Salesforce Experience Cloud Implementation Guide: Preparation, Quick Start, and Sites Setup Walkthrough

Salesforce Experience Cloud, previously known as Community Cloud, is a versatile platform within the Salesforce ecosystem designed to help businesses create personalized digital experiences for customers, partners, and employees.

Salesforce Experience Cloud allows you to create customized portals, forums, help centers, and mobile apps that integrate with various Salesforce clouds like Sales or Service, thereby streamlining collaboration and easing communication.

If set up and implemented properly, Salesforce Experience Cloud can greatly enhance community engagement, self-service capabilities, and overall operational efficiency.

In our guide, Ascendix provides a detailed, step-by-step approach to Salesforce Experience Cloud implementation, from initial setup to advanced configurations.

Before Salesforce Experience Cloud Implementation

What is Salesforce Experience Cloud?

Salesforce Experience Cloud is an online platform that allows businesses to create branded digital communities for customers, partners, and employees. It offers features like customized portals, forums, and mobile apps, used to enhance communication, streamline processes, and improve user engagement.

Salesforce Experience Cloud Features

Salesforce Experience Cloud allows organizations to construct branded communities that cater to various user groups, whether it’s a customer support forum, a partner network, or an employee collaboration site.

• Branded Communities. The main purpose of Salesforce Experience Cloud is to build custom portals, forums, and help centers tailored to your brand. For instance, a healthcare provider can design a patient portal that allows patients to access their health records, book appointments, and communicate with healthcare professionals.
• Seamless CRM Integration. You can connect Experience Cloud with Salesforce Sales Cloud CRM for unified data access and management. With it, the sales teams can access customer data, order histories, and support cases directly from the community platform, in order to provide personalized service and close more deals.
• Personalized Experiences. Experience Cloud enables companies to deliver personalized content and recommendations through automation capabilities and Salesforce Einstein AI. For example, you can create an e-commerce community which would suggest products to customers based on their browsing history and past purchases.
• Collaboration Tools. The capabilities of Experience Cloud facilitate efficient communication among customers, partners, and employees, like an internal employee community which would help the team with project collaboration, sharing documents, discussing ideas, and providing feedback in real-time.
• Case Management. Streamline customer service with tools for managing support cases. This can be used with tech support community, where customers would be able to log service requests, track the status of their cases, receive notifications about updates, and access a knowledge base for self-service troubleshooting.
• Content Sharing. Salesforce Experience Cloud makes sharing and organization of content across the community among customers, employees, or partners fast and easy. As an example, through the utilization of its integrated Content Management System, you can create a partner community for a software company that would include training modules, product updates, and best practices to make the onboarding easier and help partners effectively sell and support the company’s products.
• Mobile Accessibility. A responsive design ensures optimal user experience on all devices, both desktop and mobile. This increases customer engagement, loyalty, and streamlines customer experience.
• Business Process Automation. Experience Cloud can automate workflows to enhance operational efficiency. For example, your company can use automation to streamline financial claims processing, from submission to approval and payout, reducing manual intervention and speeding up service delivery.

Preparation for Salesforce Experience Cloud Implementation

Define Your Goals and Objectives

Clearly articulate what you intend to achieve with Salesforce Experience Cloud implementation. Be it enhanced customer support, increased sales through partner portals, or improved internal communication, your objectives will guide the entire implementation process.

Engage Stakeholders

Involve all key stakeholders including executives, project managers, IT teams, and end-users early on. Their insights are vital for successful implementation. Ensure that all relevant stakeholders are on the same page regarding the business objectives and understand the expected outcomes of your Salesforce Experience Cloud setup.

Resource Allocation

Identify and allocate the necessary resources, such as budget, time, and workforce. Assign roles and responsibilities to ensure that everyone involved is aligned with the project’s objectives. Make sure you also have Salesforce implementation guides at hand so that your team can refer to them as needed.

Understand Your Target User

Salesforce Experience Cloud highly depends on the types of user personas that will be using the platform: these might be employees, customers, and partners, they could use the platform to create and share content, access the knowledge base, get support from your team, and dozens of other tasks. Therefore, before Salesforce Experience Cloud implementation, create detailed personas for each type of user to understand their needs and expectations, and gather feedback from potential users as soon as possible to identify pain points and desired features.

Analyze Your Current Systems

Before implementing Salesforce Experience Cloud on full scale, make sure you understand what technical capabilities and existing systems you already have and how they could be integrated with Salesforce. Take an inventory of existing systems and processes that will integrate with Experience Cloud and evaluate the quality of your current data to make it clean, accurate, and ready for migration. This will ensure that the Salesforce implementation is happening correctly and as planned.

