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Support Your Customers
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Last updated August

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CONTENTS

SUPPORT YOUR CUSTOMERS

Salesforce Service Cloud
Tracking Customer Inquiries
Resolving Customer Inquiries
Creating and Verifying Service Agreements
Accessing Knowledge
Using Unified Help Desks
Using Social Customer Service

INDEX

SUPPORT YOUR CUSTOMERS

Salesforce Service Cloud
Wow your customers with awesome service and boost support agent productivity

Give your customers their favorite choice of communication with your team whether by web email phone social media and more
Make life easier for your support agents by automating processes like case assignment notifications escalations milestones service
contracts and more And give your team a unified help desk from which to see a degree view of each customer case and the tools
to resolve them quickly
Learn Service Cloud Basics with Trailhead

Case Management

A case is a customers question or feedback Customize and automate case support processes for faster response times and happier

customers
Case Teams Overview
Case Queues Overview
Response Rules Setup
Escalation Rules Overview
Assignment Rules Setup
OmniChannel Overview
Macros Setup

Knowledge Base
Create share and find relevant information faster to deliver awesome customer service
Knowledge Overview
Knowledge Setup

Support Your Customers

Tracking Customer Inquiries

MultiChannel Support
Make customers happier by offering them many choices in how to reach your support team
WebtoCase Setup
EmailtoCase Overview
QuestiontoCase Setup
LiveAgent Setup
Online Communities Overview
Call Center Overview

Open CTI Overview

Social Customer Service Overview

SOS Setup

Unified Help Desk for Support
Boost support agent productivity with a dashboardlike interface that supports multiple cases across every service channel
Case Feed Overview
Salesforce Console Overview
Custom Console Components Overview

Customer Support Agreements
Represent and enforce servicelevel agreements like warranties subscriptions or maintenance agreements with entitlement management
Entitlements Overview
Entitlement Management Setup

Tracking Customer Inquiries
Cases
Cases

A case is a customers question or feedback Support agents can review cases to see how they can

deliver better service Sales reps can use cases to see how they affect the sales process Responding
to cases keeps your customers happy and enhances your brand
Your administrator can set up communication channels to gather cases from customers preferred
forms of contact Channels include Communities for online forums EmailtoCase for emails
WebtoCase for websites Salesforce Call Center for phone calls and more Some channels arent
available for Lightning Experience
From the Cases home page you can create locate and edit cases and also sort and filter cases and
queues using standard and custom list views

EDITIONS

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Available in Group
Professional Enterprise
Performance Unlimited
and Developer Editions

Support Your Customers

Cases

Tip If a Salesforce console is set up you can use its dashboardlike interface to respond to multiple cases faster If entitlements
are set up you can check whether customers are eligible for support or if cases are close to violating a milestone If Salesforce to
Salesforce is set up and cases are shared with external contacts choose one of the list views to see cases that your business partners
have shared with you These features are available only in Salesforce Classic

SEE ALSO

Cases Home

Using the Chatter Answers QA Tab

Case Management Implementation Guide

Cases Home
From the Cases home page you can create locate and edit cases

EDITIONS

In addition case home lets you jump to case reports and mass delete cases or mass email contacts
on cases

SEE ALSO

Available in Salesforce
Classic
Available in Group
Professional Enterprise
Performance Unlimited
and Developer Editions

Cases
Guidelines for Working with Cases
Create Cases
Cloning Cases

USER PERMISSIONS

Close Cases
To view cases
Read on cases

Deleting Cases

To create cases
Create on cases

Viewing Case Lists
The cases list page displays a list of cases in your current view To show a filtered list of items select
a predefined list from the View dropdown list or click Create New View to define your own
custom viewsTo edit or delete any view you created select it from the View dropdown list and
click Edit
If the Salesforce console is set up view case lists by selecting Cases from the navigator tab if Cases
is available
Click Edit or Del to edit or delete a case
If Chatter is enabled click

or

to follow or stop following a case in your Chatter feed

EDITIONS

Available in Salesforce
Classic
Available in Group
Professional Enterprise
Performance Unlimited
and Developer Editions

Click New Case or select Case from the Create New dropdown list in the sidebar to create a
case

USER PERMISSIONS

Select the box next to one or more cases and then use the buttons at the top of the view to
close the cases take ownership of them or change the case status or owner

