Creating Customer Cases

A customer case describes a single customer concern. Create a customer case whenever a customer reports an issue that needs to be resolved.

To create a customer case:

  1. In CRM, click Cases on the table bar.

  2. Click the Plus button next to Cases to create a new case.

  3. In the Create New Cases window, type or select the appropriate information for the following fields:

    • Account Name — Required field. The account in which the case is related to.

    • Priority — Required field. Use your best judgment. If you are unsure of what to select, talk to your manager.

    • Case Status — Select Open, unless you have resolved the issue completely, at which point select Closed.

    • Date Opened — Select the date that the incident was first reported. This field is editable because while you should create cases as soon as possible, sometimes you may have a backlog of cases to enter.

    • Date Closed — Select the date that the incident was resolved.

    • Owner — The person who is assigned to the customer case.

    • Category — Required field. Select one of the following options from the Category list.

      • Software — Use when working on a software issue on a specific system. Use for any account type (e.g. customer or internal).
        Validation: Case must be linked to an Installed Product under the account.
      • Hardware — Use when working on a hardware issue on a specific system. Use for any account type (e.g. customer or internal).
        Validation: Case must be linked to an Installed Product under the account.
      • Hardware Installation — Use for time spent installing a specific product. Usually this will be time spent at a customer site installing a hardware product, but it could also be for remote software installation.
        Validation: If a case is Closed, the case must be linked to an Installed Product under the account.
      • Pre-Install — Created by the support manager when a new order comes in. Assigned to a specific support engineer, and linked to a Sales Order. Support engineers should log their pre-install planning/preparation time under this case. This category can be used to help monitor orders handled by the support team that are in progress.
        Validation: Product must be empty. This is because the Installed Product records might not exist yet, and there could be multiple products. Case must be linked to a Sales Order, and is only allowed to be linked to a Sales Order when set to this category. This can only be created by support managers.
      • Internal/General — To be used for any internal work not specific to an instrument or software instance. Cases set to Internal/General can be created by anyone within the company.
        Examples: “Working on changes to our master imager PC”, “Researching best practices for SQL Server maintenance plans” and “Working with IT to deploy SMTP server that can be used by our customers”.
        Validation: Case must be linked to an “Internal” account type.
      • Internal/Support Team — To be used for support team specific activities that are repeated often, where it would be a burden to have to create a new case each time the activity took place. This category exists in order to make it easy to filter on these common cases.
        Examples: “Internal Admin (emails, internal discussions, meetings)” and “Support of Sales/Marketing teams” (e.g. for demos).
        Validation: This can only be created by a support manager and case must be linked to an “Internal” account type.

    • Product — Click the blue ellipses button, and then select the installed product at the customer site to which the incident relates.

    • Symptoms — Required field. Type a description of the symptoms of the issue, e.g. “images too dark”.

    • System Status — Use this field only if you feel the case is important and needs to be included in the “Important Cases” automated email report. Options include Non-operational and Semi-Operational. Semi-operational indicates that the issue is not stopping the customer’s normal workflow but requires immediate attention. If you are not sure what to select, talk to your manager.

    • Tags

      • Next Site Visit — Select this check box if the incident can be addressed the next time a support technician visits the customer’s area or individual site for another case, install, or retrofit.

      • PM Visit — Select this check box if the incident is related to annual preventative maintenance (PM).

      • Application Support — Select this check box if the incident is related to application for support.

      • Customer Survey — Select this check box if the incident is related to a customer survey.

      • Customer Upset — Select this check box if the customer is a “high maintenance” customer and, regardless of priority or system status, the issue should be addressed as soon as possible.

    • Case Sub Category — Use this field if there is additional information related to the Case Category selection.

    • Sales Order — Click the blue ellipses button, and then select the appropriate sales order.

  4. Click Create.

  5. Create one case entry per day that you work on the case, making sure to log the hours spent on the case that day. The final case entry must include a summary of how the case was resolved.

  6. When the case is resolved, change the Case Status to Closed, and then click Update.

Related Topics: