Automate Case Management

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Route case ownership with queues.
• Assign cases automatically.
• Respond to customers automatically.
• Escalate cases when necessary.

Introduction to Case Automation

Now that you know that a case is a customer question, lets add some magic. Imagine clicking a few buttons so that your case management processes just happen. Instead of hoping that someone forwards an important case to the right person by a specific time, you can set up those actions so that they happen automatically behind the scenes. Life gets easier for your support team, and customer service gets better, when you add a little automation.

Case automation includes a couple of tools. Let’s check out a couple of the main ones, and keep in mind that the key word for these tools is “automatically.”

Queues	Automatically prioritize your support team’s workload by creating lists from which specific agents can jump in to solve certain types of cases.
Assignment Rules	Automatically assign incoming cases to specific agents so that the right people work on the right cases.
Auto-Response Rules	Automatically send personalized email responses to customers based on each case’s details.
Escalation Rules	Automatically escalate cases to the right people when the cases aren’t solved by a certain time.
Macros	Automatically complete repetitive tasks on cases, such as selecting the right email templates, so that agents can spend time doing more important things.

Since you’ve seen a snapshot of some of the most popular case automation tools, let’s set some of them up. With the Service Cloud, it doesn’t take long to automate common case processes.

Create a Case Queue

Let’s say that you’ve got a team of support agents who need to manage a shared workload of cases for Platinum Support—your company’s premier support level. These cases are from customers who pay big money to get the best service. To help your agents locate and work off this list of important cases from high-priority customers, we’ll create a queue.

1. From Setup, enter Queues in the Quick Find box, then select Queues.
2. Click New.
3. Type a Label and Name for the queue, such as Platinum Support.
4. If you want the support agents included in the queue to receive an email when a new case arrives, leave Queue Email blank. Otherwise, type an email address to notify a person or persons with the email address when each new case arrives.
5. Add Case to Selected Objects.
   
6. Add members, including yourself, to the queue and click Save.
   Now that the queue is created, let’s check it out as if we were support agents. We can get there with a few clicks.
7. Click the Cases tab.
8. From the list, choose Platinum Support and click Go!
   Here’s the queue, which is empty at this time.

   

Add an Assignment Rule

Imagine how much time you could save your customers, and your support team, if cases were magically assigned to the right people with the right answers. With case assignment rules, magic is reality. You can automatically assign incoming cases to one person, groups of people, or even queues. But for now, let’s create an assignment rule so that any case with a contact whose title includes “Awesome Admin” is automatically assigned to you to answer.

1. From Setup, enter Case Assignment Rules in the Quick Find box, then select Case Assignment Rules.
2. Click New.
3. Type, Awesome Admin Assignment, and click Save.
4. Select the rule you just created, and next to Rule Entries, click New.
   Here’s where we add the little details that determine case assignment.

   
5. In Sort Order, type 1 so that the entry we add is processed first. After all, we’re dealing with awesome admins here. In the real world, you’d create one assignment rule with many different entries, which are processed in chronological order. When a case matches an entry, it’s assigned without proceeding to other entries. Won and done!
6. For entry criteria, select “Contact: Title equals Awesome Admin.”
   One of the many useful things about case assignment rules is that you can determine how cases are assigned based on fields from records other than cases. For instance, we’re choosing case assignment based on a contact field, but we could also choose case assignment based on fields from accounts, assets, or users.
7. Add yourself as the User assigned to the rule entry.
8. In Email Template, click the lookup and choose a template so that you receive an email whenever a case from an awesome admin is assigned to you.
   
9. Click Save.
10. Click Edit to mark the rule as Active, then click Save.
    When you activate an assignment rule, it disables any other assignment rules in your organization, so make sure that your active rule includes all of the assignment entries that your support team needs.

That’s it! Now your support team can ship out superhero capes to all of the awesome admins who contact you.

Add an Auto-Response Rule

Being a customer yourself, you probably like knowing when an email you’ve sent to a company is received. In other words, when you send an email, or post a question on a support website, you probably like receiving an email confirmation that your voice has been heard. With auto-response rules, you can make sure that your customers know that their voices are heard loud and clear. You can set up response rules so that your customers are automatically sent a personalized email when they reach out to your company. What better way to show your customers that your support team values their business?

Before we add an auto-response rule, let’s assume that we’ve already personalized an email template and uploaded it to Salesforce. For our purposes, we’ll use an out-of-the box email template because creating email templates is a lesson beyond the Service Cloud.

1. From Setup, enter Case Auto-Response Rules in the Quick Find box, then select Case Auto-Response Rules.
2. Click New.
3. Type, Welcome to Support, then click Active and Save. Activating a rule deactivates any existing active rules.
4. Select the rule you just created, and click New to add a rule entry.
   Here’s where we add a few details that determine which email template we’ll send to a customer.