To view case lists
Read on cases

Note Cases with a red arrow have been automatically escalated via your organizations
escalation rules

To create cases
Create on cases

Support Your Customers

Cases

Taking Ownership of Cases
To take ownership of cases in a queue view the queue list view check the box next to one or more cases and then click Accept
Professional Enterprise Unlimited Performance and Developer Edition organizations can grant additional access to cases beyond what
the sharing model allows
Note The organizationwide sharing model for an object determines the access users have to that objects records in queues
Public ReadWriteTransfer
Users can view and take ownership of records from any queue
Public ReadWrite or Public Read Only
Users can view any queue but only take ownership of records from queues of which they are a member or depending on
sharing settings if they are higher in the role or territory hierarchy than a queue member
Private
Users can only view and accept records from queues of which they are a member or depending on sharing settings if they
are higher in the role or territory hierarchy than a queue member
Regardless of the sharing model users must have the Edit permission to take ownership of records in queues of which they are
a member Administrators users with the Modify All objectlevel permission for Cases and users with the Modify All Data
permission can view and take records from any queue regardless of the sharing model or their membership in the queue

SEE ALSO

Cases
Guidelines for Working with Cases

Changing Multiple Cases
From any case list page administrators can mass update multiple cases at once From any queue
list view users can take ownership of one or more cases if they are a member of that queue if they
are higher in the role or territory hierarchy than a queue member or if the organizations default
sharing for cases is Public ReadWriteTransfer Simply check the boxes next to the desired cases
and click the appropriate button The following actions are possible
AcceptAssigns you as the owner of the selected cases in a queue list view Any attached
open activities are transferred to you as well In organizations that do not have the Public
ReadWriteTransfer sharing model for cases you can take cases only from queues of which
you are a member or if you are higher in the role hierarchy than a queue member
Change OwnerAssigns the cases to the one user or queue you specify Any attached open
activities are transferred to the new owner as well When putting cases in a queue the open
activities are not transferred
In addition to the required user permissions for this feature you must have read sharing access
to the cases you are updating
Note When you change case ownership any associated open activities that are owned
by the current case owner are transferred to the new owner
CloseCloses the selected cases using the values you specify You can set a common Status
and Reason and add any comments
You must have the Manage Cases permission and readwrite sharing access to the cases to
use this feature

EDITIONS

Available in Salesforce
Classic
Available in Group
Professional Enterprise
Performance Unlimited
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To change case owner

Transfer Cases OR

Transfer Record

AND

Edit on cases
To close and change the
status of cases
Manage Cases

Support Your Customers

Cases

Change StatusChanges the Status of the cases to the value you set
You must have the Manage Cases permission and readwrite sharing access to the cases to use this feature

SEE ALSO

Guidelines for Working with Cases

Create Cases
You can create cases in various ways

EDITIONS

Your admin can set up WebtoCase and either EmailtoCase or OnDemand EmailtoCase to
automatically capture cases from your website and customer emails
Your customers can log their own cases from a community Customer Portal SelfService portal
or Chatter Answers
Note Starting with Spring the SelfService portal isnt available for new orgs Existing
orgs continue to have access to the SelfService portal
You can create cases manually from the Cases tab the Cases related list or depending on your
orgs settings in the feed on record detail pages
If you have an answers community you can escalate an unanswered or problematic question
into a new case
You can create or update cases only for contacts that are eligible to receive customer support For
how to find out if a contact is eligible or if a service contract includes an entitlement see Verify
Entitlements on page

Available in Salesforce
Classic
Case assignment rules
WebtoCase
EmailtoCase and the
SelfService portal are
available in Professional
Enterprise Performance
Unlimited and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create a case for a support email or phone call

To view cases
Read on cases

Use Search to find the individuals account and then locate the contact in the Contacts related
list

To create cases
Create on cases

If the contact doesnt exist create a contact for that account
Click New in the Cases related list of the contact
If your org uses record types you might be prompted to choose a Record Type when creating a case Different record types
can have different fields and different picklist values
Enter information for the case
When you enter or select a contact for the Contact Name field the Account Name field defaults to the account associated
with the contact when you save the case However you can change the account in the Account Name field during subsequent
updates
To associate the case with an asset
a Click the Asset lookup icon Initially the asset lookup lists all assets for the selected contact Enter search criteria and click Go
to refine this list
b Select an asset from the assets listed to associate it with the case
c If you do not find a matching asset click New to create a asset from the lookup dialog and associate it with the new case The
New button displays if your org has enabled Quick Create and you have the Create permission on assets

