The pattern: write field help text on every custom field at creation, add object-level help links for heavily-customized objects, keep the global help link pointing to Salesforce, layer In-App Guidance for first-time workflows. The cost is small per item; the cumulative enablement gain is meaningful.
- Make field help text a required field-creation step
Add to the admin checklist: every custom field gets help text. The one-sentence cost is trivial; the data quality benefit compounds across thousands of record entries.
- Audit existing custom fields for missing help text
Salesforce Optimizer can identify fields without help text. Schedule the audit; backfill help text for the highest-traffic fields first.
- Add object-level Help URLs for customized objects
For objects with org-specific workflows (custom objects, heavily-customized Cases), point the object Help link to an internal Knowledge article explaining the workflow.
- Keep the global Help link pointing to Salesforce help by default
Replacing the global link with a custom portal is heavy maintenance. Layer org-specific help at the object level; let Salesforce maintain its own product help.
- Build In-App Guidance for first-time workflows
Renewal flows, escalation flows, new-feature rollouts. The contextual prompts complement static help; the combination is what gets adoption.
- Document the help content owner per object
Help text and linked articles need maintainers. Without ownership, help content goes stale within a year of the workflow change it described.
- Schedule an annual help content audit
Pull help text for fields modified in the past year. Confirm the help still matches. Update where the workflow drifted.
Per-custom-field tooltip explaining what to enter. The most-used Custom Help level.
Per-object redirect for the Help for this Page link.
Org-wide redirect for the header Help link. Heavy maintenance; usually keep defaulting to Salesforce.
Contextual prompts and walkthroughs complementing static help.
Named maintainer per object. Without it, help content goes stale.
- Field help text without an owner goes stale fast. Workflow changes propagate to the field; the help text stays unless someone updates it.
- Replacing the global Help link with a custom portal is heavy maintenance. The Salesforce-default link is free and updated per release.
- Custom Help can confuse users when the help content describes a different workflow than the current one. Stale help is sometimes worse than no help.
- Object-level Help URLs need to be valid links. Broken Knowledge article links produce a 404 when users click Help; quarterly link check catches breakage.
- In-App Guidance and Custom Help complement each other but cover different needs. Replacing one with the other leaves a gap.