Support
Support
Support
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Last updated: May 13, 2021
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CONTENTS
Service Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
What’s Service? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Service Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Case Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Workforce Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790
Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818
Einstein for Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1009
Field Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1198
Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1655
More Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1662
PDF Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1751
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1754
SERVICE CLOUD
Give your customers the information and support they need with Service Cloud—the customer service and support application that
you can customize to fit your business needs.
With Service Cloud, you can choose how your customers reach you—by email, phone, social media, Experience Cloud sites, chat, text,
and more. To keep your customers satisfied when they do contact you, Service Cloud makes sure that your agents have all the tools they
need to respond efficiently to customer questions and requests. Service Cloud boosts agent productivity, allows communication on
multiple channels, and supports solving issues in the field.
Get Started
Find out what Service Cloud is all about and how to begin.
• What’s Service?
• Optimize Setup with the Service Setup Assistant
1
Service Cloud
Learn More
IN THIS SECTION:
Optimize Setup with the Service Setup Assistant
Service Cloud is a powerful, highly customizable customer service tool. To make the most of its breadth and flexibility, use the friendly
Service Setup Assistant to get help setting up an optimized, out-of-the-box Service Cloud solution. Within a few minutes, your agents
can start using a Service app that boosts their productivity.
Service Cloud Support and Case Management
Set up the Service Cloud basics to help you manage customer issues, like cases and contact requests. Customize your Service Cloud
implementation to meet your business needs with entitlement management, productivity tools, and more.
Service Cloud Routing
Unify your channels and manage your agent workload with Omni-Channel routing. Set up rules and queues to automate your service
process.
Service Cloud Channels
Service Cloud’s support channels offer many ways—phone, email, web chat, social network channels, and more—that your customers
can use to contact you. Today’s customers are used to being digitally connected and easily communicating with their friends, families,
and coworkers. They expect the same from the companies they do business with. Make it easier for customers to connect with your
company how and when they want. Set up a mix of channels based on your business needs and customer preferences.
Workforce Engagement
Run a better contact center to help your business, employees, and customers all win. Your business wins with our new data-driven
planning tools that let you meet workload demands more efficiently. Your employees win with flexible scheduling tools, and better
career ownership and growth opportunities. Your customers win because service is swifter and the agents who support them are
the best match.
Salesforce Knowledge
Give your website visitors, clients, partners, and service agents the ultimate support tool. Create and manage a knowledge base with
your company information, and securely share it when and where it's needed.
Einstein for Service
Einstein for Service is a powerful set of features to support your agents and satisfy your customers.
Field Service
Field Service (formerly known as Field Service Lightning) gives you a powerful, highly customizable, mobile-friendly field service hub
in Salesforce.
Service Cloud Reporting
Use support reports to track the number of cases created, case comments, case emails, case owners, case contact roles, cases with
solutions, the length of time since the case last changed status or owner, and the history of cases.
More Service Cloud Features
Locate documentation for earlier versions of Service features we've upgraded.
2
Service Cloud What Is Service?
SEE ALSO:
Customer Service Features: What’s Different or Not Available in Lightning Experience
Customer Service Features: What’s Different or Not Available in the Salesforce Mobile App
What Is Service?
When we talk about service at Salesforce, we’re talking about Service Cloud—a powerful platform of tools, processes, and features to
help you help your customers.
With Service Cloud, you can deliver instant, personalized service and support to your customers. And because every company and its
customers are different, you can customize Service Cloud to fit your needs. When your customers are happy, you're happy!
So how exactly does Service Cloud work? You can let your customers communicate with you on any channel—email, phone, social
media, Experience Cloud sites, chat, text, and more. We transform those communications into cases, which are what we call a customer
issue, request, or support ticket. Then you route those cases to service agents—the employees at your company who respond and
resolve customer issues. Service Cloud is with you from start to finish, delivering an integrated and streamlined process for handling all
your customer support needs.
Here’s an example of Service Cloud at work. Your customer has an issue with one of your products. They send you an email and in
Salesforce a case is created to track the problem. The case is viewed in the Service Console by one of your agents. After your agent find
a resolution, they email your customer back.
SEE ALSO:
What’s a Case?
Service Cloud Channels
3
Service Cloud Optimize Setup with the Service Setup Assistant
When the Assistant wraps up its setup, your new, fully configured Service app is available for you and your team in the App Launcher.
After you turn it on, the Assistant can’t be turned off, but you can customize its features to your company’s processes later. Turning on
the Assistant doesn’t cause issues with your other apps or overwrite your existing configurations.
Let’s Do This
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Service Setup Assistant, and click Service Setup Assistant.
2. Click the toggle to On.
4
Service Cloud Optimize Setup with the Service Setup Assistant
3. The status changes to In Progress. To get the latest status, click Check Status.
4. When the status changes to Ready, click Get Started.
5. Enter your main support email address. To create a secure email address, click Generate Address, which you can add to your email’s
forwarding service. After you add that email, any email sent to that address generates a case in Salesforce.
6. Click Add Users, and enter the email address of any agents and supervisors on your team. Assign each user a profile (Service Admin
or Service Agent), feature licenses, and queues.
7. Click Complete.
Your new, fully configured Lightning Service Console app is available for you and your team in the App Launcher. Just look for the Service
Console app containing your business name.
Tip:
• Salesforce adds new features to the Assistant every release. We remind you each release to install new updates.
• To try out the Service Setup Assistant in a sandbox, turn it on in the sandbox and then start over in production when you’re
ready. If you already turned it on in production, create a full sandbox copy for testing.
5
Service Cloud Features Included in the Service Setup Assistant
IN THIS SECTION:
Features Included in the Service Setup Assistant
The Service Setup Assistant walks you through essential setup tasks to get Service Cloud up and running. After a few clicks, your
team can start using key Service Cloud features that are configured with optimal settings and layouts.
Assign licenses and When you add users, Manage permission Summer ’21
permission sets decide which features sets on the Permission
they need access to. Sets page in Setup.
The Assistant assigns Manage individual
feature licenses and users’ settings on the
permission sets, and Users page in Setup.
lets you know how
many licenses are
available.
Provide sample cases, Select the option to Manage cases on the Summer ’21
flow add sample service Cases tab.
recommendations, data, right above the Manage flow
macros, knowledge Service Setup Assistant recommendations on
articles, and quick text toggle. The sample the Actions &
data shows you best
6
Service Cloud Features Included in the Service Setup Assistant
Provide feature walkthroughs Help agents learn how to use Users see a quick text Spring ’21
quick text and macros by walkthrough the first few times
displaying step-by-step they view cases. If macros have
walkthroughs. been shared with the user, they
see a macro walkthrough the
first few times they open the
Service app.
Knowledge Tasks
Task Description Where to Find It Available Since
Enable Knowledge and create a When you add users to your Manage individual users’ Spring ’21
Knowledge profile and Service app, assign them the settings on the Users page in
permission set Knowledge license so they can Setup.
access Knowledge.
Create a Knowledge article This task creates: Manage global actions on the Spring ’21
layout, global action, and • Optimized record page for Global Actions page in Setup.
Channel Mapping configurations knowledge articles that To manage channel mappings,
includes a compact layout, from the Object Manager in
Article Tools and Feed tabs, Setup, click Knowledge, then
and a Compare Versions click Communication Channel
component Mappings. To manage
• New Article global action knowledge page layouts, from
7
Service Cloud Features Included in the Service Setup Assistant
Create a help center Add knowledge articles and Manage and publish your help Summer ’21
branding, and publish your help center on the Help Center page
center to give customers a place in Setup.
to resolve straightforward
questions without contacting
your support team. For
complicated issues, customers
can use a simple web form to
create a case.
Create Email-to-Case queue and Forwarding must be activated Manage Email-to-Case on the Winter ’21
configure Email-to-Case settings to work with Email-to-Case. For Email-to-Case page in Setup.
specific forwarding instructions,
check with your email provider.
During setup, Salesforce sends
a confirmation email. Follow the
steps in the email to finish
setting up Email-to-Case.
Set up Omni-Channel and Complete basic setup steps for Manage Omni-Channel on the Spring ’21
configure case routing Omni-Channel. If Omni-Channel Omni-Channel Settings page in
was ever enabled in your org, Setup.
this task and the next three tasks
are skipped.
8
Service Cloud Features Included in the Service Setup Assistant
Enable Messaging & Messaging Complete basic setup steps for Manage Messaging on the Spring ’21
routing Messaging, like creating a Messaging Settings page in
queue. If Messaging was ever Setup.
enabled in your org, this task is
skipped.
Create Case, Chat, and When you add users to your Manage permission sets on the Spring ’21
Messaging permission sets Service app, assign them the Permission Sets page in Setup.
Messaging or Chat licenses to
let them access the features.
Create Case Status picklist values Create values for the Status field From the Object Manager in Spring ’21
on cases. The values can be used Setup, click Case, then click
for case merging, status-based Fields and Relationships >
email notifications, and other Status to see the picklist values.
features.
• New
• In Progress
• On Hold
• Waiting for Customer
• Escalated
• Merged
• Closed
• Response Received
You can modify or delete them
or add your own. If you’ve
already added values, this task
is skipped.
Enable Case Merge Let agents merge duplicate Manage your Case Merge Spring ’21
cases. settings on the Case Merge page
in Setup.
Set up automatic email Automatically email the case Manage Lightning email Summer ’21
notifications for case updates contact when a case is created, templates from the Email
updated, assigned, and closed. Templates tab. Click the Public
Email Templates folder to view
the sample templates.
Manage support settings on the
Support Settings page in Setup.
9
Service Cloud Service Cloud Support and Case Management
Important: Some of the features that the Service Setup Assistant sets up for you require extra licenses or configuration steps. If
you don’t have a license needed for a particular task, the task is skipped.
• Knowledge requires a Knowledge license.
• Case routing requires a Service Cloud license or Digital Engagement license.
• Chat requires a Digital Engagement license.
• Messaging requires a Digital Engagement license.
• Macros requires a Service Cloud license.
• To access Knowledge, Case, Messaging, and Chat, users must be assigned a feature-specific license and permission set.
If a feature seems to be missing after setup is complete, review the requirements to make sure that you meet them. If the review
doesn’t solve the issue, contact Salesforce Customer Support.
IN THIS SECTION:
Configure General Support Settings
Set up business hours and support holidays for your organization. You can also update settings to make your support processes
more efficient.
Set Up and Manage Cases
Cases are a Salesforce tool that agents use to interact with customers to help get their problems solved — they really are the backbone
of Service Cloud! Cases are powerful records in Salesforce that keep a log of customer issues, show agents a complete customer
overview, and so much more, right on the platform! Customize cases to fit your business needs and ensure that your customers
receive the service they deserve.
Let Customers Request that Support Get Back to Them
Show your customers that you value their time as much as their continued business. Create a contact request flow to let your
customers request that support get back to them. With contact requests, customers don’t have to phone you and wait on hold to
get help—all they do is fill out a form online. Contact requests are like a light-weight version of cases.
Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
A service-level agreement (SLA) is a commitment between you and your customer. With Service Cloud, you can manage your
service-level agreements with service contracts, entitlements, milestones, and assets.
Increase Your Productivity in the Service Console
Service Cloud offers productivity tools that save your agents time when working on cases, customer issues, and records. To maximize
your efficiency, use all the productivity tools together in the Service Console app.
10
Service Cloud Configure General Support Settings
SEE ALSO:
Service Cloud Routing
Service Cloud Channels
Salesforce Knowledge
SEE ALSO:
Self-Service Implementation Guide
Case Management Implementation Guide
11
Service Cloud Configure General Support Settings
Default Case Automatically assign a user or queue to all cases that don't match any Available in: Essentials,
Owner case assignment rule entries. This user must be Active. Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Notify Default Notify the default case owner when a case is assigned to that user. If the and Developer Editions
Case Owner new owner is a queue, the notification is sent to the queue email address.
Notifications are system-generated and can't be modified.
USER PERMISSIONS
Record Type Indicates which record type to assign to cases created by users applying
Setting assignment rules. Select either: To change support settings:
• Customize Application
• Keep the existing record type if you want new cases
to keep the creator's record type
• Override the existing record type with the
assignee's default record type if you want to
overwrite the creator's record type on new cases
Automated Case Specify the user you want listed in the case feed items and Case History
User related list for automated case changes. The name of the automated
case user is displayed in the From field in emails sent by an auto-response
rule. Automated case changes can occur from assignment rules,
auto-response rules, escalation rules, On-Demand Email-to-Case, or cases
logged in the Self-Service portal. Select either:
• System to indicate that an automated process performed an action,
such as creating a case or changing a case’s status. When you select
System, the lookup field is unavailable.
• User to use the lookup field to specify a user, such as an
administrator, to be the Automated Case User. This user must have
the System Administrator profile or the Modify All Data and Send
Email permissions.
Case Creation Specify the template used to notify contacts when a support agent
Template manually creates a case. The notification is optional; it's triggered by a
checkbox on the case edit page. This template must be Available
for Use.
In Lightning Experience, to display the send notification checkbox to
users, you must:
• Specify a case creation template for this setting
• Edit the case page layout properties and select Show on edit page
for the Email Notification Checkbox setting
12
Service Cloud Configure General Support Settings
Setting Description
Case Assigned Specify the template used to notify users that a case was manually assigned to them by an
Template administrator or another user. The notification is optional; it's triggered by a checkbox on the Change
Case Owner page. This template must be Available for Use.
Case Close Template Specify the template used to notify contacts that a case has been closed. The notification is optional;
it's triggered by a checkbox on the Close Case page. This template must be Available for
Use.
Note: Case Close Template is available in Aloha as of Summer '21 so Salesforce doesn't
auto-assign it.
Customer Feedback Specify a survey to send to the case contact when the case is closed. Enable Surveys before specifying
Survey a survey. By default, the Customer Satisfaction survey is set.
New Cases Visible in Automatically selects the Visible in Self-Service Portal checkbox for all new cases,
Portal including cases created via Web-to-Case, Email-to-Case, and On-Demand Email-to-Case.
Regardless of this default, users creating new cases can manually set the Visible in
Self-Service Portal checkbox.
If you’re using Digital Experiences, this setting doesn’t apply for partner or customer users viewing
cases in Experience Builder sites. New case visibility in Experience Builder sites is controlled by sharing
rules.
Enable Case Comment Notify contacts when a case comment has been modified or added to a case. If you select this setting,
Notification to click Case Comment Template and choose the email template to use for these notifications.
Contacts This template must be Available for Use. Emails can’t be sent to contacts that are Self-Service
portal users.
Notify Case Owner of Notify the case owner when a user adds a public or private comment to a case. If you select this
New Case Comments setting, case owners can't opt out of receiving these notices. Notices aren't sent to inactive case
owners.
In Lightning Experience, email notifications aren’t sent when agents use in-line edit on the case
record detail page to update the Internal Comments field.
Early Triggers Enable early triggers for escalation rules and their actions.
Enabled You can set up an escalation rule to perform an action when a case has been unresolved for a specific
number of hours. The Age Over hour you specify determines when Salesforce performs the
escalation action. Enable early triggers to ensure that your escalation actions are triggered before
the Age Over hour you specify.
Enable Suggested Enable the Suggested Solutions button on case detail pages so agents can propose specific solutions
Solutions to help resolve cases.
Enable Suggested Provide suggested articles on the Articles related list. You can make suggested articles available in
Articles all Salesforce Knowledge channels except the public knowledge base.
Send Case Use a system email address rather than the user who updated the case’s for notifications, case
Notifications from comments, attachments, and assignments. System notifications use noreply@salesforce.com as
System Address the From email address.
13
Service Cloud Configure General Support Settings
Setting Description
Note: When notifying a Case Contact after creating a public comment, the From field will
take the email from the commenter.
This setting helps prevent Self-Service or Customer Portal users who update their cases from receiving
out-of-office emails from case owners.
Notify Case Owners Automatically select the Send Notification Email checkbox on cases when users change
when Case Ownership a case owner to another user. This setting helps prevent users from forgetting to notify other users
Changes that they're the new owner of a case. Agents can still select the send notification checkbox even if
you don’t enable this setting.
In Salesforce Classic, selecting this option doesn't automatically select Send Notification
Email when users change a case owner to a queue. However, in Lightning Experience, if you select
this option, the checkbox is always automatically selected for user and queue changes.
Show Closed Statuses Add closed statuses to the Status field on cases. Agents can close cases without having to click
in Case Status Field the Close Case button and update information on close case page layouts.
Selecting Show Closed Statuses in Case Status Field doesn't remove the Close
button from case list views. Instead, it adds Closed to the list of statuses available for users to choose
from when they select multiple cases and click Change Status on case list views.
Hide Save & Close After selecting Show Closed Statuses in Case Status Field, you can select this
Button and Cls Links checkbox so that the Save & Close button on case edits pages and the Cls links on Cases
related lists don't display unnecessarily. Instead, users close cases via the Status field and Save
button.
Enable Case Feed Enables case feed-specific actions and feed items. When you select this option, existing cases are
Actions and Feed upgraded to the case feed user interface.
Items
Size of Email Feed Control the size of email feed items by setting a character limit on the email feed item body. You
Item Body can set the character limit to:
• Small: 400 characters (default)
• Medium: 1200 characters
• Large: 5000 characters
• Custom: A value from 400 through 5000 characters
If an email feed item body exceeds the character limit, users can click More to see the rest of the
email feed item body.
Blank Lines in Email Save space in the case feed by removing blank lines in the body of email feed items.
Feed Item Body
Collapse Previous Display only the most recent email in the email feed item body.
Emails in Email Feed In Salesforce Classic, users can click More to see previous emails in the thread. Agents can also
Item Body collapse expanded email threads by refreshing the browser (This setting applies only to Salesforce
Classic.).
14
Service Cloud Configure General Support Settings
Setting Description
Enable Default Email Use an Apex class to load a default email template or to specify the default target fields for the email
Templates or the action on cases.
Default Handler for
Email Action
Enable Let moderators create cases from Chatter questions in your organization.
Question-to-Case in
Salesforce
Create Auto-Response Changes the order of case feed items and records, so that feed items that are automatically generated
Record After appear after the customer’s first email.
Customer’s First
Email
Show Email Displays an email icon in the case Attachments related list next to files that were attached from
Attachments in Case emails. Also displays a Source column in the case Attachments related list's list view. This feature is
Attachments Related available in Lightning Experience only.
List
Enable Case Merge Lets agents merge cases and lets developers use the API to merge cases. This feature is available in
Lightning only.
Enable Web-to-Case Make sure Web-to-Case is configured in Setup. then, in the Quick Find box, enter Web-to-Case
, and then assign an available template as the Default Response Template to use Lightning templates
with Web-to-Case.
Enable Case From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Case Auto-Response Rules . Assign one of the
Auto-Response Rules available Lightning email templates to your rule, then click Save to enable Lightning email templates
with Case Auto-Response Rules.
Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new Salesforce orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access
to the Self-Service portal.
15
Service Cloud Configure General Support Settings
4. Click Active to allow users to associate the business hours with cases, escalation rules, milestones, and entitlement processes.
5. Optionally, click Use these business hours as the default to set the business hours as the default business
hours on all new cases.
Default business hours on cases can be updated with business hours on escalation rules if the cases match escalation rule criteria
and the rule is set to override business hours.
6. Choose a time zone to associate with the business hours in the Time Zone drop-down list.
7. Set your business hours for each day of the week.
• If your support team is available during the entire day every day of the week, select the 24 hours checkbox.
• Choose the start and end times for the business hours. If the time you want isn’t available, click the field and type it in.
• Leave the business hours start and end times blank and the 24 hours checkbox deselected to indicate that the support team
is not available at all that day.
8. Click Save.
After you have set business hours, you can associate them with:
• Escalation rules, so that when the details of a case match the criteria of an escalation rule, the case is updated and escalated with
the business hours on the rule.
16
Service Cloud Configure General Support Settings
• Holidays, so that business hours and any escalation rules associated with business hours are suspended during the dates and times
specified in holidays.
• Milestones, in entitlement processes so that business hours can change with the severity of a case.
• Entitlement processes, so that you can use the same entitlement process for cases with different business hours.
Note: All users, even those without the “View Setup and Configuration” user permission, can view business hours via the API.
IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Setting Business Hours
To make your support processes more accurate, define when your support team is available to help customers. There are a few
guidelines to keep in mind as you set business hours.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Support Holidays
17
Service Cloud Configure General Support Settings
Note: All users, even those without the “View Setup and Configuration” user permission, can view business hours via the API.
SEE ALSO:
Set Business Hours
Set Up Support Holidays
6. Click Save.
7. Click Add/Remove on the Business Hours related list.
8. Use the Add and Remove to choose the business hours you want to associate with the holiday. You can associate the holiday with
multiple business hours.
Note: All users, even those without the “View Setup and Configuration” user permission, can view holidays via the API.
18
Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Creating Support Holidays
Holidays let you specify the dates and times your customer support team is unavailable. There are a few guidelines to keep in mind
as you set up and work with holidays.
SEE ALSO:
Set Business Hours
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Support Holidays
Set Business Hours
19
Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Queues
Set Up Assignment Rules
Set Up Auto-Response Rules
Set Up Escalation Rules
What’s a Case?
A case is a customer’s question, feedback, or issue. Support agents can review cases to see how
EDITIONS
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. Available in both: Salesforce
Communication channels gather cases from customers’ preferred forms of contact. Channels include Classic and Lightning
Experience Cloud sites for online forums, Email-to-Case for emails, Web-to-Case for websites, Experience
Salesforce Call Center for phone calls, and more.
Available in: Essentials,
On the Cases home page, you can create, locate, and edit cases and also sort and filter cases and Group, Professional,
queues using standard and custom list views. Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Tip: Use the Service Console and its dashboard-like interface to respond to multiple cases Editions
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, you choose one of the list views to see cases that your business
partners have shared with you.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Console
What’s Entitlement Management?
Case Management Implementation Guide
20
Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Note: Case teams count toward your org’s overall storage limit. Each team member on a case counts as 2 KB of storage space.
IN THIS SECTION:
What’s a Case Team?
A case team is a group of people that work together to solve cases. For example, a case team can include support agents, support
managers, and product managers.
Create Case Team Roles
Before you set up case teams or predefine case teams, create roles to determine team members level of access to cases.
Predefine Case Teams
After you define case team roles, you can predefine case teams so that support agents can quickly add people who they frequently
work with to cases.
Set Up Email Alerts for Case Teams
Create email alerts for case teams so that each time a case is created or updated, team members are notified.
Case Team Fields
Case teams have the following fields, listed in alphabetical order. Availability of fields depends on how your admin set up Salesforce.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Queues
Set Up Assignment Rules
Create Page Layouts
21
Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Tip: To filter case lists when you’re a team member, choose My Case Teams. To report on case teams that you belong to, run a
case report, then choose My team's cases from the View filter.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Case Teams
Note: You can’t delete roles, but you can click Replace next to a role you want to replace across all cases. If your org has one role,
you can’t replace it.
22
Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Tip: Roles don’t change a case owner’s access to cases, which is Read and Write by default.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Case Teams
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Case Teams
23
Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Note: To prevent the rule from sending email alerts, click Deactivate at any time. If you deactivate a rule with pending
actions, the actions finish as long as the case that triggered the rule isn’t updated.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Case Teams
Email Templates in Salesforce Classic
24
Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
SEE ALSO:
What’s a Case Team?
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic
Follow these high-level steps to set up Case Feed in Salesforce Classic.
Set Up Cases for Lightning Experience
Before your agents can use the case feed and its publisher in Lightning Experience, you must recreate some quick actions. You also
can customize the agent experience for case hovers, let agents merge cases, and select a date-and-time stamp format on case feed
posts and comments.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
• Review how cases are upgraded and know what to expect when you enable Case Feed actions
and feed items. USER PERMISSIONS
When you’re ready, enable Case Feed actions and feed items. To set up and customize
Case Feed:
Note: In organizations created before Winter ’14, you also need to:
• Manage Cases
• Enable Chatter and actions in the publisher. AND
• Enable feed tracking on cases. On the feed tracking page, turn off tracking for the Status Customize Application
field. Turning off tracking for the Status field prevents duplicate feed items when agents
update a case’s status using the Change Status action.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
• To give agents access to more functionality, create and add custom actions.
SEE ALSO:
Chatter Settings
Enable Actions in the Chatter Publisher
Assign Page Layouts from a Customize Page Layout or Record Type Page
Here’s what happens when cases are upgraded to the new interface: Available in: Enterprise,
• The 5000 most recent, active cases in your organization are converted to the Case Feed interface. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
How long this takes varies depending on the number of cases being converted and the
complexity of the data they contain. For example, cases with multiple email messages or other
attachments may take longer to convert than other cases.
• Older cases are also upgraded if they have comments, emails, or logged calls that were added to the case within the date range that
applies to the original 5000 converted cases. You can have up to 500 cases with current comments, up to 500 with current emails,
and up to 500 with current logged calls for a total of 1500 additional converted cases.
• The following items are added to the feed for each case:
– Up to 60 email messages.
– Up to 60 private and public comments. These are converted from comments to Chatter posts during the upgrade.
– Up to 60 logged calls. Some logged calls that were created before you upgraded to Case Feed may appear in the feed as tasks.
• The Case Feed interface is enabled for all new cases, giving users access to the publisher and feed.
• The Case Detail view becomes available, and contains additional information about the case, including items that remain in their
current related lists.
You’ll receive an email message once the upgrade process has finished.
Best Practices
• For the smoothest upgrade experience, we recommend enabling Case Feed in a full-copy sandbox organization before you enable
it in your production organization. This helps you determine how long the case conversion process takes and lets you review some
sample cases in the new user interface.
• After you enable Case Feed in your production organization, wait until the upgrade process has finished to give users access. We
recommend first assigning Case Feed to a single user, who can review some of the converted cases to be sure the upgrade process
was successful, and then making it available to other users.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic
Enable Case Feed Actions and Feed Items
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
1. From Setup, enter Support Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Support
Settings. USER PERMISSIONS
2. Click Edit. To change support settings:
3. Select Enable Case Feed Actions and Feed Items. • Manage Cases
IN THIS SECTION:
Create Permission Sets for Case Feed
After you enable Case Feed for your organization, create a permission set to give users access to it.
Assign Case Feed to Users
After you’ve enabled Case Feed in your organization and created a permission set that includes it, assign that permission set to users.
Give Users Access to Case Feed Through Custom Profiles
Instead of giving users access to Case Feed through permission sets, you can create a custom profile that includes the Use Case
Feed user permission.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic
Case Feed Upgrade Results
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic
Assign Case Feed to Users
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Note: The Use Case Feed permission is available only on orgs created before Winter ‘14 that Available in: Salesforce
haven’t enabled feed-based layouts. Case Feed is automatically enabled and assigned to all Classic (not available in all
orgs)
standard profiles in Salesforce organizations created after the Winter ’14 release.
1. Create a profile. Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
2. On the Profile page, click Edit. and Developer Editions
3. In General User Permissions, select Use Case Feed.
4. Click Save. USER PERMISSIONS
5. Assign users to the profile.
To create and edit profiles:
• Manage Profiles and
SEE ALSO: Permission Sets
Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic
IN THIS SECTION:
Convert Page Layouts for Case Feed Users to Case Page Layouts
As of Spring ’14, we’ve made creating and customizing case layouts easier by replacing page layouts for Case Feed users with
feed-based layouts for case pages. By converting your older page layouts, you can use the advanced page layout editor to manage
them and can assign Case Feed to users more easily.
Customize the Highlights Panel in Case Feed
The highlights panel appears at the top of the feed detail views and shows the most important information about a case. Edit the
highlights panel to include the fields that are most important for your support agents.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Configure the Case Feed Publisher with the Enhanced Page Layout Editor
If your organization uses the actions in the publisher feature, you can use the enhanced page layout editor to choose the actions
that appear in the Case Feed publisher.
Create and Edit Feed Layouts in Case Feed
Feed view page layouts determine which actions, fields, and tools users see when they’re working with cases in Case Feed. You can
create different layouts and assign them to different user profiles. For example, you might have one layout for agents and another
for supervisors.
Rename Actions and Feed Filters in Case Feed
Rename Case Feed actions and feed filters so they match the terms your company uses.
Create Custom Feed Filters for Case Feed
Custom feed filters help support agents focus on the items that are most relevant for them.
SEE ALSO:
Find Object Management Settings
Convert Page Layouts for Case Feed Users to Case Page Layouts
As of Spring ’14, we’ve made creating and customizing case layouts easier by replacing page layouts
EDITIONS
for Case Feed users with feed-based layouts for case pages. By converting your older page layouts,
you can use the advanced page layout editor to manage them and can assign Case Feed to users Available in: Salesforce
more easily. Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Note: Page layouts for Case Feed users are available only in organizations created prior to
Spring ’14. Available in: Enterprise,
Feed-based case layouts include the same features as page layouts for Case Feed users: a feed, Performance, Unlimited,
which includes a publisher with actions, feed filters, tools such as an articles tool, and sidebar and Developer Editions
components such as custom buttons and links; a highlights panel; and a detail page, with related
lists and other in-depth information about the case. You can use the standard page layout assignment USER PERMISSIONS
tool to assign feed-based case page layouts to users, which means you no longer have to use
permission sets or custom profiles to give users access to Case Feed. To create and edit page
layouts:
To convert page layouts for Case Feed users to feed-based case layouts:
• Customize Application
1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts. To assign page layouts:
2. Click next to a layout in the Page Layouts for Case Feed Users list and choose Convert • Manage Users
to case page layout.
We recommend using this option so you can review the converted layout before you delete
the original, but to save time, you can choose Convert to page layout and delete.
3. The converted layout appears in the Case Page Layouts list with the prefix Converted:. Click Edit next to it.
4. In the page layout editor, confirm that the layout includes the elements you want. To see and edit what’s included in the feed view,
including feed filters and sidebar components, click Feed View.
5. Once you’re happy with the case page layout, click Page Layout Assignment in the Case Page Layouts list to assign it to the
appropriate user profiles.
Note: For custom profiles with the Use Case Feed permission, or profiles with permission sets that include Use Case
Feed, these page assignments won’t take effect until you remove the permission or permission set. If your organization was
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
created between Winter ’14 and Spring ’14, you can’t remove Use Case Feed from standard profiles, so these assignments
won’t take effect until you delete all of your page layouts for Case Feed users.
6. Click next to the older version of the layout in the Page Layouts for Case Feed Users list and choose Delete. In the confirmation
that appears, click OK.
7. If there are users assigned to the layout you delete, you’re prompted to choose another layout as a replacement. This is only a
formality: Once you assign users to a case page layout, that’s what they’ll see.
If you have multiple layouts for Case Feed users, we recommend converting and deleting them all at the same time. Once you delete
the last of your older layouts, the Page Layouts for Case Feed Users list will disappear.
SEE ALSO:
Create and Edit Feed Layouts in Case Feed
Configure the Case Feed Publisher with the Enhanced Page Layout Editor
Assign Page Layouts from a Customize Page Layout or Record Type Page
Find Object Management Settings
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Configure the Case Feed Publisher with the Enhanced Page Layout Editor
If your organization uses the actions in the publisher feature, you can use the enhanced page layout
EDITIONS
editor to choose the actions that appear in the Case Feed publisher.
Note: This option is selected by default for new Salesforce organizations that use Case Feed, Available in: Salesforce
and for organizations that enable Case Feed after the Summer ’13 release. Classic (not available in all
orgs)
1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.
Available in: Enterprise,
2. How you access the Case Feed Settings page depends on what kind of page layout you’re
Performance, Unlimited,
working with. and Developer Editions
• For a layout in the Case Page Layouts section, click Edit, and then click Feed View in the
page layout editor.
USER PERMISSIONS
• For a layout in the Page Layouts for Case Feed Users section, click and choose Edit
feed view. (This section appears only for organizations created before Spring ’14.) To configure the Case Feed
publisher:
3. Select Use Page Layout Editor to Configure Actions. • Customize Application
4. Click Save.
5. To access the page layout editor:
• For a layout in the Case Page Layouts section, click Edit.
• For a layout in the Page Layouts for Case Feed Users section, click and choose Edit detail view. (This section
appears only for organizations created before Spring ’14.)
6. In the page layout editor, click in the Quick Actions in the Salesforce Classic Publisher section.
7. In the palette, click Quick Actions.
8. Drag the actions you want to the Quick Actions in the Salesforce Classic Publisher section. You can also drag actions to change the
order in which they appear and drag off actions you don’t want.
On the Case Feed page, up to approximately five or six actions are displayed in the publisher; the rest are included in the More
drop-down list.
9. Click Save.
If you’ve previously used the Case Feed Settings page to configure the publisher, you see these differences when you switch to the
enhanced page layout editor:
• The actions list appears at the top of the publisher. You can no longer position the actions list to the left of the publisher.
• The Answer Customer action has been divided into its two component actions: Email and Portal.
• The actions list looks more like the Chatter publisher on other pages.
• The standard Chatter actions—Post, File, Link, Poll, Question, and Thanks—automatically appear in the publisher layout, and they
replace the Write Case Note action. You can change the sequence of these actions and remove any you don’t need.
• The Feed View/Details drop-down list replaces the View Case Detail action.
• Custom actions you previously added to the Case Feed publisher aren’t available. Create new custom actions and add them to the
publisher. These new actions must use publisher.js rather than interaction.js.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
• The Case Detail page expands to full width, making it easier to see all of your related lists and other information.
SEE ALSO:
Case Feed Page Layouts in Salesforce Classic
Create and Edit Feed Layouts in Case Feed
Find Object Management Settings
SEE ALSO:
Case Feed Page Layouts in Salesforce Classic
Configure the Case Feed Publisher with the Enhanced Page Layout Editor
Find Object Management Settings
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Enable Compact Feed Update the overall look and feel of the feed Compact feed lets agents see more information about
View in the Console view and compress feed items when agents a case with much less scrolling than when working
view cases in Salesforce console tabs or with cases in the standard feed view.
subtabs. This option is only available if you have Actions
in the Publisher and Use Page Layout
Editor to Configure Actions enabled.
Highlight Externally Indicate which feed items are visible to This option is only available for compact feed.
Visible Feed Items external users by changing the background
color of the feed item to orange. When this setting and the Enable Experience
Case Feed setting are both enabled, the following
feed items are highlighted in the case feed:
• Public emails sent to or received from the email
address for contact person on a case
• Public case comments
• All social posts
• Questions escalated from Experience Cloud sites
• Tasks that have the All with Access/Public setting
• Events that have the All with Access/Public setting
• Chatter posts that have the All with Access/Public
setting
See also Set Up the Site Case Feed.
Publisher Options
Automatically Automatically reduce the height of the This setting is automatically enabled in organizations
Collapse Publisher publisher when it’s not in use, showing more created after Summer ’14 and is only available if you
of the feed below. The publisher expands to have Actions in the Publisher and Use
its normal height when an agent clicks inside Page Layout Editor to Configure
it. Actions enabled.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Custom Actions Select up to 10 custom Visualforce pages to add This setting appears only if you haven’t selected
to the publisher as actions. Pages must use the Use Page Layout Editor to
standard case controller. Configure Actions.
Select Action Select actions to include in the Case Feed This setting appears only if you haven’t selected
publisher, and choose the order in which the Use Page Layout Editor to
actions appear. Configure Actions.
Email Action
Select Header Fields Select fields to include in the header of the Email The Email header automatically includes the
action. From, To, Bcc, and Subject fields.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Enable Rich Text Make the rich text editor available to agents so
Agents can click in the editor’s menu bar
Editor they can include formatting, such as bolded or
to switch to plain text mode.
underlined text, bulleted or numbered lists, links,
and inline images in their email messages.
Require Use of Rich Prevent agents from switching to plain text mode This setting helps ensure that agents write and
Text Editor when they write email. send only formatted emails, not plain text
messages.
Specify From Automatically include specific email addresses in To use multiple addresses, separate them with
Address(es) the From field. commas. They appear as a picklist in the Email
action header.
You can use only Salesforce-validated email
addresses as From addresses.
Allow Collapsible Automatically collapse the email body field until After an agent expands the email body, it remains
Body Field an agent clicks inside it. Having the body expanded until the page is reloaded, even if the
collapsed by default makes it easier for agents to agent clicks other actions or elsewhere on the
see more of what’s below the email action on the page.
page.
Allow Collapsible Automatically collapse the email header until an With this setting enabled, agents can expand and
Email Header collapse the header as needed while they work.
agent clicks to expand it.
Exclude Email Thread Exclude the previous emails in the thread when This prevents the previous emails in the thread
from Drafts composing emails in the feed. from being incorporated in the outbound email
message.
Replace Send Email Choose a button to replace the standard Send You can use any custom button you created for
Button with Email button. This can be useful if you want to cases, except those that have s-controls as
label the button something else, change how it content sources.
looks, or include custom functionality, such as
triggering a workflow when an agent sends a
message.
Articles Tool
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Use Case Feed Replace the Knowledge sidebar in the Salesforce This setting appears only if your organization uses
Articles Tool in the console with the Case Feed articles tool. Salesforce Knowledge. If you use Knowledge and
Console don’t enable this setting, we recommend hiding
either the Case Feed articles tool or the
Knowledge sidebar in the Salesforce console so
agents see only one of those tools when they’re
working with cases in the console.
Choose Placement Specify where on the page you want tools and Custom links and buttons are only available as
components like custom buttons, custom links, right sidebar components on the feed view page
and the followers list to appear. You can also layout if you added them to the related case detail
choose to hide anything your agents don’t need page layout.
access to. The Milestone Tracker is available only if you
enabled entitlement management in your org.
The Topics list is available only if you enabled
topics on cases.
Filter Options
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
SEE ALSO:
Configure the Case Feed Publisher with the Enhanced Page Layout Editor
SEE ALSO:
Find Object Management Settings
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
5. Click Save.
6. After you define your custom feed filters, add the filters to the list of selected filters in the Feed Filter Options section of the page
layout’s Feed View settings.
Example: To create a filter that shows interactions with a customer, you could define a filter named Customer Interaction that
uses the following criteria.
• Criterion 1: Case Comment feed item type with visibility set to All Users
• Criterion 2: Email Message feed item type with visibility set to All Users
• Criterion 3: Chatter post feed item type with visibility set to All Users
When an agent applies this filter, the case feed shows only Case Comment, Email Message, and Chatter feed items that are visible
to both external and internal users. Everything else is filtered out.
SEE ALSO:
Create and Edit Feed Layouts in Case Feed
Settings for Feed Views in Case Feed
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
IN THIS SECTION:
Add Custom Actions in Case Feed
Include custom actions in the Case Feed publisher to give support agents easy access to the additional tools and functionality they
need when working with cases.
Add Custom Components to Case Feed
Use Visualforce pages as custom components in Case Feed to give support agents easy access to special tools or functionality while
they’re working with cases.
Add Global Actions and Custom Quick Actions as Components to the Console Sidebar
You can add global actions and custom quick actions as components to the Service Console sidebar, so agents can create records,
update case info, search for related info, and link to parent records—all without ever leaving the current tab. You can use quick
actions to replace the Case Detail Page, so agents can see case-related information, such as contacts and assets, in their main workflow.
Enable Email Drafts for Cases
Draft emails let support agents who use the case feed write and save messages without having to send them immediately. In
Salesforce Classic, this option makes it possible to implement approval processes so messages can be reviewed by supervisors or
senior agents before they’re sent to customers.
Enable Default Email Templates in Case Feed
Use default email templates in Case Feed to give support agents easy access to the templates they need based on the types of cases
they’re working on.
Create Approval Processes for Email Drafts
Approval processes determine how your organization handles draft email messages—specifying, for example, which messages
require approval and whether approvers are automatically assigned. Create customized approval processes based on your company’s
needs.
Create Send Actions for Email Approval Processes
Use send actions to save your support agents time by ensuring that email messages are sent automatically at the end of an approval
process.
Highlight Externally Visible Feed Items in Case Feed
You can mark feed items in the case feed that are visible to external users. That way support agents can easily distinguish between
feed items that are visible to your customers and ones that are visible only to internal users, like support agents.
Enable Portal Reply Email Notifications in Case Feed
If your org uses a portal or Experience Cloud site, support agents can use the action in Case Feed to respond to customers. Enabling
reply email notifications gives agents access to the Send Email option.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
• For a layout in the Case Page Layouts section, click Edit, and then click Feed View in the
page layout editor.
• For a layout in the Page Layouts for Case Feed Users section, click and choose Edit feed view. (This section appears
only for organizations created before Spring ’14.)
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic
Developer’s Guide: Customizing Case Feed with Visualforce
Find Object Management Settings
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Once you’ve created a Visualforce page to use as a custom component, add it to the Case Feed Available in: Enterprise,
layout. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
1. How you access the Case Feed Settings page depends on what kind of page layout you’re
working with.
• For a layout in the Case Page Layouts section, click Edit, and then click Feed View in the USER PERMISSIONS
page layout editor.
To change Case Feed
• For a layout in the Page Layouts for Case Feed Users section, click and choose Edit settings:
feed view. (This section appears only for organizations created before Spring ’14.) • Manage Cases
AND
2. In the Other Tools and Components section, click + Add a Visualforce page and choose the
Customize Application
page you want.
The width of the component is determined by the width of the column it’s in. To make the
component look best, we recommend setting the width of the Visualforce page to 100%.
3. Set the height of the component.
4. Choose where you want the component to appear on the page.
Tip: Components in the right column are hidden when agents view the Case Detail page, so use the left column for any
components you want to be accessible all the time.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic
Add Global Actions and Custom Quick Actions as Components to the Console Sidebar
You can add global actions and custom quick actions as components to the Service Console sidebar,
EDITIONS
so agents can create records, update case info, search for related info, and link to parent records—all
without ever leaving the current tab. You can use quick actions to replace the Case Detail Page, so Available in: Enterprise,
agents can see case-related information, such as contacts and assets, in their main workflow. Performance, Unlimited,
1. Create the global action (for the Create action) and the custom quick action (for the Update and Developer with a
action). Service Cloud license
Create actions must be global quick actions. Update actions must be object-specific quick
actions that are based on the lookup field object type. For example, to update a contact lookup USER PERMISSIONS
field, you must have a contact-specific update action.
To create actions:
2. Add the actions as components to the case page layouts so that the quick actions are available • Customize Application
for your agents to use.
To add custom console
a. From Setup, enter “Case” in the Quick Find box, then select Page Layouts. components:
• Customize Application
b. Select the page to which you want to add the quick actions and click Edit.
c. In the Case Layout page, select Custom Console Components.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
d. Go to the Sidebar section where you want to add the component (for example, go to the Left Sidebar section).
e. For Type, select Lookup.
f. For Field, select the related field that the quick action acts on.
g. Select Enable Linking to allow support agents search for a record and link it to a related record. For example, a support agent
can link a contact name to a case.
h. For Create Action, select the global action that creates a record. For example, a global action can create a contact.
i. For Update Action, select the quick action the updates a record. For example, a quick action can update a field on the
contact.
j. Click Save.
SEE ALSO:
Create Object-Specific Quick Actions
Create Global Quick Actions
Create Global Quick Actions
Add Console Components to Page Layouts in Salesforce Classic
1. From Setup, enter Support Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Support Available in: Enterprise,
Settings. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
2. Click Edit.
3. Select Enable Email Drafts.
USER PERMISSIONS
4. Click Save.
To change support settings:
Note:
• Manage Cases
Salesforce Classic AND
Changes to fields other than To, From, CC, BCC, and Subject in the Email action
Customize Application
aren’t saved when a message is saved as a draft. We recommend removing any additional
fields from the Email action if you plan to use draft emails.
Lightning Experience
We recommend removing any additional fields from the Email action if you plan to use
private email drafts. Changes to custom email message fields may not be saved
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
immediately. However, when a standard field is modified, the previous custom field changes are also saved.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic
Create Approval Processes for Email Drafts
SEE ALSO:
Create Send Actions for Email Approval Processes
Create Approval Processes for Email Drafts
Review and Approve Email Drafts in the Salesforce Classic Case Feed
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
SEE ALSO:
Create an Approval Process with the Standard Wizard
Enable Default Email Templates in Case Feed
Note: Send actions are available only in organizations that have email drafts enabled. Available in: both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
1. From Setup, enter Send Actions in the Quick Find box, then select Send Actions. Experience
2. Click New Send Action. Available in: Enterprise,
3. Select Email Message from the object dropdown list. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
4. Enter a unique name for the action.
5. Optionally, enter a description for the action.
USER PERMISSIONS
6. Click Save.
To create send actions:
After you create a send action, create an approval process that includes it.
• Customize Application
SEE ALSO:
Enable Default Email Templates in Case Feed
Create an Approval Process with the Standard Wizard
47
Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
• Logged Calls
If you only enable Highlight Externally Visible Feed Items, then only email
feed items that are sent to, or received from, the email address for a case contact are marked.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic
49
Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
SEE ALSO:
Set Up a Mass Quick Action
Mass Quick Action Considerations
Set the Format of Timestamps on Case Feed Posts
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
g. Click Save.
The email layout page opens, where you can specify the fields shown in the email action.
2. Arrange the email fields in the order that you want. When an agent selects the quick action, the email fields are displayed in this
order.
a. From the Email Message Fields menu, drag fields into the email layout. To remove fields, drag them from the email layout to the
Email Message Fields section.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
The To Address, From picklist, Subject, and HTML Body fields are added by default. For information about the fields,
see Fields Available on the Send Email Quick Action for Cases
b. To make a field read-only or required, hover over the field and then click and specify the field properties.
3. To ensure that emails are associated with Salesforce records, create predefined field values for the To Recipients, CC Recipients, and
BCC Recipients fields.
Important: In new orgs, when you enable Email-to-Case, we automatically configure the To Recipients predefined field value
for you, so you can skip this step.
However, if your org was created before Winter ’18, or if you enabled Email-to-Case before Winter ’18, complete the following
steps to create predefined field values. We recommend that you define a value for the To Recipients field.
The case email action provides a predefined field value (the case contact’s email address) for the To field. Emails aren’t associated
with the Salesforce case contact record because this predefined field type is Text (a plain email address with no link to the case
contact). To change the default experience and associate emails with Salesforce records, you must create predefined field values.
The predefined field values for the To Recipients, CC Recipients, and BCC Recipients fields are filled only for the initial email. The fields
aren’t pre-filled for reply emails or forwarded emails.
a. In the Predefined Field Values section, click New.
b. For Field Name, select one of the following fields:
• To Recipients
• CC Recipients
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
• BCC Recipients
c. Use the formula editor to associate your selected field with a Salesforce record using the JUNCTIONIDLIST function.
For values with only one ID, you don’t have to use the JUNCTIONIDLIST function.
For example:
• To associate the To Recipients field with the case’s contact record, enter:
JUNCTIONIDLIST(Case.ContactId) OR Case.ContactId
• To associate the BCC Recipients field with the case’s owner and the owner’s manager, enter:
JUNCTIONIDLIST(Case.OwnerId, Case.Owner:User.ManagerId)
a. Click Save.
After you define the quick action, add it to the case page layout so it’s available for agents to use.
Note: Send Email quick actions are not available on cases in Experience Builder sites.
To automatically save emails your agents are working on, enable email drafts.
IN THIS SECTION:
Apply a Default Email Template Using the Send Email Quick Action
Help agents incorporate branding and ensure consistency when writing emails to customers in Lightning Experience and the
Salesforce mobile app by using default email templates. Email templates help ensure that agents include common information,
such as greetings, announcements, disclaimers, and company contact information, in customer emails.
Fields Available on the Send Email Quick Action for Cases
After you create an Email quick action for cases, you can customize the fields displayed for the action. Drag fields from the Email
Message Fields palette to the email layout.
Send Email Action Considerations for Cases
Before working with the Send Email action for cases, be aware of these limitations.
Understand How Default Values for Case Emails Work
There are lots of ways to control the default values your agents see when responding to customer cases using email. Depending on
your business needs, you can set up different types of default field values using various methods.
SEE ALSO:
Enable Email Drafts for Cases
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Apply a Default Email Template Using the Send Email Quick Action
Help agents incorporate branding and ensure consistency when writing emails to customers in
EDITIONS
Lightning Experience and the Salesforce mobile app by using default email templates. Email
templates help ensure that agents include common information, such as greetings, announcements, Available in: Enterprise,
disclaimers, and company contact information, in customer emails. Performance, Unlimited,
You must have Email-to-Case enabled to use the Send Email quick action on the Cases object. and Developer Editions
Before creating a Send Email quick action that specifies a default email template, create an email
template of the type Custom. Only Custom type templates are supported. Attachments specified USER PERMISSIONS
on an email template aren’t supported. However, agents can manually add attachments when they
use the email quick action. To create and modify the
Send Email quick action:
1. Create a Send Email quick action or modify an existing Send Email quick action. • Manage Cases AND
a. From Setup, enter “Case” in the Quick Find box, then select Buttons, Links, and Actions. Customize Application
b. Click New Action, or select the quick action that you want to change. To edit a page layout:
• Customize Application
c. In the Action Type picklist, select Send Email.
d. In the Default Email Template field, click the lookup button and select a template.
Only email templates of the type Custom are shown in the lookup menu.
e. Optionally, select Don’t Apply Template Subject to ignore the email template subject.
By default, the Send Email quick action applies the subject specified in the default email template. For example, if the template’s
subject line is “Thanks for your email,” then that subject is applied when the agent uses the email action to write or reply to an
email. If Don’t Apply Template Subject is selected, then the subject defined in the email isn’t applied in the email. For example,
if a customer sends an email with the subject “Please help,” the agent can use the default email template to reply but keep the
customer’s subject line.
f. Specify a label for the action. You can use a standard label type, which supplies a default label, or you can select None in the
Standard Label Type field, and specify your own label. When you add the action to the case page layout, this label is
displayed in the actions bar.
g. The Name field is automatically populated. This name is used in the API and managed packages. It must begin with a letter and
use only alphanumeric characters and underscores, and it can’t end with an underscore or have two consecutive underscores.
Unless you’re familiar with working with the API, we suggest not editing this field.
h. In the Description field, describe what this quick action does. The description appears on the detail page for the action
and in the list on the Buttons, Links, and Actions page. The description isn’t visible to your users. If you’re creating several actions
on the same object, we recommend using a detailed description, such as “Send Email to Customer with Holiday Branding.”
i. Click Save.
The email layout page opens, where you can specify the fields shown in the email action.
2. Check that you have the appropriate email body field for your template.
The HTML Body field is added to the Send Email quick action layout by default. If the Text Body format is needed, it is available.
3. Click Save.
After you define the Send Email quick action, add it to the case page layout so it’s available for agents to use.
SEE ALSO:
Add Quick Actions to the Case Page Layout for Lightning Experience
Fields Available on the Send Email Quick Action for Cases
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
From Email header field where agents can enter a From email address
from a picklist (dropdown list).
Agents can select from org-wide email addresses, Email-to-Case
email addresses, and the agent’s own email address.
The From picklist is added by default in the Send Email action
in new orgs created in Winter 17 or later. If you create a Send
Email action after Winter 17, then the From picklist is added
to the email layout by default.
From Address Email header field where agents can enter a From email address.
The From Address field is a text field.
HTML Body Email body field that supports HTML formatting and images.
If you set a default email template that contains HTML formatting
on the Send Email quick action, then add the HTML Body
field to the email layout.
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Field Description
Is Externally Visible If the Experience case feed is enabled, IsExternallyVisible controls the external
visibility of emails in sites.
For more information, see EmailMessage in the API Guide.
Related To Field for the record ID of related objects, such as accounts, opportunities, campaigns,
cases, or custom objects.
For more information, see EmailMessage in the API Guide.
Text Body Email body field that supports only plain text.
To Address Email header field where agents can enter To email addresses.
You can only predefine this field to an email address.
SEE ALSO:
Create a Send Email Quick Action for Cases
Apply a Default Email Template Using the Send Email Quick Action
General
• You can’t add custom fields or rename existing fields in the Send Email action.
• The From field is required.
If the From field isn’t on the Send Email action layout, it must have a predefined value set.
• HTML Body content is required; Text Body content is only supported on the case-specific Send Email action.
If the HTML Body field isn’t on the Send Email action layout, it must have a predefined value set.
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• To see the Email tab in the activity composer, set Email Deliverability to All Email.
• For each email in the case feed, agents see a dropdown menu with reply options. If you have multiple email actions in the case feed
publisher, agents see groups of reply actions in the dropdown menu.
Cases
• Turn on Email-to-Case to enable the case-specific Send Email action on cases.
• Only the case-specific Send Email action can be added to cases.
• The Email Composer tab must be selected in the Feed for the Reply and Reply-All Email actions to work.
• You can’t send emails related to cases from the Global Actions menu.
Predefined Values
• The To Address, CC Address, and BCC Address fields only accept email addresses as predefined values. Use string
fields, such as Contact.custom_email_field.
Note: Emails sent with only email addresses specified aren’t associated with Salesforce records.
• The To Recipients, CC Recipients, and BCC Recipients fields accept a list of Salesforce Ids using the
JUNCTIONIDLIST function. Use ID fields, such as Contact.Id.
Emails sent with these predefined fields ensure that emails are associated with Salesforce records. For example, like the case’s contact
record. You can use the To Recipients, CC Recipients, and BCC Recipients fields to send emails to multiple contacts and users. The
fields work only with the email action for cases.
• You can only predefine Related To for an entity-specific quick action, not a global quick action.
• The predefined field values for the To Recipients, CC Recipients, and BCC Recipients fields are filled only for the initial email. The fields
aren’t pre-filled for reply emails or forwarded emails.
• Predefined values aren’t supported in emails initiated from the Assistant or Opportunity Insights.
• If Compliance BCC is enabled, predefined values for the BCC field are ignored. If Auto BCC is enabled, predefined values for the
BCC field are appended to the Auto BCC address.
• If an admin removes the BCC field from the layout, Auto BCC doesn’t populate the user's email address in the email.
• An admin's configuration takes precedence over Auto BCC. If an admin specifies a predefined BCC value, the email is populated with
the predefined value and not the Auto-BCC email address.
SEE ALSO:
Configure Deliverability Settings for Emails Sent from Salesforce
Guidelines for Configuring Deliverability Settings for Emails Sent from Salesforce
Notes on Predefined Field Values for Quick Actions
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Predefined Field Values Use predefined field values for adding people 2
set up for the Email to email threads. You can also use predefined If the Apex interface
quick action field values to ensure that emails are associatedisn’t configured for a
with Salesforce records. field specified using
For set up information, see Create a Send Email predefined field values,
Quick Action for Cases. these values populate
next.
Automatic Reply, Reply Use these carry-over fields for basic email 3
All, and Forward field functionality. When an email is in response to Carry-over fields from
values an existing email, field values like the To, From, a previous email
Subject, and Body fields are auto-populated populate next.
with the previous values.
This functionality is provided out-of-the-box
and doesn’t require configuration.
Default Email Template Use the Default Email Template setting on the 4
set up for the Email Email quick action to always apply a custom If the body of the email
quick action email template to the body of the email. Setting hasn’t been populated
up a default template helps your agents send by the Apex interface
consistent messages quickly. or by a Reply, Reply All,
For set up information, see Apply a Default Email or Forward message,
Template Using the Send Email Quick Action. the default email
template is applied
next.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
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8. Click Save.
The action layout page opens, where you can specify the fields shown in the quick action.
9. In the action layout, drag the Case Owner field from the palette into the quick action layout.
To make a field read-only or required, click the wrench icon and specify the field properties.
SEE ALSO:
Add Quick Actions to the Case Page Layout for Lightning Experience
Customize Support Settings
5. Click Save.
6. To customize the action layout to display only the Status and Internal Comments fields, remove the other fields, and click Save.
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9. Go to the Case Page Layouts setup page, and edit your case layout.
Drag the new quick action to the Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions section, and click Save.
When an agent clicks the action from the Service Console, the Status field displays Closed. Agents can now close a case with two
clicks—one for the action button and one to save.
Example:
SEE ALSO:
Create a Case Comment Quick Action
Define Apex Triggers
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6. Click Save.
7. To choose the fields users see, customize the action’s layout, and click Save.
Keep these things in mind.
• The Body field is always required, even if Required isn’t selected in its Field Properties dialog (invoked when you double-click
the field).
• The Public field is available only if you have Experience Cloud sites enabled.
• The Public field is labeled “Published” in the quick action layout editor.
8. Go to the Case Page Layouts setup page, and edit your case layout.
Drag the new quick action to the Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions section, and click Save.
When agents click the action from the Service Console, they see:
Example:
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Tip: In the Lightning App Builder, you can add the Case Comments related list to the case page. Then your agents can also create
case comments directly from the related list using the New button. They can also edit and delete comments.
Add Quick Actions to the Case Page Layout for Lightning Experience
Make actions available to your agents by adding them to the Salesforce Mobile and Lightning
EDITIONS
Experience Actions section in the case page layout.
You can add standard actions and custom actions to the page layout. When you create a custom Available in: Lightning
action, it appears in the palette. Experience
You can drag and drop actions from the palette to the page layout. Available in: Enterprise,
1. From Setup, click the Object Manager tab. Select Cases, and open the Case Page Layouts Essentials, Performance,
setup page. Unlimited, and Developer
Editions
2. Select the page layout that you want to add the action to, and click Edit.
3. Add quick actions to the case page layout.
USER PERMISSIONS
a. Click Mobile & Lightning Actions.
To edit a page layout:
b. Drag the action into the Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions section, and
• Customize Application
place the action where you want it to appear.
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c. Click Save.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
SEE ALSO:
Compact Layouts
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
b. Enable surveys.
c. Select the default Experience Cloud site for creating public surveys.
The site is used to generate survey invitations for participants outside of your org.
1. Note: Only Lightning users can send surveys to contacts when a case is closed or when auto-response rules are met.
2. To send a survey to the case contact when a case is closed, specify the survey in the Support Settings page:
a. From Setup, enter Support Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Support Settings.
b. Click Edit.
c. In Customer Feedback Survey, select an active survey.
d. Click Save.
3. To send a survey to the case contact when case auto-response rules are met:
a. From Setup, enter Case Auto-Response Rules in the Quick Find box, then select Case Auto-Response Rules.
b. Click the name of the rule that contains the rule entry for which you want to send a survey.
c. Edit the rule entry.
d. In Step 5: Select a survey to send, specify the survey that you want to use.
e. Click Save.
IN THIS SECTION:
Create and Clone Cases
Create and open cases to track customer issues. You can clone a case and search for other cases before opening one. Your organization
can even use Web-to-Case or Email-to-Case to create cases from customer logged issues.
Update and Respond to Cases
Keeping customers updated on their cases' progress is key to quality customer service. To ensure that each case is answered in a
timely manner, you can reassign and share cases with other agents. The case feed shows the history of interactions and
communications, so agents can quickly get up-to-date on the case and respond to customers.
Email Customers
Respond to your customers using email directly from the case record page. To stay efficient, you can insert and create email templates,
use quick text, and merge fields.
Solve and Close Cases
Closing a case means that a customer’s issue has been resolved.
Things to Know About Cases
Review these guidelines and other supplemental information when you use cases.
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Create Cases
You can create cases in several ways.
EDITIONS
• Your admin can set up Web-to-Case and either Email-to-Case or On-Demand Email-to-Case to
automatically capture cases from your website and customer emails. Available in: Salesforce
• Your customers can log their own cases from an Experience Cloud site, Customer Portal, Classic and Lightning
Self-Service portal, or Chatter Answers. Experience
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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.
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.
5. 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.
6. If your org settings allow it, you can associate the case with another case by typing the case number of the parent in the Parent
Case field. Alternatively, you can click the lookup icon to search for a case's 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. When viewing a case, Lightning users
can create and associate a child case at any time by clicking New Child Case in the Feed tab
.
7. You can also set who sees the case and, depending on how your org is configured, you can:
• Prevent a case from appearing in the Self-Service portal by deselecting Visible in Self-Service Portal.
• Automatically send an email to the contact indicating that the case was created, select Send notification email
to contact.
• Automatically assign the case using your org's active assignment rule by clicking 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 isn’t active, you are assigned as the owner. If Assign using active
assignment rules is selected by default and you deselect it, you override your org’s default assignment rules and you’re
assigned as the owner.
Note: When you save a newly created 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:
Clone Cases
Case Fields
Solve Cases
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Clone Cases
Clone a case to generate a new case using information from the existing case.
EDITIONS
The Clone button on a case quickly generates a new case using information from the existing case.
For example, to log multiple issues for a customer on a support call. Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
In new orgs, the Clone button is available on the Cases page layout by default. In existing orgs, add
orgs) and Lightning
the Clone quick action to the page layout.
Experience
1. Click Clone on an existing case.
Available in: Essentials,
2. Enter or change any information for the new case. Group, Professional,
3. Check the box and assign the case automatically using your active assignment rule. Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
4. Click Save.
Editions
Note: If you have read-only access to a field, the value of that field isn’t carried over to the
cloned record. USER PERMISSIONS
To clone cases:
SEE ALSO:
• Create on cases
Case Fields
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Note: The org-wide sharing model for an object determines the access users have to that object’s records in queues:
Public Read/Write/Transfer
Users can view and take ownership of records from any queue.
Public Read/Write or Public Read Only
Users can view any queue but only take ownership of records from queues of which they’re a member or, depending on
sharing settings, if they’re higher in the role or territory hierarchy than a queue member.
Private
Users can only view and accept records from queues of which they’re a member or, depending on sharing settings, if they’re
higher in the role or territory hierarchy than a queue member.
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Regardless of the sharing model, users must have the “Edit” permission to take ownership of records in queues of which they’re
a member. Salesforce admins, users with the “Modify All” object-level permission for Cases or Leads, and users with the “Modify
All Data” permission, can view and take records from any Case or Lead queue regardless of their membership in the queue.
SEE ALSO:
What’s a Case?
Guidelines for Working with Cases
• Close—Closes 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 read/write sharing access to the cases to use this feature.
• Change Status—Changes the Status of the cases to the value you set.
You must have the “Manage Cases” permission and read/write sharing access to the cases to use this feature.
SEE ALSO:
Guidelines for Working with Cases
Set Up a Mass Quick Action
Mass Quick Action Considerations
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Assign Cases
You can assign cases to users or queues in various ways.
EDITIONS
• Using an Assignment Rule for Web-to-Case, Email-to-Case, or On-Demand Email-to-Case
Available in: Salesforce
In Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance, and Developer Edition organizations, web-
Classic (not available in all
and email-generated cases are automatically assigned to users or queues based on criteria in
orgs)
your active case assignment rule.
Cases that do not match the assignment rule criteria are automatically assigned to the The case assignment
Default Case Owner specified in the Support Settings. options vary according to
your Salesforce Edition.
• Using an Assignment Rule when Creating or Editing a Case
In Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance, and Developer Edition organizations, when USER PERMISSIONS
creating or editing a case, you can check a box to assign the case automatically using your
active case assignment rule. An email is automatically sent to the new owner if your administrator To view cases:
specified an email template in the matching rule entry. If you want this checkbox to be selected • Read on cases
by default, your administrator can modify the appropriate page layout. If necessary, your To transfer ownership of a
administrator can edit the page layout to hide the assignment checkbox but still force case case related to an account:
assignment rules. • Read and Assign on the
related account
• Changing Ownership of Multiple Cases (administrators only)
To take ownership of cases
From any case list page, an administrator, or a user with the Manage Cases permission, can from queues:
manually assign one or more cases to a single user or queue. In addition, when a case is related • Edit on cases
to an account, the administrator or user must have Read and Assign permissions on the account.
Note: The org-wide sharing model for an object determines the access users have to that object’s records in queues:
Public Read/Write/Transfer
Users can view and take ownership of records from any queue.
Public Read/Write or Public Read Only
Users can view any queue but only take ownership of records from queues of which they’re a member or, depending on
sharing settings, if they’re higher in the role or territory hierarchy than a queue member.
Private
Users can only view and accept records from queues of which they’re a member or, depending on sharing settings, if
they’re 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’re
a member. Salesforce admins, users with the “Modify All” object-level permission for Cases or Leads, and users with the “Modify
All Data” permission, can view and take records from any Case or Lead queue regardless of their membership in the queue.
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When you create a case from the Cases tab, you are automatically listed as the case owner, unless the assignment rule checkbox is
displayed and you select it to enable the assignment rule. If it’s selected by default, you can override the assignment rule and assign
yourself as the owner by deselecting the checkbox.
Note: You can use case assignment rules in Experience Builder sites if your cases are created using the New button on top of the
Record List component (when mapped to cases). Case assignment rules aren’t supported in Experience Builder site cases made
using the Create Case Form, Create Record Button, or Contact Support & Ask Button components.
You can assign users with a Partner Community license to a case queue.
SEE ALSO:
Guidelines for Working with Cases
Update Multiple Cases
Share Cases
Your administrator defines the default sharing model for your entire organization. You can change
EDITIONS
this model to extend sharing to more users than the default set by your administrator. However,
you cannot change the sharing model to make it more restrictive than the default. Available in: Salesforce
To view and manage sharing details, click Sharing on the case detail page. The Sharing Detail page Classic (not available in all
lists the users, groups, roles, and territories that have sharing access to the case. On this page, you orgs)
can do any of the following:
Available in: Enterprise,
• To show a filtered list of items, select a predefined list from the View drop-down list, or click Performance, Unlimited,
Create New View to define your own custom views.To edit or delete any view you created, and Developer Editions
select it from the View drop-down list and click Edit.
• To grant access to the record for other users, groups, roles, or territories, click Add. USER PERMISSIONS
Note: To share a case with another user, that user must have access to the account To view cases:
associated with the case and the “Read” permission on cases. • Read on cases
• Click Expand List to view all users that have access to the record.
• For manual sharing rules that you created, click Edit or Del next to an item in the list to edit or delete the access level.
SEE ALSO:
What’s a Case?
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Success Actions The actions to take when a milestone successfully completes. Success actions still fire
on milestones that are completed late.
Administrators can set up milestones to automate the following for each action type:
New Email Create an email alert Notify case owners when a First Response
milestone on their case is near violation.
New Field Update Define a field update Update the case Priority field to High
when a First Response milestone is near
violation.
New Outbound Message Define an outbound message Send data about parts or services to an
external system after a First Response
milestone is completed.
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Start Date
The date and time that the milestone tracking started.
Target Date
The date and time to complete the milestone.
Completion Date
The date and time the milestone was completed.
Target Response
Shows the time to complete the milestone. Automatically calculated to include any business hours on the case. Depending on your
company's business requirements, the time can appear in minutes, hours, or days.
Time Remaining
Shows the time that remains before a milestone violation. Automatically calculated to include any business hours on the case.
Depending on your company's business requirements, the time can appear in minutes, hours, or days.
Elapsed Time
Shows the time it took to complete a milestone. Automatically calculated to include any business hours on the case. Elapsed Time
is calculated only after the Completion Date field is populated. Depending on your company's business requirements, the time can
appear in minutes, hours, or days.
Violation
Icon ( ) that indicates a milestone violation.
Time Since Target
Shows the time that has elapsed since a milestone violation. Automatically calculated to include any business hours on the case.
You can choose to display the time in days, hours and minutes, or minutes and seconds.
Completed
Icon ( ) that indicates a milestone completion.
Because they’re part of a case's history, completed milestones remain on a case even if they're no longer applicable.
Business Hours
The operating hours for a business.
SEE ALSO:
Case Fields
What’s Entitlement Management?
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Case Comments
Case comments let you and your support agents add, edit, and delete public and private comments
EDITIONS
on a case. All comments appear in the Case Comments related list.
Comments can remain private or be made publicly available to a case’s contact on the Customer Available in: Salesforce
Portal, Self-Service portal, or Chatter Answers. You can also set up your portal or Experience Cloud Classic (not available in all
site to let customers comment on their cases. When a portal user adds a comment, the case owner orgs) and Lightning
receives an email. A comment icon ( ) remains on the case heading until the case owner views Experience
it. Available in: Essentials,
Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new Salesforce orgs. Group, Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions
SEE ALSO:
Create and Edit Case Comments
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
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• Highlights Panel (1)—Provides an overview of the most important information about a case, such as the contact information, case
name, case description, status, priority, and case owner. Agents can use the column dividers to resize sections of the highlights panel
so they can see more of the info that’s most relevant.
• Feed and Detail Views (2)—From the feed view, which includes the publisher and feed, agents can easily switch to the case detail
view to see more in-depth information and work with related lists.
• Publisher (3)—Contains the actions agents use to work with cases, such as the Email, Case Note, and Change Status actions.
• Articles Tool (4)—Lets agents find Knowledge articles that can help them resolve cases, and then attach them to a case or email
them to customers.
• Feed Filters (5)—Help agents quickly find specific information in the feed by limiting the feed items that appear.
• Feed (6)—Offers a chronological view of the case’s history. Feed items are created for:
– Incoming and outgoing email related to the case
– Comments related to the case on a customer portal or Chatter Answers
– Calls logged about the case
– Changes to the case status
– Comments made on the case
– Links or files added to the case
– Milestone activity related to the case
– Case actions that result from workflow events
– New tasks and events related to the cases
• Follow Button and Followers List (7)—Let agents follow the case so they’re notified in Chatter of updates to it, and let them see
other followers.
• Custom Buttons and Links (8)—Give agents access to more tools and functionality.
Administrators can customize most aspects of Case Feed, including:
• Fields in the highlight panel
• Actions that appear and the fields they include
• Feed filters that are available and where on the page the list appears
• Width of the feed
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• Availability of tools, custom buttons, and custom links, and where they appear on the page
Here’s some more information about using the case feed.
IN THIS SECTION:
Use Actions to Work with Cases in Case Feed
Case Feed actions make it easy for support agents to do tasks like send email, post to portals and Experience Cloud sites, log calls,
change case status, and write case notes, all on the same page.
Use Feed Filters in Case Feed
Feed filters make it easy for support agents to see all updates of one type, such as all call logs or all email messages, when working
with cases in Case Feed. By using filters, agents can find the information they need more quickly, without having to browse through
each case event.
Case Feed and Related Lists
In the traditional case interface, support agents complete tasks such as logging calls and sending emails primarily by working with
related lists. In Case Feed, agents can do several of these tasks directly in the feed.
Find, Attach, and Email Articles with the Case Feed Articles Tool
Knowledge articles can help you solve cases more quickly by providing in-depth troubleshooting steps and other detailed information.
Use the articles tool in Case Feed to search for articles relevant to the case you’re working with, attach articles to the case, and email
them to customers.
View and Edit Cases from the Case Detail Page in Case Feed
Use the Case Detail page to see and update detailed information about a case and work with related lists.
Post on Cases and Experience Cloud Site Questions with the Experience Action in the Case Feed
The Experience action in the case feed is your default option for responding to customers on cases that originated from a Experience
Cloud site or customer portal.
Printable View in Case Feed
Use the printable view option to view and print a comprehensive list of the information related to a case.
SEE ALSO:
Insert and Use Quick Text
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
• Use the Email action to respond to customers by email. In some organizations, the Email and Portal actions are combined in an
Answer Customer action.
• The Log a Call action lets you create a record of the details of a phone call. Call logs are visible only to other users in your organization,
not to customers.
Note: If you’re using a SoftPhone, completed calls and call notes are logged automatically in the case’s feed, as are interaction
log entries whose Status is Completed.
• With the Portal action, you can post replies to a customer portal or a Chatter Answers site.
• Use the Change Status action to escalate, close, or make other changes to the status of a case.
• The Question action lets you search for and create questions.
• The Post, File, and Link actions are the same ones you’re used to seeing in Chatter.
– Use the Post action to create case notes to share information about the case or get help from others in your organization. (Notes
created with the Post action aren’t included in the Case Comments related list on the case detail page.)
– Add a PDF, photo, or other document to the case with the File action. (Documents you add with File aren’t included in the
Attachments related list on the case detail page.)
– Use the Link action to share a link that’s relevant to the case.
SEE ALSO:
Use Case Feed in Salesforce Classic
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
In addition, administrators can specify how and where the list of feed filters appears:
• As a fixed list in the left column.
• As a floating list in the left column. With this option, the feed filters list remains visible as users scroll down the page. This can be
useful with long feeds, as it lets agents quickly filter case activities from anywhere on the page, without having to scroll to the top.
• As a drop-down list in the center column.
• As in-line links in the compact feed view. This option is available only for compact feed view.
SEE ALSO:
Use Case Feed in Salesforce Classic
Approval History
Attachments
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Note: Attachments to case notes aren't included in the Attachments related list.
Case Comments
Case History
Case Team
Contact Roles
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Content Deliveries
Emails
Open Activities
Viewing tasks • Task feed items (for tasks created with Create Task action)
• Open Activities related list
Viewing events • Task feed items (for events created with Create Event action)
• Open Activities related list
Related Cases
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Viewing related cases • Related case feed items (for cases created with Create Child Case action)
• Related cases related list
Solutions
SEE ALSO:
View and Edit Cases from the Case Detail Page in Case Feed
Printable View in Case Feed
Find, Attach, and Email Articles with the Case Feed Articles Tool
Knowledge articles can help you solve cases more quickly by providing in-depth troubleshooting
EDITIONS
steps and other detailed information. Use the articles tool in Case Feed to search for articles relevant
to the case you’re working with, attach articles to the case, and email them to customers. Available in: Salesforce
Note: Before you can use the articles tool, your administrator needs to set up and configure Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Salesforce Knowledge.
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
•
Click to open the articles tool.
• By default, the tool shows articles with keywords or phrases similar to the subject and description of the case you’re working with.
If you don’t see the article you want, type new terms in the search box and click Search Again, or click Advanced Article Search
for more options.
• Click the title of an article to open it in a new window if you want to see more information about it than just the title and the summary.
• When you find the article you want, choose what you want to do with it:
– Select Email to customer to attach the article to a message as a PDF.
– Select Attach to case to include the article as a case attachment.
View and Edit Cases from the Case Detail Page in Case Feed
Use the Case Detail page to see and update detailed information about a case and work with related
EDITIONS
lists.
On the Case Detail page, you can: Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
• View and edit case information, including changing contact and account information, status,
orgs)
origin, priority, type, and case reason.
• Change or update the case subject and description. Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
• View related lists and use them to complete additional tasks (for example, viewing the approval
and Developer Editions
history on a case or adding members to a case team).
• Close a case.
USER PERMISSIONS
• Delete a case.
• Clone a case. To view a case:
• View on cases
Note: If your organization has inline editing enabled, you can use it on the Case Detail page.
To edit a case:
To switch between the feed view and the case details page when viewing a case, use the • Edit on cases
To delete a case:
• Delete on cases
buttons or, if you’re working in the Salesforce console, the
buttons
To open a printable display of the case details, click Printable View on any page in Case Feed.
SEE ALSO:
Use Case Feed in Salesforce Classic
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Post on Cases and Experience Cloud Site Questions with the Experience Action in the Case Feed
The Experience action in the case feed is your default option for responding to customers on cases
EDITIONS
that originated from a Experience Cloud site or customer portal.
To post on cases in a customer portal or Experience Cloud site: Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
1. Click Answer Customer on the Case Feed page.
orgs)
2. Click and select Community.
Depending on how your administrator has set up Case Feed, you may be able to click Experience Available in: Enterprise,
without first having to click Answer Customer. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
3. Enter the message to the customer.
USER PERMISSIONS
4. If you’re working on a case that was escalated from a question in Chatter Questions or Chatter Answers, choose who you want your
post to be visible to:
• Select Customer Only to post your answer as a private reply, or Everyone to post it as a public reply.
• Select Customer Case to make a post visible to all internal and external users with access to the case, or Community Question
to post a public answer on the site user’s question. If you select Customer Case and your Salesforce administrator has enabled
the site case feed, you’ll be creating a Chatter post instead of a case comment.
5. Optionally, select Send Email to send a message to the customer letting them know that a reply to their question has been
posted to the case.
Note: This option is only available if your administrator has enabled it, and if the customer you’re replying to is associated
with the case and has a valid email address. If your organization uses the site case feed and email notifications for Chatter case
posts are enabled, users are automatically notified by email about public posts on their cases and this option doesn’t appear.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Note: If the site case feed is enabled in your organization, you can change the visibility of case posts after they are published. For
details, see Expose or Hide a Published Post or Email in the Site Case Feed.
SEE ALSO:
Send and Reply to Email in the Salesforce Classic Case Feed
Use Case Feed in Salesforce Classic
SEE ALSO:
View and Edit Cases from the Case Detail Page in Case Feed
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Email Customers
Respond to your customers using email directly from the case record page. To stay efficient, you
EDITIONS
can insert and create email templates, use quick text, and merge fields.
Note: To email customers from the Service Console, Email-to-Case must be enabled in your Available in: Salesforce
org. Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
IN THIS SECTION:
Available in: Enterprise,
Email Customers in Lightning Experience Essentials, Performance,
Use the email publisher in case feed to answer customer questions and resolve customer issues Unlimited, and Developer
in Lightning Experience. Editions
Email Customers in Salesforce Classic
Work with email in the case feed in Salesforce Classic.
Merge Fields for Cases
The list of available email template merge fields in the Salesforce Merge Language depends on the type of data that you’re working
with. Most of the merge fields for cases correspond directly with a case field.
Note: To email customers from the Service Console app in Lightning Experience, Available in: Lightning
Email-to-Case must be enabled in your org. Experience
To get started, open a case in the console. In the case feed publisher section, click Email. You can Available in: Essentials,
insert merge fields, look up contacts, preview emails, clear emails, and more from the email publisher. Enterprise, Performance,
You can also insert Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience email templates, attach files, and Unlimited, and Developer
remove attachments if you change your mind. Editions
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Here are some things to keep in mind when working with emails in Lightning Experience.
Look up contacts
To look up contact email addresses, click the lookup icon in the To, CC, or BCC field. In the email composer, you can filter contacts
by account contacts and by your colleagues (internal users). To add contacts as email recipients, select the contacts and click Add.
Don't see who you're looking for? You can search by name.
Attachments
To attach multiple files from your computer, drag the files to the body of the email. You can drag as many files as you want, but the
files can’t be more than 2 GB. To attach files uploaded in Salesforce, use the attachment icon.
Merge fields
Merge fields resolve only on send and preview. The field appears as plain text when inserted into the publisher.
Tip: You can insert merge fields that aren't listed in the dialog box, such as merge fields for accounts or contacts. Enter them
as plain text and use the preview button to review before sending.
Email templates
You can insert Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic templates. When you insert a template, the subject is replaced with the
template’s subject.
If you insert a responsive email template that includes an HTML <head>, <meta>, <title>, or <style> tag, the template
overwrites the content in the email body. Don't worry – we display a confirmation message, so you know before anything is
overwritten.
Email drafts
A working draft of your email is saved every few seconds when you compose, reply, or forward an email. You can leave it and return
to it at any time.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Note: Email drafts are private and can’t be shared. You can have only one draft per case. If you’re working on a case with an
auto-saved draft, you can’t write another email until that draft is sent or discarded. Your Salesforce admin must enable email
drafts.
Preview emails
Use preview to review an email and its merge fields before sending.
Delete and clear emails
The trash icon deletes the working draft and resets the fields to the original state. The behavior differs depending on whether email
drafts are enabled.
• When email drafts aren’t enabled, this action clears the body, subject, and added recipients, reverting the email to its original
state.
• When email drafts are enabled, it deletes the draft and then reverts.
Pop-to-docked email composer
Open the docked email composer on the side of the console, so it's easier to view the case feed while replying to an email. You also
can maximize the email composer from the docked composer, so it's easier to focus on writing.
You can open the docked composer from different places on the case record:
• In the email composer toolbar, by clicking the popout-to-docked view icon.
• In an email in the case feed, by clicking Reply, Reply All, or Forward in the actions menu.
If your admin enabled email drafts, then the popout-to-docked view button is disabled.
Docked email composer
When you send an email using the docked email composer, only a partial page refresh occurs.
Images
Embed images into messages by copy and pasting, providing an image URL, and browsing for or uploading Salesforce Files. The
behavior for each method is slightly different.
• Copy and paste—Supports all image file types but has a maximum file size of 5 MB. The image is added as an attachment and
inline, and the inline image can be resized. Microsoft Edge is not supported. Internet Explorer 11 or earlier doesn’t allow resizing
images.
• Web URL—No maximum file size. The image is added inline and can be resized. The image is not added as an attachment, and
it isn’t converted to a Salesforce File. The default description text for an image is set to “User uploaded image.”
• Browse or upload Salesforce File—Creates a Salesforce File from an uploaded file, or inserts an existing Salesforce File. The file
size limit is based on the limits for Salesforce Files. The image can’t be resized from the message itself. The image is added as an
attachment and inline. If a content version for a Salesforce File changes, messages that used an older version of the Salesforce
File aren’t updated.
Note: When using the case email publisher in Lightning Experience, email attachments are included only when you forward
messages, but not when you reply to messages.
Code Samples
Insert a code snippet that retains the code formatting by clicking the code sample icon and pasting the code into the code window.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Keep in mind that your Salesforce admin can customize the email experience for cases. See Create a Send Email Quick Action for Cases.
SEE ALSO:
Email Templates in Lightning Experience
Access and Sharing for Email Merge Fields, Templates, and Attachments in Lightning Experience
Considerations for Using Merge Fields in Email Templates and Letterheads
Merge Fields for Cases
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
When you reply to email messages in the Email related list on cases, the From: field on your
email may display to recipients as no-reply@salesforce.com or USER PERMISSIONS
support@company.com. This is due to how the recipients' email applications receive
To view cases:
Sender and From headers on inbound email. By default, an Enable Sender ID
• Read on cases
compliance setting is selected for your organization, which enables email messages sent
from Salesforce to comply with email applications that require Sender headers for delivery. To work with case emails:
• Edit on cases
• Click To All to respond to all participants on an email thread.
• Click the subject of the email to view the email. From the email, you can reply to the sender,
reply to everyone, forward the email, or delete it.
• While viewing an email, you can display a list of all the emails associated with the case by clicking Email Message List, and you can
navigate to the case's other emails by clicking Next or Previous.
Note: The Email Message List, Next, and Previous links are not available in the Customer Portal and partner portal.
• While viewing an email, click Forward to forward it. The email automatically includes the email body as received from the customer.
Optionally, enter text and click Send.
