to respond.
- Address non-compliance proactively using actionable insights from reports.
Improved Apps’ Pre-installed Reports and Dashboards
Benefits of Using Custom Notifications With Third-Party Apps
1. Streamlined Communication
One of the biggest advantages of Improved Apps is its ability to cut through the noise. Unlike emails or standard Salesforce notifications, its Salesforce custom notifications are designed to stand out and demand attention. This ensures critical information is noticed and acted upon promptly.
2. Enhanced Security
With granular sharing settings and role-based permissions, you can control who sees sensitive alerts. This is particularly valuable for security alerts or compliance-related notices.
3. Integration With Salesforce
Improved Apps seamlessly integrates with Salesforce’s native tools, allowing you to:
- Trigger alerts based on record changes or workflow events.
- Use Salesforce automation features like Salesforce Flows for advanced use cases.
- Utilize existing data to tailor notifications for better precision.
4. Accountability and Compliance
For industries with strict regulatory requirements, Improved Apps helps ensure compliance by tracking acknowledgment and responses. Recipients must acknowledge or interact with notices before they are marked as complete, providing a full audit trail while ensuring accountability at every level. A custom warning message in Salesforce can help highlight urgent compliance actions that require immediate acknowledgment.
5. Flexibility for Business Needs
Whether you’re managing a global team or addressing department-specific updates, Improved Apps adapts to various scenarios. Notifications can be tailored to match the branding and tone of your organization, making them feel more integrated with your workflow.
Selecting Recipients in the Improved Apps Notice Builder
6. Measurable ROI
By improving communication efficiency and reducing operational risks, Improved Apps delivers measurable returns. Businesses save time, improve compliance rates, and support better collaboration across teams.
How Can We Use Custom Alerts: Universal and Cloud-specific Applications
Universal Applications
1. Emergency Alerts: Notify teams instantly about system outages, security threats, or other emergencies by sending custom warning notices Salesforce generates to the right users at the right time. For example, if there are changes to major accounts, an instant notification can inform the sales team, ensuring continuity and preventing service disruptions.
2. Compliance Updates: Ensure all employees acknowledge policy changes, whether it’s a new data security protocol, guidance on how to implement GDPR compliance, or a compliance regulation update. Improved Apps’ tracking capabilities ensure management can verify acknowledgment rates and follow up with non-compliant users.
3. Training and Onboarding: Send out training materials or onboarding guides. Use acknowledgment tracking to monitor completion rates and gather feedback. For example, new employees can receive a step-by-step guide for navigating Salesforce, and managers can track who has reviewed it. Setup different automated sequences of alerts to onboard employees by role, customers or partners.
4. System Maintenance Notices: Alert users of scheduled system maintenance or updates. Use a custom warning Salesforce notification to ensure users are informed about potential downtime and provide resources to minimize disruption.
5. Project Updates: Keep teams aligned on project progress by sharing updates and milestones through the Improved Noticeboard. Notifications can link to reports, dashboards, or shared files to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Cloud-Specific Applications
Improved Apps adapts to different Salesforce Clouds, ensuring that communication reaches the right teams in the right context. Below are specific use cases for various clouds.
Salesforce Products Website
1. Salesforce Sales Cloud:
- Lead Follow-Ups : Use Salesforce record alerts to notify sales reps about overdue follow-ups or key updates on high-priority leads.
- Pipeline Notifications : Notify teams when opportunities move in stages or require urgent attention.
2. Salesforce Service Cloud:
- Case Escalations : Send immediate alerts to supervisors when a case escalates, using a custom Salesforce warning message to highlight urgent customer issues that need fast resolution.
- Knowledge Base Updates : Notify agents about new or updated articles critical to resolving cases.
3. Salesforce Marketing Cloud:
- Campaign Launch Notifications : Inform teams about live campaigns and performance updates.
- Audience Engagement Alerts : Send alerts when a segment reaches a milestone (e.g., email click-throughs).
4. Salesforce Commerce Cloud:
- Inventory Updates : Alert teams when product inventory levels fall below thresholds.
- Promotional Updates : Notify teams about new promotions or discounts to share with customers.
5. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud:
- Donor Engagement Alerts : Notify staff when high-value donors make contributions.
- Event Updates : Send updates about upcoming events to team members and stakeholders.
6. Other Salesforce Industry Clouds
- Industry-Specific Alerts: A variety of use cases depending on which Cloud is in play.
