Signs Your Business Needs A Salesforce Support And Maintenance Partner

Salesforce is a powerful CRM platform, but simply implementing this technology may not guarantee success. To maximize ROI, businesses need continuous optimization, expert guidance, and proactive maintenance (something an in-house team may struggle to provide alone).  

Many businesses invest in Salesforce with the expectation of high-value returns but eventually struggle with low user adoption, security risks, underutilized features, and operational inefficiencies. These challenges hinder their revenue and efficiency, turning Salesforce into a cost center rather than a revenue-driven platform.  

If you are also noticing these signs, it’s time to consider hiring a Salesforce support and maintenance partner.

This blog dives deep into the most crucial warning signs and how these service providers help overcome such signs.

What is a Salesforce Support and Maintenance Partner?

Salesforce support and maintenance partners are specialized providers who manage, optimize, and secure your Salesforce Org. They offer:

• Proactive Monitoring: 24/7 performance checks to prevent downtime, security breaches, data decay, and technical debt (poorly managed customizations).
• Expert Guidance: Certified experts help resolve feature stagnation (underused automation/ AI tools) and increase user adoption.  
• Strategic Roadmaps: Align the Salesforce platform with your business goals.

Why are they crucial? 

• Cost Efficiency: Avoid the expenses of hiring full-time specialists.
• Risk mitigation: Ensure compliance, security, and data integrity. 
• ROI maximization: Unlocks advanced features and helps your teams utilize them efficiently. 

Salesforce support and maintenance partner well-versed in identifying warning signs early that can save your business from short-term and long-term inefficiencies. Here are the key indicators where you need a certified Salesforce partner.  

Key Signs You Need a Salesforce Support and Maintenance Services

1. Rising Ticket Backlogs

The Problem: 

• Your internal IT team or admin is overwhelmed with user requests, bugs, and updates (minor or major), which take days or weeks to resolve, slowing down operations. 

Why Does it Matter?

A growing backlog of unresolved tickets means a delayed sales cycle, frustrated employees, and missed opportunities. Also, 78% of service teams say the customer seems more rushed, and slow ticket resolution hurts customer satisfaction, as per Salesforce’s Sixth Edition State of Service report. 

The Solution:

Salesforce support and maintenance services provides you with:

• Dedicated resources to handle tickets efficiently. 
• SLA (Service-level Agreement) backed response times for quick resolution.
• Proactive monitoring to prevent recurring issues.

2. Downtime Increasing 

The Problem: 

• Salesforce crashes unexpectedly, runs slowly, or experiences integration failures.
• Users complain about lagging reports or timeouts during peak hours. 

Why Does It Matter?

1. During a two-hour downtime, Meta lost nearly $100 million in 2024. 
2. Downtime or crashes lead to:

• Lost sales opportunities
• Poor customer experience 
• Decreased employee productivity

The Solution:

Salesforce maintenance services experts ensure:

• 24/7 performance monitoring using tools like Salesforce Health Checks and quick disaster recovery (minimize disruptions). 
• Optimize integration (APIs, middleware stability checks) and testing before major release to prevent crashes.

3. Declining User Adoption

The Problem: 

Employees avoid using the platform due to a lack of training, complex workflows, or inefficient processes. It leads to inconsistent data entry, workflow errors, and resistance to CRM-driven operations.

Why Does it Matter?

Decreasing user adoption means your CRM investment is wasted. According to the Salesforce Sixth Edition State of Service report, only 36% of agents try to upsell due to a lack of training. 

The Solution: 

Salesforce support services experts help you with: 

• Role-based training (end-users vs admins).
• UX improvements (customer dashboards, simplified page layouts).
• Ongoing feedback loops to refine processes.
• Change management to boost engagement.

4. Security & Compliance Risks

The Problem: 

• Unsure whether the Salesforce setup meets compliance requirements such as GDPR and HIPAA.
• Frequent permission errors, outdated security settings,  or unauthorized access attempts pose risks.

Why Does it Matter?

A single data can lead your organization to:

• Heavy fines and legal repercussions
• Loss of customer trust

Note: The average cost for organizations experiencing non-compliance problems is $14.82 million, according to Globalscape.  