Support Your Customers

Cases

d To associate the new asset with a product enter your product search criteria and click Go or select a product from the list of
matches Click Skip if you do not want to associate the asset with a product
e Enter the asset details and click Save
If your org settings allow it you can associate the case with another case Simply type the case number of the parent in the Parent
Case field Alternatively you can click the lookup icon to search for a cases case number
When a case is associated with a parent case it signifies a relationship between cases The relationship can be a grouping of similar
cases for easy tracking or a division of one case into multiple cases for various users to resolve
Optionally set who sees the case and how depending on how your org is set up
To prevent the case from appearing in the SelfService portal deselect Visible in SelfService Portal
To automatically assign the case using your orgs active assignment rule select Assign using active assignment
rules If Assign using active assignment rules is selected and no assignment rule criterion is met the case
is assigned to the Default Case Owner If this setting isnt active you are assigned as the owner
If Assign using active assignment rules is selected by default and you deselect it you override your orgs
default assignment rules and youre assigned as the owner
To automatically send an email to the contact indicating that the case was create select Send notification email
to contact
Click Save or click Save New to save the case and create another Alternatively click Save Close to save and close the case
immediately This action sets the Closed When Created field on the case which indicates that the case was closed during
creation
Note When you save a newlycreated case with an active assignment rule the record type of the case can change depending
on how your admin configured assignment rules
If your org uses divisions the division of a new case is automatically set to the division of the related contact

SEE ALSO

Cloning Cases
Case Fields
Cases Home
Solving Cases

Support Your Customers

Cases

Guidelines for Working with Cases

A case is a customer question or feedback The fields and related lists you see on a case are

determined by your customizations or features set up by your administrator Learn how you can
get the most out of working with cases
Updating Cases
When you change a contact the account doesnt update to the contacts account but you can
edit the account yourself
Contacts who are portal users can only view cases associated with the account on their contact
record
When you change an account manual shares on a case are deleted for users who dont have
read access on the new account
If set up select Send notification email to contact to let the contact know that youve updated
the case An email is sent only if you have access to the contact
If set up select Assign using active assignment rules to reassign a case using an assignment
rule If the case doesnt match rule criteria its reassigned to your organizations default case
owner
If set up click Sharing to share a case with other users groups or roles

EDITIONS

Available in Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Case assignment rules case
escalation rules
webtocase and customer
portals are available in
Professional Enterprise
Performance Unlimited
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To view cases
Read on cases
To update cases

If set up close a case by selecting Closed under Status Otherwise click Close Case and
Edit on cases
change any fields as needed If knowledge article submissions are set up click Save and Create
Article to store information that would help others close similar cases When the draft article
you submit is published its attached to the case and available in the knowledge base for easy reference
If set up a WebtoCase Information section lists information entered by the customer who created the case from a website form
Using Case Related Lists
To reply and work with cases created from EmailtoCase use the Emails related list
To view the required steps in a support process or to add the date of a completed milestone use the Case Milestones related list
To find articles from your organizations knowledge base to help solve a case use the Articles related list To initiate a search type
keywords Attach relevant articles to the case to track solutions and help others solve similar cases Attached articles appear on the
related list If you create a draft article while closing a case the article appears on the related list after the draft article is published
To find solutions version of articles to help solve a case use the Solutions related list If solution categories are set up choose
them to refine your search along with keywords If suggested solutions are set up click View Suggested Solutions to see relevant
solutions The solutions are suggested based on relevancy and case similarity
Replying to Cases from Chatter Answers Not Available in Lightning Experience
To reply to a case converted from a question on a web community type your response in the Chatterlike feed and click Answer
Customer Your response is tracked on the Case Comments related list

Support Your Customers

Cases

Case comments marked Public display as private messages from customer support in Chatter Answers They dont display to
the entire community For example if a support agent adds a public case comment it displays only to the cases contact private
messages in Chatter Answers Support agents can read all private and public case comments

SEE ALSO

Case Fields
Case History
Case Comments
Assigning Cases
Working with Case Emails
Using the Case Milestones Related List

