The defaults are mediocre. A short pass on search settings and per-object search layouts is the highest-leverage 30 minutes an admin can spend on user experience.
- Open Search Settings
Setup, search for Search Settings. Confirm Enhanced Lookups is on, set the number of search results per page, and choose how many objects appear in Search Results.
- Tune each object's Search Results layout
Setup, Object Manager, open each high-traffic object, then Search Layouts, then Search Results. Add the high-signal disambiguation fields (Region, Owner, Status, Stage) and remove ones nobody uses.
- Tune Lookup search layouts in parallel
Still in Search Layouts, edit Lookup Dialogs. The same fields that disambiguate full search usually disambiguate lookup typeaheads.
- Train users on operators and wildcards
Most users do not know about quoted phrases, AND/OR/NOT, and the asterisk wildcard. A short cheat sheet plus a quick demo unlocks much better search behaviour without any configuration.
- Audit results quarterly
Run sample searches every quarter against real records and watch what reps actually type. Adjust layouts as record models and team structures change.
- Leading wildcards are not supported. Searching acme finds Acme Corp but not New Acme Inc; the user has to type the leading token.
- The search index is eventually consistent. Records created seconds ago may not appear in search until the indexer catches up.
- Long text areas and rich text areas are only partially indexed by token. Searching for a substring inside a body field is not reliable.
- Search Layouts and List View filters are different surfaces. Admins sometimes add fields to one and assume the other follows. They do not.