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Create a public prospectus request form with address verification using Salesforce Education Cloud

This blog will take you through the key aspects of Education Cloud to provide you with more knowledge on what you can do with Salesforce Education Cloud, Digital Experiences and our Address Verification Flow Component. The second half of this article will walk you through a use case step-by-step that brings together all of this knowledge: creating a screen flow on a digital experience for prospective students to request a prospectus to be sent to their address.

What is Salesforce Education Cloud?

Education Cloud is a platform built on Salesforce CRM aimed at the education sector, from schools through to higher education institutions like universities and colleges. This cloud is aimed at keeping students, alumni and staff connected. According to Salesforce, Education Cloud is intended to “deliver the personalised engagements, proactive advice, and connected experiences students expect”. Education Cloud has a tonne of benefits, specific to the education industry it serves. This purpose-built platform enables educational organisations to better connect students, staff, schools, districts and universities, as well as providing a 360-degree holistic view of the education journey. 💡 Check out our blogpost: ‘What is Salesforce Education Cloud and what can you do with it?’ to learn more about the benefits and use cases of Education Cloud!

Education Cloud meets Digital Experiences

A Digital Experience, also known as a DX, is a digital interaction between the organisation offering the digital experience and other users (students, families, employees, or partners). Salesforce offers Digital Experiences through Experience Cloud, which enables you to build beautifully-branded external-facing sites that are connected to your CRM. Digital Experiences can provide educational institutions with better digital interactions for students and their families:

  • Improving the student experience and retention
  • Nurturing academic health with student-centric digital experiences,
  • Increasing prospective student engagement rates at the top of funnel.

Digital Experiences can really drive success for everyone involved!

Capturing accurate data for your Education Cloud

At ProvenWorks, we believe good data is the basis of success. Data is at the heart of all institutes and it’s critical that data is accurate at point of entry. With this goal in mind, we’ve developed solutions like AddressTools. Whether you’re sending out a prospectus or tracking term-time accommodation, capturing an accurate address is critical for your operations. When addresses are inaccurate or incomplete, 41% of deliveries are delayed, and 39% simply fail. For students, receiving critical post in good time can be the difference between smoothly enrolling into education or anxiously losing grip of future plans. For colleges and universities, tracking student addresses is important for sending mail to the correct address – whether a student is at their home or term-time address. Capturing accurate addresses is essential for education institutions, and what better way than by capturing addresses at point of entry with typeahead address?

Implementing typeahead address entry into an Education Cloud’s Digital Experience

We’ve established the need for capturing accurate data when utilising Education Cloud, so how can we improve this experience for capturing addresses? Using the Address Verification Flow Component by ProvenWorks, you can:

  • reduce data entry abandonment,
  • mitigate undelivered and returned mail,
  • minimise missed opportunities,
  • and improve staff productivity by allowing them to focus on what’s important.

So, let’s explore the use case of prospective students requesting a physical prospectus. We want to make this process as easy as possible and ensure that the data we collect is verified.

The use case: a prospective student requesting a prospectus

Let’s explore how we can build a form using a screen flow for prospective students to request a prospectus which will be made public on a Digital Experience. in the following steps, we will:

  • Create a Salesforce Flow to create a new Lead and upcoming Activity to send a prospectus.
  • Utilise the Address Verification Flow Component by ProvenWorks to provide typeahead address entry to the Flow Screen.
  • Deploy the Flow to a Digital Experience.

*Note, this guide will not cover the creation of a Digital Experience but will show how to place your Flow into the DX builder. Salesforce has extensive documentation on how to configure a Digital Experience available here: Experience Cloud (salesforce.com)

Before continuing

The following steps demonstrate the value of having both AddressTools Premium and the Address Verification Flow Component installed in your Education Cloud org. To follow along with the guide you will be required to install and complete the initial installation steps for both packages, including obtaining address verification credits from the ProvenWorks team. If you don’t yet have these packages installed, don’t fret! You can still read below to understand how to quickly implement typeahead address verification into your Flow Screen and then come back to explorw the managed packages after!