Choose the Right Implementation Partner

Partnering with a certified Salesforce Experience Cloud implementation partner can greatly simplify your project. Salesforce experts bring technical knowledge, experience, and a portfolio of successful projects to your implementation. When selecting a partner, consider their experience with similar implementations, client reviews, and their ability to understand and meet your business requirements. As a Salesforce professional with 20+ years of experience with Salesforce, Ascendix can become your Salesforce Experience Cloud implementation partner and ensure your use of Salesforce is impeccable and effective.

Develop Content Strategy

Whether you are creating a community for partners or a self-help knowledge base for employees, you will need to understand what content is to be published on your experience cloud. Therefore, the thing that must be on every Salesforce Experience Cloud Implementation guide is content planning and creation. Use the integrated CMS to develop a thorough plan for creating and curating content, including FAQs, knowledge articles, and video tutorials. Decide how content will be managed and updated, ensuring it remains relevant and useful to users. This way, your investment into Experience Clou will be worthy and the users will get the real-life value.

Step-by-Step Salesforce Experience Cloud Implementation Guide

Step 1: Initial Setup During the Implementation

• Login to Salesforce: Access your Salesforce environment and navigate to Experience Cloud settings.
• Enable Experience Cloud: Head to Setup > Feature Settings > Experiences > Settings to enable Experience Cloud if it isn’t already.
• Set Portal Name and URL: Choose a unique name and web address for your community portal, which users will use to access it.

Step 2: Configuration

• Set Up the Name and URL: Give a name to your portal and set up the URL within your organization’s domain. Make sure to complete any required registration and verification processes if opting for a separate domain configuration.
• Select a Template: Salesforce Experience Cloud offers various templates like Customer Service, Partner Central, and Custom. Select one that aligns best with your community’s goals.

Step 3: Community Creation

• Build Your Community: Utilize the Community Builder to add and customize pages, components, and themes, ensuring they align with your company’s branding.
• Add Members: Define user roles and permissions and include members from Salesforce contacts or other data sources.

Salesforce Experience Cloud Community Scorecard

Step 4: Adding Components

• Content and Data: Integrate essential components such as knowledge articles, cases, and custom objects to elevate the user experience. Use the drag-and-drop Builder for easy customization.
• Third-Party Integrations: Link your community with third-party applications to boost functionality. This could include CRM tools, marketing software, or social media platforms.

Step 5: Implement Payment Gateway in Experience Cloud Salesforce (If Needed)

• Select a Payment Gateway: Pick a payment gateway compatible with Salesforce, like Stripe or PayPal.
• Implementation Steps: Follow the specific integration guidelines for the chosen gateway, ensuring correct configuration of API keys and security credentials.
• Testing: Verify the payment functionality through simulated transactions to ensure seamless operation.

Step 6: Testing

• User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Conduct thorough testing involving a small group of end-users to gather feedback and identify any issues.
• Performance Testing: Ensure the community loads swiftly and can handle high traffic volumes, utilizing Salesforce’s performance monitoring tools for analysis.

Step 7: Deployment

• Final Review: Conduct a detailed review of all configurations and customizations. Make any necessary adjustments based on feedback.
• Launch: Set the community to ‘Active’ and officially launch it. Communicate the launch to stakeholders and provide necessary onboarding materials.

Post-Implementation Phase of Setting Up Salesforce Experience Cloud

Salesforce Experience Cloud & Portal Customization

In the post-implementation phase, customizing the Salesforce Experience Cloud is crucial to meet specific business needs. Customization ensures that the platform functions effectively and aligns closely with organizational objectives.

• Personalized content. Firstly, businesses can create a tailored user experience with personalized content, delivering relevant information to different user segments based on profiles, roles, and preferences. Additionally, implementing branding and design elements helps match the company’s identity.
• Advanced features. Custom dashboards and reports can be developed to provide real-time insights and analytics tailored to the needs of various stakeholders. Workflow automation is another area where custom development can streamline operations and improve efficiency.
• Integration capabilities. It is possible to utilize integration with third-party applications and systems, eliminating data silos and enabling unified operations, allowing for a holistic view of customer interactions and insights within the Experience Cloud.
• Community engagement tools. Customized forums and knowledge bases facilitate user interaction, peer support, and information sharing. Event management functionalities can be implemented to organize and manage virtual or in-person events, thus boosting community engagement.
• Portal customization. Depending on the industry, Salesforce Experience Cloud portals can and should be customized. This allows businesses to deliver tailored content and implement advanced tools like real-time dashboards and document management systems. By customizing the Experience Cloud portals, companies can support their growth and evolve, achieving a competitive edge in their industries.

