Last Updated on May 30, 2024 by Rakesh Gupta
As an ISV on the Salesforce AppExchange, SharinPix has completed hundreds of inspection implementations where end users need to be enabled to collect information in the field. In this blog post, we’ll discuss options for your ideal inspection implementation and how a partner can help ensure that it meets your exact needs and standards.
The inspection technology in Salesforce can vary depending on what’s important for your inspection strategy and desired outcome. There are numerous ways to set up this functionality behind a friendly UI, using tools Salesforce native tools or AppExchange add-ons.
Out of the use cases SharinPix has seen, there are four different options for conducting Inspections and gathering field information in the Salesforce ecosystem:
- Construct a flow using base Salesforce
- Implement Salesforce Surveys
- Use visual checklists
- Collect proof points with end-of-job forms
- Go all in with fully dynamic forms
Some of these options require that their end usage is fully defined before the implementation and will require an admin to maintain or make any changes. Others will allow power users to implement and change their own checklists without an admin’s intervention, which is very useful depending on your use case. Some of these options are for purely text-based data gathering, while others unlock different layers, such as photos or signatures. Let’s take a look at each of the options, their use cases, and the pros and cons.
What’s Possible in the Normal Version of Salesforce?
During some of SharinPix’s inspection implementations, they have seen some incredibly smart people do very creative things using the base version of Salesforce. Among these instances, they’ve seen crazy things done with flows and other efficient uses of different combinations of tools depending on the context.
What are the possibilities?
The possibilities vary depending on whether you’re using Salesforce Base or Salesforce Field Service. But in any case, if you are an admin who needs to construct a survey to help collect information while your end users are in the field, you can accomplish this through screen flow.
Screen flows are also perfect when you need to guide users through different records, react differently depending on values, gather information to create another record or automate tasks.
Pros
The tools included in the base version of Salesforce are only as limited as your imagination. The sky is the limit when it comes to self-building something that achieves your needs for information gathering or inspection.
Cons
Conducting your inspections using screenflows require you to configure one for all and maintain logic level in similar complexity than code. Basic components can easily create records and fill fields. But to gather other information, such as pictures, scanned documents or more, require extra components from AppExchange apps like SharinPix.
Salesforce Surveys
The next option you have to expand your inspection possibilities is Salesforce Surveys. Salesforce Surveys is a feedback management tool for collecting customer information that is ideal for collecting text-based responses.
What are the possibilities?
Everyone is familiar with basic retail or customer service surveys where you answer straightforward questions about a recent purchase or experience. Salesforce Surveys is that functionality brought to your Salesforce Org.
This more advanced form of info gathering can be coupled with screen flows to automate processes or set up automatic sending of surveys to get feedback from customers multiple times at defined intervals. You can even program in reminders.
Pros
The basic functionality is included in Salesforce, but you’ll need to pay if you want to take advantage of greater features at scale. Incorporating this into your screen flows can be a great way to boost your basic Salesforce org.
Cons
While this might be perfect for some use cases, Salesforce Surveys are not without their limitations. For example, the basic service comes with a maximum of 300 free responses, which could work fine for basic needs, but as soon as you need to scale there is a cost. Further, the surveys are not customizable on the fly and will need to be edited by an admin to do anything out of the box.
Salesforce Surveys are optimized for collecting basic, text-based information, the moment you need something advanced, like photos, you’ll have to seek out a 3rd party partner.
What’s Available Beyond Standard Salesforce?
If you want to go a step beyond the capabilities available in standard Salesforce implementations, you’ll need to seek out a 3rd party partner to implement something on top of your Salesforce, likely through the Salesforce AppExchange.
Many options are available depending on your use case, so we’ll look at a few: visual surveys and end-of-job forms, which are the base tier options when looking to build something on top of your Salesforce, and dynamic checklists, the ultimate solution for information gathering.
Visual Checklist
Some situations and business end-goals may require you to collect information beyond basic text fields. This is where you could investigate a visual checklist functionality that will allow your field users to take pictures in the field, enter associated values as tags, and even add text-based feedback when necessary (such as during a specific step of a screen flow).
What are the possibilities?