Steps: Flow Creation

  1. Salesforce Setup | navigate to your Salesforce Flow
  2. New Flow | Select Screen Flow | Click Create
  3. Add New Resource | Variable
  4. API Name we used ProspectiveLead
  5. Data Type | Record
  6. Object | Lead
  7. Select Save

 

Add element

  1. Click the Add element | Screen
  2. Drag the following fields onto the Screen:
  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Email
  • Optionally add any additional fields that you need to capture i.e. Mobile Number, but leave out the Address fields for now.
  1. Navigate back to Components in the panel on the right of the Screen editor.
  2. Add Address Verification by ProvenWorks into the Screen.
  3. Click on the Address Verification by ProvenWorks component to open the component parameters on the right of the interface.
  4. Scroll down the parameters and tick Manually assign variables
  5. Assign the following Values:
  6. City Value > {!ProspectiveLead.City}
  7. Country Value > {!ProspectiveLead.Country}
  8. Postal Code Value > {!ProspectiveLead.PostalCode}
  9. State/Province Value > {!ProspectiveLead.MailingState}
  10. Status Value > {!ProspectiveLead.pw_ccpro__AddressStatus__c}
  11. Street Value > {!ProspectiveLead.Street}
  12. Click Done

 

Create the Lead Record

Now that we’ve created a Flow Screen to capture the Lead’s information, we need to insert it to a new Lead record in Salesforce.

  1. Add Element | Create records
  2. Label | Create Prospective Lead
  3. API Name will auto populate
  4. Create a Record from These Values | Record | ProspectiveLead
  5. Click Done

 

Create an Associated Task

Now that we’ve created a record for the Prospective Lead, we need to create an activity to send the prospectus to the lead.

  1. Add Element | Create records
  2. Object | Task
  3. Label | Create Associated Task
  4. API Name will autopolulate
  5. New Resource | Formula | API Name TomorrowsDate
  6. Data Type | Date/Time | Formula {!$Flow.CurrentDateTime+1} Done
  7. Set Field Values for the Task: • ActivityDate < TomorrowsDate • Description < Send a prospectus • Status < Not Started • Subject < Send a prospectus • Type < Action Item • WhoId < ProspectiveLead>LeadID

 

Add a screen to notify the Prospect

It’s good practice to show a completion message after the flow has completed its processes. We’ll do this by adding another screen element at the end of the Flow. Add element

  1. Click the Add element | Screen
  2. Label | Lead Created Message
  3. API Name will autopolulate
  4. Drag display Text and display the message you desire.
  5. Click Done

 

Save the Flow

The Flow now captures Lead information, saves it to a new Lead record, then creates a related task for your internal team to follow up on. Let’s save this Flow so we can use it in our Digital Experience.

  1. Select Save
  2. Provide a Flow Label to help you identify the Flow in the future, i.e. “Prospectus Request”
  3. The Flow API Name will be auto populated, change this if required.
  4. Click Save
  5. Activate the Flow.

 

How to expose the Flow in a digital experience

  1. Salesforce Setup | Open the Digital Experience where you want prospective students to request a prospectus from in the Experience Builder, then navigate to the page that you want to add the Flow to.
  2. From the Components panel, drag the Flow component onto the page.
  3. In the property editor, select the relevant Flow.
  4. When you’re happy with the Digital Experience, press Publish.

 

Summary

We have now created a way for prospective students to easily request a prospectus via a Digital Experience, and most importantly to gather accurate address data in a fast an efficient manner.

 

AddressTools

AddressTools is our award-winning package for Salesforce to help you standardise, validate and verify your address data.

 

How to: deploy SimpleImport and Managed Import to users in your organization

Overview

SimpleImport has three main implementation paths:

  1. SimpleImport (requires API Enabled) [Premium, Free]
  2. Managed Import with API Enabled (requires API Enabled)
  3. Managed Import with Apex Rest Services (requires Apex REST Services but not API Enabled)

Different paths require their own dedicated permissions which need to be assigned to the user/profile in Salesforce to leverage functionality. This article has been broken down to provide you with all the permissions required for your desired approach.