• If the original email was an HTML email, you can click the Click here to view HTML version link to see the HTML version. For
inbound email messages, if you want to see the entire email header, click the Click here to view original email headers link on
the email detail page.
• To view any attachments contained in incoming emails, go to the Attachments related list of the email. To view attachments sent
with outbound emails, view the Attachments related list of outbound emails.
The size limit for an attachment is 5 MB. The user who configured the email agent can view its log file to see if any attachments
exceeded the size limit.
• Click Del to delete an email. Note that a deleted email can be retrieved from the Recycle Bin. However, if you delete an email from
a case, then delete the case, you will not be able to retrieve the deleted email from the Recycle Bin.
In the Email related list, emails are listed in the order received according to the most recent. Emails in the related list display one of the
following statuses:
Read An inbound email that has been read but not replied to.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Replied An inbound email that has been replied to. Replying to a sent email
gives it a replied status.
When a case contains a new (unread) email, an “Email” task associated with that case is automatically created in the case owner's task
list with the email subject displayed. The owner can easily see the new task on the Home tab or from the Open Activities related list of
the case. From the task, the owner can click a link to view the email associated with the case. When the user responds to the email, the
task is removed from the owner's task list and added to the case's Activity History related list. The user can also move an email task to
which they have not responded to the Activity History related list by changing its status to “Completed.”
Note: When inbound emails create a new case and your assignment rules route that case to a queue, the “Email” task is assigned
to the user configured in the email agent.
If an inbound email does not contain the email address of an existing contact, then the Web Name field on the case is automatically
updated with the name in the From field of the email, and the Web Email field on the case is automatically updated with
the address provided in the inbound email.
Tip: When running the Cases with Emails report, add the Is Incoming field to the report to see the cases received via
Email-to-Case.
SEE ALSO:
Send Articles from Cases
USER PERMISSIONS
To send emails:
• Send Email
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
1. In the feed for the case, click Email. Depending on how your administrator has set up Case Feed, some of the options described in
the screenshot might not be available to you or might look different. To write a reply to a message, click Reply or Reply All below
an email message in the feed.
2. If your department uses email templates, choose one for your message.
3. Select a From address.
If this field doesn’t appear as a picklist, your administrator has already defined a From address.
4. The email address of the contact who created the case automatically appears in the To field, as long as the creator is an existing
contact. To add more recipients, click to look up an address, or type or paste email addresses or names in the To field.
• When you enter an email address or name that matches one contact or user, the address appears as a button with the person’s
name.
• To add several addresses at once, copy and paste them separated by spaces or commas. These email addresses appear as buttons,
and, if they’re associated with a contact or user, show the contact’s name.
• When you enter an email address that matches multiple contacts or users, the address appears as a button. Click the button to
see a list of people associated with the email address. Choose the contact or user that you want to associate with the message.
5. If you want to copy other people on the message, click Add Cc or Add Bcc.
6. By default, the email subject is the name of the case it’s related to. If you apply an email template that includes a subject, then the
template subject is shown. You can edit the subject if you want to.
7. Use the rich text editor to add formatting to your message.
8. Create your message. If your department uses quick text messages, type ;; to insert one.
9. If your administrator has enabled email drafts, you can click Save to save a copy of your message without sending it. When you save
a message as a draft, any agent with access to the case can edit it.
10. Click Attach File or drag and drop files in the attachments pane to add files to the message.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Tip: Click and drag in the bottom right corner to change the height of the message pane. Make it larger so you can see
more of what you’re writing. Make it smaller so you can see more of the case history in the feed without scrolling. Once you resize
the message pane, it appears in the new size each time you write an email, until you resize it again.
SEE ALSO:
Post on Cases and Experience Cloud Site Questions with the Experience Action in the Case Feed
Use Case Feed in Salesforce Classic
Send and Receive Emails with Email-to-Case
Enable Case Feed Actions and Feed Items
Add Images and Files to Email Messages in the Salesforce Classic Case Feed
Give customers comprehensive information to help resolve their issues more quickly by attaching
EDITIONS
files to email messages, and add inline images to include pictures that enhance your text.
For example, if you’re working on a case that requires a customer to try a few different solutions to Available in: Salesforce
resolve an issue, you might attach a how-to video or a document with multiple sets of detailed Classic (not available in all
troubleshooting steps. If the customer has to follow a particular set of troubleshooting steps very orgs)
carefully, you could use inline images after each step in the body of a message.
Available in: Enterprise,
• To add an inline image, click in the toolbar of the Case Feed email publisher and upload Performance, Unlimited,
or link to the image you want. Each image you embed must be no larger than 1 MB, and in and Developer Editions
.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .jpe, .jfif, .pjpeg, .bmp, or .gif format. The total size of your email message,
including images and text, can be no more than 12 MB. USER PERMISSIONS
Note: You need to use the rich text editor in the email publisher to embed images. You To send emails with
can’t embed images in plain text messages. attachments or inline
images:
• To attach files to an email, click Upload files to choose a file from your computer or Salesforce,
• Send Email
or to use a file that’s already attached to the case, or drag and drop files to the attachments
area at the bottom of the email publisher. You can attach up to a total of 10 MB to each email
message. Salesforce supports all file types.
Example: For example, let’s say you’re a support agent for an appliance company, and you’re working on a case for a customer
who’s having trouble with the ice maker on her fridge. You could email the customer step-by-step instructions for troubleshooting
the ice maker and include an image after each step, and could attach two documents: a PDF of the user manual for the fridge (a
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
2 MB file) and a list of maintenance tips to keep the fridge working well (a 10 KB file). When the customer receives the email, she’ll
see:
• The images embedded in the body of the email message so she can refer to them one at a time as she works through the
troubleshooting steps
• The user manual and list of maintenance tips as attachments to the message, as their total size is less than 3 MB
If you also attached a troubleshooting video (a 2.5 MB file), all three of the attachments would appear to the customer as links, as
the total size of all attachments would be greater than 3MB.
SEE ALSO:
Send and Reply to Email in the Salesforce Classic Case Feed
Find, Attach, and Email Articles with the Case Feed Articles Tool
Customize Emails with the Rich Text Editor in the Salesforce Classic Case Feed
Note: Depending on how your administrator has set up Case Feed, you may see a pre-loaded Available in: Enterprise,
template when you use the Email action. Use the steps below to choose a different template Performance, Unlimited,
if needed. and Developer Editions
To use a template:
USER PERMISSIONS
1. Depending on which action appears, click Answer Customer and select Email, or just click
Email. To send emails
2. Click Select a Template. • Send Email
Tip:
• If you choose more than one text or HTML template, each template is added in the order you choose it. If you choose a
Visualforce template after choosing another template, it replaces the earlier template.
• If the template you choose has attachments, they’re included with the message.
• If the template you choose has merge fields, only the case-related fields are merged.
• To remove a template, click . This also deletes any text you’ve entered and removes all template attachments.
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Each case can have only one draft email associated with it, so if you’re working on a case with a
draft you or someone else has saved, you won’t be able to write another email until that draft is sent or discarded. When you view a case
with a draft associated with it, you see a notification with the name of the user who wrote the draft and a link to view it. Any agent or
supervisor with access to a case can edit the draft email, unless it’s awaiting approval.
If your company uses approval processes for email messages, when you submit a message, it’s sent to a supervisor for review. (Depending
on how your administrator has set up approval processes, you may have the option of submitting the message for review or sending it
without review.) When a supervisor approves the message, it’s sent to the customer. If your email isn’t approved, a message with an
explanation appears at the top of the publisher when you click Email while viewing the case. You can edit the message and resubmit
it.
SEE ALSO:
Review and Approve Email Drafts in the Salesforce Classic Case Feed
Review and Approve Email Drafts in the Salesforce Classic Case Feed
Depending on how your administrator has set up draft emails and approval processes for your
EDITIONS
organization, you may need to review and approve messages written by the agents you oversee
before those messages are sent to customers. Available in: Salesforce
When an agent submits a message for approval, you receive an email notification with a link to the Classic (not available in all
case that includes the message. A notice appears at the top of the publisher when you click Email. orgs)
Click View email to go to the message detail page. On that page:
Available in: Enterprise,
• Click Unlock Record to make the message editable. Performance, Unlimited,
• Click Delete if you want to discard the draft. and Developer Editions
• Click Approve/Reject in the Approval History related list to approve or reject the message.
• Click Reassign to assign the approval to another supervisor. USER PERMISSIONS
If you approve the message, it’s sent to the customer. If you reject it, you have the option of writing To review and approve
a note explaining why. This note appears above the publisher on the case page when the agent email drafts:
clicks Email, along with a notice that the draft has been rejected. • Send Email
AND
SEE ALSO: Inclusion in an email
Work with Draft Emails in the Salesforce Classic Case Feed approval process
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Customize Emails with the Rich Text Editor in the Salesforce Classic Case Feed
The rich text editor lets you customize the emails you send to customers. Use it to format text, add
EDITIONS
bulleted or numbered lists, and add images and links.
Available in: Salesforce
Accessing the Editor Classic (not available in all
orgs)
The rich text editor appears when you click Email, or Answer Customer and then Email, in the
publisher on the Case Feed. You won’t see the editor if: Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
• Your administrator hasn’t enabled it.
and Developer Editions
• You used the plain text editor the last time you wrote an email in Case Feed. Just click the toggle
icon to switch to rich text. USER PERMISSIONS
To send emails:
Tips on Using the Rich Text Editor
• Send Email
• The rich text editor in is available only for the Email action.
• If you enter HTML and other kinds of markup in the editor, it won’t render when you send a
message.
•
To delete a message, click .
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Solution Case.Solution_Description The details of the solution associated with the Yes
Description case. If more than one solution is associated
with the case, the description of each solution
appears in a list.
Solution Subject Case.Solution_Subject The title of the solution associated with the Yes
case. If more than one solution is associated
with the case, the title of each solution appears
in a list.
Solution Subject Case.Solution_Subject_and_ The title and details of the solution associated Yes
and Description Description with the case. If more than one solution is
associated with the case, the title and
description of each solution appears in a list.
Case Thread Id Case.Thread_Id A unique identifier for the case email thread Yes
in Email-to-Case. The thread ID is the unique
ID of each case email, such as
[ref:_DV0Txx._500V0U9YB:ref]. By default, the
thread ID is added to both the subject and
body of case emails. The default location for
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
SEE ALSO:
Considerations for Using Merge Fields in Email Templates and Letterheads
Merge Field Tips
Email Templates
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Close Cases
After you solve a customer’s case, you can close it from a few locations and create a solution or
EDITIONS
article to help solve similar cases.
1. Click Close Case on a case’s detail page, Cls on the Cases related list, or Save & Close while Available in: Salesforce
editing a case. If enabled by your administrator, you can select Closed from Status on a Classic (not available in all
case’s edit page and click Save without completing any more steps. orgs)
2. Update Status, Case Reason, or any other fields as necessary. Available in: Group,
Professional, Enterprise,
3. If solutions are enabled, you can fill in the Solution Details for the case. If you don’t
Performance, Unlimited,
want to save the solution or submit it for review to a solution manager, uncheck Submit
and Developer Editions
to public solutions. When this field is checked, the new solution is automatically
linked to the case.
4. If there’s a contact on the case, select Notify contact on case close to send an USER PERMISSIONS
email to the contact based on a predefined case close template. To close cases:
5. Click Save or Save and Create Article. The article option is available if both Salesforce • Edit on cases
Knowledge and article submission during case close is enabled.
Tip: If you have the “Manage Cases” permission, you can close multiple cases at once using
the Close button on case lists.
SEE ALSO:
Delete Cases
Tips on Writing Solutions
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Solve Cases
Find an article or solution that answers the customer’s question.
EDITIONS
To solve a case:
Available in: Salesforce
1. View the case.
Classic (not available in all
2. Find an article or find a solution that answers the case's question. orgs)
3. Attach the article or solution to the case by clicking Select next to a reviewed solution in the Available in: Professional,
list of solutions. Or, click the title of an unreviewed solution and choose Select on the solution Enterprise, Performance,
detail page. Unlimited, and Developer
4. Email the solution or article to the contact by clicking Send Email in the Activity History related Editions
list.
a. Click Select Template and choose a template. USER PERMISSIONS
You or your administrator can create email templates that automatically include the case To solve cases:
description, solution detail, solution attachments, and other fields. • Edit on cases
b. Fill in the email fields. AND
The emailed solution or article is logged as an activity in the Activity History related list.
SEE ALSO:
Suggested Solutions Overview
Multilingual Solutions Overview
Delete Cases
When you delete a case, all related events and tasks, case comments, and attachments also are
EDITIONS
deleted. Associated contacts, accounts, and solutions aren't deleted.
To delete a case, click Del next to the case on the cases list page, or click Delete on the case detail Available in: Salesforce
page. The Del link and Delete button do not display for users who do not have the “Delete” Classic (not available in all
permission on cases. orgs)
The deleted case is moved to the Recycle Bin. If you undelete the case, any related items are also Available in: Group,
restored. Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Note: If you delete an event, task, case comment, or attachment from a case—and then and Developer Editions
delete the case— the event, task, case comment, or attachment cannot be restored via
undelete.
USER PERMISSIONS
SEE ALSO: To delete cases:
What’s a Case? • Delete on cases
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
IN THIS SECTION:
Merge Duplicate Cases from the Cases List View
You can merge cases from the Cases list view.
Merge Duplicate Cases from the Case Record Home
You can merge cases from the Case record home. When you merge cases from Case record home, you can search for cases to merge.
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To view articles:
• Read on the article's
article type
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
4. Click Save.
On the case detail page in the Emails related list, users can now click Send an Email and choose the new template. Articles associated
with the case are automatically converted to PDF attachments, and the attachments can be previewed or deleted before the email
is sent.
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Note: Both the article and the knowledge base must be in the same language. For example, if your knowledge base language is
English, but you want a Japanese article converted into a PDF, change your knowledge base language to Japanese before converting
the article. (In Setup, enter Knowledge in the Quick Find box, select Knowledge Settings, then click Edit.).
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Knowledge
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Related Cases
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.
Changes to the Cases and Case Feed Mobile App
Contacts who are portal users can only view cases associated with the account on their contact Case assignment rules, case
record. escalation rules,
web-to-case, and customer
When you change an account, manual shares on a case are deleted for users who don’t have
portals are available in:
read access on the new account.
Essentials, Professional,
When agents check Escalated in case details, an arrow icon appears before the subject. The Enterprise, Performance,
icon shows in the highlights panel, list view, and compact preview modal, so that agents know Unlimited, and Developer
the escalation status at a glance. Editions.
If set up, select Send notification email to contact to let the contact know that you’ve updated
the case. An email is sent only if you have access to the contact. USER PERMISSIONS
If set up, select Assign using active assignment rules to reassign a case using an assignment
To view cases:
rule. If the case doesn’t match rule criteria, it’s reassigned to your organization’s default case
• Read on cases
owner.
To update cases:
If set up, click Sharing to share a case with other users, groups, or roles. • Edit on cases
If set up, close a case by selecting Closed under Status. Otherwise, click Close Case and
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, it’s attached
to the case and available in the knowledge base for easy reference.
If set up, a Web-to-Case 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 Email-to-Case, 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 add files to a case, drag them onto the Files or Attachments related list. You can only drag files in Lightning Experience.
To find articles from your organization’s 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 1.0 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 site, type your response in the Chatter-like feed, and click Answer Customer.
Your response is tracked on the Case Comments related list.
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Case comments marked Public display as private messages from customer support in Chatter Answers. They don’t display to
the entire site. For example, if a support agent adds a public case comment, it displays only to the case’s contact private messages
in Chatter Answers. Support agents can read all private and public case comments.
SEE ALSO:
Case Fields
Case History
What’s a Case Team?
Case Comments
Assign Cases
Working with Case Emails in Salesforce Classic
View the Case Milestones
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. Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)
USER PERMISSIONS
To view cases:
• Read on cases
To create cases:
• Create on cases
Case Fields
Case records contain information about the case progress and its associated records.
EDITIONS
Whether a field is visible or editable, depends on your page layout and field-level security settings.
Available in both: Salesforce
Important: Some of these fields aren’t supported in Lightning Experience. Classic and Lightning
Experience
Field Description
Available in: Essentials,
Indicates that an escalation rule escalated a case. Group, Professional,
The escalation icon disappears when a case is Enterprise, Performance,
closed or no longer meets escalation rule criteria. Unlimited, and Developer
Editions
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Field Description
Indicates that a customer added a comment to a case from a web
portal. The icon appears until the case owner views the case.
Account Name Name of the account associated with a case’s contact. The name
is added when you link the case to a contact and save the case.
When updating a case, you can add a different account.
Asset The customer’s product model. On edit pages, this field shows only
assets associated with a case’s contact, but you can use inline
editing to see a list of all assets on a case.
Case Currency The currency for all currency amounts on a case. Amounts display
in the case currency and are also converted to your personal
currency. Only available for organizations that use multiple
currencies.
Case Division The division to which a case belongs. Division is inherited from a
case’s contact. If it has no contact, it’s set to the default global
division. Only available in organizations that use divisions to
segment data.
Case Number Unique number assigned to the case. Numbers start at 1000 and
are read only, but administrators can change the format. Case
numbers often increase sequentially, but sometimes they skip
numbers in a sequence.
Case Record Type Field name that determines the picklist values available on a case.
Record types are often related to a support process.
Closed by Self-Service User Indicates if a case’s contact closed the case from a web portal. This
field is read only.
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Field Description
Closed When Created Indicates if a case was closed during creation using the Save and
Close button. This field is read only.
Contact Email Email address of a case’s contact. The address is added when you
add a contact to a case. This field is read only.
Contact Fax Fax number of a case’s contact. This number is added when you
add a contact to a case. This field is read only.
Contact Mobile Mobile phone number of a case’s contact. The number is added
when you add a contact to a case. This field is read only.
Contact Phone Phone number of a case’s contact. The number is added when you
add a contact to a case. This field is read only.
Created By User who created a case, including creation date and time. This
field is read only.
Date/Time Closed Date and time that a case was closed. This field is read only.
Date/Time Opened Date and time that a case was opened. This field is read only.
Entitlement Process Start Time The time the case entered an entitlement process. If you have “Edit”
permission on cases, you can update or reset the time. When you
reset the time:
• Completed milestones aren’t affected
• Incomplete milestones are recalculated based on the new start
time
If an entitlement process applies to a case, this field appears.
Entitlement Process End Time The time a case exited an entitlement process. If an entitlement
process applies to a case, this field appears.
Internal Comments Internal notes related to a case. Each comment can store up to 4
KB of data and appears on the Case Comments related list.
Comments marked “public” can appear on web portals.
Language The language of the case. This field is available in all Enterprise,
Performance, and Unlimited orgs with the Service Cloud. Out of
the box, it's used only by Einstein Case Classification.
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Field Description
Milestone Status A milestone is a step in an entitlement process. If an entitlement
process applies to a case, this field appears.
Milestone Status Icon Indicates a milestone’s status on a case by displaying one of the
following icons:
• Compliant
• Open Violation
• Closed Violation
If an entitlement process applies to a case, this field appears.
Modified By User who last changed a case, excluding any changes made to a
case’s related list items. This field also includes the date and time
of the change. This field is read only.
Parent Case A case above one or more related cases in a case hierarchy. A case
number identifies a parent case, and a parent case must exist before
you can add it to another case.
Priority Urgency of a case. Administrators set field values, and each value
can have up to 20 characters.
Question A question on the Q&A tab that is related to a case. This field is
populated when you create a case from a question or a question
is escalated to a case.
Reason The reason a case was created. Administrators set field values.
Stopped Since Shows the date and time an entitlement process was stopped on
a case. If an entitlement process applies to a case, this field appears.
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Field Description
Timeline How far along a case is to reaching an entitlement process’s
milestones. You can click or hover your mouse pointer over each
milestone to view its details. These icons represent milestones:
•
Completed milestone
•
Violated milestone
You can drag the Handle icon ( ) along the Timeline Zoom tool
to view past and future milestones. If an entitlement process applies
to the case, this field appears.
Visible in Self-Service Portal Indicates if a case is visible to users in a web portal. If you want
web-generated cases visible in a portal, include this field in
Web-to-Case setup.
Web Company Company name provided by a customer who created a case from
Web-to-Case or Email-to-Case.
Web Email Email address provided by a customer who created a case from
Web-to-Case or Email-to-Case.
Web Phone Phone number provided by the customer who created a case from
Web-to-Case or Email-to-Case.
SEE ALSO:
Guidelines for Working with Cases
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Case History
The Case History related list on a case detail page tracks the changes to the case. Any time a user
EDITIONS
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, Available in: Salesforce
and who made the change. Modifications to the related lists on the case are not tracked in the case Classic (not available in all
history. orgs)
Note: Changes to the Closed When Created field are only tracked when the field Available in: Group,
is updated via the Lightning Platform API. Professional, Enterprise,
In Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance, and Developer Edition organizations, for Performance, Unlimited,
automated case changes that result from Web-to-Case or case assignment or escalation rules, the and Developer Editions
user listed in the history is the Automated Case User chosen in the Support Settings.
USER PERMISSIONS
SEE ALSO:
To view cases:
What’s a Case? • Read on cases
Case Hierarchies
When a case is associated with a parent case, it signifies a relationship between cases. The relationship
USER PERMISSIONS
can be a grouping of similar cases for easy tracking, or a division of one case into multiple cases for
various users to resolve. To view cases:
• Read on cases
Available in: Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience To view parent cases:
Available in: Essentials, Group, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and • Read on cases
Developer Editions To add, edit or delete
hierarchy columns:
• Modify All Data
A case hierarchy shows cases that are associated with one another via the Parent Case field.
In the case hierarchy, child cases are indented to show that they're related to the parent case above
them.
• To view the hierarchy for a case, click View Hierarchy next to the Case Number field on the case detail page.
• To specify that a case is associated with another case, edit the case and type the case number of the parent in the Parent Case
field. Alternatively, you can click the lookup icon to search for a case's case number.
Note: A parent case must exist before it can be specified in the Parent Case field.
• To create a case that is automatically associated with a case whose detail page you're viewing, click the New button on the Related
Cases related list. From the New dropdown button, Classic users can choose to create either a blank case or a case with information
from the parent case.
SEE ALSO:
Guidelines for Working with Cases
Create Cases
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
Related Cases
When a case is associated with a parent case, it signifies a relationship between cases. The relationship
EDITIONS
can be a grouping of similar cases for easy tracking, or a division of one case into multiple cases for
various users to resolve. Available in both: Salesforce
If set up by your administrator, case detail pages include a Related Cases related list, which displays Classic and Lightning
all cases directly below a parent case in a case hierarchy. Cases can be associated with each other Experience
via the Parent Case lookup field on a case edit page.
Available in: Essentials,
From the Related Cases related list, click: Group, Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
• New and choose from the dropdown button to create either a blank case or a case with
Unlimited, and Developer
information from the parent case.
Editions
• Edit to modify an existing case.
• Close to close an existing case.
USER PERMISSIONS
To perform mass actions from the Related Cases related list, select the checkboxes next to the cases
you wish to update, and click: To view cases:
• Read on cases
• Close to close the selected cases using the values you specify.
To create cases:
• Change Owner to assign the cases to the one user or queue you specify.
• Create on cases
• Change Status to change the Status of the cases to the value you specify.
SEE ALSO:
Case Hierarchies
• There are some differences in behavior when using case Send Email actions.
– The CC and BCC fields on the Send Email publisher aren’t collapsible.
– HTML isn’t supported in Send Email actions on cases. If a Send Email action includes an HTML Body field, HTML markup tags
don’t appear in the Send Email publisher or in emails created from the action.
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Service Cloud Set Up and Manage Cases
– You can’t include email attachments when using a case Send Email action.
– If a default email template is assigned to a case Send Email action, any attachments included in the template are ignored. The
attachments don’t appear in the Send Email publisher and aren’t included in emails created from the action.
– Email drafts aren’t supported on the mobile app.
• You can create cases comments if the Lightning app page is enabled for the mobile app. You can’t edit or delete case comments.
The Case Comments related list doesn’t display the full text of comments that were added in the desktop site.
• These case related lists aren’t available:
– Business Hours on Holiday List
– Solution List
• These case related lists are available if the Lightning app page is enabled for the mobile app:
– Case Contact Role
– Team Member List
– Team Member on Team List
– Team Template Member List
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Service Cloud Let Customers Request that Support Get Back to Them
SEE ALSO:
Contact Request Considerations
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Service Cloud Let Customers Request that Support Get Back to Them
SEE ALSO:
Experience Builder Component: Contact Request Button & Flow
Experience Builder Component: Flow
Edit Pages and Components in Experience Builder
Allow Guest Users to Access Flows
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
Agent Considerations
• By default, all Standard User and System Administrator profiles have access to the object. Make sure that your agents profiles have
at least read access on the contact request object.
• To save agents time, when they relate a contact request to a new record, we populate relevant fields with information from the
contact request. For example, when an agent relates a contact request to a new case, we populate the Status, Priority, Case Origin,
Web Phone, Subject, and Description fields on the case record. For new accounts, we populate the Phone field. For new opportunities,
we populate the Description field.
SEE ALSO:
Let Customers Request that Support Get Back to Them
Add Contact Requests to Your Community
Flow Builder
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up and Manage Entitlements and Milestones
Give your customers the level of support you’ve promised them. Entitlement management lets you define, enforce, and track customer
service levels as part of your support management process.
Set Up and Manage Assets
Keep tabs on the products that your customers buy. Assets represent purchased or installed products, and are an essential piece of
the Salesforce puzzle. You can link assets to maintenance plans, entitlements, work orders, and more so your support team can
quickly assess the history of a customer’s product.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Entitlement Management Help
Find the information you need to make the most of entitlement management.
What’s Entitlement Management?
Entitlement management helps you provide the correct support to your customers. Its variety of features let you define, enforce,
and track service levels as part of your support management process.
Planning for Entitlement Management
Entitlement management is highly customizable, which means you have many choices during setup. Before you begin the setup
process, it’s essential to choose an entitlement management model.
Entitlement Management Setup Checklist
When you set up entitlement management, you decide which features to use. Use this checklist to confirm that you’ve set up
entitlement management in a way that fits your support processes.
Entitlement Management Limits and Limitations
The following limits and limitations apply to entitlements and their related features.
Entitlements
Entitlements are units of customer support in Salesforce, such as “phone support” or “web support.” They’re typically used to represent
terms in service agreements.
Milestones
Milestones represent required, time-dependent steps in your support process, like first response or case resolution times. Milestones
are added to entitlement processes to ensure that agents resolve support records correctly and on time.
Entitlement Processes
Entitlement processes are timelines that include all the steps (or milestones) that your support team must complete to resolve
support records like cases or work orders. Each process includes the logic necessary to determine how to enforce the correct service
level for your customers.
Service Contracts
Service contracts in Salesforce represent a customer support agreement between you and your customers. You can use them to
represent subscriptions, service level agreements (SLAs), and other types of customer support.
Set Up Entitlement Management in Experiences
Add entitlement management to your experiences to let customers or partners view their entitlements and service contracts.
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
Important: Only users in orgs with the Service Cloud can enable, create, and update entitlement management items.
SEE ALSO:
Planning for Entitlement Management
Entitlement Management Setup Checklist
You can set up entitlement management so customers are eligible for support based on one or Available in: Professional,
several of the following types of records: Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
• Accounts: Any contact on the account is eligible for support.
Editions with the Service
• Contacts: Specific contacts are eligible for support. Cloud
• Assets: Specific assets (purchased products) are eligible for support.
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
• Service contracts: Customers are eligible for support based on a specific service contract.
• Contract line items: Specific products covered by a service contract are eligible for support.
Your approach depends on how detailed you want your support process to be. If you prefer to keep it simple, just have your support
agents determine support eligibility based on accounts. Here’s what this approach looks like:
Entitlements + service contracts Support agents determine whether a • Entitlements are purchased and
customer is eligible for support based on managed separately from the products
their service contract. they cover and are part of a service
contract
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
Entitlements + service contracts + contract Support agents determine whether a • You use Salesforce for customer support
line items (most complex option) customer is eligible for support based on and to manage your customers' service
the products covered in their service contracts
contract.
• Your support team manages service
contract transactions, such as transfers,
mergers, and renewals
• Warranties, subscriptions, or other
support products appear as line items
on your sales orders and map to one or
more entitlements
• Entitlements are created and updated
through an integration with your order
management system
Regardless of the setup model you choose, you can enhance your support process with other entitlement management features. For
example, you can:
• Create entitlement processes to enforce required, time-dependent steps in your support process
• Use entitlement versioning to create and maintain multiple versions of entitlement processes
• Add entitlements to experiences
• Report on entitlements
After you select a setup model, head to the invaluable Entitlement Management Setup Checklist.
SEE ALSO:
What’s Entitlement Management?
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
Give Users Access to Entitlement You want to give users the appropriate user
Management permissions, field access, and tab access.
Set Up the Milestone Tracker You want your support team to be able to
see a list of upcoming and completed
milestones and countdowns for active and
overdue milestones.
Limit User Updates to Milestones You want to prevent users from updating
milestones unless certain criteria are met.
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
Set Up Entitlement Processes You want to be able to apply the required steps in your support
process to specific records.
Create an Entitlement Process You want to create a timeline that includes all of the steps that
your support team must complete to resolve support records.
Customize Entitlement Process Fields You want to control which entitlement process fields users see.
Add a Milestone to an Entitlement Process You want to specify which required support steps occur, and
when, on your timeline.
Add a Milestone Action to an Entitlement Process You want to define time-dependent workflow actions that
occur at every step (milestone) in an entitlement process when
the milestone is nearing violation, violated, or completed.
Apply an Entitlement Process to an Entitlement You want a specific entitlement’s support records to follow the
steps defined in your entitlement process.
Create a New Version of an Entitlement Process You want to update an entitlement process.
Use a New Version of an Entitlement Process You want to apply a new version of an entitlement process to
new or existing entitlements.
Set Up Service Contracts You want customer support eligibility to be determined at the
service contract level.
Add Contract Line Items to Service Contracts You want to be able to limit a service contract to cover specific
products.
Set Up Entitlement Management in Experiences You want customers or partners to be able to view their
entitlements and service contracts and create support records
from them.
Report on Entitlements You want to view and share data on entitlements and service
contracts.
Give your support team entitlement management guidelines. You want your support team to understand:
• How to verify that a customer is entitled to support
• How to link cases or work orders to entitlements
• How entitlement processes affect the way they resolve
cases or work orders
SEE ALSO:
Planning for Entitlement Management
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
Limitations
Experience Limitations
• Entitlements are only supported in experiences built using Salesforce Tabs + Visualforce, and can’t be added to Lightning
Experience.
Entitlement Limitations
• Every entitlement must be associated with an account.
• You can’t share entitlements. Entitlements inherit their parent account’s sharing settings. To update an entitlement, you need
Read access on the parent account.
• If you’re using entitlement processes, manage customers’ work orders and cases on separate entitlements. This is because an
entitlement process only runs on records that match its type. For example, when a Case entitlement process is applied to an
entitlement, the process only runs on cases associated with the entitlement. If a work order is also associated with the entitlement,
the process won’t run on the work order.
• Merge fields for entitlements on cases aren't supported. For example, if you add the Entitlement Name
{!Case.Entitlement} merge field to an email template, the field is not populated on the template.
• Entitlement contacts don’t have page layouts, search layouts, buttons, links, or record types.
• Entitlements don’t automatically apply to cases created with Web-to-Case or Email-to-Case. For details on how to auto-add
entitlements to these types of cases, see Automatically Add Entitlements to Cases from Web, Email, and Experiences.
Milestone Limitations
• You can’t add milestones to support records without using entitlement processes. Entitlement processes apply milestones to
support records.
• Milestones aren’t marked completed automatically. For details on how to auto-complete milestones on records that match
unique criteria, see Auto-Complete Case Milestones.
• Actions on time-based milestones may execute a few seconds before their target date. For example, if you set up a violation
action to occur 0 minutes after the milestone is violated, the action may execute in the minute before the target date.
• After an entitlement process is activated, you can’t delete its milestones or create milestone actions. However, you can create
versions of entitlement processes with different milestone settings and apply the new version to existing entitlements.
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
• By default, the tracker displays only one milestone countdown at a time. To view upcoming milestones, use the links in the
tracker.
• The Milestone component and tracker isn’t displayed in the Salesforce mobile app.
• Business hours on entitlement processes aren’t supported in change sets. To transfer an entitlement process with business hours
from one Salesforce org to another, use one of these approaches:
– Create the entitlement process from scratch in the new org
– Use an alternative method to transfer the entitlement process, such as the Ant Migration Tool
– Remove the business hours from the entitlement process before adding it to a change set
– Case Milestone doesn't have system fields to identify who completes or changes the milestone.
Note: If you experience issues with the Root Service Contract field being blank, contact Salesforce for help.
SEE ALSO:
Entitlement Management Setup Checklist
Set Up Entitlement Processes
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
Entitlements
Entitlements are units of customer support in Salesforce, such as “phone support” or “web support.”
EDITIONS
They’re typically used to represent terms in service agreements.
You can associate entitlements with accounts, assets, contacts, and service contracts. For example, Available in both: Salesforce
a phone support entitlement can be added to an account. When a contact from that account calls Classic and Lightning
your service department, support agents can quickly verify that they’re entitled to phone support. Experience
You can use entitlements on their own or as part of entitlement processes. Entitlement processes are timelines that contain all the steps
that agents must complete to resolve a support record. To represent more complex service-level agreements in Salesforce—with features
like renewal processes and multiple service levels—you can use service contracts and contract line items.
View and manage entitlements in Salesforce from the Entitlements tab. Depending on how entitlements are set up, you can also use
the Entitlements related list on accounts, contacts, assets, or service contracts.
Note: In Lightning Experience, the Entitlements related list isn’t available on Contacts.
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Entitlements
Entitlements are units of customer support in Salesforce, such as “phone support” or “web support”. Set up entitlements in your
Salesforce org to help support agents determine whether a customer is eligible for support.
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SEE ALSO:
Guidelines for Working with Entitlements
Entitlements: Terms to Know
Set Up Entitlements
Entitlements are units of customer support in Salesforce, such as “phone support” or “web support”.
EDITIONS
Set up entitlements in your Salesforce org to help support agents determine whether a customer
is eligible for support. Available in both: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
IN THIS SECTION: Experience
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
Enable Entitlements
Enable entitlements in your Salesforce org to help support agents deliver the correct service level
EDITIONS
to your customers.
Note: Only users with a standard System Administrator profile can enable entitlements. Available in both: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
1. From Setup, enter Entitlement Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Experience
Entitlement Settings.
Available in: Professional,
2. Select Enable Entitlement Management. Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
3. Click Save. This takes you to a page where you can customize entitlement management settings.
Editions with the Service
You’ll come back to those settings later on in the entitlement management setup process.
Cloud
USER PERMISSIONS
To enable entitlements:
• “Customize Application”
Customize Entitlements
Customize entitlement fields and page layouts based on your business needs and how your agents
EDITIONS
work.
1. Customize entitlements fields. Available in both: Salesforce
This customization lets you control what information users add to entitlements. Classic and Lightning
Experience
Tip: Create custom entitlement fields that are specific to your industry or your support
Available in: Professional,
processes. For example:
Enterprise, Performance,
• Customize the values for the Type field to match the types of entitlements your Unlimited, and Developer
team provides or sells, like online support or online training. Editions with the Service
• If your business charges for entitlement renewals, create a currency field on Cloud
entitlements named Cost to Renew.
USER PERMISSIONS
2. Customize entitlement page layouts.
This customization lets you specify which fields and related lists users see on entitlements. To edit page layouts and set
field history tracking:
Consider making the following customizations:
• Customize Application
• Add the Status Icon field so users can easily see whether the entitlement is active,
expired, or inactive.
• Add the Cases, Contacts, and Work Orders related lists so users can:
– View cases, contacts, and work orders associated with entitlements
– Create cases or work orders automatically associated with the correct entitlements
– Add contacts to entitlements
• Add the Work Orders Per Entitlement and Remaining Work Orders fields so users can track how many work orders were agreed
to and how many are still available.
Note: In Lightning Experience, the Entitlement Templates related list isn’t available on product page layouts.
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
This customization lets you see when field values were changed. Changes are listed in the Entitlement History related list on
entitlements. From the object management settings for entitlements, go to the fields section and click Set History Tracking.
Important: To let a user create cases from entitlements or change a case’s assigned entitlement, make the Entitlement
Name field on cases editable for their profile.
Add the Entitlements related list to this object’s page So users can view and create entitlements when...
layouts...
Accounts Any contact on the account is eligible for support
Note: In Lightning Experience, the Entitlements related list isn’t available on Contacts.
5. Make the Entitlements tab visible in Salesforce and any custom apps.
The Entitlements tab is where users create and edit entitlements. Add the tab to an app or instruct your users to add it to an existing
tab set in Salesforce. To see the Entitlements tab, users need the “Read” permission on entitlements.
1. From Setup, enter Entitlement Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Available in: Professional,
Entitlement Settings. Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
2. Choose the item(s) you'd like returned in the lookup fields.
Editions with the Service
Cloud
Lookup Field on Cases Click... To Return...
Asset Same account on the Assets registered to the
USER PERMISSIONS
case account on the case.
To set up entitlement-related
Tip: If you want the lookups on cases:
lookup field to return • Manage Entitlements
all assets that share an
account with the case,
select only this option.
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
Choosing multiple items acts as an AND function, so the more items you select, the more it restricts the options returned. For example,
choosing Same account on the case and Same contact on the case means the Asset lookup field only
returns assets registered to both the account and the contact on the case.
Tip: Choose items that match the way your support agents verify support eligibility. For example, choose the account-related
items if your support agents verify support eligibility based on accounts.
3. Click Save.
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Create and run reports based “Create and Customize Standard User, Solution
on entitlement management Reports” Manager, Contract Manager,
custom report types Marketing User, and System
Administrator
Create work orders with “Create” on work orders Standard User, Solution
entitlements AND Manager, Contract Manager,
Marketing User, and System
“Read” on entitlements Administrator
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View entitlement contacts “Read” on entitlement contacts Standard User, Solution Manager, Contract
Manager, Marketing User, and System
Administrator
Change entitlement contacts “Create” on entitlement contacts None: enable the permissions in a
AND permission set or custom profile
Verify or view service contracts “Read” on service contracts Standard User, Solution Manager, Contract
Manager, Marketing User, and System
Administrator
Create service contracts “Create” on service contracts None: enable the permission in a
permission set or custom profile
Change service contracts “Edit” on service contracts None: enable the permission in a
permission set or custom profile
Verify or view contract line items “Read” on contract line items Standard User, Solution Manager, Contract
Manager, Marketing User, and System
Administrator
Add contract line items to service contracts “Edit” on service contracts None: enable the permissions in a
AND permission set or custom profile
Change contract line items on service “Edit” on service contracts None: enable the permissions in a
contracts AND permission set or custom profile
Tip: If a standard profile doesn’t include a certain user permission, you can create a permission set and enable the permission
in it. Or, clone the standard profile and enable the permission in the custom profile.
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
Important: To let a user create cases from entitlements or change a case’s assigned entitlement, make the Entitlement
Name field on cases editable for their profile.
Note: In Lightning Experience, the contact related list isn’t available on Entitlements. Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Purchased or installed products are represented in Salesforce as assets. That means: Unlimited, and Developer
Editions with the Service
• A product (for example, “Laser Scanner”) is linked to an entitlement template
Cloud
• A corresponding asset (for example, the laser scanner purchased by ABC Labs) is linked to an
entitlement that was created from the entitlement template
USER PERMISSIONS
Note: Entitlement templates are only available if entitlements and products are enabled in
your org. To create entitlement
templates:
Tip: The Entitlement Management Trailhead module introduces you to common terms and • Manage Entitlements
walks you through the process of creating an entitlement template. And, it’s fun! To get
started, see Entitlement Management.
1. Add the Entitlement Templates related list to product page layouts.
2. Optionally, add the Type and Business Hours fields to the Entitlement Templates related list. This lets users view the type
of entitlement, such as Web or phone support, and any business hours that apply to the entitlement.
3. Create an entitlement template.
a. From Setup, enter Templates in the Quick Find box, then select Entitlement Templates.
b. Click New Template.
c. Enter any details:
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Field Description
Entitlement Template Name The name of the entitlement template.
Use a descriptive name, like Phone Support. This helps
users better understand entitlement templates when they see
them on related lists for products.
Per Incident Lets you limit the number of cases the entitlement supports.
The admin determines whether this field is visible.
Cases Per Entitlement The total number of cases the entitlement supports.
This field is only available if Per Incident is selected.
4. Click Save.
5. Add the entitlement template to a product.
a. Go to the product detail page.
b. Click Add Entitlement Template on the Entitlement Templates related list.
c. Select the entitlement template.
d. Click Insert Selected.
e. Click Done.
Now when a user creates an asset and links it to that product, the Entitlements related list on the asset includes an entitlement
created from the entitlement template. That way, support agents responding to a call about the asset can quickly see what kind of
support the customer is entitled to receive.
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
1. From Setup, enter Case Triggers in the Quick Find box, then select Case Triggers.
2. Click New. USER PERMISSIONS
3. Copy the text below and paste it in the text field. To define Apex triggers:
• Author Apex
4. Click Save.
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SEE ALSO:
Set Up Entitlement Processes
Report on Entitlements
Use custom report types to define report criteria that users can use to run and create reports on
EDITIONS
entitlements, service contracts, and contract line items.
After you set up entitlement management, your Salesforce org automatically includes the following Available in both: Salesforce
custom report types: Classic and Lightning
Experience
Custom Report Type Description Report Type Location Available in: Professional,
Accounts with entitlements Lists accounts with Accounts & Contacts Enterprise, Performance,
with contacts entitlements that include Unlimited, and Developer
contacts (named callers). Editions with the Service
Cloud
Service contracts with contract Lists service contracts with Customer Support Reports
line items contract line items (products).
USER PERMISSIONS
Service contracts with Lists service contracts with Customer Support Reports
entitlements entitlements. To create or update
entitlement management
Cases with milestones Lists cases with milestones. Customer Support Reports custom report types:
• Manage Custom Report
Note: This report type Types
can’t be customized.
To create and run reports
based on entitlement
management custom report
To customize entitlement management custom report types: types:
• Create and Customize
1. From Setup, enter Report Types in the Quick Find box, then select Report Types. Reports
2. From the All Custom Report Types page, you can:
• Define a new custom report type. You can't select entitlements as a primary object.
• Update a custom report type's name, description, report type category, and deployment status.
• Delete a custom report type.
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Important: When you delete a custom report type, all the data stored in the custom report type is deleted and cannot
be restored from the Recycle Bin.
Tip: If you want to view a list of work orders with milestones in your org, use the Object Milestones custom report type to create
a work order report.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Entitlements
Set Up Service Contracts
IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Working with Entitlements
Entitlements in Salesforce specify whether a customer is entitled to customer support. Learn how to perform common actions on
entitlements.
Verify Entitlements
Each entitlement in Salesforce is associated with a specific account. Verify that a customer is entitled to customer support before
you create or update a case or work order.
Entitlements: Terms to Know
Learn useful terms related to entitlement features in Salesforce.
Entitlement Fields
Entitlements have the following fields. Sometimes you can't see or edit certain fields because of your page layout and field-level
security settings.
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Note:
• You can add existing entitlements to contacts or products, but you can’t create
entitlements from a contact or product record.
• Click Clone on an entitlement to quickly create an entitlement from an existing one.
Deleting Entitlements
You can delete entitlements on the entitlement’s detail page, the Entitlements related list, or the Entitlements tab. Deleting an
entitlement moves it to the Recycle Bin. Any notes, attachments, or activities associated with the entitlement are also deleted. If you
undelete the entitlement, the associated items are undeleted.
Note:
• You can’t delete an entitlement with an open case or work order.
• If a roll-up summary field has been added to the Contact object that counts related entitlement contacts, you can’t delete
entitlements with contacts. To delete an entitlement with a contact in this scenario, either delete the related entitlement
contact records first, or remove the roll-up summary field from the Contact object.
Sharing Entitlements
You can’t share entitlements. Entitlements use the same sharing model as the account they’re associated with. To update an
entitlement, you need Read access on the parent account.
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Associating a customer with an entitlement doesn’t share the entitlement with them. For customers to be able to see their entitlements,
entitlements must be set up in your external experience.
SEE ALSO:
Verify Entitlements
Entitlements: Terms to Know
Entitlement Fields
Verify Entitlements
Each entitlement in Salesforce is associated with a specific account. Verify that a customer is entitled
EDITIONS
to customer support before you create or update a case or work order.
Available in both: Salesforce
What to Verify Where to Verify It Steps To Verify Classic and Lightning
Whether at least one contact Account detail page Experience
1. View the account.
on a specific account is entitled Available in: Professional,
to support 2. Confirm that the
Enterprise, Performance,
entitlement is on the
Unlimited, and Developer
Entitlements related list. Editions with the Service
Cloud
Whether a specific contact is Contact detail page 1. View the contact.
entitled to support Contact
detail page 2. Confirm that the USER PERMISSIONS
entitlement is on the
Entitlements related list. To view entitlements:
• Read on entitlements
Note: In Lightning
To view accounts, contacts,
Experience, the
assets, and service
Entitlements related list contracts:
isn’t available on • Read on that object
Contacts.
Whether specific assets Asset detail page 1. Locate the asset from a
(purchased products) are related list or an assets list
entitled to support view on the Products tab.
2. Click the asset name.
3. Confirm that the
entitlement is on the
Entitlements related list.
Whether the customer is Entitlements details page Check the value in Remaining
charged for a new work order Work Orders. If the entitlement
has no work orders remaining,
the customer is charged for any
new work orders.
Whether a service contract Service Contract detail page 1. Click the Service Contracts
includes a specific entitlement tab.
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After you verify an entitlement, click New Case on the entitlement’s detail page to create a case associated with the entitlement. The
case automatically includes the correct entitlement, account, contact, and asset information. Alternatively, you can add an entitlement
to an existing case using the Entitlement Name lookup field on the case.
SEE ALSO:
Guidelines for Working with Entitlements
Note:
• Contacts on an account don’t automatically inherit the account’s entitlements. Depending on your business processes,
you may need to create a separate entitlement for each contact on an account. You can also set up an Apex trigger that
automatically assigns an entitlement to a contact when you create the contact.
• Entitlement contacts don’t have page layouts, search layouts, buttons, links, or record types.
• The same visibility and sharing settings that apply to the parent account apply to contacts. Associating a contact with an
entitlement doesn’t share the entitlement record with the contact or the related experience user.
Entitlement Template
Predefined terms of customer support that can be quickly added to products in Salesforce. For example, you can create entitlement
templates for phone or web support so users can easily add entitlements to products purchased by customers.
Note: In Lightning Experience, the contact related list isn’t available on Entitlements.
Entitlement Management
A collection of Salesforce features that help you provide the correct service levels to your customers. It includes:
• Entitlements, which let support agents determine whether a customer is eligible for support.
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• Entitlement processes, which are timelines that include all the steps that your support team must complete to resolve support
records like cases or work orders.
• Service contracts, which let you represent different kinds of customer support agreements like warranties, subscriptions, or
maintenance agreements. You can restrict service contracts to cover specific products.
• Experience access to entitlements, which lets experience users view entitlements and service contracts and create support records
from them.
• Reporting on entitlement management, which lets you track the way entitlements are used in your Salesforce org and whether
service contract terms are being met.
Depending on your business needs, you may decide to use all of these features or just a few of them.
Service Contract
A customer support agreement between you and your customers. Service contracts in Salesforce can represent warranties,
subscriptions, service level agreements (SLAs), and other types of customer support. View service contracts in the Service Contracts
tab or on the Service Contracts related list on accounts and contacts.
Contract Line Item
Specific products covered by a service contract. View contract line items in the Contract Line Items related list on service contracts
(not contracts!). You can only use contract line items if your org uses products.
Note: Schedules aren’t available for contract line items, and experience users can’t access them.
Entitlement Process
A timeline that includes all the steps (milestones) that support agents must complete to resolve a support record. Each process
includes the logic needed to determine how to enforce the correct service level for your customers. Entitlement processes come in
two types: Case and Work Order.
Not all entitlements need processes. For example, a simple entitlement might just state that a customer is eligible for phone support
24/7. If you need to add time-dependent steps or service levels to that definition—for example, if you want a supervisor to be notified
by email when a customer’s case goes unresolved for two hours—you need an entitlement process.
Milestone
A required step in your entitlement process. Milestones are metrics that represent service levels to provide to each of your customers.
Examples of milestones include First Response and Resolution Time on cases.
Milestone Action
A time-dependent workflow action that occurs on a milestone in an entitlement process. For example, you might add the following
actions to a milestone:
• Send an email alert to certain users one hour before a first response milestone is scheduled to expire
• Update certain fields on a case one minute after a first response is completed
There are three types of milestone actions:
• Success actions are triggered when a milestone is completed
• Warning actions are triggered when a milestone is about to be violated
• Violation actions are triggered when a milestone is violated
You can automate tasks, email alerts, field updates, and outbound messages for each action type.
SEE ALSO:
Entitlements
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Entitlement Fields
Entitlements have the following fields. Sometimes you can't see or edit certain fields because of
EDITIONS
your page layout and field-level security settings.
Available in both: Salesforce
Field Description Classic and Lightning
Account Name The account associated with the entitlement. Experience
Every entitlement must be linked to an account. Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Asset Name The asset associated with the entitlement.
Unlimited, and Developer
Products represent the items your company sells Editions with the Service
(for example, a laptop case), whereas assets Cloud
represent the specific products your customers
have purchased (the laptop case purchased by
John).
Contract Line Item The contract line item (product) associated with
the entitlement.
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Field Description
helps users better understand entitlements when they see them
on related lists for accounts, contacts, and assets.
Operating Hours The operating hours applied to the entitlement’s work orders. This
field is visible only if Field Service is enabled.
Remaining Cases The number of cases the entitlement can support. This field
decreases in value by one each time a case is created with the
entitlement.
This field is only available if Per Incident is selected.
Remaining Work Orders The number of work orders remaining that can be raised against
this entitlement.
Status Icon Represents the entitlement’s status with one of the following icons:
• Active
• Expired
• Inactive
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Field Description
Type The type of entitlement, such as Web or phone support.
Admins can customize this field’s values.
Work Orders Per Entitlement The total number of work orders the entitlement supports.
SEE ALSO:
Entitlements: Terms to Know
Milestones
Milestones represent required, time-dependent steps in your support process, like first response or
EDITIONS
case resolution times. Milestones are added to entitlement processes to ensure that agents resolve
support records correctly and on time. Available in both: Salesforce
An entitlement process can have up to 10 milestones. You can set up a milestone to occur once in Classic and Lightning
an entitlement process, or to recur until the entitlement process exits. Experience
Here’s how milestones fit into your support process: Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions with the Service
Cloud
Tip: The Entitlement Management Trailhead module introduces you to common terms and walks you through the process of
creating milestones. And it’s fun! To get started, see Entitlement Management.
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Milestones
Milestones represent required steps in your support management process, like first response times. Set up and customize milestones
in your org so they can be added to entitlement processes and applied to support records like cases and work orders.
Work with Milestones
Milestones help you give your customers a consistent support experience. Learn about milestones statues, actions, and recurrence
types.
Set Up Milestones
Milestones represent required steps in your support management process, like first response times.
EDITIONS
Set up and customize milestones in your org so they can be added to entitlement processes and
applied to support records like cases and work orders. Available in both: Salesforce
Before setting up milestones, make sure that you understand where milestones can appear. See Classic and Lightning
Where Can I View Milestones? Experience
SEE ALSO:
Work with Milestones
Entitlement Management Setup Checklist
Milestones: Supported Objects
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Field Description
USER PERMISSIONS
Actual Elapsed Time The amount of time that it took to complete
a milestone. To create and edit page
layouts:
(Elapsed Time) – (Stopped Time) = (Actual
• Customize Application
Elapsed Time)
To create milestones:
Note: If you want to be able to display • Manage Entitlements
this field, Enable stopped time and
AND
actual elapsed time must be selected
Customize Application
on the Entitlement Settings page.
To enable the Stopped Time
Completed Icon that indicates milestone completion. and Actual Elapsed Time
fields:
Completion Date The date and time the milestone was
• Manage Entitlements
completed.
Start Date The date and time that the milestone tracking
started.
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Field Description
Target Date The date and time to complete the milestone.
Time Remaining The time that remains before a milestone violation. Automatically
calculated to include any business hours on the support record.
Time Since Target The time that has elapsed since a milestone violation.
Automatically calculated to include any business hours on the
support record.
Field Description
Milestone Status The milestone’s status.
Entitlement Process Start Time The time the record enters the entitlement process.
Entitlement Process End Time The time the record exits the entitlement process.
b. Add the Case Milestones or Object Milestones related list to display the record’s milestones.
In Lightning Experience, the Case Milestones related list doesn't support the Business Hours field. Only certain fields in the Object
Milestones related list are supported.
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1. From Setup, enter Entitlement Settings in the Quick Find box, then select
Entitlement Settings. USER PERMISSIONS
2. Select Enable milestone feed items. This enables feed items for both cases and work orders. To enable milestone feed
When milestones feed items are posted, agents can click the milestone name to view its details. items:
• Manage Entitlements
• The time remaining until an active milestone reaches its Target Date Available in: Professional,
• The time passed since an overdue milestone’s Target Date Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
• A list of upcoming milestones
Editions with the Service
• A list of completed milestones Cloud
When a milestone is in progress, the milestone is represented by a green circle. The circle winds
down clockwise as time elapses. The remaining time is shown in the center of the circle. When the USER PERMISSIONS
time to complete the milestone expires, the circle turns red. The amount of time that the milestone
is overdue is shown in the center of the circle. If more than 24 hours remain on a milestone, the To create and edit page
countdown displays in days (for example, 1d). When fewer than 24 hours remain, the countdown layouts:
format switches to hours/minutes/seconds. • Customize Application
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
In Lightning Experience
2. Set how the milestone tracker displays time remaining or time overdue on milestones.
To make it display time remaining or time overdue in business hours, follow these steps.
a. From Setup, enter Entitlement Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Entitlement Settings.
b. In the Milestone Tracker section, deselect Show the time remaining in actual hours, not business hours.
c. Click Save.
Example: Suppose an active milestone’s business hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Right now, it’s 4:30 p.m. and the milestone’s Target
Date is 11:00 a.m. tomorrow.
• If the milestone tracker shows the remaining time in business hours (the default setting), it displays a countdown of 2 hours
and 30 minutes (4:30 to 5 p.m. today and 9 to 11 a.m. tomorrow).
• If the milestone tracker shows the remaining time in actual hours, it displays a countdown of 18 hours and 30 minutes (4:30
p.m. today to 11:00 a.m. tomorrow).
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Note: To create validations rules, use Setup in Salesforce Classic. Don’t worry, your validation Available in both: Salesforce
rules still apply in Lightning Experience. Classic and Lightning
Experience
1. From the object management settings for case milestones, go to Validation Rules.
Available in: Professional,
2. Click New.
Enterprise, Performance,
3. Enter the rule details. Unlimited, and Developer
Editions with the Service
4. Save your changes.
Cloud
Example: This validation rule prevents users from selecting milestone completion dates
that are earlier than the case creation date. You can create a similar validation rule for work
USER PERMISSIONS
orders from the object management settings for Object Milestones in Setup.
To define or change field
Field Value validation rules:
• Customize Application
Rule Name milestone_completion_date
To create or edit milestones:
Description A milestone’s completion date • Manage Entitlements
must be later than the case
creation date.
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
Create a Milestone
Milestones represent required steps in your support process, such as case resolution time and first
EDITIONS
response time. You create master milestones in your org and then add them to entitlement processes
to enforce different service levels on support records, like cases and work orders. Available in both: Salesforce
Tip: The Entitlement Management Trailhead module introduces you to common terms and Classic and Lightning
Experience
walks you through the process of creating milestones. And it’s fun! To get started, see
Entitlement Management. Available in: Professional,
1. From Setup, enter Milestones in the Quick Find box, then select Milestones under Enterprise, Performance,
Entitlement Management. Unlimited, and Developer
Editions with the Service
2. Click New Milestone. Cloud
3. Enter a name and description. Try to name milestones after common support tasks, like “First
Response Time” or “Resolution Time.” Descriptive names help users understand milestones
USER PERMISSIONS
when they see them on cases, work orders, or entitlement processes.
4. Select a recurrence type. To create milestones:
• Manage Entitlements
Recurrence Type Description Example
No Recurrence The milestone occurs only First Response
once on the record. Resolution Time
5. Click Save.
You can’t apply a milestone to a record by itself. It must be part of an entitlement process. So after you create your milestone, add it to
an entitlement process.
Tip: You can add validation rules to a milestone so that users can update a milestone only if it meets specific standards. For details,
see Limit User Updates to Milestones.
SEE ALSO:
Milestone Recurrence Types
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Id contactId = cont.Id;
String entlId;
if (entl != null)
entlId = entl.Id;
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Service Cloud Set Up Service-Level Agreements for Your Customers
acts.add(myAcc);
Id contactId = cont.Id;
String entlId;
if (entl != null)
entlId = entl.Id;
Sample Trigger 1
You can create a milestone named Resolution Time that requires cases to be closed within a certain length of time. It’s a great way
to enforce case resolution terms in SLAs. This sample case trigger marks each Resolution Time milestone Completed when its case
is closed. This way, the support agent doesn’t have to manually mark the milestone completed after closing the case.
Note: This trigger references the milestone utility test class, so be sure to define the test class first.
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}
if (updateCases.isEmpty() == false)
milestoneUtils.completeMilestone(updateCases, 'Resolution Time', completionDate);
}
}
Sample Trigger 2
You can create a milestone named First Response that requires agents to get in touch with a case contact within X minutes or hours
of the case’s creation. It’s a nice way to ensure that your support team is communicating with case contacts as soon as possible. This
sample email trigger marks a First Response milestone Completed when an email is sent to the case contact. That way, the support
agent doesn’t have to manually mark the First Response milestone Completed after they email the case contact.
Note: This trigger references the milestone utility test class, so be sure to define the test class first.
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}
}
Sample Trigger 3
While the previous trigger dealt with email messages, this sample case comment trigger marks a First Response milestone Completed
when a public comment is made on the case. You can use it if a public case comment is a valid first response in your support terms.
Note: This trigger references the milestone utility test class, so be sure to define the test class first.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Where Can I View Milestones?
Your org’s settings and configurations for entitlements and milestones determine where you and your agents can view milestones.
Milestone Statuses
Milestones on support records display one of three statuses.
Milestone Actions
Milestone actions are time-dependent workflow actions that occur on milestones in an entitlement process. Actions can be added
to milestones after the milestone is added to an entitlement process.
Milestone Recurrence Types
When you create a milestone, you must choose its recurrence type. Learn what each recurrence type means and when to use it.
Milestones: Supported Objects
Milestones represent required support steps that your team must complete to resolve a customer issue. Find out where you can use
milestones in Salesforce.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Milestones
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In the app
Related list Yes No You can add related lists to pages for cases, work orders,
and entitlements. Keep in mind that the Case Milestones
related list is for cases and the Object Milestones related
list is for work orders.
Feed item updates Yes Yes Enable milestone feed items in your org.
Tracker Yes Yes (for Case In Lightning Experience, add the Milestones component
Milestones only) to the Lightning page for cases and work orders using
Lightning App Builder.
In the Salesforce mobile app, agents can view case milestone updates in the case feed, open the case milestones record page, and view
the Case Milestones related list. Agents can’t view the milestone tracker.
SEE ALSO:
Customize Milestone Page Layouts
Enable Milestone Feed Items
Set Up the Milestone Tracker
Milestone Statuses
Milestones on support records display one of three statuses.
EDITIONS
Status What It Means Example Available in both: Salesforce
Compliant Milestones on the record are The first response on a case is Classic and Lightning
either complete or not in complete or not in violation. Experience
violation. Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Important: New
Unlimited, and Developer
records display as
Editions with the Service
compliant because
Cloud
they're not in violation.
Open Violation One or more milestones on the The assigned agent didn’t
record have been violated, and complete the first response on
steps in the support process are a case before the milestone
incomplete. expired.
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The status icons you see differ based on where the milestone appears and whether you’re in Salesforce Classic or Lightning Experience.
In Salesforce Classic, milestones display in the following locations:
• On the Milestone Status Icon field and Case Milestones related list
– Compliant:
– Open Violation:
– Close Violation:
Note: For a list of Lightning Experience limitations related to milestones, see Entitlement Management Limits and Limitations.
If milestone feed items are enabled, icons also display in the feed. Remember that these feed item icons are different in Salesforce Classic
and Lightning Experience.
SEE ALSO:
Work with Entitlement Processes
Add a Milestone to an Entitlement Process
Milestone Actions
Milestone Actions
Milestone actions are time-dependent workflow actions that occur on milestones in an entitlement
EDITIONS
process. Actions can be added to milestones after the milestone is added to an entitlement process.
For example, you can create a milestone action that: Available in both: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
• Sends an email alert to certain users an hour before a First Response milestone is near violation
Experience
• Updates certain fields on a case one minute after a First Response milestone successfully
completes Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
You can add three types of actions to milestones: Unlimited, and Developer
Editions with the Service
Action Type Description Cloud
Success Actions The actions to take when a milestone successfully completes.
Success actions still fire on milestones that are completed late.
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You can automate the following actions for each action type:
New Email Create an email alert Notify case owners when a First Response
milestone on their case is near violation.
New Field Update Define a field update Update the case Priority field to High
when a First Response milestone is near
violation.
New Outbound Message Define an outbound message Send data about parts or services to an
external system after a First Response
milestone is completed.
Select Existing Action Select an existing action Use an existing email alert to notify a case
owner when their case is near violation of
a first response.
SEE ALSO:
Add a Milestone Action to an Entitlement Process
Work with Entitlement Processes
How a Record Moves Through an Entitlement Process
Independent The milestone occurs The Start Date is the “Response Time”
whenever the time when the
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Sequential The milestone occurs on repeat For the first occurrence, the Start “Customer Contact Made”
whenever the milestone criteria Date is the time when the
match the record criteria. milestone criteria are met on the
case.
Note: Only one
occurrence of a For future occurrences:
sequentially recurring • The Start Date is the time
milestone can be active when the milestone criteria
at a time. are met on the record, as
long as it’s later than the
previous occurrence’s Target
Date.
• If an occurrence is
completed before its Target
Date and the milestone
criteria are met on the
record again, the next
occurrence starts at the
previous occurrence’s Target
Date.
• If an occurrence is
completed after its Target
Date, the next occurrence’s
Start Date is the time when
the milestone criteria are
met on the record.
*In these definitions, a support record includes cases and work orders.
Example:
No Recurrence Type
A milestone named “Resolution Time” is set up to ensure that cases are resolved within 4 hours. The milestone has one criterion:
Case: Status EQUALS New,Working,Escalated.
Here’s how this milestone can be used:
1. At 10 a.m., a case is created whose Status is New, causing the milestone criteria to match the case criteria.
2. The “Resolution Time” milestone is automatically created with these settings:
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3. At 1 p.m., the support agent resolves the customer’s issue and closes the case, and the milestone is marked complete.
Independent
A milestone named “Engineer Solution Proposed” is set up to track case escalation to Engineering. When this milestone occurs,
the support agent expects a proposed solution from Engineering within 4 hours. The milestone has one criterion: “Case:
Status EQUALS Waiting on Engineer” (a custom status).
Here’s how this milestone can be used:
1. At 10 a.m., the support agent escalates a case to Engineering, causing the milestone criteria to match the case criteria.
2. An occurrence of the “Engineer Solution Proposed” milestone is automatically created with these settings:
• Start Date = 10 a.m. (the current time)
• Target Date = 2 p.m. (4 hours after the Start Date)
3. At 11 a.m., well before the Target Date, an engineer proposes a solution that’s sent to the customer. The milestone is
marked complete manually or via a workflow.
If the proposed solution works, there may be no other occurrences of the “Engineer Solution Proposed” milestone on the case.
However, if the solution doesn’t solve the customer’s issue, another occurrence would be created:
1. At 1 p.m., the support agent re-escalates the case to Engineering, causing the milestone criteria to match the case criteria.
2. A second occurrence of the “Engineer Solution Proposed” milestone is created with these settings:
• Start Date = 1 p.m. (the current time)
• Target Date = 5 p.m. (4 hours after the Start Date)
2. At 11 a.m. on Monday, the support agent communicates with the customer. This means that the milestone can be marked
complete, and milestone’s second occurrence is created. However, because the previous occurrence’s Target Date is still
in the future, the Start Date of the second occurrence is 10 a.m. Tuesday.
The case now has two “Customer Contact Made” milestones:
• One completed milestone that started at 10 a.m. Monday
• One incomplete milestone that is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Tuesday with a Target Date of 10 a.m. Wednesday
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If the support agent communicates with the customer multiple times on Monday, it doesn’t affect the Tuesday milestone.
SEE ALSO:
Work with Entitlement Processes
Add a Milestone to an Entitlement Process
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Entitlement Processes
Entitlement processes are timelines that include all the steps (or milestones) that your support team
EDITIONS
must complete to resolve support records like cases or work orders. Each process includes the logic
necessary to determine how to enforce the correct service level for your customers. Available in both: Salesforce
Not all entitlements require entitlement processes. For example, an entitlement might just state Classic and Lightning
that a customer is eligible for phone support and business hours define phone support to be 24/7. Experience
If you need to add more to that definition—for example, if certain people must be emailed after a
Available in: Professional,
customer's case goes unresolved for two hours—use an entitlement process. Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions with the Service
Cloud
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Entitlement Processes
Entitlement processes are timelines that include all of the steps (milestones) that your support team must complete to resolve cases
or work orders. Set up an entitlement process to apply to entitlements in your Salesforce org.
Work with Entitlement Processes
Entitlement processes help you provide a consistent level of support to your customers. Learn how entitlement processes work and
how to update them.
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SEE ALSO:
Entitlement Management Setup Checklist
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Tip: We recommend waiting to activate an entitlement process until you add milestone actions to it. You can’t update or
delete milestone actions on a process after it’s activated and applied to a record.
6. Optionally, if entitlement versioning is enabled, select Default Version to make this version of the entitlement process the default.
7. Choose the criteria for records to enter and exit the entitlement process.
Based on a custom date/time field on Yes, a drop-down list displays for selecting
the record the custom date/time. You can only
Select if you want the value of a custom choose a custom date/time, not a custom
date/time field on the record to determine date.
when the record enters the process.
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*The field names you see will reflect the entitlement process type you selected.
8. Optionally, choose the business hours you’d like to apply to the entitlement process. The business hours you set here calculate the
Target Date for all the milestones on this entitlement process. To learn more, see How Business Hours Work in Entitlement Management.
9. Save your changes.
Important: All users, even those without the “View Setup and Configuration” user permission, can view entitlement processes
via the API.
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Timeline (available only on case page How far along a case is to reaching an Available in: Professional,
layouts) entitlement process’s milestones. You can click Enterprise, Performance,
or hover your mouse pointer over each Unlimited, and Developer
milestone to view its details. These icons Editions with the Service
represent milestones: Cloud
•
USER PERMISSIONS
Completed milestone
• To edit page layouts:
• Customize Application
Violated milestone
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Field Description
Stopped Since The date and time the entitlement process was stopped on the
record.
7. If you selected Enable Apex Class for the Time Trigger (Minutes), use the lookup to specify an Apex class for the dynamically
calculated milestone.
8. Choose when the milestone starts:
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Select To Use If
Milestone Criteria Calculate the milestone Target Date A milestone’s Target Date is based
when the milestone is applied to a support on when it’s applied to a record. Use if the
record (matches the record criteria). milestone is recurring.
Entitlement Process Calculate the milestone Target Date A milestone's Target Date is based
when the entitlement process starts (by on the start of the entitlement process. For
default, when a support record is created). example, first response and resolution
times on a case always calculate their
Target Date when the entitlement
process starts.
9. Optionally, select the business hours that you want to apply to the Target Date calculation for this milestone. If you don’t specify
business hours for the milestone, then the Entitlement Process business hours are used. If neither are specified, then the business
hours on the case or work order are used.
10. Specify the order in which Salesforce should process the milestones. This applies to situations where a support record matches the
criteria of multiple milestones at the same time.
11. Enter the criteria a record must match for the milestone to apply to it:
• Choose criteria are met and select the filter criteria that a record must meet for a milestone to apply to it. For example,
set a case filter to Priority equals High if you want the milestone to apply to cases with the Priority field marked
High.
Choose formula evaluates to true and enter a formula that returns a value of “True” or “False.” Salesforce triggers
the rule if the formula returns “True.”
• Choose formula evaluates to true and enter a formula that returns a value of “True” or “False.” The milestone
applies to records if the formula returns “True.” For example, the formula (Case: Priority equals High) AND
(Case: Case Origin equals Email, Web) applies the milestone to cases where the Priority field is High
and the Case Origin field is marked Email or Web. You can’t use the Case Owner field in formulas.
Note: Milestones are measured in minutes and seconds, but their start and end times are only accurate to the minute. For example,
suppose a milestone is triggered at 11:10:40 a.m. and the time to complete the milestone is 10 minutes. In this case, the milestone
target time is 11:20:00 am, not 11:20:40. As a result, the remaining time for the agent to complete the milestone is 9 minutes and
20 seconds, not the full 10 minutes.
SEE ALSO:
Milestone Statuses
Milestone Actions
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New Field Update Define a field update Update the case Priority field
to High when a First
Response milestone is near
violation.
New Outbound Message Define an outbound message Send data about parts or
services to an external system
after a First Response
milestone is completed.
Select Existing Action Select an existing action Use an existing email alert to
notify a case owner when
their case is near violation of
a first response.
Note: Time-triggered actions only occur during your Salesforce org’s business hours. You can add up to 10 actions and 10 time
triggers to each type of milestone action.
SEE ALSO:
Milestone Actions
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SEE ALSO:
How a Record Moves Through an Entitlement Process
Note: If you’re using entitlement processes, manage customers’ work orders and cases on Available in: Professional,
separate entitlements. This is because an entitlement process only runs on records that match Enterprise, Performance,
its type. For example, when a Case entitlement process is applied to an entitlement, the Unlimited, and Developer
process only runs on cases associated with the entitlement. If a work order is also associated Editions with the Service
Cloud
with the entitlement, the process won’t run on the work order.
To view or cancel active entitlement processes, from Setup, enter Entitlement Processes
in the Quick Find box, then select Entitlement Processes. You can also use the entitlement process queue to view or cancel
active entitlement process actions. (Entitlement process monitoring isn’t available in Professional Edition orgs.)
Tip: Entitlement process versioning lets you update existing entitlement processes, even if they’re assigned to active entitlements
and cases. This can be useful if the business rules behind your entitlement processes change, for example, or if you need to create
multiple versions of the same entitlement process that have only minor differences.
Important: All users, even those without the “View Setup and Configuration” user permission, can view entitlement processes
via the API.
IN THIS SECTION:
How a Record Moves Through an Entitlement Process
When an entitlement process is applied to an entitlement, the entitlement process runs on all support records linked to the entitlement.
Learn how support records like cases and work orders move through an entitlement process.
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SEE ALSO:
Set Up Entitlement Processes
• The support agent creates the record from the Cases or Work Orders related list on the Available in: Professional,
entitlement. Enterprise, Performance,
• The support agent creates the record, then uses the Entitlement lookup field on the record Unlimited, and Developer
to select the proper entitlement. Editions with the Service
Cloud
2. The record enters the process based on its creation date or a custom date/time field. A custom
date/time field lets users edit a date on the record to trigger when it enters the process.
3. Salesforce assigns milestones with matching criteria to the record. For example, if a milestone’s criteria is Priority equals
High, and a case has a Priority of High, Salesforce assigns it to the Priority equals High milestone. A record associates
with one milestone at a time. It can associate with many milestones as it moves through the process.
4. Milestone actions determine when and if warning, violation, or success workflow actions fire for the record.
5. A support agent updates the record to complete a milestone action.
6. After a record is updated, it cycles through the entitlement process and initiates any milestones that match its criteria.
7. The record exits the process based on custom criteria or when it’s closed.
You can view records with assigned entitlements by creating case or work order list views that filter on entitlement process fields.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Entitlements
Entitlement Management Setup Checklist
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So a milestone’s business hours override the entitlement process’ business hours, which override the case or work order’s business hours.
If no business hours are set on the milestone, then the entitlement process business hours are used. And if business hours aren’t specified
on the milestone or the entitlement process, the case or work order business hours are used.
You can also set business hours on entitlements. If you create a record from an entitlement, it inherits the entitlement’s business hours.
However, if the entitlement is part of an entitlement process, we recommend leaving the entitlement’s business hours field blank. Related
records automatically use the entitlement process’ business hours.
When setting business hours, follow these best practices:
• If you want to use the same entitlement process for records that have different business hours, set business hours at the entitlement
process level. For example, suppose that you set the business hours on an entitlement process to weekdays from 9 to 5. If a customer
requests evening and weekend updates to their case, you can create an “Update Customer” milestone with its own 24/7 business
hours.
• If you want to use different business hours for different severity levels, set business hours at the milestone level. For example, if the
severity level of a case increases, the customer may need to be contacted more frequently. You can create a “Last Touch” milestone
that changes business hours according to severity level while the other milestones in the entitlement process remain unchanged.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Entitlement Processes
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When you create a new version of an entitlement process, you can change any of the following:
• Name
• Description
• Whether the process is active
• Whether the version is the default
• Entry criteria
• Exit criteria
You can also add notes about the version. This makes it easy to differentiate between multiple versions of the same process, especially
if they have the same name.
On new versions of entitlement processes that are currently in use, you can add new milestones, but you can’t edit existing ones. On
new versions of processes that aren’t currently in use, you can both add new milestones and edit existing ones.
Once you create a new version of an entitlement process, you can choose to apply it to all entitlements and support records assigned
to the previously used version, or only to new entitlements and support records. All versions of an entitlement process must be the same
type: Case or Work Order.
SEE ALSO:
Create a New Version of an Entitlement Process
Use a New Version of an Entitlement Process
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6. Click Save.
After saving, you can modify the entitlement process’ milestones if needed.
Important:
• On new versions of entitlement processes that are currently in use, you can add new milestones, but you can’t edit existing
ones. On new versions of processes that aren’t currently in use, you can both add new milestones and edit existing ones.
• All versions of an entitlement process must be the same type.
When you create a new version of an entitlement process, it isn’t automatically applied to entitlements that were using the previous
version. To learn how to apply a new version of an entitlement process to existing and new entitlements, see Use a New Version of an
Entitlement Process.
SEE ALSO:
Updating an Entitlement Process
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Tip: After you click the lookup icon on the Entitlement Process field, select “All Versions” in
the lookup dialog box. Otherwise, you can only choose from the default versions of existing
entitlement processes.
Applying an Entitlement Process to an Existing Entitlement
Scenario: You made a new version of an entitlement process, and you want to switch all the entitlements that were using the previous
version over to your new version.
1. From Setup, enter Entitlement Processes in the Quick Find box, then select Entitlement Processes.
2. Click the name of the entitlement process you want to work with.
The list on the main Entitlement Processes page shows the default version of each process. Click the name of a process to see a list
of all available versions of it.
3. On the detail page for the entitlement process, click the name of the new version that you want to apply to existing entitlements
(and by default, to cases or work orders linked to those entitlements).
4. Click New Update Rule.
5. Choose the version of the entitlement process you want to update from.
You can update from any other version of the process, whether or not it’s active.
6. Depending on the differences between the old and new versions of the entitlement process, updating an entitlement to the new
version can trigger milestone warning and violation actions on that entitlement’s support records (such as cases or work orders). To
avoid such warnings and violation actions, select Don’t Trigger New Milestone Warnings and Violations. We recommend
selecting this so you don’t trigger violation warnings on old entitlements and support records.
7. Click Save.
The update rule detail page shows the estimated number of entitlements and support records that will be updated to use the new
process.
8. Click Start to begin the update process.
Usually the update process completes within an hour, but it depends on the number of entitlements and records being updated.
Throughout the update process, the update rule detail page refreshes periodically to show the number of entitlements and records
processed. To stop the update at any time, click Stop.
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When the update rule displays a Completed status, all related entitlements and support records have been updated to use the new
version of the entitlement process. If the status is Completed With Exceptions, some records couldn't be updated to the new
version because of errors. To find out which records weren't updated and why, contact Salesforce Support.
Note: Cases that have already exited the previous version of your entitlement process—for example, if a case has been
closed—aren’t updated to use the new entitlement process.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Entitlement Processes
Updating an Entitlement Process
Create a New Version of an Entitlement Process
Service Contracts
Service contracts in Salesforce represent a customer support agreement between you and your
EDITIONS
customers. You can use them to represent subscriptions, service level agreements (SLAs), and other
types of customer support. Available in both: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
IN THIS SECTION: Experience
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• To let users make one service contract the parent of another, add the Parent Service AND
Contract field and Child Service Contracts related list. You can also add the read-only Customize Application
Root Service Contract field so users can see the top-level service contract in a
service contract hierarchy. A service contract hierarchy can contain up to 10,000 service
contracts.
5. Make the Service Contracts tab visible in Salesforce and any custom apps.
The Service Contracts tab is where users create and edit service contracts and contract line items. Add the tab to an app or instruct
your users to add it to an existing tab set in Salesforce. Users need the “Read” permission on service contracts to see the Service
Contracts tab.
6. Add the Service Contracts related list to account and contact page layouts.
This lets users create, update, and verify service contracts from accounts and contacts.
SEE ALSO:
Entitlement Management Setup Checklist
Add Contract Line Items to Service Contracts
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Note: Schedules aren't available for contract line items, and experience users can’t access them.
SEE ALSO:
Entitlement Management Setup Checklist
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Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Working with Service Contracts
Service contracts are agreements between you and your customers for a type of customer support. Learn how to perform basic
actions on service contracts.
Service Contract Fields
Service contracts have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level
security settings.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Service Contracts
Tip: If service contracts have been set up in the console, click the Console tab to find,
view, and edit service contracts and their associated records in one place.
Creating Service Contracts
You can create and edit service contracts from:
• The Service Contracts tab
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Tip:
• Click Clone on a service contract to quickly create a new service contract from an existing one.
• Use the Parent Service Contract field and Child Service Contracts related list to make one service contract
the parent of another. This helps you represent complex contracts.
• Entitlements reflect terms in a service contract, and a service contract may be associated with multiple entitlements. Link
an entitlement to a service contract via the Entitlements related list on the service contract or the Service Contract
lookup field on the entitlement.
Note:
• You can’t delete service contracts with active or expired entitlements. If you want to delete a service contract with
entitlements—for instance, because there’s a problem with the service contract—add its entitlements to another service
contract first, then delete it.
• If you delete a service contract with both a parent service contract and child service contract(s), keep in mind that its parent
and children will no longer be linked in a service contract hierarchy.
SEE ALSO:
Work with Service Contracts
Service Contract Fields
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Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
Field Description
Account Name The account that purchased or owns the service contract.
Activation Date The day the service contract first went into effect.*
Approval Status An approval process status field. If your business has an approval
process for service contracts, this field indicates the current stage
of the approval process.
Billing Country Country portion of billing address. Entry is selected from a picklist
of standard values or entered as text. If the field is a text field, up
to 80 characters are allowed.
Billing State State or province portion of billing address. Entry is selected from
a picklist of standard values or entered as text. If the field is a text
field, up to 80 characters are allowed.
Contact Name The contact associated with the service contract. Select from the
drop-down list.
Currency The currency for all amount fields in the service contract. Available
only for organizations that use multiple currencies.
You can’t change the currency on a service contract that has
contract line items.
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Field Description
contract entitles the customer to a first response within 2 hours
and a case resolution within 24 hours.”
Discount Weighted average of all contract line item discounts on the service
contract. Can be any positive number up to 100. (Read only)
Grand Total Total price of the service contract plus shipping and taxes. (Read
only)
Last Modified By User who most recently changed the service contract. (Read only)
Line Items Number of contract line items (products) on the service contract.
Parent Service Contract The service contract’s parent service contract, if it has one.
Price Book The price book associated with the service contract. Only products
from the specified price book can be added to the service contract
as contract line items.
Root Service Contract The top-level service contract in a service contract hierarchy.
Depending on where a service contract lies in the hierarchy, its
root may be the same as its parent. (Read only)
Shipping and Handling Total shipping and handling costs for the service contract.
Shipping Zip Zip or postal code portion of primary mailing or shipping address.
Up to 20 characters are allowed.
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Field Description
Special Terms Any terms that you have agreed to and want to track in the service
contract.
Status Icon Represents the service contract’s status with one of the following
icons:
• Active
• Expired
• Inactive
Subtotal Total of the service contract line items (products) before discounts,
taxes, and shipping are applied. (Read only)
Tax Total taxes for the service contract. This is a currency field, so enter
the amount, not percentage. For example, enter $10.50.
Total Price Total of the contract line items (products) after discounts and before
taxes and shipping. (Read only)
*Service contracts have four date fields. Created Date is the date the service contract was created in Salesforce, so it’s the earliest
of the dates. Activation Date is the date that it was first activated for an account or customer. Finally, Start Date represents
the date the service contract was put into effect or last renewed, while End Date is the last date the service contract is in effect.
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Start Date and End Date are blank by default, but you can create Apex triggers that populate these fields based on other
service contract fields like Status.
SEE ALSO:
Guidelines for Working with Service Contracts
Contract Line Item Fields
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
A service contract’s line items are listed in the Contract Line Items related list.
Note: Community users can access Contract Line Items wherever they access Service Contract. Schedules aren’t available for
contract line items.
Example: You can create a service contract that covers products X, Y, and Z, and then create entitlements on the service contract
that are assigned to contacts on an account. When one of the contacts calls support, the agent checks whether the entitlement
associated with the service contract is active. If it’s active, the agent can support any of the line item products that are covered by
the service contract.
IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Working with Contract Line Items
Contract line items are products covered by a service contract. Learn how to perform basic actions on contract line items.
Contract Line Item Fields
Contract line items have the following fields. Sometimes you can't see or edit certain fields because of your page layout and field-level
security settings.
