Einstein Next Best Action: Recommendations & Strategies

Hey friends,

Einstein Next Best Action shows reps or customers a short list of recommended offers and actions, like a repair, a discount or an add-on, chosen by a recommendation strategy you build in Flow Builder. When someone accepts a recommendation, a flow runs to carry it out.

It's rules plus data, with optional AI inputs, which makes it predictable. This post covers the building blocks, a worked example and what changed with Agentforce. Sources are Salesforce Help and the Salesforce Admins blog on Next Best Action and Agentforce. On the Agentforce Service Consultant exam, it shows up when you design the service rep experience and Agentforce Service automation.

What are the parts of Next Best Action?

Recommendations are just records. The strategy is where the thinking happens.

Recommendations are standard Salesforce records, like accounts and contacts. Each one describes an offer or action and points to the flow that runs when it's accepted. Salesforce's tip: if you'll have a lot of them, add custom Category and Ranking fields to the Recommendation object to help with sorting and ordering.

How do you build a recommendation strategy?

Build it in Flow Builder with the Recommendation Strategy flow type. Salesforce recommends Flow Builder over the older Strategy Builder wherever possible. The flow gets the record's context, retrieves candidate recommendations, filters and branches on your rules, and outputs the few that should appear.

Why Flow Builder: the Salesforce Admins blog says recommendation strategy flows now match Strategy Builder's capabilities and add versioning, subflows, debugging, connectors and Agentforce integration. Strategy Builder is a legacy tool, and both Strategy Builder and Einstein Recommendation Builder are slated to be sunset, so build new strategies in Flow Builder.

What does a real strategy look like?

Say you support a subscription product and want reps to see the right retention move on every case. Here's a strategy I'd sketch:

Each recommendation links to a flow: the credit flow creates the credit request, the upgrade flow logs the offer, the survey flow sends the survey. The rep clicks Accept and the work is done, and Reject is tracked too.

Here's why I care about practice questions so much. I earned 17 Salesforce certifications, and Focus on Force was a big part of that. My early approach was study guide first, tests later. Flipping it, taking practice tests fast and often, cut my study time way down. Cert Lab is my version of that: fast testing with explanations that link to current Salesforce docs and screenshots.

Where can recommendations appear?

Add the Einstein Next Best Action component to the page and pick your strategy. Salesforce Help lists these places:

• A Lightning record page, like Case or Account.
• An app's home page.
• An Experience Cloud site page, so customers see recommendations too.
• A Visualforce page.
• An external site.

How does Next Best Action work with Agentforce?

Since Winter '25 you can create an agent action from a recommendation strategy flow. Add it to a Next Best Action topic (topics are now called subagents), and your users can ask their agent for recommendations instead of opening the record page. Salesforce also suggests adding the standard Identify Record by Name action so users can ask about a record by name.

I like this pattern a lot. The agent handles the conversation, but what it recommends still comes from your strategy and your business rules.

How do you report on recommendations?

Create a custom report type for recommendation data and strategy metrics. Salesforce Help says you can see the monthly total of recommendations your org's strategies served and analyze which were accepted or rejected and by whom. Low acceptance on a recommendation usually means it's showing to the wrong audience, so tighten the strategy.

What mistakes should you avoid?

• Building new strategies in Strategy Builder. It's legacy. Use a Recommendation Strategy flow.
• Showing too many recommendations. The point is a few high-value suggestions, not a menu.
• Recommendations with no flow. If accepting does nothing, reps stop clicking.
• Forgetting the reject path. Reject can run a flow too, and rejections show up in reporting. Use them to refine the strategy.
• Calling it generative AI. It's rules and data. AI can feed it, but the strategy decides.

FAQ

Is Next Best Action included with Service Cloud?

Access has come through Service Cloud Einstein or an Additional Next Best Action Requests license. Users who build strategies need the Manage Next Best Action Strategies permission. Check your contract for current licensing.

What is a recommendation in Salesforce?

A standard record that describes an offer or action and links to the flow that runs when it's accepted.

Can customers see Next Best Action recommendations?

Yes. You can add the component to an Experience Cloud site page.

Strategy Builder or Flow Builder?

Flow Builder, using the Recommendation Strategy flow type. Strategy Builder is legacy and slated to be sunset.

Where should you go next?

• The Agentforce Service Consultant study guide covers all eight exam sections.
• Salesforce flow types explained for the flows behind each recommendation.
• Agentforce topics and actions if you're exposing a strategy to an agent.

Hope this helps!

Best,

Nick