Salesforce always makes a splash in the run-up to Dreamforce, and this year was no different, particularly when it came to its Lightning Flow tool and new Lightning Solutions category on the Salesforce AppExchange.
The idea is pretty simple: allow businesses to build out sophisticated, automated workflows in Salesforce CRM without extensive coding. It’s allowing businesses to get hands-on in building out individualized automated processes and guided visual experiences without needing to write any code. For the most part, everything is as simple as point and click, but there’s room for more advanced coding if so desired.
As Phil Wainewright points out in Digicoder, “because the new tools are part of a single platform, the objects and workflows they create can be fine-tuned in Lightning App Builder, or handed over to a developer for more in-depth coding as required.”
Without question, some businesses are going to look to customize and add new functionality to their flows, but the simplicity and ease-of-use of existing components is going to be a major selling point for others.Imagine a bicycle store. The staff is versed in bicycles, not advanced coding. But with a little bit of Salesforce know-how, management could design a Lightning Flow process that walks employees through the selection and recommendation process, from manufacturer, model, size and speed.
“We want to extend the power of CRM by democratizing app development,” Anne DelSanto, GM of the Salesforce Lightning Platform told diginomica as the tools were rolled out. “You can have low-code-no-code and pro-code.”But naturally, Chargent’s decided to take things a step further. After all, how complete could a flow be for a business if there’s no simple way to accept payments within it?
Chargent’s Lightning Flow solution allows businesses to embed a component that accepts credit card payments through Stripe. All you need to do is add Chargent’s connected action to your flow, add the Stripe key, and you’re up and running. And the component itself is totally free.
Remember that bicycle store? Now they can not only build a comprehensive flow for the buying process, but now they can take credit card payments right there. And Chargent’s component comes with approval/decline notification screens, a retry button for failed transactions and a complete debug response from Stripe.So if you’re thinking about Lightning Flows, and really want to make yours as comprehensive as possible, give Chargent’s easy-to-use component a look over on the AppExchange.