Train the Team and Ensure User Adoption

To make sure your team and all other users of Salesforce Experience Cloud utilize the platform’s functionality to its best, develop training programs for all types of users to ensure they can effectively use the community. This includes beginner, intermediate, and advanced training sessions, as well as ongoing education to keep users updated on new features and functionalities.

Remember to create a change management plan to help employees and partners adapt to the new system, including communication strategies and support resources such as user guides, FAQs, and help desks to address any issues that arise. If these recommendations are maintained, you will have fast and effective Salesforce Experience Cloud implementation.

Measure KPIs and Enhance the Platform

Implementing Salesforce Experience Cloud is just the beginning; measuring its effectiveness with Key Performance Indicators is crucial for ongoing improvement and maximizing impact. With the use of KPIs you can understand how well your Experience Cloud implementation is performing against your strategic goals.

Identify KPIs that align with your business objectives. Common KPIs for Experience Cloud might include user engagement metrics such as active users, page views, and time spent on the platform. Customer satisfaction can be assessed using surveys, Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and feedback forms. Other relevant KPIs might include your case deflection rate, community growth metrics like new registrations and active participants, and content effectiveness indicated by metrics like views, likes, and shares.

Salesforce offers several built-in tools and integrations to track these KPIs effectively. You can create customized reports and interactive dashboards to visualize and analyze data or use Salesforce Einstein for advanced analytics capabilities. Moreover, third-party tools like Google Analytics or Tableau can be integrated for additional tracking and reporting features.

Salesforce Experience Cloud Analytics Dashboard

Based on your KPI analysis, you can make decisions on how to enhance the Salesforce Experience Cloud. For instance, optimizing the user experience by improving navigation, design, and content structure to make the platform more intuitive and user-friendly or personalizing interactions through targeted content, recommendations, and customized user experiences based on behavior and preferences to further engage users.

This way, you will ensure your Salesforce Experience Cloud implementation not only meets but exceeds business objectives. This continuous improvement cycle will lead to a more engaging, efficient, and valuable platform for your users.

Salesforce Experience Cloud Implementation Best Practices

• Documentation. Maintain detailed records of all implementation steps. This will greatly assist you in any troubleshooting and future updates.
• Training. Offer adequate training to community administrators and end-users to maximize platform utilization.
• Feedback. Establish a system for continuous feedback and actively collect and respond to user feedback to continuously improve the community.
• Design. Ensure that the user interface is intuitive and not overly complicated to encourage engagement.
• Mobile Optimization. Make sure your community works on mobile devices, as many users will access it this way.
• Security Measures. Regularly update and review security settings to protect user data and implement two-factor authentication if necessary.
• Regular Updates. Stay current with Salesforce updates and patches for optimal performance.
• Analytics. Utilize Salesforce’s analytics tools to track user engagement and other key performance indicators.
• Ongoing Support and Maintenance. Establish a help desk for community-related queries and issues.
• Community Managers. Appoint community managers to oversee daily operations and maintain community health.
• It is also possible to utilize advanced configurations to further enhance your Salesforce Experience Cloud:
• Single Sign-On (SSO). Streamline the login process with Single Sign-On.
• Gamification. Use Salesforce’s gamification features for increased engagement through points, badges, and leaderboards.
• Custom Integrations. Create custom Lightning components and integrate specialized third-party services to meet unique business needs.

Salesforce Experience Cloud setup can significantly boost digital engagement and create a connected user base. Our Salesforce Experience Cloud implementation guide outlined just the main critical steps, which will help you achieve a seamless implementation. But each business and niche are different, so remember to be flexible and discover what can be the most useful for your exact type of user.

Ascendix Services for Salesforce Experience Cloud Implementation

Salesforce Experience Cloud is a powerful solution that enhances customer and partner management, creating a more seamless and productive experience. The platform can be customized to fit any sphere, aligning with your industry’s best practices.

With Salesforce Experience Cloud, you can boost sales and increase loyalty by fostering stronger connections between employees, distributors, resellers, and suppliers within a unified environment, and optimize the operational costs of your teams while simultaneously improving customer satisfaction.

However, if the implementation and customization processes seem overwhelming, our team is here to help you maximize this investment. Our experts will evaluate your business requirements and deliver tailored solutions that exceed your expectations. Contact Ascendix and we will help you implement your Salesforce Experience Cloud easily and effectively.