Why Salesforce Support and Maintenance Services Matter in 2026

Publish date:

• 8th April, 2021

Salesforce is a powerful CRM platform; success is not assured by its use alone. Businesses require regular maintenance, professional guidance, and ongoing improvement to maximize their return on investment (ROI) and optimize performance. All of this might be too much for an internal team to handle on its own.

Many companies make Salesforce investments in the hopes of seeing significant returns. They frequently encounter difficulties, however, such as low user adoption, security threats, underutilized features, and operational inefficiencies. These problems have the potential to reduce their productivity and income, making Salesforce a financial burden rather than a tool for generating revenue.

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

Using a Salesforce partner for deployment should not be the end of their support. Many companies believe that once deployment is complete, they can handle everything themselves and get value for their investment. This belief is misleading and can lead to problems with their Salesforce CRM, which features numerous complex tools and functionalities. This blog will explore key warning signs and explain how service providers can help address these issues. 

What is a Salesforce Support and Maintenance Partner?

Salesforce support and maintenance partners help you manage, optimize, and secure your Salesforce Org. They provide:

• Proactive Monitoring: We provide 24/7 performance checks to avoid downtime, prevent security breaches, manage data decay, and reduce technical debt from poorly managed customizations.

• Expert Guidance: Experts can help you optimize the use of automation and AI tools that are not being utilized effectively. They can also help you get more people to use these tools.  

• Strategic Roadmaps: Ensure the Salesforce platform aligns with your business objectives.

Why are they crucial? 

• Cost Efficiency: Save money by not hiring full-time specialists.

• Risk Mitigation: Ensure compliance with rules, maintain data security, and safeguard information. 

• ROI maximization: Get advanced features and help your teams use them effectively. 

A Salesforce support and maintenance partner can help you spot early warning signs that might lead to issues for your business. Catching these signs can save you from short-term and long-term problems. Here are the key signs that indicate you need a certified Salesforce partner.

Key Signs You Need Salesforce Support and Maintenance Services

1. Increasing Ticket Backlogs

The Problem: 

• Your IT team or admin is busy with many user requests, bugs, and updates. Resolving these issues can take days or weeks, which can slow down operations.

Why Does it Matter?

A growing number of unresolved tickets leads to delays in the sales process, unhappy employees, and lost opportunities. Additionally, 78% of service teams report that customers seem more rushed, and slow ticket resolution negatively affects customer satisfaction, according to Salesforce’s Sixth Edition State of Service report.

The Solution:

Salesforce support and maintenance services offer you:

• Dedicated Salesforce developers to manage tickets effectively.

• Quick response times backed by a service-level agreement (SLA).

• Proactive monitoring to avoid repeating issues.

2. Downtime Increasing

The Problem:

Salesforce often crashes, runs slowly, or has integration issues. Users report delays in reports or timeouts during periods of high activity.  

Why Does It Matter?

In just two hours of downtime, Meta lost nearly $100 million in 2024. When Salesforce has issues, it can lead to:  

• Missed sales opportunities  

• Bad customer experiences  

• Lower employee productivity  

The Solution:

Salesforce maintenance experts provide:  

• 24/7 performance monitoring using tools like Salesforce Health Checks and quick disaster recovery to reduce disruptions.  

• Optimization of integration, including checking APIs and middleware stability, and testing before major updates to avoid crashes.

3. Declining User Adoption

The Problem:  

Employees do not use the platform because they lack training, find the workflows too complex, or believe the processes are inefficient. It results in inconsistent data entry, workflow errors, and resistance to using CRM features.

Why Does it Matter?  

If user adoption decreases, you waste your CRM investment. The Salesforce Sixth Edition State of Service report shows that only 36% of agents attempt to upsell due to insufficient training.

The Solution:

Salesforce support services experts can help you with:  

• Training tailored to user roles (for end-users and admins).  

• Improving user experience (better customer dashboards and simpler page layouts).  

• Setting up ongoing feedback to improve processes.  

• Managing change to increase user engagement.  