The Solution:

Salesforce managed service provider enforces:

• Security best practices, regular security audits (sharing settings and profile permissions), data encryption, and masking (PII protection). 
• Compliance automation (retention policies) and real-time threat detection (event monitoring and Salesforce Shield).

5. Underutilized Salesforce Features

The Problem: 

• You’re only using basic functions (contacts & leads) but missing out on AI, Agentforce, automation, or advanced analytics. 
• Manual processes can lead to slowing down workflows.

Why Does it Matter?

Salesforce’s full potential lies in customization and scalability. Utilizing its power-packed features as per specific business needs can lead to achieving high ROI results. 

According to Salesforce’s Sixth edition of the State of Service report, only 49% of service organizations are fully implementing AI in Salesforce. 

The Solution:

Salesforce support and maintenance services providers help you:

• Leverage the power of Einstein AI (predictive scoring, next best actions) and Flow Builder and Process Automation to reduce manual work. 
• Utilize the platform’s advanced analytics (Tableau CRM, Reports, Dashboards) and billing automation capabilities, leading to streamlining quotes and invoicing. 

6. Lack of Strategic Roadmap

The Problem: 

• Your Salesforce org is disorganized due to unused fields, outdated workflows, and no clear upgrade plans. 
• You are constantly reacting to problems instead of proactively optimizing.

Why Does it Matter?

Without a clear roadmap to optimize the Salesforce platform, your CRM becomes a patchwork of fixes. It costs even more in technical debt. 
Note: 30% to 70% of CRM projects fail due to poor planning. 

The Solution:

Experts help you with:

• A strategic roadmap that aligns with business goals. 
• Regular org health assessments (using Optimizer), release management (sandbox testing, change sets), and data archiving & cleanup strategies.

7. Unstable Customization 

The Problem: 

• Your Apex triggers, Flows, or Lightning components stop working after Salesforce updates or customization. 
• Your strategies are reactive, but not proactive, costing you significantly both time and money. 

Why Does It Matter?

Unstable customization and patchwork can lead to:

• Business operations/process failures
• Increased admin workload

The Solution:

Taking the help from a Salesforce support and maintenance partner lead you get guidance in:

• Pre-release testing in sandbox environments.
• Support partners follow modular and future-proof coding best practices.
• API version checks through deprecation monitoring. 

8. Poor Data Quality & Duplicates

The Problem: 

• Encountering duplicate leads, missing fields, and inaccurate reports.
• Inefficient decision-making leads to unreliable decisions. 

Why Does It Matter?

The poor quality of your data leads to poor forecasting and wasted marketing spend. According to Gartner, poor data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9 million. 

The Solution:

The help of Salesforce support services ensures:

• Creating data validation rules and duplicate management.
• Implementing automated cleansing tools like Data.com and DemandTools.
• Regular data health checks.

9. Slow Salesforce Performance 

The Problem:

• Your team is encountering issues like slow reports loading and “Service Unavailable” errors. 

Why Does It Matter?

A slow performance of the platform not only causes you revenue loss, but it also impacts the productivity of the users. 
Note: According to Akamai (The State of Online Retail Performance report), only a 100-millisecond delay in load time hurts conversion rates by up to 7%.

The Solution:

A Salesforce maintenance partner optimizes:

• Indexing and SOQL query tuning.
• Asynchronous processes (Batch Apex, Queueable).
• Caching strategies (Lightning Web Components optimization).

Conclusion

If you are experiencing any of these warning signs, it means your Salesforce org needs expert care. A Salesforce managed service partner like Cyntexa will not only help reduce downtime but also improve performance, boost user adoption, increase security, and maintain a clean, scalable org. They will help you utilize the key features, provide 24/7 proactive support, and maintain compliance & security.

AUTHOR

Vishwajeet Srivastava

Salesforce Data Cloud, AI Products, ServiceNow, Product Engineering

Co-founder and CTO at Cyntexa also known as “VJ”. With 10+ years of experience and 22+ Salesforce certifications, he’s a seasoned expert in Salesforce Data Cloud & AI Products, Product Engineering, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, ServiceNow, and Managed Services. Known for blending strategic thinking with hands-on expertise, VJ is passionate about building scalable solutions that drive innovation, operational efficiency, and enterprise-wide transformation.