Salesforce Community Cloud is a software product that allows companies to build branded communities where they can share information and users can connect and collaborate. The Salesforce Communities platform is built on the Salesforce Customer 360 platform and is integrated with the Salesforce CRM, allowing users to engage with the Salesforce data and business processes. Designed to supplement the standard Salesforce features that companies use internally, Salesforce communities are simple to set up with easy-to-use tools and templates.
Companies can create different types of communities depending on their needs, including customer communities, employee communities and partner communities.
Salesforce customer communities are essentially support and self-service portals that allow customers to:
- ask questions of customers and staff
- participate in discussions with other customers
- review other questions and discussions
- access published documentation
- find answers to questions through articles
- review FAQs
In the best communities, employees will participate along with the staff.
Employee communities function a bit differently. They are internal networking websites that act as an intranet of sorts, giving employees the ability to:
- share files with one another
- manage projects and tasks
- access internal documentation
- participate in discussions
- ask questions
- make announcements
Salesforce Community Cloud Editions
Customer – Create customer communities. The minimum for collaboration without investing in specific licenses. Provides external access to your community. An example would be for use in a support portal.
Partner – Designed for B2B engagement, discussions, and interactions. Can pull in and use sales data in a variety of ways. Think of this as a PRM (partner relationship management) system.
Lightning External – More customization options for customers, employees, and partners. C
Benefits of Salesforce Communities
Salesforce Communities offer a range of benefits to organizations:
- Improved Communication: Salesforce Communities foster better communication within the organization and with external stakeholders, such as partners and customers. This can lead to improved collaboration, faster decision-making, and increased productivity.
- Enhanced Customer Service: With a customer community, customers can find answers to their questions quickly, without needing to contact customer service. This can lead to increased customer satisfaction and reduced costs for the organization.
- Partner Engagement: Partner communities can help organizations build stronger relationships with their partners, leading to increased sales and improved partner loyalty. They also provide a platform for partner training and enablement, helping partners to sell more effectively.
- Increased Employee Engagement: Employee communities can help to foster a more engaged and productive workforce. They can also provide a platform for employee training and development, leading to a more skilled and effective workforce.
- Better Knowledge Management: Salesforce Communities can serve as a knowledge base, where useful information and documents can be stored and easily accessed by those who need them. This can help to prevent knowledge loss and ensure that valuable information is readily available.
- Integration with Salesforce CRM: Salesforce Communities are integrated with the Salesforce CRM, allowing users to engage with the Salesforce data and business processes. This can lead to more efficient and effective business operations.
Giving your customers a community where they can discuss their issues and engage in an open and honest way with your team is perhaps the most valuable aspect of creating a customer community. A customer community can act as an essential arm of your customer and user research processes. It gives you a central location where your customers can come to you, ask questions, and receive assistance from other customers that have solved similar problems. Salesforce’s IdeaExchange is a great example. There, users can suggest new ideas and tweaks to the platform that they would like to see. The result? Thousands of customers pour into their community to highlight pain points, suggest new features, and agree with others’ suggestions.
In summary, Salesforce Communities are powerful tools that can help to improve communication, collaboration, customer service, and partner engagement, among other benefits. The various editions available cater to different needs, ensuring that there is a solution suitable for every organization. Whether it’s a large enterprise looking to connect thousands of employees, a small business wanting to build stronger relationships with its customers, or a company working with multiple partners, Salesforce Communities can provide a solution that fits.