Native Salesforce Solutions vs. Custom Alerts Third-Party App
After reviewing in detail the capabilities of a third-party application for managing critical communications in Salesforce, let’s outline the advantages of a dedicated critical notification system over the in-built solutions.
Native Salesforce Solutions
- Emails: High risk of being overlooked, especially during busy periods.
- Chatter: While useful for discussions, it lacks urgency indicators or acknowledgment tracking.
- Standard Notifications: Often buried within Salesforce, making them easy to miss.
- In-App Guidance and Prompts: Provides contextual messages within Salesforce to guide users, but lacks real-time alerting and acknowledgment tracking for urgent updates.
- Salesforce Flow: Enables automation of notifications but requires a dedicated experienced (technical) administrator, setup support, and does not have advanced tracking features to confirm and monitor responses.
- Apex Triggers and Other Programmable Solutions: Allow developers to create custom notification logic within Salesforce, but requires the involvement of appropriate developers and ongoing maintenance to ensure they work correctly.
- External tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams: Require switching between platforms, dispersing attention, and creating additional information flows for Salesforce users.
Custom Tailored Third-Party Solution on Example of Improved Noticeboard
Improved Apps offers a significant advantage by keeping all communications centralized within Salesforce, contributing to its role as a single source of truth. Key advantages include:
- Real-time Salesforce Alerts and Notifications in Context: Notifications appear directly within Salesforce, aligned with users’ workflows, reducing the risk of missing critical information.
- Integrated Tracking: Acknowledgment tracking is built into the Salesforce ecosystem, making it easier to monitor compliance and accountability without external tools.
- Customization for Salesforce Use Cases: Tailor notifications to specific Salesforce data points, such as account statuses or lead changes, which external platforms cannot directly use.
- Cost-Effectiveness: By avoiding the need for third-party integrations, this native Salesforce app simplifies operations and reduces costs.
While tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams are great for general collaboration, Improved Apps is a Salesforce-native solution that ensures communication stays seamless, centralized, and effective within the CRM.
Top 5 FAQs about Improved Noticeboard App
How to enable a Salesforce notification banner?
To enable Salesforce banner notification, add the Improved Noticeboard components to relevant page layouts using Salesforce Setup. The application provides different banner styles that can serve different purposes.
Can I display warning messages in Salesforce record pages?
Yes, Improved Noticeboard allows you to embed banners directly on record pages, ensuring critical alerts are seen in context. These can be used to highlight overdue tasks, compliance risks, or critical account updates. Or deploy on your apps utility bar to enable a common approach across all objects in your apps.
How are security alerts managed with Improved Apps?
Target specific users or roles with security alerts and use tracking features to monitor acknowledgment and response times. Alerts can be flagged for immediate action, ensuring high-priority issues are addressed promptly.
Can Improved Apps integrate with Salesforce automation tools?
Absolutely. Improved Noticeboard works seamlessly with Process Builder, Flows, and Apex, enabling automated alerts triggered by specific events, such as field updates or status changes. Also, Noticeboard API’s allow for external platforms or apps to push alerts through the API.
Does Improved Apps offer reporting features?
Yes, the app provides robust reporting tools that allow admins to track acknowledgment rates, user interactions, and response times. These insights can be used to improve communication strategies and ensure compliance. Optionally, customers may choose to use the company’s chosen business intelligence tool (e.g., Tableau or PowerBI) for even greater data visualization.
Summing Up: Making Sure Critical Messages Get Through
Communicating effectively in Salesforce relies on more than just sending out messages. It’s about making sure they’re seen, understood, and acted upon at the right time. Without a purpose-built system for this, important updates may be missed in an overflowing inbox, buried within routine notifications, or sometimes even simply ignored, leading to misunderstandings and delays.
We’ve explored the challenges of traditional communication and why Salesforce users need a better way to manage urgent notifications. Using a structured system with targeted alerts and tracking helps businesses avoid risks, stay compliant, and make teamwork smoother.
To keep Salesforce as a single, reliable source of truth, companies need to make sure key information is delivered quickly and acknowledged by the right people. Keeping critical communication inside Salesforce reduces the need for external messaging tools and keeps teams focused on their work without missing urgent must see/must act updates.
Businesses that set up clear, structured communication inside Salesforce will run more smoothly, improve accountability, and help employees act on important updates without delays.
The post Critical Communications in Salesforce: Custom Notifications and Alerts first appeared on Salesforce Apps.
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