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Simple Nine steps to integrate Slack and Salesforce!

10/22/2021

Salesforce released a new Slack to Salesforce integration tool in August 2021, enabling teams to get updates on Salesforce records from within Slack. This allows team members to respond faster to new opportunities, resolve problems faster, and act on insights immediately.

Building a ‘single source of truth’

Step 1: Install the Slack package from the AppExchange

Login to Salesforce and click on the Settings cog to the top right of the interface. In the menu, select the AppExchange Marketplace, which is found within the Apps submenu.

Here, search for Salesforce for Slack. Click on the first app, developed by Slack Technologies. Choose Get It Now. If the account is not already logged into the AppExchange, log in to the AppExchange using Salesforce credentials or AppExchange account or install Salesforce for Slack in the production environment or a sandbox for testing. Choose Install Here or Install in Sandbox, and click Confirm and Install.

On the next page, choose Install for Admins Only. It can take a few minutes for the application to install. If it takes over 60 seconds, an email will be sent for notification purposes when the app has completed installation.

Step 2: Grant users permission to use Slack

All users who will be changing recorded data in Salesforce should be granted permission to connect to Slack. This means that when any user changes Salesforce records, notifications can be sent to Slack. In Salesforce, hit the Settings cog again and search for Permission Sets. In the list of permission sets, click on Slack Standard User. Now click on Manage Assignments.

In the list of users presented, check the boxes for all users who change Salesforce records. For most companies, this will be virtually everyone who uses Salesforce. Click Add Assignments.

Step 3: Run the Slack Setup Assistant

The Salesforce for Slack app has a setup wizard that must run at least once to set up some values and connect the two applications. Most of the settings can be left as the defaults, and can run the Slack Setup Assistant again in the future to edit any fields.

To run the Slack Setup Assistant, first click on the App Launcher, which is an icon with nine dots on it to the top left of the Salesforce interface. Search for Slack Setup and select this option.

Step 4: Connect to Slack

The first step of the Slack Setup Assistant establishes a connection between Slack and Salesforce. Click authorize and enter the Salesforce credentials. These credentials are only used to connect the two apps together.

Step 5: Add custom objects (optional)

The Slack to Salesforce app will already work with standard Salesforce objects like Accounts and Leads, but if any custom objects are created in Salesforce, add them in the second step of the wizard. This way, these custom objects can also be shared to Slack.

If there are custom objects to share with Slack, click Add Custom Object, search for the object name, and click Add. Otherwise, click Finish to skip this step.

Step 6: Add custom alerts (optional)

The Slack to Salesforce app will send some default alerts to Slack, such as when an account is assigned to a team member. It’s also possible to administer alerts from within either Slack or Salesforce or set up some custom alerts in the next step of the wizard.

To configure custom alerts, click New Alert and give the Alert a name. Select the Salesforce object that needs to be alerted about. Choose between being alerted when any record of the selected type meets the criteria or being alerted only when a specific record meets the required criteria.

Click Next, and choose the criteria under which the alert needs to be sent. For example, choose to send an alert when any Lead in New Jersey is flagged as Hot. Also, add as many criteria as required and then click Save.

Step 7: Add Slack actions to Layouts (optional)

The next step of the Slack Setup Assistant app is to add Send to Slack and Slack Alerts buttons to all the various pages used in Salesforce. This allows team members to quickly send details of records to Slack at the touch of a button or set up alerts when a record has changed in specific ways.

Choose all the Layouts (pages) for these buttons to appear on from the list and click Add Actions to Layouts. There’s an option to always return to the wizard and remove them in the future. Hit Next to proceed.

Step 8: Add custom message destinations (optional)

Instead of just blasting messages to the global Slack channel, choose to send them to particular Slack rooms. Choose to have different Slack rooms for sales, development, and marketing, for example, each with members who are interested in different alerts.

The easiest way to do this is to first create the Slack rooms in advance. Then, in the final step of the Slack Setup Assistant, click New Message Destination and select the Slack room from the dropdown list. Click Save.

The message destination will now appear as an option in all the alerts. Choosing this message destination in an alert will send the message to the specific Slack room instead of the global channel.

Step 9: Change how notifications are sent (optional)

There are two further Slack settings you might want to tweak in the Salesforce settings. Click on the Settings cog, searching for Custom Settings, and clicking on Slack Settings.

Trigger Record Limit defines the maximum number of Slack messages that can be sent at the same time. Select the Maximum Limit to change hundreds of records at a time without sending Slack alerts for all of them.

Async Limit defines the number of asynchronous calls made daily between Slack and Salesforce. This can affect how quickly messages come through from one system to the other, Salesforce recommends sticking with the default values, which are already fairly optimized. Also, Employees can use Slack to query Salesforce about records and use Salesforce data to communicate effectively as a team.

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