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5. Enter the Sales Price for each product. The Sales Price defaults to the List Price specified in the price book assigned to the
opportunity. If your user permissions allow it, you can override this value. For example, you want to give a discount.
6. Enter the number of products at this price in the Quantity box.
7. Save your changes. A contract line item is created for each selected product.
Tip: To customize the fields that appear in the mass-create and mass-edit windows in Lightning Experience, update the search
page layout for price book entries and the multi-line page layout for contract line items in Setup.
Deleting Contract Line Items
You can delete contract line items from the contract line item’s detail page or the Contract Line Items related list on a service contract.
Deleting a contract line item moves it to the Recycle Bin. Any notes, attachments, or activities associated with the contract line item
are also deleted. If you undelete the contract line item, the associated items are undeleted.
Sharing Contract Line Items
You can’t share contract line items. Sharing for contract line items is inherited from service contract sharing. For example, users with
Read permission on service contracts inherit Read permission on contract line items.
SEE ALSO:
Contract Line Item Fields
Entitlements: Terms to Know
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
Field Description
Asset Name The asset associated with the contract line item. The asset can’t be
updated if the line item is associated with any maintenance asset
records.
Products represent the items your company sells (for example, a
laptop case), whereas assets represent the specific products your
customers have purchased (the laptop case purchased by John).
Created By User who created the contract line item. (Read only)
Created Date The date the contract line item was created.
Discount Discount you apply to the contact line item. You can enter a
number with or without the percent symbol and you can use up
to two decimal places.
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Field Description
End Date The last day the contract line item is in effect.
This field is blank unless you set up an Apex trigger or quick action
to populate it.
Last Modified By User who most recently changed the contract line item. (Read
only)
Line Item Number Auto-generated number that identifies the contract line item. (Read
only)
List Price Price of the contract line item (product) within the price book
including currency. (Read only)
Parent Contract Line Item The contract line item’s parent line item, if it has one.
Product The name of the contract line item (product) as listed in the price
book.
Quantity Number of units of the contract line item (product) included in the
service contract.
The value must be 1 or greater.
Root Contract Line Item The top-level contract line item in a contract line item hierarchy.
Depending on where a line item lies in the hierarchy, the root can
be the line’s parent. (Read only)
Service Contract The service contract associated with the contract line item.
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Field Description
• Inactive if the system date is earlier than the Start Date.
Status Icon Represents the contract line item’s status with one of the following
icons:
• Active
• Expired
• Inactive
Subtotal The contract line item’s sales price multiplied by the quantity.
Total Price The contract line item’s sales price multiplied by the quantity minus
the discount.
SEE ALSO:
Service Contract Fields
Guidelines for Working with Contract Line Items
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2. Add the Entitlements and/or Service Contracts tabs to the experience. USER PERMISSIONS
3. Add the Entitlement Name field to case and work order page layouts assigned to To create, customize, or
experience users. activate a experience:
This lets users add entitlements to cases and work orders. • Create and Set Up
experiences AND is a
Note: To avoid exposing your internal support processes, we recommend not adding member of the
the following fields to case and work order page layouts for experience users: experience they’re
updating
• Entitlement Process Start Time
To set up entitlement
• Entitlement Process End Time
management:
• Stopped • Manage Entitlements
• Stopped Since To assign user licenses:
• Manage Internal Users
4. Optionally, add the Entitlements related list to account and contact page layouts assigned to
experience moderators. This lets moderators create cases automatically associated with the
right entitlements.
IN THIS SECTION:
Assets
While products represent the items that your company sells, assets represent the specific products your customers have purchased.
Use assets to store information about your customers’ products.
Set Up Assets
To start tracking the products you sell to customers, customize asset page layouts, and edit object permissions.
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Assets
While products represent the items that your company sells, assets represent the specific products
EDITIONS
your customers have purchased. Use assets to store information about your customers’ products.
Assets have a serial number, purchase date, and other information related to an individual sale. Available in Salesforce
Depending on how your organization uses assets, they can represent competitor products that Classic and Lightning
your customers have or versions of your products. Experience
View and manage assets from the Assets tab. Depending on your page layout settings, you can Available in: Professional,
also view lists of related assets on account, contact, product, and location page layouts. Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
You can create asset hierarchies to represent products with multiple components, and view a tree
Editions
grid of an asset’s hierarchy on its detail page. On the support side, assets can be linked to cases,
work orders, maintenance plans, entitlements, and contract line items, making it easy to see an
asset’s history from production to retirement.
Set Up Assets
To start tracking the products you sell to customers, customize asset page layouts, and edit object
EDITIONS
permissions.
Available in Salesforce
IN THIS SECTION: Classic and Lightning
Experience
1. Configure Asset Settings
Customize your page layouts and object permissions to control how your users work with assets. Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
2. Create Assets
Unlimited, and Developer
Create assets to track products purchased by your customers. Editions
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Tip: If an asset is part of a hierarchy of 500 or fewer assets, click View Asset Hierarchy on the asset’s detail page to
view an expandable tree grid of the hierarchy.
• Contract Line Items: Contract line items associated with the asset. Available only if entitlement management is enabled.
• Entitlements: Entitlements associated with the asset, which indicate the level of customer service its owner is entitled to.
Available only if entitlement management is enabled.
• Locations: Locations associated with the asset, such as warehouses. Available only if Field Service is enabled.
• Maintenance Plans: Maintenance plans tracking periodic maintenance performed on the asset. Available only if Field Service
is enabled.
• Primary Assets: Assets that replaced the current asset (for example, if the current asset required maintenance or was an older
model).
• Related Assets: Assets that were replaced by the current asset.
• Work Orders: Work orders tracking work performed on the asset.
• Work Order Line Items: Work order line items tracking work performed on the asset.
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c. Update your asset page layouts to let Lightning Experience users view a tree grid of an asset hierarchy. In the page layout editor,
select Mobile & Lightning Actions, then drag the View Asset Hierarchy action onto the layout.
d. Add the Assets related list to record page layouts. It’s available on page layouts for the following objects:
• Accounts
• Contacts
• Products
• Locations (available only if Field Service is enabled)
SEE ALSO:
Asset Fields
Create Assets
Create assets to track products purchased by your customers.
EDITIONS
1. Click New on the Assets home page or on the Assets related list on a record.
Available in Salesforce
2. Select a product.
Classic and Lightning
3. Enter a name for the asset. Experience
If you’re using Salesforce Classic, you can opt to leave this field blank. When you save the asset,
Available in: Professional,
the Asset Name field auto-populates to reflect the product name.
Enterprise, Performance,
4. Select an account, contact, or both to indicate who has purchased the asset (required). Unlimited, and Developer
Editions
Note:
• You can enter person accounts in either the Account or Contact fields of an asset. USER PERMISSIONS
The Assets related list on a person account includes all assets related to the person
account, including those where the person account is in the Contact field. To create assets:
• If you enter an account and a contact that aren’t related, the contact’s account won’t • Create on assets
list the asset in its Assets related list.
5. Optionally, select a parent asset. Creating hierarchical relationships between assets lets you link work order line items to child assets
and represent complex products.
6. If the asset is a competitor’s product, select Competitor Asset. If it is produced or used internally, select Internal Asset.
7. Fill out the remaining fields according to your needs.
8. Save your changes.
Note: If you have read-only access to an asset field and you clone an asset, that field is blank on the cloned asset.
SEE ALSO:
Asset Fields
Relationships Between Assets
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Asset Hierarchies
Create parent-child relationships between assets to represent products with multiple components.
EDITIONS
For example, perhaps your business sells a tent which is tracked as an asset, but the tent poles
(which customers have a tendency to misplace) are tracked as a separate asset. You can make the Available in Salesforce
tent poles asset a child of the tent asset. Classic and Lightning
Experience
To create hierarchical relationships between assets, use the Parent Asset field and the Child Assets
related list on asset detail pages. Assets also come with a few additional fields related to hierarchies: Available in: Professional,
• The read-only Root Asset field lists the top-level asset in an asset hierarchy. Depending on where Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
an asset lies in the hierarchy, its root might be the same as its parent. If an asset is at the top of
Editions
a hierarchy, it is its own root asset, and the Parent Asset field is blank.
• The read-only Asset Level field is a number that reflects the asset’s position in a hierarchy. If the
asset has no parent or child assets, its level is 1. Assets that belong to a hierarchy have a level of 1 for the root asset, 2 for the child
assets of the root asset, 3 for their children, and so forth.
An asset hierarchy can have up to 10,000 assets. Here are some ways to use hierarchical assets to improve your support process.
• When creating a work order to repair a broken asset, create line items on the work order that correspond to specific child assets.
• For situations where a work order is created from an asset, set up a workflow rule or process that creates a work order line item for
each child asset.
• Set up a trigger that notifies the owner of an asset by email when the install date for one of the asset’s child assets was more than
five years before the current date.
Note: The Parent Asset and Root Asset fields aren’t available in standard reports that include assets. However, you can reference
them in custom reports.
Viewing Asset Hierarchies
To view an expanded tree grid of all assets in an asset’s hierarchy, click View Asset Hierarchy in the drop-down action menu on any
asset detail page in Lightning Experience. (That’s in the top right-hand corner of the page.) The action is also available on assets in the
console. This view gives field service workers a way to quickly identify parts, assess bills of materials, and understand how assets are
related to each other.
Click the caret next to each asset name (1) to collapse and expand a node. You can go up to 20 levels deep in a hierarchy. The asset
whose hierarchy you’re viewing is shown with a CURRENT stamp (2).
Note: The fields that appear in the hierarchy aren’t customizable. If you don’t see the action, add it to your asset page layouts: In
the layout editor, select Mobile & Lightning Actions, then drag it onto your page layout.
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The View Asset Hierarchy action is available only for hierarchies of 500 or fewer assets. If a hierarchy contains more than 500 assets,
you can still refer to each asset’s Child Assets related list and Parent Asset, Root Asset, and Asset Level fields.
Here’s what happens if you don’t have access to certain elements of an asset hierarchy:
• If your field-level security settings prohibit you from accessing a particular field in the asset hierarchy view, you can see the field
name in the column title, but the column is blank.
• If sharing settings prohibit you from viewing an asset that’s lower in the current asset’s hierarchy, the restricted asset doesn’t appear
in the hierarchy view for you.
• If sharing settings prohibit you from viewing an asset that’s higher in the current asset’s hierarchy, an error appears and you can’t
view the asset hierarchy. This is because record sharing settings also apply to child records.
The asset hierarchy view isn’t searchable or editable. It isn’t available in Salesforce Classic, Experience Cloud sites, Salesforce for iOS,
Salesforce for Android, or the Field Service Lightning mobile app.
Asset Replacements
When a customer’s asset needs to be replaced or upgraded, track the replacement in Salesforce
EDITIONS
on asset detail pages.
You can view and manage asset replacements from two related lists on asset detail pages. Available in Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
• The Primary Assets related list shows assets that replaced the current asset.
Experience
• The Related Assets related list shows assets that the current asset replaced.
Available in: Professional,
For example, suppose an elevator’s door is tracked as an asset named Door Model 1. Your customer
Enterprise, Performance,
decides to install a newer door, and Door Model 1 is replaced with Door Model 2. To track this Unlimited, and Developer
replacement: Editions
1. Navigate to the Door Model 1 record.
2. In the Primary Assets related list, click New Asset Relationship.
3. In the Asset field, select Door Model 2. The Related Asset field auto-populates to list Door Model 1.
4. Select a relationship type. This field comes with three options—Replacement, Upgrade, and Crossgrade—but you can define more
in Setup.
5. If Door Model 2 will only be installed for a certain amount of time—for example, if it’s being leased—enter a From and To date to
indicate when it will be in use.
6. Save your changes.
This asset relationship now appears in the Primary Assets related list on the Door Model 1 record, and the Related Assets related list on
the Door Model 2 record. (You can get the same results by creating the asset relationship record from the Related Assets related list on
the Door Model 2 record.)
If Door Model 2 is replaced by Door Model 3 down the road, keep in mind that Door Model 3 won’t appear in either related list on the
Door Model 1 asset record.
Tip: Customize fields, page layouts, and more for asset relationships from the Asset Relationships page in Setup.
To save your team time and ensure that asset replacements are adequately tracked, create a flow that automates asset replacements.
For example, the flow could be launched in the Field Service mobile app by an on-site technician when an asset is being replaced.
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Asset Fields
Assets and asset relationships have the following fields. Depending on your page layout and field
EDITIONS
security settings, some fields may not be visible or editable.
Available in Salesforce
Asset Classic and Lightning
Experience
Field Name Description Available in: Professional,
Account Account associated with the asset. Each asset Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
must be associated with an account or contact.
Editions
Asset Division Division to which the asset belongs. This value
is automatically inherited from the related
account if any. Otherwise the value is inherited
from the related contact. Available only in
organizations that use divisions to segment their
data.
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Location The asset’s location. Typically, this is the place where the asset is
stored, such as a warehouse or van.
Product Code The internal code or product number used to identify the related
product.
Root Asset (Read Only) The top-level asset in an asset hierarchy. Depending
on where an asset lies in the hierarchy, its root might be the same
as its parent.
Status The asset’s status. This picklist contains the following values, which
can be customized:
• Purchased
• Shipped
• Installed
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Usage End Date The date the asset expires or the last date it is under warranty. Use
this field to store whatever date is appropriate for your business.
Asset Relationship
Asset relationships represent non-hierarchical relationships between assets due to replacements, upgrades, or other circumstances.
Relationships appear in the Primary Assets and Related Assets related lists on asset records.
Relationship Type The type of relationship between the assets. This field comes with
three options—Replacement, Upgrade, and Crossgrade—but you
can create more in Setup.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Assets
Relationships Between Assets
Considerations for Using Assets
Macros A macro is a set of instructions that tells the system how to complete a Performing repetitive tasks
task. Users can run macros to complete repetitive tasks—selecting an
email template, sending an email to a customer, updating the case
status—all in a single click.
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Mass quick actions Mass quick actions let users edit up to 100 records from any list view, Updating multiple records at
except for recently viewed lists. Users can only create and update records the same time
with mass quick actions.
Split view Split view lets users open list views while still viewing record details. Split Context switching
view displays in a collapsible column, so users can go back to viewing
just the record in one click.
Keyboard shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts let users work and navigate faster, without a mouse. Super users or those with
Users can use shortcuts to open and close utilities (like Macros and accessibility needs
History), edit and save records, and more.
Email templates An email template is a predefined email. Depending on how you use it, Standardizing and
users can customize the email before sending it, or it can be sent automating
automatically as-is. You can even automate information on emails with
merge fields. You can insert email templates in:
• Email actions manually (in the publisher or global actions)
• Macros that include instructions for Email actions
• Predefined field values for the Email action
• Apex QuickActionDefaultsHandler interface
Send email notifications Various settings on the Support Settings page in Setup let you customize Keeping agents and
email notifications for users. You can set it up for agents to receive an customers notified of
email when the case owner changes and when case comments are updates
added. Even contacts can receive email notifications when the case is
created, updated, or comments are added.
Predefined field values for Predefined field values let you prepopulate a quick action with default Automating processes
Quick Actions field values. For example, in the Email action, you can automatically
include Cc and Bcc recipients, add an email template, or ensure that
emails are associated with Salesforce records. Predefined field values can
be big click-savers.
Salesforce Flow for Service Give your users a to-do list in the Actions & Recommendations Automating processes, like
and the Actions & component. Show flows, quick actions, and recommendations from your call scripts
Recommendations Next Best Action strategies. To create your list, associate actions with a
Component record page using an Actions & Recommendations deployment or
Salesforce automation tools. You can create default lists for specific
channels, like phone and chat, and show which actions that you want
users to complete first and last.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up and Work with Service Console
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Note: Lightning console apps don’t yet have full parity with Salesforce Classic console apps. For example, some features in
Salesforce Classic console apps, such as push notifications and custom keyboard shortcuts, aren’t available in Lightning console
apps. Learn more.
You can’t upgrade Salesforce Classic console apps to Lightning Experience from Setup. To prepare for your transition to Service
Cloud in Lightning Experience, watch Get Ready to Transition to Service Cloud in Lightning Experience (English only). Then
customize the Salesforce-provided Service Console app in Lightning Experience. You can always recreate your Salesforce Classic
console app in Lightning Experience, but using Salesforce’s out-of-the-box app is faster and easier.
You can create console apps in Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience. Here’s the Service Console in Lightning Experience.
SEE ALSO:
Console in Salesforce Classic
Salesforce Console in Lightning Experience
Salesforce Console Limitations
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IN THIS SECTION:
Design Your Quick Text Strategy
Before you get started using quick text, run through these planning questions. They help you and your team use quick text effectively
to save time.
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Who should be able to create quick text messages for multiple users?
Optionally, select one or more users, such as supervisors, who can create and share quick text messages with other users.
Do you want to create unique sets of quick text messages for different business units?
If your company has multiple business units with their own processes, customers, and terminology, it’s a good idea to create separate
sets of quick text for each unit. In Lightning Experience, you can divide these sets of quick text messages into folders and give each group
of users access to the appropriate folder. In Salesforce Classic, you can customize access using sharing rules or share individual quick
text messages with users.
Tip: Einstein Reply Recommendations can complete this step for you by generating a list of your team’s common responses based
on past chats. You can then fine-tune and publish those replies to quick text.
After you answer these planning questions, you’re ready to roll out quick text to your team.
SEE ALSO:
Einstein Reply Recommendations
Quick Text Considerations
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USER PERMISSIONS
3. Optionally, select Share and organize quick text in folders (available only in Lightning Experience). Folders help you create unique
sets of quick text messages for different business units or groups of users. You can create up to four levels of folders to organize quick
text messages.
4. Optionally, select Hide quick text button and pop-up (available only in Lightning Experience). By default, buttons are displayed
to help users discover and work with quick text. In rich text fields, a button is displayed in the toolbar. In plain text fields, a popup
button is displayed. If these buttons cause your users a disruption, you can hide them.
5. Click Save.
6. Optionally, customize the categories used to organize quick text messages. Categories help users find the right message more
quickly. Your default quick text categories are Greetings, FAQ, and Closings.
a. From Setup, in the Object Manager, select Quick Text.
b. Click Fields & Relationships, then click Category.
c. Customize the values listed in the Category Picklist Values section, and save your changes.
Note: In orgs created before Spring ’18 that enabled quick text in Salesforce Classic, the Category field is required and a
default category is provided. In orgs created after Spring ’18, this field is optional.
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After enabling quick text, give users access to quick text by updating their permissions and setting up quick text folders.
SEE ALSO:
Give Users Access to Quick Text
Quick Text Considerations
Create Quick Text Messages
Insert and Use Quick Text
Share Quick Text
USER PERMISSIONS
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Setting Description
Quick Text Name Enter a name that helps users understand when to use the message.
Message Enter the message that you want users to be able to insert into their communications. You can
include line breaks, lists, special characters, merge fields, and up to 4,000 characters.
Merge fields, like a contact name, help you personalize your communications with customers.
Quick text supports the Salesforce Merge Language (SML) used in Salesforce Classic email
templates, not the Handlebars Merge Language (HML) used in Lightning Experience email
templates.
Category Select a category that indicates the message’s purpose. Categories can be customized from the
Quick Text object settings in the Object Manager in Setup.
In orgs created before Spring ’18 that enabled quick text in Salesforce Classic, this field is required
and a default Category is provided. In orgs created after Spring ’18, this field is optional.
Channel Select the channels in which you want the message to be available. If you don’t specify a channel,
the message can’t be used. Depending on which features are enabled in your org, these channels
might be available.
• Email—for Email actions
Note: Quick text saved in the Email channel for your use is available as a text shortcut
in the Outlook and Gmail integrations with Inbox. Shared quick text isn’t available in
the integrations.
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Setting Description
• Event—for Event actions
• Internal—works with internal fields, like on the Change Status action. This channel isn’t
supported in Lightning Experience, though it appears in the list.
• Knowledge—for Knowledge articles in Lightning Experience
• Chat—works with Chat in the Service Console
• Messaging—works with Messaging in the Service Console
• Phone—for the Log a Call action
Note: In Salesforce Classic apps, quick text is supported with Case Feed Log a Call
actions in console apps.
• Portal—works in an Experience Cloud site or a customer portal. This channel isn’t supported
in Lightning Experience, though it appears in the list.
• Social—for social posts
• Task—for Task actions
Include in reply Visible only if Einstein Reply Recommendations is turned on. Select this option to let Einstein
recommendations recommend the message to agents in the Einstein Replies console component.
Include in selected channels Leave this option selected. It makes the message available in the channels you selected.
5. If you use merge fields, click Preview to review the message with data from records that you choose.
6. Click Save.
SEE ALSO:
Insert and Use Quick Text
Share Quick Text
Generate Emails From Records
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• Who should be able to insert quick text messages into records and conversations? Typically, Available in Lightning
this is most users. Experience in: Essentials,
Professional, Enterprise,
• Who should be able to create and maintain their own quick text messages? Typically, this Performance, Unlimited,
is just a few users. and Developer Editions
• Who should be able to create and maintain quick text messages for their team? Typically,
this is just a few users.
USER PERMISSIONS
2. Use a permission set or update profiles to give users access to the Quick Text object.
To set up quick text:
a. To view and insert quick text messages, users need Read permission. In orgs created after
• Customize Application
Spring ’18, all user profiles automatically include Read permission.
To view quick text
b. To create and manage quick text messages, users need Create, Edit, and Delete permission. messages:
Keep in mind that letting many users create quick text messages decreases the • Read on quick text
standardization of your company messaging.
To create, edit, and delete
3. If you selected Share and organize quick text in folders on the Quick Text Settings page, quick text messages:
give users access to folders of common quick text messages. • Create, Edit, and Delete
on quick text
a. From the App Launcher, select Quick Text to open the quick text tab.
To create quick text folders:
b. From the list of folders, click Share in the folder’s action menu. • Create on quick text
c. Select users or groups that need access to the folder, and choose an access level: View, Edit,
or Manage. To share a folder with others, users need Manage access or to be the folder
owner.
4. If you’re using quick text in Salesforce Classic, complete one of the following options.
Option Steps
Give users ownership of at least one quick On a quick text record page, transfer ownership of an existing quick text message to
text message the user. Look for the Change button.
Change your org-wide default sharing Update quick text sharing on the Sharing Settings page in Setup. You can update the
setting for quick text setting to Public Read Only or Public Read-Write.
Use sharing rules If you don’t want to change your org-wide default sharing settings, create sharing rules
to specify which groups of users have at least read-only access to quick text messages.
Note: If your org-wide default sharing setting for quick text is set to Public Read-Write, all users can access all quick text records
whether or not Share and organize quick text in folders is selected.
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After giving users access to quick text, create standardized messages that they can use.
SEE ALSO:
Design Your Quick Text Strategy
Enable Quick Text
Create Sharing Rules
Permissions for Chat Support Agents
IN THIS SECTION:
Share Quick Text Using a Folder in Lightning Experience
Use folders to create unique sets of quick text messages for different business units in your company. For example, create separate
folders of quick text for your service and sales divisions, and then share each folder with the users in that division. Folders help you
organize your quick text and give users a tailored list of quick text messages to work with.
Share a Single Quick Text in Salesforce Classic
You can share an individual quick text record in Salesforce Classic with other users or groups.
SEE ALSO:
Design Your Quick Text Strategy
Create Sharing Rules
Sharing Settings
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7. Click Share.
The sharing setting is applied to the Who Can Access list. To change an entry’s access level, select a new access level. To delete a
Who Can Access entry, click X on the entry.
Tip: You can also use the Analytics Folder API to create and manage folders.
SEE ALSO:
Enable Quick Text
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1. Select the field where you want to insert a quick text message. Here’s a list of the fields where Available in Lightning
you can insert quick text. Experience in: Essentials,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Quick Text Associated Object or Action Supported Fields
and Developer Editions
Channel
Email Email Message (used in Email • HTML Body
actions) USER PERMISSIONS
• Text Body
To insert quick text:
Event Event • Description • Read on quick text
Knowledge Knowledge (used in Lightning • Fields with the data type Rich
Knowledge articles) Text Area
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Portal (Salesforce Classic only) Works in Experience Cloud sites or customer portals.
Note: In Lightning Experience, quick text is available for Log a Call actions on various objects. In Salesforce Classic apps, quick
text is supported with Case Feed Log a Call actions in console apps.
2. Launch the quick text browser by clicking the quick text button in the toolbar .
If you don’t see the button, your admin has opted to hide it. If you’re using a U.S. or U.K. keyboard, you can enter a keyboard shortcut
in the message field to open the browser:
Salesforce Classic
macOS or Windows: ;;
Lightning Experience
macOS: Cmd and . simultaneously
Windows: Ctrl and . simultaneously
3. Find the message you want to insert. Here, we’re inserting a quick text named Solar Panel Apology into the body of an email.
Note: If you don’t see any quick text messages in the quick text browser, your admin may need to share the folders containing
the messages with you.
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5. Before sending or saving your message, modify the text if you need to.
SEE ALSO:
Create Quick Text Messages
• The Share button for individual quick text records is available only in Salesforce Classic.
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– Quick text with the Case.CaseNumber merge field resolves correctly in a case’s Log a Call action. However, that same merge
field resolves blank when inserting quick text on a work order’s Log a Call action.
– Quick text with the Lead.Name merge field resolves correctly on a lead. However, that same merge field resolves blank on
an account that was converted from a lead.
• In Chat, you can only use merge fields for the following objects: case, contact, and lead. You can use merge fields for accounts only
if the account record is related to a case, contact, or custom object that is associated with the chat transcript.
• You can’t use merge fields in quick text for Lightning Knowledge.
• Merge fields only resolve in the Email global action when you’re on a record page. For example, if you’re viewing a list view and
open the Email global action, quick text merge fields don’t resolve.
• Quick text supports the Salesforce Merge Language (SML) used in Salesforce Classic email templates, not the Handlebars Merge
Language (HML) used in Lightning email templates.
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Manage Macros
You can clone a macro to create a macro with slightly different instructions. You can also share macros with other users. However,
sharing works differently in Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience.
Things to Know About Macros
Review the considerations and limits that could impact you and your users when working with macros.
Keyboard Shortcuts for Macros
Use keyboard shortcuts to work even more efficiently with macros.
Note: Support for macros is different in Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience. Available in Salesforce
Classic in: Professional,
In Salesforce Classic, macros are supported on objects with both feed-based layouts and quick Enterprise, Performance,
actions. Typically, this support includes (but is not limited to): accounts, cases, contacts, and Unlimited, and Developer
leads. You can only add the Macros widget to the Salesforce Console for Service. Editions
In Lightning Experience, macros are supported on all standard objects except Campaign, and Available in Lightning
on custom objects that allow quick actions and have a customizable page layout. You can Experience in: Essentials,
add the Macros utility to any Lightning app, including apps with standard navigation and Professional, Enterprise,
console navigation such as the Sales and Service Console apps. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
The following prerequisites apply to Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience:
• Make sure that the record page you want to use macros with includes a publisher, like the
Chatter component, and the actions you want to use, like Email or Log a Call. To customize the page layout, edit the page in Setup.
• Add the Macros widget or utility to the app.
In Salesforce Classic, add the Macros widget to the app from the Apps page in Setup. Look for the Choose Custom Console Components
section and add the widget there.
In Lightning Experience, add the Macros utility to the app from the App Manager in Setup.
• Users must have the appropriate user permissions to create and run macros.
Tip: We recommend that you create a permission set with your desired permissions for the macro object.
To allow users to create and manage their own macros, give them create, edit, and delete permission on the macro object. To allow
users to run irreversible macros, such as macros that send emails or update field values, go to the Administrative Permissions section,
and select Manage Macros Users Can’t Undo.
If you are using macros in Salesforce Classic, there are two more prerequisites:
• Enable feed tracking on the object that you want to run macros on.
• Use a feed-based page layout on the object that you want to run macros on.
SEE ALSO:
Customize Actions with the Enhanced Page Layout Editor
Create Macros in Lightning Experience
Create Macros in Salesforce Classic
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Irreversible Macros
Some macros perform actions that can’t be undone, such as sending outbound emails to customers
EDITIONS
or updating a case status. A macro that contains a Submit Action instruction is irreversible. You
must have the Manage Macros Users Can’t Undo user permission to create, edit, and run macros Available in Salesforce
that contain instructions for performing irreversible actions. Classic in: Professional,
To help you identify irreversible macros, look for these icons. Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
• In Salesforce Classic:
Editions
• In Lightning Experience:
Available in Lightning
If you don’t have the Manage Macros Users Can’t Undo permission, you can still create and edit Experience in: Essentials,
macros that don’t contain instructions for performing irreversible actions. Just make sure that you Professional, Enterprise,
have create and edit permission on the macro object. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Bulk Macros
A bulk macro is a macro runs on multiple records at the same time. Bulk macros let support agents
EDITIONS
quickly address spikes in customer cases involving the same issue. Macros must meet certain criteria
to run as bulk macros. Available in Salesforce
Bulk macros are supported in: Classic in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
• Email Publisher in Case Feed on the Salesforce Console for Service
Unlimited, and Developer
• All Quick Actions except for Social Quick Actions Editions
Bulk macros aren't supported in: Available in Lightning
• Salesforce Knowledge actions Experience in: Essentials,
Professional, Enterprise,
• Experience Cloud actions
Performance, Unlimited,
• Social post actions and Developer Editions
• Email templates, attachments, and merge fields in Lightning Experience
• “Add” and “Insert” instructions (such as the Add to Subject instruction or the Insert into HTML
Body instruction for the Email Publisher)
If the bulk macro interacts with the Email Publisher, it can contain only use one Email Publisher action. Bulk Macros run only from the
case record home page and list view for SendEmail type quick actions, and don't run at all on a split list view. Bulk macros are restricted
to 200 cases when run from the list view.
If a quick action targeted by the bulk macro contains a read-only field, the macro fails. This failure occurs even if none of the instructions
target the read-only field.
A bulk macro must contain at least one Submit Action instruction.
IN THIS SECTION:
Create a Bulk Macro
This example shows you how to create a bulk macro that sends an email to the contact person for the selected customer cases.
Tips for Creating Bulk Macros
The key to successfully using bulk macros is to select the right records to run the macro on. Support agents can filter the list views
to identify which records to select.
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To create and run irreversible macros: Manage Macros That Users Can’t Undo Available in Lightning
Experience in: Essentials,
To run bulk macros: Run Macros on Multiple Records Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
For example, suppose that your company has a service outage and lots of customers have contacted
customer support. Support agents can send an email to customers who have opened cases about
the outage that tells them when the service outage is expected to end.
These steps show you how to create a bulk macro that sends an email to the contact person on the selected cases. To implement this
example in your org, enable the Email Publisher.
1. Create a macro.
2. Add the instructions for the macro.
a. Select a context for the macro. The context specifies the object that the macro interacts with.
Selecting Select Active Tab tells the macro that it’s performing an action on the active case tab in the Case Feed.
b. Click Done. After every instruction, click Done to move to the next line.
c. Select the publisher that the macro interacts with.
Selecting Select Email Action tells the macro to interact with the Email Publisher in Case Feed.
d. Select the action that you want the macro to perform.
e. Finally, select Submit Action to tell the macro to perform these instructions.
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To create and run irreversible macros: Manage Macros That Users Can’t Undo Available in Lightning
Experience in: Essentials,
To run bulk macros: Run Macros on Multiple Records Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Note: You need the Manage Macros That Users Can’t Undo permission only if you want to
run macros that contain a Submit Action instruction. All bulk macros contain a Submit Action
instruction. The lightning bolt icon ( ) indicates that the macro performs an action—such
as sending an email—that cannot be undone.
To run bulk macros, the Enable Enhanced Lists setting must be enabled in your org.
You can run bulk macros on records from the Accounts, Cases, Contacts, and Leads objects. However, you can run a bulk macro only on
records in one object list view at a time. For example, you can run a bulk macro on multiple cases in the Cases list view, but not on cases
and accounts at the same time.
An icon showing a green lightning bolt with two underlines ( ) indicates whether a macro is a bulk macro.
Bulk macros are processed in increments of 10 macros at a time. You can run a bulk macro on more than 10 cases, but the system
processes the macro in groups of 10 at a time.
1. In the Case list view, select the cases that you want to run the macro on.
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You can filter the cases to identify which cases you want to run the macro on.
SEE ALSO:
Configure User Interface Settings
Create a Macro
Macros give you the power to automate common repetitive tasks and resolve issues with a single click. You create a macro by specifying
the instructions for actions that the macro performs. A macro is like a little computer program. You tell the macro each step that it
performs.
IN THIS SECTION:
Create Macros in Lightning Experience
To create a macro in Lightning Experience, use the Macro Builder—an easy-to-use point-and-click builder.
Create Macros in Salesforce Classic
To create macros in Salesforce Classic, use the macro widget.
Important: Before you create a macro, make sure that your org meets the prerequisites. To Available in: Lightning
create macros, your admin must add the Macro utility to your Lightning app. Experience
In Lightning Experience, macros are supported on all standard objects except Campaign, and Available in: Essentials,
on custom objects that allow quick actions and have a customizable page layout. Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
1. In your Lightning app, open a record. and Developer Editions
2. In the utility bar, click Macros.
Note: If you see the message “This page doesn't support macros,” check that you’re on
USER PERMISSIONS
the record page for a supported object. You can’t run macros on list views. To view macros:
• Read on macros
3. Click + or Create Macro.
To create and edit macros:
4. Enter a name, description, folder, and select the object that the macro applies to.
• Create AND Edit on
Macro Name macros
Use a name that makes it easy to understand what this macro does. For example, for a To create and run
macro that replaces the email subject with a critical update, enter “Replace Email Subject irreversible macros:
with Critical Update.” • Manage Macros That
Users Can’t Undo
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Description
Explain the purpose for this macro. This optional field helps other agents understand what this macro does and distinguishes it
from similar macros.
Apply To
The Apply To value defaults to the object you were viewing before. Change this default to create a macro for a different object.
Folder
Folders help you organize and share macros. You can create up to four levels of folders: one root folder and up to three subfolders.
This field is visible only when Share and organize macros in folders is enabled. In some orgs, the Folder field must be added
to the page layout.
5. Click Save.
6. Click Edit Instructions.
The first instruction is added based on the object you selected from the Apply To field.
The Macro Builder page opens. The left side of the page displays a canvas with a sample record page for the object you selected (1).
Keep in mind that all fields for the object are available, even if the sample record doesn’t include them. The right side of the page
includes an Instructions tab and Details tab for your macro (2).
8. To add instructions that execute without evaluating any conditions, on the bottom of the Instructions tab, click Add Instruction.
a. On the canvas, select a quick action.
Selectable items are highlighted on the canvas.
For example, on a case record, you can click Log A Call in the publisher.
b. On the canvas, click a field to add instructions. In the Instructions tab, enter your field updates.
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Tip: You can insert quick text, use email templates, add email attachments, create events with relative dates, and more.
c. Optionally, on the canvas, select a submit action to tell the macro to execute these instructions.
For example, to have your macro submit your Log a Call comments, click Save in the publisher.
d. Optionally, if your macro is only for records in console apps, you can add an instruction to close the record tab when the macro
completes.
To add the close tab instruction, click the dropdown menu next to Add Instruction, and select Add Close Tab Instruction.
9. When you’re done with your macro, click Save. To return to the app, close the Macro Builder tab.
Tip: After you create a macro, run it to make sure that it works the way you want. Open the Macro utility to execute your new
macro.
IN THIS SECTION:
Add Logic to Macros in Lightning Experience
To control the execution of macro instructions in Lightning Experience, add logic with the Macro Builder. Create expressions with
one or more conditions, and add instructions that execute when the expression is true.
SEE ALSO:
Prerequisites for Macros
Keyboard Shortcuts for Macros
Macros Utility for Lightning Apps
Add and Replace Field Values in a Case Using Macros
Considerations for Using Your Classic Email Templates in Lightning Experience
Keyboard Shortcuts for Macros
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An Expression Logic pane opens with an IF block. To add ELSE IF or ELSE blocks, use the Expression Logic dropdown menu (1). You
can add multiple ELSE IF blocks after the IF block.
6. For each IF or ELSE IF block, configure conditions and instructions. Optionally, add an ELSE block with instructions for when the IF
and ELSE IF conditions aren’t met.
a. To add a description that helps agents understand the expression, use the dropdown menu near the block title (2).
b. Select when to take action (3).
If your expression uses AND between conditions, select All Conditions Are Met. For example, take action when condition A is
true AND condition B is true. If your expression uses OR, select Any Conditions Are Met.
c. To add a condition, click Add Condition. To add a group of conditions, click Add Group.
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You can add up to 30 conditions or groups in your expression. When you add a group of conditions, a gray block (4) outlines
the grouping. For each group, select when to take action.
d. Define each condition using a field, an operator, and an optional comparison value (5).
To compare a field to a value, use the operator EQUALS, DOES NOT EQUAL, CONTAINS, or DOES NOT CONTAIN. For example,
Status EQUALS New is a condition for the case object.
Note: The Macro Builder shows you the fields that you can use in a condition. Not all fields on every object are available.
Tip: If you nest conditions, we recommend that you limit nesting to three levels. Otherwise, the logic can be hard to understand
when viewing or editing the macro. In addition, the more complex your logic, the longer it takes to evaluate conditions when
you run your macro.
8. In each block, click Add Instruction, and add the instructions that execute when the conditions are met.
9. When you’re done with your macro, click Save. To return to the app, close the Macro Builder tab.
Tip: After you create a macro with logic, run it to make sure that it works the way you want. Open the Macro utility, and test
the macro in different conditions.
Example: You want to create a macro so that agents can easily send an email when they open a new case. The email content
varies according to the case priority, which matches the service response type: Gold, Silver, or Bronze. Regardless of the case status
or priority, if the case is an SLA violation, the Gold level email is sent.
Here’s example logic for this macro.
IF [(Status equals New AND Priority equals High) OR (SLA Violation equals Yes)]
{Send email with 'Case under Review: Gold' content}
ELSE IF (Status equals New AND Priority equals Medium)
{Send email with 'Case under Review: Silver' content}
ELSE IF (Status equals New AND Priority equals Low)
{Send email with 'Case under Review: Bronze' content}
In the IF block, a condition group defines the order in which multiple conditions are evaluated.
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d. For Description, explain the purpose for this macro. The optional Description field helps support agents understand what this
macro does and distinguish it from similar macros.
IN THIS SECTION:
Tips for Creating Macros
How you name and design your macro can impact its usefulness to support agents. Keep these tips in mind when creating macros.
Examples of Macros in Salesforce Classic
These examples show how you can create different types of macros based on your business needs.
SEE ALSO:
Prerequisites for Macros
Keyboard Shortcuts for Macros
Keyboard Shortcuts for Macros
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1. The Macro Name helps support agents decide which macro to use. The name is used when agents search for macros. It’s useful to
use a short name (so that agents can see it in the macros list) that succinctly identifies the macro’s purpose.
2. Although Description is optional, it is useful for helping support agents to understand what the macro does.
3. The macro instructions are like a little computer program, so you must tell the macro each step to perform. Each instruction is
equivalent to a click that the support agent makes when manually performing the task. The first macro instruction selects the object
that the macro acts upon, such as the Active Case Tab.
4. The second macro instruction specifies the context, or component of the Salesforce Console for Service, in which the macro works.
For example, the Email Action context allows the macro to set fields and perform actions within the Email Publisher.
Tip: If a Salesforce Console for Service component isn’t enabled and configured, then you can’t create a macro for it.
5. The third macro instruction specifies the action that the macro performs. For example, the macro in the screenshot changes the
value for the CC Address field in an email action in the active case tab.
6. You can add an extra set of instructions in the same context or in a different context. A simple macro just performs one task. Create
more complex macros by adding instructions.
Note: If you use the International Components for Unicode (ICU) library instead of the Java Development Kit (JDK) library, review
and manually update your Salesforce Classic macros that set the date, time, or currency. Otherwise, your macros can fail or introduce
errors.
Date and Time
Ensure that the date and time format is supported in the ICU library. For example, for the US locale, add a comma in between
the date and time.
Valid format before ICU library: 01/09/2018 00:00
Valid format after ICU library: 01/09/2018, 00:00
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Currency
Ensure that the comma and decimal are valid for your currency. Errors can be introduced if your org’s currency locale is different
from your user's locale, so be careful.
SEE ALSO:
Supported Date and Time Formats (ICU)
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These steps illustrate some ways that you can use Add, Replace, and Insert instructions in a macro. Available in: Professional,
1. Create a macro. Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
2. Add the instructions to tell the macro what email field value to replace. This example shows Editions
how to replace the Subject field in an email.
a. In the Macro Instructions section, click +Add Instruction. USER PERMISSIONS
b. The first instruction tells the macros which object to act upon. Here, select Select Active
Case Tab. To view macros:
• Read on macros
In Lightning Experience, the first instruction is auto-populated based on the Apply To field.
To create and edit macros:
c. The next instruction tells the macro which action in the Case Feed Publisher to interact • Create and Edit on
with. Here, select Select Email Action. macros
d. Now, tell the macro what to do in the Email Action. Select Replace Subject. In the text To create an irreversible
field, specify the subject line. macro:
• Manage Macros Users
Selecting a Replace instruction clears the existing value in the field, and replaces it with the
Can’t Undo
value specified in the macro.
For example, enter Update on Your Order. Suppose that the subject line was
Haven’t Received My Order. The macro clears the old subject line and replaces it with Update on Your Order.
3. Add the instructions to tell the macro to replace an email field with a blank value. In this example, we clear the BCC field.
a. Select Replace BCC Addresses. Leave the text field empty.
Selecting a Replace instruction and leaving the text field empty clears the values in the field, so you end up with a blank field.
4. Add the instructions to tell the macro to insert values into a field. In this example, we add two email addresses to the CC field.
a. Select Add CC Addresses. In the text field, specify the email addresses. You can specify multiple email addresses by separating
them with a comma.
For example, enter shipping@example.com, invoices@example.com. Suppose that the CC field already contains
support@example.com. This macro appends the shipping@example.com and invoices@example.com
after support@example.com.
5. Select Submit Action. This instruction tells the macro to execute the email action.
6. Save the macro.
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These steps illustrate one way that you can use Insert instructions in a macro. Available in: Professional,
1. Create a macro. Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
2. Add the instructions to tell the macro what to do. This example shows how to insert Quick Text Editions
into a social post.
a. In the Macro Instructions section, click +Add Instruction. USER PERMISSIONS
b. The first instruction tells the macros which object to act upon. Here, select Select Active
Case Tab. To view macros:
• Read on macros
c. The next instruction tells the macro which action in the Case Feed publisher to interact
To create and edit macros:
with. Here, select Select Social Action.
• Create and Edit on
d. Now, tell the macro what to do in the social action. Select Insert into Body. You can insert macros
either Quick Text or Text.
To create an irreversible
Selecting an Insert instruction appends the Quick Text or Text specified in the macro to the macro:
end of the text already in the field. In social publisher actions, the Insert instruction is useful • Manage Macros Users
because you can retain the @mention and add text after it. Can’t Undo
e. Specify which Quick Text you want to macro to use, or enter the text that you want it to
use.
3. Select Submit Action. This instruction tells the macro to execute the social action.
4. Save the macro.
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Automatically Attach a Salesforce Knowledge Article to an Email in Case Feed Using Macros
Perhaps your support agents often send customers the same article in Salesforce Knowledge. This
EDITIONS
example explains how to create a macro that automatically selects a specific article and inserts it
into an email in Case Feed. This macro lets agents answer a common customer question by clicking Available in: Salesforce
one button, instead of spending time searching for the article and copying it into the email. Classic
You must have Salesforce Knowledge One enabled for your organization. The Salesforce Knowledge
Macros available in:
One component must be enabled and added as a component to the Salesforce Console for Service
Professional, Enterprise,
page. Performance, Unlimited,
1. Create a macro. and Developer Editions
2. Add the instructions to tell the macro to search for a specific article.
Salesforce Knowledge is
a. In the Macro Instructions section, click +Add Instruction. available in Performance
b. The first instruction tells the macros which case to act upon. Here, select Select Active and Developer Editions and
in Unlimited Edition with the
Case Tab.
Service Cloud.
c. The next instruction tells the macro which part of the console to act upon. Here, select
Salesforce Knowledge is
Select Knowledge Sidebar Component.
available for an additional
d. Now, let’s tell the macro what do in the Knowledge Sidebar. Select Select Articles Search. cost in: Enterprise and
e. This step defines the keyword that the Knowledge search uses to find the right article. Select Unlimited Editions.
Set Keywords. In the text field, you can specify either the article number or a keyword.
• Article number: The article number retrieves an article by its number, which is useful USER PERMISSIONS
when you want to select a specific article. The syntax is
To view macros:
articlenumber:123456789.
• Read on macros
Note: The syntax is case-sensitive and must be written in lower case. To create and edit macros:
• Create and Edit on
• Keywords: You also can search by keywords. Salesforce looks for these keywords in the macros
title and body of the articles in the knowledge base. For example, enter “Reset Your
Password.”
f. Select Run Search. This instruction tells the macro to perform the search when someone runs this macro.
3. Add the instructions to tell the macro to insert the article into the email that is being edited in Case Feed.
a. Click Select Most Relevant Article. This instruction tells the macro to use the article that came up first in the search results.
b. Select Insert into Email as HTML. This instruction inserts the entire article, including text and images, into the email at the
cursor position.
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Run a Macro
Run a macro to automate a series of repetitive keystrokes that you usually perform manually when
EDITIONS
working with records. You can quickly complete common tasks, such as updating the case status
or sending an email with a survey link, by running a macro. Available in Salesforce
Classic in: Professional,
User Permissions Needed Enterprise, Performance,
To view macros: Read on macros Unlimited, and Developer
Editions
To create and edit macros: Create AND Edit on macros Available in Lightning
To create and run irreversible macros: Manage Macros That Users Can’t Undo Experience in: Essentials,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Note: You need the Manage Macros That Users Can’t Undo permission only if you want to
run irreversible macros, which contain a Submit Action instruction. Macros that send emails
are an example of irreversible macros.
1. Open the record you want to perform the macro on.
2. Open the Macros widget or utility.
3. Search or navigate to a macro, and select it from the list.
4. Optionally, review the macro’s description and instructions to make sure that this macro does what you expect.
The instructions show you the steps that the macro performs. Reviewing the instructions is helpful when running a macro for the
first time.
Tip: If you don’t see the button to run the macro, make sure that you’re on a record that supports macros.
A message displays indicating whether the macro ran successfully. A green dot appears next to each instruction that ran successfully.
A red dot and an error message appear next to each instruction that could not be performed, so you can troubleshoot the issue.
Manage Macros
You can clone a macro to create a macro with slightly different instructions. You can also share macros with other users. However, sharing
works differently in Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience.
IN THIS SECTION:
Clone Macros
You can quickly copy a macro by cloning it. Cloning a macro is useful when you want to create a macro that is a variant of the source
macro.
Share Macros
You can share macros with users, public groups, and more. The way you share macros in Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience
is different. In Salesforce Classic, you can share individual macros. In Lightning Experience, you share macros using folders.
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Clone Macros
You can quickly copy a macro by cloning it. Cloning a macro is useful when you want to create a
EDITIONS
macro that is a variant of the source macro.
Available in Salesforce
User Permissions Needed Classic in: Professional,
To view macros: Read on macros Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
To clone macros: Create AND Edit on macros Editions
Available in Lightning
Experience in: Essentials,
Both administrators and users can clone macros if they have the appropriate user permissions. Professional, Enterprise,
1. In your app, open the Macros widget or utility. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
2. Click the macro that you want to clone.
3. Open the macro details.
Salesforce Classic: Click .
Lightning Experience: Click View Detail.
4. Click Clone.
In Salesforce Classic, you’re prompted to enter a unique name for the macro.
In Lightning Experience, the macro name is automatically saved with “Copy of” added to the name.
6. Click Save.
Share Macros
You can share macros with users, public groups, and more. The way you share macros in Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience is
different. In Salesforce Classic, you can share individual macros. In Lightning Experience, you share macros using folders.
You can also change your org-wide default sharing setting for macros. Or you can limit access by creating sharing rules to specify which
groups of users have access to macros.
IN THIS SECTION:
Share Macros Using a Folder in Lightning Experience
You can share a folder of macros with other users in Lightning Experience.
Share a Single Macro in Salesforce Classic
You can share an individual macro record in Salesforce Classic with other users or groups.
SEE ALSO:
Sharing Settings
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Important: Sharing settings on folders override sharing settings on individual items. If you Available in: Professional,
shared macros in Salesforce Classic, those settings are ignored after the Share and organize Enterprise, Performance,
macros in folders setting is enabled and the macro is assigned to a folder. If you decide to Unlimited, and Developer
disable this setting later, folder sharing is ignored, and individual sharing settings apply. Editions. Folders for macros
aren’t supported in
After you enable folders, we recommend that you: Essentials Edition.
• Move existing macros into folders, and share those folders with your users.
• Verify that your macro page layout includes the Folder field. USER PERMISSIONS
• Review the user experience in the macro utility and macro list view, which both now reflect
folders. To enable macro folders:
• Customize Application
To share a macro, complete the following steps.
To create a macro folder:
1. Open macros in your app. • Create on macros
In apps with standard navigation, click the Macros tab. In apps with console navigation, select To share a macro folder:
Macros from the navigation item menu. • Owner of the folder OR
Manage access on the
2. In the macros folder list view, select All Folders, Created by Me, or Shared with Me to review
folder
the folders you have access to.
To manage and share all
3. Click the dropdown menu next to a folder in the list, and select Share. macro folders:
• You can share only the folders that you created or that you have manage access on. • View Setup and
Configurations AND
• You can share only the first-level folders, known as root folders. Subfolders inherit their root Modify All on macros
folder’s settings.
5. Click Share.
The sharing setting is applied to the Who Can Access list. To change an entry’s access level, select a new access level. To delete a
Who Can Access entry, click X on the entry.
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8. Click Save.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Macros Considerations in Lightning Experience
Learn how macros can impact you and your users in Lightning Experience.
Publishers and Actions Supported in Salesforce Classic Macros
The following publishers and actions are supported on macros in the Salesforce Console for Service.
Macros in Lightning Experience work on all objects that allow quick actions and have a customizable page layout. However, we recommend
that you don’t use macros with the following items.
• Read-only fields
• Encrypted fields
• Opportunity products
• Crew Size field on the Service Crew object
• Social quick action in the case feed publisher provided with Social Customer Service
Limitations for Macros in Lightning Experience:
• Email message objects (not to be confused with the Email action, because macros work fine there) aren’t supported
• Knowledge articles can't be inserted into Macros
Note: When you run a macro that sends an email with attachments, the macro fails. A pop-up window asks you to confirm
sending the email and attached files. Click the option to avoid showing the pop-up message again. Then rerun the macro to send
the email and attachments.
Keep the following things in mind when enabling folders for macros.
• You can enable and disable Share and organize macros in folders, but we recommend that you don’t. After it’s enabled, only
switch back if you must.
• After you enable folders, the Share button on macro records in Salesforce Classic is disabled for records that are assigned to a folder.
• To create and manage folders, you can also use the Analytics Folder API.
• Folders for macros aren’t supported in Essentials Edition orgs.
• Verify that your macro page layout includes the Folder field.
• After enabling Share and organize macros in folders, you might not see the updated list view that shows folders. To see the
updated view, choose a different navigation item and then go back to macros.
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• We recommend that you don’t use split view for macros. After folders are enabled, split view displays the folder list view, which isn’t
optimized for split view.
• The macros browser panel supports up to 2000 macros and folder records.
Note: You can share only individual macros in Salesforce Classic. In Lightning Experience, you can share macros using a folder.
• Macros only work with self-related records and don't support components that point to other objects
• Administrators manage prebuilt macros. If you want your service agents to use these Macros, give them at least read access and
share the following folders:
– Macros folder - Basic Macros
– Quick Text folder - Sample Quick Texts 2
• In most text fields, you can insert up to 4,000 characters. Some text fields, like Text Area, have smaller character limits.
• If you use quick text in text fields, keep in mind that quick text channels aren’t observed in macros. For example, let’s say you set up
quick text to be used only on one channel, such as email. When the quick text is in a macro, it can also be used on actions like Log
A Call.
• You can’t use Salesforce Classic email templates that use Visualforce in macros for Lightning Experience.
• You can apply more than one email template. For example, you can use the Subject of one email template and the Body of another.
If an email template is updated, the macro uses the updated template.
• Macros that apply Lightning email templates that use Handlebars Merge Language (HML) syntax can't be used in Salesforce Classic.
• You can attach files to emails in your macro. Keep in mind that Salesforce has two types of attachments: ones uploaded in Salesforce
Classic and ones uploaded in Lightning Experience. If the attachment was uploaded in Salesforce Classic, add it to a Salesforce Classic
template and then apply that template to the macro. The same applies to Lightning Experience. Add the attachment to a Lightning
email template, or click Insert Attachment.
• Before using macros created with Insert at Cursor actions, remember to initialize the cursor where you want the text added. If not,
the macro inserts at the beginning of the field.
• You can create macros with relative times and dates for Time, Date, and DateTime fields only in Lightning Experience.
• You can create macros with conditional instructions only in Lightning Experience. These macros use logical expressions that determine
which instructions execute.
• The macros utility doesn’t support pop-out.
• To use the Close Case macro, go to Support Settings and check Show Closed Statuses in Case Status Field in the Setup page
to allow closed statuses in the Case Status field.
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Bulk macros are supported for Email Publisher actions. Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Table 2: Email Publisher Actions Supported in Macros Unlimited, and Developer
Action Description Supported Editions
in Bulk
Macros?
Replace To Clears the email addresses in the To Address field and replaces Yes
Addresses them with the specified email addresses. To use multiple email
addresses, separate them with a comma.
Add to To Adds these email addresses to the To field, but does not delete No
Addresses any addresses already in the To field. To use multiple email
addresses, separate them with a comma.
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Add to CC Addresses Adds these email addresses to the CC field, but does not delete any addresses already in No
the CC field. To use multiple email addresses, separate them with a comma.
Replace BCC Clears the email addresses in the BCC Address field and replaces them with the specified Yes
Addresses email addresses. To use multiple email addresses, separate them with a comma.
Add to BCC Adds these email addresses to the BCC field, but does not delete any addresses already No
Addresses in the BCC field. To use multiple email addresses, separate them with a comma.
Set From Address Clears the email address in the From Address field and replaces it with the specified email Yes
address.
Replace Subject Clears the Subject field and replaces it with the specified text. Yes
Add to Subject Appends this text to the end of the Subject field, but does not delete any existing text No
already in the Subject field.
Replace HTML Body Clears the contents of the email body and replaces it with the specified HTML content. Yes
Insert into HTML Adds a QuickText or Text into the HTML body text, but does not delete any existing text No
Body already there. The QuickText or Text is inserted at the cursor position.
Apply Email Inserts the specified email template into an email in the active case tab. Yes
Template
Submit Action Tells the macro to perform these instructions when someone runs this macro. Yes
A macro that contains a Submit Action instruction is irreversible. You must have the
Manage Macros Users Can’t Undo user permission to create, edit, and run macros that
contain instructions for performing irreversible actions.
A macro that contains a Submit Action instruction can be run as a bulk macro. You must
have the Run Macros on Multiple Records user permission to run bulk macros.
Internet Explorer 7 and Bulk macros are not supported for Salesforce Knowledge actions.
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Select Article Search Tells the macro that the instructions affect Knowledge search. No
Set Keywords Specifies the keywords to use when searching the knowledge base. You can search by: No
• Article number: The article number retrieves an article by its number, which is useful
when you want to select a specific article. The syntax is
articlenumber:123456789.
• Keywords: You can search by keywords. The Salesforce Knowledge search looks for
these keywords in the title and body of the articles in the knowledge base. For
example, the phrase Reset Your Password returns articles that contain that
phrase.
Run Search Tells the macro to search the knowledge base using the criteria specified in the Set No
Keywords instruction.
Select Most Relevant Selects the first article listed in the search results. No
Article
Attach to Email as Adds the article as a PDF attachment to the email in the case. No
PDF
Insert into Email as Inserts the article text and links into the email in the case. No
HTML
Bulk macros are not supported on Quick Actions for social actions. Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Table 4: Custom Quick Actions Supported in Macros Unlimited, and Developer
Action Description Supported Editions
in Bulk
Macros
Replace Clears the contents of the text field and replaces it with the Yes
<text specified text.
field>
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Submit Action Tells the macro to perform these instructions when someone runs this macro. Yes
A macro that contains a Submit Action instruction is irreversible. You must have the
Manage Macros Users Can’t Undo user permission to create, edit, and run macros that
contain instructions for performing irreversible actions.
A macro that contains a Submit Action instruction can be run as a bulk macro. You must
have the Run Macros on Multiple Records user permission to run bulk macros.
Bulk macros are not supported on Community Publisher actions. Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Table 5: Community Publisher Actions Supported in Macros Unlimited, and Developer
Action Description Supported Editions
in Bulk
Macros?
Replace Body Clears the contents of the post and replaces it with the specified No
text.
Insert into Adds a QuickText or Text into the Community post, but does not No
Body delete any existing text already there. The QuickText or Text is
inserted at the cursor position.
Submit Action Tells the macro to perform these instructions when someone No
runs this macro.
A macro that contains a Submit Action instruction is irreversible.
You must have the Manage Macros Users Can’t Undo user
permission to create, edit, and run macros that contain
instructions for performing irreversible actions.
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Bulk macros are not supported on Social Actions. Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Table 6: Social Actions Supported in Macros Unlimited, and Developer
Action Description Supported Editions
in Bulk
Macros?
Replace Clears the contents of the text field and replaces it with the No
Content specified text.
Insert into Adds the specified text to the text field, but does not delete any No
Content existing text already there. The QuickText or Text is inserted at
the cursor position.
Set Message Tells the macro to use the selected message type. No
Type
Facebook message types:
• Post
• Comment
• Private
Twitter message types:
• Tweet
• Retweet
• Reply
• Direct
Submit Action Tells the macro to perform these instructions when someone No
runs this macro.
A macro that contains a Submit Action instruction is irreversible.
You must have the Manage Macros Users Can’t Undo user
permission to create, edit, and run macros that contain
instructions for performing irreversible actions.
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Switch panel focus Switches focus between the panels in Macro Builder. Focus F6
moves from the title bar, the toolbar, the canvas, and the
Instruction panel.
Canvas
Switch focus to next element Switches focus to the next element on the Macro Builder page. Tab
Switch focus to previous element Switches focus to previous element on the Macro Builder page. Shift+Tab
Instructions
Switch focus to next instruction Switches focus to the next instruction on the page. Your focus Tab or Arrow keys
must be on an instruction in the Instruction panel to use to
shortcut.
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Go to macro search Moves the cursor to the search bar in the macro widget. S
View macro instruction Expands or collapses the selected macro’s instruction. Spacebar
SEE ALSO:
Create Macros in Salesforce Classic
Create Macros in Lightning Experience
Feature Description
Create Cases, Accounts, and Contacts Create new cases from a case list, search, contact record, or account record. Use any of your
org’s record t ypes when you create a case. Create new accounts and contacts from a case record
or search.
View and Update Cases The bread and butter of case management. View cases to learn about customer issues, update
case fields with any relevant information, and update case statuses to close or escalate them as
needed.
View and Update Accounts and View accounts and contacts related to your cases to get the full view of your customers. Update
Contacts account and contact fields with any relevant information.
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Feature Description
View Case Lists and Case Queues The case list picker lets you easily view the cases that you’re most interested in. You can view
all your assigned cases, or view only escalated cases.
Utilize the Case Feed The case feed that your agents love from Lightning Experience is available in a mobile-friendly
UI.
Send Email, Facebook, and Twitter Easily draft email and social media messages without leaving the app. For Facebook and Twitter
Messages messages, you can even specify if your message is a public post or a private message.
Bulk Actions Update multiple records simultaneously with intuitive bulk actions. Bulk actions let you update
case statuses, case owners, and case priorities. You can also delete cases.
Search Contact and Account Details Search and discover customer information to make sure that you have all the information you
need before tackling a case. Drill into your cases to learn more about customers contacts and
accounts.
Configurable Notification Settings Stay on top of your cases and queues with individually configurable notifications that let each
user get just the notifications that are important to them. No admin setup is needed because
users can do it themselves from the in-app settings.
Send Feedback to Salesforce We always want to hear about customer experiences using Salesforce products. Users can let
us know what they love, like, or dislike about the app. That way we can keep improving our
products so that they work for you and your business.
IN THIS SECTION:
Service Cloud Mobile Requirements
Learn about the requirements for using Service Cloud Mobile on an Android or iOS device.
Provide Notifications to Service Cloud Mobile Users
To send push notifications to Service Cloud Mobile users, install the Service Cloud Mobile managed package in your org. Then, give
them the Service Cloud Mobile User permission set to let them receive notifications from the managed package. Agents can configure
their own in-app settings to decide which events trigger notifications.
Service Cloud Mobile Limits and Limitations
Learn about the limits and limitations for Service Cloud Mobile.
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Network Requirements
A Wi-Fi® or cellular network connection is needed for the app to function properly and to communicate any changes you make to
Salesforce.
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Limitations
• Viewing a record other than a case, account, or contact prompts users to open that record in the Salesforce mobile app, or to install
the Salesforce mobile app if it isn’t already.
• Users can’t search for cases that aren’t included in one of their case lists.
• The Android version only supports quick actions to Log a Call, post to social media, post to the feed, and send email. The iOS version
supports the same quick actions and create record and update record actions.
• Notifications can’t be accessed after being opened.
• Having no queues and case lists puts the iOS version of the app in an unusable state.
• Users can only mention people if they are commenting on an existing post. Mentioning is not supported when creating a new post.
• Android users can’t attach files to posts using the publisher but iOS users can attach Salesforce Files.
IN THIS SECTION:
Omni-Channel
Omni-Channel routes work requests to the most available and qualified support agents in the console. You can also provide real-time
operational intelligence to support supervisors with Omni-Channel Supervisor.
Rules and Queues
Automation keeps things running smoothly. Set up rules and queues to help you prioritize, distribute, assign, respond to, and escalate
records.
Einstein Case Routing
Let Einstein save agents time by automatically updating and routing new cases. When Einstein Case Classification updates a field
on a case, you can have Einstein Case Routing run your existing assignment rules to route the case to the right agent.
SEE ALSO:
Einstein for Service
Omni-Channel
Omni-Channel routes work requests to the most available and qualified support agents in the console. You can also provide real-time
operational intelligence to support supervisors with Omni-Channel Supervisor.
IN THIS SECTION:
Omni-Channel for Administrators
Route any type of incoming work item to the most qualified, available support agents in your call center. Omni-Channel integrates
seamlessly into the console in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience.
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Omni-Channel Supervisor
Use Omni-Channel Supervisor to monitor agent workloads and the status of work items that are routed by Omni-Channel. Agents
can raise flags on work items when they require assistance from a supervisor. Supervisors can monitor Service Cloud Voice transcripts
and chat messages between agents and customers, and send helpful messages that only the support agent sees. Supervisors can
also respond to incoming support requests by changing queues as needed and can update agent skills quickly.
Omni-Channel is a flexible, customizable feature, and you can configure it declaratively—that is, without writing code. Use Omni-Channel
to manage the priority of work items, which makes it a cinch to route important work items to agents quickly. Manage your agents’
capacity to take on work items so that they’re given only the number of assignments that they can handle. You can also define which
agents can work on different types of assignments. For example, you can create one group of agents to respond to leads and sales
inquiries, and another group that helps customers with support questions.
Best of all, Omni-Channel routes all these assignments to the correct agents automatically. Agents no longer have to pick and choose
work assignments manually from a queue, which saves everyone in your call center time, effort, and brainpower. Because it’s easier for
agents to work on their assignments, they can assist your customers faster and more effectively and close assignments more quickly.
Routing logic is applied when work is assigned to an owner. Note that if field values on the work item are changed after the item is
routed, the routing logic isn’t reapplied.
Let’s get started!
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Omni-Channel with a Guided Setup Flow
Get ready to route cases with Omni-Channel in Lightning Experience with a quick guided setup flow. Create a queue and routing
configuration, select your support agents, and add Omni-Channel to the utility bar in your default Lightning Service Console app.
Customize Omni-Channel
The first step towards getting your Omni-Channel implementation up and running is to create the necessary objects in Salesforce.
Omni-Channel Flows (Beta)
The Omni-Channel Flow brings all the functionality of Omni-Channel within a Salesforce Flow. Use the power and flexibility of Flow
Builder to define your routing rules and dynamically route work to the best agent for each case.
Set Access to Presence Statuses
Presence statuses indicate whether an agent is online and available to receive incoming work items, or whether the agent is away
or offline. Once you’ve created your Presence Statuses for Omni-Channel, you need to set up how your users will access them. You
can set access through permission sets or profiles.
Add the Omni-Channel Widget to the Salesforce Console
After you get Omni-Channel all set up for your organization, it’s time to add the Omni-Channel widget to the Salesforce console so
that your agents can start receiving work.
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Service Cloud Omni-Channel
Note: This setup flow sets up queue-based routing for Omni-Channel, not skills-based
routing. You must set up skills-based routing manually.
This flow is available from Service Setup in Lightning Experience. You can get to Service Setup by clicking and selecting Service
Setup.
In Service Setup, you can find recommended setup flows, content, and tips based on what you’ve set up already. If you don’t see the
setup flow you’re looking for, you can click View All to see the full list.
Select the tile to launch the flow.
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Service Cloud Omni-Channel
• Creating a routing configuration and a presence configuration, which work in tandem to control your agents’ workload and set the
priority for work in your queue
• Selecting the users who can receive work requests
• Setting agent capacity and the work item size for cases that come in through your new queue
Note: We name a few of these objects for you. The presence configuration name is based on what you entered as the name for
the group of agents you created. If you didn’t have a routing configuration already, we gave it the same name as your queue. You
can change these names in your Omni-Channel settings in Setup.
We turn on several things in the background during the setup flow.
Enable Omni-Channel
If it isn’t enabled already, we turn on Omni-Channel.
Create a Service Channel for Cases
Service channels let you choose which objects you want to route in Omni-Channel. We create one for cases to get you started.
Create Presence Statuses
Presence statuses are what agents use to go online in Omni-Channel. We create three presence statuses for your agents to use:
Available, On Break, and Busy. The Available status makes the agent available only to accept cases.
Create and Assign a Permission Set with Presence Statuses Assigned to Users
To make sure that your agents have access to the presence statuses we create, we make a permission set that assigns the presence
statuses to the users you select in the setup flow. The permission set is called Omni Setup Flow (with developer name
Omni_Setup_Flow).
Add the Omni-Channel Utility to Your Console
We add the Omni-Channel utility to the default Lightning Service Console app.
IN THIS SECTION:
Omni-Channel Setup Flow: What’s Next?
Learn where you can customize and view what you set up during the Omni-Channel setup flow.
SEE ALSO:
Optimize Setup with the Service Setup Assistant
Omni-Channel Utility for Lightning Console Apps
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Service Cloud Omni-Channel
Test it Out
We added Omni-Channel to the utility bar in your default Lightning Service Console app, so when you’re ready, hop into your console
to test out your implementation as a support agent. Simply log in, create a case, change the case owner to your new queue, and
watch the case appear as a work request in the utility.
Note: If you didn’t add yourself as an agent during the setup flow, you can add yourself to the permission set we created for
you.
Customize Omni-Channel
To route other objects like chats and leads, go to Setup and enter Omni-Channel in the Quick Find box. Then, select
Service Channels.
You can create statuses that make the agent available for one or more work types at a time. For example, you can have a presence
status that makes the agents available for cases and another for cases and chats. To create and edit presence statuses, go to Setup
and enter Omni-Channel in the Quick Find box. Then, select Presence Statuses. To assign presence statuses to you and
your team, you can use permission sets or profiles.
You can also add Omni-Channel to any console app. Simply edit or create a console app in the App Manager in Setup, or in your
app settings in Salesforce Classic Setup.
Hit the Trails with Trailhead
Don’t forget to check out more awesome Omni-Channel features like Omni-Channel Supervisor, decline reasons, and push timeout
in the Omni-Channel for Lightning Experience module on Trailhead.
SEE ALSO:
Trailhead: Omni-Channel for Lightning Experience
Test Your Omni-Channel Implementation
Give Users Access to Presence Statuses with Profiles
Customize Omni-Channel
The first step towards getting your Omni-Channel implementation up and running is to create the necessary objects in Salesforce.
Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Essentials, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
IN THIS SECTION:
Enable Omni-Channel
Enable Omni-Channel to gain access to the objects that you’ll use to set up the feature in your organization.
Create Service Channels
Service channels let you turn nearly any Salesforce object such as a case, lead, SOS session, or even a custom object into a work
record. Omni-Channel then plucks these work items from their queues like flowers from the garden of agent productivity and routes
them to your agents in real time.
Create Routing Configurations
Routing configurations determine how work items are routed to agents. Use them to prioritize the relative importance and size of
work items from your queues. That way, the most important work items are handled accordingly, and work is evenly distributed to
your agents. To start routing work items to agents, create routing configurations and assign them to queues.
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Enable Omni-Channel
Enable Omni-Channel to gain access to the objects that you’ll use to set up the feature in your
USER PERMISSIONS
organization.
To set up Omni-Channel:
Available in: Salesforce Classic, Lightning Experience • Customize Application
Note: Digital Engagement for Sales Cloud is available for an extra cost in Enterprise and Unlimited Editions.
1. From Setup, enter Omni-Channel Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Omni-Channel Settings.
2. Select Enable Omni-Channel.
3. Click Save.
Note: To use Omni-Channel to route communications to the right sales team, you must also Enable Messaging.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Help: Digital Engagement for Sales Cloud
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Service Cloud Omni-Channel
Service channels let you manage sources of work and their priority compared to other work items. After you create service channels,
you’ll associate them with queues, which determine how work items are routed to your agents. You can create service channels for
support channels, such as cases or SOS calls, or for sales channels, such as leads.
1. If you plan to use Secondary Routing Priority, from Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Omni-Channel Settings, and then
select Omni-Channel Settings. Click Enable Secondary Routing Priority.
2. If you plan to use the Status-Based Capacity Model, from Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Omni-Channel Settings, and
then select Omni-Channel Settings. Click Enable Status-Based Capacity Model.
3. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Service Channels, and then select Service Channels. Click New.
4. Specify the settings for your service channel.
5. Click Save.
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Secondary Routing Priority
Let your agents tackle the right cases first with secondary routing priority.
Understand Capacity Models
Omni-Channel determines agent capacity in one of two ways: Tab-Based or Status-Based.
Configure After Conversation Work Time (Beta)
Give agents a set amount of time after a customer conversation to wrap up their work before they start a new conversation. Agents
can use this After Conversation Work (ACW) time to send follow-up emails, update a case, or finalize their conversation notes.
Supervisors can use Omni-Channel Supervisor and reports to track the amount of time agents spend on wrap-up work.
Service Channel Settings
Customize your service channel settings to define how your organization receives work from various sources, such as chat, email,
SOS calls, or social channels.
Supported Objects for Omni-Channel
Omni-Channel turbocharges your agents’ productivity by assigning records to them in real time. But which objects and records does
Omni-Channel support?
In a queue, priority is determined by how long the work item has been waiting—first in, first out. However, while a work item is pending
in the queue, new work could come in that is more urgent. For example, transferred work, an item that has been waiting on someone’s
response, or work that is about to reach a service agreement deadline. You can shift an item to a different queue, but within that queue,
it’s behind older items. Also, some queues might have the same priority. Secondary Routing Priority solves this problem by moving a
work item forward in a queue over older items and resolving conflicts across queues for items with the same routing configuration
priority.
1. From Setup, enter Omni-Channel in the Quick Find box, then select Omni-Channel Settings.
2. Select Enable Secondary Routing Priority.
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You can now configure secondary routing priority mappings for each channel.
3. From Setup, enter Service Channels in the Quick Find box, then select Service Channels.
4. Edit an existing service channel or add a new one.
5. In the Secondary Routing Priority section, select a priority field. Then map field values to priorities.
Example: To prioritize escalated cases first and new cases next, select Status as the priority field. Then set the Escalated field
value to priority 1, and the New field value to priority 2. The highest priority is 0.
Note: Secondary Routing Priority is not automatically updated for skills-based routed chat and messaging channels. To update
the SecondaryRoutingPriority field on the PendingServiceRouting object, use the API.
Note: With the Tab-Based Capacity Model, an agent can own up to 100 tabs at one time.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Status-Based Capacity Model
Measure agent capacity more accurately. Omni-Channel can determine agent capacity based on the status of accepted work rather
than the open tabs and sessions. If agents are unavailable, their work remains assigned, and reflected in their capacity, until the work
is completed or reassigned.
With the status-based capacity model, work remains assigned and applied to an agent’s capacity until the work is completed or reassigned
to a different agent. In contrast, the tab-based capacity model releases an agent’s capacity when a work tab is closed in the service
console.
Note: The status-based capacity model can be used only for cases, leads, and custom objects. The status-based capacity isn’t
supported for real-time work items such as chat, voice, and messaging.
1. From Setup, enter Omni-Channel in the Quick Find box, then select Omni-Channel Settings.
2. Select Enable Status-Based Capacity Model.
You can now set up the status-based capacity model for each channel.
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3. From Setup, enter Service Channels in the Quick Find box, then select Service Channels.
4. Edit an existing service channel or add a new one.
5. For each service channel, select the Status-Based capacity model. (1) Then, specify the picklist field that you use to track work status
and the field values that you use for completed and in-progress work. (2) For work that’s assigned to a specific agent, you can override
the capacity check and keep the work assigned to the agent. (3)
Alternatively, select these options to check an agent’s capacity before Omni-Channel reopens or reassigns work. If the agent doesn’t
have capacity, the work item is rerouted based on how it was most recently routed. For example, if the work item was routed using
queue-based routing, Omni-Channel reroutes the work item to the queue that it was assigned to.
Note: If you set up a channel to use the status-based capacity model, work remains assigned even if agents close tabs. The My
Work tab in the Omni-Channel widget shows work assigned to the agent until it is completed or reassigned. Agents can open a
tab for work from the My Work tab.
A work item consumes agent capacity only if it was first assigned to the agent by Omni-Channel using queues or skills. Don't start
working on a work item until Omni-Channel routes it to you.
Work items that were created before you enabled Status-Based Capacity Model don't apply toward agent capacity.
The Omni-Channel Supervisor console doesn't support all data points related to this model.
With the status-based capacity model, an agent can be assigned a total of 100 work items. The Omni-Channel widget displays the
first 20 work items assigned. An additional 20 work items can remain open and assigned but don't impact agent capacity. To view
additional work items, an agent must close other work items, go offline, and come back online.
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Important: After Conversation Work is currently available only for Voice Call channels, and applies to all agents in the channel. After
Conversation Work doesn’t work with a status-based capacity model.
Note: After Conversation Work (ACW) is a Beta Service. Customer may opt to try such Beta Service in its sole discretion. Any use
of the Beta Service is subject to the applicable Beta Services Terms provided at Agreements and Terms.
The ACW countdown begins the moment a call ends. Agents can exit the countdown early by closing the call record or let it run its
course. When the time runs out, the agent is considered available to help the next customer whether or not they’ve closed the call
record.
If ACW isn’t enabled for your Voice Call channel, agents reserve time for wrap-up tasks by leaving the call record open in the console.
When an agent is ready to help the next customer, they must close the record tab to free up their capacity.
1. Configure ACW in your Voice Call service channel settings.
a. From the Service Channels page in Setup, edit or create a channel based on the Voice Call object.
b. In the After Conversation Work Time section, select Give agents wrap-up time after conversations.
c. In the Max Time (seconds) field (required), enter the number of seconds that agents have to complete their closing work after
a conversation. The value must be between 30 and 3600 seconds (60 minutes).
d. Save your changes.
2. To let agents see the ACW countdown after a call ends, add the After Conversation Work component to your Voice Call page layout.
a. Open the Voice Call record page in the Lightning App Builder.
b. Drag the After Conversation Work component onto the page.
c. Save your changes.
SEE ALSO:
Track After Conversation Work Time (Beta)
Wrap Up After a Call
Configure Omni-Channel for Service Cloud Voice
Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Essentials, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
Developer Name Sets the API name for the service channel.
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Custom Console Footer Component (Optional) Opens the specified custom console footer component
when an agent accepts a work item request. For example, open
a marketing campaign widget when an agent accepts a lead.
Minimize the Omni-Channel widget when work Automatically minimize the Omni-Channel widget when your
is accepted agents accept work. (Lightning Experience only)
Secondary Routing Priority Field Use field values to determine the routing priority of work items
within and across queues when the queue routing configuration
priority is the same. Select a priority field, then assign a priority for
each field value. 0 is the highest priority.
Capacity Model With the status-based capacity model, work remains assigned and
applied to an agent’s capacity until the work is completed or
reassigned to a different agent. In contrast, the tab-based capacity
model releases an agent’s capacity when a work tab is closed in
the service console.
Give agents wrap-up time after (Beta; available only for Voice Call channels) Gives agents a set
conversations amount of time after a customer conversation to wrap up their
work before they start a new conversation. Agents see the
countdown in the After Conversation Work component.
Max Time (seconds) (Beta; available only for Voice Call channels) Indicates how many
seconds, from 30 to 3600, agents have to complete their closing
work after a conversation. This field is required if Give agents
wrap-up time after conversations is selected.
Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Essentials, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
Omni-Channel currently supports routing for the following objects and records.
• Cases
• Chats
• Contact requests
• Leads
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Service Cloud Omni-Channel
Create a routing configuration for each service channel in your organization. After you create routing configurations, associate them
with queues so your agents can receive work after we get Omni-Channel set up.
1. From Setup in Salesforce Classic, enter Routing in the Quick Find box, select Routing Configurations, then click New.
2. Specify the settings for your routing configuration.
3. Click Save.
IN THIS SECTION:
Routing Configuration Settings
Customize your routing configuration settings to define how work items are pushed to agents.
Omni-Channel Routing Model Options
Specify how incoming work items are directed to agents using Omni-Channel.
Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Essentials, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
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Basic Information
Developer Name Sets the API name for the service channel.
Overflow Assignee Sets the user or queue that Omni-Channel routes items to when
your org reaches Omni-Channel limits. Ensure that you:
• Select a user or queue that has access to the objects that the
queue(s) using this routing configuration handles
• Assign a routing configuration with an overflow assignee to
all Omni-Channel queues involved in a bulk operation, such
as changing the status or owner for multiple requests
Routing Settings
Routing Model Determines how incoming work items are routed to agents who
are assigned to the configuration’s service channel.
Push Time-Out (seconds) Sets a time limit for an agent to respond to an item before it’s
pushed to another agent.
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Service Cloud Omni-Channel
Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Essentials, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
In Omni-Channel, work items are automatically routed or “pushed” to agents who are assigned to the appropriate queue.
Most Available Incoming work items are routed to the • Agent A and Agent B each have an
agent with the greatest difference between overall capacity of 5.
work item capacity and open work items.
• Agent A has 3 active work items while
Capacity is determined by the presence
Agent B has 1.
configuration that the agent is assigned to.
• Because Agent B has the most open
capacity, incoming work items are
routed to Agent B.
The work items in the queue are assigned the priority that you specified in the routing configuration that you created earlier. If your
organization already uses them, you can reuse queues that are available in your organization. That way, you can route work items in real
time to the agents who are assigned to those queues.
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If your organization doesn’t use queues, create at least one queue to integrate with Omni-Channel. You can also create multiple queues
to handle the different types of work items. For example, you might create one queue for incoming cases and another queue for incoming
leads.
Note: Omni-Channel doesn't limit the number of queues that you can use. However, you can only modify (insert, update, or
delete) up to 16 queues in a single batch.
For routing to work correctly, assign each of your agents to the queue from which they are receiving work items.
1. In Setup, enter Queues in the Quick Find box, then select Queues.
2. Create a queue or edit an existing one.
3. In the Routing Configuration field, look up the routing configuration that you want to associate with the queue.
4. In the Queue Members section, add agents to the Selected Users field.
These agents will receive work items from this queue.
5. Click Save.
SEE ALSO:
Create Queues
Note: Implement this feature in one click with the Service Setup Assistant: Learn more on page 6
When you enable Omni-Channel in your organization, Salesforce creates a presence configuration for you, called the Default Presence
Configuration. All your agents are assigned to that configuration automatically. However, you can create a presence configuration and
assign individual agents to it to customize Omni-Channel settings for a subset of your agents. If you reassign agents to a custom presence
configuration, they’re excluded from the Default Presence Configuration.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Presence, and then select Presence Configurations. Then click New.
2. Choose the settings for your presence configuration.
3. Click Save.
IN THIS SECTION:
Presence Configuration Settings
Customize your presence configuration settings to define the Omni-Channel settings that are assigned to agents.
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Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Essentials, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
Basic Information
These settings configure the basic functionality that’s available to agents when they’re signed in to Omni-Channel.
Capacity Determines the agent’s maximum capacity for work. The size of
the work item that you specified in the routing configuration
consumes the agent’s capacity.
Automatically Accept Requests Automatically accepts work assignments that are pushed to an
agent. These work items open automatically in the agent’s
workspace, so the agent doesn’t have to accept these work items
manually from the Omni-Channel footer component (or the utility
in Lightning Experience).
If Allow Agents to Decline Requests is enabled,
you can’t use this setting.
Allow Agents to Decline Requests Allows agents to decline incoming work items.
If Automatically Accept Requests is enabled, agents
can’t decline requests.
Update Status on Decline Automatically changes the agent’s status to the status that you
specify when the agent declines a work item.
This setting is available only if Allow Agents to Decline
Requests is enabled.
Allow Agents to Choose a Decline Reason Allows agents to choose a reason when declining work
assignments.
This setting is available only if Allow Agents to Decline
Requests is enabled.
Update Status on Push Time-Out Automatically changes the agent’s status when a work assignment
that’s been pushed to them times out.
This setting is available only if Push Time-Out is enabled.
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Disconnect Sound Enabled Plays a sound in the agent’s widget when the agent loses
connection with Omni-Channel.
