High-Level Tasks and Roles in Route Optimization

Learn about roles in Salesforce Maps Advanced for sales and service managers and the field reps that they manage. And understand the tasks that managers and reps complete.

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Managers set up the product and visit plans, which are the templates for routes. Field reps generate their routes automatically, providing input, such as their days off and shift times.

Arrows showing four main tasks and whether they're performed by managers or field reps
High-Level Task Details Example
Install and set up Typically, sales and service managers use their knowledge of company business rules and processes to set up Salesforce Maps Advanced. A service manager sets up the product to give access to all service reps. The service manager creates a custom routable object called ServiceAccount to use for location data for the routes.
Create a visit plan Before field reps can generate their routes, managers create a visit plan, or template. The visit plan contains the data, users, and criteria to optimize routes as much as possible, including visit windows. A retail sales manager creates a visit plan for store account reps that includes account and location data, weekly visit frequency, and a custom visit window between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM.
Generate routes After providing their calendar and schedule information, field reps generate their routes. Visit plans then determine the best-fitting routes. A restaurant sales rep decides to take off Friday, but the rep must fulfill the weekly visit target. When the rep generates the route, the product schedules account visits Monday through Thursday, avoiding the day off on Friday.
Use best practices During the route generation lifecycle, managers identify areas to maintain and optimize in Salesforce Maps Advanced. To keep Salesforce data up to date, a sales operations manager schedules periodic data sync batch jobs. In another example, a restaurant sales manager updates a visit plan to accommodate a Restaurant Week promotional period.