The best way to discuss the possibilities is with an example. If you’re a car insurance company, you’ll need to have a photo record of each insurance claim. The end user, in this case, will need to take a dozen or so photos of the car based on a checklist (front, side, back, wheels, windshield, etc.) but only have damage present in one or two photos. Most of the photos uploaded from the visual checklist will be tagged “OK,” but the few that have problems can be marked with a negative tag such as “KO” and paired with a text description of the damage.
To give another example, if you’re a car insurance company, you’ll need to have a photo record of each insurance claim. The end user, in this case, will need to take a dozen or so photos of the car based on a checklist (front, side, back, wheels, windshield, etc.) but only have damage present in one or two photos. Most of the photos uploaded from the visual checklist will be tagged “Good,” but the few that have problems can be marked with a negative tag such as “Damaged” and paired with a text description of the damage.
End-of-Job Form
Other use cases require a deeper combination of text and image information gathering while also including a customer signature. A digital end-of-job form replaces the age-old physical form on a clipboard that a client signs to confirm a job (installation or repair, for example) has been completed. A customer can attest to the completed work by signing a form on a tablet, with all proofpoints embedded.
For example, the form at the end of a garage door installation will contain basic customer information imported automatically from Salesforce, checkboxes regarding job status, a place to take before and after pictures directly from the form, and a place to record the digital signature, which will be coupled with an e-certificate to verify the e-sign.
Pros:
Visual checklists and end-of-job forms both break down barriers to inconveniences and time sinks, such as image uploading for your field workers. Have the photos that you upload via the visual checklist be pre-tagged and organized within the appropriate Salesforce record. There are are even more features available in the end-of-job form including capturing sketches, picklist values and more.
Cons:
While solutions like this may sound too good to be true, they aren’t without their downsides. The mid-level options of visual checklists and end-of-job forms do require you to add a paid service to your Salesforce from the Salesforce AppExchange. These solutions work great out of the box but do require a bit of onboarding for your workforce.
Dynamic checklists
Finally, what about input method customization? Everything listed so far functions fantastically if you have a business/field use case that doesn’t vary from job to job. But if you need the power user to be able to make adjustments to the gathering method, you’ll need more dynamic types of checklists.
What are the possibilities?
With a Dynamic Checklist, a power user can create as many customized forms as needed, varying the contents collected per job. This is perfect for end users working in property management, as no two properties are the same regarding features or usage. They will need a vastly different form for a property that contains commercial farmland and a property that includes a private swimming pool.
Another example is quality assurance checks, which vary greatly depending on the industry. In retail, if a shop owner adds multiple new products to their store every week, they’ll need a new form for every product that comes through since they are all unique in shape, size, packaging, etc. Fields will have to be created and customized for every product type.
Going another step beyond this type of checklist also brings AI capabilities to the table. You can take advantage of time-saving possibilities like photo recognition, which extracts license plate values out of an image, or using generative AI to understand all of the document inputs and create an executive summary while automatically assigning follow-up actions.
Pros
The Dynamic Checklist is customizable by job, meaning a power user will always be able to create their ideal info-gathering method per job. The functionalities encompass everything else discussed from the other three options, including text-based, visual, and document information, even replacing the need to create a flow. The instructions for a dynamic form can be built in directly.
Using a dynamic Checklist that is Salesforce native, you can enhance it with flow screens and additionally components from the AppExchange to make it follow all your requirements.
Cons
The most apparent downside to this option is that it requires you to make an additional purchase on the AppExchange. Even though power users will be able to edit and customize their checklist functionality, they will still need to be trained in how to do so. This can be a challenge at the beginning of the implementation but will pay off in the long run.
Which Method is Best for Your Implementation?
To wrap everything up, the right info-gathering method for you will depend entirely on what information you need to gather and which type of user you want to empower. A standard customer feedback style need will function just fine with Salesforce Surveys. A deeper field use case with photo-based proof points to gather will need something more advanced. Both options can be implemented with flows to achieve an excellent user experience.
All of that can be replaced with the most versatile possibility, the Dynamic Checklist, making flows unnecessary as every step is wholly embedded in the checklist/form itself.
One important thing to note is that these solutions are not mutually exclusive and can function together to provide the best possible user experience for your end users, ultimately increasing adoption.
Many of the possibilities mentioned in this article can be unlocked through a partnership with SharinPix. To learn more about how they can unlock visual use cases on your Salesforce or chat directly with a SharinPix Visual Expert, check the SharinPix AppExchange Listing.
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