Using the Chatter Answers QA Tab

Case Comments
Case comments let you and your support agents add edit and delete public and private comments
on a case All comments appear in the Case Comments related list

EDITIONS

Comments can remain private or be made publicly available to a cases contact on the Customer
Portal SelfService portal or Chatter Answers You can also set up your portal or Web community
to let customers comment on their cases When a portal user adds a comment the case owner

receives an email A comment icon remains on the case heading until the case owner views

it

Available in Salesforce
Classic

Note Starting with Spring the SelfService portal isnt available for new orgs Existing
orgs continue to have access to the SelfService portal

SEE ALSO

Creating and Editing Case Comments

Available in Group
Professional Enterprise
Performance Unlimited
and Developer Editions

Support Your Customers

Cases

Creating and Editing Case Comments
You can create or edit a case comment from

EDITIONS

The Internal Comments field on a case edit page
The Case Comments related list on a case detail page

Available in Salesforce
Classic

SEE ALSO

Available in Group
Professional Enterprise
Performance Unlimited
and Developer Editions

Cases

USER PERMISSIONS

To view case comments
Read on cases
To add case comments and
make case comments
public
Edit or Create on
cases
To edit or delete case
comments added by other
users
Modify All on cases
To edit delete or make
public your existing case
comments
Edit Case Comments

Support Your Customers

Cases

Creating and Editing Case Comments on Case Detail Pages
Click New or Edit on the Case Comments related list

EDITIONS

Optionally select Public to enable comment notifications to the contact on the case and
to let the contact view the comment on the Customer Portal or SelfService
Type comments in Comment
Click Save
Note Starting with Spring the SelfService portal isnt available for new orgs Existing
orgs continue to have access to the SelfService portal
Note If you publish cases and case comments to external contacts via Salesforce to Salesforce
all public case comments are automatically shared with a connection when you share a case
To stop sharing a comment select Make Private
Tip On the Case Comments related list
Click Del to delete an existing comment
Click Make Public or Make Private to change the public status of a comment on the
Customer Portal or SelfService portal Case comments marked Public display as
private messages from customer support in Chatter Answers They dont display to the
entire community For example if a support agent adds a public case comment it displays
only to the cases contact private messages in Chatter Answers Support agents can read
all private and public case comments

Available in Salesforce
Classic
Available in Group
Professional Enterprise
Performance Unlimited
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To view case comments
Read on cases
To add case comments and
make case comments
public
Edit or Create on
cases
To edit or delete case
comments added by other
users
Modify All on cases
To edit delete or make
public your existing case
comments
Edit Case Comments

SEE ALSO

Case Comments
Creating and Editing Case Comments

Support Your Customers

Cases

Creating and Editing Case Comments on Case Edit Pages
Click New on the Cases tab to create a case or select an existing case and click Edit

EDITIONS

Type your comments in Internal Comments
Optionally select Send Customer Notification to email the contact on the case
of your new public comment

Available in Salesforce
Classic

Click Save

Available in Group
Professional Enterprise
Performance Unlimited
and Developer Editions

An email is sent to the case owner whenever a case comment is created or updated
Note Send Customer Notification displays on case edit pages when
An administrator has enabled case comment notification to contacts on Support Settings
or SelfService Portal settings pages
The comment is marked Public

USER PERMISSIONS

To view case comments
Read on cases

Theres a contact on the case
The contact on the case has a valid email address

To add case comments and
make case comments
public
Edit or Create on
cases

SEE ALSO

Case Comments

To edit or delete case
comments added by other
users
Modify All on cases

Creating and Editing Case Comments

To edit delete or make
public your existing case
comments
Edit Case Comments

Case History
The Case History related list of a case detail page tracks the changes to the case Any time a user
modifies any of the standard or custom fields whose history is set to be tracked on the case a new
entry is added to the Case History related list All entries include the date time nature of the change
and who made the change Modifications to the related lists on the case are not tracked in the case
history
Note Changes to the Closed When Created field are only tracked when the field

is updated via the Forcecom API

In Professional Enterprise Unlimited Performance and Developer Edition organizations for
automated case changes that result from WebtoCase or case assignment or escalation rules the
user listed in the history is the Automated Case User chosen in the Support Settings

EDITIONS

Available in Salesforce
Classic
Available in Group
Professional Enterprise
Performance Unlimited
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To view cases
Read on cases

SEE ALSO

Cases

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