Selected Decline Reasons Indicates the decline reasons that are assigned to the
configuration.
Assign Users
Assign eligible users to the configuration to give them access to Omni-Channel functionality. Later, you’ll see that you can also assign
profiles to a configuration. If a user is assigned a configuration at the profile and user levels, the user-level configuration overrides the
configuration that’s assigned to the user’s profile.
Warning: Users can be assigned to only one presence configuration at a time. If you assign the same user to a second presence
configuration, the system removes that user from the first presence configuration without warning you. So make sure that you
know which presence configuration assignment is required for each user!
For example, let’s say that User A is assigned to Presence Configuration A. Then, you create Presence Configuration B and assign
User A to it without realizing that the user was assigned to another presence configuration. Salesforce removes User A from
Presence Configuration A and reassigns the user to Presence Configuration B without notifying you.
Selected Users Indicates the users who are assigned to the configuration.
Assign Profiles
Assign eligible profiles to the configuration to give users who are associated with the profiles access to Omni-Channel functionality. If a
user is assigned a configuration at the profile and user levels, the user-level configuration overrides the configuration that’s assigned to
the user’s profile.
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A presence status can encompass one or more channels of work items. For example, you might create a presence status called “Available
for Web Support” that includes service channels for chats and emails. When agents are signed in to that presence status, they can receive
incoming chats and emails. Genius!
1. From Setup in Salesforce Classic, enter Presence in the Quick Find box, select Presence Statuses, then click New.
2. Choose the settings for your presence status.
3. Click Save.
IN THIS SECTION:
Presence Status Settings
Customize your presence status settings to define which service channels are assigned to difference statuses. Agents can sign in to
Omni-Channel with different statuses depending on the types of work that they’re available to receive.
Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Essentials, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
Basic Information
Use these settings to name your presence status.
API Name Sets the API name for the presence status.
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Status Options
These settings indicate whether agents are online or busy when they use this status.
Busy Lets agents who use this status appear away and indicates that
they’re unable to receive new work items.
Service Channels
Assign service channels to your presence status. Agents who sign in with this presence status can receive work items from the channels
that you select.
Selected Channels Indicates the service channels that are assigned to the presence
status.
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
As a beta feature, Omni-Channel Flow is a preview and isn’t part of the “Services” under your master subscription agreement with
Salesforce. Use this feature at your sole discretion, and make your purchase decisions only on the basis of generally available products
and features. Salesforce doesn’t guarantee general availability of this feature within any particular time frame or at all, and we can
discontinue it at any time. This feature is for evaluation purposes only, not for production use. It’s offered as is and isn’t supported, and
Salesforce has no liability for any harm or damage arising out of or in connection with it. All restrictions, Salesforce reservation of rights,
obligations concerning the Services, and terms for related Non-Salesforce Applications and Content apply equally to your use of this
feature. You can provide feedback and suggestions for Omni-Channel Flows in the Trailblazer Community.
IN THIS SECTION:
How Does an Omni-Channel Flow Work? (Beta)
When your customer initiates a chat conversation or opens a case, you can launch an Omni-Channel flow. After executing any other
elements that you’ve defined, the flow executes a Route Work action to route the work to a queue, skills, or agent.
Understand Routing Actions (Beta)
The Omni-Channel Flow pilot provides two special actions: Route Work and Add Skill Requirements.
Create an Omni-Channel Flow (Beta)
Set up a flow using the Omni-Channel Flow template.
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Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
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In the above example, the flow runs at the start of a chat conversation. The Get Records element obtains the customer’s Contact record.
The Decision element checks that record for the customer’s language. The flow then executes the appropriate Route Work action based
on the customer’s language. Route work to Queue 1 for an English-speaking agent or to Queue 2 for a French-speaking agent.
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
To route work, you configure the logic to determine where you need to route it, and then use these two actions to set the required
routing rules.
IN THIS SECTION:
The Route Work Action (Beta)
Use the Route Work action to route a work item to a queue, an agent with the right skills, or a specific agent.
The Add Skills Requirement Action (Beta)
Use the Add Skill Requirements action to define the skills that the agent needs for the flow to route a work item to that agent. The
skills that you define here are later passed into the Route work action.
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Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
This action will be used as the last element in the flow, to create the PendingServiceRouting object and route the work.
SEE ALSO:
Route Items to Queues (Beta)
Route Work Items Directly to a Specific Agent (Beta)
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
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SEE ALSO:
Route Work Items Using Skills (Beta)
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
1. Enable Omni-Channel. If Omni-Channel is already enabled in your Salesforce org, skip this step.
a. From Setup, enter Omni-Channel Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Omni-Channel Settings.
b. Select Enable Omni-Channel.
c. Click Save.
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4. Click Next. Then click Freeform. Now you’re ready to start building an Omni-Channel Flow.
Note: If your agents work in Salesforce Classic, switch to Lightning Experience to build your Omni-Channel flows.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Create the recordId (Beta)
To store the ID of the work item in the flow, create the recordId variable.
Create the skillList (Beta)
To route work to agents with the right skills, identify the required skills and store them in a record collection variable.
Create the input_record (Beta)
If you build a flow to route chats based on field values in the Chat Transcript record, use a record variable to store the Chat Transcript.
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
1. In the Flow Builder Toolbox, click Manager and then click New Resource.
2. For Resource Type, select Variable.
3. For API Name, enter recordId. Note: Make sure to use this name, specifically.
4. For Data Type, select Text.
5. Under Availability Outside the Flow, select Available for input.
6. Click Done.
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Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
1. In the Flow Builder Toolbox, click Manager and then click New Resource.
2. For Resource Type, select Variable.
3. For API Name, enter skillList.
4. For Data Type, select Record.
5. Select Allow multiple values (collection).
6. For Object, select Skill Requirement.
7. Click Done.
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
1. In the Flow Builder Toolbox, click Manager and then click New Resource.
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Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
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b. Use Variable—Use a variable to find the appropriate queue. For example, you might determine the department queue associated
with the customer’s Contact record.
In this example, we have a lookup field on the Contact record that defines a preferred queue for this contact. We pass in that
Queue ID as a variable.
Note: If the flow fails the case is routed to the backup queue. The backup queue is the default queue selected when you first set
up the chat button.
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
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IN THIS SECTION:
Add a Skill Requirement Action (Beta)
Add the skill requirement to your work items to ensure your customers are routed to the best agent for their issue.
Add a Route Work Action (Beta)
Route cases to an agent with the required skills.
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
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Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
7. If you’re defining skill requirements in the flow, select the skillList variable on page 281 you created.
8. Under Routing Configuration, select either of the following options:
a. Select Routing Configuration—Specify a routing configuration that’s enabled for skills-based routing.
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b. Use Variable—Use a variable to find the appropriate skill list. For example, you might determine the language skill associated
with the customer’s Contact record.
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
7. To assign work to the preferred agent when they become available, click Required Agent. Then specify the Routing Configuration
to use for routing parameters. Alternately, to route work to a queue if the preferred agent is unavailable, clear this checkbox. Then
specify the Backup Queue to route work to.
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Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
1. From Setup in the Quick Find box, enter Chat Buttons & Invitations, and then select Chat Buttons & Invitations.
2. Edit an existing button or create a new one.
3. In the Routing Information section, for Routing Type, select Omni-Channel.
4. Select Use a flow for routing.
5. For Routing Flow, specify the flow you created to route chats.
6. For Queue, select a queue for this chat button. If you aren’t using a routing flow, the queue manages and prioritizes cases. If you
are using a routing flow, the queue determines chat button availability. If the agents assigned to the queue are online and have
capacity, the button is available.
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
Note: Because the Omni-Channel Flow doesn’t connect directly to a case as it does with a Chat button, we launch the flow and
routing actions using record creation and update.
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Follow the instructions above to route work to queues on page 282, skills on page 283, or a specific agent on page 286.
Note: The Route Work and Add Skill Requirements actions are not displayed in the Elements list but are available by searching
when you add a standard Action element.
1. Drag the Action element onto the canvas.
2. Under Action, enter Route Work or Add Skill Requirements as needed.
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Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Essentials, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
IN THIS SECTION:
Give Users Access to Presence Statuses with Permission Sets
Make presence statuses available to agents who are assigned to certain permission sets.
Give Users Access to Presence Statuses with Profiles
Make presence statuses available to agents who are assigned to certain profiles.
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Agents who are assigned to this permission set can sign in to Omni-Channel with any of the presence statuses that you make
available to them.
6. Click Save.
5. Click Save.
The Omni-Channel widget appears in the bottom right corner of the Salesforce console. From there, agents can change their presence
status and triage their incoming work assignments.
Note: If your organization uses Chat, you can either use the Chat widget or the Omni-Channel widget to manage chats, but not
both. To learn more about managing Chat, see Use Omni-Channel with Your Existing Chat Implementation.
1. From Setup, enter Apps in the Quick Find box, then select Apps.
2. Click Edit next to the Salesforce console app that you want to add the Omni-Channel widget to.
3. In the Choose Console Components section, add Omni-Channel to your list of selected items.
4. Click Save.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Control Visible Work Item Details in Omni-Channel with Compact Layouts
Ever wanted to customize the information that your agents see when they get a new work item in Omni-Channel? You can! Just
customize primary compact layout for that work item’s object.
SEE ALSO:
Service Channel Settings
If you look closely, you’ll notice that a few fields are visible by default on new work item requests. For example, if your agent receives a
request to manage a case, the request features the case’s priority, status, and case number by default. An object’s primary compact
layout controls all of the visible fields in the Omni-Channel footer component (or Omni-Channel utility, if you’re using Lightning
Experience). But what if you want to see more information, such as the case’s owner or its subject? Just edit the primary compact layout
so that it includes the fields that you want to appear in the widget.
Tip: The Omni-Channel footer component and Omni-Channel utility are, well, compact, so there’s only so much room to display
fields on work item requests. While you can technically put up to 10 fields on a compact layout, Omni-Channel displays only 4
fields. As a best practice, select up to 4 of the most important fields that you want to expose on work item requests, then add
those to your compact layout.
1. Decide which object’s compact layout you want to edit.
2. From the management settings for the object whose work item you want to edit, select Compact Layouts, and then select New.
For example, to edit the compact layout for cases, go to the object management settings for cases, select Compact Layouts, then
select New.
3. Select the settings for your compact layout, including the fields that you want it to include. The fields that you pick appear in
Omni-Channel when an agent receives a request.
4. Click Save.
5. Change the primary compact layout to your new layout by clicking Compact Layout Assignment > Edit Assignment.
6. Select your new compact layout from the Primary Compact Layout drop-down list.
7. Click Save.
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Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Essentials, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
The Omni-Channel utility appears in the utility bar in your Lightning Console app. From there, agents can change their presence status
and triage their incoming work assignments.
1. From Setup in Lightning Experience, enter App in the Quick Find box, then select App Manager.
2. Click the dropdown next to the console app that you want to add Omni-Channel to, then click Edit.
3. Under Utility Bar, click Add.
4. Click Omni-Channel.
5. Click Save.
6. Click Done.
2. Open Omni-Channel and change your status so that you can receive incoming work items.
3. In the console, navigate to the record that corresponds to the service channel you’ve set for your current presence status.
For example, if you’re logged in with a status that’s called “Available for Cases,” navigate to a list of your open cases in the console.
4. If you’re using Salesforce Classic, select the checkbox next to the record that you want to route to yourself. If you’re using Lightning
Experience, open the record you want to route to yourself.
5. Click Change Owner.
6. Select Queue.
7. Enter the name of the queue that you associated with your routing configuration.
8. Click Submit.
Sit back and relax. You’ll see an incoming request notification in Omni-Channel within a few seconds.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Compare Live Agent and Omni-Channel Routing for Chats
See the benefits and limitations of using Omni-Channel routing for chats or keeping Live Agent routing for chats. If you want to use
Chat in Lightning Experience, you must use Omni-Channel routing.
Compare Live Agent and Omni-Channel Routing for Chats
See the benefits and limitations of using Omni-Channel routing for chats or keeping Live Agent routing for chats. If you want to use
Chat in Lightning Experience, you must use Omni-Channel routing.
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Agents use the Omni-Channel widget in Salesforce Classic to Agents use the Omni-Channel widget in Salesforce Classic or the
handle their work. Omni-Channel utility in Lightning Experience to handle their work.
Agents use Omni-Channel Presence, including its configurable Agents use Omni-Channel Presence, including its configurable
statuses. statuses.
Use Omni-Channel sound notifications in the Presence Use Omni-Channel sound notifications in the Presence
Configuration for chats. Configuration for chats.
Agent capacity is set and consumed by Omni-Channel. Agent capacity is set and consumed by Omni-Channel.
Chats are routed to agents using Skills. Chats are routed to agents using Omni-Channel queues.
Chats can’t be prioritized with Omni-Channel work, or relative to Chats are prioritized with Omni-Channel work, and can be
each other. Omni-Channel work items that haven't yet been routed prioritized relative to each other using queues.
are always routed ahead of chats.
Supervisors use the Chat Supervisor Panel to observe chats and Chat supervisors can view agent activity in Omni-Channel
assist agents with their chats. Supervisor, but they use the Chat Supervisor Panel to observe chats
and assist agents with their chats. Create a skill for agents handling
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Reports and data for chats are separate from Omni-Channel data. Chat data is included in Agent Work reports in addition to Chat
reports.
For a queue to appear as an option on the Chat button, the queue For a queue to appear as an option on the Chat button, the queue
must include the Chat Sessions object in its support objects. must include the Live Chat Transcript object in its supported
objects.
The Live Chat Transcript is created when the chat ends. The Live Chat Transcript is created when the chat is requested.
You can customize the Live Chat Transcript page layout for Ended In Salesforce Classic, you can customize the Live Chat Transcript
chats. page layout for Waiting, In Progress, and Ended chats. In Lightning
Experience, you can customize Live Chat Transcript pages in the
Lightning App Builder.
Agents associate records with the chat transcript only after the Agents can associate records with the chat transcript during the
chat has ended. chat. Agents can associate records on the chat transcript itself or
use a console sidebar lookup component in Salesforce Classic.
Uses the Console Integration Toolkit Methods for Chat. Uses the Console Integration Toolkit Methods for Omni-Channel
for Salesforce Classic, or Omni-Channel Objects for the Lightning
Console JavaScript API for Lightning Experience.
If you use the findorCreate code to find or create related If you use the findorCreate code to find or create related
records, the code triggers only when an agent accepts the chat records, the code triggers even if the chat visitor cancels the chat
request. before the agent accepts.
However, there are a few limitations to using Omni-Channel routing for chats:
• You can’t transfer a chat from a button using Live Agent routing to a button using Omni-Channel routing.
• Queues with multiple object types can cause problems when using Omni-Channel routing. We recommend creating a queue for
each object type, such as Chats, Cases, and Leads, instead of setting queues to handle multiple object types.
• When an agent uses “Transfer to Agent” for a chat routed with Omni-Channel and the receiving agent has an admin profile, the
agent who initiated the transfer can lose visibility of the chat transcript until the receiving agent accepts the chat request. This
situation occurs because Omni-Channel changes ownership of the chat transcript when the transfer is initiated, before the next
agent accepts the chat.
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
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IN THIS SECTION:
How Does Skills-Based Routing Work?
Skills-based routing looks at the skills required to complete a work item (requested skills) and matches these skills to the skills that
are assigned to the agent (agent’s skills). Omni-Channel routes the work to the first agent who has all requested skills and who is
available (that is, has the capacity to take the work item).
How Does Skills-Based Routing Differ from Queue-Based Routing?
Skills-based routing allows work items to be routed using more sophisticated and dynamic criteria than queue-based routing.
Skills-Based Routing Limitations
Skills-based routing has the following limitations.
Set Up Skills-Based Routing
Follow these steps to set up skills-based routing for Omni-Channel in your org.
Transfer a Work Item to a Different Skill Set
You can transfer a work item or chat to a different skill set, so an agent with the right skills can resolve the issue.
Set Up Advanced Skills-Based Routing
For advanced logic to route non-Chat work items using skills, create a PendingServiceRouting object and the associated
SkillRequirement objects. The PendingServiceRouting object is a standard Salesforce object that represents the work item that is
going to be routed. The SkillRequirement object is a standard Salesforce object that represents the skill and the proficiency level.
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
Skills-based routing is supported on the following objects: Cases, Leads, Orders, Custom Objects, Chat, and Messaging sessions in
Lightning Experience.
We use the term “work items” to refer to the cases, chats, leads, orders, and custom records that Omni-Channel routes.
You can define whatever skills that you need for your company. Skills typically are used to represent attributes such as language ability,
product knowledge, certifications, case origin, and account history. For example, you could define skills for language (Spanish, French,
and English); for product knowledge (software and hardware); and for certifications (CompTIA, CCNP).
Assign each agent a skill and optionally assign a skill proficiency level (0–10, where 0 indicates the lowest skill level and 10 indicates the
highest level). For example, an agent who speaks fluent Spanish could have the skill = Spanish and the proficiency level = 10 for expert.
Skills are assigned to incoming work items by the SkillRequirements object in the API. The PendingServiceRouting object adds attributes
to the work item that represent the skill (skill id), priority, skill proficiency, and timestamp.
Work items are routed by creating a PendingServiceRouting object. The PendingServiceRouting object can have multiple SkillRequirements
objects associated with it.
When a work item requires multiple skills, it’s routed to an agent who possesses all of the required skills.
When multiple agents have the same skill, the work item is routed to the agent who is first available based on the routing type (either
most available or least active) that you use in your org. If the agent doesn’t accept the work item, then it’s routed to the next available
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agent. The Salesforce API remembers the agent who last declined the work (Last Declined Agent) or who last didn’t accept the work
within the specified time (Push Timeout), and doesn’t route the work to that agent again.
Set the push timeout on the PendingServiceRouting object to automatically push work to another agent if the first agent doesn’t accept
the work within a specified time.
Agents can transfer a work item to another skill on page 306. For example, if an agent accepts a case but doesn’t have the right skills,
the agent can specify the required skills and transfer the case. The case is transferred to an agent who possesses at least all required skills.
Agents can also decline work. When work is declined, the capacity consumed by the work item is released, but the declined work item
remains owned by the declining agent until the work is routed again.
Supervisors can monitor agent workload and unassigned work items in Omni-Channel Supervisor on page 319. The Agent Summary tab
shows agent availability, capacity, and what work items agents are working on. The Skills Backlog tab shows work items that aren’t
assigned to an agent, and it shows which skills are needed for the work item.
SEE ALSO:
Omni-Channel Developer Guide: PendingServiceRouting
SOAP API Developer Guide: SkillRequirement
Transfer a Work Item to a Different Skill Set
The Routing Lifecycle
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
Queues generally are designed to represent a single skill. For example, you might have a Spanish-language queue and a Level 3 technical
support queue.
Queues route work to agents who are members of the queue. Although you can have multiple queues, and agents can be members of
multiple queues, a work item can be assigned only to one queue at a time.
In contrast, skills-based routing looks at the skills required to complete the work item, identifies agents who have those skills, and routes
the work item to an agent who has all of the requisite skills and who has available capacity to take on the work.
If you enable skills-based routing rules on a routing configuration, and assign the routing configuration to a queue, the queue's membership
no longer applies to routing. Work is routed to available agents with the right skills. If skills-mapping criteria aren't met and no skills are
assigned to a work item, the work is routed to any available agent in your org.
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
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Skills-based routing for Omni-Channel is supported only on the following objects: Cases, Chats, Messages, Leads, Orders, and Custom
Objects. You can’t route SOS video chats or Salesforce records for other objects using skills-based routing.
Transfer from a queue to a skill or from a skill to a queue isn’t supported.
Transfer from a skill directly to a user or button isn't supported.
If a work item requires certain skills, but no agents have those skills, then the work item isn’t routed. This situation is similar to how items
in a queue are treated when no agents are online. If your org uses Omni-Channel Supervisor on page 319, the support manager can look
at the Skills Backlog on page 336 and see which work items haven’t been assigned to an agent. For chat, if no agents have the skills, the
request is canceled.
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
The setup instructions start at the beginning and assume that you aren’t using Omni-Channel. If you’re already using Omni-Channel in
your org, that’s great! In that case, start by reviewing the limitations on page 297, and then enable skills-based routing on page 299.
You can route different work items in the same org using queue-based routing and skills-based routing. To use both types of routing,
set up queue-based routing to route certain work items and set up skills-based routing to route other work items.
IN THIS SECTION:
1. Enable Omni-Channel
Enable Omni-Channel to gain access to the objects that you’ll use to set up the feature in your organization.
2. Enable Skills-Based Routing
Enable skill-based routing in your org.
3. Create Skills for Skills-Based Routing
Skills identify your agents’ areas of expertise.
4. Create Service Resources for Agents
Service resources represent individual agents. Create a service resource for each agent.
5. Assign Skills to Service Resources
Assign skills to your agents to track their areas of experience and their level of proficiency for each skill.
6. Route Work Items Using Skills
Use a setup flow to associate an object’s picklist, boolean, and lookup field values with the skills needed to route a work item to the
right agent.
Enable Omni-Channel
Enable Omni-Channel to gain access to the objects that you’ll use to set up the feature in your
USER PERMISSIONS
organization.
To set up Omni-Channel:
Available in: Salesforce Classic, Lightning Experience • Customize Application
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Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Essentials, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
Note: Digital Engagement for Sales Cloud is available for an extra cost in Enterprise and Unlimited Editions.
1. From Setup, enter Omni-Channel Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Omni-Channel Settings.
2. Select Enable Omni-Channel.
3. Click Save.
Note: To use Omni-Channel to route communications to the right sales team, you must also Enable Messaging.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Help: Digital Engagement for Sales Cloud
Important: Previously, if you used queue-based routing in your org and you switched to using skills-based routing before Winter
‘19, Omni-Channel stopped routing work to queues. When Winter ‘19 was released to your org, Omni-Channel resumed routing
work to queues in addition to routing work to skills.
1. From Setup, enter Omni-Channel in the Quick Find box, then select Omni-Channel Settings.
2. Select Enable Skills-Based Routing.
3. Click Save.
Agents can transfer work items to skills, so an agent with the right skills can resolve the issue.
When agents search for skills, the search process looks for matching skills within only the first 2,000 skills. If more than 2,000 skills are set
up, then the search results show matching skills from only the first 2,000 skills that were created.
1. From Setup, enter Omni-Channel in the Quick Find box, then select Skills.
2. Click New.
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SEE ALSO:
Transfer a Work Item to a Different Skill Set
Note: The visibility of the Service Resource tab might be turned off by default. If you don’t see it, check the tab visibility. For more
details, see the topic Tab Settings in Salesforce Help.
1. Open the Service Resources tab.
2. Click New.
3. For Name, enter the name of the agent.
4. Select the Active checkbox.
A service resource must be active to receive work items.
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5. Optionally, enter a skill level 0–10 based on how your business measures skill level.
6. Enter a start date, and if needed, an end date.
For example, if an agent must be recertified in a skill every six months, enter an end date that’s six months later than the start date.
7. Click Save.
The service resource’s skill now appears in their Skills related list.
Routed work appears in both the Queues Backlog and the Skills Backlog in Omni-Channel Supervisor.
Skills-based routing rules support case, chat transcript, contact request, lead, messaging session, order, social post, and custom objects.
If you enable skills-based routing rules on a routing configuration, and assign the routing configuration to a queue, the queue's membership
no longer applies to routing. Work is routed to available agents with the right skills. If skills-mapping criteria aren't met and no skills are
assigned to a work item, the work is routed to any available agent in your org.
IN THIS SECTION:
Enable Skills-Based Routing Rules from the Routing Configuration
The routing configuration that is used by the queue through which the work item is routed must be enabled to use skills-based
routing rules.
Map Work-Item Field Values to Skills
To route work by skills, define the mappings between work-item field values and skills. Create one skill mapping set for each object.
Route Chats Using Skills
Use information from a chat transcript to determine what skills are required to route the chat to the best agent.
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SEE ALSO:
Create Skills for Skills-Based Routing
Create Service Resources for Agents
Assign Skills to Service Resources
2. From Setup, enter Routing in the Quick Find box, then select Routing Configurations.
3. Edit the routing configuration that is used by the queue through which the work item is routed.
4. Select Use with Skills-Based Routing Rules.
5. Use the Drop Additional Skills Time-Out to specify the amount of time to wait for an agent with a skill marked as additional to
become available before the skill is dropped from Omni-Channel routing. The case is then routed to the best-matched agent even
if they don’t have all the skills.
6. Optionally, add skills to the routing configuration.
Work is routed using a combination of skills from two sources:
Skills associated with the routing configuration
Routing configuration skills are always attached to work that’s routed using a skills-based routing rules queue with that
configuration. For example, you might always route work to agents with the Support skill, but use skills-based routing rules to
find additional skills that are needed. Or you might have different queues for different language skills.
Skills from Skills-Based Routing Rules
Mappings between fields on the object and agent skills determine these skills.
The combination of these skills routes work to the right agent.
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1. From Setup, enter Skills-Based Routing Rules in the Quick Find box, then select Skills-Based Routing Rules.
2. Click New Skill Mapping Set.
3. Provide a name and developer name for the mapping set and select the type of object to be routed. Then click Next.
4. Select the fields to use for routing your cases. Then click Next.
You can map standard and custom field values of type picklist, boolean, and lookup.
Note: You can use any method to set custom field values on objects. For example, pre-chat forms, triggers, and custom apex
code.
5. For each field, select the field value and corresponding skill. You can also specify a skill level and set skills to additional. For additional
skills, you can specify the order in which skills are dropped if after the specified timeout no agent with that skill is available.
Initially, Omni-Channel tries to route a work item to an agent with all the requested skills. After the Drop Additional Skills Time-Out
as specified in the routing configuration, if an agent with all the skills isn't available, Omni-Channel drops skills with the same priority
value until an agent with the remaining skills is available. Higher priority-value skills are dropped first. Lower priority-value skills, for
example 0, are dropped last. The work item is then routed to the best-matched agent, even if the agent doesn’t have all the additional
skills.
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For example, you can set up the following required and additional skills:
• Language: English and French are required, not additional.
• Issue Type: Software and Hardware are additional skills of the highest priority, 0.
• Product: Speaker, Mouse, and Keyboard are additional skills of priority 1.
• Location: USA, England, Canada, and France are additional skills of priority 2.
In this example, Language skills aren’t additional, so they are never dropped. Skills associated with the Issue Type field are the highest
priority, so Omni-Channel drops them last. Skills associated with the Location field are dropped first.
Note: Skills with the same priority value resulting from the skill-based routing rules setup method or Apex code belong to
the same group and are dropped together.
6. When you have mapped field values to skills for each field, click Done.
To create a mapping set, click New (1). To edit or delete a mapping set, use the dropdown menu (2). To stop routing for an object,
click Deactivate. To start routing for an object, click Activate.
To test the routing setup, navigate to your console app and bring the agent with the right skill online. Create a Case (or other object)
with the field value that maps to the corresponding skill. Change the owner of the Case (or other object) to a queue with the routing
configuration that you set up for Skills-Based Routing Rules. The case appears in the Omni-Channel widget.
Routed work appears in both the Queues Backlog and Skills Backlog in Omni-Channel Supervisor.
Note: If you have existing skill mapping sets with additional skills without priority values, these skills are treated as if they were
set to priority 0 and are dropped last. You can adjust them by editing the skill mapping set. Consider adjusting the Drop Additional
Skills Time-Out to account for the time to drop additional skills in priority order. The time required to route the work item to an
agent might be longer than when additional skills were dropped all at once.
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Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
1. From Setup, enter Chat Buttons in the Quick Find box, then select Chat Buttons & Invitations.
2. Create a Chat button or edit an existing one.
3. For Routing Type, select Omni-Channel.
4. Select a queue.
The queue must have an associated routing configuration with Use with Skills-Based Routing Rules enabled.
Alternatively, you can associate skills directly with the Chat button. For Routing Type, select Button Skills, and then select the routing
configuration and required skills.
SEE ALSO:
Route Work Items Using Skills
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with
the Service Cloud
1. From Setup, enter Messaging Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Messaging Settings.
2. Create a messaging channel or edit an existing one.
3. For Routing Type, select Omni-Channel.
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4. Select a queue.
The queue must have an associated routing configuration with Use with Skills-Based Routing Rules enabled.
Alternatively, you can associate skills directly with the channel. For Routing Type, select Channel Skills, and then select the routing
configuration and required skills.
SEE ALSO:
Route Work Items Using Skills
When agents open the transfer dialog and search for skills, the search process looks for matching skills within only the first 2,000 skills.
If more than 2,000 skills are set up, then the search results show matching skills from only the first 2,000 skills that were created.
Work items are transferred to an agent who possesses all of the required skills. If an agent who has all of the required skills isn’t available,
then the work item is not assigned. With the exception of skills-based routed chats, supervisors can manually assign the work item to
an agent.
If the transferring agent possesses all of the required skills, then the work item can be reassigned to that agent.
When a work item is transferred, the status changes to Transferred.
Note: The transfer to skill dialog isn’t supported in Salesforce Classic. Agents using Salesforce Classic can accept work items that
are transferred to skills, but they can’t transfer work items to skills.
1. Click the transfer icon.
The transfer dialog is displayed. The transfer dialog shows the skills that are attached already to the work item.
4. Click Transfer.
Note: For skills-based routed chats, the Transfer icon is on the work item on the My Work tab in the Omni-Channel widget.
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The work item is transferred to an agent who has the required skills. If there isn’t an agent available with the required skills, then the
work item isn’t assigned and is shown in the Skills Backlog tab on page 336 in Omni-Channel Supervisor. When an agent with the
required skills becomes available, Omni-Channel routes the work to that agent. For chat, if no agents have the skills, the request is
canceled.
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
You can create a PendingServiceRouting record and the related SkillRequirement records either by using Apex or by calling the
Omni-Channel REST API Action from within Apex code or from a flow.
This example shows a sample process that uses an Apex action class to create the PendingServiceRouting object and the SkillRequirement
object. The example assumes that there’s a Service Channel object with the DeveloperName “Case.” It assumes that there are skill objects
with the DeveloperNames “English,” “French,” and “Spanish.”
• Call the Omni-Channel REST API Action from within Apex code or from a flow.
IN THIS SECTION:
Define an Apex Action Class for a Skills-Based Workflow
Define an Apex class that routes work items using skills. Here’s an example of an Apex action class for skills-based routing that creates
the PendingServiceRouting object and SkillRequirement object.
Create a Process to Trigger Skills-Based Routing
Use the Process Builder to define a process that triggers skills-based routing. In this example, the process operates on the Case object
and triggers the Apex action class when a case record is created.
SEE ALSO:
The Routing Lifecycle
See the Salesforce Developer Guide for details about these objects:
• PendingServiceRouting
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• ServiceResource
• SkillRequirement
When you create a skills-based PendingServiceRouting object, make sure that any existing code (including triggers and workflows, etc.)
doesn’t simultaneously add work items to an Omni-Channel queue.
Note: By default, the Skill Level field is protected by field-level security. You might need to change the access level for this field
so your users can create the SkillRequirement object with Skill Levels.
1. From Setup, enter Apex in the Quick Find box, then select Apex Classes.
2. Click New.
3. In the Apex Class field, enter the Apex code similar to what’s shown in the example.
4. Click Save.
Example:
Global class SkillsBasedRouting {
@InvocableMethod
public static void routeUsingSkills(List<String> cases) {
List<Case> caseObjects = [SELECT Id, Description FROM Case WHERE Id in :cases];
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insert srObj;
After defining the Apex action class, create a workflow on page 309 that triggers the Apex action class on work items.
Note: You can't edit a PendingServiceRouting object if IsReadyForRouting is true. You can only delete it.
Before you start, define the Apex action class on page 307 that creates the PendingServiceRouting object and SkillRequirement object.
1. From Setup, enter Process Builder in the Quick Find box, then select Process Builder.
2. Click New.
3. In the New Process modal window, complete the following fields:
a. For Process Name, specify the name for this process, such as “Skills-based routing.”
b. The API Name is automatically populated.
c. For Description, optionally describe what this process does.
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4. On the next page, in the Choose Object and Specify When to Start the Process configuration, select the Case object.
5. For Start the process, select Only when a record is created.
6. Click Save.
In the diagram, the Add Object box is changed to Case.
7. Click the Add Criteria diamond.
8. For Criteria for Executing Actions, select No criteria--just execute the actions!
9. Click Save.
10. In the Immediate Actions box, click Add Action.
11. In Action Type, select Apex.
12. For Action Name, enter the name of your action.
13. For Apex Class, enter the name of the Apex class that you created.
14. For Set Apex Variables, set the following parameters:
a. For Field, select cases.
b. For Type, select Field Reference.
c. For Value, use the lookup icon to select [Case].Id.
Example:
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Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud
Multiple routing options, one console. Give your agents more routing options by integrating an external routing implementation with
Omni-Channel. Learn more about external routing and how to set it up in the Omni-Channel Developer Guide.
Omni-Channel Reference
Understand how Omni-Channel routing works and reference the fields for agent work records and user presence records.
IN THIS SECTION:
The Routing Lifecycle
When you dig more deeply into Omni-Channel and the routing process, there are two particular objects that are worth understanding
better: PendingServiceRouting (PSR) and AgentWork.
How Does Omni-Channel Queue-Based Routing Work?
Do data models make your heart skip a beat? Want to understand the ins and outs of how Omni-Channel routes work items to your
agents? Then we have a treat for you. Omni-Channel pushes work items to the right agent at the right time so that your support
team can efficiently help customers with their problems. But how does queue-based routing work under the hood? Let’s dive in.
Fields for Agent Work Records
Every time an object is routed to an agent through Omni-Channel, Salesforce creates an Agent Work record that logs information
about the work assignment and how it’s routed. Agent Work records contain fields that help you track information about the
assignments your agents are working on. If the same work item is routed multiple times, that work item is associated with multiple
Agent Work records.
Fields for User Presence Records
Every time agents change their Presence Statuses in Omni-Channel, Salesforce creates a User Presence record to log all of the agents’
activities while they’re signed logged in with that status. User Presence records contain fields that help you track information about
your agents’ availability.
Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Essentials, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
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creates the object; in a few scenarios (like when using skills-based routing with non-real-time channels), you must create this object.
The PSR is deleted by the system when an agent accepts the work item.
AgentWork is a Salesforce object that automatically gets created when the routing system finds a potential agent to handle the work
item. It contains information about the work item and the routing status. This object is never automatically deleted, but you can manually
delete it when the State field is in a non-active state. (Active states are Assigned and Opened. All other states are considered non-active
states.)
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The PSR record is transient whereas the AgentWork record sticks around until it is explicitly deleted.
Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Essentials, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
Note: Implement this feature in one click with the Service Setup Assistant: Learn more on page 6
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• First, when a new work item is assigned to an Omni-Channel queue, Omni-Channel attempts to route it to an agent. Omni-Channel
routes work items by the priority of the queue that they’re assigned to, so the most important work items are pushed to agents first.
Next, items are routed based on how long they’ve been sitting in the queue. The oldest work items are pushed to agents before
more recent ones. (Let’s talk about the details of how that happens in a minute.)
• Second, when an agent’s ability to receive work changes (perhaps they come back from “away” status, or they finish another work
item), Omni-Channel tries to find work that can be routed to that agent.
Agents are available, but don’t have capacity for new work. If there are one or more agents who are available, Omni-Channel
checks to see if any of those agents have the capacity to take on
a new work item. If there are no agents with enough capacity for
more work, it leaves the work item in the list.
Agents are available and have capacity for more work. If there are agents that 1) are available and 2) have capacity to work
on the item, Omni-Channel checks which agent to send the work
to based on your organization’s routing settings.
If your routing configuration uses the Least Active routing
model, Omni-Channel looks for the agent who currently has the
least amount of work compared to other agents who could take
on the work item. It then routes the work item to that agent.
If your routing configuration uses the Most Available routing
model, Omni-Channel looks for the agent who has the largest gap
between the maximum amount of work that they can handle and
the amount of work that they are working on. It then routes the
work item to that agent.
But what if there’s a tie between two or more agents? In that
case, Omni-Channel routes the work to the agent who received a
work item the longest ago. Suppose that Agent A received work
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The agent is available, but doesn’t have capacity for work. Omni-Channel looks for another agent who can take the work.
The agent is available and has capacity for more work Omni-Channel looks at the list of work items that are waiting to
be routed to an agent. It checks to see if the agent is qualified to
work on any of the objects, based on how much of the agent’s
capacity the objects will take up, and the service channel that’s
associated with the agent’s status. For example, if the agent is
online with a status that makes them available for cases, it checks
the list to see if there are any cases.
If the list has work items that the agent is qualified to work on, then
the item with the highest priority is routed to the agent. If two or
more items have the same priority, the oldest one is routed.
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Field Definition
Accept Date The date and time that the work item was accepted by an agent.
Active Time The amount of time an agent actively worked on the work item. It
tracks when the item is open and in focus in the agent’s console.
The Active Time ends when the ACW period ends or the agent
closes the work record, whichever occurs first.
After Conversation Work Actual Time (Beta) The number of seconds an agent spent on wrap-up work
after customer contact ended. This time starts the moment a call
ends and ends when the After Conversation Work (ACW) period
runs out or the agent closes the console tab, whichever occurs
first.
Agent Capacity when Declined The amount of an agent’s capacity that was available when the
agent declined the work item.
Assign Date The date and time that the work item was assigned to an agent
and pushed to the agent.
Cancel Date The date and time that the work item was canceled.
Close Date The date and time that the agent closed the console tab associated
with the work item, setting the Agent Work record’s status to
“Closed.”
Created By The name of the agent who accepted the work item.
Created Date The date that the work item was created.
Decline Date The date that an agent declined the work item request.
Decline Reason The provided reason for why an agent declined the work request.
Handle Time The amount of time an agent has the work item open, from the
accepted time to the closed time. The handle time includes the
ACW period; if the agent closes the work record before the ACW
period runs out, the handle time is accordingly shorter.
Last Modified By The name of the user who last modified the work item.
Last Modified Date The date the work item was last modified.
Chat Session ID The session ID for Chat chats routed with Omni-Channel.
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Field Definition
Percentage of Capacity The percentage of capacity that the work item consumes of the
agent’s total, possible capacity.
Push Time-Out The number of seconds set for push time-out. 0 is returned when
push time-out isn’t enabled.
Push Time-Out Date The date and time when push time-out occurred.
Queue The Salesforce queue from which the work item was routed.
Request Date The date and time that the Salesforce object was assigned to the
queue, creating the associated work item.
Service Channel The service channel that’s associated with the work item.
Should Skip Capacity Check Indicates whether the check for an agent’s available capacity is
skipped (true) or not (false) when an externally routed work item
is created. This field is used when agents can simultaneously handle
work from both Omni-Channel queues and queues using external
routing. When true, the receiving agent may exceed their set
capacity to accept the item, but they don’t receive more
Omni-Channel routed work. When false, the receiving agent can’t
exceed their set capacity and must have enough open capacity to
accept the item.
Speed to Answer The amount of time in seconds between the time the work item
was created (the Request Date) and the time the work item was
accepted by an agent (the Accept Date).
Status The status of the Agent Work record. Valid values are:
• Assigned – The item is assigned to the agent but hasn’t been
opened.
• Opened – The item was opened by the agent.
• Unavailable – The item was assigned to the agent but the
agent became unavailable (went offline or lost connection).
• Declined – The item was assigned to the agent but the agent
explicitly declined it.
• DeclinedOnPushTimeout – The item was declined because
push time-out is enabled and the item request timed out with
the agent.
• Closed – The item is closed.
• Canceled – The item no longer needs to be routed. For
example: a chat visitor cancels their Omni-Channel routed chat
request before it reaches an agent.
Units of Capacity The number of units of an agent’s capacity that the work item
consumes of the agent’s total, possible capacity.
User The name of the agent to whom the work item was routed.
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Field Definition
Work Item The name of the work item that’s associated with the Agent Work
record—for example, “Case 123456.”
Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Essentials, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
A User Service Presence record has the following fields, listed in alphabetical order. Depending on your field-level security settings, some
fields might not be visible or editable.
Field Definition
At Capacity Duration The amount of time in seconds that the agent was working at
100% of the agent’s capacity, as indicated in the agent’s Presence
Configuration.
Configured Capacity The agent’s overall capacity, as indicated in the agent’s Presence
Configuration.
Created By The name of the agent who set the Presence Status in
Omni-Channel.
Created Date The date when the User Presence record was created.
Idle Duration The amount of time in seconds that the agent was assigned no
work items.
Is Current Status Indicates whether the agent’s Presence Status in the Service
Presence Status field is the agent’s current Presence Status.
Last Modified Date The date the User Presence record was last modified.
Service Presence Status The API name of the Presence Status the agent used to log in to
Omni-Channel.
Status Duration The amount of time in seconds that the agent’s status was set to
the Presence Status indicated by the Status Name field.
Status End Date The date and time that the agent logged out of Omni-Channel or
changed to another Presence Status.
Status Start Date The date and time that the agent set the Presence Status.
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Field Definition
User Presence ID The autogenerated Salesforce ID of the User Presence record.
Status Name The name of the Presence Status the agents used to log in to
Omni-Channel.
Omni-Channel Supervisor
Use Omni-Channel Supervisor to monitor agent workloads and the status of work items that are
EDITIONS
routed by Omni-Channel. Agents can raise flags on work items when they require assistance from
a supervisor. Supervisors can monitor Service Cloud Voice transcripts and chat messages between Available in: Salesforce
agents and customers, and send helpful messages that only the support agent sees. Supervisors Classic (not available in all
can also respond to incoming support requests by changing queues as needed and can update orgs), Lightning Experience
agent skills quickly.
Omni-Channel Supervisor is
See real-time information about your Omni-Channel agents, queues, and work in the Omni-Channel available in: Essentials,
Supervisor panel, including waiting times, open work, and more. Omni-Channel Supervisor updates Professional, Enterprise,
continuously to reflect the most up-to-date data, so that you always know how your agents are Performance, Unlimited,
doing. and Developer Editions
Keep an eye on Omni-Channel activity with intuitive tab views that show you the big picture of
how your agents are doing. Take advantage of filtering and sorting to help you find what you need.
Sort by the flag raise column to see which agents need assistance that you can provide through whisper messages that the agent sees
but not the customer.
Drill down in the tabs to see detailed information about what agents are working on and backlogged work items.
Omni-Channel Supervisor is supported for:
• Queue-based routing for Omni-Channel
• Skills-based routing for Omni-Channel
• External routing for Omni-Channel
IN THIS SECTION:
Monitor and Support Agents in Omni-Channel Supervisor
View your agents’ voice transcripts and chats in Omni-Channel Supervisor as they help customers. Send private messages to agents
as needed during chats. You can view only chats that are routed by Omni-Channel in Omni-Channel Supervisor.
Change Agent Queues and Skills in Omni-Channel Supervisor
Respond to incoming support requests by changing queues as needed. Update agent skills to support your customers.
Create an Omni-Channel Supervisor Configuration
A supervisor configuration determines which agents a supervisor or group of supervisors can see when they’re using Omni-Channel
Supervisor.
Add Omni-Channel Supervisor to the Salesforce Console
Add Omni-Channel Supervisor to the console to get your supervisors up and running.
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1. From Setup, enter Supervisor in the Quick Find box, and select Supervisor Settings.
2. Select the features that you want to enable.
3. Click Save.
Note: To change the title of the component that displays the Service Cloud Voice transcript, modify the Compact Layout.
IN THIS SECTION:
Track After Conversation Work Time (Beta)
After Conversation Work (ACW) time gives agents a set amount of time after a customer conversation to wrap up their work before
they start a new conversation. Track agents’ ACW time in Omni-Channel Supervisor or reports.
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Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
Service Cloud Voice is available in: Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions
Note: After Conversation Work (ACW) is a Beta Service. Customer may opt to try such Beta Service in its sole discretion. Any use
of the Beta Service is subject to the applicable Beta Services Terms provided at Agreements and Terms.
In Omni-Channel Supervisor, the All Agents view in the Agents tab includes an ACW column that shows each voice call’s ACW time.
You can also create a report to track these Agent Work fields:
• Active Time
• After Conversation Work Actual Time
• Handle Time
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USER PERMISSIONS
To change skills:
• Create, Read, Update on
service resources
• Read Access and Edit
Access for the Active
field on Service Resource
Field-Level Security
• Read Access and Edit
Access for the following
fields on Service
Resource Skill Field-Level
Security: End Date, Start
Date, and Skill Level
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You can’t add users to supervisor configurations via roles or “Grant Access Using Hierarchies.” Supervisor configurations only support
users who are directly assigned to a public group.
1. From Setup, enter Supervisor Configurations in the Quick Find box, then select Supervisor Configurations.
2. Click New.
3. Enter a name for your configuration. The Developer Name populates automatically.
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4. Add users and profiles to this configuration. The users and profiles are the supervisors for which you want to specify agent visibility.
5. Add at least one public group to this configuration. The members of the public group are the agents that the specified supervisors
can see in Omni-Channel Supervisor.
A maximum of 2,000 public groups can be shown in the search results.
6. Click Save.
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• If only queue-based routing is set up, Omni-Channel Supervisor shows the Agents, Queues Omni-Channel Supervisor is
Backlog, and Assigned Work tabs. The Agents tab doesn’t show the Skills column. available in: Essentials,
• If both queue-based routing and skills-based routing are set up in the same org, Omni-Channel Professional, Enterprise,
Supervisor shows all of the tabs. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
• If external routing is set up, Omni-Channel Supervisor shows the Agents, Queues Backlog, and
Assigned Work tabs. The Agents tab doesn’t show the Skills column.
Queue Backlog
Assigned Work
Skills Backlog
IN THIS SECTION:
Agents Tab
See who’s working, who’s available, and who’s busy with the Omni-Channel Supervisor Agents tab.
Queues Backlog Tab
Gauge your backlog with the Omni-Channel Supervisor Queues Backlog tab. The Queues Backlog tab is shown if either queue-based
routing or external routing for Omni-Channel is enabled in your org.
Assigned Work Tab
Take a stroll through the work items that are making their way through your queues and into your agents’ consoles, using the
Omni-Channel Supervisor Assigned Work tab.
Skills Backlog Tab
See pending work items for skills-based routing in the Omni-Channel Supervisor Skills Backlog tab. The Skills Backlog tab is shown
only if you have skills-based routing enabled in your org.
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Agents Tab
See who’s working, who’s available, and who’s busy with the Omni-Channel Supervisor Agents tab.
EDITIONS
The Agents tab is a simple way to keep up with your agents’ presence statuses, channels, assigned
queues, and open capacity. You can even see how long your agents have been logged in and when Available in: Salesforce
they last accepted new work. Classic (not available in all
orgs), Lightning Experience
There are two views in the Agents tab: All Agents and Agents by Queue. All Agents lets you see the
big picture of your agents’ availability, capabilities, capacity, and workload. It’s the default for the Omni-Channel Supervisor is
Agents tab because it provides the best overall picture of how your agents are doing. Agents logged available in: Essentials,
into Omni-Channel appear in rows, where you can see their status, channels, queues, workload, Professional, Enterprise,
and capacity. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Note: The Agents by Queue tab isn’t shown in orgs that use only skills-based routing.
Here, you can also change an agent’s status using the Action column. If you select Offline, keep in mind that the agent’s work isn’t tracked
anymore.
Select an agent to see Agent Detail and the Agent Timeline to see more nuanced information about how the agent is doing. Agent
Detail provides details about an agent’s activity and timestamps. The Agent Timeline displays the agent’s status changes and work via
an intuitive calendar view. In Salesforce Classic, you can hover over items in the Agent Timeline for details.
Note: The Agent Timeline shows the AgentWork status, not the status of the work item record itself. When an agent accepts an
AgentWork Item and then closes the tab in the console, the AgentWork status is changed to Closed.
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Agent Timeline
The Agents by Queue tab provides information about how well your queues are covered. Every queue that has at least one agent that’s
Online or Away is shown. You can see how many agents are assigned to the queue and how many of them are online, away, or idle.
This graph lets you see if you need to rearrange any agents to make sure your incoming work is covered.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Agents Tab Fields
Fields for the Omni-Channel Supervisor Agents tab.
Time Since Login Amount of time the agent has been logged into
an online or busy Omni-Channel status. This
field reflects the duration of the agent’s entire
Omni-Channel session, which ends when the
agent goes offline in Omni-Channel or closes
their browser.
Time Since Last Accept Amount of time since the agent last accepted
a work item, either explicitly or through
auto-accept.
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Service Cloud Omni-Channel
Column Description
Assigned Queues Omni-Channel-enabled Salesforce queues that the agent can
receive work through in Omni-Channel.
The Assigned Queues column is shown only in orgs that use
Omni-Channel queues-based routing.
Work Items All Omni-Channel work currently assigned or open with the agent.
You can get an overview of the work items with popup details.
• Assigned work items are in the agent’s widget and waiting for
acknowledgment
• Open work items have been accepted and the work’s tab is
open in the agent’s Console
Workload The total size of all assigned and open work with the agent
compared to the agent’s overall capacity as set through the
Presence Configuration. Work is sized through the Routing
Configuration associated with the Omni-Channel-enabled queue
that’s used to route the work to the agent.
ACW (Beta) Amount of time the agent spent on closing tasks after a
conversation. Short for After Conversation Work.
Column Description
Type Salesforce object type for the work, such as Lead, Case, or SOS.
Details Information from the object’s primary compact layout that provides
more context about the work item.
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Service Cloud Omni-Channel
Column Description
Queue The Omni-Channel-enabled queue used to assign and route the
work to the agent.
Work Size The size of the Omni-Channel work item based on the routing
configuration associated with the queue.
Requested Time Date and time when the item was assigned to the
Omni-Channel-enabled queue, which triggers the routing.
Assigned Time Date and time when Omni-Channel pushed and assigned the item
into the agent’s Omni-Channel widget.
Accepted Time Date and time that the item was accepted, either by the agent or
by auto-accept. Accepted items are opened in the agent’s console.
Handle Time How long the item has been open with the agent. It’s calculated
using the difference between “now” and when the agent accepted
the work.
Speed to Answer How quickly the agent responds to work requests. It’s calculated
using the difference between when the work was requested and
when the agent accepted it.
Column Description
Queue The name of the Omni-Channel queue used to assign and route
the work to the agent. Only queues containing at least one agent
in an Online or Away state are displayed.
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Service Cloud Omni-Channel
Column Description
# Idle Number of agents who are idle. Idle agents have no current work,
with 0% capacity consumed.
Average Capacity Average capacity among the online and away agents in the queue.
The Queue Details view drills into specific queues so you can see their configurations, available agents, wait times, and work items. If
you see lots of agents and not much work, you know it’s time to move agents to another queue. But if you see only a few agents and
long wait times… it’s time to call for backup.
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Service Cloud Omni-Channel
IN THIS SECTION:
Queues Backlog Tab Fields
Fields for the Omni-Channel Supervisor Queues Backlog tab.
Average Wait Time Average wait time of all items currently assigned
to the queue.
Column Description
Position The work item’s position in the queue.
Type Salesforce object type for the work, such as Lead, Case, and SOS.
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Service Cloud Omni-Channel
Column Description
Wait Time Amount of time that the work item is waiting for an agent. It’s
calculated using the difference between “now” and the item’s
request time.
Omni-Channel Supervisor is
available in: Essentials,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
If you want to take a closer look at what’s going on in a queue, click the queue to see its Work Detail.
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Service Cloud Omni-Channel
IN THIS SECTION:
Assigned Work Tab Fields
Fields for the Omni-Channel Supervisor Assigned Work tab.
Average Handle Time (AHT) Average amount of time the agent’s open items
have been open. It’s calculated using the
difference between “now” and when the item
was accepted.
Column Description
Type Salesforce object type for the work, such as Lead, Case, or SOS.
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Service Cloud Omni-Channel
Column Description
Details Information from the object’s primary compact layout to provide
more context about the work item.
Assigned Time Datetime when Omni-Channel pushed and assigned the item into
the agent’s Omni-Channel widget.
Handle Time Amount of time the item has been open with the agent. It’s
calculated using the difference between “now” and when the agent
accepted the work.
Speed to Answer How quickly the agent opened the assigned item. It’s calculated
as the amount of time between when the work was requested and
when the agent accepted it.
Omni-Channel Supervisor is available in: Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
with the Service Cloud
Skills-based routing for Omni-Channel is available in: Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service
Cloud
Keep an eye on your backlog of unassigned work items using the Backlog Summary view in the Skills Backlog tab. You can see your
backlog’s work item types, work item details, skills, priority, work size, and wait times. The Backlog Summary gives you an overview of
the pending work items and the skills that are required to address these work items.
Skills are assigned to work items by the PendingServiceRouting. If there aren’t any agents available who possess the required skills, then
the work item is placed in the backlog. You can see whether you need more agents with certain skills by looking at the skills assigned
to the work items in the Skills Backlog.
To drill down and see work items that require a specific skill, go to the Backlog Summary and select a skill in the Skills column. The Skill
view shows all pending work items that require the selected skill. You can see the skills needed and the skill level needed, in addition to
the priority, work size, and waiting time for each work item.
IN THIS SECTION:
Skills Backlog Tab Fields
Fields for the Omni-Channel Supervisor Skills Backlog tab. The Skills Backlog tab is available only in orgs that use skills-based routing
for Omni-Channel.
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Service Cloud Omni-Channel
Omni-Channel Supervisor is available in: Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
with the Service Cloud
Skills-based routing for Omni-Channel is available in: Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service
Cloud
Backlog Fields
The Backlog tab shows fields that tell you about pending work items that aren’t assigned to an agent.
Column Description
Type Salesforce object type for the work, such as Lead, Case, or SOS.
Details Information from the object’s primary compact layout that provides
more context about the work item.
Work Size The size of the Omni-Channel work item based on the associated
routing configuration.
Wait Time The amount of time that the work item has been pending.
Requested Time The date and time when the work item entered the backlog.
Skills Fields
The Skills view in the Skills Backlog tab shows you all of the pending work items that require the same skill.
Column Description
Level The skill level required for this work item.
Details Information from the object’s primary compact layout that provides
more context about the work item.
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
Column Description
Work Size The size of the Omni-Channel work item based on the associated
routing configuration.
Wait Time The amount of time that the work item has been pending.
Requested Time Date and time when the item was placed in the
Omni-Channel-enabled backlog.
Use filtering to pare down what’s on your screen and get what you need faster. For example, if you Omni-Channel Supervisor is
want to see information about one particular team of agents, go to the All Agents view and select available in: Essentials,
just those agents in the filter. You can apply multiple filters to the same grid, too. Hop seamlessly Professional, Enterprise,
from an agent’s open Leads to the Tier One Queue’s open Cases with a Wait Time over 5 minutes. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Use sorting to organize columns as ascending or descending. For example, if you want to see which
online agents most recently accepted work, filter the All Agents view to show only agents with an
Online status, and sort the Time Since Last Accept column in ascending order.
The online agents who most recently accepted work are at the top of the screen. The possibilities are as endless as your curiosity.
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Queues
Prioritize, distribute, and assign records to teams who share workloads. Access queues from list views. Queue members can jump
in to take ownership of any record in a queue. They’re available for cases, contact requests, leads, orders, custom objects, service
contracts, and knowledge article versions.
Assignment Rules
Assignment rules automate your organization’s lead generation and support processes. Use lead assignment rules to specify how
leads are assigned to users or queues. Use case assignment rules to determine how cases are assigned to users or put into queues.
Set Up Assignment Rules
Define conditions that determine how leads or cases are processed. The rules assign leads and cases to the specified user or queue.
Set Up Auto-Response Rules
Auto-response rules let you automatically send email responses to lead or case submissions based on the record’s attributes. For
example, you can send an automatic reply to customers to let them know someone at your company received their inquiry.
Set Up Escalation Rules
Escalation rules automatically escalate cases when the case meets the criteria defined in the rule entry. You can create rule entries,
which define criteria for escalating a case, and escalation actions, which define what happens when a case escalates.
Limits for Assignment, Auto-Response, and Escalation Rules
Salesforce limits the number of rules, as well as the number of entries and actions per rule. These limits apply to assignment rules,
auto-response rules, and escalation rules.
Set Up Queues
Prioritize, distribute, and assign records to teams who share workloads. Access queues from list
EDITIONS
views. Queue members can jump in to take ownership of any record in a queue. They’re available
for cases, contact requests, leads, orders, custom objects, service contracts, and knowledge article Available in: Salesforce
versions. Classic (not available in all
You can manually add a record to a queue by changing the record’s owner to the queue. Or, an orgs) and Lightning
assignment rule can add cases or leads to a queue based on specific record criteria. Records remain Experience
in a queue until they’re assigned an owner. Any queue members or users higher in a role hierarchy Available in: Contact
can take ownership of records in a queue. Manager, Group,
Example: Essentials, Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
• Create a task queue with members who are sales reps following up on pending Unlimited, Developer, and
opportunities. Database.com Editions
• Create a lead queue with members who are sales reps assigned to a specific sales territory. Lead queues and case
• Create a case queue with members who are support agents assigned to different service queues are not available in
levels. Database.com
• Create a contact request queue with members who are support agents to resolve customer Contact requests and
issues. service contract queues are
available in: Professional,
• Create a knowledge article version queue with members who are users that can translate
Enterprise, Performance,
new versions of articles into a specific language.
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions with the Service
Cloud
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
Create Queues
Prioritize and assign records to teams that share workloads. There’s no limit to the number of queues
USER PERMISSIONS
you can create, and you can choose when queue members receive email notifications.
To create or change queues:
Note: Implement this feature in one click with the Service Setup Assistant: Learn more on
• Customize Application
page 6
AND
1. From Setup, enter Queues in the Quick Find box, then select Queues.
Manage Public List
2. Click New. Views
3. Enter a label and queue name. The label is the name of the list view that users work from. To change queues created
4. Choose whom to notify when new records are added to the queue. by other users:
• Customize Application
5. If your org uses divisions, select the queue’s default division. Cases inherit the division of the
contact they’re related to, but when a case doesn’t have a contact, it’s assigned to the default AND
global division. Manage Public List
Views and Manage
6. Add which objects to include in the queue.
Users
7. Add queue members. Members can be individuals, roles, public groups, territories, connections,
or partner users.
Depending on your sharing settings, only queue members and users above them in the role hierarchy can take ownership of records
in the queue.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Case Teams
Set Up Assignment Rules
Knowledge Article: How to stop email notification to queue members?
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
Assignment Rules
Assignment rules automate your organization’s lead generation and support processes. Use lead
EDITIONS
assignment rules to specify how leads are assigned to users or queues. Use case assignment rules
to determine how cases are assigned to users or put into queues. Available in: Salesforce
Lead assignment rules can assign leads regardless of whether leads are created manually, are Classic (not available in all
generated from Web-to-Lead forms, or are imported using the Data Import Wizard. orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Case assignment rules can assign cases regardless of how cases are created. Cases can be created
manually or automatically using Web-to-Case, Email-to-Case, On-Demand Email-to-Case, the Lead Assignment Rules are
Self-Service portal, the Customer Portal, Outlook, or Lotus Notes. available in: Group,
Organizations typically use one rule for each overall purpose. For example, use one lead assignment Essentials, Professional,
rule for importing leads and use a different lead assignment rule for web-generated leads. Or use Enterprise, Performance,
one case assignment rule for standard use and one case assignment rule for holiday use. For each Unlimited, and Developer
rule type, only one rule can be in effect at any time. Editions
Each rule consists of multiple rule entries that specify exactly how the leads or cases are assigned. Case Assignment Rules are
For example, your standard case assignment rule can have two entries: cases with “Type equals available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Gold” are assigned to the “Gold Service” queue, and cases with “Type equals Silver” are assigned to
Unlimited, and Developer
the “Silver Service” queue.
Editions
To create an assignment rule, from Setup, enter Assignment Rules in the Quick Find
box, then select Lead Assignment Rules or Case Assignment Rules.
USER PERMISSIONS
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Assignment Rules
View and Edit Assignment Rules
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
Field Description
User Specifies the user or queue that the lead or case is assigned to. Users specified here cannot be marked
“inactive”, and they must have “Read” permission on leads or cases.
Note: You can't revoke the “Read” permission on leads or cases for users assigned to a rule.
If your organization uses divisions, leads are assigned to the default division of the user or queue specified
in this field. Cases inherit the division of the contact to which they are related. If no contact is specified, cases
are assigned to the default global division.
Do Not Specifies that the current owner on a lead or case will not be reassigned to the lead or case when it is updated.
Reassign
Owner
Email Specifies the email template to use for the notification email that is automatically sent to the new owner. If
Template you don’t specify an email template, then Salesforce doesn’t send a notification email. When a lead or case
is assigned to a queue, the notification email is sent to the Queue Email address specified for the queue
and all queue members.
Predefined Specifies the predefined case teams to add to a case. A case team is a group of people that work together
Case Teams to solve cases.
To select a predefined case team to add to the assignment rule, click the Lookup icon ( ). To add more
predefined case teams, click Add Row to add a row in which you can specify a predefined case team.
Replace any When a case matches the condition, any existing predefined case teams assigned to the case are replaced
existing with the specified case teams.
predefined
case teams on
the case
After creating the entry, click Save, or Save & New to save the entry and create more entries.
Tip: Create an error-proof rule by always creating the last rule entry with no criteria. This rule entry is a catch-all rule that assigns
any leads or cases that the previous rule entries didn’t assign.
IN THIS SECTION:
View and Edit Assignment Rules
View and update your assignment rules to meet your business needs.
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
Note: To create an error-proof rule, always create the last rule entry with no criteria. This rule entry catches any leads or cases
that the previous rule entries did not. This practice is especially important for Email-to-Case and On-Demand Email-to-Case,
which don't have default templates.
• Choose formula evaluates to true and enter a formula that returns a value of “True” or “False.” Salesforce triggers
the rule if the formula returns “True.” For example, the formula AND(ISPICKVAL(Priority,"High"),Version<4.0)
triggers a rule that automatically responds with the selected template when the Priority field on a case is set to High and
the value of a custom field named Version on the case is less than four.
4. Enter the name to include on the From line of the auto-response message.
5. Enter the email address to include on the From line of the auto-response message. This email address must be either one of your
verified organization-wide email addresses or the email address in your Salesforce user profile. This email address must be different
than the routing addresses that’s used for Email-to-Case.
6. If you want, enter a reply-to address.
7. Select an email template.
8. If you’re creating a response rule entry for Email-to-Case, select Send response to all recipients to send auto-response
messages to anyone included in the To and Cc fields in the original message.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Differences Between Auto-Response Rules and Workflow Email Alerts
Auto-response rules and workflow email alerts provide similar functionality. This table lists some of the differences between workflow
alerts and auto-response rules, so you can decide which process to use.
Auto-response Initial response to A case or Contact on a Sends an email based on the first
rules the contact who lead is case or the rule entry criteria that the rule
created a case or the created. person who matches in a sequence of rule
person who submitted entries.
submitted the lead the lead on
on the web. the web.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Auto-Response Rules
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
b. Click Save.
3. On the Case Escalation Rules page, select the rule that you want to work with.
The rule detail page is displayed.
4. Create the rule entries. Rule entries define the criteria used to escalate the case.
a. In the Rule Entries section, click New. For each rule entry, you can specify:
• Order in which rule entries are evaluated
• Criteria for escalating a case
• How business hours affect when cases escalate
• How escalation times are determined
b. Click Save.
The Escalation Actions page is displayed.
5. Define the escalation actions. Escalation actions specify when the case escalates and what happens when the case escalates. You
can add up to five actions for each rule entry to escalate the case over increasing periods of time.
a. In the Escalation Actions section, click New. For each escalation action, you can:
• Specify when the case escalates: In the Age Over field, enter the number of hours after which a case escalates if it hasn’t
been closed. You can enter the number of hours and either 0 minutes or 30 minutes. For example, 1 hour and 0 minutes or
1 hour and 30 minutes.
• Reassign the case to another user or queue, and select an email template that sends the new assignee (the new case owner)
a notification email.
• Send notification emails to other users, the current case owner, or other recipients.
b. Click Save.
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
IN THIS SECTION:
Escalation Rule Examples and Best Practices
See examples of how different options in the escalation rule entries and actions affect how and when cases escalate.
When do rules execute?
Salesforce processes rules in a certain order.
SEE ALSO:
Monitor the Case Escalation Rule Queue
Let’s break down the parts of an escalation rule entry and go over the best practices for each step: Available in: Essentials,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
Tip: As a best practice, put the most complex rule entries at the beginning of the sort order. Put more generic rule entries at
the end of the sort order.
Suppose that you have five rule entries. Salesforce looks at the first rule entry to see if its criteria matches the case. If the criteria
matches, then Salesforce stops evaluating and escalates the case. If the criteria doesn’t match, then Salesforce looks at the
second rule entry to see if it matches, and so on, until it finds a match.
If the first rule entry is generic, then Salesforce finds a match and escalates the case without continuing to evaluate later rule
entries.
It’s a good practice to put a generic “catch-all” rule entry at the end of the rule entry order. The catch-all rule entry is designed
to escalate cases that don’t meet the criteria specified in the other rule entries. For example, perhaps you want to escalate
cases that have been open for more than 48 hours. Create a rule entry that contains no criteria so that it catches all remaining
cases, and specify that cases escalate 48 hours after they were created.
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
rule entry that escalates cases where the Priority field equals High and the Account: Account Name field equals
Acme or Global Media.
You can specify more field values by filling out the rows.
Tip: By default, the filter concatenates the rows using AND. However, if you want to use a different
filter operator, click Add Filter Logic [2.3]. You can refine the filter using parentheses, AND, and
OR. For example, (1 AND 2) or (3 AND 4).
Run this rule if the criteria are met
You can define escalation criteria using a formula by selecting formula evaluates to true.
Enter a formula that returns a value of True or False. Salesforce triggers the rule if the formula returns “True.”
Step 3: Business Hours Criteria
Business hours let you specify when your support team is available [3]. If business hours are specified on the escalation rule, then
escalation actions occur only during business hours.
Let’s look at some examples. Let’s say that your support team is based in San Francisco and works from 9 AM-5 PM Monday-Friday,
Pacific time.
Ignore business hours
If you don’t want to use business hours when calculating when cases are escalated, select Ignore
business hours. In this situation, a case is escalated without consideration of the support team’s business
hours or the case’s business hours. For example, a case might escalate at 3 AM Pacific time, even though the
support team isn’t available.
Use business hours specified on the case
A case might have different business hours than your support team. If business hours are specified on the
case, then the case escalates during the case’s business hours.
Suppose that your support team is located in San Francisco and works 9-5 Pacific time, but your customer is
located in New York and operates on Eastern time. You could specify Eastern business hours on the case, so
that your support team knows to contact the customer during Eastern business hours. If Use business
hours specified on the case is selected, then the case escalates during East Coast business
hours. So, a case could escalate at 6 AM Pacific, because that’s within Eastern business hours (9 AM -5 PM
Eastern, which is 6 AM-2 PM Pacific).
Set business hours
Use the lookup to select the business hours that are defined for your company. If you select this option, then
cases are escalated during these hours. Perhaps you’ve defined business hours as 9 AM-5 PM Pacific time. If
you select the 9-5 Pacific time business hours, then cases would only be escalated during that time period.
Step 4: How Escalation Times Are Set
Specify when the escalation clock starts ticking by specifying how escalation times are set [4]. Your selection here affects when the
time period specified in the Age Over field begins to run. You can set the Age Over field on the Escalation Actions page.
When case is created
The escalation clock starts ticking when the case is created, and the case escalates when the time period set
in the Age Over field expires.
If Age Over is set to 5 hours, then the case escalates five hours after the case is created. If the case is created
at 9 AM on Monday morning, it would escalate at 2 PM on Monday afternoon.
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Escalation Rules
Escalation Actions
Escalation Actions
Escalation actions specify when the case escalates and what happens when the case escalates. An
EDITIONS
escalation rule can reassign the case to another support agent (user) or support queue (queue). An
escalation rule also can send notification emails to the new assignee, to the current case owner, Available in: Salesforce
and to other recipients. Classic and Lightning
Let’s break down the parts of an escalation action and go over best practices for each step: Experience
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
Age Over
Salesforce escalates the case if the case hasn’t been closed within this time period [1]. For example, escalate the case if it hasn’t been
closed within five hours.
This time is calculated from the date field set in the Specify how escalation times are set field in the rule entry.
No two escalation actions can have the same number in this field.
The Age Over field is required, because escalation rules are time-based.
Auto-Reassign Cases
When a case escalates, Salesforce can reassign the case to a different user or queue [2].
• Queue or User—Select a user or queue to reassign the case to. When a case is reassigned, the queue or user becomes the
new case owner. Companies typically reassign cases to a queue instead of a specific user. For example, if Level 1 support doesn’t
resolve a case within 24 hours, the case is reassigned to the Level 2 support queue.
• Notification Template—Select a notification template to use to send a notification email to the assignee.
If you select a Notification Template, then Salesforce sends a notification email to the new case owner. The template
controls which fields are included in the notification email. For example, the email template might include the case number, case
contact, account name, and case reason so that the new case owner can quickly understand the situation.
Notify Users
When a case escalates, Salesforce can send a notification email so that a user, the current case owner, or other email recipients know
that the case is escalating [3].
• Notify This User—Select a user to notify. For example, you might want to notify the support manager.
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Service Cloud Rules and Queues
• Notify Case Owner—Send an email to the current case owner to remind them that the case is escalating. Select this
checkbox when you want to notify the case owner but haven’t reassigned the case.
• Additional Emails—You can send notification emails to other people when a case is escalated. Enter up to five email
addresses, each on a separate line. For example, you can set up an escalation rule to notify support managers or executives so
that they know that a case is escalating.
• Notification Template—If you select Notify This User, Notify Case Owner, or Additional
Emails, then you must select a notification template to send a notification email to the user, case owner, or additional recipients.
The template controls which fields are included in the notification email.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Escalation Rules
Escalation Rule Entries
Limit Value
Total rules across objects
(Applies to any combination of workflow, assignment, auto-response, and escalation rules, active and 2,000
inactive.)
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Service Cloud Einstein Case Routing
Limit Value
Formula criteria entries per rule 300
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Assignment Rules
Set Up Auto-Response Rules
Set Up Escalation Rules
Manage all customer communications from the Service Console to make it easy for agents to follow your business practices and help
customers no matter how customers contact you. You can route customer inquiries to agents with Omni-Channel, so your company
can use the same business logic to route customer communications regardless of the contact method.
Email Customers send emails to you. The emails are turned into cases. Email-to-Case
354
Service Cloud Service Cloud Channels
Web chat Customers chat with agents on your website. Create cases from chats. Chat and Embedded Chat
Windows
Mobile in-app features Embed customer service into your mobile apps, so customers can chat Snap-ins for Mobile Apps
with agents and get help quickly and easily.
Messaging apps Customers can contact your support center via text message, Messaging
• Text messaging WhatsApp, and more. Agents can respond to messages from the
Lightning Service Console.
• Facebook Messenger
• WhatsApp
• WeChat (pilot)
Social media networks Customers can post on your company’s social networks, and they can Social Customer Service
• Twitter at-mention your company on social networks. You can create cases
from posts and reply to posts directly in the console.
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Instagram
• Google+ (pilot)
• Sina Weibo (pilot)
Video chat Customers can talk face-to-face with agents through a video feed. SOS
Agents also can co-browse a website with customers and show
customers exactly what to look for.
Experience Cloud Site Customers can collaborate and resolve their inquiries through an online Collaborate in an Experience
site. Customers can also request that support get back to them. Builder Site and Contact
Request
Help Center Customers can browse Knowledge articles and use a web form to Help Center
contact you for more support.
To route customer interactions from channels to your available agents, see Omni-Channel.
To automatically link records from a channel with objects, set up Channel-Object Linking.
355
Service Cloud Service Cloud Voice
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Service Cloud Service Cloud Voice
IN THIS SECTION:
Plan Your Voice Contact Center
It’s planning time! To ensure that your Service Cloud Voice contact center checks all the boxes you want it to, consider important
planning questions before you start your setup. Carefully review key concepts and limitations, complete Voice prerequisites, select
the telephony model that best fits your situation, and walk through a planning checklist.
Set Up Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect
Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect leverages the power of Amazon Connect telephony to give agents, supervisors, and
customers a seamless service experience. Before you set up your Voice contact center, review the prerequisites, limitations, and
planning resources.
Set Up Service Cloud Voice with Partner Telephony
Service Cloud Voice with Partner Telephony lets you create a Service Cloud Voice contact center that uses a telephony provider of
your choice. Before you start, review the prerequisites, limitations, and planning resources.
Set Up Service Cloud Voice with Partner Telephony from Amazon Connect
You may already have an Amazon Connect instance or want to manage your own Amazon Web Services account. Service Cloud
Voice with Partner Telephony from Amazon Connect lets you integrate your own Amazon Connect instance with Service Cloud
Voice. Before you start, review the Voice prerequisites, limitations, and planning resources.
Test Your Service Cloud Voice Implementation
After you finish setting up your Service Cloud Voice contact center, test it to make sure it works the way that you expect.
Use Service Cloud Voice Across Sales and Service
Use Service Cloud Voice features in both your service and sales operations. Sales reps with access to both High Velocity Sales and
Service Cloud Voice can click-to-dial records that come from a sales cadence, My List, and their Work Queue so they can quickly
make outbound calls in Voice. Einstein Conversation Insights can be used in both service and sales contexts to give supervisors
valuable call trend data.
Monitor Your Service Cloud Voice Contact Center
Track key performance indicators (KPIs) in the Voice Analytics Dashboard to see how your support agents are doing. Create a custom
report to track your Amazon Connect usage, minutes, and billing, so your company avoids surprise charges.
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SEE ALSO:
Trailhead: Service Cloud Voice
Implementation Guide: Service Cloud Voice Implementation Guide
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Phone number porting is highly regulated, and requires you to submit a porting request with your telephony provider many weeks
in advance. To avoid any anxiety about the porting timeline, we recommend that you claim a new phone number for testing and
production, and forward traffic to that number from your original production phone number until testing is complete. Then, port
the original production phone number from your previous telephony provider to your new one.
Softphone
A software-based phone that agents access from a computer. The softphone interface resembles a regular phone, with a dialpad
and call buttons, but it offers extra functions like the ability to transfer callers to another agent or queue, mute your line, and place
a caller on hold. Agents can use the softphone in the Omni-Channel utility’s Phone tab with Voice.
Telephony Provider
The provider of the back-end telephony service integrated with Service Cloud Voice. By default, Service Cloud Voice uses Amazon
Connect as its telephony provider. Amazon Connect’s features include intelligent cloud telephony and cloud contact center features
like IVR, call routing and storage, and real-time call transcription. As an alternative, you can choose to implement Voice with a different
telephony provider or integrate your own Amazon Connect instance with Voice.
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All Calls
• Incoming calls and callback requests must be answered by an agent within 20 seconds. If an agent doesn’t answer an incoming call
or declines a call or callback, the agent’s status in the Omni-Channel utility is changed to Offline, and the call is routed to another
agent. If an agent ends the callback while it’s dialing, the agent’s status is changed to Offline. The 20-second period starts when
Amazon Connect assigns the call to an agent. The actual period can be shorter due to latency. To learn more, see the AWS blog post
Measure latency for validation testing and troubleshooting in Amazon Connect.
• If you refresh the browser during a call, the audio is disconnected.
Call Recordings
• If an agent pauses a call that is being recorded and refreshes the page, the Record button’s appearance doesn’t change, but the
call is no longer being recorded. The agent must click Record to continue recording the call.
• Pausing a call recording affects only the audio portion of the call. The call transcription isn’t affected.
• Only the owner of a Voice Call Recording record can listen to the recording. To let supervisors listen to call recordings, set up a role
hierarchy where the support supervisor is above the owner of the Voice Call Recording record.
Contact Centers
• Users can be added to only one contact center.
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MyDomain
• Salesforce uses your MyDomain subdomain name to configure single sign-on between Service Cloud Voice and Amazon Connect.
Don’t change the MyDomain name after you turn on Voice. Otherwise, you have to restart your Voice implementation.
Omni-Channel
• When an agent is available on multiple channels including Voice, Omni-Channel updates the agent capacity when delivering work,
but still allows phone calls to be routed to the agent. As a result, the agent capacity can exceed 100 percent.
• To sync agent status between Salesforce and Amazon Connect, agents must log out of Omni-Channel before logging out of Salesforce
and before closing the browser or browser tab.
• When the agent logs out of Omni-Channel, the agent status is synced with Amazon Connect so that calls aren’t pushed to the agent.
If you close the browser tab before logging out of Omni-Channel, the agent’s status isn’t synced between Omni-Channel and Amazon
Connect. Omni-Channel thinks the agent is offline, but Amazon Connect thinks the agent is still available and keeps pushing calls
to the agent.
Omni Supervisor
• When a supervisor opens a transcript in Omni Supervisor after a call has ended, the transcript can be empty. It can take up to 10
minutes after the call ends before the transcript is displayed.
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• To show real-time transcription in another language, modify the languageCode on the transcription block in your contact flows
in Amazon Connect.
Sandboxes
• If Voice is set up in a sandbox, only do a Partial Copy sandbox refresh. If you do a full refresh, you have to set up Voice again.
• When Service Cloud Voice and Conversation Insights are both turned on in the same production org, copying the production org
to a sandbox turns off Conversation Insights and breaks the flow of data to the Service Cloud Voice Tableau CRM app. To restore the
data flow, turn on Conversation Insights in the sandbox.
Softphone Utility
• Service Cloud Voice is designed to use the Omni-Channel utility to answer and make calls. Don’t use other softphone utilities,
including utilities for Dialer, High Velocity Sales, or Open CTI, with the Omni-Channel utility in the same Lightning Service Console
app.
Web Browsers
• Voice is supported only on the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox web browsers. Cookies must be enabled to allow single sign-on
(SSO).
• Don’t open Service Cloud Voice in multiple browser tabs. Opening Voice in multiple tabs causes the agent’s status to become out
of sync.
Rate Limits
Service Cloud Voice observes the following rate limits.
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Utterances per second Maximum number of utterances 400 utterances at the same • Includes both inbound and
that can be transcribed at the time per org outbound calls.
same time per org. • For example, suppose that
Utterances are phrases spoken there are 600 calls occurring
in conversation. When Amazon simultaneously. If each call
generates a real-time call generates an utterance every
transcript, it transcribes the six seconds (that is, the agent
conversation utterance by or customer speaks for six
utterance. seconds and then pauses for
one second), then 100
utterances are generated per
second. (600/6=100)
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect
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SEE ALSO:
Set Up My Domain
Enable Omni-Channel
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Best for you if... You want the Voice You want the Voice You want the Voice
agent and customer agent and customer agent and customer
experience, and you experience, but you’re experience, but you
want all the setup help happy with your already built out your
you can get. current telephony own Amazon Connect
provider. contact center.
Billing process You receive a single bill You receive separate You receive separate
from Salesforce. You bills from Salesforce bills from Salesforce
can monitor telephony and your telephony and Amazon Web
usage and other provider. Services.
metrics in a Salesforce
report.
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Step 4: Plan your phone number porting. Amazon Help: Port Your Current Phone Number
Decide whether and how to use your existing Partner Telephony: Ask your telephony provider
phone number or numbers in your new contact about number porting requirements.
center.
Phone number porting is highly regulated, can’t
be rushed, and requires you to submit a porting
request with your telephony provider many
weeks in advance. To avoid any anxiety about
the porting timeline, we recommend taking this
approach:
1. Claim a new phone number for testing and
production.
2. Forward traffic to that number from your
original production phone number until
testing is complete.
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Step 5: Design your environment and testing strategy. Decide Try Service Cloud Voice in Your Sandbox
how many sandbox orgs you need. If applicable, decide how many Test Your Service Cloud Voice Implementation
Amazon Connect test instances you need. Then, develop a plan
to migrate data between production and test environments.
Step 6: Review AWS networking requirements. If your contact Amazon Help: Set Up Your Network
center will use Amazon Connect telephony, review Amazon’s
networking guidance to avoid blocking important network ports.
Step 7: Plan your routing requirements. Your IVR determines Using Service Cloud Voice Contact Flows
how customers navigate your phone support and get routed to
agents. Consider:
• Your current routing logic
• How you’d like to improve it using Amazon Connect routing
profiles and queues, or equivalent features from your telephony
provider
• Available pre-built solutions
We recommend starting simple by using the contact flows provided
by Salesforce. These contact flows demonstrate good IVR practices.
You can then build them out to move toward your ideal IVR, testing
each change that you make. If you’re using a partner telephony
provider, refer to your vendor’s documentation for help setting up
your IVR.
After you complete these planning steps, it’s time to start your setup.
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3. Export and deploy the configuration files from the connected app.
SEE ALSO:
Managing Call Centers
Delete a Connected App
Amazon Connect Administrator Guide: Delete your instance
IN THIS SECTION:
1. Turn On Service Cloud Voice
Turn on Service Cloud Voice so you can start setting up a contact center. When you turn on Service Cloud Voice with Amazon
Connect, Salesforce creates an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account that’s used to create your Amazon Connect instance.
2. Confirm Your Tax Registration Number
After your Amazon Web Services subaccount is created, confirm your company’s tax registration number for the subaccount. Complete
this step so that Service Cloud Voice can be turned on in your org.
3. Assign Contact Center Permission Sets
Use permission sets to control access to your Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect contact center. Give at least one user, such
as yourself, the Contact Center Admin permission set so they can set up the contact center. Give agents and supervisors the Contact
Center Agent permission set so they can make and receive phone calls and listen to call recordings.
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2. In the Set Up Your Contact Center section, click Assign Permissions. The Permission Sets page Available in: Sales Cloud,
opens. Service Cloud, and
Government Cloud as an
3. Click either Contact Center Admin or Contact Center Agent.
add-on license. Government
4. Click Manage Assignments. Cloud is supported only on
Service Cloud Voice with
5. Click Add Assignments.
Amazon Connect and
6. Select the users that you want to assign the permission set to. Service Cloud Voice with
7. Click Assign. Partner Telephony from
Amazon Connect.