Why use permission sets?

A permission set is a collection of settings and permissions that give users access to various tools and functions. Permission sets extend users’ functional access without changing their profiles. This allows to easily see the what users have access to as you are able to name the permission set.


Create a permission set

  1. From Setup, enter Permission Sets in the Quick Find box, then select Permission Sets.
  2. Click New.
  3. Enter your permission set name.
  4. Select the types of users for the permission set.

 

SimpleImport [Premium, Free]

Apex, Visualforce and Custom Settings

The user/profile will need access to all Apex Classes with the prefix:

  • pw_si__ [Premium]
  • pw_sifree__ [Free]

The user/profile will need access to the following Visualforce Pages:

  • pw_si__SimpleImport [Premium]
  • pw_sifree__SimpleImport [Free]

The user/profile will need access to the following Custom Setting Definitions:

  • SimpleImport Settings [Premium, Free]
  • Managed Import Settings [Premium]

Managed Import (with API Enabled or with Apex REST Services) [Premium Only]

Apex, Visualforce and Custom Settings

The user/profile will need access to all Apex Classes with the prefix:

  • pw_si__

The user/profile will need access to the following Visualforce Pages:

  • pw_si__SessionIdPage

The user/profile will need access to the following Custom Setting Definitions:

  • SimpleImport Settings
  • Managed Import Settings

License Allocation [Premium, Free]

After deployment to production, a licenses must be allocated to each users.

This can be managed in Setup | Installed Packages | Manage Licenses next to SimpleImport.

API Enabled or Apex REST Services? [Premium Only]

For Managed Import, if there is the option to use the solution with API Enabled, then this is recommended. For some implementations, API Enabled is not preferred, such as community implementations. For these cases, Apex REST Services must be enabled on the profile as the fall back option.

Contact Us

If you have followed this article and are still experiencing issues with configured SimpleImport or Managed Import, reach out to support@provenworks.com where a member of the team will be happy to assist.

Back to the SimpleImport User Guide

How to: Provide access to our Address Verification Flow Component in a Digital Experience

Overview

With the Address Verification Flow Component now installed and in a Digital Experience, it is essential to provide access to CSP Trusted Sites to our component.

This article will explain what settings are required for users to be able to use AddressTools Verification Flow Component functionality.

Provide Access to our Component in Digital Experiences

  1. Salesforce Setup | navigate to CSP Trusted Sites
  2. Click Edit on https://addressvalidation.provenworks.com | Context "All"
  3. Click on Save.

Back to the Address Verification Flow Component installation walkthrough

How to: deploy Address Verification Flow Component to users in your organization

Overview

With Address Verification Flow Component now installed in your Org, it is essential to provide your users with the correct permissions to use the solution.

This article will explain what permissions are required for users to be able to use Address Verification Flow Component functionality.

It is recommended that a permission set is created for Address Verification Flow Component so that it can be applied to multiple users/profiles but these settings can be directly applied to the profiles.

Apex and Visualforce

The user/profile will need access to all Apex Classes with the prefix:

  • pw__avfc.

The user/profile will need access to the following Visualforce Pages:

  • pw__avfc.SessionIdPage

License Allocation

(Skip this step if you have been provided an Address Verification Flow Component Site License)

After deployment to production, a licenses must be allocated to each users.

This can be managed in Setup | Installed Packages | Manage Licenses next to Address Verification Flow Component.

 

Back to the Address Verification Flow Component installation walkthrough

Create a Contact with a Clean Address in a Salesforce Screen Flow

Introduction

Typeahead address searching in a CRM enhances efficiency by quickly suggesting relevant address options as the user types. This offers several benefits. Firstly, it results in reduced manual entry time and effort. It also improves data accuracy with up-to-date address databases and auto-completion that directly minimise errors. Lastly, it can also provide functionality to standardise addresses for consistency.

