That's it - just make sure there's plenty of salt in it and it will look after itself.
The only problem comes when your water usage changes dramatically, so the ion-exchange medium gets used-up sooner than expected, then your water is hard until a regeneration takes place. There is usually a method of forcing the softener to regenerate outside its programmed cycle but your water will be hard whilst this process is taking place (usually less than an hour, depending on the softener). So, for instance, if you come back from holiday with 6 loads of washing and a dirty car you can force a regenerate, then do all the washing (and the car), and then do another regenerate to make sure you're OK until the next programmed regeneration.
This is the point I was trying to make about the twin-cylinder models - you can just ignore them as they regenerate when needed, but don't supply hard water whilst regenerating because they switch to the other cylinder. They're more expensive to buy but more convenient to use (like many other things in life) and, possibly, cheaper on salt because they always fully use-up the ion-exchange medium before regenerating, whereas the other type estimate when a regeneration will be needed and do it the night before.