After assigning permission sets, create your contact center. Single sign-on (SSO) for the contact
center is handled by a connected app that Salesforce automatically creates and assigns to your
contact center users. USER PERMISSIONS
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8. Click Done. The window closes. It can take a few minutes to create the contact center. To create and manage a
contact center:
After the contact center is created, you can manage it by going to Setup, entering Amazon
• Contact Center Admin
Contact Centers in the Quick Find box, and selecting Amazon Contact Centers.
After your contact center is created, add users to it.
IN THIS SECTION:
Add and Remove Users in Your Amazon Connect Contact Center
After you create a contact center for Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect, add users to your contact center. You can add any
users who have the Contact Center Admin permission set or the Contact Center Agent permission set. Users can be added to only
one contact center. Remove users who no longer need access.
Understand Voice Connected Apps
When you create a Service Cloud Voice contact center with Amazon Connect, Salesforce creates two connected apps for you and
assigns a connected app permission set to your contact center admins. These apps are used behind the scenes, so you don’t usually
need to open or update them.
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SEE ALSO:
Turn On Service Cloud Voice
Confirm Your Tax Registration Number
Manage Your Contact Center in Amazon Connect
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USER PERMISSIONS
[1] Highlights Panel The Highlights Panel shows high-level info about the call.
[2] Call Recording The Call Recording component is included on the Voice Call record
Player page by default and must be added to a medium or large area on
the page template.
Add this component for orgs using Voice with Amazon Connect. If
you want to record calls, enable call recording in your Amazon
Connect instance.
For orgs using Voice with Partner Telephony, add this component
only if your telephony provider supports call recording.
Agents must also have the View Call Recordings permission to listen
to call recordings.
[3] Related Record This Related Record component is configured to show details about
this Voice Call.
Agents can indicate the call disposition and add notes.
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Component Description
[4] Related Record This Related Record component is configured to show the Contact record for the Caller.
If agents make outbound calls, you also can add a Related Record component that shows the
Contact record for the Recipient (that is, the person who was called).
[5] Chatter The Chatter component lets agents post updates and notify other support agents about the
call. It’s included on the Voice Call page by default.
[6] Conversation Body The Conversation Body component shows the real-time call transcript and must be added to
a medium or large area on the page template.
Add this component for orgs using Voice with Amazon Connect.
For orgs using Voice with Partner Telephony, add this component only if your telephony provider
supports transcription.
Because the Call Recording Player doesn't have an alternative text-based transcript, we
recommend adding the Conversation Body component underneath the Call Recording Player
to support accessibility.
[7] Phone The Phone component gives agents easy access to some of the Voice softphone features like
mute, hold, and end calls. It’s visible only when an agent is on a call.
We recommended placing the Phone component on the upper left or upper right corner of
the page, so it’s easy for agents to use.
Note: Use the Phone component in addition to the softphone in the Omni-Channel
utility. Agents can’t answer or dial calls from the Phone component; they need the
Omni-Channel utility to make or accept calls.
[8] After Conversation Work The After Conversation Work (ACW) component shows agents a countdown for wrap-up work
(ACW) between conversations. It’s visible only during an active countdown.
To enable the countdown feature and set the length of time, create or edit a voice call channel
and complete the After Conversation Work Time section.
[9] Related Detail The Related Detail component shows more granular info about the call.
Note: These instructions tell you how to create a Voice Call record page from scratch.
If you already have a Voice Call record page, you can edit it to add or reorganize these components. Navigate to the Voice Call
record page, click the gear icon, and click Edit Page to open it in the Lightning App Builder.
1. From Setup, enter Lightning App Builder in the Quick Find box, then select Lightning App Builder.
2. Click New.
3. Click Record Page, then click Next.
4. For Label, give the page a name such as Voice Call Record Page.
5. For Object, select Voice Call, then click Next.
6. In the Create a new Lightning page window, select a page template from the Choose Page Template menu.
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For example, the screenshot shows the Header and Three Regions page template.
7. Click Finish.
8. Select a component and drag it to the page. Repeat until you’ve added the components that you want to your page.
Tip: To filter the component lists, enter the name of the component in the search bar.
a. Select the Phone component onto the page, and drag it to the upper left side or upper right side of the page.
b. Select the Call Recording Player component and drag it to the page.
c. Select the Conversation Body component and drag it to the page, and put it in a medium or large area of the page layout.
d. If you plan to enable After Conversation Work (beta) in your voice call channel, drag the After Conversation Work component
onto the upper left side or upper right side of the page.
e. Optionally add more components to the page.
Add the Voice Call Tab to the Lightning Service Console (Required)
By default, the Voice Call tab that shows the Voice Call list view is hidden. Add the Voice Call tab to your console so agents can view
Voice Call records.
1. From Setup, enter Apps in the Quick Find box, then select App Manager.
2. Click the dropdown next to the console app you want to add the Voice Call tab to, then click Edit.
3. Under Navigation Items, select Voice Call from the Available Items list and click the arrow button to add it to the Selected Items list.
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4. Click Save.
Alternatively, open the App Launcher, select the console app where you want to add the Voice Call tab, and click the dropdown arrow.
Click Edit. The Edit [App Name] Navigation Items window opens. Click Add More Items. Search for Voice Call and click the plus sign
next to it, then click Add Nav Item.
Note: After Conversation Work (ACW) is a Beta Service. Customer may opt to try such Beta Service in its sole discretion. Any use
of the Beta Service is subject to the applicable Beta Services Terms provided at Agreements and Terms.
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1. From Setup, enter Service Channels in the Quick Find box, then select Service Channels.
2. Click Edit next to the Voice channel.
3. In the After Conversation Work Time section, select Give agents wrap-up time after conversations.
4. In the Max Time (seconds) field, enter the number of seconds that agents have to wrap up their work after a conversation. The value
must be 30–3600 seconds (60 minutes).
5. Click Save.
Important: Make sure that the After Conversation Work component is added to the Voice Call page layout. Otherwise, agents
don’t see the countdown. See Create the Voice Call Record Page on page 378.
SEE ALSO:
Permission Sets
Lightning App Builder
Standard Lightning Page Components
Add Channel-Object Linking Rules for Phone Calls (Beta)
Add the Omni-Channel Utility to a Lightning Console App
Configure Your Amazon Connect Instance
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Note: Users also need the View Call Recordings user permission in Salesforce to listen to call recordings.
Set Up a Queue
Select a queue for outbound calls.
1. Hover over Routing and click Queues.
2. Click BasicQueue.
3. In the Outbound caller ID number menu, select the phone number that you claimed.
4. In the Outbound whisper flow menu, select the Sample_SCV_Outbound_Flow_With_Transcription contact flow.
5. Save your work.
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If you want to create more queues, click Add new queue and specify the queue’s settings.
SEE ALSO:
Build Out Your Contact Center with Amazon Web Services
• Configure call recordings, chat transcripts, live media streaming, reports, and interactive voice Available in: Sales Cloud,
response (IVR) Service Cloud, and
Government Cloud as an
• Enable data streaming
add-on license. Government
• Configure application integration Cloud is supported only on
• Set up Lambda functions that are used for contact flows Service Cloud Voice with
• Customize routing queues Amazon Connect and
Service Cloud Voice with
• Create security profiles Partner Telephony from
Important: Contact Lens for Amazon Connect isn’t supported on Voice contact centers that Amazon Connect.
use Amazon Connect.
To access Amazon Web Services documentation, go to https://docs.aws.amazon.com. For information about Amazon Connect, see the
Amazon Connect Administrator Guide.
Call Transcription
Real-time call transcription is provided by Amazon Transcribe.
For supported languages for real-time transcription, see Streaming Transcription in the Amazon Transcribe Developer Guide.
When transcription is enabled, all audio on the customer’s side is recorded, including when the agent puts the customer on hold.
Transcriptions are stored in the Conversation Body component in Salesforce.
For information about Amazon Transcribe, see the Amazon Transcribe Developer Guide.
For transcription questions and support, contact Amazon Web Services.
By default, the region for the transcription Lambda function is set to us-west-2, which is the Amazon Transcribe data center in
Oregon. For best performance, select a region where Amazon Transcribe is available that is closest to where your contact center is located
geographically. For information about AWS regions that support Amazon Connect, see the Region Table topic in the AWS documentation.
If your organization is streaming many call transcriptions at the same time, ask AWS to increase the default service quota for concurrent
transcription jobs for Amazon Transcribe. See Increase Amazon Service Quotas on page 385.
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Contact Flows
Customize how customers interact with the contact center using contact flows. For information about contact flows, see the Amazon
Connect Administrator Guide.
Service Cloud Voice provides the following contact flow samples, which you can customize:
• Sample SCV Inbound
• Sample SCV Agent Transfer
• Sample SCV Queue Transfer
• Sample SCV Inbound with Transcription
• Sample SCV Outbound with Transcription
To access these contact flows and to learn more about using them, see the Service Cloud Voice Implementation Guide.
SEE ALSO:
Create Custom Fields
Service Cloud Documentation Github: Service Cloud Voice
Service Cloud Voice Implementation Guide
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Before submitting a request to increase the quotas, make sure that your AWS account is registered for AWS Business Support.
To increase your service quotas, follow these steps:
1. Log in to the AWS Management Console.
2. Click Create a case.
3. Select Service limit increase.
4. Select the product to see the service quotas for that product.
5. Fill out the details and click Submit.
SEE ALSO:
Get Expert Support for Service Cloud Voice
Amazon Connect Administrator Guide: Amazon Connect service quotas
Amazon Transcribe Developer Guide: Guidelines and quotas
Amazon Service Quotas User Guide: What is Service Quotas?
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USER PERMISSIONS
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3. To confirm that you want to install the updates, click Update Key.
The key pair is updated. USER PERMISSIONS
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If you have multiple Voice contact centers with telephony provided by Amazon Connect, complete these steps for each contact center.
IN THIS SECTION:
1. Turn on Service Cloud Voice with Partner Telephony
Enable Voice in your org.
2. Install Your Telephony Provider’s Managed Package
Most Voice telephony partners provide a managed package that contains the metadata to connect Voice with the partner’s system.
Download the package from AppExchange or ask your telephony provider for the installation URL.
3. Assign Contact Center Permission Sets for Partner Telephony
Use permission sets to control access to your Voice contact center. Give at least one user, such as yourself, the Contact Center Admin
(Partner Telephony) permission set so they can set up the contact center. Give agents and supervisors the Contact Center Agent
(Partner Telephony) permission set so they can make and receive phone calls and listen to call recordings.
4. Create Your Partner Telephony Contact Center
To create a contact center for Service Cloud Voice with Partner Telephony, create an XML contact center definition file and import
it into Voice. Use the sample contact center definition file as a model.
5. Add and Remove Users in Your Partner Telephony Contact Center
After you create a contact center for Service Cloud Voice with Partner Telephony, add users to your contact center. You can add
Service Cloud Users who have the Contact Center Admin (Partner Telephony) permission set or the Contact Center Agent (Partner
Telephony) permission set. Remove users who no longer need access.
6. Configure the Agent Experience for Service Cloud Voice with Partner Telephony
Give support agents the information they need when helping customers on the phone. Create the Voice Call record page, which
opens when agents accept or make calls. Add the Voice Call related list to objects such as Cases, so agents can quickly see if a
customer has called about a particular case. Configure channel-object linking to automatically search for matching records and link
them to the Voice Call record. And let agents pause and resume call recording.
7. Configure Single Sign-on (SSO) to Your Telephony Provider
Let agents use a single sign-on page to log in to Voice and in to your telephony provider’s system. Configure Salesforce to serve as
your identity provider (IdP) and then follow your telephony provider’s instructions for completing the setup. Before you start, ask
your telephony provider for the instructions for setting up SSO.
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SEE ALSO:
Choose Your Service Cloud Voice Telephony Model
Service Cloud Voice Key Concepts
Service Cloud Voice Limits and Limitations
Service Cloud Voice Planning Checklist
Make Sure Salesforce Satisfies the Voice Prerequisites
USER PERMISSIONS
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Configure the Agent Experience for Service Cloud Voice with Partner Telephony
Give support agents the information they need when helping customers on the phone. Create the
EDITIONS
Voice Call record page, which opens when agents accept or make calls. Add the Voice Call related
list to objects such as Cases, so agents can quickly see if a customer has called about a particular Available in: Lightning
case. Configure channel-object linking to automatically search for matching records and link them Experience
to the Voice Call record. And let agents pause and resume call recording.
Available in: Performance,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
IN THIS SECTION: Editions
Create a Voice Call Record Page for Voice with Partner Telephony
Available in: Sales Cloud,
The Voice Call record page shows the agent information about the call. Add Service Cloud Voice Service Cloud, and
components to the page so agents can easily access Voice features such as the softphone call Government Cloud as an
features, related records, call recording, and call transcription. add-on license. Government
Configure Omni-Channel for Service Cloud Voice with Partner Telephony Cloud is supported only on
Follow these steps to configure Omni-Channel so agents can use it to accept and make calls. Service Cloud Voice with
Amazon Connect and
Create a presence status and assign it to users. Add the Omni-Channel utility to the Lightning
Service Cloud Voice with
Service Console so agents can use the Omni-Channel softphone. Optionally configure the After
Partner Telephony from
Conversation Work setting and add the After Conversation Component component to the Voice
Amazon Connect.
Call record page.
Configure the Console App for Voice with Partner Telephony
Configure your console app so agents have the tools to help customers. Give agents access to Voice Call records so they can review
past calls. To prompt agents to link a call with a contact, set up channel-object linking. Add the Voice Call related list to a Lightning
record page so agents can easily see related calls.
Let Agents Pause and Resume Call Recording
Some organizations automatically record calls for training and quality purposes. Your customers and your company might prefer
not to record certain information for privacy and legal compliance reasons. Honor your customer’s privacy and protect your company
when a call is recorded by allowing agents to pause the recording when sensitive information is exchanged. Agents can resume the
recording when it’s appropriate.
SEE ALSO:
Add Channel-Object Linking Rules for Phone Calls (Beta)
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Create a Voice Call Record Page for Voice with Partner Telephony
The Voice Call record page shows the agent information about the call. Add Service Cloud Voice
EDITIONS
components to the page so agents can easily access Voice features such as the softphone call
features, related records, call recording, and call transcription. Available in: Lightning
As a best practice, configure the Voice Call record page so agents see relevant information during Experience
the call and when looking at completed call records. We suggest arranging the components as
Available in: Performance,
described in the screenshot and table, but you might want to configure it differently based on your
Enterprise, and Unlimited
business processes. The screenshot shows a record page with the Header and Three Column Editions
template.
Available in: Sales Cloud,
You can use different page templates, but some components, such as the Call Recording Player
Service Cloud, and
and Conversation Body, can fit only on medium and large areas on the template.
Government Cloud as an
add-on license. Government
Cloud is supported only on
Service Cloud Voice with
Amazon Connect and
Service Cloud Voice with
Partner Telephony from
Amazon Connect.
USER PERMISSIONS
[1] Highlights Panel The Highlights Panel shows high-level info about the call.
[2] Call Recording The Call Recording component is included on the Voice Call record
Player page by default and must be added to a medium or large area on
the page template.
Add this component for orgs using Voice with Amazon Connect. If
you want to record calls, enable call recording in your Amazon
Connect instance.
For orgs using Voice with Partner Telephony, add this component
only if your telephony provider supports call recording.
Agents must also have the View Call Recordings permission to listen
to call recordings.
[3] Related Record This Related Record component is configured to show details about
this Voice Call.
Agents can indicate the call disposition and add notes.
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Component Description
[4] Related Record This Related Record component is configured to show the Contact record for the Caller.
If agents make outbound calls, you also can add a Related Record component that shows the
Contact record for the Recipient (that is, the person who was called).
[5] Chatter The Chatter component lets agents post updates and notify other support agents about the
call. It’s included on the Voice Call page by default.
[6] Conversation Body The Conversation Body component shows the real-time call transcript and must be added to
a medium or large area on the page template.
Add this component for orgs using Voice with Amazon Connect.
For orgs using Voice with Partner Telephony, add this component only if your telephony provider
supports transcription.
Because the Call Recording Player doesn't have an alternative text-based transcript, we
recommend adding the Conversation Body component underneath the Call Recording Player
to support accessibility.
[7] Phone The Phone component gives agents easy access to some of the Voice softphone features like
mute, hold, and end calls. It’s visible only when an agent is on a call.
We recommended placing the Phone component on the upper left or upper right corner of
the page, so it’s easy for agents to use.
Note: Use the Phone component in addition to the softphone in the Omni-Channel
utility. Agents can’t answer or dial calls from the Phone component; they need the
Omni-Channel utility to make or accept calls.
[8] After Conversation Work The After Conversation Work (ACW) component shows agents a countdown for wrap-up work
(ACW) between conversations. It’s visible only during an active countdown.
To enable the countdown feature and set the length of time, create or edit a voice call channel
and complete the After Conversation Work Time section.
[9] Related Detail The Related Detail component shows more granular info about the call.
Note: These instructions tell you how to create a Voice Call record page from scratch.
If you already have a Voice Call record page, you can edit it to add or reorganize these components. Navigate to the Voice Call
record page, click the gear icon, and click Edit Page to open it in the Lightning App Builder.
1. From Setup, enter Lightning App Builder in the Quick Find box, then select Lightning App Builder.
2. Click New.
3. Click Record Page, then click Next.
4. For Label, give the page a name such as Voice Call Record Page.
5. For Object, select Voice Call, then click Next.
6. In the Create a new Lightning page window, select a page template from the Choose Page Template menu.
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For example, the screenshot shows the Header and Three Regions page template.
7. Click Finish.
8. Select a component and drag it to the page. Repeat until you’ve added the components that you want to your page.
Tip: To filter the component lists, enter the name of the component in the search bar.
a. Select the Phone component onto the page, and drag it to the upper left side or upper right side of the page.
b. Select the Call Recording Player component and drag it to the page.
c. Select the Conversation Body component and drag it to the page, and put it in a medium or large area of the page layout.
d. If you plan to enable After Conversation Work (beta) in your voice call channel, drag the After Conversation Work component
onto the upper left side or upper right side of the page.
e. Optionally add more components to the page.
SEE ALSO:
Lightning App Builder
Standard Lightning Page Components
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4. Optionally, give agents a set amount of time after a call ends to wrap up their work.
a. From Setup, enter Service Channels in the Quick Find box, then select Service Channels.
b. Click Edit next to the Voice channel.
The Voice service channel is automatically created when you turn on Voice.
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c. In the After Conversation Work Time section, select Give agents wrap-up time after conversations.
d. In the Max Time (seconds) field, enter the number of seconds that agents have to wrap up their work after a conversation. The
value must be 30–3600 seconds (60 minutes).
Important: Make sure that the After Conversation Work component is added to the Voice Call page layout. Otherwise,
agents don’t see the countdown.
Note: After Conversation Work (ACW) is a Beta Service. Customer may opt to try such Beta Service in its sole discretion.
Any use of the Beta Service is subject to the applicable Beta Services Terms provided at Agreements and Terms.
e. Click Save.
SEE ALSO:
Add the Omni-Channel Utility to a Lightning Console App
Create Presence Statuses
Give Users Access to Presence Statuses with Permission Sets
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Set Up Service Cloud Voice with Partner Telephony from Amazon Connect
You may already have an Amazon Connect instance or want to manage your own Amazon Web
EDITIONS
Services account. Service Cloud Voice with Partner Telephony from Amazon Connect lets you
integrate your own Amazon Connect instance with Service Cloud Voice. Before you start, review Available in: Lightning
the Voice prerequisites, limitations, and planning resources. Experience
Important: Service Cloud Voice with Partner Telephony from Amazon Connect is different Available in: Performance,
from the default Service Cloud Voice product. In the default Voice product, Salesforce handles Enterprise, and Unlimited
many of the Amazon Connect management and configuration tasks for you. If that’s what Editions
you want to set up, we’ve got you covered—see Set Up Service Cloud Voice with Amazon
Available in: Sales Cloud,
Connect.
Service Cloud, and
This guide explains how to set up and maintain Service Cloud Voice with Partner Telephony from Government Cloud as an
Amazon Connect: Get Started with Service Cloud Voice with Partner Telephony from Amazon add-on license. Government
Connect. Cloud is supported only on
Service Cloud Voice with
Amazon Connect and
SEE ALSO:
Service Cloud Voice with
Choose Your Service Cloud Voice Telephony Model Partner Telephony from
Plan Your Voice Contact Center Amazon Connect.
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4. Remove the Dialer softphone utility from the Sales console footer, and replace it with the Omni-Channel utility so agents can make
and receive calls.
5. Assign permission sets to the sales reps who need access to Voice features:
• Service Cloud Voice permission sets: Contact Center Agent OR Contact Center Admin
• High Velocity Sales permission sets: High Velocity Sales Cadence Creator OR High Velocity Sales User
Users with a High Velocity Sales permission set have access to the HVS app, the Work Queue, My List, and other High Velocity Sales
features, and can work prospects assigned to them through sales cadence steps such as calls and emails.
Einstein Conversation
Start Using Conversation Insights Insights for Service is
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Conversation Insights, and select General available in: Enterprise,
Settings under Conversation Insights. Performance, and
Unlimited Editions
2. Turn on the feature. Conversation Insights Readiness can take some time to switch to Ready
to use. Continue with the next steps in the meantime.
3. Connect a recording provider. Amazon Connect can be connected if Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect is enabled, and
Sales Dialer can be connected if Sales Dialer is enabled. You can disable or update your chosen recording provider at any time.
4. Click Add Assignments to give users—typically, managers or supervisors—access to the Conversation Insights dashboard and
daily insight summary emails.
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Note: Salesforce also provides several automatic service insights that can’t be customized, such as Escalation, Payments, and
Attrition Mentioned. You can view them on the Automatic tab of the Call Insights page.
3. Click the Competitor Mentioned insight and repeat the previous step, listing any competitor names that can arise in calls.
4. Optionally, click New Custom Insight to define more insights. For each custom insight, add keywords, choose one or more categories,
and optionally, select a speaker. Then, activate and save it.
Tip: Custom insights are a great way to tailor Conversation Insights’ analysis to your business priorities and terminology. For
example, use custom insights to identify calls in which callers mention issues related to delivery, billing, or compliance.
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Which recording providers can Sales Dialer or Amazon Sales Dialer or Amazon Connect
I use? Connect
Which calls are analyzed for Sales call recordings are Service call recordings are
insights? scanned for mentions of scanned for mentions of
standard and custom sales standard and custom service
insights. insights.
A call is a sales call if the call A call is a service call if the call
owner has the Conversation owner has the Conversation
Insights for Sales or HVS Insights for Service permission
Conversation Insights set.
permission set. If they also have
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SEE ALSO:
Analyze Call Recordings for Insights
Einstein Conversation Insights
Recording Providers
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Graph Description
Call Volume Shows the number of inbound calls versus outbound calls.
Average Handle Time Shows the average amount of time an agent spends on a call.
Average Speed To Answer Shows the average amount of time a customer is waiting before an agent
answers the call.
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Graph Description
First Call Resolution (FCR) Shows the resolution for the first call that a customer makes to the contact
center.
Abandonment Rate Shows the percentage of calls where the customer hangs up before the agent
answers the call.
Calls to Cases Shows the number of calls that result in opening a case.
Your contact center’s metrics depend on your company’s policies about how
calls are managed.
For example, some companies open a case for every call. Other companies open
a case only when the issue isn’t resolved during the call and is escalated.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Permissions for the Service Analytics
Create and Share an App from a Tableau CRM Template
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To create a report that shows monthly billing charges, filter the report by the Usage Month To create, edit, and delete
reports in private folders:
and Usage Year fields, for example, June 2020. This filter shows minutes and charges for
• Create and Customize
the specified month and year.
Reports
d. When you save your work, give your report a name and a description. To create, edit, and delete
e. To view report results, click Run. reports in public and private
folders:
When viewing reports, keep these considerations in mind. • Report Builder (Lightning
Experience
• Salesforce reports on usage data based on information passed from Amazon Web Services Cost
Explorer. For information about AWS Cost Explorer, see
https://aws.amazon.com/aws-cost-management/aws-cost-explorer/.
• Usage data is available after a two-day delay. For example, if you want to see the data for January 31, 2020, it’s available in the report
on February 2, 2020.
• Salesforce collects aggregated usage and billing data for the previous month from AWS on the 5th day of the month for the Voice
Usage and Cost Metrics report. For example, the billing data for the month of June is available on July 5.
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• Report data is aggregated into the active org and can be viewed only from the active org. If you’re using a sandbox or a trial org,
create the report in the active org that the sandbox or trial org is linked to.
• Usage data from Amazon Cost Explorer is reported in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) without a timestamp. Salesforce stores this data
from AWS, but uses midnight for the timestamp. The Salesforce reports show data based on the user’s time zone. As a result, the
reporting can be a bit confusing due to the time zone differences. Here’s an example:
– An agent answers a call on June 3 at 3 pm Pacific Standard Time (PST), which is 10 pm GMT. Amazon Connect logs this call.
– The Amazon Cost Explorer logs the call as occurring on June 3, but without a timestamp.
– Salesforce receives the data from Amazon Cost Explorer and logs the call as occurring on June 3 at midnight GMT (00:00 GMT).
– A user in California runs a report. Greenwich Mean Time is seven hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time. The Salesforce report
normalizes the data into Pacific Standard Time and shows the call as occurring on June 3 at 00:00 GMT, which is 5:00 pm PST.
SEE ALSO:
Create a Custom Report Type
Build a Report in Lightning Experience
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4. Put the caller on hold by clicking the Pause button. When you’re ready to resume the call, click the Play button.
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USER PERMISSIONS
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USER PERMISSIONS
SEE ALSO:
Listen to and Collaborate on Call Recordings
Knowledge Article: Service Cloud Voice Contact Center Updates
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USER PERMISSIONS
1. Go to the Voice Call list view on the Voice Call tab. To play and comment on
call recordings:
Alternatively, open the App Launcher, enter Voice, and select Voice Calls. • View Call Recordings
2. Click the Voice Call record for the call that you want to listen to.
3. To listen to the recording, click the Play icon on the Call Audio Player [1].
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4. To comment, click the white space above the progression bar on the call recording and enter your comment.
• To view a comment, click the diamond above the progression bar.
• To follow a comment thread, click Like.
• To respond, click Reply.
• To mention a colleague or group, enter “@” and the name.
You also can view, reply to, edit, and delete comments on a call recording in the Chatter Feed.
Comments are created in plain text. You can’t insert or attach images, file attachments, and rich text in the comments. You can insert
emojis if you reply in the Chatter Feed, but not if you reply in the Call Audio Player.
SEE ALSO:
Analyze Call Recordings for Insights
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USER PERMISSIONS
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USER PERMISSIONS
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USER PERMISSIONS
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call or changing your status during the ACW period also ends the countdown and closes the agent work. If you log out of Salesforce
during an ACW period without marking it done, the call’s ACW period continues for a little over a minute.
If a Call is Transferred
When a call is transferred from one agent to another, each agent’s ACW period begins the moment they exit the call. This is true for both
warm and cold transfers.
Tip: Don’t see the ACW component on a Voice Call record? Your admin likely hasn’t set up the feature, so there’s no wrap-up
work time limit. Keep the call record open in the console until you complete your work for the call, then close the record so you’re
available for another customer.
Note: After Conversation Work (ACW) is a Beta Service. Customer may opt to try such Beta Service in its sole discretion. Any use
of the Beta Service is subject to the applicable Beta Services Terms provided at Agreements and Terms.
IN THIS SECTION:
Salesforce Open CTI
Open CTI is a JavaScript API that lets you build and integrate third-party computer-telephony integration (CTI) systems with Salesforce
Call Center. To display CTI functionality in Salesforce, Open CTI uses browsers as clients. With Open CTI, you can make calls from a
softphone directly in Salesforce without installing CTI adapters on your machines.
Salesforce Call Center
Call Center integrates Salesforce with third-party computer-telephony integration (CTI) systems. Call center users can see Salesforce
information for incoming calls, make out-going calls directly from Salesforce, and report on call outcome, duration, and more. A call
center is great for boosting productivity for Salesforce users that spend time on the phone.
Set Up Your Third-Party Phone in Salesforce with a Guided Setup Flow
Painlessly connect your third-party phone implementation to Salesforce with a quick guided setup flow. Tell us who your provider
is, and we’ll install the correct AppExchange package to make it happen. Then, connect to your provider and select your phone users
in Salesforce. Supported for Amazon Connect, b+s Connects for Cisco, Five9, and NewVoiceMedia.
Set Up a Call Center
Before Salesforce users can access and use a call center, an administrator must complete various tasks.
Creating a Call Center
There are two ways to create a call center record in Salesforce—importing or cloning.
Managing Call Centers
After you set up a call center, you can update the call center settings as your business needs change.
Managing Call Center Users
To let users make calls, add them to your call center.
Call Customers on the Phone
Phone calls are one of the easiest ways to reach your customers.
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Note: The way you implement Open CTI depends on your org’s user interface. There are separate Open CTI APIs for Salesforce
Classic and Lightning Experience. You can’t swap the two Open CTI APIs in custom JavaScript code because they behave and
function differently. Make sure that you think about where you want to implement your CTI system before you begin developing.
Before the introduction of Open CTI, Salesforce users could only use the features of a CTI system after they installed a CTI adapter program
on their machines. These types of programs often included desktop software that required maintenance and didn’t offer the benefits
of cloud architecture.
Important: CTI Toolkit, also known as the Desktop CTI, is retired. The CTI Toolkit is no longer supported, and adapters built on
the CTI Toolkit don’t work. To continue using CTI functionality, migrate to Salesforce Open CTI.
Typically, CTI vendors or partners create Open CTI implementations. After you have an Open CTI implementation, it’s integrated with
Salesforce using the Salesforce Call Center. Keep in mind that the out-of-the-box Service app is a Salesforce Classic app and only supports
Open CTI for Salesforce Classic. To make calls in Lightning Experience, use Open CTI for Lightning Experience in a Lightning Experience
app, like our out-of-the-box Service Console app.
CTI vendors and partners use Open CTI in JavaScript to embed API calls and processes. With Open CTI vendors and partners can:
• Build CTI systems that integrate with Salesforce without the use of CTI adapters.
• Create customizable softphones (call-control tools) that function as fully integrated parts of Salesforce and the Salesforce console.
• Provide users with CTI systems that are browser and platform agnostic, for example, CTI for Microsoft® Internet Explorer®, Mozilla®
Firefox®, Apple® Safari®, or Google Chrome™ on Mac, Linux, or Windows machines.
SEE ALSO:
Open CTI Developer Guide
Salesforce Call Center
Supported Browsers
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SEE ALSO:
Open CTI Developer Guide
Supported Browsers
Set Up a Call Center
Creating a Call Center
Managing Call Center Users
USER PERMISSIONS
Where to Access the Setup Flow
This flow is available from Service Setup in Lightning Experience. You can get to Service Setup by To manage call centers, call
center users, call center
clicking and selecting Service Setup. directories, and SoftPhone
layouts:
• Manage Call Centers
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In Service Setup, you can find recommended setup flows, content, and tips based on what you’ve set up already. If you don’t see the
setup flow you’re looking for, you can click View All to see the full list.
Select the tile to launch the flow.
Note: Users can’t be added to more than one softphone or phone product. Selecting a user in this setup flow overrides their
existing phone assignment (if they have one).
SEE ALSO:
Optimize Setup with the Service Setup Assistant
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Note: Keep in mind that the out-of-the-box Service app is a Salesforce Classic app and only Available in: Salesforce
supports Open CTI for Salesforce Classic. To make calls in Lightning Experience, use Open CTI Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
for Lightning Experience in a Lightning Experience app, like our out-of-the-box Service Console
Experience
app.
1. Work with a developer or partner to create a computer-telephony integration (CTI) Available in: Essentials,
implementation that uses the Open CTI API and works with your existing telephony system. Professional, Enterprise,
Most call centers are created by installing a package from the AppExchange. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
If you’re developing your own implementation, define a new call center record for every CTI
system in use at your business.
USER PERMISSIONS
2. Assign Salesforce users to the appropriate call center. A call center user must be associated with
a call center to view the softphone. To manage call centers, call
center users, call center
3. Optionally, you can make further customizations. directories, and SoftPhone
• Configure call center phone directories with more directory numbers and updated phone layouts:
number search layouts. • Manage Call Centers
• Customize softphone layouts for different user profiles, so that the softphone of a sales
person might show related leads, accounts, and opportunities, while the softphone of a support agent might show related cases
and solutions.
IN THIS SECTION:
Call Center Definition Files
Creating a Call Center Definition File
Importing a Call Center Definition File
SEE ALSO:
Open CTI Developer Guide
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If your organization modifies an adapter or builds a new one, you must customize the adapter's call center definition file so that it includes
any additional call center information that is required. For example, if you are building a CTI adapter for a system that supports a backup
server, your call center definition file should include fields for the backup server's IP address and port number. CTI adapters for systems
that do not make use of a backup server do not need those fields in their associated call center definition files.
Note: Once a call center definition file has been imported into Salesforce, the set of fields that were specified in the file cannot
be modified. The values assigned to those fields, however, can be changed within Salesforce.
See the following topics for information about creating and importing a call center definition file:
• To create a call center definition file for a custom CTI adapter, see Creating a Call Center Definition File on page 431.
• To view a sample call center definition file, see Sample Call Center Definition File on page 435.
• To import a call center definition file into Salesforce, see Importing a Call Center Definition File on page 437.
SEE ALSO:
Creating a Call Center
Cloning a Call Center
Call Center Definition XML Format
Required Call Center Elements and Attributes
Specifying Values for <item> Elements
SEE ALSO:
Call Center Definition Files
Importing a Call Center Definition File
Cloning a Call Center
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name String Required The internal name of the section as defined in the Salesforce
database. You can use this value to refer to the section when writing
custom adapter or SoftPhone code.
Names must be composed of only alphanumeric characters with
no white space or other punctuation. They are limited to 40
characters each.
Names beginning with req are reserved for required Salesforce
sections only (see Required Call Center Elements and Attributes on
page 434). Other reserved words that cannot be used for the name
attribute include label, sortOrder,
internalNameLabel, and displayNameLabel.
label String Optional The name of the section when viewed in Salesforce. Labels can be
composed of any string of UTF-8 characters. They are limited to
1000 characters each.
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item
This element represents a single field in a call center definition, such as the IP address of a primary server or the dialing prefix for
international calls. When call centers are edited in Salesforce, each <item> element is listed under the section to which it belongs.
You can have multiple <item> elements in a <section> element.
Attributes:
name String Required The internal name of the item as defined in the Salesforce database.
You can use this value to refer to the item when writing custom
adapter or SoftPhone code.
Names must be composed of only alphanumeric characters with
no white space or other punctuation. They are limited to 40
characters each.
Names beginning with req are reserved for required Salesforce
sections only (see Required Call Center Elements and Attributes on
page 434). Other reserved words that cannot be used for the name
attribute include label, sortOrder,
internalNameLabel, and displayNameLabel.
label String Optional The name of the item when viewed in Salesforce. Labels can be
composed of any string of UTF-8 characters. They are limited to
1,000 characters each.
SEE ALSO:
Creating a Call Center
Call Center Definition XML Format
Creating a Call Center Definition File
Required Call Center Elements and Attributes
Specifying Values for <item> Elements
Sample Call Center Definition File
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SEE ALSO:
Creating a Call Center
Creating a Call Center Definition File
Call Center Definition XML Format
Required Call Center Elements and Attributes
Specifying Values for <item> Elements
Sample Call Center Definition File
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To specify a value for an <item> element in a call center definition file, place the value between the opening and closing tags of the
<item>. For example:
sets the value of the reqInternalName <item> to MyCallCenter. Note that any <item> value other than the value for
reqInternalName can be edited in Salesforce after the call center definition is imported.
SEE ALSO:
Creating a Call Center
Call Center Definition XML Format
Creating a Call Center Definition File
Required Call Center Elements and Attributes
Sample Call Center Definition File
<!--
All sections and items whose name value begins with "req" are
required in a valid call center definition file. The sortOrder
and label attributes can be changed for all required sections
and items except reqGeneralInfo, reqInternalName, and
reqDisplayName, in which only the label attribute can be altered.
<callCenter>
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</callCenter>
SEE ALSO:
Creating a Call Center
Creating a Call Center Definition File
Call Center Definition XML Format
Required Call Center Elements and Attributes
Specifying Values for <item> Elements
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SEE ALSO:
Creating a Call Center
Managing Call Centers
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IN THIS SECTION:
Cloning a Call Center
Displaying and Editing a Call Center
Customizing a Call Center Directory
Adding a Number to a Call Center Directory
Customizing Softphone Layouts
SEE ALSO:
Open CTI Developer Guide
Note: If you have read-only access to a field, the value of that field isn’t carried over to the cloned record.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up a Call Center
Creating a Call Center
Managing Call Centers
Displaying and Editing a Call Center
Importing a Call Center Definition File
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Note: Some Salesforce CRM Call Center features might not be available with your softphone
because of customizations that have been made for your organization. See your administrator
for details.
SEE ALSO:
Open CTI Developer Guide
Creating a Call Center
Managing Call Centers
Call Center Definition Files
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Tip: If you have a large number of directory numbers to define, use the Data Loader to create them in one step.
SEE ALSO:
Open CTI Developer Guide
Set Up a Call Center
Customizing a Call Center Directory
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6. In the Display these Salesforce Objects section, click Add/Remove Objects to add, remove, or change the order
of links to call-related objects.
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7. Below the list of selected objects, click Edit next to each If single <Object> found, display row to specify the
fields that should be displayed in the softphone layout if a single record for that object is the only record found. You can add, remove,
or change the order of fields.
8. In the Screen Pop Settings section (for inbound call types), click Edit next to each type of record-matching row to specify
which screens should display when the details of an inbound call match or don't match existing records in Salesforce. The following
table describes each record-matching row and its screen pop options:
No matching records Use to set the screen pop Don't pop any screen
options for when the details Select if you don't want any screen to display.
of an inbound call don't
match any existing Salesforce Pop to new
records. Select to display a new record page you specify from the
dropdown list.
Pop to Visualforce page
Select to display a specific Visualforce page.
The CTI adapter passes data from the call to the Visualforce page
via a URL. This includes at least ANI (the caller ID) and DNIS
(the number that the caller dialed). The URL can pass more data
to the Visualforce page if necessary.
Pop to flow
Select to display a specific flow. You can use active screen flows
only.
Single-matching Use to set the screen pop Don't pop any screen
record options for when the details Select if you don't want any screen to display.
of an inbound call match one
existing Salesforce record. Pop detail page
Select to display the matching record's detail page.
Pop to Visualforce page
Select to display a specific Visualforce page.
The CTI adapter passes data from the call to the Visualforce page
via a URL. This includes at least ANI (the caller ID) and DNIS
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Multiple-matching Use to set the screen pop Don't pop any screen
records options for when the details Select if you don't want any screen to display.
of an inbound call match
more than one existing Pop to search page
Salesforce record. Select to display a search page.
Pop to Visualforce page
Select to display a specific Visualforce page.
The CTI adapter passes data from the call to the Visualforce page
via a URL. This includes at least ANI (the caller ID) and DNIS
(the number that the caller dialed). The URL can pass more data
to the Visualforce page if necessary.
Pop to flow
Select to display a specific flow. You can use active screen flows
only.
9. Configure softphone layouts for any remaining call types in the Select Call Type picklist.
10. Click Save.
Note: Some Salesforce CRM Call Center features might not be available with your softphone because of customizations that have
been made for your organization. See your administrator for details.
SEE ALSO:
Open CTI Developer Guide
Set Up a Call Center
Assigning a Softphone Layout to a User Profile
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SEE ALSO:
Open CTI Developer Guide
Set Up a Call Center
Creating a Call Center
Call Center Definition Files
Managing Call Center Users
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Display Name Represents the name of the call center as displayed in Salesforce. It must
have a sortOrder value of 1. Display Name has a maximum
length of 1,000 UTF-8 characters.
SEE ALSO:
Displaying and Editing a Call Center
Creating a Call Center
Managing Call Center Users
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SEE ALSO:
Open CTI Developer Guide
Set Up a Call Center
Creating a Call Center
Managing Call Centers
5. Specify search criteria to find the Salesforce users who should be assigned to the call center. Available in: Essentials,
Professional, Enterprise,
6. Click Find to display the list of Salesforce users that meet your search criteria. All users who
Performance, Unlimited,
already belong to a call center are excluded from search results because a user can only be
and Developer Editions
assigned to one call center at a time.
7. Select the checkbox next to each user who should be assigned to the call center and click Add
to Call Center.
USER PERMISSIONS
Alternatively, you can change a particular user's call center in the User Edit page: To add users to a call center:
• Manage Call Centers
1. From Setup, enter Users in the Quick Find box, then select Users.
2. Click Edit next to the name of the user.
3. Modify the Call Center field as appropriate. You can change the user's call center by clicking the lookup icon ( ) and
choosing a new call center, or you can remove the user from his or her current call center by deleting the call center name from the
field.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up a Call Center
Managing Call Center Users
Creating a Call Center
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To remove multiple users at once, select the Action checkbox next to each user you want Available in: Essentials,
to remove and click Remove Users. Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Alternatively, you can change a particular user's call center in the User Edit page: and Developer Editions
1. From Setup, enter Users in the Quick Find box, then select Users.
2. Click Edit next to the name of the user. USER PERMISSIONS
3. Modify the Call Center field as appropriate. You can change the user's call center by To remove users from a call
clicking the lookup icon ( ) and choosing a new call center, or you can remove the user from center:
his or her current call center by deleting the call center name from the field. • Manage Call Centers
SEE ALSO:
Set Up a Call Center
Managing Call Center Users
Creating a Call Center
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What’s a Softphone?
A softphone is a customizable call-control tool that appears to users assigned to a call center. A
EDITIONS
softphone's functionality and user interface are determined by the Salesforce admin.
Important: CTI Toolkit, also known as the Desktop CTI, is retired. The CTI Toolkit is no longer Available in: Salesforce
supported, and adapters built on the CTI Toolkit don’t work. To continue using CTI functionality, Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
migrate to Salesforce Open CTI.
Experience
Note: Some Salesforce CRM Call Center features might not be available with your softphone because of customizations that have
been made for your organization. See your administrator for details.
Tip: Screen pops are pages that display when incoming calls match the phone number of an existing Salesforce record. The
following table describes when screen pops display (they can only display when your call center state is set to Ready for Calls):
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Outbound calls
IN THIS SECTION:
Creating Call Logs in the Softphone
Putting a Caller on Hold Using the Softphone
Transferring a Call Using the Softphone
Making a Conference Call Using the Softphone
Wrapping Up a Call Using the Softphone
SEE ALSO:
Get to Know Your Softphone Features
Changing Your Call Center State
Note: Custom object records can only be associated with a call log if the custom object tracks activities.
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Service Cloud Phone from a Call Center
By default, the most recently viewed records are selected in the Name and Related to lists unless you manually choose a
different record. The records that you choose in these lists will include the call log in their Activity History related lists once the call
ends. These records are also displayed with the call if it is transferred to or conferenced with another Salesforce CRM Call Center user.
2. Edit the Subject and Comments fields with information about what happened during the call.
After the call ends, the call log is automatically saved as a completed task. You can quickly access the saved call logs for calls that were
just completed by expanding the Last N Calls section of the softphone. Up to three of your last calls are displayed in this list with your
most recent call displayed first:
• To modify a recent call log, click Edit next to the call log's Subject field.
• To view a saved call log, click the call log's Subject.
• To view a record that is associated with a call log, click the name of the record.
To view a list of all calls that you've made or received in the past day, click My Calls Today. This link opens the My Calls Today report in
the Reports tab.
Note: Some Salesforce CRM Call Center features might not be available with your softphone because of customizations that have
been made for your organization. See your administrator for details.
SEE ALSO:
Get to Know Your Softphone Features
Wrapping Up a Call Using the Softphone
Note: Some Salesforce CRM Call Center features might not be available with your softphone
USER PERMISSIONS
because of customizations that have been made for your organization. See your administrator
for details. To put a caller on hold:
• Member of a call center
SEE ALSO:
Get to Know Your Softphone Features
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5. When you are ready to transfer your first caller to the destination number, click Complete To transfer a call:
Transfer. If you no longer want to transfer the call, click Cancel Transfer. • Member of a call center
Once you complete a transfer, your line is immediately freed and you return to the Ready for Calls
state.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Call Center
Get to Know Your Softphone Features
Wrapping Up a Call Using the Softphone
Creating Call Logs in the Softphone
• If you click Hold while on a conference, your line becomes mute but other conference
participants can still speak to one another.
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Service Cloud Phone from a Call Center
• Some phone systems limit the number of callers who can be conferenced on a single line. See your administrator for details.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Call Center
Get to Know Your Softphone Features
Putting a Caller on Hold Using the Softphone
4. If wrap up codes are enabled, your call center state is set to Wrap Up and a set of reason codes
are displayed in the softphone. While in this state you cannot receive any incoming calls. USER PERMISSIONS
a. Select the reason code that best represents the outcome of the call. To end a call:
b. Optionally make any additional modifications to your call log. • Member of a call center
c. Click Done. Your call center state returns to Ready for Calls, and the log for your call is
automatically saved.
All saved call logs are placed in the Last N Calls section of the softphone for quick reference. You can review details of these call logs by
clicking any of the associated links:
• The Subject link (for example, “Call 6/01/2006 12:34 PM”) opens the call log details page.
• Either of the Related To links opens the detail page for the specified record.
Note: Some Salesforce CRM Call Center features might not be available with your softphone because of customizations that have
been made for your organization. See your administrator for details.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Call Center
Get to Know Your Softphone Features
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IN THIS SECTION:
Making a Call by Dialing a Number Manually
Making a Call Using the Call Center Directory
Making a Call Using Click-to-Dial
SEE ALSO:
Get to Know Your Softphone Features
Putting a Caller on Hold Using the Softphone
Making a Conference Call Using the Softphone
Transferring a Call Using the Softphone
Wrapping Up a Call Using the Softphone
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Service Cloud Phone from a Call Center
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Service Cloud Phone from a Call Center
Note: Some Salesforce CRM Call Center features might not be available with your softphone
because of customizations that have been made for your organization. See your administrator
for details.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Call Center
Use a Softphone in the Salesforce Console in Salesforce Classic
Wrapping Up a Call Using the Softphone
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Service Cloud Phone from a Call Center
SEE ALSO:
Get to Know Your Softphone Features
when you do not want them, you can set your call center state next to the icon in the softphone. Available in: Salesforce
Possible values for call center state include: Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Call Center State Description
Available in: Essentials,
Ready for Calls You are not currently on a call, and you are
Professional, Enterprise,
prepared to receive the next direct or queued
Performance, Unlimited,
call.
and Developer Editions
Not Ready for Calls You are not currently on a call, and you are not
prepared to receive the next queued call. USER PERMISSIONS
In this state you can still receive calls that are
dialed directly to your extension. To change your call center
state:
• Member of a call center
On a Call You are currently connected to a caller and
cannot receive either a direct or a queued call.
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Service Cloud Phone from a Call Center
Log Out You want to log out from your call center phone system and remain
logged in to Salesforce. After you select this option, Salesforce CRM
Call Center automatically closes the connection to your call center
and displays the softphone login screen.
When you first log in to Salesforce CRM Call Center, your call center state is automatically set to Not Ready for Calls. You must choose
Ready for Calls from the drop-down list before you can receive any calls.
Note: Some Salesforce CRM Call Center features might not be available with your softphone because of customizations that have
been made for your organization. See your administrator for details.
SEE ALSO:
Get to Know Your Softphone Features
Logging In to the Softphone
Making a Call Using the Softphone
Wrapping Up a Call Using the Softphone
Automatically log in to your Select this option if you want Salesforce to use Available in: Essentials,
call center when logging into saved login information to automatically log Professional, Enterprise,
Salesforce you in to your softphone. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
If only one record found on Choose one of the following options to specify
incoming call how a record should be displayed when it is the
USER PERMISSIONS
only one that matches an incoming call:
• Always open the record To edit personal softphone
automatically. This option displays settings:
the record in the main Salesforce window, • Member of a call center
overwriting whatever was there before. All
unsaved changes from your previous record
are lost.
• Never open the record
automatically. This option does not
display the matching record. To view it you
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Service Cloud Phone from a Call Center
Setting Description
must click on the record's link in the softphone.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Call Center
Get to Know Your Softphone Features
Logging In to the Softphone
3. When you find the phone number that you want, click its associated record name to To use a call center
directory:
automatically enter the number into the softphone.
• Member of a call center
4. Click Dial to make the call.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Call Center
Get to Know Your Softphone Features
Making a Call Using the Softphone
Making a Conference Call Using the Softphone
Transferring a Call Using the Softphone
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Service Cloud Provide Web Forms with Web-to-Case
Web-to-Case Prerequisites
Before setting up Web-to-Case, complete the following prerequisites.
EDITIONS
• Create custom case fields, if needed.
• Create a default email template for the automated notification that is sent to your customers Available in: Salesforce
when they submit a case. Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
• Create case queues if you wish to assign incoming cases to queues in addition to individual Experience
users.
Available in: Essentials,
• Select the default owner of cases that don’t meet the criteria in your assignment rule on the
Professional, Enterprise,
Support Settings page in Setup.
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
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Service Cloud Provide Web Forms with Web-to-Case
• Create an active case assignment rule to determine how web-generated cases are assigned to users or put into queues. If you do
not set an active assignment rule, all web-generated cases are assigned to the default owner you specify on the Support Settings
page in Setup.
SEE ALSO:
Customize Support Settings
Create Custom Fields
Email Templates in Salesforce Classic
Create Queues
Set Up Assignment Rules
Set Up Web-to-Case
Gather customer support requests directly from your company’s website and automatically generate
EDITIONS
new cases with Web-to-Case. Setting up Web-to-Case involves enabling the feature, choosing
settings, and adding the Web-to-Case form to your website. Available in: Salesforce
Note: Before your start, review the Web-to-Case prerequisites and limitations. Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
1. From Setup, enter Web-to-Case in the Quick Find box, then select Web-to-Case. Experience
Important: reCAPTCHA is provided by Google. Make sure that reCAPTCHA is supported To set up Web-to-Case:
in your geography. • Customize Application
6. Select Hide Record Information to hide the record information in the email sent to customers if the case creation fails.
7. Enter an email signature if you’d like to use a different signature than the default.
8. Click Save.
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Service Cloud Provide Web Forms with Web-to-Case
After enabling and setting up Web-to-Case, generate the HTML code that your webmaster can put on your website so that customers
can submit cases. Keep in mind that up to 5,000 cases can be generated per day with Web-to-Case.
SEE ALSO:
Web-to-Case Prerequisites
Web-to-Case Notes and Limitations
Generate Web-to-Case HTML Code
Enable reCAPTCHA to Prevent Spam Cases
Note: If Include reCAPTCHA in HTML is selected but Require reCAPTCHA Verification isn’t, existing forms without
reCAPTCHA keep working and continue to generate cases. We recommend that you enable Require reCAPTCHA
Verification and then ensure that your HTML on your website includes the reCAPTCHA validation code.
b. Enter the key pair that you obtained from Google and registered on the Salesforce Platform.
Use the lookup window to select a key that is already registered on the Salesforce Platform.
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Service Cloud Provide Web Forms with Web-to-Case
If the Google reCAPTCHA server fails or goes offline and spam filtering isn’t available, this setting allows all case traffic through.
This setting is enabled by default and we recommend that you use it. If this setting is disabled and the Google reCAPTCHA server
fails or goes offline, then case traffic might be lost.
b. Click Generate.
SEE ALSO:
Register with Google reCAPTCHA
How can I prevent spam from becoming cases?
reCAPTCHA FAQs
3. If your organization uses the Self-Service portal or the Customer Portal and you want To generate Web-to-Case
HTML
Web-generated cases to be visible to users in these portals, select Visible in
• Customize Application
Self-Service Portal.
4. Specify the complete URL to which customers are directed after they submit their information.
For example, the URL can be for a “thank you” page or your company's home page.
5. If your organization uses reCAPTCHA, see Enable reCAPTCHA to Prevent Spam Cases.
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Service Cloud Provide Web Forms with Web-to-Case
6. If your organization uses the Translation Workbench or has renamed tabs, select the language for the form labels displayed on your
Web-to-Case form.
The source of your Web-to-Case form is always in your personal language.
7. Click Generate.
8. Copy the generated HTML code and provide it to your company’s webmaster so he or she can incorporate it into your website.
9. Click Finished.
Tip: To allow customers to report cases on several products at a time, use a custom multi-select picklist.
To test the Web-to-Case form, add the line <input type="hidden" name="debug" value="1"> to the code. This line
redirects you to a debugging page when you submit the form. Don't forget to remove it before releasing the Web-to-Case page to your
website.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Web-to-Case
Enable reCAPTCHA to Prevent Spam Cases
SEE ALSO:
General Web-to-Case FAQs
reCAPTCHA FAQs
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Service Cloud Provide Web Forms with Web-to-Case
What is the maximum number of web cases we can capture? Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
In Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance, and Developer Edition organizations, you can orgs) and Lightning
capture up to 5,000 cases in a 24–hour period. If your company generates more case requests than Experience
that, click Help & Training at the top of any page and select the My Cases tab to submit a request
for a higher limit directly to Salesforce Customer Support. Available in: Essentials,
Professional, Enterprise,
When your organization reaches the 24–hour limit, Salesforce stores additional requests in a pending Performance, Unlimited,
request queue that contains both Web-to-Case and Web-to-Lead requests. The requests are and Developer Editions
submitted when the limit refreshes. The pending request queue has a limit of 50,000 combined
requests. If your organization reaches the pending request limit, additional requests are rejected
and not queued. Your administrator receives email notifications for the first five rejected submissions. Contact Salesforce Customer
Support to change your organization's pending request limit.
SEE ALSO:
reCAPTCHA FAQs
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Service Cloud Provide Web Forms with Web-to-Case
SEE ALSO:
Case Fields
reCAPTCHA FAQs
Review frequently asked questions about reCAPTCHA for Web-to-Case and Web-to-Lead.
EDITIONS
How can I prevent spam from becoming cases? Available in: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
You can limit spam in the following ways. Experience
• reCAPTCHA is your first line of defense. In Salesforce, enable reCAPTCHA. Then make sure that
Available in: Essentials,
the code on your website includes the reCAPTCHA verification.
Professional, Enterprise,
• Implement an anti-spam alternative. Performance, Unlimited,
• For severe attacks, ask Salesforce support to create a blocklist rule to reject requests from specific and Developer Editions
IP addresses.
• Download spam filter apps from AppExchange.
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Service Cloud Provide Web Forms with Web-to-Case
Important: In orgs created before Winter ’19, you must enable Require reCAPTCHA Verification manually, and then regenerate
your HTML code and update your website. In orgs created after Winter ’19, Require reCAPTCHA Verification is enabled by default.
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Service Cloud Send and Receive Emails with Email-to-Case
• Use a workflow rule to detect cases from specific sources, and reassign those cases to a specific queue. This approach keeps the
cases away from your agents. You can also use the queue to periodically review and delete the cases. If you use this approach,
consider adjusting one of your case assignment rules to prevent sending a case creation email to the sender of the spam.
• Create a flow to perform additional validation on cases that are created using Web-to-Case or Web-to-Lead. For example, for cases
created that don’t relate to an account or contact, you can automatically close the case with a status of Deflected. Then you can
send an email back to the sender stating the sender wasn’t authorized to submit a case. In addition, you can implement code that
extracts their domain to help you notify the sender’s admin that an unauthorized user contacted your support team.
• Use an Apex class or trigger to delete spam requests before cases are created. Apex triggers are great for creating comprehensive
and complex flows.
Set up: Requires you to set up Salesforce Requires you to download and
Apex email services to turn emails install the Email-to-Case Agent on
into cases your local machine to turn emails
into cases
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Service Cloud Send and Receive Emails with Email-to-Case
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Email-to-Case with a Guided Setup Flow
Get your cases into Service Cloud fast with a quick guided setup flow for Email-to-Case. Connect your support email address to
Salesforce, give your incoming cases a default priority and queue, and set up mail forwarding so your emails become cases for your
support team.
Set Up Email-to-Case
Set up Email-to-Case to efficiently resolve customer issues. Salesforce automatically creates cases and auto-populates case fields
when customers send messages to the email addresses you specify.
Set Up On-Demand Email-to-Case
Efficiently resolve customer inquiries via email without having to install the Email-to-Case agent software. When customers send
messages to email addresses that you specify, Salesforce creates cases and auto-populates case fields.
Configure Routing Addresses for Email-to-Case and On-Demand Email-to-Case
Set routing addresses to ensure that customer emails are handled correctly.
Email-to-Case FAQ
Review frequently asked questions about Email-to-Case.
This flow is available from Service Setup in Lightning Experience. You can get to Service Setup by clicking and selecting Service
Setup.
In Service Setup, you can find recommended setup flows, content, and tips based on what you’ve set up already. If you don’t see the
setup flow you’re looking for, you can click View All to see the full list.
Select the tile to launch the flow.
SEE ALSO:
Optimize Setup with the Service Setup Assistant
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Service Cloud Send and Receive Emails with Email-to-Case
Set Up Email-to-Case
Set up Email-to-Case to efficiently resolve customer issues. Salesforce automatically creates cases
EDITIONS
and auto-populates case fields when customers send messages to the email addresses you specify.
Implement this feature in one click with the Service Setup Assistant: Learn more on page 6 Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
Note: You can send only one email to one Email-to-case service address at a time. Sending orgs) and Lightning
an email to multiple Email-to-case service addresses creates multiple cases in Salesforce. Experience
1. Enable Email-to-Case and configure your Email-to-Case settings.
Email-to-Case is available
2. Configure your routing address settings to customize the way Salesforce handles your customer in: Essentials, Professional,
emails. Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
3. Test your email routing addresses by manually sending emails to them and verify that these
editions.
emails convert to cases based on their routing address settings.
4. Add the email address that you configured to your company's support website. Customers can
use this email address to submit cases to your support team. USER PERMISSIONS
5. Add the Email Quick Actions to the Cases page layout. To enable and set up
Email-to-Case:
6. Optionally, create email templates agents can use when replying to email. These templates can
• Customize Application
include merge fields that display information from the original email in the reply.
If you want to send a previously sent email to another Email-to-case service address in order to
create a new Case, don’t forward the email. Instead, create a new email with the same content. This prevents the new email from being
attached to the previously created Case.
SEE ALSO:
Send and Receive Emails with Email-to-Case
Create Text Email Templates in Salesforce Classic
Create HTML Classic Letterhead Email Templates in Salesforce Classic
Create Visualforce Email Templates in Salesforce Classic
Note: Before you can enable and configure Email-to-Case, download and install the Available in: Salesforce
Email-to-Case agent onto your local machine. If you’re using On-Demand Email-to-Case, then Classic and Lightning
Experience
it’s not necessary to download and install the Email-to-Case agent.
1. From Setup, enter Email-to-Case in the Quick Find box, then select Email-to-Case. Available in: Essentials,
Professional, Enterprise,
2. Click Edit. Performance, Unlimited,
3. Select Enable Email-to-Case. and Developer Editions
4. Configure your Email-to-Case settings.
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Send and Receive Emails with Email-to-Case
5. Click Save.
SEE ALSO:
Send and Receive Emails with Email-to-Case
Configure Routing Addresses for Email-to-Case and On-Demand Email-to-Case
Email-to-Case Settings
Configure your Email-to-Case settings to customize how Salesforce handles and creates cases from
EDITIONS
incoming emails.
To access these settings, from Setup, enter Email-to-Case in the Quick Find box, then Available in: Salesforce
select Email-to-Case. Classic and Lightning
Experience
Email-to-Case Setting Description Available in: Essentials,
Enable Email-to-Case Enables Salesforce to create cases from inbound emails. Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Notify Case Owners Allows case owners to automatically receive notifications of new and Developer Editions
on New Email emails on their existing cases. Email notifications assign a task
to the case owner to respond to the new email. Responding to
the email closes the task. To disable email notifications at any
time, deselect the check box.
Enable HTML Email Warns users before they view incoming HTML email content so
that they can avoid opening potentially malicious HTML that
could harm their computers. If this setting isn’t selected, support
agents see text instead of HTML in the email message detail
pages. When agents reply to an email, the text version of the
message is copied to the email editor, instead of the HTML
version.
Set Case Source to Updates the Case Source field to Email for all cases that
Email originate from Email-to-Case. After you enable this setting,
associated emails get marked as Read when the agent opens
the case.
If the Case Source field isn’t in the case layout, the field is still
updated to Email.
Insert Thread ID in Adds the thread ID to the subject of email. The thread ID is a
the Email Subject unique number that identifies the organization and case
associated with the outgoing email. It helps ensure that replies
to the original email are associated with the correct case.
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Service Cloud Send and Receive Emails with Email-to-Case
convenience. Any email templates still using thread ID after the release return an
empty string.
Place User Signatures before Adds the user signature after the reply, but before the email thread. If this setting isn’t
Email Threads selected, the user signature is placed at the bottom of the email thread.
Warning: If the Email Subject ID and Email Body Text ID are the same, Email-to-Case creates an infinite loop
of emails related to each case. If these settings are not selected, Email-to-Case eventually could stop accepting new emails.
To exclude the thread ID from email, deselect both the Insert Thread ID in the Email Subject and Insert Thread ID in the Email Body
checkboxes. A new case is created when a support agent responds to an outbound case email.
SEE ALSO:
Send and Receive Emails with Email-to-Case
Customize Support Settings
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Service Cloud Send and Receive Emails with Email-to-Case
5. Test your email routing addresses by manually sending emails to them and verify that these
emails convert to cases based on their routing address settings. USER PERMISSIONS
6. Add the email address that you configured to your company's support website. Customers can To enable and set up
use this email address to submit cases to your support team. On-Demand Email-to-Case:
7. Add the Email Quick Actions to the Cases page layout. • Customize Application
8. Optionally, create email templates agents can use when replying to email. These templates can
include merge fields that display information from the original email in the reply.
Note:
• On-Demand Email-to-Case lets you process customer emails up to 25 MB.
• On-Demand Email-to-Case automatically shortens email text to 32,000 characters. Contact Salesforce if you’d like this limit
raised to 128,000 characters for your organization.
SEE ALSO:
Create Text Email Templates in Salesforce Classic
Create HTML Classic Letterhead Email Templates in Salesforce Classic
Create Visualforce Email Templates in Salesforce Classic
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Service Cloud Send and Receive Emails with Email-to-Case
Note: Before you enable On-Demand Email-to-Case, set the Default Case Owner Available in: Salesforce
and Automated Case User and enable and configure Email-to-Case. Classic and Lightning
Experience
1. From Setup, enter Email-to-Case in the Quick Find box, then select Email-to-Case.
On-Demand Email-to-Case
2. Click Edit. is available in: Essentials,
3. Select Enable On-Demand Service. Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
4. Select your Over Email Rate Limit Action and Unauthorized Sender
and Developer editions.
Action settings based on how your company plans to use On-Demand Email-to-Case.
5. Click Save.
USER PERMISSIONS
Over Email Rate Limit Action Choose what On-Demand Email-to-Case does On-Demand Email-to-Case
with email that surpasses your organization’s is available in: Essentials,
daily email processing limit: Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
• Bounce message—The email service returns and Developer Editions.
the message to the sender or to the
Automated Case User for
On-Demand Email-to-Case, with a
notification that explains why the message
was rejected.
• Discard message—The email service deletes
the message without notifying the sender.
• Requeue message—The email service
queues the message for processing in the
next 24 hours. If the message is not
processed within 24 hours, the email service
returns the message to the sender with a
notification that explains why the message
was rejected.
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Service Cloud Send and Receive Emails with Email-to-Case
Make sure that the subject line and body of your outgoing emails are unique.
Warning: If the Email Subject ID and Email Body Text ID are the same, Email-to-Case creates an infinite loop
of emails related to each case. If these settings are not selected, Email-to-Case eventually could stop accepting new emails.
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Service Cloud Send and Receive Emails with Email-to-Case
Create Task from Email Email-to-Case source only: Select this checkbox
to automatically assign a task to the case owner
when an email is submitted as a case.
Assignment rules automatically assign owners
to a case. However, if a case does not match
assignment rule criteria, then the user in the
Default Case Owner field on the
Support Settings page is assigned to the case.
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Service Cloud Send and Receive Emails with Email-to-Case
Setting Description
Task Status Email-to-Case source only: Choose a status from this drop-down
list with which to predefine the Status field on tasks
automatically assigned to case owners when email is submitted
as cases.
This setting is only available if you selected the Create Task
from Email checkbox.
Case Owner The owner of the case, which can be either an individual user or a
queue. This field is optional.
Note:
• Specifying a case owner negates auto-assignment rules,
so Case Owners aren't notified and queue members
don't get an email by default.
• You can’t delete a queue that a routing address refers
to. To point to a different queue, either delete the
routing address, or edit the routing address settings.
Case Priority The priority assigned to cases created from emails sent to this email
routing address.
Case Origin The value assigned to the Case Origin field for email sent to
this email routing address.
Tip: The Priority and Case Origin fields auto-populate the case via the routing address settings when the routing
address is included in either the To, CC, or BCC fields of an inbound email.
Email-to-Case FAQ
Review frequently asked questions about Email-to-Case.
EDITIONS
476
Service Cloud Messaging
Messaging
Messaging lets your company have conversations with customers in the ways that are most
EDITIONS
convenient for your customers—on their mobile devices using messaging apps such as SMS text
messaging and Facebook Messenger. Agents can respond in the Service Console, where they can Available in: Lightning
access all the benefits of Digital Engagement at their fingertips. Experience with the Digital
Customers can start conversations with your company by sending texts to your designated phone Engagement add-on SKU
number, sending Facebook Messenger messages to your Facebook page, and more. Incoming
Available in: Enterprise,
messages are displayed in the Omni-Channel utility in the Service Console, where agents can accept Performance, Unlimited,
a message and start chatting. and Developer editions with
Your company also can start conversations directly with customers through proactive outbound Service Cloud or Sales Cloud
message notifications. When a customer wants to respond, their incoming responses are routed
Note: This feature is not
directly to the Service Console where agents can continue the conversation. supported in Government
Cloud Plus.
IN THIS SECTION:
Messaging Considerations
Review these considerations before setting up or using Messaging.
Messaging in Lightning Experience: Are Your Use Cases Supported?
As you consider switching from Salesforce Classic to Lightning Experience, explore the different set of messaging features in Lightning
Experience. And going forward, new features are available exclusively in Lightning Experience.
Transition Your Channels from Classic to Lightning
Transition your LiveMessage managed package implementation to Lightning and start receiving messages in your production org.
Messaging in Lightning uses the Digital Engagement SKU.
Set Up Messaging with a Guided Setup Flow
Add SMS text messaging, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp to your service channels with a quick guided setup flow. Set up and
personalize a conversation channel. You can create an Omni-Channel queue to route incoming messages to your team.
Set Up Messaging Channels
Follow these steps to enable Messaging and set up your channels.
Set Up Messaging Channels
Give your customers new ways to contact your business. Set up at least one Messaging channel using the New Channel guided
setup flow.
Set Up Automatic Message Notifications
Send SMS text messages to customers based on certain events. For example, notify customers about the status of their case: “John,
your case <Case Number 123456> has been resolved.”
Messaging Data Protection and Customer Privacy
Honor your customers when they have special requests for handling their personal data.
Message with Customers
Interact with customers through Messaging channels.
Broadcast Messaging
Send one-to-many SMS text messages to contacts, employees, person accounts, and messaging users.
477
Service Cloud Messaging
Messaging Considerations
Review these considerations before setting up or using Messaging.
EDITIONS
Channel-Specific Considerations
• Considerations for Text Messaging on page 507
• Considerations for Short Codes on page 509
• Considerations for Facebook Messenger on page 512
• Considerations for WhatsApp on page 515
478
Service Cloud Messaging
Short Code United States only United States and Canada only
Toll Free United States and Canada only United States and Canada only
Messaging Basics
Objects Custom (Messaging Session, ITR, SMS Text, SMS Standard (Messaging User, Messaging Session)
Message, Opt-In Status)
Conversation Routing Messaging Pull Routing, Omni-Channel Push Omni-Channel Push Routing (queue or skill based)
Routing (queue)
Outbound Messaging
Agent Initiated 1:1 Outbound Yes Yes with responses routing back to the same
Conversations agent.
Send to List (Long Code, Toll Yes Yes, customer configuration required
Free, Short Code)
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Service Cloud Messaging
Picture Messaging MMS on Long Code, Facebook MMS on US Long Codes, Facebook, WeChat
(pilot), WhatsApp
Support Features
Agent Transfer No No
Conversation Transcripts Text only, logged as an activity or task on core Full conversation transcript within Messaging
object OR in Messaging Session custom object Session
Scrolling transcripts inclusive of past sessions
Consent Management Implicit Opt-In Implicit Opt-In (all channels), Explicit Opt-In and
Double Opt-In (short codes)
Automated Messaging
Performance
Message Throughput < 2 messages per second 6 new conversations per second, > 100 messages
per second thereafter
Note: SMS Long Code messaging is available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Malaysia, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan,
the United Kingdom, and the United States.
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Important: LiveMessage in classic and Digital Engagement can't run concurrently in the Available in: Lightning
same production org. We recommended testing a complete Sandbox implementation of Experience with the Digital
Engagement add-on SKU
Messaging in Digital Engagement before you complete the transition.
1. Get Digital Engagement—To access Messaging through Digital Engagement, purchase the Available in: Enterprise,
Digital Engagement SKU. Consult your Salesforce account team for more information. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer editions with
2. Verify features—To verify that the Digital Engagement bundle is installed in your Salesforce Service Cloud or Sales Cloud
org, log in and access Setup. Type Company Information in the Quick Find box. Check
whether you see the Messaging and Service Cloud User licenses listed, reflecting the total
number of licenses that you purchased. If both licenses are present, your org is ready to be configured for Messaging.
3. Set up Digital Engagement Messaging in a sandbox (optional)—To set up Messaging in a Sandbox, either match the number of
sandbox licenses with the number of purchased licenses, refresh your Sandbox or create a new Sandbox. For more information
about setting up Messaging in a Sandbox, see Set Up Messaging Channels in a Sandbox Org.
4. Create, assign, and enable the permission set—Take some basic setup steps to get Messaging up and running.
a. Create a Messaging Permission Set
b. Assign the Permission Set to Users
c. Enable Messaging
5. Submit a case to start the migration process for your SMS channels—Open a case in Salesforce Help to migrate your existing SMS
numbers into theLightning platform, including any long code or short code phone numbers you want to migrate.
Note: Submitting a case simply lays the groundwork for the migration; it doesn't automatically switch your implementation
to Lightning.
Include the following information:
• Choose a topic: Service Cloud
• Choose a category: Messaging
• Subject: "Lightning Migration for <Organization Name>"
• The Org ID of the specific Org that you want to migrate. Specify that you want to initiate your migration to Lightning.
• Every phone number you want to migrate. This includes long code and short code numbers. Make a note if you seek
exceptions or want to enable more numbers.
Salesforce sets up your phone numbers in the Lightning Platform within 72 business hours. We provide you with information on
next steps.
When step 5 is completed, you can continue preparing your Messaging configuration in Lightning before your channels are migrated.
When setup is complete and your case is closed, your phone numbers appear in the Messaging setup page in Lightning. For the
time being, messages continue to be routed to the classic implementation. When you're ready to move message traffic to Lightning,
proceed with step 8.
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d. Link records
e. Set up short codes (optional)
7. Create a new Omni-Channel routing configuration—You can skip this step if you currently use Omni-Channel for LiveMessage. But
if you currently use the LiveMessage widget to monitor your queues, you must set up Omni-Channel in your org.
a. Follow the instructions in Omni-Channel for Administrators. Assign the Messaging Session object to your queue.
Note: The LiveMessage session (Installed Package: LiveMessage for Salesforce) object is a remnant of Classic LiveMessage.
You can ignore it.
8. Set up Messaging notifications—Convert your automated triggered messages to Messaging notifications. For instructions, see Set
Up Automatic Message Notifications.
9. Copy your data—Make a copy or document any processes and data that accesses classic LiveMessage’s custom objects. This step
isn't required, but the information can be useful for your reference. After messaging traffic is cut over and your classic LiveMessage
licenses expire, access to its custom objects, data, and associated processes is blocked.
10. Important: Everything beyond this point can affect your service. Proceed only when you’re ready to fully migrate to Messaging
in Lightning.
Initiate SMS cutover—Open a new case through Salesforce Help to switch SMS traffic from classic LiveMessage to Messaging in
Lightning.
Include the following information:
• Choose a topic: Service Cloud
• Choose a category: Messaging
• Subject: "Lightning Migration for <Organization Name>"
• The Org ID of the specific org that you want to migrate. Specify that you must schedule the cutover of your numbers from classic
LiveMessage Lightning.
• Every phone number you want to migrate, including long code and short code numbers. Make a note if you seek exceptions or
want to enable more numbers.
When your case is accepted, a support agent offers you a few time slot options for the conversion. When the conversion occurs
during your scheduled time slot, messaging traffic moves to the new Lightning Omni-Channel queue. It can take up to 4 hours for
carriers to accept the traffic routing updates. In the meantime, check both consoles for message delivery.
11. Migrate your Facebook channels—You can set up your own Facebook channels in Lightning, but if they were live in Classic you
must remove them from the Classic org before they can be re-added in Lightning. Otherwise, see Set Up Facebook Messenger
Channels for instructions.
a. Remove the association between your Facebook page and the LiveMessage app.
a. Log in to Facebook.
b. Select the Facebook page that you want to migrate.
c. Navigate to the page setup screen and remove the Facebook page from the LiveMessage app.
b. Associate the Facebook page with your Lightning org using the instructions in Set Up Facebook Messenger Channels.
12. Change your Omni-Channel configuration—If you already use Omni-Channel in Classic, update your queue configurations and
swap out LiveMessage Session (Installed Package: LiveMessage for Salesforce) for Messaging Session. Omni-Channel doesn't work
properly if you have both Classic and Lightning configured to use it.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Messaging Channels in a Sandbox Org
Set up Messaging in a Sandbox before you transition from Classic to Lightning.
3. Get a test channel for your Sandbox. You have two options for setting up a test channel for your sandbox:
a. Open a case in Salesforce Help to get a test SMS number. Include the following case details:
• Choose a topic: Service Cloud
• Choose a category: Messaging
• The Org ID of the specific Sandbox org that you want to set up.
b. Create a test Facebook page and associate it with your Sandbox. Follow the instructions in Set Up Facebook Messenger Channels.
5. Change your Omni-Channel configuration—If you already use Omni-Channel in Classic, update your queue configurations and
swap out LiveMessage Session (Installed Package: LiveMessage for Salesforce) for Messaging Session. Omni-Channel doesn't
work properly if you have both Classic and Lightning configured to use it. Otherwise, move on to step 6.
6. Create a new Omni-Channel routing configuration—You can skip this step if you currently use Omni-Channel for LiveMessage. But
if you currently use the LiveMessage widget to monitor your queues, you must set up Omni-Channel in your org.
a. Follow the instructions in Omni-Channel for Administrators. Assign the Messaging Session object to your queue.
Note: The LiveMessage session (Installed Package: LiveMessage for Salesforce) object is a remnant of Classic LiveMessage.
You can ignore it.
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You can also start the flow from Service Setup in Lightning Experience. You can get to Service Setup by clicking and selecting
Service Setup.
In Service Setup, you can find recommended setup flows, content, and tips based on what you’ve set up already. If you don’t see the
setup flow you’re looking for, you can click View All to see the full list.
Select the tile to launch the flow.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Assign Messaging User Permission Set License
To get started, assign all users the Messaging User permission set license.
Create a Messaging Permission Set for Agents
Define a permission set for Messaging agents. By defining a permission set, you're creating the toolbox your agents use to deliver
top-notch support.
Create a Messaging Permission Set for Admins
Define a permission set for admins so that they can set up a great Messaging experience for your agents. Admins require some
additional permissions that are not necessary for agents.
Assign the Permission Set to Users
Give your agents the tools to message with customers by assigning them the Messaging permission set.
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Enable Messaging
Enable Messaging in your org so agents can communicate with customers through text messages and Facebook messages.
SEE ALSO:
Service Cloud
Omni-Channel for Administrators
USER PERMISSIONS
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12. Click Edit, give view access to all, and the appropriate access for your users or roles.
13. Click Save.
14. Go back to the Object Settings page.
15. Select Messaging Users.
16. Click Edit, give view access to all, and the appropriate access for your users or roles.
17. Click Save.
18. Go back to the Object Settings page.
19. Select App Permissions.
20. Click Edit, then enable End Messaging Session, Agent Initiated Outbound Messaging, and Messaging
Agent.
21. Click Save.
To use Messaging, your agents must have a Sales Cloud or Service Cloud license.
1. From Setup, enter Users in the Quick Find box, and select Users.
2. Select the name of the user.
3. Click Edit.
4. In the User Edit page, verify that Sales Cloud or Service Cloud User is selected. If not, then select Sales Cloud User or Service Cloud
User.
5. Click Save.
SEE ALSO:
Customize Omni-Channel
Create a Messaging Permission Set for Admins
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Enable Messaging
Enable Messaging in your org so agents can communicate with customers through text messages
EDITIONS
and Facebook messages.
1. From Setup in Lightning Experience, enter Messaging in the Quick Find box, and select Available in: Lightning
Messaging Settings. Experience with the Digital
Engagement add-on SKU
2. Select the Messaging checkbox.
Messaging is enabled in your org. Available in: Enterprise,
After you enable Messaging, it can take a few minutes for the other Messaging setup pages to Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer editions with
appear in the setup menu. Refresh your browser to see the other Messaging setup pages.
Service Cloud or Sales Cloud
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Messaging
SEE ALSO:
Customize Omni-Channel
Add the Omni-Channel Utility to a Lightning Console App
Omni-Channel Utility for Lightning Console Apps
USER PERMISSIONS
WhatsApp
To view channels:
• View Setup
Note: If you update the name of your Facebook page in Facebook, the old name still appears in the Messaging channels list view.
To show the new name, delete the channel for that page and then add it again.
1. From Setup in Lightning Experience, enter Messaging in the Quick Find box, and select Messaging Settings.
2.
In the Channels section, click . The channels that are set up in your org appear in the list view.
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Service Cloud Messaging
Routing
Routing Type The type of routing for this channel. To configure Yes
dynamic skill requirements, select the
Omni-Channel routing type and configure
skills-based routing rules.
Queue Queue that messages sent to this channel are Yes (Queue-Based
routed to. Routing only)
Routing Configuration Defines the relative priority and relative size of Yes (Skills-Based
work items. Specifies how work items are routed Routing only)
to agents.
Search for the routing configuration you want
to use with this channel.
Skill Choose one or more skills to associate with this Yes (Skills-Based
channel. Routing only)
Automated Responses
Opt-In Prompt The text that's sent to your customers to opt in Yes
to receiving messages.
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Service Cloud Messaging
Double Opt-In Keywords The keywords your customers can send to doubly opt in to Yes
receiving messages.
Double Opt-In Prompt The text that's sent to your customers to doubly opt in to receiving Yes
messages.
Opt-In Confirmation A predefined message that’s sent in response to the customer’s Yes
initial text message. The Opt-in response acknowledges that the
customer consents to receiving text messages from your company.
Opt-Out Confirmation A predefined message that’s sent when the customer responds to Yes
a message with one of the following keywords:
• Stop
• Stopall
• Unsubscribe
• Cancel
• End
• Quit
Chat Acknowledgment Let your customers know that you've received their message. Yes
Start Chat Let your customers know that an agent has accepted their message Yes
and started the chat.
End Chat Let your customers know that the chat has ended. Yes
Help Response The response that's sent to your customers when they text HELP Yes
to your channel.
Object Linking Select a record type to link with Messaging Sessions. Choose Yes
whether linked records are opened as subtabs within the
Messaging Session.
1. From Setup in Lightning Experience, enter Messaging in the Quick Find box, and select Messaging Settings.
2. Click the down arrow to the right of the channel that you want to edit.
3. Click Edit.
The Edit Messaging Channel modal page opens.
4. Make your changes.
5. Click Save.
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Service Cloud Messaging
Opt-In A predefined message that’s sent in By default, the SMS and short
Confirmation opt-in message is codes only USER PERMISSIONS
response to the customer’s initial text
message. The Opt-in response “Thanks for
To set up and edit
acknowledges that the customer opting in and
Messaging channels:
consents to receiving text messages allowing us to
• Configure Messaging
from your company. send you
messages.” To view channels:
If you provided a Chat • View Setup and
Acknowledgement response, then Configuration
Messaging sends the Opt-in response
and the Chat Acknowledgement
response, in that order.
You can change the wording of this
message. American and European
privacy regulations require the use of
an opt-in message. You can customize
this for every language you support.
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Service Cloud Messaging
Double Opt-In Keywords The keywords your customers can send to doubly YES, Y, START Short codes only
opt in to receiving messages. You can customize this
for every language you support.
Double Opt-In Prompt The text that's sent to your customers to doubly opt To confirm your Short codes only
in to receiving messages. subscription to
[Campaign Name]
[Description] Alerts, reply
START. Reply HELP for
help. Reply STOP to
cancel at any time.
Msg&data rates may
apply.
Help Keywords The keywords that your customers can send to HELP, AIDE Short codes only
request help during a conversation. You can
customize this for every language you support.
Help Response The response that's sent to your customers when [Campaign Name] Short codes only
they text a help keyword to your channel. You can [Description] Alerts: Help
customize this for every language you support. at [source of help] or [toll
free number]. Msg&data
rates may apply.
[Message frequency].
Text STOP to cancel.
Custom Keywords The keywords your customers can send to receive a INFO Short codes only
custom response. You could use custom keywords
for company-specific information, or to comply with
country-specific regulations. You can customize this
for every language you support.
Custom Response The response sent to your customers when they text [Campaign Name] Short codes only
a custom keyword to your channel. You can [Description] Alerts:
customize this for every language you support. Contact us at [web URL]
or [email address].
Msg&data rates may
apply. [Message
frequency]. Text STOP to
cancel.