Key benefits:

  • Improved efficiency by suggesting relevant addresses as a user types.
  • Enhanced data accuracy through integration with up-to-date address databases and auto-completion.
  • Standardised addresses for consistency and easy analysis.
  • Intuitive searching for enhanced user experience and productivity.
  • Reduced manual entry time and effort.

What are Salesforce Flows?

Salesforce Flows give admins a chance to implement advanced processes into their Org with clicks, not code. Many additional components such as typeahead address entry have been designed by developers allowing anyone to implement and utilise such functionality with little technical knowledge.

To optimise the address entry process, we are going to look at the Address Verification Flow Component by ProvenWorks designed to verify address data at point of entry.

What are some of common use-cases for creating Contacts in a Flow?

There are so many use cases available – way too many to list here! Nevertheless, here are some key ones that can spark your imagination:

  • Service agents needing to create new Contacts at speed
  • Customers entering their information in an online checkout
  • New users registering their details to access a service

What is typeahead address search?

The typeahead address search allows users to start typing an address and a list of addresses will be presented associated with the text entered. Once a user clicks on an address in the list, the address will be populated into a familiar address fields format.

This is preferred to traditional address entry where users must individually enter the relevant address data in full into separate street, city, state, postal code and country fields.

What does this article cover?

We’ve established that a typeahead address search can improve user efficient and the quality of data, and we’ve also explored use cases where Salesforce Flows can optimise record entry in Salesforce. Now let’s combine the two and explore a common use case for Salesforce Flow Screens: Service agents capturing a Contact’s information where we’ll also implement typeahead address search to capture the address.

In this article, we’ll cover:

  • Creating a new Flow to create a new Contact
  • Utilising a Flow Screen to capture the Contact fields
  • Implementing typeahead address search functionality with the Address Verification Flow Component by ProvenWorks, and
  • Saving this information to a new Contact record.

Pre-requisites

Your Salesforce Org will require two managed packages available from the Salesforce AppExchange to obtain the typeahead address entry component.

It must be noted that these packages are paid for, with return on investment realised through improved staff efficiencies, reduced process abandonment, and better data quality.

💡  Do you have any questions before getting started? Contact us at support@provenworks.com.

 

Create a new Screen Flow

We’ll start by creating a new Salesforce Screen Flow and creating a new variable to store the Contact details being entered.

  • Go to Salesforce Setup | Flow
  • Select New Flow
  • Choose Screen Flow
  • Select Done
  • Add New Resource | Variable
  • API Name we used NewContact
  • Data Type | Record
  • Object | Contact
  • Select Save

 

Add a Screen to the Flow to capture the Contact’s information

Now we’ll introduce a Screen element to the Flow which will be responsible for capturing the Contact’s information. This information will be captured in dedicated fields that will eventually be saved to a new record.

  • Add Element | Screen
  • Name the Screen
  • Navigate to Fields (Next to Components) | Record Variable | NewContact
  • Drag the following fields onto the Screen:
    • First Name
    • Last Name
    • Email
    • Optionally add any additional fields that you need to capture, i.e. Mobile Number, but leave out the Address fields for now.
  • Navigate back to Components in the panel on the right of the Screen editor.
  • Add Address Verification by ProvenWorks into the Screen. 
  • Click on the Address Verification by ProvenWorks component to open the component parameters on the right of the interface.
  • Scroll down the parameters and tick Manually assign variables
  • Assign the following Values:
    • City Value > {!NewContact.MailingCity}
    • Country Value > {!NewContact.MailingCountry}
    • Postal Code Value > {!NewContact.MailingPostalCode}
    • State/Province Value > {!NewContact.MailingState}
    • Status Value > {!NewContact.pw_ccpro__MailingAddressStatus__c}
    • Street Value > {!NewContact.MailingStreet}
  • Click Done

 

Create the Contact Records

Now that we’ve completed a Flow Screen to capture the Contact’s information, we need to save it to a new Contact record in Salesforce.

