3 questions to ask before committing to a Salesforce LMS

When you shop, you appreciate having that personal attention to detail. An email with a discount coupon or an item on sale that you had in your cart! This is all done with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) such as Salesforce.  One of the reasons why so many businesses choose Salesforce is because of its ability to integrate with other systems such as a learning management system (LMS). Salesforce LMS is critical in streamlining staff training and thereby ensuring happy (and loyal) customers!

While there are many Salesforce LMS systems, a business needs to find the right fit.

I always ask the following 3 questions when a business asks me for an LMS tool recommendation:

1. What do you ACTUALLY need from your Salesforce LMS?

Before you set out to find the right LMS, what do you need it for? What are the objectives? Is it product training for process training? Is it for every staff member or only for some? What will be the end results AFTER training is done?

These are critical questions way before you begin looking for a tool.

2. What Features or Facilities do you want your LMS to have?

LMS are go way beyond video training. They are able to offer assessments, grading, progress tracking, automation, messaging, discussion boards, forums, knowledge banks, and more. Do you need a robust wired and wireless network to support the system or is the system hosted in the cloud? What about the security of confidential information?

It is important to prioritize the features your business wants. This will allow you to shortlist the LMS systems that can offer these facilities.

3. What will tomorrow’s LMS bring?

When choosing an LMS system, you are committing not only money but also time. It takes a long time to set up and configure the LMS system. Therefore, the question I always ask is how future proof is the LMS? Does it allow for easy upgrades? Can you export the data and move it to another vendor should you wish to change? How often are updates made and what impact/ downtime will they result in while the system is upgraded?

So what LMS options are out there?

Here are 3 LMS systems examples that are flexible enough for most businesses to consider: *

Adobe Captivate Prime

Adobe Captivate Prime, much like other products offered by Adobe, is the most feature-loaded product present on the market right now. The incredible variety of features offered by Captivate Prime make it the ideal choice for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Adobe offers advanced features such as AI-powered social learning that automates content curation in the form of discussion boards. Such features, combined with Salesforce, will not just allow you to create an immersive customer training experience, but will also help you create a community that loves your product.

Talent LMS

Another well-known name in learning and development circles, Talent LMS has won numerous awards for its superb user interface. The creators of Talent LMS claim that their platform will enable absolutely anyone with basic knowledge of using computers to create an immersive learning experience. 

Developed with the training needs of an extended enterprise in mind, Talent LMS can easily be integrated with a number of enterprise apps, including Salesforce.

Looop

Looop (and yes that has the extra 0) is another robust learning management system that offers compatibility with a number of enterprise platforms like Salesforce CRM, Office 365, Okta, and others.

However, what really sets Looop apart from the competition is its incredible reporting capabilities. Looop offers training administrators to create incredibly customized reports and track specific metrics to zero in on gaps in the curriculum, or even the overall training experience. 

With the ability to track individual learner progress of each one of your customers, you can ensure you reach out to the ones that aren’t engaging so that someone from your support team can assist them with the training.

* Note: I am not endorsing these Salesforce LMS systems, just bringing them to your attention!