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Service Cloud Messaging
Start Chat A predefined message that’s sent to the customer ‘Hello, how can I help you No
when an agent accepts the messaging session in the today?”
Omni-Channel utility.
End Chat A predefined message that’s sent to the customer “Thanks again for No
when the agent ends the messaging session. contacting us. We
appreciate your
business.”
1. From Setup in Lightning Experience, enter Messaging in the Quick Find box, and select Messaging Settings.
2. Select the channel that you want to configure.
3. Click Edit.
The Edit Channel modal opens.
4. In the Automated Responses section, enter the messages that you want to send to customers.
5. Click Save.
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Service Cloud Messaging
Let Agents Link Messaging User Records with Other Salesforce Records (Beta)
Allow agents to link Messaging User records with Contacts so that your company has greater insight
EDITIONS
into your customers.
Note: If you don’t have the ObjectLinkingPilot permission, see Create Channel-Object Linking Available in: Lightning
Rules from Messaging Settings. Experience with the Digital
Engagement add-on SKU
Messaging creates a Messaging User record for customers when they message your company. The
Messaging User record includes the customer’s name, phone number or Facebook name, and Available in: Enterprise,
opt-out status. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer editions with
When a customer sends your company a message over a channel that uses channel-object linking, Service Cloud or Sales Cloud
Messaging automatically searches for matching records. Messaging notifies the agent if it finds a
match, and prompts the agent to review and link the Messaging User record to the matching record.
If no match is found, the Messaging User record is not modified. USER PERMISSIONS
Note: Channel-object linking is only available for Facebook and SMS channels. To set up and edit
Messaging channels:
1. From Setup in Lightning Experience, enter Channel-Object Linking in the Quick • Configure Messaging
Find box. To view channels:
2. Turn on Channel-Object Linking. • View Setup and
Configuration
3. Select New Linking Rule.
The Link Channel to Object window opens.
4. Choose a channel for the new linking rule.
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Service Cloud Messaging
5. Choose an object.
6. Set the linking logic.
7. Enter a name and description.
8. Turn on Activate on Save if you want the rule to work right away.
9. Save.
If you allow agents to link records, makes sure to give agents View access to records owned by other users, so that agents can see those
records. For example, if you allow agents to link Messaging User records to Contacts, agents must be able to see Contact records that
other users created.
SEE ALSO:
Link a Messaging User Record with Other Salesforce Records
10. After you add Omni-Channel to the utility bar, the Omni-Channel utility item properties are displayed. Don’t change anything, just
click Next.
11. In the Select Items settings page, select Messaging Sessions and move it to the Selected Items list.
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SEE ALSO:
Create and Edit a Custom Lightning Console App
Omni-Channel Utility for Lightning Console Apps
Who Can Access Lightning Console Apps?
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• Messaging channel
– Text
– Facebook
– WhatsApp
3. Open Data Loader on your computer. If you haven't used Data Loader before, see Data Loader.
4. In Data Loader, select Insert.
5. Select Password Authentication, then log in with your org credentials.
6. Select Show All Salesforce Objects.
7. Select the Messaging User object.
8. Import the CSV file you created in Step 2.
9. Automap the fields and run reports.
SEE ALSO:
Send Agent-Initiated Outbound Messages
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Service Cloud Messaging
SEE ALSO:
View and Refresh Messaging Channels
Modify Messaging Channel Settings
Create Automated Responses for Messaging Channels
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Application-to-Person (A2P)
A2P generally refers to anything that isn’t considered P2P, including chatbots and automated campaigns. Sometimes A2P messaging
is referred to as enterprise or business messaging. A2P messaging has higher expected volumes than P2P and is typically outbound.
However, depending on the number, A2P can include two-way conversational messaging. A2P messages typically use short codes
(toll free is available for the U.S. only). Account permissions limit throughput for A2P messages and rate limits apply.
Number Types
Your company can send messages using several different types of numbers. It's important to understand these terms, particularly because
several of them overlap with each other conceptually. For instance, a toll free number is a type of long code.
Long Codes
These numbers are standard phone numbers like landlines, mobile numbers, and toll free numbers that can be different lengths
based on the country. Typically, long codes are used for interactive conversations or P2P messaging.
A2P Long Code
A number used specifically for A2P communication.
Short Codes
These numbers are shorter than a long code, between 4–8 digits depending on the country of origin. These codes are used for
sending high-volume A2P messages, such as automated campaigns, surveys, and announcements. They can support message
volumes of 10–500 messages/second. The specific volume limit is country-specific and doesn’t translate to the platform throughput.
Short codes are registered with the local carrier for use case approval
Toll Free Number
A type of long code that uses a toll free number.
Mobile Number (or MSISDN)
A phone number used to identify a mobile subscriber.
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Other Terms
Short Message Service (SMS)
SMS messages are sent over a cellular network and support text content. An SMS message can contain 140 bytes of content. See
Considerations for Text Messaging on page 507.
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
MMS messages are sent over a cellular network and can be used to send pictures, video, audio, and phone contacts.
GSM-7
This type of character encoding requires 7 bits per character. See Considerations for Text Messaging on page 507.
Unicode
This type of character encoding is a more flexible and powerful standard than GSM-7. UTF-8 is the most common unicode encoding
type. It uses 1 byte for the first 128 characters and up to 4 bytes for other characters. See Considerations for Text Messaging on page
507.
Segmentation
If an SMS message is more than 140 bytes, it is segmented into multiple messages. In this case, each segmented message can contain
up to 133 bytes. The remaining 7 bytes are used for the header that describes the segment order. Up to six segmented messages
can be grouped together. See Considerations for Text Messaging on page 507.
The following are some of the main reasons for filtering: Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
1. To comply with the carrier's policies, or with state, local, or country-specific regulations.
and Developer Editions with
Compliance can relate to the message’s content or frequency.
Service Cloud or Sales Cloud
2. To enforce rules and regulations that protect mobile subscribers from unwanted or unsolicited
messaging, such as SPAM and messages that are abusive, fraudulent, or of questionable content.
3. To prevent P2P messages from being sent through A2P streams, and to prevent A2P messages from using P2P routes. Incorrect
routing can affect the line of business (carrier and subscriber) indicated by number type.
4. To reduce the potential for dissatisfied customers who file complaints, take legal action, seek damages, or switch to another carrier
for loss of business.
To familiarize yourself with country rules and regulations, refer to Messaging Regulations by Country. Because regulations can change,
we recommend a legal review of the regulatory bodies that govern the telecommunications systems in the country or territory where
you plan to do business.
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Machine learning helps these systems adapt constantly as different messages pass through them. As a result, it can be difficult to
determine why or how a message was filtered. Upon request, some carriers provide information verifying that a message was blocked,
while others don’t. Some carriers simply report messages as undelivered to protect the analysis and replication of their filtering algorithms.
Filtering techniques and practices are proprietary and kept strictly confidential by carriers to ensure that they can’t be reverse-engineered
or circumvented. Just as spammers continuously adapt their approach, carriers continuously change their heuristics to protect subscribers
from spammers.
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The following table provides more details about the different number types.
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Throughput 1–2 msgs/sec 10–100 msgs/sec (U.S. only), all 10–500 msgs/sec
1:1 message ratio; 3:1 max* other follow Long Code P2P
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After you receive the confirmation email from Salesforce, go to the Messaging channels list view and customize your text messaging
channels on page 491.
Important: If you don't have a US or Canadian phone number, Salesforce will provide you with a phone number. Messaging
doesn't support mobile or Voice over IP phone numbers.
IN THIS SECTION:
Considerations for Text Messaging
Use text messaging to help agents connect with customers even when they’re on the go. Review these considerations before getting
started.
Non-US/Canada Considerations
• Salesforce only supports “in-country messaging,” that is, a phone number of one country messaging a phone number from the same
country. If you want to message international customers, request a number from their country.
• The rate applied for international messages is based on the phone number location not your geographical location.
Message Length
A single text message has a 140-byte limit. When using a 7-bit character encoding, such as GSM7, a single message can be up to 160
characters long. However, if you use non-GSM7 characters, such as Asian characters, they can be encoded using UCS-2, which requires
2 bytes per character. A message with multibyte characters can contain fewer total characters per message.
Segmenting
If a message is more than 140 bytes, it is segmented into multiple messages. In this case, each segmented message can contain up to
133 bytes. The remaining 7 bytes are used for the header that describes the segment order. Up to six segmented messages can be
grouped together.
Sandbox Considerations
Messages sent through your Sandbox are treated as normal messages and deducted from your total number of conversations.
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Service Cloud Messaging
1. To request the Short Code add-on SKUs, contact your Salesforce Account Executive or Sales Available in: Enterprise,
Representative. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions with
2. After you acquire the Short Code add-on SKUs, see Messaging Short Code Application Process
Service Cloud or Sales Cloud
for details on how to get your short code phone number acquired and approved.
The short code channel approval and provisioning process takes 10–16 weeks.
3. When your short code channel is approved, log in to Salesforce. USER PERMISSIONS
4. From Setup in Lightning Experience, enter Messaging in the Quick Find box, and select To set up Messaging:
Messaging Settings. • Configure Messaging
5. In the Channels section, refresh your list of channels. A short code channel appears in the To view channels:
Messaging channels list view. • View Setup and
Configuration
6. Click the dropdown arrow next to your short code Messaging channel, then click Edit.
7. Under Automated Responses, fill in the fields. Keep in mind that short code channels have
specific compliance requirements. For considerations and examples, see Considerations for Short Codes on page 509. Here are the
fields that are specific to short codes:
a. Opt-In Keywords: The keywords your customers can send to explicitly opt in to receiving messages. For example, YES, START,
or Y.
b. Opt-In Confirmation: The response sent to your customers when they opt in to receiving messages.
c. Opt-Out Confirmation: The confirmation text sent to your customers when they opt out of receiving messages.
d. Opt-In Prompt: The text sent to your customers to opt in to receiving messages.
e. Require Double Opt-In: Requires customers to go through an extra opt-in step to receive messages from your business. If you
use double opt-in, customers first send an opt-in keyword to your channel. Then, they're asked to send a double opt-in keyword
to receive further messages.
f. Double Opt-In Keywords: The keywords your customers can send to doubly opt in to receiving messages.
g. Double Opt-In Prompt: The text sent to your customers to doubly opt in to receiving messages.
h. Help Keywords: The keywords your customers can send to request help during a conversation.
i. Help Response: The response sent to your customers when they text a help keyword to your channel.
j. Custom Keyword: The keywords your customers can send to receive a custom response. You could use custom keywords for
company-specific information, or to comply with country-specific regulations.
k. Custom Response: The response sent to your customers when they text a custom keyword to your channel.
Important: When you use short codes, your business is required to follow carrier compliance requirements, industry standards,
and applicable law. The CTIA sometimes audits short code Messaging channels. For more information about short code
requirements, see the CTIA Short Code Monitoring Handbook and Canadian Common Short Codes.
8. Click Save.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Considerations for Short Codes
Short code Messaging can unlock new potential for your business, but with great power comes great responsibility. When you use
short codes, your business is required to follow carrier compliance requirements, industry standards, and applicable laws.
Short codes are 5- or 6-digit phone numbers. Unlike long code phone numbers, short codes have Available in: Enterprise,
few limits on throughput, volume, or inbound-to-outbound ratios. That's why we recommend Performance, Unlimited,
them for high-volume use cases, like recurring messages and alerts. and Developer Editions with
Service Cloud or Sales Cloud
You can use short codes for single-message and recurring-message programs. We currently support
only service use cases—not marketing promotions.
Your company's automated responses can be a maximum of 160 characters.
For more information about using short codes in the US, see the CTIA Short Code Monitoring Handbook.
Opting in to Messages
Customers must opt in to receiving messages before your business can start sending them. For example, customers can:
• Enter their phone number in an online form
• Sign up at a point-of-sale location
• Send a text to your short code number
This type of opt-in is called explicit opt-in. When a customer sends a text to your short code, we send them your opt-in prompt. You can
customize this text, along with your other short code responses, by navigating to Setup > Messaging Settings > Edit > Opt-In
Confirmation.
Tip: Your opt-in prompt must contain certain details. Here's an example:
To subscribe to [Campaign Name] [Description] Alerts, reply YES. Reply HELP for
help. Reply STOP to cancel at any time. Msg&data rates may apply.
When they respond with an opt-in keyword, we mark the Messaging User object as explicitly opted in and send them a confirmation
text. You can customize this response for every language you support.
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Optionally, you can require customers to verify that they want to receive texts from your businesses. This extra step is called double opt-in.
You can add this requirement for your short code channel by navigating to Setup > Messaging Settings > Edit > Required Double
Opt-In. Write your double opt-in keywords and a double opt-in prompt. You can customize this response for every language you support.
Tip: We suggest keeping your opt-out confirmation text short. Here's an example:
You are unsubscribed from [Campaign Name] [Description] Alerts. No more messages
will be sent. Reply HELP for help or call (toll free number).
Anyone who texts an opt-out keyword to your short code receives this response, even if they aren't subscribed to your messages.
Requesting Help
You're required to send a compliant response when a Messaging user texts a help keyword to your short code. You can customize the
response text by navigating to Setup > Messaging Settings > Edit > Help Response. You can customize this response for every
language you support.
Tip: Your help response must contain certain details. Here's an example:
[Campaign Name] [Description] Alerts: Help at [source of help] or [toll free number].
Msg&data rates may apply. [Message frequency]. Text STOP to cancel.
Anyone who texts a help keyword to your short code receives this response, even if they aren't subscribed to your messages.
To stay compliant, your help response must contain these details:
• Campaign name—The name of your company or organization
• Description—A single word or phrase to define the alerts, such as “Account Alerts”
• Help sources—You must provide a toll-free phone number or a support email address, in addition to any other forms of help
• Disclaimer—Msg&data rates may apply.
• Message frequency—Must be specific, but can be any interval, such as “1 message per day,” “2 messages per month,” or “1 message
per transaction.” "Message frequency varies" is also acceptable.
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9. In the Object Linking section, select whether to link the messaging session to a Contact record.
10. Click Next.
11. Select whether to set up Omni-Channel to route messages to agents. Select Create a new queue and routing
configuration, or select Stop the setup flow and manually connect to an existing queue
and routing configuration.
If you select Create a new queue and routing configuration, the flow takes you though the steps to:
a. Create a queue.
b. Create a routing configuration.
c. Adjust the agent messaging workload.
d. Click Done.
If you select Stop the setup flow and manually connect to an existing queue and routing
configuration, the flow ends.
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a. Click Done.
IN THIS SECTION:
Considerations for Facebook Messenger
Review these considerations before using Facebook Messenger.
Move a Facebook Messenger Channel in Messaging from a Sandbox to a Production Org
Follow these steps to migrate your sandbox Facebook page to your production org.
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Service Cloud Messaging
A Facebook page can be used as a channel in only one org at a time. Remove the Messaging sandbox Available in: Enterprise,
app from your Facebook page before adding it to your production org. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer editions with
1. Unassociate the Facebook page that is associated with the sandbox.
Service Cloud or Sales Cloud
a. Log in to Facebook.
b. Select the Facebook page that you want to migrate. USER PERMISSIONS
c. Open Settings.
To set up Messaging:
d. Open Advanced Messaging. • Configure Messaging
e. Under connected Apps, select remove next to the Salesforce Service Cloud listing. To authorize Facebook:
• Customize Application
2. Associate the Facebook page with your production org.
AND Manage Auth.
a. Log in to your Salesforce production org. Providers
b. From Setup in Lightning Experience, enter Messaging in the Quick Find box, and select To view channels:
Messaging Settings. • View Setup and
Configuration
c. Click New Channel.
d. Select Facebook Messenger.
e. Follow the guided setup flow to add the Facebook page as a channel on page 511 in your production org.
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Service Cloud Messaging
Your Facebook Business Manager admin can access and accept invitations through the Requests tab in Facebook Business
Manager.
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WhatsApp requires you to proactively and explicitly receive an end user’s consent before sending them outbound notifications. You
must receive this consent outside of WhatsApp. You can receive it from another communication channel—such as email or text
message—or as part of your company's normal business processes. Once you receive an end user's consent outside of WhatsApp, you
can use this information to send outbound notifications. For more information on consent, see WhatsApp Business Policy.
End users don't have to provide advance, explicit consent to initiate an inbound customer care interaction. See Automated Responses
for Messaging for more information on standard opt-in and opt-out responses.
Considerations for WhatsApp:
You can send text messages, images, messaging templates, and PDFs using WhatsApp. When a customer sends an image, the agent
sees a preview in the service console and can download the image. File previews aren't supported, but agents can download files.
• You can use up to 250 phone numbers for WhatsApp on your Facebook Business Manager account, with WhatsApp's approval.
• Max character length of a message: 1600 characters
• Supported image formats: .png, .jpeg, .jpg
• Maximum file size: 5 MB
• You can't send stickers, audio files, locations, or contacts using WhatsApp.
• You can't see replies to specific messages. If a customer replies to a specific message, agents will see only the new message the
customer is sending.
Note: The WhatsApp messaging channel involves integrations with one or more Non-SFDC Applications, including Twilio, Inc.
and WhatsApp, as further detailed in the Messaging Notices and Licensing Information Documentation, available here. By activating
the WhatsApp messaging channel, you are affirming that you have the authority to bind your company/organization to any
Non-SFDC Application terms and conditions that are set forth in the Messaging Notices and Licensing Information Documentation.
IN THIS SECTION:
Considerations for WhatsApp
Review these considerations before using WhatsApp.
Create Notification Templates for WhatsApp
Initiate conversations with customers through outbound notifications. If a customer opts in to receive them, you can send notifications
more than 24 hours after your last conversation with the customer.
Notification Types for WhatsApp
Use WhatsApp to send business-initiated, pre-approved, templated notifications at any time. There are 10 notification types, each
with allowed use cases.
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6. From Setup, enter Process Builder in the Quick Find box, and select Process Builder.
7. Click New.
a. In the Process Name field, enter a name for this process.
b. In the API Name field, enter an API name for this process.
c. Select the event that triggers the process from the menu. For example, select Status is changed to Closed.
d. To specify an object that triggers the process, click Add Object. For example, select Case.
e. To specify the conditions that trigger the process, click Add Criteria.
f. In Immediate Actions, click Add Action.
• In the Action Type menu, select Messaging Notifications.
• In the Action Name field, enter a name for the action.
• In the Messaging Template field, select a template.
• In the Channel field, select WhatsApp channel.
8. Click Save.
9. In the confirmation window, click Confirm.
10. When the conditions are met, the process runs and sends the message.
Template Usage Messaging Limits
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For each new WhatsApp channel, WhatsApp automatically applies a messaging limit. This limit determines the number of users that
you can send outbound messages to, using the WhatsApp-approved template. This limit defines the number of unique users your org
can send messages to in a 24-hour period. It does not limit the number of messages you send. This limit also doesn’t apply to responses
to user-initiated messages. To learn more, see Capacity and Messaging Limits in the WhatsApp documentation.
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TICKET_UPDATE Send the message recipient updates or • Concert start time changes
reminders for an event for which a person
• Event location changes
already has a ticket
• Show is canceled
• A refund opportunity is available
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IN THIS SECTION:
Create Templates for Automatic Message Notifications
Create messaging templates to define the content of routine customer notifications. Salesforce automatically sends the template
message to customers when the conditions you set for the channel are met.
Create Processes to Send Automatic Message Notifications
Use the Process Builder to define processes to automatically send messages to customers when certain conditions are met. Here’s
an example of a process that sends a messaging notification when the case status is changed to Closed.
Create Flows to Send Automatic Message Notifications
Build message notifications into your flows and plan when messages go out.
Troubleshoot Process Errors for Messaging Automatic Message Notifications
Automatic message notifications are sent when a predefined condition occurs and the process tells Messaging to send the message.
Sometimes, something goes wrong with the process and the message can’t be sent. Review the error log to find out if there were
any problems when a process tried to send an automatic message notification. The error detail page provides more information
that can help you troubleshoot and resolve the error.
Delete Process Errors for Automatic Message Notifications
Messaging error logs are automatically deleted after 30 days. You also can manually delete errors. When you delete an error, it no
longer appears in the error log.
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You can access fields from the following Salesforce objects: Account, Asset, Case, Contact, Lead, Location, Opportunity, Organization,
Service Contract, and User.
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The following objects are available when Field Service is enabled: AssignedResource, MaintenancePlan, ReturnOrder,
ServiceAppointment, WorkOrder.
The following object is available when Work.com is installed with Broadcast permissions: Employee.
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Note: If you want to send message notifications from a custom object, add a lookup to Messaging User on that custom object.
For some channels, customers must initiate messaging to create a Messaging User record.
SEE ALSO:
Process Builder
Create a Process
Field Description
Messaging Channel Unique Name The developer name associated with the
messaging channel.
Messaging Template Unique Name The developer name associated with the
messaging template.
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Field Description
Context Record ID A record that can provide context for merge fields. For the message
to send successfully, all merge fields must be filled.
ConversationBroadcast Record ID Optional. ID of the conversation broadcast record that links all
messages within a broadcast.
Recipient Phone Number Optional. The destination phone number that the message is sent
to. Use if Recipient Record ID lists an object other than
MessagingEndUser, or if Recipient Record ID is not completed.
Triggered Outbound Type Optional. The type of message. Enter either Standard or Broadcast.
Note: Even though both are optional, use either Recipient Phone Number or Recipient Record ID to ensure the Message Notification
action works.
SEE ALSO:
Build a Flow
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Service Cloud Messaging
To create messaging
templates and view process
errors:
• Configure Messaging
To view channels:
• View Setup and
Configuration
Note: For agent initiated messages, we use the most current customer opt-out information
at the time the message is sent. If end users change their opt-out status after an initial
outbound message is sent, agents can send more messages until the official opt-out status
is updated.
If a customer opts out receiving messages, Messaging prevents agents from sending messages to that person.
Note: Opt-in and opt-out settings aren’t supported for Facebook Messenger. If a customer blocks your company on Facebook
Messenger, then agents can’t contact that customer again. If a customer deletes the Facebook Messenger message thread, then
agents can’t contact that customer again until the customer resumes the conversation.
Customers might ask your company to handle their data in the following ways:
• Delete personal data associated with a customer who has messaged your company via Messaging
• Track customers’ approval for how your company interacts with them via Messaging
• Restrict how Messaging processes personal data
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IN THIS SECTION:
Block Sensitive Data in Messages
Sensitive data rules let you block specific patterns, such as credit card, Social Security, phone and account numbers, or profanity.
You can choose to remove the text or replace it with your preferred characters.
Messaging Consent Status
Customers specify how often they prefer that you contact them over a channel. Salesforce tracks their choice in the
MessagingConsentStatus field.
SEE ALSO:
Store Customers’ Data Privacy Preferences
Fields in Data Privacy Records
Create Automated Responses for Messaging Channels
6. Set a priority for the rule. Lower numbers are executed first.
7. Click Save.
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You can block the text from agents, supervisors, customers, or all of these. When a rule is triggered, it logs one or more of these chat
transcript events:
• Sensitive data blocked (Agent)
• Sensitive data blocked (Supervisor)
• Sensitive data blocked (Visitor)
If you make updates to your sensitive data rules, it takes 60 seconds for those changes to take effect.
Note: Sensitive data rules apply to the auto-greeting and any quick text that you have enabled. They don’t apply to the agent
name or other standard text in the chat window.
Explicit Customers receive messages if the channel they’re using requires implicit
or explicit consent.
Double Customers receive messages for all scenarios, including messages that
the implicit and explicit consent customers receive.
Note: MessagingConsentStatus applies to one Messaging channel. If a customer gives double consent on one channel and
implicit consent on another, they receive more messages on the channel with double consent.
SEE ALSO:
Messaging User Fields
Object Reference: MessagingEndUser
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Log In to Omni-Channel
Messages are routed only to agents who are logged in to the Omni-Channel utility.
Accept a Message and Chat with a Customer
When a new message arrives, it appears in the Omni-Channel utility.
Send Agent-Initiated Outbound Messages
Agents can proactively update customers on the status of their case by sending outbound messages. Agent-initiated outbound
messaging is available only on the SMS text message channel.
Send Images and Files to Customers in Messaging
They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. Send images and files to customers so they know exactly what you mean.
End a Messaging Session
There are two ways you can end a Messaging session: ending it directly from the Messaging session when the conversation is over,
or ending it from the Messaging Sessions list view.
Link a Messaging User Record with Other Salesforce Records
Link a customer’s Messaging User record with their contact record or other Salesforce records to create greater insight about your
customers. You can link records during the messaging session or after it’s ended.
Link a Case, Lead, or Opportunity to a Messaging Session
Associate the messaging session with a case, lead, or opportunity record by using the lookup fields on the Details tab.
Messaging Error Codes
Identify errors encountered during conversations.
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Open Messaging
Access Messaging through the console app that your administrator set up.
EDITIONS
Note: There isn't a standard name for every console app. When in doubt, your admin can
tell you which app to use. Available in: Lightning
Experience with the Digital
1. To open the App Launcher, on the left side of the navigation bar, click . Engagement add-on SKU
2. Find and open the app that contains Messaging. Available in: Enterprise,
The name of the app might vary depending on how your administrator set up Salesforce. Performance, Unlimited,
The console app opens. and Developer editions with
Service Cloud or Sales Cloud
USER PERMISSIONS
Log In to Omni-Channel
Messages are routed only to agents who are logged in to the Omni-Channel utility.
EDITIONS
1. To open the Omni-Channel utility, click Omni-Channel in the footer of your screen.
Available in: Lightning
2. Click the dropdown menu and select your status.
Experience
If you’re online, a green dot is shown next to the status.
Now you’re ready to chat with customers. Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
USER PERMISSIONS
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USER PERMISSIONS
2. A new Messaging session starts. Send one or more messages, then wait for the customer to To view the Start
Conversation button on
respond.
Person Account records:
From a Person Account or Contact Record: • B2C
1. Link the Person Account or Contact record to the Messaging User record.
a. On the Messaging User record detail page, edit the desired field.
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4. Select the Messaging User record you want to have a conversation with.
5. Click Start Conversation.
6. A new Messaging session starts. Send one or more messages, then wait for the customer to respond.
From a Case, Lead, or Opportunity Record:
1. Link the Case, Lead, or Opportunity record to the Messaging Session record.
a. On the Messaging Session record detail page, edit the desired field.
b. Select the record you want to link to—such as a specific case.
c. Click Save.
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Note: Toll-free phone numbers, such as 1-800 numbers, don’t support file attachments. If Available in: Enterprise,
you’re using a toll-free number, you can’t send images or files to customers. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer editions with
By default, the maximum number of images that can be sent or received in one day is 200,000. Service Cloud or Sales Cloud
The maximum size for attachments differs depending on the type of channel.
Table 14: File Size Limitations for Messaging Channels USER PERMISSIONS
Channel File Size Limitations To send and receive
messages in Messaging:
MMS Text Messaging The maximum attachment size is 1 MB.
• Messaging Agent
Facebook Messenger The maximum attachment size is 25 MB. To end Messaging sessions:
• End Messaging Session
WhatsApp The maximum attachment size is 5 MB.
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1. End a conversation from the Messaging Session record. Available in: Enterprise,
a. In an active Messaging session, click End Chat. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer editions with
A confirmation window is displayed.
Service Cloud or Sales Cloud
a. In the confirmation window, click End Chat.
The Messaging session is ended.
USER PERMISSIONS
b. To restore your capacity and accept new messaging sessions, close the Messaging session
tab. To send and receive
messages in Messaging:
2. End a conversation from the Messaging Sessions list view. • Messaging Agent
a. Navigate to the Messaging Sessions list view. To end Messaging sessions:
b. Find the Messaging session you want to end and click the dropdown menu next to it. • End Messaging Session
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Messaging Channel The channel that the customer sent the message to.
Messaging Platform Key The phone number or Facebook page ID associated with this
Messaging User.
Message Type Indicates whether the message is sent using text messaging,
Facebook Messenger, or WhatsApp.
Messaging Consent Status Indicates whether the Messaging User gave implicit, explicit, or
double consent. If the Messaging User revokes their consent, the
status is set to Opt-Out.
A Messaging User engages over a channel and gives implicit
consent. The Messaging User must take an extra step to give
explicit or double consent over a channel. If you use short codes,
Messaging Users can use a keyword to give consent. Usually,
Messaging Users give consent outside of Messaging.
Profile Picture URL The URL of the Messaging User's profile picture.
You can see profile pictures only for Messaging Users that use
HTTPS URLs. Chrome and Firefox no longer support mixed
content downloads.
SEE ALSO:
Object Reference: MessagingEndUser
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USER PERMISSIONS
0002 Can't contact the messaging service right now. Try again later.
0003 Can't contact the messaging service right now. Ask your admin to
check the channel settings.
0004 This message timed out. You can't contact this user until they
contact you again.
0005 Can't send messages on this channel right now. Try again later.
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1002 Can't send messages from this channel. Ask your admin to check
the channel settings and contact Salesforce Customer Support.
2002 Can't send messages to this recipient because they blocked you.
3002 Can't send attached files because the file types aren't supported.
3003 Can't send this message because the message body is flagged as
spam.
3004 Can't send this message because the message body is too large.
3005 Can't send this message because the attachment is too large.
Broadcast Messaging
Send one-to-many SMS text messages to contacts, employees, person accounts, and messaging
EDITIONS
users.
Before you get started, let’s define the lingo. Available in: Lightning
Experience with the Digital
Broadcaster
Engagement add-on SKU
The user or users who send bulk messages. Admins can be included in the broadcasters group.
Recipients Available in: Enterprise,
The people receiving your message. They can be customers, employees, or any other group Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer editions with
you want to contact.
Service Cloud or Sales Cloud
Sender Number
The number or numbers that you’re sending your message from. A sender number can be a
short code or toll free number. Don’t use a long number for broadcast messages, as carriers impose limits for bulk text messages
from long numbers.
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Service Cloud Messaging
Opt In
Opting in is how your recipients provide consent to receive messages from you. We send messages only to recipients who explicitly
opted in. You can view someone’s consent status on their Messaging User record.
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Broadcast Messaging
Get started with Broadcast Messaging. Assign permissions and licenses to your broadcasters, help your team view messaging
information and sent messages, and create templates.
Send Broadcast Messages
Learn how to send a broadcast message from a list view and fix common errors.
SEE ALSO:
Messaging Considerations
IN THIS SECTION:
Create a Broadcaster Permission Set
Give broadcasters permission to send one-to-many messages. Optionally, set them up with Messaging and Omni-Channel permissions
to have one-to-one conversations with recipients.
Assign the Broadcaster Permission Set to Users
Give broadcasters the right permissions by assigning them to your broadcaster permission set.
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Service Cloud Messaging
8. Click Edit, give view access to all, and then give the appropriate access for your users or roles. To create permission sets:
• Manage Profiles and
9. Click Save.
Permission Sets
10. Go back to the Object Settings page.
11. Select Messaging Users.
12. Click Edit, give view access to all, and then give the appropriate access for your users or roles.
13. Click Save.
14. Go back to the Permission Set Overview page.
15. Select App Permissions.
16. Click Edit, then enable Agent Initiated Outbound Messaging, Messaging Agent, and Send One-to-Many
Messages.
17. Click Save.
Note: Users with these permissions can send one-to-many SMS and one-to-one SMS, assuming that Omni-Channel is enabled
and your broadcasters are added to a messaging queue. If you want your broadcasters to send one-to-one messages, in addition
to these steps, you must set up Service Presence Status Access and enable End Messaging Session.
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Important: Messaging User records are required for your recipients, even if you’re sending Available in: Lightning
messages from contacts, employees, or person accounts. Experience with the Digital
Engagement add-on SKU
The easiest way to create messaging users from your other records is to build a process in Process
Builder. You can include a command to create a Messaging User record using field values on your Available in: Enterprise,
contact, employee, or person account records. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer editions with
After you create Messaging User records from your contacts, employees, or person accounts, make Service Cloud or Sales Cloud
sure that the records are associated.
1. Open a Messaging User record.
2. Click Details.
3. For contacts and person accounts, ensure that the Contact field is populated. For employees, ensure that the Employee field is
populated.
If you don’t see the Employee field, add it to your Messaging User page layout from the Object Manager in Setup.
IN THIS SECTION:
Best Practices for Writing Broadcast Messages
Write informative and useful broadcast messages for your customers and employees.
Broadcast Message Examples
See example text messages for some common uses for Broadcast Messaging.
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Queue Notifications
To manage a queue, we recommend sending a text when the recipient joins the list, when they are at the top of the list, and when they
remove themselves from the list.
Recipient Joined the List
You’re in line for Business Name. We’ll send an update when you’re next in line. Text CANCEL to cancel.
Recipient is at the Top of the List
You’re next in line to shop at Store Name! You have 10 min to check in. Text CANCEL to cancel.
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Appointment Reminders
Send confirmations and reminders for appointments. We recommend letting the recipient know that they’ve scheduled their appointment
and what they can do to cancel or reschedule. Consider moving appointment confirmations to text so your staff can respond to other
phone calls.
Appointment was Scheduled or Rescheduled
Your appointment is scheduled for WED 7/1 @ 11am. Text YES to confirm. Call 000-000-0000 to reschedule.
Appointment Confirmation with Instructions
Confirmed! Arrive 15 min before your appt. Call 000-000-0000 for help.
Employee Messages
Communicate important information to your employees.
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2. Open the menu next to a Lightning app, and click Edit. Available in: Enterprise,
3. In Lightning App Builder, click Navigation Items. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer editions with
4. Select Broadcast Messages, and move it to the Selected Items list. Service Cloud or Sales Cloud
5. Click Save.
6. To return to the App Manager page, click Back. USER PERMISSIONS
To confirm that Broadcast Messages was added to your app, open the app using the App Launcher. To view apps:
You can open Broadcast Messages from the navigation menu. • View Setup and
Configuration
To manage apps:
• Customize Application
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5. Select a messaging template. If you don’t see one that fits, ask your Salesforce admin to create
one for you. USER PERMISSIONS
6. Click Next. To send one-to-many
7. Review your message, and click Send. messages:
• Send One-to-Many
Messages
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
• The Mobile Number field on the Messaging User record must be populated.
• The recipient must be opted in to receiving messages from you.
• The sender numbers you select must be associated with a messaging queue.
Messaging template can’t be deleted
You can’t delete a messaging template after it’s used in a broadcast message. You can see if a template has been used before in the
Conversation Broadcasts tab.
Recipients receive multiple messages
If they’re opted into multiple sender numbers, recipients can receive multiple messages. We recommend regularly looking through
your Messaging User records to remove duplicates and check your recipients’ opt-in statuses.
SEE ALSO:
Troubleshoot Process Errors for Messaging Automatic Message Notifications
• Support agents use the Chat Console to send and receive messages. Available in: Performance
• Omni-Channel routes chat requests to the right agent based on availability and qualifications. Editions and in Developer
Edition orgs that were
• Use Embedded Service to create a customizable chat window that customers use to get the
created after June 14, 2012
help they need. Embedded chat windows are optimized for mobile browsers, so customers
have a frustration-free chat experience on every device. Available in: Essentials,
Unlimited, and Enterprise
• Einstein Bots are computer programs that can save both your agents and customers time by Editions with Service Cloud
handling routine requests and gathering pre-chat information. Bots are your agents' allies—not or Sales Cloud
their replacements.
When these four parts come together, they create one seamless web chat experience for your Note: This feature is not
customers and support team. supported in Government
Cloud Plus.
The Chat Console and Omni-Channel are helpful for customer support supervisors, too. Supervisors
can monitor their agents’ chats and assist them in real time with whisper messages. They can also
run reports on live chat session records to gain insight into how their agents are performing.
You can implement Chat almost entirely in Setup without writing code. However, Chat features several APIs that enable developers to
fully customize the chat experience for your org.
Let’s learn more about what Chat can do for you.
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Chat in Lightning Experience
Set up Chat so that your support agents use a Lightning console app to chat with customers. Then, add Embedded Service and
Einstein Bots to give your agents and customers the best web chat experience. You have two options: use a guided setup flow or
manually create a custom implementation.
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Important: The guided setup flow is only available with Service Cloud. So if you're using Digital Engagement with Sales
Cloud, you'll need to manually set up your Chat implementation.
Set Up Chat with a Guided Setup Flow
Get started with live web chat in Lightning Experience with a quick guided setup flow. Create a chat queue on Omni-Channel,
select your chat team, and get the Embedded Service code snippet to add chat to your website.
Manually create a custom implementation
If you’ve already set up Chat in Salesforce Classic, or you're setting up Chat for the first time with Sales Cloud, you can configure Chat
manually.
Set Up Omni-Channel Routing for Chats
Chat in Lightning Experience uses Omni-Channel to route incoming chats to your support agents. Before you set up Chat, make
sure that Omni-Channel is ready to handle chats with a service channel for chats, a chat queue with an associated routing
configuration, and presence statuses that let your agents receive chats. To configure dynamic skill requirements, select the
Omni-Channel routing type in Chat Buttons & Invitations and configure skills-based routing rules.
Add Chat to the Console in Lightning Experience
Add Chat to a Lightning console app so agents and supervisors can chat with customers.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Chat with a Guided Setup Flow
Get started with live web chat in Lightning Experience with a quick guided setup flow. Create a chat queue on Omni-Channel, select
your chat team, and get the Embedded Service code snippet to add chat to your website.
Set Up Omni-Channel Routing for Chats
Chat in Lightning Experience uses Omni-Channel to route incoming chats to your support agents. Before you set up Chat, make
sure that Omni-Channel is ready to handle chats with a service channel for chats, a chat queue with an associated routing configuration,
and presence statuses that let your agents receive chats. To configure dynamic skill requirements, select the Omni-Channel routing
type in Chat Buttons & Invitations and configure skills-based routing rules.
Add Chat to the Console in Lightning Experience
Add Chat to a Lightning console app so agents and supervisors can chat with customers.
What's Different in Chat in Lightning Experience
Chat looks and functions differently in Lightning Experience. Keep these considerations in mind whether you're starting fresh or
making the switch to Chat in Lightning Experience.
Service Cloud Chat Cookies
Service Cloud Chat uses cookies to improve functionality and accelerate processing times. By saving a user’s settings, cookies can
enhance the user’s experience and the Chat performance.
Extend Your Web Chat Implementation with Embedded Service and Einstein Bots
After you’ve set up Chat and Omni-Channel to work together in Lightning Experience, give your customers a better chat experience
with Embedded Service and Einstein Bots. Embedded Service lets you create a pre-chat form and custom branding with little to no
code. Embed the chat window on your website and both your desktop and mobile customers can have the same chat experience.
Einstein Bots lets you connect customers to an automated chat bot to answer questions and solve straightforward issues.
This flow is available from Service Setup in Lightning Experience. You can get to Service Setup by clicking and selecting Service
Setup.
In Service Setup, you can find recommended setup flows, content, and tips based on what you’ve set up already. If you don’t see the
setup flow you’re looking for, you can click View All to see the full list.
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We also turn on several things in the background during the setup flow.
Enabling Chat and Omni-Channel
We turn on Chat and Omni-Channel if you haven’t already. When Chat is enabled, Salesforce creates a default Chat configuration,
which defines settings for your chat agents.
Service Channel for Chats
Service channels let you choose which objects you want to route in Omni-Channel. We create a service channel for chats so your
customers' chats can get to someone on your team.
Basic Omni-Channel Setup
We give you a basic Omni-Channel implementation that’s ready to route chats.
• A queue enabled for chat, to hold incoming chats until they’re routed to someone on your team
• A routing configuration and presence configuration, which work in tandem to control your team’s workload and set the priority
for chats in your queue
Assigned User Licenses
We assign Service Cloud User and Chat User licenses to the users you select during the flow. These users are also granted the necessary
user permissions to chat with customers in the console.
Presence Statuses
Presence statuses are how users go online in Omni-Channel. We create three presence statuses for your team to use: Available -
Chat, On Break, and Busy. The Chat status makes the user available to accept chats only.
Permission Set with Presence Statuses Assigned to Users
To make sure that your team has access to the presence statuses we create, we make a permission set that assigns the presence
statuses to the users you select in the setup flow. The permission set is called Chat Setup Flow (with developer name
Live_Agent_Setup_Flow).
Chat Deployment and Chat Button
We create a Chat deployment with default settings. We also create a chat button, which is named based on what you name the
group of users you assign to the chat queue. These objects are used to connect Chat to Embedded Service.
Embedded Service Deployment
Your Embedded Service deployment uses your Chat deployment and chat button to provide a chat window that you embed in your
website. We create an Embedded Service deployment with default settings and branding selection.
Salesforce Site
If you don’t have an existing Experience Cloud or Salesforce site, we create one for you after your provide the naming convention.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Chat Setup Flow: What’s Next?
Learn where you can customize and view what you set up during the Chat setup flow.
SEE ALSO:
Optimize Setup with the Service Setup Assistant
Note: If you didn’t add yourself during the setup flow, you can add yourself to the permission set we created for you.
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
create custom chat events, and more using JavaScript. Plus, you can create Lightning components that customize the user interface
of the chat window.
SEE ALSO:
Omni-Channel for Administrators
Trailhead: Omni-Channel Basics
Customize the General Branding for Your Chat Window
Customize the Pre-Chat Form
Embedded Service for Web Developer Guide
SEE ALSO:
Customize Omni-Channel
How Does Omni-Channel Queue-Based Routing Work?
Add the Omni-Channel Utility to a Lightning Console App
Omni-Channel Utility for Lightning Console Apps
6. Click Save.
7. Click Done. USER PERMISSIONS
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Note: While Chat can run without the use of functional cookies, site functionality can be reduced, depending on the cookie’s
purpose.
The following table describes the Chat cookies collected by Salesforce.
Table 20: This table describes the Chat cookies collected by Salesforce.
Cookie Name Duration Cookie Type Description
"liveagent_invite_rejected_"+this.buttonId Session Required Remembers the rules set by an admin
to hide a chat invite button after a
visitor accepts or rejects it. Without
the cookie, the button repeatedly
appears when triggered.
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SEE ALSO:
Embedded Chat Cookies
Extend Your Web Chat Implementation with Embedded Service and Einstein Bots
After you’ve set up Chat and Omni-Channel to work together in Lightning Experience, give your customers a better chat experience
with Embedded Service and Einstein Bots. Embedded Service lets you create a pre-chat form and custom branding with little to no code.
Embed the chat window on your website and both your desktop and mobile customers can have the same chat experience. Einstein
Bots lets you connect customers to an automated chat bot to answer questions and solve straightforward issues.
SEE ALSO:
Integrate with Embedded Service for Websites and Mobile Apps
Einstein Bots
IN THIS SECTION:
Create a Basic Chat Implementation
Before you customize Chat, you need to create the basic Chat implementation for your Salesforce org. After you complete the basic
setup steps, you’ll have a functioning Chat implementation that your agents can use to chat with customers.
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SEE ALSO:
Customize Your Chat Implementation
Add Chat to the Salesforce Console
Enable Chat
Get started with Chat by enabling it for your Salesforce org. After you enable Chat, you can customize
EDITIONS
it.
1. From Setup, enter Chat Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Chat Settings. Available in: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
2. Select Enable Chat.
Experience
3. Click Save.
Available in: Performance
Editions and in Developer
Edition orgs that were
created after June 14, 2012
Available in: Essentials,
Unlimited, and Enterprise
Editions with Service Cloud
or Sales Cloud
USER PERMISSIONS
To enable Chat:
• Customize Application
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
1. From Setup, enter Users in the Quick Find box, then select Users. Available in: Performance
Editions and in Developer
2. Click Edit next to a user’s name.
Edition orgs that were
3. Select Chat User. If you don’t see this checkbox, verify that your support organization has created after June 14, 2012
purchased enough Chat feature licenses.
Available in: Essentials,
4. Click Save. Unlimited, and Enterprise
After creating users, make sure that you assign them a Chat configuration and associate them with Editions with Service Cloud
or Sales Cloud
the appropriate skills.
SEE ALSO:
Create Chat Agent Configurations
Profiles
Create and Assign Chat Skills
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
Object Permissions
Chat "Read" Enables agents to We don't recommend giving agents the ability to create, edit, and delete
Configurations use configuration chat configuration records. Without the "Read" permission on chat
settings, such as configurations, configuration settings such as sensitive data rules aren't
sensitive data rules. loaded when an agent logs in to the console.
Live Chat Visitors “Read” Enables agents to We don’t recommend giving agents the ability to create, edit, and delete
view visitor records visitor records. Visitor records are created automatically and are meant
to provide a paper trail that associates your customers with their chat
transcripts, so we don’t recommend giving agents the ability to change
these records.
Live Chat “Read” Enables agents to We don’t recommend giving agents the ability to create, edit, and delete
Transcripts view chat chat transcripts. Transcripts are created automatically and are meant to
transcripts provide a paper trail about your agents’ interactions with customers, so
we don’t recommend giving agents the ability to change these records.
Quick Text “Read” Enables agents to Without the “Read” permission on quick text, agents can’t access the
view quick text quick text sidebar in the Salesforce console.
messages and
include quick text
in chats.
“Create” Enables agents to If you want to standardize quick text messages across your organization,
create quick text limit your agents’ ability to create quick text messages. In that case, give
messages the “Create” permission to support supervisors instead.
“Edit” Enables agents to If you want to standardize quick text messages across your support
edit quick text organization, limit your agents’ ability to edit quick text messages. In
messages that case, give the “Edit” permission to support supervisors instead.
“Delete” Enables agents to If you want to standardize quick text messages across your organization,
delete quick text limit your agents’ ability to delete quick text messages. In that case, give
messages the “Delete” permission to support supervisors instead.
SEE ALSO:
Chat Session Records
Chat Transcripts
Chat Visitor Records
Edit Object Permissions in Profiles
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
Object Permissions
“Create” Enables supervisors to create Session records are created automatically and
session records are meant to provide a paper trail that
provides information about the time that
agents spend online. We don’t recommend
tampering with these records, but you can
give supervisors the ability to create them
manually.
“Edit” Enables supervisors to edit session Session records are created automatically and
records are meant to provide a paper trail that
provides information about the time that
agents spend online. We don’t recommend
tampering with these records, but you can
give supervisors the ability to edit them.
“Delete” Enables supervisors to delete Session records are created automatically and
session records are meant to provide a paper trail that
provides information about the time that
agents spend online. We don’t recommend
tampering with these records, but you can
give supervisors the ability to delete them.
“Create” Enables supervisors to create chat Chat transcripts are created automatically and
transcripts are meant to provide a paper trail about your
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
“Edit” Enables supervisors to edit chat Chat transcripts are created automatically and
transcripts are meant to provide a paper trail about your
agents’ interactions with customers. We don’t
recommend tampering with these records,
but you can give supervisors the ability to edit
transcripts.
“Delete” Enables supervisors to delete chat Chat transcripts are created automatically and
transcripts are meant to provide a paper trail about your
agents’ interactions with customers. We don’t
recommend tampering with these records,
but you can give supervisors the ability to
delete transcripts.
“Create” Enables supervisors to create Visitor records are created automatically and
visitor records are meant to provide a paper trail that
associates your customers with their chat
transcripts. We don’t recommend tampering
with these records, but you can give
supervisors the ability to create them
manually.
“Edit” Enables supervisors to edit visitor Visitor records are created automatically and
records are meant to provide a paper trail that
associates your customers with their chat
transcripts. We don’t recommend tampering
with these records, but you can give
supervisors the ability to edit them.
“Delete” Enables supervisors to delete Visitor records are created automatically and
visitor records are meant to provide a paper trail that
associates your customers with their chat
transcripts. We don’t recommend tampering
with these records, but you can give
supervisors the ability to delete them.
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
SEE ALSO:
Chat Session Records
Chat Transcripts
Chat Visitor Records
Edit Object Permissions in Profiles
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
SEE ALSO:
Customize Your Chat Branding with Salesforce Sites
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3. Select Chat Button from the Type field. To create and customize
chat buttons:
4. Choose the settings on page 591 for your chat button.
• Customize Application
5. Click Save.
6. Copy the button code, and then paste it on each web page where you’ve deployed Chat. Make
sure that you paste the code in the area on the page where you want the button to appear.
Tip: Because the code changes with each modification, remember to copy and paste the code each time that you update
the button.
IN THIS SECTION:
Chat Routing Options
Routing options in Chat enable you to specify how incoming chat requests are directed to agents. To use Chat in Lightning Experience,
you must route chats with Omni-Channel. New chat buttons must use Omni-Channel routing—legacy Live Agent routing is no
longer available.
Chat Queuing Options
Queuing options in Chat let you control how incoming chat requests are handled when no agents are available.
SEE ALSO:
Create and Assign Chat Skills
Customize Your Chat Branding with Salesforce Sites
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
Least Active Incoming chats are routed to the agent with the required skill who has
the fewest active chats.
This option is a push option, which means that incoming chats are routed,
or “pushed,” to agents. You can specify the amount of time that an agent
has to answer a chat request before it’s routed to the next available,
qualified agent. Not supported in Lightning Experience.
Most Available Incoming chats are routed to the agent with the required skill and the
greatest difference between chat capacity and active chat sessions. For
example: Agent A has a capacity of eight and Agent B has a capacity of
two. If Agent A has two active chat sessions while Agent B has one,
incoming chats are routed to Agent A.
This option is a push option, which means that incoming chats are routed,
or “pushed,” to agents. You can specify the amount of time that an agent
has to answer a chat request before it’s routed to the next available,
qualified agent. Not supported in Lightning Experience.
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
Queuing is not enabled Least Active or Most Available • Customers see your chat button and
can submit new requests unless there
are no qualified agents available or all
online agents have reached capacity.
• When agents have the capacity for new
chat sessions, requests are routed to
them.
Queuing is enabled without a per-agent or Choice • Customers see your chat button and
overall limit can submit new requests unless there
are no qualified agents available.
• Incoming chat requests are added to
the Chat Requests list.
• When agents have capacity for new
chat sessions, they can accept incoming
requests from the list.
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
Queuing is enabled with a per-agent or Choice • Customers see your chat button and
overall limit defined can submit new requests unless there
are no qualified agents available, or until
the queue limit is reached. Then,
customers see the offline version of the
button until older chat sessions have
ended and an agent is available.
• Incoming chat requests are added to
the queue until the per-agent or overall
limit is reached. No new requests are
accepted until older chat sessions have
ended.
• When agents have capacity for new
chat sessions, they can accept incoming
requests from the list.
Queuing is enabled with a per-agent or Least Active or Most Available • Customers see your chat button and
overall limit defined can submit new requests unless there
aren’t any qualified agents available, or
until the queue limit is reached. Then,
users see the offline version of the
button until older chat sessions have
ended and an agent is available.
• Incoming chat requests are added to
the queue until the per-agent or overall
limit is reached. No new requests are
accepted until older chat sessions have
ended.
• When agents have capacity for new
chat sessions, requests are routed to
them.
SEE ALSO:
Chat Routing Options
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SEE ALSO:
Create a Basic Chat Implementation
Add Chat to the Salesforce Console
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
Set Visibility for the Chat Sessions Tab through Permission Sets Available in: Unlimited
Edition and Enterprise
Session records store information about your agents’ and customers’ interactions online, such
Edition with Service Cloud
as how many chat requests were processed, how long agents spent online, or how long agents
were actively engaged in chats with customers. Make the Chat sessions tab visible to users who
are assigned to specified permission sets.
Set Visibility for the Chat Sessions Tab through Profiles
Session records store information about your agents’ and customers’ interactions online, such as how many chat requests were
processed, how long agents spent online, or how long agents were actively engaged in chats with customers. Make the Chat sessions
tab visible to users who are assigned to specified profiles.
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
Set Visibility for the Chat Sessions Tab through Permission Sets
Session records store information about your agents’ and customers’ interactions online, such as
EDITIONS
how many chat requests were processed, how long agents spent online, or how long agents were
actively engaged in chats with customers. Make the Chat sessions tab visible to users who are Available in: Salesforce
assigned to specified permission sets. Classic and Lightning
Alternatively, you can give users access to the Chat sessions tab through profiles. Experience
1. From Setup, enter Permission Sets in the Quick Find box, then select Permission Sets. Available in: Performance
2. Click the name of a permission set, or create a permission set. Editions and in Developer
Edition orgs that were
3. Click Object Settings. created after June 14, 2012
4. Click Chat Sessions. Available in: Essentials,
5. Click Edit. Unlimited, and Enterprise
Editions with Service Cloud
6. In Tab Settings, select Available and Visible. or Sales Cloud
7. Click Save.
USER PERMISSIONS
SEE ALSO:
Set Visibility for the Chat Sessions Tab through Profiles To set tab visibility for Chat
features:
Chat Session Records
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
1. From Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles. Available in: Performance
2. Select a support agent profile. Editions and in Developer
Edition orgs that were
3. Click Edit. created after June 14, 2012
4. Set the visibility of the Chat sessions tab to Default On. Available in: Essentials,
5. Click Save. Unlimited, and Enterprise
Editions with Service Cloud
or Sales Cloud
SEE ALSO:
Set Visibility for the Chat Sessions Tab through Permission Sets
Chat Session Records
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
Add a Lookup Component for Chats Routed with Omni-Channel to the Salesforce Console
Provide agents with a sidebar lookup component in their Salesforce console so they can quickly look up or create associated records
for chats. This component is only for chats using Omni-Channel routing, and can be used in Salesforce Classic only.
SEE ALSO:
Create a Basic Chat Implementation
Customize Your Chat Implementation
Set Up a Salesforce Console App in Salesforce Classic
SEE ALSO:
Set Up a Salesforce Console App in Salesforce Classic
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
5. Click Next.
6. Enter Chat Answer in Field Label.
Make sure that Field Name is populated automatically with Chat_Answer. (You can use a different name for the Field Label.)
7. Click Next.
8. Specify security settings, and then click Next.
Make the Chat Answer field visible to authors, editors, and live chat agents. Hide it from portal users or other users who don’t need
access to it.
9. Select Yes, add this custom field to the layout, and then click Save.
SEE ALSO:
Create Article Types
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
USER PERMISSIONS
Add a Lookup Component for Chats Routed with Omni-Channel to the Salesforce Console
Provide agents with a sidebar lookup component in their Salesforce console so they can quickly
EDITIONS
look up or create associated records for chats. This component is only for chats using Omni-Channel
routing, and can be used in Salesforce Classic only. Available in: Salesforce
Before you add a sidebar component to the Salesforce console app, you need: Classic
• A Salesforce console app with Chat and Omni-Channel added to it. Available in: Performance
• At least one chat button that uses the routing option Omni. Editions and in Developer
Edition orgs that were
• Edit access for Live Chat Transcript granted to agents handling chats routed through
created after June 14, 2012
Omni-Channel.
Available in: Unlimited
1. From Setup, enter Chat in the Quick Find box, then select Live Chat Transcripts > Edition and Enterprise
Page Layouts. Edition with Service Cloud
2. Click Edit next to the Live Chat Transcript (In Progress) Page Layout.
3. Click Custom Console Components.
4. Under Primary Tab Components, adjust your objects and other settings. Don’t move the component to the left sidebar, as chats
appear on the left side.
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
5. Click Save.
Agents can now link and unlink records using the sidebar component.
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
• Sets the chat capacity for each Presence Configuration to what’s set in its corresponding Chat Configuration
• Assigns your chat agents to the new corresponding Presence Configurations
If you have Chat enabled but don’t have an implementation, when you enable Omni-Channel, Salesforce creates a Chat Service Channel.
Salesforce does all this automatically so there’s no disruption to your agents’ workflow. They can start accepting chats through
Omni-Channel in the console. The only difference they see is that they now use Omni-Channel in the console to set their status and
accept chat notifications. They may also see a change in their status options, as Omni-Channel presence statuses are configurable.
If you want to use Chat and Omni-Channel in Lightning Experience, you must use Omni-Channel routing for your chats. All you have to
do is create a chat button with the routing type Omni-Channel and set up Skills-Based Routing Rules or assign your agents to queues.
Then, add the Omni-Channel utility and Live Chat Transcripts to your Lightning Console app, and your agents can start accepting chat
requests.
IN THIS SECTION:
Compare Live Agent and Omni-Channel Routing for Chats
See the benefits and limitations of using Omni-Channel routing for chats or keeping Live Agent routing for chats. If you want to use
Chat in Lightning Experience, you must use Omni-Channel routing.
Compare Live Agent and Omni-Channel Routing for Chats
See the benefits and limitations of using Omni-Channel routing for chats or keeping Live Agent routing for chats. If you want to use
Chat in Lightning Experience, you must use Omni-Channel routing.
Manage Chat Capacity with Omni-Channel
If your support organization has been using Chat for a while, you know that you can select an agent’s maximum number of chats
by using the Chat Capacity field. When Omni-Channel is enabled in your Salesforce org, however, you need to manage your
agent’s chat capacity using Omni-Channel configurations instead.
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
Agents use Omni-Channel Presence, including its configurable Agents use Omni-Channel Presence, including its configurable
statuses. statuses.
Use Omni-Channel sound notifications in the Presence Use Omni-Channel sound notifications in the Presence
Configuration for chats. Configuration for chats.
Agent capacity is set and consumed by Omni-Channel. Agent capacity is set and consumed by Omni-Channel.
Chats are routed to agents using Skills. Chats are routed to agents using Omni-Channel queues.
Chats can’t be prioritized with Omni-Channel work, or relative to Chats are prioritized with Omni-Channel work, and can be
each other. Omni-Channel work items that haven't yet been routed prioritized relative to each other using queues.
are always routed ahead of chats.
Supervisors use the Chat Supervisor Panel to observe chats and Chat supervisors can view agent activity in Omni-Channel
assist agents with their chats. Supervisor, but they use the Chat Supervisor Panel to observe chats
and assist agents with their chats. Create a skill for agents handling
chats routed with Omni-Channel to make them visible in the Chat
Supervisor Panel.
Reports and data for chats are separate from Omni-Channel data. Chat data is included in Agent Work reports in addition to Chat
reports.
For a queue to appear as an option on the Chat button, the queue For a queue to appear as an option on the Chat button, the queue
must include the Chat Sessions object in its support objects. must include the Live Chat Transcript object in its supported
objects.
The Live Chat Transcript is created when the chat ends. The Live Chat Transcript is created when the chat is requested.
You can customize the Live Chat Transcript page layout for Ended In Salesforce Classic, you can customize the Live Chat Transcript
chats. page layout for Waiting, In Progress, and Ended chats. In Lightning
Experience, you can customize Live Chat Transcript pages in the
Lightning App Builder.
Agents associate records with the chat transcript only after the Agents can associate records with the chat transcript during the
chat has ended. chat. Agents can associate records on the chat transcript itself or
use a console sidebar lookup component in Salesforce Classic.
Uses the Console Integration Toolkit Methods for Chat. Uses the Console Integration Toolkit Methods for Omni-Channel
for Salesforce Classic, or Omni-Channel Objects for the Lightning
Console JavaScript API for Lightning Experience.
If you use the findorCreate code to find or create related If you use the findorCreate code to find or create related
records, the code triggers only when an agent accepts the chat records, the code triggers even if the chat visitor cancels the chat
request. before the agent accepts.
However, there are a few limitations to using Omni-Channel routing for chats:
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
• You can’t transfer a chat from a button using Live Agent routing to a button using Omni-Channel routing.
• Queues with multiple object types can cause problems when using Omni-Channel routing. We recommend creating a queue for
each object type, such as Chats, Cases, and Leads, instead of setting queues to handle multiple object types.
• When an agent uses “Transfer to Agent” for a chat routed with Omni-Channel and the receiving agent has an admin profile, the
agent who initiated the transfer can lose visibility of the chat transcript until the receiving agent accepts the chat request. This
situation occurs because Omni-Channel changes ownership of the chat transcript when the transfer is initiated, before the next
agent accepts the chat.
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Tip: Because the code changes with each modification, remember to copy and paste the code each time that you update
the invitation.
SEE ALSO:
Create and Assign Chat Skills
Customize Your Chat Branding with Salesforce Sites
Create Chat Deployments
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
Setting Description
Quick Text Name Enter a name that helps users understand when to use the message.
Message Enter the message that you want users to be able to insert into their communications. You can
include line breaks, lists, special characters, merge fields, and up to 4,000 characters.
Merge fields, like a contact name, help you personalize your communications with customers.
Quick text supports the Salesforce Merge Language (SML) used in Salesforce Classic email
templates, not the Handlebars Merge Language (HML) used in Lightning Experience email
templates.
Category Select a category that indicates the message’s purpose. Categories can be customized from the
Quick Text object settings in the Object Manager in Setup.
In orgs created before Spring ’18 that enabled quick text in Salesforce Classic, this field is required
and a default Category is provided. In orgs created after Spring ’18, this field is optional.
Channel Select the channels in which you want the message to be available. If you don’t specify a channel,
the message can’t be used. Depending on which features are enabled in your org, these channels
might be available.
• Email—for Email actions
Note: Quick text saved in the Email channel for your use is available as a text shortcut
in the Outlook and Gmail integrations with Inbox. Shared quick text isn’t available in
the integrations.
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Setting Description
• Event—for Event actions
• Internal—works with internal fields, like on the Change Status action. This channel isn’t
supported in Lightning Experience, though it appears in the list.
• Knowledge—for Knowledge articles in Lightning Experience
• Chat—works with Chat in the Service Console
• Messaging—works with Messaging in the Service Console
• Phone—for the Log a Call action
Note: In Salesforce Classic apps, quick text is supported with Case Feed Log a Call
actions in console apps.
• Portal—works in an Experience Cloud site or a customer portal. This channel isn’t supported
in Lightning Experience, though it appears in the list.
• Social—for social posts
• Task—for Task actions
Include in reply Visible only if Einstein Reply Recommendations is turned on. Select this option to let Einstein
recommendations recommend the message to agents in the Einstein Replies console component.
Include in selected channels Leave this option selected. It makes the message available in the channels you selected.
5. If you use merge fields, click Preview to review the message with data from records that you choose.
6. Click Save.
SEE ALSO:
Insert and Use Quick Text
Share Quick Text
Generate Emails From Records
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Note: Rules are enforced on the author. Therefore, if a "don’t show phone number" rule USER PERMISSIONS
is enforced on the visitor, when visitors enter their phone numbers, agents and supervisors
can’t see it. To create sensitive data
rules:
6. Set a priority for the rule. Lower numbers are executed first. • Customize Application
7. Click Save.
You can block the text from agents, supervisors, customers, or all of these. When a rule is triggered, it logs one or more of these chat
transcript events:
• Sensitive data blocked (Agent)
• Sensitive data blocked (Supervisor)
• Sensitive data blocked (Visitor)
Note: Sensitive data is visible while someone’s typing, but it is masked when the person sends it. So if you want to mask customer
information from agents, we recommend disabling Agent Sneak Peek (under Setup > Customize > Chat > Chat Configurations).
Sensitive data rules apply to the auto-greeting and any quick text that you have enabled. They don’t apply to the agent name or
other standard text in the chat window.
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
Blocked visitors see a message indicating that chat isn’t available. Available in: Performance
If a customer attempts to request a chat from a blocked IP address, the chat is canceled. In addition, Editions and in Developer
Edition orgs that were
you can modify or delete blocking rules.
created after June 14, 2012
1. From Setup, enter Block Visitors in the Quick Find box, then select Block Visitors. For
Available in: Essentials,
guidelines on entering valid IP ranges, see Set Trusted IP Ranges for Your Organization.
Unlimited, and Enterprise
2. Click New and fill in the parameters of your Blocking Rule. Editions with Service Cloud
3. Click Save. or Sales Cloud
You can also enable your agents to block chat requests from specified IP addresses while they work
in the console. See Let Your Agents Block Visitors by IP Address for more information. USER PERMISSIONS
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Chat Settings
Learn more about Chat settings and figure out how customizations can make Chat work for you.
EDITIONS
Chat Capacity Indicates how many chats an agent who is assigned to this
configuration can be engaged in at the same time.
Sneak Peek Indicates whether agents can see what a chat customer is typing
Enabled before the customer sends a chat message.
Request Sound Indicates whether to play an audio alert when the agent receives a
Enabled new chat request.
Disconnect Sound Indicates whether to play an audio alert when a chat is disconnected.
Enabled
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
Custom Agent Name Sets the agent’s name in the chat window.
Auto Greeting Sets a customized greeting message that the customer receives automatically when an agent
accepts the customer’s chat request.
Optionally, use merge fields to customize the information in your greeting by using the Available
Merge Fields tool. For example, you can personalize the chat experience by using merge fields
to include the customer’s name in the greeting.
Note: If you specify an automatic greeting message in both your Chat configuration
and in an individual chat button, the message that’s associated with your chat button
overrides the message that’s associated with your configuration.
Auto Away on Decline Sets the agent’s Chat status to “Away” automatically when the agent declines a chat request.
This option applies only when agents are assigned to chat buttons that use Live Agent push
routing.
Auto Away on Push Sets an agent’s Chat status to “Away” automatically when a chat request that's been pushed to
Time-Out the agent times out.
This option applies only when agents are assigned to chat buttons that use Live Agent push
routing.
Critical Wait Alert Time Determines the number of seconds that the agent has to answer a customer’s chat before the
chat tab alerts the agent to answer it. To see this in the console, Chat transcripts need to be set
as a workspace tab.
Agent File Transfer Indicates whether an agent can enable customers to transfer files through a chat.
Enabled
Visitor Blocking Enabled Indicates whether an agent can block visitors from an active chat within the Salesforce console.
See Let Your Agents Block Visitors by IP Address.
Assistance Flag Enabled Indicates whether an agent can send a request for help (“raise a flag”) to a supervisor.
Assign Users
Assign eligible users to the configuration to give them access to Chat functionality. You can also assign profiles to a configuration. If a
user is assigned a configuration at the profile and user levels, the user-level configuration overrides the configuration that’s assigned to
the profile.
Warning: Users can be assigned to only one Chat configuration at a time. If you assign the same user to a second Chat configuration,
the system removes that user from the first Chat configuration without warning you. So make sure that you know exactly which
Chat configuration each user should be assigned to!
For example, let’s say that User A is assigned to Chat Configuration A. Then, you create Chat Configuration B and accidentally assign
User A to it. Salesforce automatically removes User A from Chat Configuration A and reassigns the user to Chat Configuration B
without notifying you.
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Selected Users Indicates the users who are assigned to the configuration.
Assign Profiles
Assign eligible profiles to the configuration to give users who are associated with the profiles access to Chat functionality. If a user is
assigned a configuration at the profile and user levels, the user-level configuration overrides the configuration that’s assigned to the
profile.
Selected Profiles Indicates the user profiles that are assigned to the configuration.
Whisper Messages Enabled Indicates whether supervisors can send private messages to agents
while agents chat with customers.
Agent Sneak Peek Enabled Indicates whether supervisors can preview an agent’s chat
messages before the agent sends them to the customer.
Default Agent Status Filter Determines the default agent status, such as Online, Offline, or
Away, by which to filter agents in the supervisor panel.
When supervisors view the Agent Status list in the supervisor panel,
they see a list of agents who have that status.
Default Skill Filter Determines the default skill by which to filter agents in the
supervisor panel.
When supervisors view the Agent Status list in the supervisor panel,
they see a list of agents who are assigned to that skill.
Default Button Filter Determines the default button by which to filter agents in the
supervisor panel.
When supervisors view the Agent Status list in the supervisor panel,
they see a list of agents who are assigned to that button.
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Note: Chat conferencing does not support the Related Entities panel. If you attempt to use it with chat conferencing, important
details might not be saved on your record.
Chat Transfer to Skills Enabled Indicates whether agents can transfer chats to agents assigned to
a particular skill.
Chat Transfer to Skills Determines the skill groups to which agents can transfer chats.
Agents can transfer chats to available agents who are assigned to
those skills.
Chat Transfer to Chat Buttons Enabled Indicates whether agents can transfer chats to a button or queue.
Chat Transfer to Chat Buttons Determines the buttons to which agents can transfer chats.
Agents can transfer chats to available agents who are assigned to
those buttons.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Supported Browsers for Chat Notifications
Chat notifications help agents respond to chats efficiently by alerting agents when certain events occur. The types of chat notifications
that are supported are determined by the web browsers your agents use.
SEE ALSO:
The Chat Supervisor Panel for Salesforce Classic
Agent Status List
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Chat Window Title Sets the name of the chat window as it appears to customers.
Allow Visitors to Indicates whether customers can save copies of their chat transcripts
Save Transcripts after they finish chatting with an agent.
Allow Access to Indicates whether developers can access and implement the pre-chat
Pre-Chat API API.
Permitted Domains Determines the domains that can host the deployment.
When using permitted domains:
• List as many domains as needed, but only one per line.
• Use only the domain and subdomain. For example, use
xyz.domain.com, domain.com, or www.domain.com. Don’t
include http:// or mappings to specific pages within a domain,
such as domain.com/page.
• Make sure that you specify all the domains that you want to allow
to host the deployment.
• To make the deployment usable on any domain, leave the
Permitted Domains field empty.
Enable Custom Indicates whether a warning and timeout for the agent are enabled
Timeouts for when the customer is idle in a chat.
Idle Connection Indicates the additional duration, in seconds, that the customer can
Warning Duration remain idle or disconnected before a warning is sent to the agent.
This value is added to the base value of 40 seconds to determine the
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Idle Connection Timeout Indicates the additional duration, in seconds, that the customer can remain idle or disconnected
Duration before the chat ends. The default value is 110 seconds. This value is added to the base value of
40 seconds to determine the total duration. Appears when Enable Custom Timeouts
is selected.
Chat Window Branding Image Sets the custom graphic that appears in the customer’s chat
window.
Mobile Chat Window Branding Image Sets the custom graphic that appears in the customer’s chat
window when the customer accesses chat from a mobile site.
SEE ALSO:
Customize Your Chat Branding with Salesforce Sites
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Developer Name Sets the API name for the chat button.
Language Sets the default language for text in the chat window.
Enable Customer Indicates whether chats are ended if the customer doesn’t respond within a specified period.
Time-Out
Customer Time-Out Sets the amount of time that a customer has to respond to an agent message before the session
(seconds) ends. The timer stops when the customer sends a message and starts again from 0 on the next
agent's message.
Customer Time-Out Sets the amount of time that a customer has to respond to an agent message before a warning
Warning (seconds) appears and a timer begins a countdown.
The warning disappears (and the timer stops) each time the customer sends a message.
The warning disappears (and the timer resets to 0) each time the agent sends message.
The warning value must be shorter than the time-out value (we recommend at least 30 seconds).
Custom Agent Name Sets the agent’s name in the chat window.
Auto Greeting Sets a customized greeting message that the customer receives automatically when an agent accepts
the customer’s chat request.
Optionally, use merge fields to customize the information in your greeting by using the Available
Merge Fields tool. For example, you can personalize the chat experience by using merge fields to
include the customer’s name in the greeting.
Note: If you specify an automatic greeting message in both your Chat configuration and in
an individual chat button, the message that’s associated with your chat button overrides the
message that’s associated with your configuration.
Routing Information
Configure how the button or invitation routes chats to the best-fit agent.
Skills Associates skills with the button. If you select Button Skills as the routing type, incoming chat requests
are routed to agents with the skills that you specify.
Enable Queue Indicates that queueing is enabled. Queueing allows incoming chat requests to wait in a queue until
an agent with the appropriate skills is available to accept the chat.
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Overall Queue Size Determines the queue’s capacity to hold chat requests. For Live Agent routing or when chats have
a size of 1, this number is the maximum number of chats allowed to queue.
Automatically Accept Chat requests originating from the button are automatically accepted by the first available agent.
Chats
Online Image Sets the custom button graphic that appears when the chat button is available for customers to
request new chats.
Offline Image Sets the custom button graphic that appears when the chat button is unavailable.
Custom Chat Page Replaces the standard chat window with a custom chat window page that you’ve developed. Use
this option only to use a chat window other than the default chat window.
Pre-Chat Form Page Directs chats to the Lightning Platform page that hosts your customized pre-chat form that customers
see before they begin a chat with an agent.
Pre-Chat Form URL The absolute URL of your pre-chat form page.
Post-Chat Page Directs chats to your customized post-chat page that customers see after they complete a chat.
Post-Chat Page URL The absolute URL of the web page that hosts your post-chat page.
SEE ALSO:
Customize Your Chat Branding with Salesforce Sites
Chat Routing Options
Chat Queuing Options
Pre-Chat Forms and Post-Chat Pages
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Customer Time-Out (seconds) Sets the amount of time that a customer has to
respond to an agent message before the session
ends. The timer stops when the customer sends
a message and starts again from 0 on the next
agent's message.
Customer Time-Out Warning Sets the amount of time that a customer has to
(seconds) respond to an agent message before a warning
appears and a timer begins a countdown.
The warning disappears (and the timer stops)
each time the customer sends a message.
The warning disappears (and the timer resets
to 0) each time the agent sends message.
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Custom Agent Name Sets the agent’s name in the chat window.
Auto Greeting Sets a customized greeting message that the customer receives
automatically when an agent accepts the customer’s chat request.
Optionally, use merge fields to customize the information in your
greeting by using the Available Merge Fields tool. For example,
you can personalize the chat experience by using merge fields to
include the customer’s name in the greeting.
Routing Information
Specify how this invitation routes chats to the best-fit agent.
Queue Size Per Agent Determines the queue’s capacity to hold chat requests per available
agent. For Live Agent routing or when chats have a size of 1, this
setting controls the number of chats allowed to queue for each
agent.
Overall Queue Size Determines the queue’s capacity to hold chat requests. For Live
Agent routing or when chats have a size of 1, this number is the
maximum number of chats allowed to queue.
Invitation Animation
Customize your invitation’s animations to determine how the animation appears to customers.
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Allow invitation to be triggered again Indicates whether the invitation can be sent to the customer again
after accepting after the customer has accepted a previous invitation.
Allow invitation to be triggered again Indicates whether the invitation can be sent to the customer again
after rejecting after the customer has rejected a previous invitation.
Invitation Customization
You can optionally customize your invitation with custom images by associating your deployment with a Salesforce site and its static
resources.
Online Image Sets the custom invitation graphic that appears when the chat
invitation is available for customers to request new chats.
Offline Image Sets the custom invitation graphic that appears when the chat
invitation is unavailable.
Custom Chat Page Replaces the standard chat window with a custom chat window
page that you’ve developed. Use this option only to use a chat
window other than the default chat window.
Pre-Chat Form Page Directs chats to the Lightning Platform page that hosts your
customized pre-chat form that customers see before they begin
a chat with an agent.
Pre-Chat Form URL The absolute URL of your pre-chat form page.
Post-Chat Page Directs chats to your customized post-chat page that customers
see after they complete a chat.
Post-Chat Page URL The absolute URL of the web page that hosts your post-chat page.
Sending Rule
Create sending rules for your invitation to determine when to trigger and send the invitation to customers. You can include multiple
criteria in your sending rule. Also, if your sending rule requires more complicated logic, you can apply Boolean operators to your sending
rule.
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Operator Sets the operator to evaluate your criteria. For example, you can
create a rule that sends the invitation when a customer has been
on a page for more than a specified number of seconds.
Value Sets the value to evaluate the formula against. For example, you
can create a rule that sends the invitation when a customer has
been on a page for more than 30 seconds.
SEE ALSO:
Chat Routing Options
Create and Assign Chat Skills
Chat Queuing Options
Customize Your Chat Branding with Salesforce Sites
Pre-Chat Forms and Post-Chat Pages
1. Create a custom report type using Chat Sessions as the primary object. Available in: Performance
2. Create a new Chat report using the Report Builder in Salesforce Classic or the Reports tab in Editions and in Developer
Edition orgs that were
Lightning Experience.
created after June 14, 2012
3. Customize your report to include the columns of information you want to feature.
Available in: Essentials,
4. Save or run the report. Unlimited, and Enterprise
Editions with Service Cloud
or Sales Cloud
SEE ALSO:
Create a Report
Build a Report in Salesforce Classic USER PERMISSIONS
Chat Session Records
To create, edit, and delete
reports:
• Create and Customize
Reports
AND
Report Builder
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SEE ALSO:
Chat for Support Agents
Permissions for Chat Support Supervisors
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
USER PERMISSIONS
No. Requests The number of pending chat requests that are currently assigned to the
Assigned agent.
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Time Elapsed Since Last The amount of time since the agent last accepted a chat request.
Accept
Message to Supervisor The private message that the agent sent with a help flag.
(optional)
Expand each agent’s name to see details about the customers they’re chatting with.
Browser The type of internet browser the customer is using to connect to their chat window.
Duration The amount of time the customer has been engaged in a chat with the agent.
Action The actions you can take to view the customer's chat with the agent.
SEE ALSO:
Chat Statuses
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When you finish monitoring your agent’s chat, click again to collapse the chat monitor.
To remove a flag after you’ve provided help, click Lower Flag. USER PERMISSIONS
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USER PERMISSIONS
To assign skills:
• Assign Chat Skills to
Users OR Customize
Application
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SEE ALSO:
Chat for Support Supervisors (Salesforce Classic)
Permissions for Chat Support Agents
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USER PERMISSIONS
Chat Statuses
Chat statuses define how you can interact with customers while you're online, away, or offline.
EDITIONS
Status Description Available in: Salesforce
Online You can receive and accept incoming chats and Classic and Lightning
transfers. Experience
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Note: If you don't have access to quick text, contact your Salesforce admin. Available in: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
1. While chatting with a customer, open the quick text browser. Experience
• In Salesforce Classic, on Mac OS or Windows, type ;; in the message field. Available in: Performance
• In Lightning Experience, type one of the following commands in the message field. Editions and in Developer
Edition orgs that were
Mac OS: Cmd+. created after June 14, 2012
Windows: Ctrl+. Available in: Essentials,
Unlimited, and Enterprise
A list of quick text messages displays. Recently used messages display first.
Editions with Service Cloud
2. To see additional quick text messages, type a word or phrase. or Sales Cloud
A list of messages that include those words appears.
3. To see the title and full text of a message, hover over it or highlight it using the arrow keys on
your keyboard.
USER PERMISSIONS
The full message displays in the preview panel. To access quick text while
4. To select a message and add it to your chat, click it or use your keyboard to highlight it and chatting with visitors:
then press Enter. • Read on Quick Text
SEE ALSO:
Create Quick Text Messages
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Note: You can send articles to visitors only if your admin has set up a Chat Answer field on articles. If this field isn’t set up,
you can view articles but can’t include them in chats.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Chat Answers from Knowledge Articles
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If your Salesforce org is receiving many spam chats from a particular region, your administrator can Available in: Performance
block entire ranges of IP addresses. Editions and in Developer
Edition orgs that were
1.
In the interaction pane, click the icon. created after June 14, 2012
2. (Optional) Enter a comment explaining why you’re blocking this visitor. Available in: Essentials,
Unlimited, and Enterprise
3. Click Block. Editions with Service Cloud
When you click Block , you immediately end the chat, and the visitor sees a notification that an or Sales Cloud
agent ended the chat. If multiple agents are engaged in a conference, Block immediately ends the
conference, and the other agents are also notified.
USER PERMISSIONS
If you don’t see the icon in your console, contact your Salesforce admin to enable it. Only To chat with visitors in Chat
a Salesforce admin can unblock an IP address. in the Salesforce console:
• Chat is enabled, set up,
and included in a
Salesforce console app
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Chat with Customers on Your Website
When chats are transferred directly to an agent or skill group, the transferred chats are allowed to exceed the accepting agent’s capacity.
As a result, agents always receive a chat request, even if they’re handling the maximum allowed number of chats. If the transfer request
is rejected or times out, the original agent can try another recipient or transfer method.
If an agent selects User = All Users with Skill, then the chat transfer request is broadcast to all agents who are available
who have that skill. As a result, multiple agents can hear the incoming chat notification for a few seconds. If an agent immediately accepts
the chat transfer or has auto-accept enabled, the request is no longer shown to the other agents but the agents might continue to hear
the notification sound for a few seconds.
Chats routed from buttons or queues always respect the configured agent capacity. So, agents assigned to that button or queue don’t
receive the transfer request—or any other chat requests—until they have open capacity. But don’t worry: customers still won’t get stuck
waiting for another agent. When a chat is sent to the next queue, it’s added into the list of incoming chats by its age, so it will appear
higher up than brand-new chat requests.
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When an agent accepts a transferred chat, the records attached to the chat transcript, like a case or contact, open alongside the chat in
the workspace. The accepting agent has the information to start assisting the customer right away, without having to search for related
records. These records are also up-to-date, because the previous agent is prompted to save any changes when the transfer is initiated.
When an agent accepts a transferred chat, only the chat is transferred to the agent. Ownership of related records, such as a case, aren't
transferred to the agent.
Note: If the accepting agent doesn’t have permissions to view one or more of the attached objects, those items won’t open in
the transferred workspace.
IN THIS SECTION:
Transfer Chats
You can transfer chat sessions to other agents when a customer needs extra help with an issue, or to make room for new requests.
Send a Chat Conferencing Request
As wise as support agents are, sometimes a single support agent doesn’t have all the information that’s required to solve a customer’s
problem. Chat conferencing lets you invite one or more agents into your customer chats. That way, your agents can turn boring
chats into veritable support parties for your customers—all without disrupting the flow of conversation! Send a chat conferencing
request to ask another agent to join you in a customer chat.
Request Help with a Chat
When you need help with a chat, you can raise a virtual flag to alert a supervisor. Supervisors are alerted that you need help, and
they can respond directly via the console.
Transfer Chats
You can transfer chat sessions to other agents when a customer needs extra help with an issue, or
EDITIONS
to make room for new requests.
1. While chatting with a customer, click Transfer. Available in: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
USER PERMISSIONS
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Note: There are options for each type of transfer that’s enabled for your Salesforce org. If you don’t see the option you need,
ask your administrator to add it for you.
3. (Optional) Write a message for the agent receiving the chat. This message is part of the chat request to provide context for the next
agent.
4. If the transfer is accepted, your chat and any associated records automatically close (don’t worry, you’ll be prompted to save your
changes if you haven’t already). If it’s rejected, you can try again with another recipient or transfer method.
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Note: If you have the correct permissions, you can create, view, edit, or delete session records, just like other record types in
Salesforce. However, session records are meant to provide a paper trail for the chats between your agents and customers, so we
don't recommend tampering with these records in most cases.
