With Spring ’18 hitting production last month, we’ve had time to familiarize ourselves with what some are considering Salesforce’s most feature-rich release ever. Among all those features, two really stand out.
Here’s what you need to know.
Spring ’18 Salesforce Features March You Towards Success
Lightning Experience Macros
Macros haven’t been on my radar until recently, but now that they are, I frequently think of ways to apply them. Similar to macros in Excel, macros in Salesforce automate common repetitive tasks. For example, a sales ops user can create a list view of stuck opportunities and use a macro on one or more records to do a variety of things.
Use macros to:
- Update the status
- Email the opportunity owner and copy their manager
- Create a follow-up task assigned to the owner
Noteworthy characteristics of macros:
- Flexible – apply them to standard or custom objects
- Accessible – non-Admins can run and create them
- Scalable – they can be run in bulk
- Fully functional – they now support email templates in LEX
Optimizer for Lightning Apps
Similar to how Optimizer analyzes your sandbox or production org and emails a report of how each area stacks up against Salesforce best practices, Optimizer for Lightning Apps helps us design pages for the best end-user experience (UX) by analyzing custom record pages to look at the components and recommend ways to… well, optimize it.
Two suggestions to consider:
- For improved page loading times, consider using multiple tabs. This way, only the active tab’s components load, while components on the inactive tabs do not.
- The Optimizer for Lightning Apps feature is currently being piloted; you will need to contact your Salesforce Account Executive if you’d like to be added to the program.
Learn How To Set Up Your Service Console for Macros with Trailhead
Get started with the Service Console for Macros here
Not familiar with macros? The macros module on Trailhead is a great place to start. Before you get started, make sure that your Trailhead Playground or Developer Edition org meets the prerequisites. The Trailhead describes what those prerequisites for using macros in the Service Console are and shows you how to add the macros browser widget to the Service Console. It will also cover who can create and run macros, and how to set the user permissions required to view, create, and run macros and irreversible macros.
With the automation from macros and the design best practices from Optimizer, we can expect to see our Salesforce users march forth into more efficient and productive times.
Are you leveraging Lightning Experience macros? If so, what are your use cases? Share your thoughts in the comments below and let us know which Spring ’18 features have become your early favorites.