4. Security & Compliance Risks

The Problem:

You may not be aware whether your Salesforce setup adheres to compliance rules such as GDPR and HIPAA. Common issues include frequent permission errors, outdated security settings, and unauthorized access attempts.  

Why Does It Matter?

A single data breach can lead to:  

• Heavy fines and legal problems  

• Loss of customer trust  

The Solution:

A Salesforce managed service provider can help by enforcing:  

• Security best practices  

• Regular security audits, including sharing settings and profile permissions  

• Data encryption and masking to protect personal information  

• Compliance automation, like retention policies  

• Real-time threat detection using event monitoring and Salesforce Shield.

5. Underutilized Salesforce Features

The Problem:

You are only using basic functions, such as contacts and leads. You are missing out on features such as AI, Agentforce, automation, and advanced analytics. This reliance on manual processes can slow down your workflows.  

Why Does it Matter?  

Salesforce can be customized and scaled to fit your business needs. Using its powerful features can help you achieve a high return on investment (ROI). According to Salesforce’s Sixth Edition of the State of Service report, only 49% of service organizations utilize AI entirely in Salesforce.  

The Solution:

Salesforce support and maintenance service providers can help you:  

• Use Einstein AI's features, like predictive scoring and following best actions, along with Flow Builder and Process Automation, to cut down on manual work.  

• Take advantage of advanced analytics tools such as Tableau CRM, Reports, and Dashboards, as well as billing automation to streamline quotes and invoicing.  

6. Lack of a Strategic Roadmap

The Problem:

Your Salesforce system is disorganized due to unused fields, outdated workflows, and a lack of clear upgrade plans. You often react to issues instead of proactively addressing and improving them.

Why Does it Matter?

Without a clear plan for optimizing Salesforce, your CRM becomes a patchwork of fixes, resulting in more technical problems. Remember, 30% to 70% of CRM projects fail due to poor planning.

The Solution:

Experts can help you create:  

• A strategic roadmap that matches your business goals.  

• Regular health checks of your system (using Optimizer), management of software releases (sandbox testing and change sets), and strategies for data cleanup and archiving.  

7. Unstable Customization

The Problem:

Sometimes, your Apex triggers, Flows, or Lightning components stop working after Salesforce updates or changes are made. It means you are often reacting to issues instead of preventing them, which can result in wasted time and money.

Why Does It Matter?  

Unstable customization can lead to:  

• Problems in business operations and processes  

• More work for administrators  

The Solution:  

Working with a Salesforce support and maintenance partner can help you by:  

• Testing in sandbox environments before updates are released  

• Following best practices for modular and future-proof coding  

• Monitoring API versions for any changes that may affect your system  

8. Poor Data Quality & Duplicates

The Problem:  

You may find duplicate leads, missing information, and inaccurate reports. It can lead to poor decision-making.

Why Does It Matter?  

Low-quality data can lead to inaccurate forecasts and wasted marketing budgets. Research shows that poor data quality costs companies about $12.9 million on average.

The Solution:

Salesforce support services can help by:  

• Creating rules to avoid duplicates and ensure data accuracy.  

• Using automated tools like Data.com and DemandTools for data cleaning.  

• Performing regular check-ups on data quality.

9. Slow Salesforce Performance

The Problem:  

Your team is facing slow reports and “Service Unavailable” errors.

Why Does It Matter?

Slow performance leads to lost revenue and reduces user productivity. A report from Akamai says that even a 100-millisecond delay in load time can lower conversion rates by up to 7%.

The Solution:

A Salesforce maintenance partner can help by optimizing:  

• Indexing and SOQL query tuning.  

• Asynchronous processes (like Batch Apex and Queueable).  

• Caching strategies (to improve Lightning Web Components).

Conclusion

If you notice any warning signs, it means your Salesforce org needs expert help. A Salesforce managed service partner, such as Codleo, can reduce downtime and improve performance. They will boost user adoption, increase security, and keep your org clean and scalable. They will help you use key features, provide 24/7 proactive support, and ensure compliance and security.