Important: Chat session records don’t include chats routed with Omni-Channel. Information about chats routed with Omni-Channel
can be found in Agent Work records on page 316.
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SEE ALSO:
Create and Update Records
Delete Records
Update Records
Chat Transcripts
A chat transcript is a record of a chat between a customer and an agent. Salesforce automatically
EDITIONS
creates a transcript for each chat session.
When a chat ends successfully—that is, when the chat is ended by a customer or an agent—the Available in: Salesforce
chat transcript is created as soon as the agent closes the chat window and any related tabs. When Classic and Lightning
you’re using Omni-Channel routing, the chat transcript is created when the chat’s requested by a Experience
visitor.
Available in: Performance
You can associate a transcript with cases, accounts, contacts, and leads, or you can link it to other Editions and in Developer
objects. Edition orgs that were
created after June 14, 2012
Note: If you have the correct permissions, you can create, view, edit, or delete chat transcripts,
Available in: Essentials,
just like other record types in Salesforce. However, chat transcripts are meant to provide a
Unlimited, and Enterprise
paper trail for the chats between your agents and customers, so we don't recommend
Editions with Service Cloud
tampering with these records in most cases. With Live Agent routing, it can take up to 30
or Sales Cloud
minutes to create the transcript if a chat is disconnected or experiences another error.
IN THIS SECTION:
Chat Transcript Fields
Chat transcript fields help you track information about your agents’ chats with customers.
Chat Transcript Events
Live chat transcript events automatically track events that occur between your agents and customers during chats.
SEE ALSO:
Create and Update Records
Delete Records
Update Records
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Abandoned After The amount of time in seconds before the Available in: Performance
unanswered chat request was disconnected Editions and in Developer
Edition orgs that were
Account Name The name of the account associated with the created after June 14, 2012
transcript
Available in: Essentials,
Agent Average Response Time The average time that it took an agent to Unlimited, and Enterprise
respond to a chat visitor’s message Editions with Service Cloud
or Sales Cloud
Agent Maximum Response Time The maximum time it took an agent to respond
to a chat visitor’s message
Agent Skill The skill associated with the live chat button
used to initiate the chat
Chat Button The chat button that the visitor clicked to initiate
the chat
Created Date The date and time the transcript was created
(Read only)
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Field Definition
Ended By Indicates whether the visitor or the agent ended the chat
Last Modified By The user who last modified the transcript, including date and time
(Read only)
Last Modified Date The date and time the transcript was last modified (Read only)
Lead The name of the lead that was generated by the chat or discussed
during the chat
Live Chat Visitor Unique, numerical identifier automatically assigned to the visitor.
Administrators can modify the format and numbering for this field.
Visitor numbers usually increase sequentially, but sometimes they
can skip numbers in a sequence.
Note that visitors and contacts are different: a visitor might be a
contact, but this is not a requirement, and there is no relationship
between contacts and visitors.
Location The visitor's geographic location. Either the city and state, or city
and country (if the visitor is located outside of the United States).
Owner The name of the transcript owner. By default, the owner is the user
who originally created the transcript (for example, the agent who
answered the chat).
You can select a different user as the owner, or assign the transcript
to a queue. When assigning transcripts to other users, make sure
those users have the “Read” permission on live chat transcripts.
Primary Skill Primary Skill is not used for chat and can be empty.
Referring Site Site the visitor was on before they came to your website.
For example, if the visitor used Google to search for your support
organization’s website, the referring site is Google.
Request Time The time that the visitor initially requested the chat
Start Time The time that the agent answered the chat request
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Field Definition
Status Completed or Missed. A missed chat was requested but not
answered
User Agent A string that identifies the type of browser and operating system
the visitor used
Visitor Average Response Time The average time that it took a visitor to respond to an agent
comment
Visitor Maximum Response Time The maximum time it took a customer to respond to an agent’s
message
Visitor IP Address The IP address of the computer that the visitor used during the
chat
Visitor Message Count The number of messages a visitor sent during the chat
Wait Time The total amount of time a chat request was waiting to be accepted
by an agent
Critical Wait Alert Time Agent failed to respond to the customer’s message before reaching the
Reached critical wait alert time
Critical Wait Alert Agent responded to the customer’s message after the critical wait alert
Cleared was received
Transfer Request Chat transfer request was canceled by the agent who sent the request
Canceled
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Event Description
Transfer Request Declined Chat transfer request was declined by the agent who received the request
File Transfer Canceled by Visitor File transfer was canceled by the visitor
Canceled (No Agent) Chat request was canceled because no qualified agents were available
Canceled (No Queue) Chat request was canceled because there was no room in queue
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Embedded Chat
Add an embedded chat window to your website so customers can quickly get answers to their
EDITIONS
questions by chatting with an agent while browsing your site.
The chat window sits unobtrusively on your web page. When customers want to chat, they just Embedded Service setup
click the button to launch the chat. node is available in:
Lightning Experience
Customers fill out the brief pre-chat form, which helps agents gather basic information about the customer, like their contact information,
and their needs.
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Customers can start chatting while viewing your web page and can minimize the chat window as they browse, so it’s not in their way.
The chat window persists across your web pages and their subdomains, so customers can continue browsing other pages on your site
while waiting or chatting with an agent.
Embedded chat windows use a Chat deployment that you can quickly configure. Then, simply add the code snippet to the web pages
where you want the chat window to be available. Setting up Embedded Chat doesn't change how your agents chat with customers in
their console.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Your Embedded Chat Window
Ensure that your org meets the following prerequisites before starting to set up Embedded Chat. Follow these steps to configure
the embedded chat window and add it to your web pages. The setup node for Embedded Chat is available only in Lightning
Experience.
Set Up Appointment Management
Appointment Management gives your users an easy way to schedule, modify, and cancel appointments. The experience is powered
by Salesforce Flow. You craft the perfect interaction and decide when and how to create related records like work orders.
Add an Embedded Flow
Use Embedded Service to add a flow to your website. Embedded flows help your users complete simple, automated tasks. They're
even guest user-friendly—no login required. Simply create your flow using Flow Builder and add it to an Embedded Service
deployment.
Create Embedded Static Resources
Create and upload JavaScript files to Salesforce as a static resource and apply to your website or Experience Builder site. Adding
static resources allows you to change one or many pages using existing deployments with a few clicks in code settings.
Test Your Chat Window
Now that you’ve added Embedded Chat to your web pages or Experience Builder site, it’s time to test it out.
Embedded Chat Limitations
Embedded Chat has the following limitations to consider.
Embedded Chat Cookies
Embedded Chat uses cookies to improve functionality and accelerate processing times. By saving a user’s settings, cookies can
enhance the user’s experience and the performance of your Embedded Service.
Note: Administrators must use Lightning Experience to access the Embedded Service setup
pages. However, other users in the org aren’t required to have access to or use Lightning
Experience with Embedded Chat.
To set up Embedded Chat, follow these steps:
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IN THIS SECTION:
1. Create an Embedded Service Deployment
Create an Embedded Service deployment for each embedded chat window that you’re using. The setup node for Embedded Chat
is available only in Lightning Experience.
2. Specify Your Chat Window's Settings
Select your Chat deployment and chat button. Customize the pre-chat form and offline support form. Select custom Lightning
components. Set chat images, dimensions, and labels. Learn about available Chat features in Embedded Chat.
3. Customize the General Branding for Your Chat Window
Select the colors and font used in your chat window to reflect your company’s brand identity.
4. Add Your Chat Window to a Website
Salesforce generates a unique code snippet based on the information you provided during the Embedded Service setup. Copy and
paste the chat code snippet so you can add the chat window to your web pages. Add the optional meta tag code snippet to make
your web pages responsive to different form factors such as mobile and desktop.
5. Add Your Chat Window to an Experience Site
Use the Embedded Service component to add your chat window to an Experience Builder site. Create a snippet settings file to use
snippet-only settings with your site’s chat window.
SEE ALSO:
Verify that Lightning Experience is Turned On
Supported Browsers and Devices for Lightning Experience
1. From Setup, enter Embedded Service in the Quick Find box, then select Embedded Available in: Enterprise,
Service. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
2. In the Embedded Service configuration page, click New Deployment.
3. Choose a conversation type for your deployment by selecting Embedded Chat and click Next.
USER PERMISSIONS
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4. In the Embedded Service Deployment Name field, enter a name for your chat deployment.
Tip: The deployment is shown in a list on the Embedded Service page. If you have several deployments, use a descriptive
name so it’s easy to distinguish each one.
7. Click Save.
Note: For existing deployments that are not active, a conversation type can be required to enable it on your site (see step 3). After
you select your conversation type and save, the choice is permanent for that deployment.
SEE ALSO:
Specify the Chat Settings for Your Embedded Chat Deployment
Add an Embedded Flow
Set Up Appointment Management
Specify the Chat Settings for Your Embedded Chat Deployment Available in: Enterprise,
Embedded Chat uses a Chat deployment ID and button. The Chat configuration details that Performance, Unlimited,
you provide are used to generate the chat code snippet that you add to your web pages. and Developer Editions
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SEE ALSO:
Add Your Chat Window to a Website
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USER PERMISSIONS
When you design your pre-chat form, you can select a use case scenario that automatically associates information from the form with
Salesforce records. When a customer enters their name or email address into the form, Salesforce matches the information with a
Salesforce contact record or lead record. If no match is found, Salesforce creates a record.
For example, if you select the Service scenario, Salesforce relates the customer’s information with Case and Contact records.
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Table 21: Use Cases for Associating Pre-Chat Information with Salesforce Records
If you select: Then Salesforce associates the pre-chat information
with these record types:
Sales Lead records
You can select the fields that are shown on the pre-chat form, change the order of the fields, and make fields required. To make the form
more user-friendly to customers, add up to four fields.
Important: Create and edit your pre-chat forms from Embedded Service setup, not at global action. Editing global action can
lead to unexpected results. Each time the pre-chat form is edited, the Embedded Service global action is recreated and prior
updates to action details or predefined fields are reverted.
Embedded Service setup creates quick actions specifically for pre-chat. Using these quick actions for other purposes causes pre-chat
setup to fail.
Note: For the Service scenario, fields are grouped by object. Contact fields always appear above Case fields.
b. To add a field, click +. You can add only fields that are available on the object.
c. To remove a field, click X.
d. To require customers to fill out a field, select Required next to the field.
e. Click Save.
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8. Optionally, select a custom Lightning Component to replace the standard component. To learn more about using custom components
for pre-chat, see Custom Lightning Components in the Embedded Service for Web Developer Guide.
Turn off your pre-chat form at any time by viewing your deployment in Setup and moving the pre-chat page slider to Inactive.
Note: You can use the pre-chat APIs to send nonstandard pre-chat details along with what’s available in setup. For more information,
see the Enhance the Pre-Chat Page in the Embedded Service for Web Developer Guide.
5. Click Edit.
6. Select a Case record type.
7. Select the fields shown on the form.
a. To change the order of the fields, use the up arrow and down arrow.
b. To add a field, click +. You can add only fields that are available on the object.
Note: If you add a field with the Unique attribute and a visitor enters a duplicate field value, the case submission
confirmation is displayed even though the case isn’t created. Add unique fields to this form only if you’re certain that
visitors are unlikely to enter duplicate values.
8. Optionally, enter a URL for the offline support header image. The image is displayed in the header of the chat window when the
customer opens the offline support form.
9. Click Save.
10. Refresh your code snippet and paste it into your website.
Turn off your offline support form at any time by viewing your deployment in Setup and moving the Offline support slider to Inactive.
Important: Refresh and repaste the code snippet into your website each time you turn offline support on or off.
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USER PERMISSIONS
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SEE ALSO:
Allow Surveys to Be Framed Within the Chat Window on Websites
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6. Set the width and height of your chat window. If you don’t make any changes, the default sizes of 320 px and 498 px are used.
7. Set the base font size for your chat window.
8. Click Finish to close the window.
IN THIS SECTION:
Customize Labels
Create your own labels for your Embedded Chat deployment.
Customize Labels
Create your own labels for your Embedded Chat deployment.
EDITIONS
1. From Setup, enter Embedded Service in the Quick Find box, then select Embedded
Service. Embedded Service setup
node is available in:
2. Select the Embedded Service deployment that you want to work with by clicking the arrow
Lightning Experience
beside the deployment name and selecting View.
3. Click Edit next to Chat Settings. Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
4. In the Additional branding section, click Edit. and Developer editions.
5. Click the Labels tab.
USER PERMISSIONS
6. Select the Chat State and Label Group you want to create custom labels for.
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7. Under Customized Label, enter new labels for your embedded component. The live preview highlights where the selected label
appears on the screen.
8. Save your customized labels before moving on to another chat state or label group.
9. To close the window, click Finish.
When you or another administrator go to the Labels tab, the Language column indicates the language that each customized label was
originally written in.
To reset your customized labels, click the arrow next to the label type. Then select Reset to Default.
IN THIS SECTION:
Translate Your Chat Window
The primary language for a chat window is set in your embedded code snippet. An extra step in Translation Workbench is required
for custom labels or platform-only languages.
SEE ALSO:
Translate Your Chat Window
Translate Your Chat Window
The primary language for a chat window is set in your embedded code snippet. An extra step in
EDITIONS
Translation Workbench is required for custom labels or platform-only languages.
Set your primary language in your Embedded Service code snippet. All of your chat window labels Embedded Service setup
have a default translation set for any Salesforce fully supported or end-user language that you’ve node is available in:
added. Lightning Experience
Follow these additional steps if you would like to create custom labels or if you want to include a Available in: Enterprise,
platform-only language: Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
1. To translate labels for your chat window, view your Embedded Service deployment in Setup.
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2. Open your Chat, Field Service or Flows settings, and click Edit next to Additional branding.
3. Click the Labels tab to view and customize the labels in your chat window.
4. Select the arrow next to a label and click View Label Record, where you can select to translate the label in the Translation Workbench.
Tip: For any platform-only language, you must use custom labels and set all the labels to that language.
Tip: To use translation, you must allow cookies for your browser. For example, enable “Allow third-party cookies” in Safari iOS.
SEE ALSO:
Set the Language in the Code Snippet
Support Users in Multiple Languages
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5. Select the font that you want to use in the chat window.
6. Click Finish.
The screenshots show how the branding elements appear in the chat window.
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Note: If you select a font that isn’t available for a chat visitor’s mobile browser,
the browser’s default font is displayed.
Important: Changing the branding of an existing chat window changes the code snippet for the chat window. If you update the
branding for an existing window, you must update the code snippet on your web pages. If you customized the code snippet, you
must add those customizations to the new code snippet.
IN THIS SECTION:
Customize Chat Window Branding for a Experience Site
Select the chat window colors and font to reflect your company’s brand identity on an Experience Cloud site.
SEE ALSO:
Add Your Chat Window to a Website
Customize the Embedded Service Code Snippet
Customize Additional Chat Branding
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Note: For Experience sites, Action Color maps to the Brand Primary and Brand Secondary colors for web chat windows. Text
Color maps to the Contrast Primary color for a web chat window.
Note: These branding tokens are created in Embedded Service Setup and automatically pass to your site: width, height,
header text, and header alternate.
SEE ALSO:
General Embedded Service Branding
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5. Optionally, copy and paste the meta code snippet into the <meta> tag head section in every web page where you want the chat
window to appear.
6. Click Done.
The code snippets page closes.
Tip: If you’re adding your Chat window to a Visualforce page, include these attributes on your apex:page tag to keep styling
consistent with your web pages:
<apex:page showheader="false" sidebar="false" standardStylesheets="false">
IN THIS SECTION:
Customize the Embedded Service Code Snippet
Use a text or HTML editor to customize the optional parameters in the Embedded Service code snippet.
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SEE ALSO:
Customize the Embedded Service Code Snippet
Customizable Parameters in the Embedded Chat Code
Test Your Chat Window
You can customize the code snippet once and paste it on all your web pages, or customize the Available in: Enterprise,
code snippet for certain web pages. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
1. From Setup, enter Embedded Service in the Quick Find box, then select Embedded
Service.
2. Select the Embedded Service deployment that you want to work with. USER PERMISSIONS
3. In the Embedded Service configuration page, go to the Embedded Service Code To set up Embedded Chat:
Snippets section and click Get Code. • Customize Application
AND Modify Metadata
4. Copy the code snippet to a text editor or HTML editor.
5. In the text editor or HTML editor, specify the image URLs for the chat window parameters.
6. Save your changes.
7. Go to the Experience Builder for your help center.
8. Below components, click Settings.
9. In the navigation tree, click Security.
10. Under Content Security Policy, select Allow inline scripts and script access to allowlisted third-party hosts in the
Script Security Level dropdown.
11. In the code snippet, find the field baseLiveAgentContentURL and copy the URL.
12. Click Add Trusted Site and name your new site.
13. Click Add Site and paste the URL from baseLiveAgentContentURL.
14. Publish your site changes.
After modifying the code snippet, add the code to every web page where you want the chat window to appear.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Customizable Parameters in the Embedded Chat Code
You can customize certain parameters that affect the appearance and behavior of the chat window so that the chat experience
reflects your company’s branding. Use these parameters to customize the pre-chat background image, logo, waiting-state image,
and your agent’s avatar picture. You also can customize the wording that appears on the chat button and on the chat window when
the chat is loading, when agents are online, when agents are offline.
SEE ALSO:
Add Your Chat Window to a Website
Customizable Parameters in the Embedded Chat Code
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SEE ALSO:
Add Your Chat Window to a Website
Customize the Embedded Service Code Snippet
Embedded Service for Web Developer Guide
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• To create and automate invitations, see Add Chat Settings to an Experience Site.
• You can’t fill in pre-chat fields for logged-in users via the code snippet. Use the component option, which fills in contact fields (name
and email).
• To customize Embedded Chat branding colors in a site, use the settings in the component. Using Embedded Service setup to specify
branding colors for Experience sites is not supported.
• To ensure end-user session continuity, your web pages must have the same storageDomain and use the same deployments.
To share a custom site domain between the site and other pages in the same domain, use the Storage Domain property in the
component .
To use Embedded Service code snippet settings in your site, use the Snippet Settings File field in the component.
1. Create a JavaScript file with your Embedded Chat settings. Refer to the Embedded Service for Web Developer Guide for more details.
2. Upload the file to your Static Resources. Give the file a name that’s easy to remember and doesn’t include spaces.
3. In your Embedded Service component settings, enter the static resource name (not the file name) in the Snippet Settings File
field.
4. Save and publish your changes.
IN THIS SECTION:
Add Chat Code Settings to an Experience Site
Use the Embedded Service component to add a Code Setting Name to an Experience Cloud site. This step allows you to modify with
static resources, including inviting customers to chat.
SEE ALSO:
Embedded Chat Experience Component
Customize Chat Window Branding for a Experience Site
Important: Code setting modifications for Embedded Chat external pages and websites are Embedded Chat setup node
not available. is available in: Lightning
Experience
Adding JavaScript code as a static resource provides the flexibility of changing your customer
interactions, including adding invitations to chat, or other settings to a site. Before creating your Available in: Enterprise,
Embedded Chat code settings, you must create and upload embedded static resources Performance, and
Unlimited
To add Embedded Chat code settings to your site, use the Code Settings Name field in the
component.
USER PERMISSIONS
1. Select Add Code Setting.
2. Create a JavaScript file with your Embedded Chat settings for sites, including strings, arrays, To set up static resources:
JSON, and js functions. (See examples of Experience Site Static Resource Files.) • Customize Application
AND Author Apex
3. In your Embedded Service component settings, enter the static resource name (not the file
name) in the Code Setting Name field on a specific page on your site.
4. Save and publish your changes.
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Note: If you load static resource files for Experience sites, test your entire flow in the builder to discover any CSP errors. This step
ensures that image URLs and assets from other domains specified in the static resource load during run time. Check the console
first for CSP errors if something is missing.
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5. To create and configure a connected app, follow the Connected Apps instructions. For authentication, use the Authenticate Apps
with OAuth help.
6. Create and configure an Embedded Service deployment.
a. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Embedded Service, then select Embedded Service Deployments and click
New Deployment.
b. Choose Appointment Management as your conversation type and Next.
Note: If you don't see the selection, Appointment Booking isn't enabled.
c. On the New Embedded Service Deployment panel, in Embedded Service Deployment Name enter your appointment
booking name.
Note: The deployment is shown in a list on the Embedded Service page. If you have several deployments, use a descriptive
name so it’s easy to distinguish each one.
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Note: To access or view appointments with Appointment Management, the user must have a Customer Community User
profile with the FSL Self Service permissions set.
Note: Appointment Management can also be set up with Lightning Scheduler. See the Set Up Scheduling for Authenticated
External Users instructions first to meet any prerequisites before following the previous steps. Add Inbound Flows to a Website
provides more background.
3. On the New Embedded Service deployment panel, in the Embedded Service Deployment Name field enter your flow
name.
Tip: The deployment is shown in a list on the Embedded Service page. If you have several deployments, use a descriptive
name so it’s easy to distinguish each one.
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SEE ALSO:
Create an Embedded Service Deployment
Flow Builder
Learn more about flow types
Note: A single static resource file is up to 5 MB, and an organization can have up to 250 MB of static resources, total.
6. Set the Cache Control to Public. Share the static resource data on the Salesforce server with other users in your organization for
faster load times.
7. Return to your code settings in Channel Menu or Experience sites to apply the resources.
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Tip: If you make changes, you can reupload static resources without changing your code settings name in setup or in the
code snippet and property builder.
Important: If you change your Channel Menu setup, the results can take up to 10 minutes to appear for the first time on your
website due to cacheing.
IN THIS SECTION:
Experience Site Static Resource Files
Create JavaScript files to upload as a static resource and apply to Embedded Chat for your Experience Cloud site. Here’s a code
example for chat invitations to get you started.
SEE ALSO:
Channel Menu Code Settings
Chat Code Settings for Experience Sites
window._invitationResource = (function() {
console.log("Chat invitation file loaded");
embedded_svc.config.invitation.htmlMarkup = '';
// Insert invitation's custom HTML markup
embedded_svc.config.invitation.styles = '';
// Insert invitation's CSS styles (be specific!)
embedded_svc.config.invitation.invitationAPIs = '';
// Utilize these existing methods to accept/reject invites:
// - embedded_svc.inviteAPI.inviteButton.acceptInvite()
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// - embedded_svc.inviteAPI.inviteButton.rejectInvite();
})();
Here is the full code sample for a standard chat invitation. Add your image URL link for the embeddedServiceAvatar.
window._invitationResource = (function() {
console.log("Invitation loaded");
embedded_svc.config.invitation.htmlMarkup =
'<div class="embeddedServiceInvitation" id="snapins_invite" inert="true"
aria-live="assertive" role="dialog" aria-atomic="true">'+
'<div class="embeddedServiceInvitationHeader" aria-labelledby="snapins_titletext"
aria-describedby="snapins_bodytext">'+
'<img id="embeddedServiceAvatar" src="https://yourimagehere.png"></img>'+
embedded_svc.config.invitation.styles =
'#snapins_invite { background-color: #FFFFFF; font-family: "Arial", sans-serif;
overflow: visible; border-radius: 8px;}'+
'.embeddedServiceInvitation { background-color: transparent; max-width: 290px;
max-height: 210px; -webkit-box-shadow: 0 7px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0.28); -moz-box-shadow: 0 7px
12px rgba(0,0,0,0.28); box-shadow: 0 7px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0.28); }'+
'@media only screen and (min-width: 48em) { /*mobile*/ .embeddedServiceInvitation
{ max-width: 332px; max-height: 210px; } }'+
'.embeddedServiceInvitation > .embeddedServiceInvitationHeader { width: inherit;
line-height: 32px; padding: 10px; color: #FFFFFF; background-color: #222222; overflow:
initial; display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: stretch;
border-top-left-radius: 8px; border-top-right-radius: 8px; }'+
'.embeddedServiceInvitationHeader #embeddedServiceAvatar { width: 32px; height:
32px; border-radius: 50%; }'+
'.embeddedServiceInvitationHeader .embeddedServiceTitleText { font-size: 18px;
color: #FFFFFF; overflow: hidden; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; text-overflow:
ellipsis; align-self: stretch; flex-grow: 1; max-width: 100%; margin: 0 12px; }'+
'.embeddedServiceInvitationHeader .embeddedServiceCloseIcon { border: none;
border-radius: 3px; cursor: pointer; position: relative; bottom: 3%; background-color:
transparent; width: 32px; height: 32px; font-size: 23px; color: #FFFFFF; }'+
'.embeddedServiceInvitationHeader .embeddedServiceCloseIcon:focus { outline: none;
}'+
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embedded_svc.config.invitation.invitationAPIs =
'(function() {'+
'document.getElementById("closeInvite").addEventListener("click", function()
{ embedded_svc.inviteAPI.inviteButton.rejectInvite(); });'+
'document.getElementById("rejectInvite").addEventListener("click", function()
{ embedded_svc.inviteAPI.inviteButton.rejectInvite(); });'+
'document.getElementById("acceptInvite").addEventListener("click", function()
{ embedded_svc.inviteAPI.inviteButton.acceptInvite(); });'+
'document.addEventListener("keyup", function(event) { if (event.keyCode == 27)
{ embedded_svc.inviteAPI.inviteButton.rejectInvite(); }})'+
'})();';
})();
When your file is complete, return to Embedded Static Resources for static resource upload instructions.
3. On the customer side (that is, on your web page), verify that:
• Pre-chat form looks how you expected
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If the chat window and experience appears as you expected, your customers can start using embedded chat to communicate with your
agents.
SEE ALSO:
Permissions for Chat Support Agents
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• There’s no limit to the number of chats happening at the same time in a Salesforce org. You do have a limit of 20,000 chats per hour
and per org. Also a limit of 7,000 agents online per Salesforce org simultaneously.
SEE ALSO:
Embedded Chat
Embedded Chat Cookies
Note: Even though Embedded Service can run without the use of a functional cookie, site functionality can be reduced, depending
on a cookie’s purpose.
This table describes the Embedded Service cookies collected by Salesforce.
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Apps
SEE ALSO:
Service Cloud Chat Cookies
SEE ALSO:
Einstein Bots
IN THIS SECTION:
Embedded Service for Websites
Connect Service Cloud features to your website with Embedded Service and give your customers a great service experience.
Embedded Service for Mobile Apps
Let your customers contact you on the go. Add chat, Knowledge, and case capabilities to your mobile apps with Embedded Service.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Channel Menu Setup
Start conversations with your customers using the channels they prefer. You can customize their choices in an Embedded Service
Channel Menu—from phone and web Chat, to Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Agents can respond in their Service Console
where all the benefits of Service Cloud are at their fingertips.
SEE ALSO:
Channel Menu Setup
Embedded Chat Setup
Embedded Service for Web Developer Guide
Before you set up the Channel Menu, you need a website or Salesforce Experience Cloud site for Available in: Performance,
deployment. To add Chat, an Embedded Service Chat deployment must be active in your org. To Professional, Unlimited,
add SMS text, Facebook Messenger, or WhatsApp channels, you also need to set up Messaging. and Essentials
Use the following resources to set up those features:
• Set Up Your Embedded Chat Window on page 623 Ensure that your org meets the prerequisites USER PERMISSIONS
and follow the Chat setup steps.
To set up Channel Menu:
• Messaging Considerations Review these considerations before setting up or using Messaging.
• Customize Application
• Set Up Messaging with a Guided Setup Flow Add SMS text messaging and Facebook Messenger AND Modify Metadata
to your service channels with a quick guided setup flow. You can create an Omni-Channel
To create and edit Salesforce
queue to route incoming messages to your team. Sites:
• Set Up Messaging Channels Follow these steps to enable Messaging and set up your channels. • Customize Application
To set up your Channel Menu, follow these steps: To edit public access
settings for Salesforce Sites:
Important: If you make changes later in Salesforce Setup to your Channel Menu, the results • Manage Users
may take up to 10 minutes to appear for the first time on your website due to cacheing.
IN THIS SECTION:
1. Create a Channel Menu Deployment
Create a new deployment or select and existing one for your Channel Menu. The setup node for Embedded Channel Menu is available
only in Lightning Experience.
2. Add Items to the Channel Menu
Select and edit your preferred customer channels to appear in your website menu.
3. Set Branding for the Channel Menu
Select the button colors, header background, and font in the menu to reflect your company’s brand identity on your website.
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SEE ALSO:
Hello! Meet the Channel Menu Video
Channel Menu Limitations
USER PERMISSIONS
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3. Enable Guest Access to the Support API for the site you use for the Channel Menu:
• Go to Salesforce Admin Setup > Sites or search for Sites in the Quick Find box.
• Click on your selected Site Label and Edit in the Site Detail section.
• Check the Guest Access to the Support API check box.
• Add the Quick Actions associated with your Embedded Service deployment from the Available Quick Actions box to the Selected
Quick Actions box and Save.
SEE ALSO:
Add the Channel Menu to Communities
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USER PERMISSIONS
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Tip: Use the + symbol with a country code for your number when adding the phone channel if you have international customers.
Important: Keep the Show this menu item box checked under Default Display. Uncheck the box if using the Channel Menu
Reordering API.
Note: To hide a channel for specific user operating systems, check the appropriate boxes in Advanced Settings. For example,
hide Chat for the mobile platform to encourage the use of mobile-friendly channels like WhatsApp or SMS text.
SEE ALSO:
Channel Menu Limitations
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USER PERMISSIONS
From the Channel Menu Settings page, select Edit for Branding. Follow the steps to customize your buttons:
1. Select Button and Button Icon colors. Add your Hex code, RGB code, or select a color in the picklist.
2. Use our Default Button Icon and Default Close Icon or add custom URLs to replace them.
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3. Expand the Channel Menu Header and Background section and decide to Show header or not with a tick in the check box.
4. Pick colors for the header background and text and set your Header Text Alignment in the picklist.
5. Add an optional Header Background Image URL or leave this blank for a solid color.
6. Customize the main panel with a Menu Background Color, Menu Text Color, Menu Text Hover Color, and Menu Background Hover
Color.
7. Tick the check box if you want optional horizontal lines to appear between your menu items and select a Horizontal Line Color.
8. Add a Font? Yes, please. Select a preferred Font for your menu and choose a Base Font Size.
9. Another option is to select a Custom Font... at the bottom of the picklist. Type your Custom Font Family Name in the box and choose
a font size. The font must be hosted on your web server.
10. Check your branding selections as you work in the Preview window. Custom fonts and custom buttons don’t appear.
11. Save. You’re done with branding choices.
Note: If your Preview window is empty or missing a channel, return to your Menu Setup and check your selections.
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Note: Keep in mind that maximum header height is set to 75 pixels as you select the font size or add a custom background image
URL.
Note: Some fonts aren’t supported on mobile browsers. If you select a font that isn’t available for a mobile user, the browser’s
default font is displayed.
SEE ALSO:
Apply Channel Menu Code Snippet
USER PERMISSIONS
From the main Channel Menu Settings page, select Edit for Labels to customize your menu labels. To change your default names:
1. Select All in the Label Group and Standard in Label Type.
2. Start typing your Custom Label text by each Default Label.
3. Save your work before moving to a new Label Group or Label Type.
4. Your updated Labels will appear in the Preview window.
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5. Click Finish.
Note: If your Preview window is empty or missing a channel, return to your Menu Setup page and check your selections.
If you don’t see the language you need in the Language picklist for your labels, complete the following steps in Translation Workbench:
1. From Setup, enter Translations Language Settings in the Quick Find box.
2. Enable the Translation Workbench.
3. Add languages for translation and activate by checking the checkbox.
4. Assign the language to the user by moving from the Available to Selected box.
5. Add the user language as a translatable language.
Note: This translation function is not available for single-language Salesforce orgs.
Important: The admin must authorize a logged-in user in a specific language to translate lables. Then, the user can customize
the words or phrases.
SEE ALSO:
Translation Workbench
Translated Languages and Translators
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Important: Before creating your Channel Menu code settings, you must create and upload Available in: Performance,
embedded static resources. Professional, Unlimited,
and Essentials
With your static resources loaded, start from Channel Menu Settings and select Edit for Code
Settings.
USER PERMISSIONS
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3. Add optional text in the Description box and detail the configuration.
4. From the Type pull-down menu, select a resource type.
5. Locate your uploaded resource name in the Static Resource box.
6. Continue to Add Code Setting rows until all your modifications are set.
7. Click Save.
For Salesforce Experience Cloud sites, skip the following code snippet steps. Instead, add the name in the property editor and load the
Code Setting Name for your site on a specific page.
For websites, add your new code settings name to your Channel Menu code snippet. If you haven’t applied a Channel Menu code
snippet, do so before you proceed with the steps that follow.
1. Open the code snippet that you’ve added to the website.
2. Add the new parameter as an object to the embedded_svc.menu.init() call in the snippet. For example:
embedded_svc.menu.init(
...existing parameters,
{
pageName: "InsertName"
}
);
3. Check that the object is the last parameter passed into embedded_svc.menu.init().
4. .
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5. Verify that your code snippet changes in your web page markup. Refresh your web page and confirm that the Channel Menu floating
action button appears
Note: Settings are applied first to your website or Experience site from the Channel Menu component settings in the code snippet
or Experience Builder. Next, settings are applied from your uploaded JavaScript file and then from Setup.
Note: When the Code Setting Name is applied to your web or Experience site, the related JavaScript file is loaded. You can
associate multiple JavaScript static resources to different Code Settings Names and load the configuration to a website or Experience
site.
Important: If you change your Channel Menu setup, the results may take up to 10 minutes to appear for the first time on your
website due to cacheing.
IN THIS SECTION:
Channel Menu Static Resource Files
Create JavaScript files to upload as a static resource and apply to your Channel Menu website or Experience site. Here’s a code
example to get you started.
SEE ALSO:
Embedded Static Resources
Channel Menu Limitations
USER PERMISSIONS
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embedded_svc.menu.snippetSettingsFile = {
TestChatChannel: {
settings: {
prepopulatedPrechatFields: {"Subject":"Login Issue"},
smallCompanyLogoImgURL: "https://yourwebsite.here/company_logo.png"
}
}
};
})();
Note: In the sample code, TestChatChannel refers to your unique Channel Menu item name. Make sure to update.
When your file is complete, return to Embedded Static Resources for static resource upload instructions.
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4. Verify that your code snippet is in your web page markup, refresh your web page, and confirm that the Channel Menu floating action
button appears.
Important: If you’ve applied code settings to a website deployment, follow the last steps in Channel Menu Code Settings to add
names to your code snippet. For Experience Cloud sites, add code setting names in the property editor and load on a specific page.
Important: If you change your Channel Menu setup, the results can take up to 10 minutes to appear for the first time on your
website due to cacheing.
SEE ALSO:
Channel Menu Limitations
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• WhatsApp. For a more robust experience, your customers must install the WhatsApp native
client version downloaded from whatsapp.com. Without the client, the Microsoft Store opens
with the message “no apps named WhatsApp” for Windows customers.
• Channel Menu code snippets. To use the latest static files, you can try to hard reload or clear the cache and refresh your web page.
If the Channel Menu button doesn’t show after you complete setup, check for errors in the browser console. No button typically
indicates a problem with downloading the script
• Web Chat only. If you configure only web Chat, the button isn’t displayed to your customers if agents aren’t available. For the button
to appear, this type of setup requires an additional step to bring the agent online before validating. See “Change Your Chat Status.”
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• Experiences. See Add the Channel Menu to Experience Cloud Sites help for the CSP Trusted Site for Scripts information. The CSP
Trusted Site in Service Setup is a one-time step. The Trusted Site for Scripts in Experience Builder must be done in every site where
you want to host a Channel Menu.
• Static Resources. If you load static resource files for Experience sites, test your entire flow in the builder to discover any CSP errors.
This step ensures that image URLs and assets from other domains specified in the static resource load during run time. Check the
console first for CSP errors if something is missing.
Important: If you change your Channel Menu setup, the results may take up to 10 minutes to appear for the first time on your
website due to cacheing.
SEE ALSO:
Content Security Policy Restrictions in Communities
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up SOS Video Chat and Screen Sharing
Want to connect with your customers in a whole new way? Add SOS to your native Android or iOS mobile app so that your customers
can connect with agents via two-way video or screen sharing. SOS is part of Service Cloud Snap-ins for Mobile Apps.
SEE ALSO:
Embedded Service for iOS Developer Guide
Embedded Service for Android Developer Guide
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IN THIS SECTION:
1. Assign SOS Licenses to Agents
Each agent who uses SOS must have an SOS license and be part of a permission set that enables the SOS license.
2. Enable the SOS License
Use a permission set to enable the SOS license for your users.
3. Create an SOS Presence Status
Presence statuses indicate whether an agent is online and available to receive incoming work items, or whether the agent is away
or offline. Create a presence status that lets your agents indicate that they’re online and available to receive SOS calls.
4. Give Users Access to SOS Presence Statuses with Permission Sets
Presence statuses indicate whether an agent is online and available to receive incoming work items, or whether the agent is away
or offline. Give SOS agents access to the SOS presence status so they can start receiving SOS calls.
5. Give Users Access to Your SOS Presence Statuses with Profiles
Presence statuses indicate whether an agent is online and available to receive incoming work items, or whether the agent is away
or offline. Give SOS agents access to the SOS presence status so they can start receiving SOS calls.
6. Create an SOS Routing Configurations
Routing configurations determine how work items are routed to agents. They let you prioritize the relative importance and size of
work items from your queues. That way, the most important work items are handled accordingly, and work is evenly distributed to
your agents. Create an SOS routing configuration to determine how SOS calls are dispersed to your agents.
7. Create an SOS Queue
Queues are a classic element of Salesforce that help your teams manage leads, cases, service contracts, and custom objects.
Omni-Channel supercharges queues to route work items to agents in real time. Create an SOS queue to funnel SOS calls to SOS
agents. We’ll associate the SOS queue with the SOS routing configuration we created earlier.
8. Update Your Salesforce Console Settings
After you get SOS all set up for your organization, it’s time to a few settings in your Salesforce console so that your agents can start
receiving work.
9. Create an SOS Deployment
Create an SOS deployment to integrate your SOS settings from Salesforce into your mobile application.
USER PERMISSIONS
To set up SOS:
• Customize Application
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Apps
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6. Click Save.
4. In the Routing Configuration field, look up and select the routing configuration that you created earlier, “SOS Routing
Configuration.”
5. In the Supported Objects section, add SOS Session to the list of selected objects.
6. In the Queue Members section, add each of the agents to whom you want to route SOS calls to the Selected Users field.
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7. Click Save.
5. Click Save.
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IN THIS SECTION:
SOS Deployment Settings
SOS deployment settings control how your Salesforce SOS settings integrate into your mobile application.
API Name Sets the API name for the Chat deployment.
Enable Backward-Facing Camera Allows the customer to relay video from the
customer’s backward-facing mobile camera to
agents.
Session Recording Storage Determines the data storage provider that stores
Provider your SOS session recordings. Available only if
session recording is enabled.
Session Recording Storage The ID of the access key that’s associated with
Provider API Key your Amazon S3 storage account. Available only
if session recording is enabled.
Session Recording Storage The ID of the access secret that’s associated with
Provider API Secret your Amazon S3 storage account. Available only
if session recording is enabled.
Session Recording Storage The name of the Amazon S3 bucket where you
Provider Bucket want to store your SOS session recordings.
Available only if session recording is enabled.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Social Customer Service
Turn social network posts into cases or leads with Social Customer Service. Agents can reply to social network posts from the Service
Console, so your company can join customer conversations where they’re happening.
Set Up Social Customer Service with a Guided Setup Flow
Add your Twitter and Facebook accounts to turn your tweets and posts into cases in Service Cloud. Connect your social accounts,
turn on Social Studio, and give your team access to your social cases.
Administer Social Customer Service
Enable social customer service in your organization and customize your support agents’ experience.
Engage and Respond Using Social Customer Service
Use social customer service to engage your customer on social media.
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Twitter
See your company’s at-mentions, replies, and direct messages. You can reply, retweet, favorite, and follow from Salesforce, or click tweets
to view and respond to them on Twitter.
Use the guided setup flow to get cases created for you when your company account receives at-mentions and direct messages.
Note: Social Customer Service supports sending and receiving 280-character tweets
Agents can use case and lead feeds to see the content that they are responding to, retweet, favorite and follow tweets, send replies to
tweets and direct messages, and delete tweets managed by your social accounts.
You can see attachments on social posts within case feeds and add image attachments to them too. You can also click View Source
links to open the inbox of the native social media website. View Source links direct you to the inbox of the social media account you’re
logged in to, not the exact message or thread.
Facebook
See your Facebook timeline in Salesforce. You can reply to and like posts from Salesforce, or click posts to view and respond to them on
Facebook.
Use the guided setup flow to get cases created for you when customers post on your business page.
Note: Make sure that you have a business page associated with your Facebook account.
Cases and leads are created from your managed Facebook page. Agents can use the feeds to see the content that they are replying to,
see star ratings, reply to reviews, like posts and comments, send posts, comments, replies, and private messages, respond privately to
comments, and delete posts managed by your social accounts. To use these features, you need the Editor or Moderator role for your
Facebook page, but we recommend the Admin role as a best practice.
You can see attachments on social posts within case feeds and add image attachments to them too. You can also click View Source
links to open the inbox of the native social media website. View Source links direct you to the inbox of the social media account you’re
logged in to, not the exact message or thread.
Instagram
See comments and replies on your company’s Instagram photos in Salesforce. You can send replies in Salesforce.
Note: Make sure that your Instagram account is a business account, and that it’s linked to a Facebook account. It also needs to
be linked to a business page on that Facebook account. Direct messages are not currently supported for Instagram.
YouTube
See comments on your company’s videos in Salesforce. You can reply in Salesforce, or click comments to view and respond to them on
YouTube. For more control over YouTube communications, you can hide replies from YouTube and only reply to your customer. When
customers edit or delete their comments, Salesforce updates the social post accordingly.
SEE ALSO:
Administer Social Customer Service
Social Action Tips
Complete Guide to Social Customer Service
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In Service Setup, you can find recommended setup flows, content, and tips based on what you’ve
set up already. If you don’t see the setup flow you’re looking for, you can click View All to see the full list.
Select the tile to launch the flow.
SEE ALSO:
Optimize Setup with the Service Setup Assistant
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Note: All users can view external social accounts from their org via the API.
USER PERMISSIONS
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SEE ALSO:
Enable Social Post Approvals
Complete Guide to Social Customer Service
IN THIS SECTION:
Enable Social Customer Service
Turn on Social Customer Service, set post defaults, and either activate the Starter Pack or sign into your Social Studio account.
Add Social Accounts to Social Customer Service
Sync your social media accounts and identify which accounts create cases.
Configure Inbound Social Posts
Select how social media communication is handled within your Salesforce organization.
Assign Social Customer Service Agents
Your agents need permission sets or profiles with Social Customer Service permissions to access your social accounts.
Set Feed Tracking
To view social posts on a case, set feed tracking on cases. You can also set feed tracking for leads when social posts create potential
customers.
Social Customer Service Setup Options
Optionally you can use quick text, give social agents access to your Salesforce Community, and turn on history tracking for your
social objects.
SEE ALSO:
Field History Tracking
How to Reconnect a Social Account
Administer Social Customer Service
Complete Guide to Social Customer Service
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Note: If you receive the error We're sorry, but we currently do not USER PERMISSIONS
support Facebook business accounts registration, or Your
Facebook account can't be added due to unsupported To administer Social
features, set a user name on your Facebook page. Customer Service:
• Manage Users
3. Click the refresh icon next to Add Account. AND
4. Select case creation options. Customize Application
• If you are using the Starter Pack, check the Case Creation box to indicate that you want To create case feed items:
cases created automatically when posts come from the social account. For example, if you • Feed Tracking for All
have two Twitter handles, one for support and one for marketing, you can have cases Related Objects on the
created automatically only from the support handle. The tweets from the marketing handle Case object
go in a social post queue for review. To make attachment
• If you are using the full Social Customer Service version, you can set up case moderation download links public:
through Social Studio. • Create Public Links
5. If you have a portfolio of managed social accounts, set the Default Responses From
for each Twitter, Instagram, and Sina Weibo account. Default accounts let you standardize and raise awareness of your brand’s
support by setting a dedicated support handle, for example @acmehelp or @acmesupport. Also, agents have fewer clicks when they
send outbound posts because the chosen account appears as the default account. The default response handle doesn’t apply for
Twitter direct messages and doesn’t affect Facebook, YouTube, Google Plus, or LinkedIn, as they are restricted to the page handle.
Warning: If you delete a Social Account, it’s deleted everywhere, including Social Studio, and you can’t retrieve the deleted
account.
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4. For connected app users only: When a new user is set as Run Apex As User, they must be added to the Inbound Automation
permission set.
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USER PERMISSIONS
To administer Social
Customer Service:
• Manage Users
AND
Customize Application
5. Assign the social accounts you need available to your users with this profile or permission set.
Important: All users must have the profile or permission set you chose or created in step 2.
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8. Click Edit. Under Field Permissions, ensure all fields available are set to Visible (not Read-Only) for profiles or Edit for permission sets.
9. Click Save.
To administer Social
Customer Service:
• Manage Users
AND
Customize Application
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Note: Once these requirements are met, external users can see all social posts exposed
to them. For example, if a case or lead feed is exposed externally, all social posts in the USER PERMISSIONS
feed are visible. There is no way to limit visibility at the social post object level. To administer Social
Customer Service:
3. Turn on history tracking on for the Social Persona and Social Post objects for the first few months
• Manage Users
of using Social Customer Service. History tracking helps identify who made what changes when
and for differentiating between automatic and manual changes. AND
Customize Application
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Note: The influencer score is only for Twitter. It’s a global measure of influence on a scale of 0–100. The calculated score leans
heavily toward reach and frequency. Other measures and ratios are considered to decrease blatant manipulation.
If the customer has a verified status, a verified badge is displayed. Verified status means that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube
has confirmed the brand, business, or public figure’s identity.
Author labels provide context for community management teams to understand who they’re dealing with. An agent can add author
labels to the social persona to add context and automation capabilities. If your marketing team uses Salesforce Social Studio, the Social
Studio author labels are shown here.
Is your customer feeling positive, negative, or neutral about your company? Check the customer’s sentiment temperature. The sentiment
temperature is based on whether most of the social posts in Salesforce are positive or negative. Total posts is the sum of all social posts
for this social persona in Salesforce, not from social media in general.
To expand or collapse a case, click the dropdown. The social post that created the case is marked as the first post. The parent post is the
social post that the customer replied to, which generated the case. The case number references the social post related to the case.
When Social Customer Service is set up, use the Lightning App builder to enable and customize the Social Conversations component.
Note: To display parent posts in the component, enable the org setting Enable retrieval of parent posts for added context.
Parent posts don’t display when this option isn’t selected.
a. From the agent console, return to the Lightning App Builder.
b. Under Set Component Visibility, click Add filter, then set the Field to Case Origin.
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c. Set the Operator to Equal and select one of the social media channels as the Value.
Note: Set the filter logic toShow component when: Any filters are true.
SEE ALSO:
Set Field Permissions in Permission Sets and Profiles
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Important: The Jump Start Wizard is a streamlined way to create approval processes in USER PERMISSIONS
Salesforce. However, the Let the submitter choose the approver
manually option is not supported in the Jump Start Wizard. Choosing that option To administer Social
Customer Service:
results in an error later when an agent submits a post for approval.
• Manage Users
4. From Setup, go to Administer > Manage Users > Permission sets. AND
5. Create a new Permission Set. Name it Require Social Post Approvals. In App Customize Application
Permissions, check off the Require Social Post Approvals permission and
To create case feed items:
click Save.
• Feed Tracking for All
6. Assign the new Require Social Post Approvals user permission with a permission Related Objects on the
set to agents that need their posts reviewed before they are sent. Case object
When assigning user permissions, remember these two points. To make attachment
download links public:
• Because approving a post automatically submits it for publishing, approvers must have the
• Create Public Links
same access to social accounts as the agents whose work they're reviewing. Otherwise, the
posts they approve result in an error.
• If your user permissions include Require Social Post Approvals, then the submit button on the social publisher
always reads Submit for Approval rather than "Comment," "Tweet," or other words. This is true even if no active approval
process applies to the user. In that situation, clicking Submit for Approval publishes the social post normally since there is no
active approval process in effect.
For more information, see Create an Approval Process with the Standard Wizard, Prepare to Create an Approval Process, and Sample
Approval Processes.
Note: Currently, the Social Customer Service Approval Process does not fully support selective logic. Filtering approvals based
on crtieria such as social network or number of followers may not be successful.
Tip: If your agents work with social post record detail pages, rather than in the case feed, we recommend removing the approvals
related list from the page layout. The same page layout is shared between inbound and outbound social posts. Removing the
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approvals related list avoids confusion when viewing an inbound post that is an invalid candidate for an approval process. Approvers
can still approve or reject posts through all other normal means such as email, Chatter, and list views.
SEE ALSO:
Field History Tracking
Administer Social Customer Service
Complete Guide to Social Customer Service
Note: With the Starter Pack, you can select if you want cases created automatically when Social Customer Service is
available in all editions with
posts come from a particular social account with the Case Creation box on the Social Accounts
the Service Cloud.
tab.
1. From your Social Studio Automate account, click the Rules tab.
USER PERMISSIONS
2. Create a rule, or use an existing one, to indicate that no case is created in Salesforce.
For example, the rule should have the following setup. To administer Social
Customer Service:
a. Action: send to Salesforce. • Manage Users
b. Create Case checkbox unchecked. AND
Note: You can enable your rule for all social posts or only those coming from certain
managed accounts.
Case creation can also be customized by implementing a custom Apex case logic. To do so, from setup, enter Social Media in the
Quick Find box, then select Settings. See Modify the Default Apex Class.
Note: If you started using Social Customer Service before Spring ‘16 and have a custom Apex class, you may need update your
Apex class to benefit from the latest moderation features. If your custom Apex is extended from the default Apex class, you get
the update for the default apex functions you call. If your custom Apex isn’t extended from the default Apex class (you copied the
default and changed it), you must update manually.
To manually update your custom Apex class, add the following code and update your moderation social post list view.
1. Call this method directly before inserting the post, after all the relationships have been set on the post.
private void setModeration(SocialPost post){
//if we don't automatically create a case, we should flag the post as requiring
moderator review.
if(post.parentId == null)
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post.reviewedStatus = 'Needed';
}
To:
Parent EQUAL TO "" AND ReviewStatus EQUAL TO "Needed"
To ensure that you don’t lose track of social posts currently in your moderation queue, make a list view with the new filter, and
switch to it once the new and old filters show the same results.
SEE ALSO:
Field History Tracking
Administer Social Customer Service
Complete Guide to Social Customer Service
USER PERMISSIONS
To administer Social
Customer Service:
• Manage Users
AND
Customize Application
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8. Ensure that the social action is in the Quick Actions in the Salesforce Classic Publisher section
of the layout.
9. Optionally, repeat steps 5 through 8 for the Leads object to enable the social action on leads (from the object management settings
for leads, go to Page Layouts).
SEE ALSO:
Field History Tracking
Administer Social Customer Service
Complete Guide to Social Customer Service
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Remove icons ( ) for your preferred order and combination. While you build your format,
it automatically appears as the Example under Build Your Own Format. USER PERMISSIONS
SEE ALSO:
Administer Social Customer Service
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Note: You can’t modify the default Apex class if you are using the Starter Pack. The free Social Customer Service is
Starter Pack lets you simply connect up to two social accounts and Salesforce handles the available in Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
rest of the details, like a Social Studio account.
Experience. Service Setup is
The default Apex class for Social Customer Service creates a social post, social persona, case, contact, available in Lightning
and supports common use cases. To customize how information is processed, create an Apex class. Experience.
Important: If your agents use the Social Customer Service feature to send private messages Social Customer Service is
to Facebook users, prevent or resolve errors by upgrading your Apex classes to the latest available in all editions with
available version of the Salesforce API. In particular, the Apex class that inserts the post must the Service Cloud.
be version 32 or higher.
If you alter the default Apex class, be sure to select your new Apex class on the setup page, where
you can also see Apex processing errors. From Setup, enter Social Media in the Quick Find box, then select Settings. An
email is sent to the administrator when there are errors and, in most circumstances, the data is saved and can be reprocessed. If too
many errors are waiting for reprocessing, the Salesforce Social Studio Automate rules are automatically paused to ensure that social
content is not missed.
We have provided tests for the default Apex class. If you alter your Apex class, you must alter the tests accordingly.
Note: Social personas created after the Summer ‘15 release have a field indicating which social network created the persona:
Source App. This field is set on creation and is not updateable. If your organization uses custom Apex, update it to use this
field. Keep in mind that personas created before the Summer 15 release do not have the field. Also, every time new fields are added
to the social action you must update your Apex version or the new fields aren’t saved.
To create an Apex class, in Setup, enter Apex Classes in the Quick Find box, then select Apex Classes. You can use the
following code to:
• Support person accounts
• Designate a default account ID
• Change the number of days before closed cases are reopened
global class MyInboundSocialPostHandlerImpl extends
Social.InboundSocialPostHandlerImpl implements Social.InboundSocialPostHandler {
global override SObject createPersonaParent(SocialPersona persona) {
String name = persona.Name;
if (persona.RealName != null && String.isNotBlank(persona.RealName))
name = persona.RealName;
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insert acct;
return acct;
}
You can use the following code to implement your own social customer service process.
global class MyInboundSocialPostHandlerImpl implements Social.InboundSocialPostHandler {
global Social.InboundSocialPostResult handleInboundSocialPost(SocialPost post,
SocialPersona persona, Map<String,Object> data) {
Social.InboundSocialPostResult result = new Social.InboundSocialPostResult();
return result;
}
}
The default Apex class sets the contact as the persona parent. To set the persona parent as an account, person account, or lead, create
a method to override the persona parent.
If you want a post to go to the error queue, so errors are not lost, your custom Apex must do one of two things.
1. Bubble up an exception (recommended).
global Social.InboundSocialPostResult handleInboundSocialPost(SocialPost post,
SocialPersona persona, Map<String, Object> rawData) {
Social.InboundSocialPostResult result = new Social.InboundSocialPostResult();
result.setSuccess(true);
return result;
}
OR
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2. Set the success flag on the response object to false and send contents for the error message.
global Social.InboundSocialPostResult handleInboundSocialPost(SocialPost post,
SocialPersona persona, Map<String, Object> rawData) {
Social.InboundSocialPostResult result = new Social.InboundSocialPostResult();
result.setSuccess(true);
try {
// Handle the post here
} catch(Exception e){
// Log exception, etc
result.setSuccess(false);
result.setMessage('TO DO: Your error message goes here');
}
return result;
}
IN THIS SECTION:
Default Apex Class Process
A visual diagram of an inbound post’s path through the default apex class.
Default Apex Class Reference
Social Customer Service’s full default Apex class code. The following Apex class is current as of the Spring '20 release.
Apex Tests for the Default Apex Class
Social Customer Service’s tests for the default Apex class code.
Data Populated into Social Objects for Social Customer Service
Details on which fields exist in the standard objects, Social Post and Social Persona, and which fields are currently populated by data
from Social Studio.
Default Apex Class History
Social Customer Service’s full default Apex class for prior releases.
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// Reopen case if it has not been closed for more than this number
global virtual Integer getMaxNumberOfDaysClosedToReopenCase() {
return 5;
}
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// Create a case if one of these post tags are on the SocialPost, regardless of the
skipCreateCase indicator.
global virtual Set<String> getPostTagsThatCreateCase(){
return new Set<String>();
}
return caseSubject;
}
if (post.Id != null) {
handleExistingPost(post, persona);
return result;
}
setReplyTo(post, persona);
buildPersona(persona);
Case parentCase = buildParentCase(post, persona, rawData);
setRelationshipsOnPost(post, persona, parentCase);
setModeration(post, rawData);
upsert post;
if(isNewCaseCreated){
updateCaseSource(post, parentCase);
}
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handlePostAttachments(post, rawData);
return result;
}
// for any existing outbound post, we don't overwrite its recipient field
if (!existingPosts.isEmpty() && existingPosts[0].IsOutBound == true &&
String.isNotBlank(existingPosts[0].Recipient)) {
post.Recipient = existingPosts[0].Recipient;
}
update post;
if (persona.id != null)
updatePersona(persona);
}
return persona;
}
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return null;
}
if(persona.ParentId.getSObjectType() != SocialPost.sObjectType) {
postToUpdate.WhoId = persona.ParentId;
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}
}
if(parentCase != null) {
postToUpdate.ParentId = parentCase.Id;
}
}
if (getUsingCaseAssignmentRule()){
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insert newCase;
return newCase;
}
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return null;
}
// replyTo.recipient == inboundSocialPost.persona.externalId
private boolean isSocialPostRecipientSameAsPersona(SocialPost postWithRecipient,
SocialPersona persona) {
return (postWithRecipient != null && postWithRecipient.Recipient ==
persona.ExternalId);
}
// is replying to self
private boolean isReplyingToSelf(SocialPost post, SocialPersona persona) {
return (post != null &&
persona != null &&
String.isNotBlank(persona.Id) &&
post.ReplyTo != null &&
String.isNotBlank(post.ReplyTo.PersonaId) &&
post.ReplyTo.PersonaId == persona.id);
}
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SocialPost lastestReplyToPost =
findLatestOutboundReplyToPostBasedOnPersonaAndRecipient(post, persona);
if (lastestReplyToPost != null) {
List<Case> cases = [SELECT Id, IsClosed, Status, ClosedDate FROM Case WHERE
id = :lastestReplyToPost.parentId LIMIT 1];
if(!cases.isEmpty()) {
return cases[0];
}
}
return null;
}
performR6PostIdCheck(post);
if (post.Id == null){
performExternalPostIdCheck(post);
}
}
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if(post.responseContextExternalId != null){
if((post.provider == 'Facebook' && post.messageType == 'Private') ||
(post.provider == 'Twitter' && post.messageType == 'Direct')) {
SocialPost replyTo =
findReplyToBasedOnResponseContextExternalPostIdAndProvider(post);
if(replyTo.id != null)
return replyTo;
}
return findReplyToBasedOnExternalPostIdAndProvider(post);
}
return new SocialPost();
}
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Service
if (!personaList.isEmpty()) {
persona.Id = personaList[0].Id;
persona.ParentId = personaList[0].ParentId;
}
}
}
709
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
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Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
} else if (rawData.containsKey('mediaUrls')) {
List<LegacyPostAttachment> legacyAttachments = (List<LegacyPostAttachment>)
JSON.deserialize(JSON.serialize(rawData.get('mediaUrls')), List<LegacyPostAttachment>.class);
if (!contentVersions.isEmpty()) {
insert(contentVersions);
createLinksForAttachmentsToSocialPost(post, contentVersions);
}
}
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Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
712
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
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Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
@isTest
public class InboundSocialPostHandlerImplTest {
static {
handler = new Social.InboundSocialPostHandlerImpl();
sampleSocialData = getSampleSocialData('1');
}
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, persona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
714
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, persona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, persona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
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Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
insert existingCase;
SocialPost existingPost = getSocialPost(getSampleSocialData('2'));
existingPost.ParentId = existingCase.Id;
existingPost.WhoId = existingContact.Id;
existingPost.PersonaId = existingPersona.Id;
String recipient = 'scs';
existingPost.recipient = recipient;
insert existingPost;
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, existingPersona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
716
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
existingPost.recipient = recipient;
insert existingPost;
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, existingPersona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
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Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
Note: If you’ve modified the default Apex class, you may experience alternate mappings. Social Customer Service is
available in all editions with
the Service Cloud.
Social Post
The following fields exist on the Social Post object.
Attachment Type mediaUrls array Image, Video Populated by SCS when new
data arrives in Salesforce - only
the first attachment is mapped
718
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
Content content Apple teases the new Mac Pro, The actual content of the Social
what do you think post
719
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
AuthorLabels authorLabels author label 1, author label 2 Author labels used to track types
of authors
720
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
Social Persona
The following fields exist on the Social Persona object.
Note: The Social Persona object is only updated when you get a post from someone with an existing persona record. Social
Persona is not updated via a parallel process. These updates are made 24 hours or more after the previous update, with no more
than one per day. Additionally, these updates are part of the inbound apex handler; if a custom apex has been implemented, you
can decide the update behavior and frequency.
721
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
classifiers Classifier[]
createLead Boolean
firstName String
jobId String
lastName String
originalAvatar String
originalFullName String
originalScreenName String
origins String
privacy String
r6ParentPostId Long
recipientId String
replyToExternalPostId Raw data used to look up ‘In Reply To’ Social Post but field not
directly written into Social Post
skipCreateCase Used for the moderation feature introduced in the Summer ‘14
release; if Yes, SCS skips case creation in the default logic. This field
can also be used in customer-specific logic
722
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
// Reopen case if it has not been closed for more than this number
global virtual Integer getMaxNumberOfDaysClosedToReopenCase() {
return 5;
}
// Create a case if one of these post labels are on the SocialPost, regardless of the
skipCreateCase indicator.
global virtual Set<String> getPostTagsThatCreateCase(){
return new Set<String>();
}
return caseSubject;
}
723
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
if (post.Id != null) {
handleExistingPost(post, persona);
return result;
}
setReplyTo(post, persona);
buildPersona(persona);
Case parentCase = buildParentCase(post, persona, rawData);
setRelationshipsOnPost(post, persona, parentCase);
setModeration(post, rawData);
upsert post;
if(isNewCaseCreated){
updateCaseSource(post, parentCase);
}
handlePostAttachments(post, rawData);
return result;
}
724
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
// for any existing outbound post, we don't overwrite its recipient field
if (!existingPosts.isEmpty() && existingPosts[0].IsOutBound == true &&
String.isNotBlank(existingPosts[0].Recipient)) {
post.Recipient = existingPosts[0].Recipient;
}
update post;
if (persona.id != null)
updatePersona(persona);
}
return persona;
}
725
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
return null;
}
if(persona.ParentId.getSObjectType() != SocialPost.sObjectType) {
postToUpdate.WhoId = persona.ParentId;
}
}
if(parentCase != null) {
postToUpdate.ParentId = parentCase.Id;
}
}
726
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
newCase.Origin = post.Provider;
}
if (getUsingCaseAssignmentRule()){
//Find the active assignment rules on case
AssignmentRule[] rules = [select id from AssignmentRule where SobjectType =
'Case' and Active = true limit 1];
insert newCase;
return newCase;
}
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Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
if(!cases.isEmpty()) {
return cases[0];
}
}
return null;
}
// replyTo.recipient == inboundSocialPost.persona.externalId
private boolean isSocialPostRecipientSameAsPersona(SocialPost postWithRecipient,
SocialPersona persona) {
return (postWithRecipient != null && postWithRecipient.Recipient ==
persona.ExternalId);
}
// is replying to self
private boolean isReplyingToSelf(SocialPost post, SocialPersona persona) {
return (post != null &&
persona != null &&
String.isNotBlank(persona.Id) &&
post.ReplyTo != null &&
String.isNotBlank(post.ReplyTo.PersonaId) &&
post.ReplyTo.PersonaId == persona.id);
}
728
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
performR6PostIdCheck(post);
if (post.Id == null){
performExternalPostIdCheck(post);
}
}
729
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
730
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
}
return null;
}
731
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
if (!personaList.isEmpty()) {
persona.Id = personaList[0].Id;
persona.ParentId = personaList[0].ParentId;
}
}
}
732
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
733
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
734
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
Test
@isTest
public class InboundSocialPostHandlerImplTest {
static {
handler = new Social.InboundSocialPostHandlerImpl();
sampleSocialData = getSampleSocialData('1');
}
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, persona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, persona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
735
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
insert existingContact;
SocialPersona existingPersona = getSocialPersona(getSampleSocialData('2'));
existingPersona.ParentId = existingContact.Id;
insert existingPersona;
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, persona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
insert existingCase;
SocialPost existingPost = getSocialPost(getSampleSocialData('2'));
existingPost.ParentId = existingCase.Id;
existingPost.WhoId = existingContact.Id;
existingPost.PersonaId = existingPersona.Id;
insert existingPost;
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, existingPersona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
736
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
to the Persona.');
System.assertEquals(existingContact.Id, createdPost.WhoId, 'Post is not linked to
the Contact');
System.assertEquals(existingCase.Id, createdPost.ParentId, 'Post is not linked to
the Case.');
System.assertEquals(1, [SELECT Id FROM Case].size(), 'There should only be 1
Case.');
}
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, existingPersona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
737
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
post.R6PostId = String.valueOf(socialData.get('r6PostId'));
return post;
}
// Reopen case if it has not been closed for more than this number
global virtual Integer getMaxNumberOfDaysClosedToReopenCase() {
return 5;
}
// Create a case if one of these post labels are on the SocialPost, regardless of the
skipCreateCase indicator.
global virtual Set<String> getPostTagsThatCreateCase(){
return new Set<String>();
}
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Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
if (post.Id != null) {
handleExistingPost(post, persona);
return result;
}
setReplyTo(post, persona);
buildPersona(persona);
Case parentCase = buildParentCase(post, persona, rawData);
setRelationshipsOnPost(post, persona, parentCase);
setModeration(post);
upsert post;
if(isNewCaseCreated){
updateCaseSource(post, parentCase);
}
return result;
}
739
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
updatePersona(persona);
}
return persona;
}
return null;
}
740
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
Case parentCase) {
if (persona.Id != null) {
postToUpdate.PersonaId = persona.Id;
if(persona.ParentId.getSObjectType() != SocialPost.sObjectType) {
postToUpdate.WhoId = persona.ParentId;
}
}
if(parentCase != null) {
postToUpdate.ParentId = parentCase.Id;
}
}
741
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
return cases[0];
}
}
return null;
}
performR6PostIdCheck(post);
if (post.Id == null){
performExternalPostIdCheck(post);
}
}
742
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
}
}
743
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
if (!posts.isEmpty()) {
return posts[0];
}
}
return null;
}
if (!personaList.isEmpty()) {
persona.Id = personaList[0].Id;
persona.ParentId = personaList[0].ParentId;
}
}
}
744
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
745
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
contact.AccountId = defaultAccountId;
insert contact;
return contact;
}
Test
@isTest
public class InboundSocialPostHandlerImplTest {
static {
handler = new Social.InboundSocialPostHandlerImpl();
sampleSocialData = getSampleSocialData('1');
}
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, persona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, persona, sampleSocialData);
746
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
test.stopTest();
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, persona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
insert existingCase;
SocialPost existingPost = getSocialPost(getSampleSocialData('2'));
existingPost.ParentId = existingCase.Id;
existingPost.WhoId = existingContact.Id;
existingPost.PersonaId = existingPersona.Id;
insert existingPost;
747
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, existingPersona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, existingPersona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
748
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
// Reopen case if it has not been closed for more than this number
global virtual Integer getMaxNumberOfDaysClosedToReopenCase() {
749
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
return 5;
}
// Create a case if one of these post labels are on the SocialPost, regardless of the
skipCreateCase indicator.
global virtual Set<String> getPostTagsThatCreateCase(){
return new Set<String>();
}
if (post.Id != null) {
handleExistingPost(post, persona);
return result;
}
setReplyTo(post, persona);
buildPersona(persona);
Case parentCase = buildParentCase(post, persona, rawData);
setRelationshipsOnPost(post, persona, parentCase);
upsert post;
if(isNewCaseCreated){
updateCaseSource(post, parentCase);
}
return result;
}
750
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
updatePersona(persona);
}
return persona;
}
return null;
}
751
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
Case parentCase) {
if (persona.Id != null) {
postToUpdate.PersonaId = persona.Id;
if(persona.ParentId.getSObjectType() != SocialPost.sObjectType) {
postToUpdate.WhoId = persona.ParentId;
}
}
if(parentCase != null) {
postToUpdate.ParentId = parentCase.Id;
}
}
752
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
return cases[0];
}
}
return null;
}
performR6PostIdCheck(post);
if (post.Id == null){
performExternalPostIdCheck(post);
}
}
753
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
}
}
754
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
if (!posts.isEmpty()) {
return posts[0];
}
}
return null;
}
if (!personaList.isEmpty()) {
persona.Id = personaList[0].Id;
persona.ParentId = personaList[0].ParentId;
}
}
}
755
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
756
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
contact.AccountId = defaultAccountId;
insert contact;
return contact;
}
Test
@isTest
public class InboundSocialPostHandlerImplTest {
static {
handler = new Social.InboundSocialPostHandlerImpl();
sampleSocialData = getSampleSocialData('1');
}
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, persona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, persona, sampleSocialData);
757
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
test.stopTest();
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, persona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
insert existingCase;
SocialPost existingPost = getSocialPost(getSampleSocialData('2'));
existingPost.ParentId = existingCase.Id;
existingPost.WhoId = existingContact.Id;
existingPost.PersonaId = existingPersona.Id;
insert existingPost;
758
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, existingPersona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
test.startTest();
handler.handleInboundSocialPost(post, existingPersona, sampleSocialData);
test.stopTest();
759
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
// Reopen case if it has not been closed for more than this number
global virtual Integer getMaxNumberOfDaysClosedToReopenCase() {
return 5;
760
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
if (post.Id != null) {
handleExistingPost(post, persona);
return result;
}
setReplyTo(post, persona);
buildPersona(persona);
Case parentCase = buildParentCase(post, persona, rawData);
setRelationshipsOnPost(post, persona, parentCase);
upsert post;
return result;
}
761
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
762
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
return parentCase;
}
performR6PostIdCheck(post);
if (post.Id == null){
performExternalPostIdCheck(post);
}
}
763
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
}
}
764
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
if (!personaList.isEmpty()) {
persona.Id = personaList[0].Id;
persona.ParentId = personaList[0].ParentId;
}
}
}
firstName = firstName.abbreviate(40);
lastName = lastName.abbreviate(80);
765
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
return contact;
}
// Reopen case if it has not been closed for more than this number
global virtual Integer getMaxNumberOfDaysClosedToReopenCase() {
return 5;
}
if (post.Id != null) {
handleExistingPost(post, persona);
return result;
}
return result;
}
766
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
767
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
768
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
if(posts.isEmpty())
return new SocialPost();
return posts[0];
}
769
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
// Reopen case if it has not been closed for more than this number
global virtual Integer getMaxNumberOfDaysClosedToReopenCase() {
return 5;
}
if (post.Id != null) {
update post;
if (persona.id != null) {
update persona;
}
return result;
}
770
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
findReplyTo(post, rawData);
if (parentCase == null) {
parentCase = createCase(post, persona);
}
post.ParentId = parentCase.Id;
insert post;
return result;
}
771
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
}
}
if (replyToPost != null) {
List<Case> cases = [SELECT Id, IsClosed, Status, ClosedDate FROM Case WHERE
Id = :replyToPost.ParentId];
if (!cases.isEmpty()) {
if (!cases[0].IsClosed) return cases[0];
if (cases[0].ClosedDate >
System.now().addDays(-getMaxNumberOfDaysClosedToReopenCase())) {
reopenCase(cases[0]);
return cases[0];
}
}
}
return null;
}
772
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
if (isPersonaAccountEnabled()){
Account account = createPersonAccount(persona);
persona.ParentId = account.Id;
}
else {
Contact contact = createContact(persona);
persona.ParentId = contact.Id;
}
insert persona;
}
773
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
IN THIS SECTION:
Social Action Tips
Use the social action on the case or lead feed to respond to social posts. Choose a message type when replying, for example, reply
with a direct message on Twitter or a public tweet.
Manage Social Posts
A social post is a Salesforce object that represents a post on a social network such as Facebook or Twitter.
Manage Social Personas
A social persona is a Salesforce object that represents a contact's profile on a social network such as Facebook, or Twitter.
774
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
Message Type By default the message type is set to Reply for To send and receive social
media posts or messages:
inbound posts. Use the drop-down to change
• Social Objects
to another valid message type.
AND
Content All outbound content must be unique for the
Social Publisher
interaction, you can’t send the same content in
AND
the same conversation. All Twitter replies must
start with a handle: @[social handle]. Case Feed enabled
AND
Social account
If your posts require approval before they are sent, you can click Submit for Approval to start the
AND
review process. You can Recall it before it is approved or rejected. If a post is rejected, you can
Retry a rewritten post. When your post is approved, it is automatically published. Modify All on social
objects
Here are some tips for working with social networks.
• You can like, unlike, view source, post attachments, and delete social media from the case feed
while in Lightning Experience.
• URLs in a social post are turned into clickable links.
• When you reply to a tweet or thread on Twitter, you don't need to @mention the intended recipient; our API automatically sends it
to the user you're responding to. If something goes wrong with our API, all users @mentioned on the thread will receive your reply.
• When deleting posts, consider that Twitter Direct Messages behave like to emails. For example, the sender can delete their direct
message from a conversation view. However, receiver has that direct message in their conversation view until they choose to delete
it.
• Speaking of Twitter Direct Messages, Twitter has a preference to "Receive Direct Messages from Anyone”. Therefore, depending on
if this permission is set on the recipient’s or your account, you may not have to follow each other to direct message.
• If your Twitter settings allow you to receive direct messages from anyone, you can send deep links to invite users to direct message
conversations. To send a deep link direct message invitation, paste this link into your outbound message:
https://twitter.com/messages/compose?recipient_id={your Twitter account’s numeric
user ID}
You can find your twitter account’s numeric ID on twitter.com by going to Your Twitter User > Settings > Your Twitter Data.
Twitter handles the URLs and the rendering in their native clients.
775
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
• Agents can use the View Source link to go to the inbox of the social network they’re logged in to.
• In the Salesforce mobile app, agents can see and reply to social content from mobile devices.
• Only change the Status picklist field on social posts if you are working with outbound posts. If an agent manually sets the status on
the inbound social post detail page, the social posts in the case feed may not match. We recommend removing the Status field on
the inbound social post detail page layout. For example, if you change the Status of an inbound post to Sending, the Reply link in
the case feed item disappears until you change the status back to None.
Here are tips for dealing with some possible error messages.
Message Action
You can't send a direct message to this Twitter user because the Use a reply to ask the Twitter user to follow your managed social
user is not following you. account. Once they are following you, send them a direct message.
Whoops! You already said that... Change your message and try You can’t post the same text twice. Change your content and send
again. again.
Your content is too long. Reduce your content to 140 characters or less. For Twitter replies,
the handle is included in the character count.
Your response message type must be compatible with the original Change the message type to match the original message.
post's message type.
Your login to Social Studio has failed. The username or password An administrator must edit the Social Studio credentials on the
may be incorrect. Update your credentials or reset your password. Social Media settings page.
Your post did not send. We recommend creating a workflow to notify the case owner that
an attempt to send a response via Twitter has failed.
SEE ALSO:
Social Customer Service
Complete Guide to Social Customer Service
776
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
4. To manage posts without cases, select the posts you’d like to either create a case for or ignore and click Create Case and Ignore
as appropriate.
For example, an agent can ignore a Facebook post of “I love you guys!” as it does not warrant a case.
If you are using the Social Customer Service Starter Pack, you can select if you want cases created automatically when posts come
from a particular social account with the Case Creation box on the Social Accounts tab. To enable moderation through Social Studio
see, Enable Moderation for Social Customer Service on page 692.
5. If you have Approvals enabled, Social Posts tab has a Social posts pending approval list view that allows you to
review multiple pending posts and approve or reject them as desired.
Note: Once approvals are enabled, the Approve Posts and Reject Posts buttons remain on the Social Posts tab. However they
don’t work for inbound and posts not needing approval.
Tip: If you approve a post from the Social posts pending approval list view and a system interruption, session timeout, or
other unexpected issue prevents the post from being published on the intended social network, an error message displays
on the individual case only, not on the list view. To help honor any commitments, your company may have regarding response
times on social networks, after approving posts from the list view, we recommend checking the posts' statuses to ensure that
they were sent successfully and don't need to be resent.
Note: The information varies depending on the social network the persona is from.
777
Service Cloud Connect to Customers Where They Are with Social Customer
Service
Note: Social posts are not deleted when their parent record, usually a case, is deleted. Similarly, if a social post is associated
with an account, contact, or lead through the polymorphic Who field, deleting any of those related records does not affect
the social post.
You can reply to a social post from the case or lead feeds only, not the Social Posts tab.
SEE ALSO:
Manage Social Personas
Social Action Tips
Social Customer Service
Complete Guide to Social Customer Service
Note: Social persona fields many have maximum character lengths set by standard or custom Social Customer Service is
available in all editions with
Salesforce limits. For example, the first name field is limited to 40 characters. If a social persona
the Service Cloud.
with a first name longer than 40 characters is created from an inbound social post, the first
name is truncated at the 40th character.
1. Click the Social Personas tab. USER PERMISSIONS
2. Optionally, select a view. To install and deploy Social
The list defaults to those recently viewed. Select All in the View drop-down to show all social Studio for Salesforce:
personas in your organization. You can also create a view to fit your needs. • Customize Application
Warning: If you delete a social persona through the Social Accounts and Contacts feature, all related social posts are also
deleted.
Note: The information varies depending on the social network the persona is from.
778
Service Cloud Collaborate in an Experience Builder Site
Warning: There is no field level security and you can’t control who can create, read, edit, or delete Social Personas. Anyone in
your organization can see all the data on a Social Persona object.
SEE ALSO:
Manage Social Posts
Social Action Tips
Social Customer Service
Complete Guide to Social Customer Service
Note: We recommend setting up Lightning Knowledge before going through the Experience Builder Site Setup flow. If Knowledge
isn't enabled before starting the Experience Builder Site Setup, Data Categories aren’t created during the flow.
After you create a site, you can customize it with branding and components in the Experience Workspaces.
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Lightning Communities with a Guided Setup Flow
Create a Lightning Community in minutes using a quick guided setup flow. Build a branded community on a Customer Service
(Napili) template with your own domain, path, and name. Optionally, include a Web-to-Case form to let guests create cases.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up and Manage Experience Cloud Sites
Let Customers Request that Support Get Back to Them
Set Up Question-to-Case
779
Service Cloud Collaborate in an Experience Builder Site
Note: If you set up Lightning Knowledge before your community, you may have added featured topics. If so, you also had the
opportunity to map data categories to those topics. Any article mapped to a data category is tagged with the corresponding topic.
For example, if the article is marked public, it shows up underneath the corresponding featured topic. Now, whenever you tag
articles, they’re available in the community.
This flow is available from Service Setup in Lightning Experience. You can get to Service Setup by clicking and selecting Service
Setup.
In Service Setup, you can find recommended setup flows, content, and tips based on what you’ve set up already. If you don’t see the
setup flow you’re looking for, you can click View All to see the full list.
Select the tile to launch the flow.
IN THIS SECTION:
Lightning Communities Setup Flow: What’s Next?
Learn where you can customize and view what you set up during the Lightning Communities setup flow.
SEE ALSO:
Optimize Setup with the Service Setup Assistant
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Service Cloud Provide Self-Service in a Help Center
SEE ALSO:
Embedded Service
Let Customers Request that Support Get Back to Them
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Help Center with a Guided Setup Flow
Create a self-service Help Center in minutes using a quick guided setup flow. Name your help center and give it a URL. Select article
topics and article authors. Create a contact form to let customers contact you if their questions aren’t answered.
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Service Cloud Provide Self-Service in a Help Center
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Note: If Lightning Knowledge already is enabled, make sure that you’ve specified “Knowledge” as the name of your Knowledge
base.
Creating Knowledge Objects
We create some objects in Lightning Knowledge to get you started.
• A Knowledge record type named FAQ
• A page layout named Lightning Knowledge FAQ Layout
• Custom fields Question and Answer
Permission Set with Authors Permissions Assigned to Users
To make sure your article authors can write and publish articles, we make a permission set for the users you select in the setup flow.
We give them the correct permissions for them to view, create, edit, and delete articles and give them the Edit Knowledge user
permission.
The permission is called Knowledge LSF Permission Set (with the developer name Knowledge_LSF_Permission_Set).
We also give your authors the Knowledge User license and add data category group visibility to their profiles.
Mapping Topics and Data Categories
When you create topics in the flow, a lot goes on behind-the-scenes to connect those topics to your help center and Knowledge
articles (even if you haven’t written them yet).
Your help center uses topics, data categories, and data category groups to make sure that your customers can find your articles. Data
categories and data category groups let you organize your articles so your customer can do less searching. For example, you might
have a data category group called US Regions, which includes the data categories West, Midwest, South, and Northeast. So when
you write an article that lists the locations and hours of your stores on the west coast, you would select the West category.
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Service Cloud Provide Self-Service in a Help Center
If you don’t have any active data category groups when you start the flow, you create topics during the flow. We use those topic
names to create data categories and put those categories in a data category group called Help Center Setup Flow. Then, we create
featured and navigational topics in your help center and map them to the data categories, so your topics appear in your help center,
and relevant articles show up when a customer clicks on a topic.
If you already have some data categories when you start the flow, we go through a similar process. You select the data categories
you want in your help center, and we map them to topics.
We also create a data category group called Help Center Setup Flow.
Community with the Help Center Template
Your help center is powered by Communities, which lets you create branded spaces for your employees, customers, and partners
to connect. A help center is a special type of community that gives you just what you need for a self-service page, without advanced
features like user logins and collaboration.
With your help center, you get access to Experience Builder and Experience Workspaces, where you can add branding and arrange
and manage your topics.
Guest User Profile
Everyone who visits your help center is a guest user. We create a guest user profile that lets them view your data categories and
record types (like your articles). We also give them the right permissions so they can log cases using the web form that you create
in the flow.
Web-to-Case and Quick Action Edit Capabilities
When you create a contact form, Web-to-Case and Quick Action edit capabilities are automatically enabled. This means that when
you publish your help center, guests can submit cases directly from your help center.
IN THIS SECTION:
Help Center Setup Flow: What’s Next?
Learn where you can customize and view what you set up during the Help Center setup flow.
Note: We guide you to your next steps using the Help Center page in Setup, which is only available in Essentials Edition. If you’re
using Help Center with a different edition, you can navigate to these settings from the All Sites page in Setup.
Manage Your New Help Center
View and manage your help center from the Help Center page in Setup. You can create up to 5 help centers with Essentials Edition.
Enter Help Center in the Quick Find box, then select Help Center.