   
5. In Sort Order, type 1 so that the entry we add is processed first. In the real world, you’d create one response rule with many different entries, which are processed in chronological order. When a customer issue comes in and is converted to a case, it’s assigned based on the first entry it matches.
6. For entry criteria, select “Case: Case Origin equals email.”
   Similar to case assignment rules, you can determine the automatic response to send to a customer based on fields from records other than cases.
7. Add a name and email address to include in the From line of the email template to send to customers.
8. From the lookup field, pick any template to see how this works.
   
9. Click Save and you’re done!

Now any incoming emails from your customers receive an automatic response and confirmation from your support team.

Define When Cases Escalate

There are times when a customer case might jeopardize a big deal or an accidentally overlooked customer might decide to take their business elsewhere. With escalation rules, you can raise the visibility of those cases. Just like assignment rules and auto-response rules, you can determine criteria that automatically triggers an action on a case. The action for escalation rules is to notify or reassign a case to a specific person who can immediately answer the case and restore confidence in your brand.

Let’s define a simple escalation rule. Our rule is to escalate a case to you to answer when it’s been open longer than five hours. For now, let’s use your organization’s default business hours, which simply means that your support team is available 24-hours a day, 7 days a week. But you can change business hours in your Company Profile in Setup.

1. From Setup, enter Escalation Rules in the Quick Find box, then select Escalation Rules.
2. Click New.
3. Type Silver Support, then click Active and Save. Activating a rule deactivates any existing active rules.
4. Select the rule you just created, and click New to add a rule entry.
   Here’s where we add the details that determine when the case gets escalated.

   
5. In Sort Order, type 1 so that the entry we add is processed first. In the real world, you’d create one escalation rule with many different entries, which are processed in chronological order. When a customer issue comes in and is converted to a case, it’s assigned based on the first entry it matches.
6. For entry criteria, select “Case: Status equals New.”
   Similar to other rules, you can determine automatic case escalation based on fields from records other than cases.
7. Set business hours to your organization’s default 24/7 support.
8. Set that escalation times are based on when cases are created.
9. Click Save, then New to add an escalation action.
10. In Age Over, enter 5.
    Here, 5 is the number of hours at which cases escalate when they have a status of New. Remember, we want cases Closed after 5 hours. You can set up escalation actions in 30 minute increments by clicking 0 minutes and selecting 30 minutes.

    
11. Auto-assign cases to you, and from Notification Templates, click the lookup icon to pick any template.
12. Select yourself as the user to notify, and from Notification Templates, click the lookup icon to add a template to see how this works.
13. Click Save.

Now any cases that haven’t been closed in 5 hours are assigned to you.

Resources

• Queues Overview
• Managing Assignment Rules
• Set Up Auto-Response Rules
• Set Up Escalation Rules

Remember, this module is meant for Salesforce Classic. When you launch your hands-on org, switch to Salesforce Classic to complete this challenge.

Salesforce Basics - Auto-Response Rules, Assignment Rules & Escalation Rules

Auto-Response Rules
An auto-response rule is a set of conditions for sending automatic email responses to lead or case submissions based on the record’s attributes. Use auto-response rules to send quick replies to customers to let them know you’ve received their inquiry or issue.

You can create auto-response rules for leads captured through a Web-to-Lead form and for cases submitted through a:
>> Self-Service portal
>> Customer Portal
>> Web-to-Case form
>> Email-to-Case message
>> On-Demand Email-to-Case message

You can create as many response rules as you like based on any attribute of the incoming lead or case, but only one rule for leads and one for cases can be active at a time. The email responses are listed in the Activity History related list of the lead or contact and the Email related list on cases.

Assignment Rules
Create assignment rules to automate your organization’s lead generation and support processes.

>> Lead Assignment Rules—Specify how leads are assigned to users or queues as they are created manually, captured from the web, or imported via the lead import wizards.

>> Case Assignment Rules—Determine how cases are assigned to users or put into queues as they are created manually, using Web-to-Case, Email-to-Case, On-Demand Email-to-Case, the Self-Service portal, the Customer Portal, Outlook, or Lotus Notes.

Typically, your organization will have one rule for each overall purpose—for example, one lead assignment rule for importing and a different lead assignment rule for web-generated leads; or one case assignment rule for standard use and one case assignment rule for holiday use. For each rule type, only one rule can be in effect at any time.

