Quick Guide

Can't find what you are looking for? This guide should get you started in the right direction.

General

What is a case?

A case is a request raised by someone using your site. For the technically minded, a case is an active process instance in the platform's workflow engine. While a case is active you can review it, add notes, send replies and assign tasks to other people. At some point all the work that needs to be done will be complete, the person who raised the case will be happy with the outcome, and the case will be closed.

What is a case type?

Cases are categorised by type. You might have one case type for complaints, one for general enquiries, one for freedom of information requests - there's no limit on how many you can create.

Each case type is self contained. It will have a specific form a user fills in to raise the case, and case types have their own configuration that controls things like SLAs, the staff users responsible for it, what notifications are sent out, and the tasks that need to be carried out.

What is Case Management?

Case Management is a product we've built to interact with cases. Staff members (the case managers) pick up cases using the Self Service template. They then use Case Management to do all of the things they need to do to resolve the user's enquiry.

Users

Who can raise a case?

Cases are raised by members of the CM-STARTERS user group. Add users or groups to this group so they can raise cases. You should add the anonymous user to this group if you want people to be able to raise cases without logging in.

Who are my case managers?

The staff users who can interact with cases are set in the configuration of each case type. The configuration manager lets you enter the names of the user groups your case managers are in. This means you can set up different groups of staff users to only see certain case types on their Self Service articles.

Who handles escalated cases?

The users responsible for escalations are set up just like your case managers. You can set different user groups per case type if you want to.

Working on a Case

How do case statuses work?

Statuses exist to give an at-a-glance idea of what state a case is in. A case always has an open and a closed status - it could have any number of "in progress" statuses. When a case manager is working on a case they can change the status, and a status can also be set by a Case Routine.

You can rename and set up new statuses in the configuration manager.

How do SLAs work?

We call SLAs "completion targets". When a case is raised it will be assigned a completion target automatically if one has been set up in the configuration manager. You can set different targets for each case type. Configuration options exist that control whether staff can set the target themselves (if one isn't set automatically), whether staff can extend the target, and whether calendar or working days are used.

Escalated cases

If a completion target is breached the case becomes escalated. Cases can also be escalated manually be case managers.

Breached targets and manually escalating a case send an email to the current case manager and to the users in the escalation group for this case type.

SLA reminders

Reminders are set up in the configuration manager alongside the targets themselves. Set the number of minutes, hours or days prior to the target to send out an email. If a case has been claimed, the assigned case manager will receive the reminder email. If a case isn't assigned to anyone an email is sent to all case managers eligible to claim the task. 

What are case summaries?

When a case manager first views a case they'll see a summary and different buttons to display more information. These are all described on Details, Status, Summary and Target SLAs.

What is a routine?

A routine is a set of automated actions set up in a case's configuration. Routines have a trigger (eg an SLA being breached or a task being completed) and a set of actions. Actions include changing the status, adding notes, and reassigning the case to other groups.

Notifications

When are notifications sent?

Case Management will send notifications when:

• A new case is raised
• A case is assigned to a group or individual
• The SLA reminder is reached, or the SLA is breached
• All tasks are completed, or a task is assigned or cancelled
• The task SLA reminder is reached, or the SLA is breached
• Contact details are updated
• A case is escalated
• Appointments are created, updated or cancelled
• Using the "Contact" button, and if there is no reply
• A case is updated (a note is added) by person who raised the case or a staff member who is not the current case manager
• A case is closed

There's a more detailed list of all of the notifications and the templates they use in the Emails and Notifications section.

Who are they sent to?

If a case is assigned to a case manager, most notifications are only sent to them.

Notifications are sent more widely:

• When a new case is raised, all users in the responsible case manager group are notified
• If a case is escalated, or the SLA is breached, everyone in the "escalation" group is notified
• When a case is assigned to a group of users using the "Reassign" button
• If a case is updated (a note is added) and the case is not currently assigned to anyone, all users in the responsible case manager group are notified

The person who raised the case is notified when:

• They raise the case
• Their contact details are updated
• The case manager uses the "Contact" button
• Appointments are created, updated or cancelled
• The case is closed

How can I turn off notifications?

You can turn off every notification individually using the settings in the Email Content section of the case configuration. There's also a global toggle to turn off group emails for new and reassigned cases in the Setup and Naming section, that means groups of users will only be notified if they are responsible for escalations, or if updates are added to a case that isn't assigned to anyone.

Case Tasks

What are tasks?

Tasks are processes linked to the main case. They must be completed before the case can be closed.

Who performs tasks?

Tasks are set up in the configuration manager. Here you can enter the groups or users who should carry out the task. When the case manager creates a task in a case, they'll be able to pick the group/user it should be assigned to.

How do I create a task?

If tasks have been set up for a case type in the configuration manager, a case manager can create a task by going to the "Tasks" tab and pressing "Add new task".

Automatically generated tasks

Some tasks can be created automatically or conditionally when a case is raised. In the configuration manager set "Auto-generate task" to "Yes" .

Creating New Case Types

To create new types of cases you'll need a form for your users to fill out, a snippet on the form to link it to Case Management, and some configuration to set who the case should go to, if there are any SLAs, that sort of thing. See the Creating New Case Types section.