  • Add Element | Create records
  • Name the Label
  • Create a Record from These Values | Record | NewContact
  • Click Done

 

Save the Flow

With a Flow now capable of capturing Contact information and saving it to a new Contact record, let’s save the Flow so we can utilise it in our Salesforce Org.

  • Select Save
  • Provide a Flow Label to help you identify the flow in the future, i.e. “Service Agent Contact Capture”
  • The Flow API Name will be auto populated, change this if required.
  • Click Save
  • Activate the flow

 

Copy the Flow’s URL

  • From Setup, enter in the Quick Find box, and then select Flows
  • Click the down arrow in the Flow we created, then click View Details and Versions
  • Copy the flow’s URL from the Flow Detail page

 

Incorporate the Flow into a Button

Buttons are a great way to distribute Flows to users in Salesforce. If you have a service agent taking calls, providing them an easy to access button to create a new contact can be a speedy way to get the job done with little hassle.

  • Go to Salesforce Setup | Contact | Buttons, Links, and Actions
  • Select New Button or Link
  • Label | Verify New Contact
  • Name | Verify_New_Contact
  • Display Type | List Button
  • Behaviour | Display in existing window with sidebar
  • Content Source | URL
  • Select Field Type | Contact
  • Paste the Flow’s URL link we copied earlier in the large text box like the example below (your link may differ as it is dependent on naming)
  • Click Save

 

Add the Button onto the List View Button Layout

  • Go to Salesforce Setup | Object Manager | Contact | List View Button Layout
  • List View Button Layout | Edit | Custom Buttons
  • Add the newly created custom button to Selected Buttons
  • Click Save

 

The Button will now be available in the Contact List View

 

 

Summary

And there you have it – our complete follow-along guide for creating a Screen Flow to enter a Contact record with a verified address!

We hope this article has given you the tools you need to set up your Salesforce CRM for better address data quality alongside a better use experience. If there’s anything you’re stuck on, or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

Contact us at support@provenworks.com

If you’re ready to get started with your own address data journey, why not jump on a kick off call with our team and let’s help you make the most of your Salesforce investment!

[Calendly – AddressTools]

Everything you need to know about the Address Verification Flow Component (Summer ’23 Release)

Please note: To leverage this component, your org must have AddressTools Premium installed from the AppExchange with Address Verification credits.

We always look to improve our products and the Address Verification Flow Component is no different! We have been hard at work enhancing the component with additional functionality to improve your user experience and up your address data game. 

Here is the list of updates we will cover in this article: 

  • Custom CSS is now available via a Salesforce Flow Screen 
  • Users no longer need “View All Custom Settings” permission enabled on their profile 
  • Additional accessibility tags have been implemented 
  • Improved search results by filtering and prioritising countries 
  • Street Line 2 parameter 
  • Release notes 
  • How to upgrade 

Custom CSS is now available via a Salesforce Flow Screen

Ensuring a Salesforce Org matches your company’s branding is important, and even more so in digital experiences. We want to ensure that you don’t need to compromise your visuals when using our flow component. We’ve made changes to simplify adding a CSS file to the component so that you no longer need to wrap it in an Aura component first.

Learn how to apply custom CSS using Additional Styles. 

Users no longer need “View All Custom Settings” permission enabled on their profile 

Previously, users required the “View All Custom Settings” permission on their profile to utilise the Address Verification Flow Component. This is now no longer a requirement; all you need to do is update the package and then the permission can be revoked. 

Additional accessibility tags have been implemented 

We believe our tools should be able to be used by everyone, and that’s why we’ve improved the accessibility tags within the flow component to make them more descriptive. 

Improved search results by filtering and prioritising countries 

We understand how important it is to provide the most relevant results first when looking up an address. That’s why we’ve implemented ‘Top Priority Country’ to help promote the best results, saving the user time and reducing keystrokes.

Here is how to implement this feature. 

Street Line 2 parameter

Adding Street Line 2 provides the flow component with the ability to split the street responses across 2 fields. This feature means it is easier to comply with strict character limits you might face. Street Line 2 is now available in the Address Verification Flow Component.

Here is our guide on how to enable 2 Street Line Address. 

Release Notes

To see the full list of enhancements and improvements, please refer to the Release Notes. 

How to Upgrade

To access the new features, you will need to upgrade the Address Verification Flow Component package. You can upgrade your version of the AddressTools Verification Flow Component by installing the latest package from the AppExchange. 

Upgrade now

Address Verification Flow Component: Enable 2 Street Line Address

Prerequisites

  • The AddressTools Flow Component is installed in your organisation, find it here on the AppExchange.
  • The AddressTools Flow Component will need to be in a Screen-Flow before starting the configuration. If you need to add the component to a Screen-Flow, the steps of how to achieve this can be found here.

Enable 2 Street Line Address

  • Navigate to your Salesforce Flow in Salesforce Setup
  • Click the Address Verification by ProvenWorks component that you previously setup.
  • Ensure that Use Second Street Line is set to {!$GlobalConstant.True}.

Once Street line 2 is enabled you can label it to your preference using the Street2 Label field.

Back to the Address Verification Flow Component installation walkthrough

How to: deploy AddressTools Free to users in your organization

Overview

With AddressTools now installed in your Org, it is essential to provide your users with the correct permissions to use the solution.

This article will explain what permissions are required for users to be able to use AddressTools functionality.

It is recommended that a permission set is created for AddressTools so that it can be applied to multiple users/profiles but these settings can be directly applied to the profiles.

Object and Field Permissions

Setup each object and associated fields with the permissions noted in the table below.

Object Object Permission Field Name Field Permission
Users N/A QuickComplete Country Read
Countries View All All fields Read
States View All All fields Read

Apex, Visualforce and Custom Settings

The user/profile will need access to all Apex Classes with the prefix:

  • pw_cc.

The user/profile will need access to the following Visualforce Pages:

  • pw_cc__CountriesJavaScript
  • pw_cc__SessionIdPage

The user/profile will need access to the following Custom Setting Definitions:

  • pw_cc.CountryComplete Settings
  • pw_cc.AddressTools Fields to Validate

License Allocation

After deployment to production, a site licenses is provided.


Back to the AddressTools Free installation walkthrough

AddressTools Free: Install a default country and enable QuickComplete Country

Installing a default country for all users

One of the first steps during the installation walkthrough is ‘Installing a Default Country’. QuickComplete is the specific functionality in the solution that leverages this value to life. If you need to install a default country to all your users, follow the installing a default country article, then come back here when you’re done.

Installing a separate default country for different users

The user records in Salesforce are provided with a new field “QuickCompleteCountry (pw_cc__QuickCompleteCountry__c)” when AddressTools is installed. This field is what stores a text value of the default country for the user for use with QuickComplete Country. Before you can update the field in the user interface, add this field to the User page layout.

  • Navigate to the User record that you want to add a default country to.
  • Select Edit.
  • In the QuickComplete Country field, type the name of the country you want to add.
  • When complete, Save the record.
  • Repeat for any additional users you want to update.

Note: The QuickComplete Country field is a text field that can accept any value, however, you should only write in country names that you have installed in your organization. Failure to match these values may result in validation rules failing.

Enabling QuickComplete Country

  • Go to App Launcher | AddressTools Administration.
  • Select Settings from the sidebar.
  • Click the pencil next to QuickComplete Country Enabled and tick the checkbox.
  • Default country installation will become available once enabled. Use the Default Country Installation picklist to choose the default country for the organization.
  • Use the Save button.

 


Back to the AddressTools Free installation walkthrough

AddressTools Free: Understanding QuickComplete Country functionality

What is QuickComplete Country?

QuickComplete Country allows you to install a default country for each of your users. The trigger has the ability to auto-populate the country field if it is left null.

Trigger behaviour

When QuickComplete Country is enabled, it has the ability to automatically populate the country field with the default country value without any direct user interaction. This will operate when a change is made to any configured address fields when the country field is left null. If all address fields are left null or untouched, the default country will not be populated into the country field.

Back to the AddressTools Free installation walkthrough