Each rule consists of multiple rule entries that specify exactly how the leads or cases are assigned. For example, your standard case assignment rule may have two entries: cases with “Type equals Gold” are assigned to “Gold Service” queue, and cases with “Type equals Silver” are assigned to “Silver Service” queue.

To create an assignment rule, from Setup, click Customize from the top of any page. Then select Leads or Cases, and click Assignment Rules.

Sample Assignment Rule
The following case assignment rule assigns a case to a specific queue based on the account rating:

Rule Name — Hot Account Assignment

Rule Entries:
Order Criteria Assign To
1        ISPICKVAL(Account.Rating, "Hot") Tier 1 Support Queue
2       OR( ISPICKVAL(Account.Rating, "Warm") ,
               ISPICKVAL(Account.Rating, "Cold") )                Tier 2 Support Queue

To create an error-proof rule, always create the last rule entry with no criteria. This rule entry will catch any leads or cases that the previous rule entries did not assign.

Salesforce processes rules in the following order:
1. Validation rules
2. Assignment rules
3. Auto-response rules
4. Workflow rules (with immediate actions)
5. Escalation rules

Escalation Rules in Cases
Create case escalation rules to escalate cases automatically if they are not resolved within a certain period of time.

Typically, your organization will have one escalation rule that consists of multiple entries which specify exactly how the cases are escalated. For example, your standard case escalation rule could have two entries: cases with Type set to Gold are escalated within two hours, and cases with Type set to Silver are escalated within eight hours.

Each rule defines a condition that determines how cases are processed.

For each escalation action, you can specify the following:

Age Over: Specifies the number of hours after which a case should be escalated if it has not been closed. This time is calculated from the date field set in the Specify how escalation times are set field. No two escalation actions can have the same number in this field.

Assign To: Specifies the user, partner user, or queue to which the case will be assigned if it matches the condition. Users specified here cannot be marked “inactive” and they must have the “Read” permission on cases.
Note: You can't revoke the “Read” permission on leads or cases for users assigned to a rule.
Note that reassigning an escalated case is optional.

Notification Template: Specifies the template to use for the email that is automatically sent to the new owner specified in the Assign To field. If no template is specified, no email will be sent.

Notify this user: Specifies the user to notify when the case is escalated. Notifying another user is optional.

Notify Case Owner: Indicates that the owner of the case is notified when the case is escalated.

Notification Template: Specifies the template to use for the notification email that is automatically sent to the Notify user(s). If you choose a user in the Notify field, you must select a template.

Additional Emails: Specifies additional individuals that you want to notify upon escalation.

Each time you save a case or change the case owner, your escalation rules re-evaluate that case. Once the case matches an escalation rule entry, calculates when the case should be escalated and stops checking other escalation rule entries. For example, if you have two escalation rule entries that specify:

>> Escalate three hours after creation date if Case Reason equals Crash
>> Escalate four hours after creation date if Case Reason equals Bug

A case created with Case Reason of Bug will be scheduled for escalation four hours after it was created. Later, a user changes the case, which causes the escalation rules to re-evaluate the case. If escalation rules find that the Case Reason is now Crash, it schedules the case to be escalated three hours after creation date. If the case was created more than three hours ago, the case is escalated as soon as possible.
Escalation rules are not evaluated when transferring multiple cases at one time from a case list view. Also note that if you use assignment rules to change case ownership, the escalation rules are evaluated before any assignment rules.

When Salesforce triggers a case escalation rule that has time-dependent actions, use the escalation rule queue to view pending actions and cancel them if necessary.
To view pending actions:
1. From Setup, click Monitoring | Case Escalations.
2. Click Search to view all pending actions for any active case escalation rule, or set the filter criteria and click Search to view only the pending actions that match the criteria. The filter options are:
Case to Escalate
The Case Number of the escalated case. The Case Number is a unique, automatically generated number used for identifying the case.
Escalation Rule
The name of the rule used to escalate the case.
Rule Entry
The order in which the rule entry will be processed. A rule entry is a condition that determines how a case escalation rule is processed. Each escalation rule can have a maximum of 3000 rule entries.
Escalation Action
The time criteria specified for the case to escalate as defined in the rule entry.
Ignore Business Hours
Indicates if the Ignore Business Hours checkbox is selected on the rule entry, meaning that the rule entry is in effect at all times and ignores your organization's business hours.
Escalate At
The date and time at which the case will escalate as defined in the rule entry. Dates and times display in the time zone of the user viewing the escalation rule queue.
Added Date
The date and time at which the case was added to the queue. Dates and times display in the time zone of the user viewing the escalation rule queue.
The filter is not case-sensitive.
To cancel pending actions:
1. Select the box next to the pending actions you want to cancel.
2. Click Delete. Salesforce cancels the pending action.