Brand Your Help Center
Set the colors, font, and branding images to give your help center a personal touch. From the Help Center page in Setup, click Edit
next to your help center to open the Experience Builder.
Manage Your Article Topics
Make sure that the article topics you created during the flow cover everything that your customers want to know. Your customers
use topics to help find articles in your help center. If you didn’t create any during the flow, go ahead and create some.
You can view, add, and edit your topics in the Content Management tile in Experience Workspaces. From the Help Center page in
Setup, click Edit next to your help center to open the Experience Builder. Click the icon on the left of the navigation bar and select
Experience Workspaces.
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Service Cloud Channel-Object Linking (Beta)
SEE ALSO:
Create and Edit Articles
Set Up Assignment Rules
SEO for Experience Builder Sites
IN THIS SECTION:
Create Channel-Object Linking Rules with a Guided Setup Flow (Beta)
Add channel-object linking rules to your org using the quick guided setup flow.
Create Channel-Object Linking Rules from Messaging Settings
Let agents link Messaging User records to Contacts or Cases with channel-object linking.
Agent Experience for Channel-Object Linking (Beta)
While the agent is in a session with a user, a notification appears in the Lightning console when a rule takes place. The agent can
click the link in the notification to get more detail or perform other actions.
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Service Cloud Channel-Object Linking (Beta)
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Service Cloud Channel-Object Linking (Beta)
If no matches are found, you can either have the rule automatically create and link a record, or prompt the agent to search for or create
a record.
If a single matching record is found, you can either have the rule automatically link the record, or prompt the agent to pick the suggested
record, search for a record, or create a record.
If there are multiple matches, the system always prompts the agent to pick from a list of suggested records, search for a record, or create
a record.
Matches are determined on a channel-by-channel basis using the following information.
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Service Cloud Channel-Object Linking (Beta)
IN THIS SECTION:
Add Channel-Object Linking Rules for Phone Calls (Beta)
Create object-linking rules for incoming customer phone calls. When an agent accepts a call in the workspace, prompt them to
choose from recommended contact records, search for a record, or add a new one. The phone channel supports linking only to
contact records.
SEE ALSO:
Create Channel-Object Linking Rules from Messaging Settings
Agent Experience for Channel-Object Linking (Beta)
3. After completing the Phone setup, add the Object-Linking Notifications background utility in Lightning App Builder to show the
prompts as toast messages in the Service Console.
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Service Cloud Channel-Object Linking (Beta)
5. Click Save.
USER PERMISSIONS
SEE ALSO: To set up and edit
Create Channel-Object Linking Rules with a Guided Setup Flow (Beta) Messaging channels:
• Configure Messaging
To view channels:
Agent Experience for Channel-Object Linking (Beta) • View Setup and
While the agent is in a session with a user, a notification appears in the Lightning console when a Configuration
rule takes place. The agent can click the link in the notification to get more detail or perform other
actions.
For example, let’s say you create a rule for text messages that links conversations to contact records. And you specify that the link occurs
automatically when there’s one match. With this rule in place, if an agent is speaking with someone at a phone number that matches
that of a contact, the agent receives a notification that this conversation is automatically linked to the appropriate contact. The agent
optionally can review the changes and cancel this new link.
The following table describes all the possible scenarios and the default behavior for each scenario.
Prompt Agent Agent is prompted to search for Agent can cancel the action.
or create a record to link to.
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Service Cloud Workforce Engagement
2 or more N/A Agent is prompted with the Agent can cancel the action.
suggested records and can
search for, or create, a different
record to link to.
The matching logic looks for contact records where the value in the phone number field corresponds to most of the digits in the caller’s
phone number. It ignores the country code and matches the remaining digits.
For example, suppose that a customer with the US phone number 415-555-1234 calls your contact center. Your org has three contact
records for this customer, and each record has a variant of the customer’s phone number:
• Contact record 1’s phone number is 415-555-1234.
The matching logic recognizes that these records match the caller’s number, so it suggests them as matches and prompts the agent to
link the call to the contact record. When a contact is matched with a Voice Call record, the Caller field or the Recipient field on the Voice
Call record is updated depending on the call type. For inbound and transfered calls, the caller field is updated. For outbound and returned
calls, the recipient field is updated.
Workforce Engagement
Run a better contact center to help your business, employees, and customers all win. Your business
EDITIONS
wins with our new data-driven planning tools that let you meet workload demands more efficiently.
Your employees win with flexible scheduling tools, and better career ownership and growth Workforce Engagement is
opportunities. Your customers win because service is swifter and the agents who support them are available in Lightning
the best match. Experience
Because there are so many Workforce Engagement features to take advantage of, it’s helpful to
Available in: Enterprise,
view it from the perspective of each persona who uses it. Performance, and
Unlimited Editions
Persona Needs Features They'll Use
Admin Set up and configure each of Setup and configuration
the features that your team
uses.
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Service Cloud Prepare Your Org for Workforce Engagement
IN THIS SECTION:
Prepare Your Org for Workforce Engagement
Before you use Workforce Engagement, enable and configure the product.
Workforce Engagement Planner
As the Planner, your role is focused on numbers and data. Intelligent forecasting offers insight into your future workload demands,
and Omni-Channel Planning builds on the forecast to help you put the right agents on the right shift at the right time.
Empower Agents with Career Growth and Schedule Ownership Opportunities as a Workforce Engagement Lead a Team
Retain your employees with Workforce Engagement features that offer career growth and ownership over their work-life balance.
The Agent Experience with Workforce Engagement
When you retain your valuable support team members, your business wins. Workforce Engagement offers a suite of features to
empower your agents with career growth opportunities and more ownership over their schedules.
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Service Cloud Prepare Your Org for Workforce Engagement
a. Agent Home
b. Intelligent Forecasts
c. Job Profiles
d. Omni Supervisor
e. Operating Hours
f. Resource Absences
g. Scheduling Constraints
h. Service Resource
i. Service Resource Preferences
j. Service Territories
k. Shifts
l. Time Sheets
m. Work Capacity Plans
n. Work Forecasts
IN THIS SECTION:
Prepare Your Org to Use Workload History and Intelligent Forecasting
Before you create a Workload History and Intelligent Forecast, ensure that the features are fully configured.
Prepare Your Org to Use Omni-Channel Planning
Before you use Omni-Channel Planning, ensure that the features are fully configured.
Prepare Your Org to Use Agent Engagement
Before you use Agent Engagement, ensure that the feature is fully configured.
Prepare Your Org to Use Time Sheets and Resource Absences
Before you use Time Sheets or Resource Absences, ensure that the features are fully configured.
Prepare Your Org to Use Workforce Engagement Shift Scheduling Tools
Before you use Workforce Engagement shift scheduling tools like Batch Assignment and Get Candidates, ensure that the features
are fully configured.
Prepare Your Org to Use Agent Home
Before you use Workforce Engagement Agent Home, ensure that the feature is fully configured.
Prepare Your Org to Use Service Resources Preferences
Before you use Workforce Engagement Service Resource Preferences, ensure that the feature is fully configured.
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Service Cloud Prepare Your Org for Workforce Engagement
4. Create a Service Territory. Each Omni-Channel Plan can have one service territory. Add your operating hours to this service territory.
a. Open Service Territories in the App Launcher.
b. Click New.
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Service Cloud Prepare Your Org for Workforce Engagement
c. Name your Service Territory, select from a list of Operating Hours. To make this territory active, check the box. Fill in any additional
fields you’d like.
d. Save your changes.
5. Create skills for skills-based routing. Associate these skills with the job profiles and service resources in your Omni-Channel Plan.
6. Create up to 10 job profiles. Add in the skills you created previously.
IN THIS SECTION:
Create Operating Hours with Time Slots for Workforce Engagement
Numbers matter when you run a contact center. Keep track of a business location's working hours with Operating Hours and Time
Slots. Reference operating hours throughout Workforce Engagement features, including Omni-Channel Planning, Batch Assignment,
Get Candidates, Time Sheets, Absences, or Service Resource Preferences.
Create a Service Territory for Workforce Engagement
A service territory represents the geographic area where your business operates. Service territory is a key building block in creating
an Omni-Channel Plan, and in creating and assigning a shift.
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Service Cloud Prepare Your Org for Workforce Engagement
Shift Scheduling Rule The Match Territory scheduling rule type checks
if a service resource belongs to a shift’s service
territory. This match helps determine whether
that service resource is assigned to the shift
using Batch Assignment or Get Candidates.
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Service Cloud Prepare Your Org for Workforce Engagement
3. Assign the Learning Manager user profile to the user who assigns agent engagement modules to agents.
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Service Cloud Prepare Your Org for Workforce Engagement
h. Scroll down to Enable Service Presence Status Access, and click Edit.
i. Click to highlight each Service Presence Status, and move them from Available Service Presence Status to Enabled Service
Presence Status.
j. Save your changes.
Configure Skills
1. Create skills for skills-based routing. Map these skills to your myTrailhead modules. Agents earn skills upon completion of a myTrailhead
module.
2. Map skills to learning modules.
a. Open Setup | Workforce Engagement | Skills | Skills & Learning.
b. Click New Match.
c. Search for a skill.
d. Click Next.
e. Search for the myTrailhead module you’d like to match to this skill, and click to add it.
f. Check the box to Approve Automatically. After an agent completes the learning module, they will automatically earn the skill.
If you'd prefer to manually approve skills, set up an approval process.
g. Save your changes.
IN THIS SECTION:
Allow Agents to See Their Service Resource Profile with an Apex Trigger
Create an Apex Trigger that shares a service resource record with an agent and makes the agent the owner. This ensures that agents
can take valuable actions from their own service resource record. They can submit a Service Resource Preference, a Resource Absence,
or a Time Sheet, or see skills they earned through Agent Engagement. The trigger also ensures that agents only see their own service
resource profile, as opposed to opening all service resource profiles publicly to all agents.
Allow Agents to See Their Service Resource Profile with an Apex Trigger
Create an Apex Trigger that shares a service resource record with an agent and makes the agent
EDITIONS
the owner. This ensures that agents can take valuable actions from their own service resource
record. They can submit a Service Resource Preference, a Resource Absence, or a Time Sheet, or Workforce Engagement is
see skills they earned through Agent Engagement. The trigger also ensures that agents only see available in Lightning
their own service resource profile, as opposed to opening all service resource profiles publicly to Experience
all agents.
Available in: Enterprise,
Here’s an example of how you could share a service resource record with an agent: Performance, and
Note: To ensure the best outcome with this trigger, ensure that the org-wide default sharing Unlimited Editions
setting for Service Resource is set to Private.
trigger share_record_with_resource on ServiceResource (after insert) {
for (ServiceResource sr : Trigger.New) {
if (sr.RelatedRecord != null) {
ServiceResourceShare srShare = new ServiceResourceShare();
srShare.ParentId = sr.Id;
srShare.UserOrGroupId = sr.RelatedRecordId;
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Service Cloud Prepare Your Org for Workforce Engagement
srShare.AccessLevel = 'Read';
insert srShare;
}
}
}
Here's an example of how you could make an agent the owner of a service resource record:
trigger change_resource_owner on ServiceResource (before insert) {
for (ServiceResource sr : Trigger.New) {
if (sr.RelatedRecordId != null) {
sr.OwnerId = sr.RelatedRecordId;
}
}
}
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Service Cloud Prepare Your Org for Workforce Engagement
b. Click New.
c. Name your operating hours, and select a time zone.
d. Save your changes.
e. Click to open the operating hours that you created.
f. Click Related.
g. Under Time Slots, click New.
h. Select the Day of Week. Each time slot represents a day of the 7-day week.
i. Fill in the rest of the details for that day.
j. Save your changes.
k. Repeat these steps for each day of the week that's included in the operating hours.
5. Create skills for Skills-Based Routing. Associate these skills with your job profiles and service resources.
6. Create service resources with Type 'Agent' for the agents who you’d like to assign shifts to.
7. Create the job profiles that you’d like to associate with your shifts.
8. Add one or more skills to a Service Resource profile via the Skills related list.
9. Create a Service Territory to associate with your service resources. An Omni-Channel plan can only have one associated service
territory. If you’d like the service resource to be associated with your Omni-Channel Plan, match the service territory to the one used
in your plan.
a. Open Service Territories in the App Launcher.
b. Click New.
c. Name your Service Territory, select from a list of Operating Hours, and check the box to make this territory active. Fill in any
additional fields you’d like.
d. Save your changes.
10. Add a service territory to each service resource via the Service Territory related list on the service resource profile.
11. Create the job profiles that you’d like to associate with your shifts.
12. Create the scheduling constraints that are associated with your work limit scheduling rule. You can create up to 50 scheduling
constraints.
a. Open Scheduling Constraints in the App Launcher.
b. Click New.
c. Name your scheduling constraint, and fill in the related details.
d. Save your changes.
e. Open Service Resources or Service Territories from the App launcher.
f. Click to open an individual Service Resource or Service Territory page.
g. Click Related.
h. Scroll to the Scheduling Constraints related list, and add your constraint.
13. Create the Scheduling Rules that help automatically match agents to shifts.
a. Open Setup.
b. Search for Scheduling Rules, and click to open the page.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Create a Scheduling Rule for Workforce Engagement
Scheduling Rules help the Get Candidates and Batch Assignment features match qualified agents to shifts. Set these rules once, and
our shift assignment tools check them when matching agents to shifts.
Create a Scheduling Constraint for Workforce Engagement
Scheduling constraints set perimeters on when work happens and how much work is done. Scheduling constraints can be associated
with a service resource or a service territory. The work limit-type scheduling rule relies on a scheduling constraint from the service
resource or service territory to match agents to shifts.
Type Description
Availability Checks if the service resource is available to be
assigned to a shift.
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Service Cloud Prepare Your Org for Workforce Engagement
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Service Cloud Prepare Your Org for Workforce Engagement
IN THIS SECTION:
Allow Agents to See Their Assigned Shifts with an Apex Trigger
Create an Apex Trigger that lets an agent see their assigned shifts in their Agent Home tab. This trigger prevents the agent from
seeing other agents’ assigned shifts.
if (!needsToShareShift) {
return;
}
if(shiftIdsForResource == null){
shiftIdsForResource = new List<Id>();
}
shiftIdsForResource.add(newShift.Id);
srIdsToShiftIds.put(newShift.ServiceResourceId, shiftIdsForResource);
}
}
// Load the ServiceResources associated with the new shifts that were created.
List<ServiceResource> results = [SELECT RelatedRecordId, ResourceType FROM
ServiceResource WHERE Id in :srIdsToShiftIds.keySet()];
if (!results.isEmpty()) {
List<ShiftShare> shareEntriesToCreate = new List<ShiftShare>();
for(ServiceResource serviceResource : results) {
// This is a shift for an Agent Service Resource so let's configure a share
record for it
if (serviceResource.ResourceType == 'A') {
// shift ids that contain this service resource
List<Id> shiftIds = srIdsToShiftIds.get(serviceResource.Id);
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Service Cloud Workforce Engagement Planner
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Service Cloud Workforce Engagement Planner
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Service Cloud Workforce Engagement Planner
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Service Cloud Workforce Engagement Planner
11. We recommend selecting the Hourly Interval for your forecast display. You can toggle the
interval to show Daily or Weekly in the Graph View after the forecast is created.
12. Name your forecast, and click Save.
13. Check the Status column in the Intelligent Forecasts list view to see when your forecast’s aggregation is complete.
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Service Cloud Workforce Engagement Planner
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Service Cloud Workforce Engagement Planner
Average Handle Time The average length of time it takes for a case to
be closed, regardless of channel. Create an
average handle time goal for each job profile.
Service Level Agreement A KPI driven from the upper level of business.
The percentage of cases that you want your
team to answer in a certain amount of time,
regardless of channel. Create a service level
agreement for each job profile. The higher your
service level agreement percentage, the more
agents you want to staff.
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Service Cloud Workforce Engagement Planner
Term Definition
Service Resource A contact center agent who is available to be scheduled. Service
Resource is mapped to a user profile. Each user can have one service
resource record attached.
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Service Cloud Workforce Engagement Planner
19. Define the Average Handle Time for each job profile, per channel.
20. Define the Service Level Agreement for each job profile, per channel.
21. Click Next.
22. Name your plan, and save your changes. You’re welcome to move around your org or log out. When your plan is calculated, the
status changes to Shift Calculation Completed.
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Service Cloud Empower Agents with Career Growth and Schedule
Ownership Opportunities as a Workforce Engagement Lead
a Team
Export Your Omni-Channel Plan
Export your Omni-Channel Plan as a CSV file.
EDITIONS
1. Open Omni-Channel Plans in the App Launcher.
Workforce Engagement is
2. Click to open an Omni-Channel plan.
available in Lightning
3. Click Export. Experience
4. Click Export to confirm. Available in: Enterprise,
5. The CSV file downloads to your default downloads folder. Performance, and
Unlimited Editions
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Empower Agents with Career Growth and Schedule
Ownership Opportunities as a Workforce Engagement Lead
a Team
Assign Learning to Agents with Agent Engagement
No one wants to feel like just a number. Balancing your business’ productivity needs with your
EDITIONS
agents’ career growth goals creates a support environment where full-time agents want to stick
around. Agent Engagement lets agents earn skills by taking myTrailhead modules. Workforce Engagement is
While an agent is actively taking a learning module, their capacity is reduced by 1. The agent can available in Lightning
focus on the learning module with fewer distractions. To assign Agent Engagement learnings to Experience
your agents:
Available in: Enterprise,
1. Open Omni Supervisor in the App Launcher. Performance, and
Unlimited Editions
2. In the All Agents list, select the agents who you’d like to assign learning to.
3. Click Assign Learning.
USER PERMISSIONS
4. Search for the name of the myTrailhead module you want to assign, and select it.
5. Click Assign Learning. To assign Agent
Engagement learnings to
agents:
• Workforce Engagement
Analyst. Workforce
Engagement Schedule
Coordinator, or
Workforce Engagement
Agent
Note: The status field must be added to the Absences object before you can complete these Workforce Engagement is
steps for Absences. See Prepare Your Org to Use Time Sheets and Absences. available in Lightning
Experience
1. Open Service Resources from the App Launcher.
Available in: Enterprise,
2. Click the name of a Service Resource.
Performance, and
3. Click Related. Unlimited Editions
4. Click a time sheet from the Time Sheets list or an Absence from the Absences list.
5. Click to edit the Status Field. USER PERMISSIONS
6. Change the status to Submitted. To approve time sheets and
7. Save your changes. absences:
• Workforce Engagement
Schedule Coordinator
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Service Cloud Empower Agents with Career Growth and Schedule
Ownership Opportunities as a Workforce Engagement Lead
a Team
Create Shifts for Workforce Engagement
Take advantage of Workforce Engagement’s shift scheduling enhancements, like Omni-Channel
EDITIONS
planning, Batch Assignment, or Get Candidates. All of these features require that you create shifts.
6. Click Save.
7. See your new shift on the calendar.
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Service Cloud The Agent Experience with Workforce Engagement
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Service Cloud The Agent Experience with Workforce Engagement
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud The Agent Experience with Workforce Engagement
Tell Your Manager When You Prefer to Work with a Service Resource Preference
Workforce Engagement offers Service Resource Preferences as a way to empower you, the agent,
EDITIONS
to take ownership of your schedule. Submit a Service Resource Preference that reflects the hours
you’d like to work. When your manager schedules shifts with Batch Assignment or the Get Candidates Workforce Engagement is
feature, these scheduling tools consider your preferences. available in Lightning
Experience
Create Operating Hours with Time Slots for Service Resource Preferences Available in: Enterprise,
1. Open Operating Hours from the App Launcher. Performance, and
Unlimited Editions
2. Click New.
3. Name your operating hours, and select a time zone.
USER PERMISSIONS
4. Save your changes.
To submit a Service
5. Click Related.
Resource Preference:
6. Under Time Slots, click New. • Workforce Engagement
Agent
7. Select the Day of Week. Each time slot represents a day of the 7-day week.
8. Fill in the rest of the details for that day.
9. Save your changes.
10. Repeat these steps for each day of the week that's included in the operating hours.
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Service Cloud The Agent Experience with Workforce Engagement
To submit a Resource
Absence:
• Workforce Engagement
Agent permission set
817
Service Cloud Salesforce Knowledge
Salesforce Knowledge
Give your website visitors, clients, partners, and service agents the ultimate support tool. Create
EDITIONS
and manage a knowledge base with your company information, and securely share it when and
where it's needed. Available in: Salesforce
Your Salesforce Knowledge base is built from knowledge articles, which are documents of Classic (not available in all
information. Articles can include information on process, like how to reset your product to its orgs) and Lightning
defaults, or frequently asked questions, like how much storage your product supports. Experience
Experienced service agents and internal writers write the articles. The articles are then published Salesforce Knowledge is
and can be used internally or externally in a range of channels. You can publish articles in customer available in Essentials and
and partner sites and public websites or share articles in social posts and emails. Control where and the Unlimited Edition with
what information is published or shared based on the article page layouts, user profiles, actions, Service Cloud.
and other settings.
Salesforce Knowledge is
You can use Knowledge in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience. Orgs new to Knowledge available for an additional
use Lightning Knowledge, which is generally available. If your org already uses Knowledge in cost in: Professional,
Salesforce Classic, consider using the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool and switching to Lightning Enterprise, Performance,
Knowledge. and Developer Editions. For
more information, contact
Note: Enabling Lightning Knowledge changes your org's data model to use record types your Salesforce
rather than article types. After you enable Lightning Knowledge, you can't disable it. Before representative.
enabling Lightning Knowledge, orgs with multiple articles types require data migration to
consolidate article types. Test in a sandbox or trial org before enabling in production.
IN THIS SECTION:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
Find the information you need about Salesforce Knowledge.
Compare Lightning Knowledge with Knowledge in Salesforce Classic
Knowledge is available in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience, but there are important differences. Compare Lightning
Knowledge with Classic Knowledge and decide if you’re ready to enable Lightning Knowledge in your org.
Knowledge: What’s Different or Not Available in the Salesforce Mobile App
Build Your Knowledge Base in Lightning Experience
Lightning Knowledge gives you a high-powered yet streamlined way to manage your knowledge base. With Lightning Knowledge,
you get the benefits of standard objects that work like other objects in Salesforce. New orgs use Lightning Knowledge, and older
orgs can migrate from Knowledge in Salesforce Classic to Lightning Knowledge using the migration tool.
Build Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
After you've assigned Knowledge User licenses (including to yourself), you're ready to build your Knowledge base.
Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
It’s time to keep building your knowledge base. You can add workflows and approvals, track field history, and add validation rules.
Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge
You can import your existing external articles or information database into Salesforce Knowledge. If you want to move your content
from Classic to Lightning Knowledge, use the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool.
Improve the Article Search Experience
Enable search highlights and snippets, synonyms, promoted terms, topics, and keywords from cases to improve your article search.
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Service Cloud Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
SEE ALSO:
Lightning Knowledge Guide
Salesforce Knowledge Guide (Classic)
819
Service Cloud Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
Classic Knowledge
Set up Classic Knowledge
• Build Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
• Knowledge Article Types
• Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge
• Classic Knowledge User Access
• Workflow and Approvals for Articles
Use Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
• Search Articles and External Sources on the Knowledge Tab
– Find Knowledge Articles in Salesforce Classic
– How Does Search Work?
– Articles or Knowledge Tab
– For searching and viewing Salesforce Knowledge Articles on your Android device, see Access Salesforce Knowledge Articles
with Salesforce for Android (no longer beta) and Salesforce App Differences from the Full Salesforce Site
Trailhead
• Knowledge Basics (Lightning)
• Knowledge Basics (Classic)
• Knowledge Search Basics (Classic)
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Service Cloud Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
• The Metadata API Developers Guide has information on Salesforce Knowledge Metadata API objects.
• The Visualforce Developers Guide has information on Salesforce Knowledge Visualforce components.
• The Lightning Platform Apex Code Developers Guide has information on the Apex
KnowledgeArticleVersionStandardController Class.
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Service Cloud Compare Lightning Knowledge with Knowledge in Salesforce
Classic
Let’s compare Knowledge in Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience. Salesforce Knowledge is
available in Essentials and
Feature Classic Knowledge Lightning Knowledge Unlimited Editions with
Service Cloud.
Access and permissions CRUD, profile permissions, page CRUD, profile permissions, and
layouts, and custom article page layouts Salesforce Knowledge is
actions per public group available for an additional
cost in: Professional,
Files Files are attached in custom file Files are stored in the standard Enterprise, Performance,
fields Files object and attached in the and Developer Editions. For
Files related list more information, contact
your Salesforce
Object home Knowledge One and Article Knowledge home page with
representative.
Management tab list views
Page layouts Fields only, per article type and Fields, actions, and related lists,
user profile per record type and user profile
Record home (articles) Custom record home Default Record Home and
Record Home that is
configurable via the Lightning
App Builder
Use Knowledge in the console Add Knowledge One to the Add the Lightning Knowledge
Service Console component via the Lightning
App Builder
SEE ALSO:
Sharing Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool
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Mobile App
Articles can't be linked to cases. (But links that are set up from the desktop site can be viewed
on the Related tab.)
Tables are sometimes cut off on the right side when included in article rich text fields.
Compact layouts display the article type API name instead of the article type name. So users
see the article type API name in the highlights area when viewing an article.
When searching from the Articles home page, only articles in the user’s language are returned
and only if that language is an active Knowledge language (from Setup, Customize >
Knowledge > Knowledge Settings). To see articles in another language, users can change
to an active Knowledge language. From My Settings, use the Quick Find search box to
locate the Language & Time Zone page.
In global search, search results show articles in the language specified for the device,
regardless of the active Knowledge language.
Filtering search results by data categories, article type, validation status, or language isn’t
available.
Knowledge articles aren’t available when accessing Experience Cloud sites via the Salesforce
mobile app.
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Note: Enabling Lightning Knowledge changes your org's data model to use record types rather than article types. After you enable
Lightning Knowledge, you can't disable it. Before enabling Lightning Knowledge, orgs with multiple articles types require data
migration to consolidate article types. Test in a sandbox or trial org before enabling in production.
Implement this feature in one click with the Service Setup Assistant: Learn more on page 6
IN THIS SECTION:
Plan Your Knowledge Base in Lightning Experience
It's important that you consider your individual company’s needs while you develop a strategy for capturing and publishing your
support team’s expertise. With a robust knowledge base, customers receive service faster or even solve their own issues.
Lightning Knowledge Limitations
Welcome to your handy guide to the way things work—or don't—in Lightning Knowledge. Keep these considerations in mind
whether you're starting fresh or making the switch to Lightning Knowledge.
Set Up Lightning Knowledge with a Guided Setup Flow
The Lightning Knowledge setup flow is a quick way to get your knowledge base started. Whether it’s a secure customer portal, part
of your public site, or integrated into a public customer Experience Cloud site, your knowledge base is an extension of your service
website. Enable Lightning Knowledge, choose article authors, and make a few data category groups. Build the momentum by
configuring page layouts, record types, and processes.
Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool
Use the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool to move your Classic knowledge base into Lightning Knowledge. The Lightning
Knowledge Migration Tool works differently depending on whether your org has one or multiple article types.
Set Up and Configure Lightning Knowledge
Enable Lightning Knowledge, create Knowledge record types, customize your record type page layouts, set access for Knowledge
users, and create a Lightning Knowledge process.
Do you need workflow or approval processes Workflow and Approvals for Articles, Validation
to manage article creation and publication? Rules
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Are you supporting more than one language? Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base
Do you need to share your knowledge base externally? Give Customers Access to Your Knowledge Base Through Help
Center
Do you need guidelines, resources, and current discussions on the Salesforce Knowledge is "KCS Verified" by the Consortium for
evolving world of knowledge orientated service? Service Innovation, which recognizes best practices in customer
support methodologies. By implementing Knowledge-Centered
Support (KCS) features, you can create more efficient collaboration
within your team and provide pertinent and accurate information
to your customers.
Consider the following tips when planning and using Salesforce Knowledge:
• Create synonym groups in Salesforce Knowledge. Synonyms are words or phrases that are treated as equivalent in article searches,
letting you optimize search results.
• Before setting up data categories, carefully plan your category groups and their hierarchies. Also, consider how your category hierarchy
maps to your role hierarchy. For more information, see Data Category Visibility.
• Create custom reports on your Salesforce Knowledge data. You can also install the Knowledge Base Dashboards and Reports app from
the AppExchange to receive over two dozen helpful reports.
• Multiple agents can edit the same article at the same time. If that occurs, your changes can be overwritten by a colleague without
warning, even if you save your work frequently. To avoid accidental data loss, instruct all users who edit articles to edit only the
articles they're assigned.
• Review your usage regularly to avoid storage shortages: from Setup, enter Storage Usage in the Quick Find box, then select
Storage Usage.
• Public knowledge base users cannot rate articles.
• Salesforce Files allows agents to attach documents to articles.
• You will lose your data if you convert a custom field on an article type into any other field type. Do not convert custom fields unless
no data exists for the field.
• When renaming Salesforce Knowledge labels note that standard field names, like Title and URL Name, are fixed. You can’t change
the labels for these fields on the article create and edit pages. If the organization is set to another language, these fields remain in
the fixed label for that language.
• The Salesforce Knowledge search engine supports lemmatization, which is the process of reducing a word to its root form. With
lemmatization, a search can match expanded forms of a search term. For example, a search for running matches items that
contain run, running, and ran.
• Make sure that you have a clear understanding of how record types affect your knowledge base, and how to use them to display
different layouts for different articles. For more information, see Record Type Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
• Determine if you need to create automation for some of your record types. Automation can include quick actions, process builder,
or flows. For example, you can create a rule that sends an email to an article manager when an agent creates an article from a closed
case.
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• Determine if you need to create approval processes for some of your record types. For example, if you have a type of article that
must have legal and management approval before it can be published externally, create an approval process for the article type. For
more information, see Workflow and Approvals for Articles.
Note: Salesforce won’t extend an allocation to match that of an edition with a higher limit.
The default maximum number of total versions per org is 10 million for all editions. Limits on versions retained per article don’t include
versions linked to objects such as cases, work items, and undeletable lookup fields. So, for example, an article might have 25 versions,
even if the default limit is 10 versions per article, if 15 of those versions are linked to cases. However, versions attached to objects such
as cases count towards the total number of versions per org.
SEE ALSO:
Knowledge Scalability
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– You can’t remove a published article while editing it. Instead, the article remains published while you edit the new version as a
draft. You can archive the article to remove it, then restore and edit a draft.
– Archiving can’t be scheduled for a future date. You can create a Flow to periodically archive articles based on a date field.
– Articles don't contain a notification when you schedule publication for a future date. You also can’t see a list of articles that are
scheduled for publication in Lightning Knowledge, and you can't cancel a scheduled publication.
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Important: After you enable Lightning Knowledge, you can’t disable it.
This flow is available from Service Setup in Lightning Experience. You can get to Service Setup by clicking and selecting Service
Setup.
In Service Setup, you can find recommended setup flows, content, and tips based on what you’ve set up already. If you don’t see the
setup flow you’re looking for, you can click View All to see the full list.
Select the tile to launch the flow.
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Tip: Data Category Groups help you classify and find articles. You can use data categories to control access to a set of articles,
questions or ideas.
We also turn on several things in the background during the setup flow.
Enabling Lightning Knowledge
We enable Lightning Knowledge during the flow, which can’t be undone. Don’t worry about this if you’ve never used Knowledge
before and you’re ready to dive in on Lightning Experience.
Lightning Knowledge is different from Salesforce Knowledge in Salesforce Classic, so if you already use Salesforce Classic, some
planning is required. Make sure that you know and understand what changes and what works differently when you switch.
Default Page Layouts and Record Types
A default FAQ page layout and record type is auto-enabled in the setup flow. The page layout determines how the articles are
displayed. By doing this step, you are associating the page layout and record types. After completing the flow, you can go to the
Object Manager to create or modify your page layouts.
Note: If you created a page layout and record type before starting the Lightning Knowledge setup flow, we don’t create new
ones in the setup flow. The integrity of your initial settings isn’t altered.
Knowledge Permission Sets
Your selected authors get full read, write, and publishing access through the Knowledge LSF permission set, and access to the
Knowledge Object.
The setup flow auto-enables the page layout and record type for these profiles. Everyone whom you designate an author gets a
Knowledge User License.
The setup flow grants data category visibility to profiles selected on the Choose Author screen.
IN THIS SECTION:
Lightning Knowledge Setup Flow: What’s Next?
Learn where you can customize and view what you set up during the Lightning Knowledge setup flow.
SEE ALSO:
Optimize Setup with the Service Setup Assistant
Classic Knowledge User Access
Find Object Management Settings in Salesforce Classic
User Licenses
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SEE ALSO:
Create and Edit Articles
Record Type Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
Use the Lightning Knowledge Component
Lightning Knowledge Limitations
Create and Modify Category Groups
Data Category Visibility
Modify Default Category Group Assignments for Articles
Important: Contact Salesforce Support to enable the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool in a production org. The migration
tool is enabled by default for sandbox orgs. If you don’t see the migration tool in your sandbox, log a request with Salesforce
Support.
Are you ready to migrate your knowledge base from Classic to Lightning Knowledge? Great! After some pre-planning on your part, the
Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool does most of the heavy lifting for you. When you’re done, all the content in your Classic knowledge
base exists in Lightning Knowledge. Service agents can enjoy a more flexible and consistent UI experience. Also, you can adopt features
and future enhancements that won’t be available in Classic.
In Lightning Knowledge, your articles are unified in a single knowledge object which enables you to better leverage the power of the
Salesforce platform. Lightning Knowledge uses standard record types to distinguish different types of articles.
Making the move to Lightning Knowledge is a multiphase process, with each step building on the success of the previous ones. Ensuring
a successful migration is like getting to Carnegie Hall: It takes practice and preparation! Here’s an overview of the process.
1. Learn about the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool. Before you start planning, read through all the Lightning Knowledge Migration
Tool topics to the post-migration checklist.
2. Plan your migration.
3. Perform the migration from Classic to Lightning Knowledge in your sandbox org.
a. Set up and run the data migration.
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Note: Validation is required only for orgs with multiple article types.
4. Perform the migration from Classic to Lightning Knowledge in your production org.
a. To enable the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool in your production org, log a request with Salesforce Support. Allow 1–2
weeks advance notice from your target migration date. Before we can enable the tool in production, our support team will ask
a series of questions about your migration plan and the results of your sandbox test.
b. Set up and run the data migration.
c. Switch from Classic to Lightning Knowledge.
d. Validate the migration results, and accept the results.
Note: Validation is required only for orgs with multiple article types.
IN THIS SECTION:
Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool Features and Considerations
Before planning and performing the migration with the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool, learn about the differences between
Classic Knowledge and Lightning Knowledge. Understand the limits of the migration tool and Classic features that either aren’t
supported or work differently in Lightning Knowledge.
Plan and Sandbox Test Your Migration
If you helped build your Classic knowledge base, you know that planning is critical. In fact, planning is the most important part of
migrating to Lightning Knowledge.
Migrate Multiple Article Types
You planned your migration. You went over the pre-migration checklist, and you made all the prerequisite revisions to your Classic
knowledge base. You’re aware of the limitations. You’re ready to go. Here’s your step-by-step guide to using the Lightning Knowledge
Migration Tool with multiple article type orgs.
Migrate a Single Article Type
You planned your migration. You went over the pre-migration checklist, and you made all the prerequisite revisions to your Classic
knowledge base. You’re aware of the limitations. You’re ready to go. Here’s your step-by-step guide to using the Lightning Knowledge
Migration Tool in orgs with a single article type.
Lightning Knowledge Post-Migration Checklist
After a successful migration, you have the new Knowledge object and are ready to verify and set up key aspects of the new Lightning
Knowledge base.
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Key things to note about the post-migration Lightning Knowledge data structure:
• Record Types —The migration tool maps Classic Knowledge article types to record types and consolidates fields in one Lightning
Knowledge object.
• Files—Files from custom file fields in Classic Knowledge articles are moved to the standard Files object. After migration, view and
attach files in the Files related list.
• Permissions—User profiles are granted new authoring permissions in user profiles or permission sets, and no longer use article
actions with public groups.
Note: Admins must manually assign permissions. Changing from Article Actions with Public Groups to using profile permissions
or permission sets is not part of the migration tool.
Let’s compare Classic Knowledge to Lightning Knowledge:
Authoring Custom Article Management tab Standard Actions (admin can control in page
layout)
Object Home • Article Management tabs Unified standard object home with list views
• Knowledge One
Record Home Custom record home (static) Standard record home (configurable with
page layouts and App Builder)
Sharing Article access by data category Standard Salesforce sharing also available
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As part of the migration plan, we recommend that Knowledge admins become familiar with all the limitations. Before performing
sandbox and production migrations, assess whether these items pertain to your org’s implementation of Knowledge and prepare
accordingly.
The following items do not migrate from Classic into Lightning Knowledge:
Automated Article Feed Posts Article Feed Posts that show article changes (published, edited).
ContentVersion, Physical Delete Due to the nature of ContentBody reuse, if an org performs
an UNDO, the ContentVersion rows must be physically
deleted before migration. Because physical delete runs as a cron
job during off hours, the overall UNDO process can take several
days.
Field Tracking Limits Field histories migrate when field tracking is enabled. If the total
number of fields with tracking enabled across all Article Types
exceeds the limit, you see an error message, and the migration
doesn’t start. To make sure that the total is below the threshold,
remove the tracking on some fields , and retry the migration.
Soft Deleted Records Soft-deleted records are not migrated from Classic.
Undeployed Article Types Undeployed article types are removed during migration. Deploy
article types you need and delete those you don't.
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Item Description
URL Redirect After migration, article URLs in these two standard formats redirect
to the appropriate article in Lightning Knowledge.
• https://mySalesforceDomain/knowledgeArticleId
For example,
https://cunning-bear.com/kA0RM0000004gTt
• https://mySalesforceDomain/articles/xx__XX/articleTypeName/URLname
For example,
https://cunning-bear.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/how-to-create-accounts
Workflow and Approval Processes Approval process history doesn’t migrate to Lightning Knowledge.
Table 29: Metadata That Does Not Migrate from Classic into Lightning Knowledge
Metadata Types Description
Article Type Metadata • CRUD
• Validation rules
• Communications channel mappings
• Field sets
• Compact layouts
• Audit trails
Feed Tracking Feed Tracking does not migrate to Lightning unless an old article
type with feed tracking is enabled.
Customizations based on article types don’t work after migration. In orgs with multiple article types, you must update customizations
to use the new knowledge object. Consider these customizations:
• SOQL that queries the concrete entity name
• Visualforce pages that refer to old article types
• Code that uses field sets
• Apex code that refers to old article types
• Custom code using API calls referencing article types
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Important: The Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool helps you migrate to Lightning Knowledge, but it doesn’t guarantee that
all your data migrates. For instance, corrupt data isn’t migrated, and you might not be aware of which data has minor corruptions.
It’s important to verify the migrated data and assess the results during sandbox testing and production migration. Use the migration
results report to identify which articles or files didn’t migrate, and assess whether the unmigrated data is blocking the migration.
• Although your sandbox org might contain corrupt data, your production org data might not be corrupt, or might have different
corrupt data.
• If a record doesn’t load properly in either the Salesforce Classic or Lightning Knowledge interface, it can be due to data
corruption.
Note:
• You can’t compare the article count from the migration summary page with SOQL results using COUNT(). Because of
limitations with Workbench, SOQL queries using COUNT() don't return the same list of articles, article versions, version
histories, and vote and view statistics.
• In orgs with multiple article types, the size of your knowledge base temporarily doubles during migration. Your File and Data
storage limits are temporarily doubled when migration starts, and reset when you cancel or accept the migration results.
During this period, both the Classic and Lightning Knowledge versions of each article are present in your org.
Now that you’ve learned about the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool, it’s time to plan and sandbox test your migration on page 836.
SEE ALSO:
Sharing Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
Sandbox Testing
Before performing a production migration, perform the migration in a sandbox. We strongly recommend testing in a full-copy sandbox.
There is a high likelihood of data corruption when a partial-copy sandbox is used. The steps to perform a sandbox migration are the
same as a production migration. After planning the migration and reviewing the Pre-Migration Checklist, perform either the Single Article
Type migration or Multiple Article Type migration.
Tip: If you want the option to restore knowledge articles after migration, we recommend creating another dedicated full-copy
sandbox for backup.
Pre-Migration Checklist
Whether you have one or multiple article types in Knowledge, read through the entire checklist before performing the sandbox test.
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Important: Refer to this checklist again when performing your org’s production migration.
Article Types
When migrating from Classic to Lightning Knowledge, article types are mapped to new record types with the same name as the article
types. They map to the API name, not the label name. Perform the following checks before proceeding to migration, and be mindful of
these limitations.
• Deploy undeployed article types that you want to migrate.
• Identify and hard-delete article types that you don’t need.
• Change metadata settings in Knowledge article types in Setup. For example, add an article type, remove an article type, change
settings on an article type, or change profile access to article types.
• Change the Default Article Type setting to None.
Remove the following dependencies. When the migration tool deactivates old article types, these objects might not be deleted, causing
the migration to fail.
• Entities summarized by other entities
• Report jobs referencing a custom entity definition
• Article types referenced by the Agent Contribution setting
• Article types referenced by the Answers Promotion setting
• Custom objects used by matching rules
• Article types used by a duplicate rule
• Managed deletions that point to the article type
• Article types with non-deletable child custom fields from other managed packages
• Article types referred to by other features, such as Apex classes or data flows
Lightning Knowledge enablement is blocked if any packages created in the current org contain an article type. To enable Lightning
Knowledge, remove article types from packages created in the current org.
Page Layouts
To give your users a great layout experience and access to the appropriate fields, adjust the page layouts. You can assign different page
layouts per record type and user profile after the migration. Ensure that they are properly configured during the migration. Before starting
the migration, remove page layouts that you don’t need.
Field Considerations
When mapping fields from multiple article types into one record type, keep these considerations in mind.
• Formula fields don’t migrate. After migration, create formula fields in the Knowledge object, and revise the formulas to reference
the new object.
• Field dependencies don’t migrate. The migration tool migrates the fields. However, it doesn’t migrate their field dependency settings.
• Picklists and multi-select picklists only map if they have the same picklist values, the same deactivated values, or the same global
picklist. You can’t migrate dependent picklists. The picklist options migrate, but the mapping between them doesn’t. You reset these
after migration. Also, default values for picklists and checkboxes don’t migrate to Lightning Knowledge.
Tip: An org can have two picklist fields, A and B. A is the controlling picklist and B is the dependent picklist. The migration
tool migrates both A and B, but they become standalone picklists, and you must redefine their field dependency settings.
• When mapping fields to other fields, choose the target field from a picklist that establishes which one is the primary field.
• If field size is reduced before migration but the articles have more characters than before field size reduction, all the text might show
in Classic. However, after migration, the field size is truncated in the new object. This means that the additional characters don’t
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display. For example, if a field with 500 characters is increased to 1,000 in Classic, there can be 1,000 characters in the field, but only
500 of them display in Lightning.
• Required field flags don’t migrate. Therefore, required fields must be rethought after migration by each org because they all reside
in the same table. It is better to manage required fields through page layouts or validation rules, unless they are truly required for
all records across all record types.
• Migrated fields are named “Article Type_Field Name.” This convention removes field name conflicts.
• Deleted fields (soft-deleted fields that are retained for 30 days) don’t migrate.
Customizations and Managed (or Unmanaged) Packages
Inspect custom elements before and after the migration to ensure that they moved to the new Knowledge object. Sometimes they
break, so prepare to assess this aspect of the org when performing the sandbox migration (before migrating in production). After
migration, adjust custom elements that reference an Article Type to point to the new Knowledge object.
Uninstall all packages that include an article type. If you don’t uninstall those packages, you can’t enable Lightning Knowledge or start
the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool.
The Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool doesn't work for the Developer Edition if you define a namespace for packaging.
Here are a few examples of customizations to consider in your post-migration assessments.
• SOQL that queries the concrete entity name
• Visualforce pages that refer to old article types
• Code that uses field sets
• Apex code that refers to old article types
• Custom code using API calls that references article types
• Customer application logic such as current API code
• AppExchange packages
• Validation Rules
• CRUD (per Article Type)
• Applications that use metadata APIs on field sets or compact layouts
Important: For orgs with multiple article types, update these customizations to reference the new Knowledge object after
migration starts and before selecting Accept. If some data didn’t migrate and you want to pause the migration, update these
customizations to refer to the old article types before selecting Undo. Otherwise, the new knowledge object might not be deleted
after undoing the migration.
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Tip: If you map field A to field B, the first field (A) is no longer an available option. But what if you want to revise your choice? First,
unmap the field selection (A to B). Then, assuming they are the same field type, you can map field A to C instead, or map C and B
to field A. Use only one level of mapping to avoid cascading.
Prepare for Validation—Save or print a few articles in advance so you can compare them afterward and verify a successful migration.
Records Owned by Inactive Users—Knowledge article versions (kav) linked to inactive users can cause problems during migration. To
successfully migrate articles with inactive owners, the org preference Update Records with Inactive Owners must be enabled. If this
setting is disabled in your org, the Migration Tool temporarily enables it during migration. Find the preference in Setup > User Interface.
Case and answer settings
• In Case Settings, under Allow user to create an article from a case, set the default article type to None.
• In Answer Settings, under Allow users to create an article from a reply set the default article type to None.
Warning: Make sure that no changes are made to any Knowledge content during migration. All revised data is lost or damaged.
User and API activity, such as Apex triggers and jobs, can stop migration or lead to corrupted data in some articles and files.
These are a few examples of activities that must stop during migration.
• Editing articles
• Creating articles
• Changing the publishing status of articles
• Changing Knowledge setup, including changes to Data Categories
• API calls that change your Knowledge setup or articles
• Apex triggers that change or create Knowledge articles
• Votes on an article
• Linking to a case
• Linking to a work order or work order item
• Adding feed posts, changing feed posts, or following an article
• Edits to files attached to articles
• Adding topic mappings to articles in Experience Cloud sites
Tip: To stop many of the cited activities during migration, remove Create and Edit rights to Knowledge for user profiles other than
the admin.
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SEE ALSO:
Knowledge Article: Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool
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Note: If you receive an error message after beginning the migration, follow the instructions in the message. Then restart the
migration.
4. Start migration setup. Review the article types and custom fields that are part of the migration.
5. Map the article fields. Mapping is one of the most important steps in the migration. Tab through each article type, and make your
new field selections.
Important: The migration tool creates a placeholder field called “Article Type_Field Name”, where _Field Name matches
the custom field name.
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Tip: If you have fields of the same type that are common across article types, you can consolidate them in the new object.
For example, if multiple article types have a field called Question, you can map all the article types to use the Question field
from one article type to reduce duplication.
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7. After you map the article fields, tab through each Article Type again. Review your field mappings on each tab, and then go to the
next screen.
8. Begin data migration. Follow the on-screen instructions. A confirmation email is sent to you when it’s complete.
Tip: All users with administrative permissions and the Modify All Data permission receive the confirmation and notification
emails.
Warning: If you create an article, update an existing article, or change any related data during data migration, these changes
aren’t migrated.
9. If your migration includes files, you see a screen during migration to set the default visibility. To provide your Experience Cloud users,
such as customers, partners, and guest users, access to files, select All users. File visibility is always restricted to users who can access
the record where it is attached. You can change the visibility for individual files after migration.
10. To view the migration progress, refresh this page as needed. It can take a few minutes to load the data.
When the migration is finished, the Data Migration Summary page appears under Activation.
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Note: Completion time depends on the size of the knowledge base you’re migrating and how many other processes are
running at the same time. Feeds and smart links migrate during the Activation step. If at least one existing article type has
Feed Tracking enabled, Feed Tracking is turned on automatically for the new Knowledge object.
11. You can cancel or continue the migration at this point. At this stage, no manual changes are required, but you might want to verify
the migration by validating the old and new Knowledge article IDs on page 848 before you continue.
12. To finish the activation phase, click Next. In this step, feeds and smart links migrate, the new Knowledge object is activated, and
existing article types are deactivated.
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Important: At this point in the migration, make sure that your internal and external users have only read access to articles
so that they can't make changes to articles. In this step, your org switches to using Lightning Knowledge articles. To grant read
access to Lightning articles, set up permissions for the new Knowledge object.
Note: The feed component and feed posts don't appear immediately after migration. After you activate the new Knowledge
object, the article’s feed component disappears temporarily while the feed posts migrate. Then the feed component reappears.
13. Under Validation, review the Data Migration Summary. In the example, green check marks next to each item indicate 100% migration.
Yellow warning flags (not present in this migration example) appear beside data that didn’t migrate.
14. Validate the results of the Data Migration Summary before you press Cancel or Accept. We strongly recommend that you validate
the article migration before accepting the results.
Warning:
• Do not update the Knowledge object or the existing article types in the Object Manager before accepting or canceling
the migration. If you do, the cancel or accept process stops working.
• Continue working through the validation steps so that you can cancel or accept the migration as soon as possible. An
incomplete migration can mean extra downtime for your users.
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• Metadata setup—In Setup, go to the Object Manager tab, and scroll down the list to locate Knowledge, which indicates that
the migration was successful.
– In the Object Manager navigation bar, select Fields & Relationships. To verify that fields migrated successfully, review the
field labels.
– Verify the migration of the other Knowledge object details by reviewing Page Layouts, Record Types, and other Setup pages.
• Data—A tab named Knowledge is created for the new Knowledge object. On this tab, view and validate the migrated articles.
Tip: We recommend using a selection of pre-existing articles to validate the before-and-after contents.
• In Case Settings, verify that the default article type selected under Allow user to create an article from a case is None.
• In Answer Settings, verify that the default article type selected under Allow users to create an article from a reply is None.
• In the Developer Console, search for references to Article Type objects with the __kav suffix.
a. Click the gear icon in the upper-right, and select Developer Console.
b. Click Edit, and then click Search in Files.
c. In the Search field, enter __kav , and click the magnifying glass icon. This returns all instances of Apex code in your org
that contain a reference to an Article Type object (*__kav).
d. Update code during the validation period after the Migration Tool is run, but before the changes are accepted. If not, your
existing code doesn’t function properly.
• Verify that all old article types have a deployment status of In Development.
• Verify that the Knowledge_kav object has a deployment status of Deployed.
• Your new code must reference the new Knowledge__kav object if the migration tool created that object to migrate multiple
article types. Also, the code must filter SOQL queries by the appropriate record type ID where necessary. Remember that SOQL
queries must filter by record type IDs instead of record type. Record type IDs can be different between sandbox and production,
so include code that looks up the ID of the record type by object. Ideally, put this in a reusable utility class.
15. Verify the migrated articles on page 847 by comparing the old and new articles in the browser. Use Workbench to query for the new
and old IDs.
16. After you validate the results in the Data Migration Summary and find them satisfactory, you can either cancel the migration or
accept it and continue.
• Cancel the migration. To undo the migration, you can cancel it while you investigate any data that did not migrate. Canceling
the migration restores the Classic knowledge base with article types and file fields and removes the new Knowledge object
created during the migration.
To cancel the migration, return to the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool and click Cancel.
When restoration is complete, try the migration again. The time it takes to cancel the migration depends on the size of your
knowledge base and how many other processes are running. It can take several days or longer.
When you cancel, make sure no components reference the new Knowledge object Knowledge__kav. Review the validation
checklist in step 14 for which components could be referencing the object. If canceling doesn’t delete the Knowledge__kav
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Service Cloud Build Your Knowledge Base in Lightning Experience
object, you receive an email with instructions on how to manually delete the object. When the new object is successfully deleted,
the cancellation process automatically resumes.
• Accept the migration. You performed the validation steps and are satisfied with the migration results. Accepting the migration
enables your new Lightning Knowledge org. It deletes the old article types and Classic versions of the articles, including versions
that weren’t migrated. After you accept the migration, you can’t undo it.
If migration validation is successful, return to the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool, and click Accept.
Tip: After you accept the migration, the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool no longer appears in Setup.
IN THIS SECTION:
Verify Migrated Articles in Multiple Article Type Orgs
During Lightning Migration for Multiple Article Type orgs, each knowledge article is given a new ID when it becomes part of the
standard Knowledge object. Use the old and new IDs to look at articles and verify that their contents and metadata have migrated
properly. We recommend that Multiple Article Type orgs verify articles during the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool’s Activation
and Validation stages.
To see all versions of a published article in Salesforce Classic, go to Article Management >
Published Articles, and open an article. In Article Properties, click the Version hyperlink. In the Version History window, choose the
version that you want to verify.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Verify Migrated Articles in the Activation Stage
Verify articles during migration from Salesforce Classic to Lightning Knowledge. Verification steps are recommended for orgs with
multiple article types.
Verify Migrated Articles in the Validation Stage
After verifying the articles in the Activation stage, verify the articles again during the Validation stage of the Lightning Knowledge
Migration Tool. During this stage, you verify the articles in Lightning Experience.
USER PERMISSIONS
To view articles:
• View All on Knowledge
To use the Lightning
Knowledge Migration Tool:
• Knowledge User
AND
Customize Application
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a. If you’re using the known ID for the old article type, query the KnowledgeArticle object (1) to find the new article ID in the
MigratedToFromArticle column (2).
a. If you’re using the new ID for the new Knowledge object, query the KnowledgeArticle object (1) to find the old article ID in the
ID column (2).
SELECT id , MigratedToFromArticle FROM KnowledgeArticle WHERE MigratedToFromArticle
= ‘kA3R00000004JwnKAE’
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4. Open two browser windows, and log in to your org in each window. Go to the home page in Salesforce Classic.
5. Verify articles side by side. For each page and URL you want to verify, use the old article ID in one window, and the new article ID in
the other. Verify that both browsers show the same article, contents, and data.
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Article previews
Knowledge tab
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Important: Verifying feeds and verifying articles using URL redirect isn’t possible in this stage. Continue to the Validation
stage of migration before verifying feeds and redirects.
USER PERMISSIONS
To view articles:
• View All on Knowledge
AND
Knowledge User
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2. In Salesforce Classic, on the Article Management or Knowledge tab, open the article you want to verify.
a. Locate the new knowledge article ID in the URL. For instance, if your article URL is
yourSalesforceDomain/knowledge/publishing/articleOnlineDetail.apexp?id=kA3R00000004Jwu&lang=en_US,
the ID is kA3R00000004Jwu.
b. Tip: If you created a list of article ID mappings during the Activation stage or you already have the old ID that corresponds
to the new article, you can skip this step.
To find the old ID, log in to Workbench with your org credentials at workbench.developerforce.com.
The following query on the KnowledgeArticle object returns the old ID.
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c. Overwrite the ID in the URL with the corresponding ID from the old knowledge base version.
For example, change the URL
yourSalesforceDomain/knowledge/publishing/articleOnlineDetail.apexp?id=NewArticleID
to
yourSalesforceDomain/knowledge/publishing/articleOnlineDetail.apexp?id=OldArticleID
d. To see the pre-migration article, refresh the page. The Type field shows the old article type, not Knowledge.
3. Open the same article in Lightning Experience. In a new browser window, log in to your org and switch to Lightning Experience.
a. From the App Launcher, find and open the Knowledge tab.
b. Open the article with the same name as the one in your other browser window.
Tip: You might need to switch to a different list view, like Published Articles or Draft Articles, to find the article.
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Note: Page layouts differ between the old and new knowledge bases, so the fields might not match exactly. If you don’t see
related lists, standard fields, or custom fields, verify that they are on the page layout in Lightning Knowledge.
To modify the layout, go to Setup > Object Manager > Knowledge > Page Layouts and edit the appropriate layout for
the article’s record type. Drag files, cases, or work orders to the Related Lists section, make other desired changes, and save.
Item Notes
Details Section: Title, URL name, Smart Links, custom fields File fields in the old article don’t appear in Lightning Knowledge.
For the new article, files appear in the Files related list.
Related lists: cases, work orders, promoted search terms, files Verify that the appropriate records and files appear in related
lists like files, cases, and work orders.
Feeds Feeds migrate completely to the new object, so you don’t see
feeds in the old article after migration.
Verify the following feed items in new articles: posts, comments,
attachments, mentions, topics, and likes. If you subscribed to the
article before migration, you also see Following.
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Item Notes
Smart Links From an old article, Smart Links go to the old version of the linked
article. While viewing an article with the Lightning Knowledge
ID, clicking Smart Links directs you to the new version of the
article.
URL redirects A redirect URL using the old ID, either the KnowledgeArticle (ka)
ID or the KnowledgeArticleVersion (kav) ID opens the new article.
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Note: If you receive an error message after beginning the migration, follow the instructions in the message, and then restart
the migration.
Warning: You can’t change record types on articles with translations after migration. If you don’t assign a record type now,
you can’t later add a record type to existing translation records.
5. Begin migration. Follow the on-screen instructions. Completion time depends on the size of your knowledge base and how many
other processes are running at the same time.
Important: You can’t undo the migration or disable Lightning Knowledge after you start the migration. After you migrate,
the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool is no longer available in Setup.
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6. (Optional) If your migration includes files, you see a screen during migration to set the default visibility. To provide your Experience
Cloud site users, such as customers, partners, and guest users, access to files, select All users. File visibility is always restricted to
users who can access the record where it is attached. You can change the visibility for individual files after migration.
Note: If your migration includes files, you receive a confirmation email when the migration is complete, and a report is created
to show the outcome of the file migration. All users with administrative permission and the Modify All Data permission receive
the confirmation email.
Look for the report file named LightningKnowledgeMigrationResultTimestamp.txt in the standard Files
tab. The admin who started the migration owns the report file. If everything migrated, the report shows a success message.
The report also lists articles with files that failed to migrate.
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• (Optional) Set up validation rules to prevent certain users or user profiles from modifying articles of certain record types. Such
restrictions don’t allow users to save their changes if the validation conditions aren’t met.
• Set up approval processes that check the record type and user and either route or reject according to your business rules.
SEE ALSO:
Knowledge Article: Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool
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Note: If Knowledge in Salesforce Classic is already enabled in your org, use the Lightning Available in: Lightning
Knowledge Migration Tool instead of enabling Knowledge here. Experience
1. From Setup, enter Knowledge in the Quick Find box and click Knowledge Settings. Salesforce Knowledge is
2. On the Knowledge Settings page, click Edit. available in Essentials and
Unlimited Editions with
3. Select Enable Lightning Knowledge. Service Cloud.
Note: To enable Lightning Knowledge, you must have one article type. After you enable Salesforce Knowledge is
Lightning Knowledge, you can’t disable it. available for an additional
cost in: Professional,
4. Enable any other Knowledge settings that you want. Enterprise, Performance,
5. Click Save. and Developer Editions. For
more information, contact
After Lightning Knowledge is enabled, Knowledge appears in the Object Manager. This is where your Salesforce
you control your Lightning Knowledge settings and page layouts. representative.
Whenever you change the name and API name of your Knowledge Base in Object Manager, we
recommend that you do a hard refresh of your browser to avoid server errors. Changing the
USER PERMISSIONS
knowledge base name also affects customizations, Apex, and SOQL queries.
To view Knowledge Settings
Important: Enabling Lightning Knowledge changes your Org's data model to use record
in Setup:
types rather than article types. Orgs with multiple articles types require data migration to
• Knowledge User license
consolidate article types before enabling Lightning Knowledge. Remember, after you enable
Lightning Knowledge, you can't disable it. Test in a Sandbox or Trial org before enabling in
production.
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Read and search draft knowledge articles Allow View Knowledge, View Draft Articles Read
Read and search archived knowledge Allow View Knowledge, View Archived Read
articles Articles
Attach published articles to cases and search Allow View Knowledge Read on Knowledge, Read and Edit on Case
articles
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Publish articles Manage Articles, Publish Articles Create, Read, Edit, Delete
Archive articles Manage Articles, Archive Articles Create, Read, Edit, Delete
Restore archived articles Manage Articles, Archive Articles Create, Read, Edit
Submit articles for translation Manage Articles, Article Translation–Submit Create, Read, Edit
for Translation
Publish translations Manage Articles, Article Translation–Publish Create, Read, Edit, Delete
Import articles Manage Salesforce Knowledge, Manage Create, Read, Edit, Delete
Articles, Manage Knowledge Article
Import/Export
Import and export articles for translation Manage Salesforce Knowledge, Manage Create, Read, Edit, Delete
Articles, Manage Article Import/Export
SEE ALSO:
When Are Lightning Authoring Actions Available?
Classic Knowledge User Access
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Translation Switcher
Give translators and administrators an easy way to switch between draft and published versions of an article in all languages.
SEE ALSO:
Page Layouts in Lightning Experience
Page Layout Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
Authoring Actions in Lightning Knowledge
Work with Data Categories
Salesforce Knowledge Article Versions
List View Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
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SEE ALSO:
Page Layouts in Lightning Experience
Customize Page Layouts with the Enhanced Page Layout Editor
Lightning Knowledge Home and Record Pages
Authoring Actions in Lightning Knowledge
Set Up Master Article and Translation Side-By-Side View
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To ensure that you are a Salesforce Knowledge user, from your personal settings, enter Personal Salesforce Knowledge is
in the Quick Find box, then select Personal Information. The Knowledge User checkbox is in the available in the Unlimited
second column of the User Detail section. Edition with Service Cloud.
To enable Salesforce Knowledge, from Setup, enter Knowledge in the Quick Find box, then Salesforce Knowledge is
select Knowledge Settings. Confirm that you want to enable Salesforce Knowledge and click available for an additional
Enable Knowledge. If your org doesn’t have an article type, a default article type is created. cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Note: If you enabled Knowledge before Spring ’16 you must create an article type first. After
and Developer Editions. For
the Spring ‘16 release, you no longer need to create an article type first. more information, contact
your Salesforce
IN THIS SECTION: representative.
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SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
Salesforce Knowledge Guide (Classic)
Do you need to categorize your information? Work with Data Categories, Data Category
Visibility
Do you need to enhance search? Improve the Article Search Experience, Enable
Topics for Articles, Enable Suggested Articles to
Solve Cases
Do you have an existing Knowledge base or Import External Content into Salesforce
documentation that you need to import? Knowledge
Are you supporting more than one language? Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base
Do you need to share your knowledge base Give Customers Access to Your Knowledge Base
externally? Through Help Center
Do you need guidelines, resources, and current Salesforce Knowledge is "KCS Verified" by the
discussions on the evolving world of knowledge Consortium for Service Innovation, which
base orientated service? recognizes best practices in customer support
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Consider the following tips when planning and using Salesforce Knowledge:
• Create synonym groups in Salesforce Knowledge. Synonyms are words or phrases that are treated as equivalent in article searches,
letting you optimize search results.
• Before setting up data categories, carefully plan your category groups and their hierarchies. Also, consider how your category hierarchy
maps to your role hierarchy. For more information, see Data Category Visibility.
• Create custom reports on your Salesforce Knowledge data. You can also install the Knowledge Base Dashboards and Reports app from
the AppExchange to receive over two dozen helpful reports.
• Multiple agents can edit the same article at the same time. If that occurs, your changes can be overwritten by a colleague without
warning, even if you save your work frequently. To avoid accidental data loss, instruct all users who edit articles to edit only the
articles they're assigned.
• Review your usage regularly to avoid storage shortages: from Setup, enter Storage Usage in the Quick Find box, then
select Storage Usage.
• Public knowledge base users cannot rate articles.
• The File custom field type allows agents to attach documents to articles.
• You will lose your data if you convert a custom field on an article type into any other field type. Do not convert custom fields unless
no data exists for the field.
• When renaming Salesforce Knowledge labels note that standard field names, like title and type, are fixed. These fields do not change
the labels on the article create and edit pages. If the organization is set to another language, these fields remain in the fixed label
for that language.
• The Salesforce Knowledge search engine supports lemmatization, which is the process of reducing a word to its root form. With
lemmatization, a search can match expanded forms of a search term. For example, a search for running matches items that
contain run, running, and ran.
• Make sure that you have a clear understanding of the type of articles your organization needs, and how agents interact with these
article types. This determines the article type permissions and article actions that you need to assign to Salesforce Knowledge users,
which you can then use to create the set of profiles or permission sets required by your organization. For more information, see
Classic Knowledge User Access on page 880.
• Determine if you need to create workflow rules for some of your article types. For example, you can create a rule that sends an email
to an article manager when an agent creates an article upon closing a case.
• Determine if you need to create approval processes for some of your article types. For example, if you have a type of article that must
have legal and management approval before it can be published externally, create an approval process for the article type.
Note: Salesforce won’t extend an allocation to match that of an edition with a higher limit.
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The default maximum number of total versions per org is 10 million for all editions. Limits on versions retained per article don’t include
versions linked to objects such as cases, work items, and undeletable lookup fields. So, for example, an article might have 25 versions,
even if the default limit is 10 versions per article, if 15 of those versions are linked to cases. However, versions attached to objects such
as cases count towards the total number of versions per org.
SEE ALSO:
Build Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
Knowledge Scalability
Salesforce Knowledge Guide (Classic)
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SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Field Description
Platform API. In managed packages, this unique name prevents
naming conflicts on package installations. The Object Name field
can contain only underscores and alphanumeric characters. It
must be unique, begin with a letter, not include spaces, not end
with an underscore, and not contain two consecutive
underscores.
Track Field History Select this option to track the full history of an article and its
versions. The system records and displays field updates,
publishing workflow events, and language versions for the master
article and any translations.
Deployment Status Indicates whether the article type is visible outside Setup. In
Development means that article managers can’t choose this
article type when creating articles. Only select Deployed after
you are done creating the article type.
4. Click Save.
On the article type detail page,
• In the Fields related list, create or modify custom fields as needed.
• In the Fields related list, edit the article-type layout as needed to rearrange fields and create sections.
• In the Channel Displays related list, choose a template for the Internal App, Partner, Customer, and Public Knowledge Base.
SEE ALSO:
Add Custom Fields to Article Types
Article Type Page Layouts
Knowledge Article Types
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Note: The Article Number, Summary, Title, and URL Name standard fields
do not display in the layout. Article Number and Summary appear in a read-only
Properties section at the top of the published article. Also included in this header are the
First Published, Last Modified, and Last Published fields.
Task Description
Add a section Drag and drop the section element into the palette.
Change the name of a section Click its title. You cannot rename the Information section.
Remove a field from a section Drag it to the right side of the palette or click the icon next
to the field.
Remove a section from the article-type layout Click the icon next to the section name.
Save your changes and continue editing the article type layout Click Quick Save.
Tip:
• Use the undo and redo buttons to step backwards and forwards, respectively.
• Use the following keyboard shortcuts:
– Undo = CTRL+Z
– Redo = CTRL+Y
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• To select multiple elements individually, use CTRL+click. To select multiple elements as a group, use SHIFT+click.
• To quickly locate any item in the palette, use the Quick Find box. The Quick Find box is especially useful for article-type
layouts that have large numbers of items available in the palette.
5. To assign various layouts to the article type based on a user profile, click Page Layout Assignments.
6. Click Edit Assignment.
7. Select the profile, or profiles (using SHIFT), you want to change and select the layout from the Page Layout To Use dropdown.
When creating multiple article type page layouts, consider the following limitations and functionality changes.
• When creating page layouts, some fields are hidden based on the agent’s license. Out of Date, Translation Completed Date, and
Translation Exported Date are hidden from users who do not have a Knowledge User license or who are customer portal or partner
portal users. In addition, Archived By and Is Latest Version are hidden from customer portal and partner portal users.
• Before Spring ‘16, preview pages showed the Summary field in the API that contained text values, even if they were not in the page
layout. To continue displaying summary fields on preview pages, manually update your page layouts to include them.
• If you want to attach articles as PDFs to emails when solving cases, add File Attachments to the Selected Email Tools
in the Feed View for the article type layout.
• The article edit page only shows the standard fields (Article Number, Title, URL Name, and Summary) and all the custom fields added
to the layout, including the side bar fields. Other standard fields added on the page layout are ignored because they are not editable,
and the custom fields are displayed in the order specified in the page layout.
• If an article type page layout doesn’t include a field with a validation rule, you can’t create or edit an article of that article type. Make
sure all page layouts assigned to the article type by profile include all fields with validation rules.
• The Communication channel layout doesn’t use the page layout to determine which Article fields are inserted into a case email. The
fields that are inserted include the fields selected in the Communication Channel mapping.
• You can set up a specific profile to generate a PDF file. When sending articles as PDFs, the pdf is generated based on the sender’s
profile. Therefore, the receiver might get fields they are not meant to see. Use the Use a profile to create
customer-ready article PDFs on cases setting on the Knowledge settings page so the fields in PDFs come from
the page layout assigned to the configured profile. Also, Field Level Security of both the sender profile and the configured profile
are applied.
SEE ALSO:
Create Article Types
Knowledge Article Types
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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6. Enter any field attributes, such as Description, and click Next to continue. USER PERMISSIONS
Note: You cannot enter a default value for any custom field. To create or change custom
fields:
7. Set the field-level security to determine whether the field is visible and editable or read only • Customize Application
for specific profiles, and click Next. Field-level security allows you to control which fields are AND
visible in different channels. Manage Salesforce
8. If you do not want the field to be added automatically to the article-type layout, uncheck Yes, Knowledge
add this custom field to the layout.
9. Click Save to finish or Save & New to create more custom fields.
10. Optionally rearrange your custom fields on the article-type layout.
Note: Creating fields can require changing many records at once. To process these changes efficiently, Salesforce might queue
your request and send an email notification when the process has completed.
Warning: You lose your data if you convert a custom field on an article type into any other field type. Do not convert a custom
field on an article type unless no data exists for the field.
SEE ALSO:
Create Article Types
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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</apex:page>
Note: Click Component Reference for a list of the Visualforce components, such as
knowledge:articleRendererToolbar and knowledge:articleCaseToolbar, available for use in custom
article-type templates.
8. If your article type has a File field, you can allow users to download the field's content.
In the following example, the article type is Offer, the name of the File field is my_file, and the text that appears as a link is
Click me:
<apex:outputLink value="{!URLFOR($Action.Offer__kav.FileFieldDownload,
Offer__kav.id, ['field'=$ObjectType.Offer__kav.fields.my_file__Body__s.name])}">Click
me</apex:outputLink>
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Note: If the File field is empty (meaning the author didn't upload a file), the link still appears on the published article but has
no function. If you do not want the link to appear when the File field is empty, replace Click me in the example with the
name of the file. For example, {!Offer__kav.my_file__Name__s}.
9. Click Save.
Your custom template can now be assigned to any channel on the article type.
10. From Setup, enter Knowledge Article Types in the Quick Find box, then select Knowledge Article Types
11. Click an article type name.
12. For each channel, specify the template.
• For Internal App, Customer and Partner, Tab is the default template.
• For Public Knowledge Base, Table of Contents is the default template.
• If you created a custom template for this article type, it also appears in the dropdown menu.
Example: If you choose the Tab template, the sections you defined in the layout appear as tabs when users view an article.
If you choose the Table of Contents template, the sections you defined in the layout appear on one page with hyperlinks to each
section title.
.
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SEE ALSO:
Knowledge Article Types
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
Set Visualforce Page Security from Profiles
Knowledge Article: Make Visualforce pages visible to users
SEE ALSO:
Knowledge Article Types
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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To create articles from cases using the simple “Read” and “Create” on the article type
editor:
To create articles from cases using the standard “Manage Articles” (This permission is on by
editor: default in the System Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read” and “Create” on the article type
To search articles from cases and attach articles “Read” on the article type
to cases:
To create articles from answers: “Read” and “Create” on the article type
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To create or edit articles from the Article Management tab: “Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, and “Edit” on the article type
To edit draft articles from the Article Management tab: “Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read” and “Edit” on the article type
To delete articles from the Article Management tab: “Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on the article type
AND
A delete article action, set on the Article Actions Setup page.
To publish articles from the Article Management tab: “Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on the article type
AND
A publish article action, set on Article Actions Setup page
To assign articles for the Article Management tab: “Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read” and “Edit” on the article type
To edit published or archived articles: “Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, and “Edit” on the article type
AND
A publish or archive article action, set on the Article Actions Setup
page
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To submit articles for translation: “Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, and “Edit” on the article type
AND
A translate article action, set on the Article Actions Setup page
To delete translated articles: “Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on the article type
AND
A delete article action, set on the Article Actions Setup page
To publish translated articles: “Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on the article type
AND
A publish article action, set on the Article Actions Setup page
To edit translated articles: “Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, and “Edit” on the article type
AND
A translate article action, set on the Article Actions Setup page
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To import and export translated articles: “Manage Salesforce Knowledge” (This permission is on by default
in the System Administrator profile.)
AND
“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Manage Knowledge Article Import/Export” (This permission is on
by default in the System Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on the article type
To enable agents to perform their specific tasks, create public groups for each role and assign only the necessary article actions to those
groups.
Example: Your Salesforce Knowledge agents are a mixture of different levels of job experience and expertise in the products and
services your company offers. These examples outline four basic types of users and some of the permissions they need to perform
their jobs.
Scott: The Reader
Scott Jackson is relatively new to the company, so he’s a basic agent of the knowledge base. Currently, he has read-only access
to articles, so he can search and view articles. Readers don’t author or publish, so he won’t belong to a public group or need
to submit articles for approval. He needs the following permissions to perform his job.
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Amber is part of the KCS Candidate public group and submits the articles she can’t publish to the Publishing External queue.
She needs the following permissions to perform her job duties.
Note: In Salesforce Classic, if you don't have the "Manage Articles" permission, you don't see draft articles. However,
you can still approve draft articles by going to the Knowledge approval page.
Anne is a member of the Contributor public group and she needs the following permissions to perform her job duties.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Create Public Groups for Knowledge
Salesforce Knowledge uses public groups as a way to assign users to specific tasks related to articles. When you assign article actions
to a public group, you can grant users in that group the ability to do things like publish articles with a specified validation status.
Public groups are also used in approval processes to manage the publishing workflow.
Assign Article Actions to Public Groups
Article actions allow agents to participate in the article publishing process. By default, all article actions are assigned to users with
the “Manage Articles” user permission. Agents can complete an action as long as they have the correct article type permission. You
can control article action access by assigning public groups to article actions and adding agents the relevant public groups. To further
restrict actions like publishing, you can create approval processes that allow agents to publish only those articles that have specific
validation statuses. For example, many contributors can write many articles but you can create an approval process so no articles
are published until they are reviewed and validated by a qualified author.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Build Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
Grant Access Using Select Grant Access Using Hierarchies to allow USER PERMISSIONS
Hierarchies (public groups automatic access to records using your role hierarchies.
only) When selected, any records shared with users in this To create or edit a public
group are also shared with users higher in the hierarchy. group:
• Manage Users
Deselect Grant Access Using Hierarchies if you’re
To create or edit another
creating a public group with All Internal Users as
user’s personal group:
members, which optimizes performance for sharing
• Manage Users
records with groups.
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Selected Members Select members from the Available Members box, and click Add to add them
to the group.
Selected Delegated Groups In this list, specify any delegated administration groups whose members can
add or remove members from this public group. Select groups from the
Available Delegated Groups box, and then click Add. This list appears only
in public groups.
4. Click Save.
Note: When you edit groups, sharing rules are automatically reevaluated to add or remove access as needed. If these changes
affect too many records at once, a message appears warning that the sharing rules aren’t automatically reevaluated, and you
must manually recalculate them.
Now assign only the necessary actions to your groups so the selected members can perform their tasks while keeping the integrity of
your knowledge base.
SEE ALSO:
Create Workflow Actions for Knowledge
Assign Article Actions to Public Groups
Classic Knowledge User Access
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
Archive Articles
Delete Articles
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Service Cloud Build Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
Edit Translation
1. From Setup, enter Knowledge Article Actions in the Quick Find box, then select Knowledge Article Actions.
2. Click Edit.
3. For the action you want to assign, select the appropriate radio button and choose a public group.
If you don't modify an article action, all agents with the “Manage Articles” permission can perform that action.
Note: Article action assignments are ignored when updating an article through SOQL.
SEE ALSO:
Create Public Groups for Knowledge
Create Workflow Actions for Knowledge
Classic Knowledge User Access
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Tip: If you can’t see the Knowledge One sidebar, increase its width to 250 (height to 150) in the page layout. These are the
minimum measurements for the Knowledge One sidebar to display properly.
IN THIS SECTION:
Enable Knowledge One with Permission Sets
To switch users from the Articles tab to the Knowledge tab, add the Knowledge One permission to their permission sets.
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SEE ALSO:
Compare Article Widgets for Cases at a Glance
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Article Widget
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SEE ALSO:
Set Up the Knowledge One Widget
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Build Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
The Knowledge tab merges functionality of the old Articles tab and the Article Management tab and uses federated search to search all
your resources at once. On the Knowledge tab, you can:
• Search all your Salesforce Knowledge articles and any of your external data sources, such as Microsoft® SharePoint®.
• Filter articles by language and data categories.
• Sort articles by published date, rating, most viewed, and title.
• Use the Create Article drop-down to select an article type and create an article.
• Use the dropdown by each article to follow or unfollow, edit, publish, and delete an article, depending on your permissions.
Note: For information on article permissions see Classic Knowledge User Access on page 880.
Also, when you use case feed, the Knowledge tab layout is applied to the article sidebar.
Note: Experience Cloud site members without the Knowledge One permission cannot access Knowledge through Experience
Cloud sites. They also can’t access Knowledge in Experience Cloud sites via Salesforce for Android or Salesforce for iOS.
To switch to the Knowledge One and the Knowledge tab, have your administrator add the Knowledge One permission to your
profile or permission set.
The Articles tab
If the search bar is in the left-side panel of the page you are using the Articles tab.
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Service Cloud Build Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
The Articles tab presents a list of your Salesforce Knowledge published articles. On the Articles tab, you can:
• Search for published articles
• View published articles
• Create an article
• Customize how the article information is displayed
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Build Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
7. In the Apex Class text box enter the following script and click Save:
public class AgentContributionArticleController {
// The constructor must take a ApexPages.KnowledgeArticleVersionStandardController
as an argument
public
AgentContributionArticleController(ApexPages.KnowledgeArticleVersionStandardController
ctl) {
SObject article = ctl.getRecord(); //this is the SObject for the new article.
String sourceId = ctl.getSourceId(); //this returns the id of the case that was
closed.
Case c = [select subject, description from Case where id=:sourceId];
8. From Setup, enter Knowledge Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Knowledge Settings and click Edit.
9. Verify the case settings; using our example, the Default article type should be FAQ.
10. From the Use Apex Customization menu, select AgentContributionArticleController and click Save.
As a result of this example, when agents create an article from the case-close screen:
• The data from the Description field on the case appears in the Details field of the article.
• The title of the article contains From Case: and the case subject.
• The article is automatically assigned to the USA data category and the Maintenance data category.
SEE ALSO:
Build Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Build Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
Salesforce Knowledge is
available in Essentials and
Unlimited Editions with
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is
available for an additional
cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
and Developer Editions. For
more information, contact
your Salesforce
representative.
USER PERMISSIONS
To edit published or
archived articles:
• Manage Articles
AND
Create, Read, and Edit
on the article type
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
</iframe>
</apex:page>
Then, with the HTML editor, authors can reference videos using this code:
<iframe frameborder="0" height="315"
src="https://<salesforce_instance>/apex/Video?videoID=12345"
width="560">
</iframe>
SEE ALSO:
Build Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
Salesforce Knowledge Guide (Classic)
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
Knowledge Settings
From the Knowledge Settings page, you can start creating a knowledge base experience for your
EDITIONS
support agents, partners, and customers.
To set up or edit your knowledge base, from Setup, enter Knowledge Settings in the Quick Available in: Salesforce
Find box, select Knowledge Settings, then click Edit. Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Feature or Option Description
Salesforce Knowledge is
General Settings available in the Unlimited
Edition with Service Cloud.
Allow agents to create and edit articles from the Enables agents to edit articles without going to
Article or Knowledge tab the Article Management tab. Agents can click Salesforce Knowledge is
Edit to open the article edit page. If a published available for an additional
version of the article exists, they can view the cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
published version or edit the current version. If
and Developer Editions. For
a draft version exists, they can continue with
more information, contact
editing the existing draft, but must carefully
your Salesforce
review the draft so that they don’t overwrite
representative.
unpublished changes. This setting applies to
Knowledge only in Salesforce Classic.
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
Allow agents to add external multimedia content to HTML in the Allows <iframe> elements in the standard editor to embed
standard editor multimedia content from the Dailymotion, Vimeo, and YouTube
websites. Agents can simply cut and paste <iframe> HTML into
the editor.
Enable Lightning Knowledge Enables Lightning Knowledge. After you enable Lightning
Knowledge, you can’t disable it.
Article Summaries
Show article summaries in article list views For each channel, decide whether an article's summary details
display beneath the article’s title in search results.
Knowledge One
Switch from the Articles tab to the Knowledge tab Enable Knowledge One with Profiles
Enable Knowledge One with Permission Sets
Suggest related articles on cases Search on the Knowledge tab suggests articles based on their
content similarity and their links to similar cases. If no articles are
linked to similar cases, suggested articles have similar titles as the
case or have keywords in common with admin-selected case fields.
Suggested articles are available in the Salesforce Console for Service
and your portals when viewing existing cases and creating ones.
Finally, if the suggested articles aren't suitable, the user working
the case initiates a search with specific keywords, which can result
in different articles.
Highlight relevant article text within search results Search on the Knowledge tab generates a snippet of the relevant
article text with the search terms bolded. See Search Highlights
and Snippets.
Auto-complete keyword search Search on the Knowledge tab suggests the three most popular
keyword searches performed on the Knowledge tab. Suggestions
are based on the channel (internal, customer, partner, or public)
the reader is searching.
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
Auto-complete title search Search on the Knowledge tab suggests up to three articles with
matching titles.
Language Settings
Default Knowledge Base Language The primary language used for writing articles. It defaults to your
organization's language. We recommend that your Default
Knowledge Base Language and your organization's language are
the same.
Single or Multiple Language If you support more than one language, select Multiple
Languages and choose the translation settings. For instructions,
see Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base.
Case Settings
Allow agents to create an article from a case This setting applies to Knowledge only in Salesforce Classic. When
this option is selected, agents can create a draft article that is
attached to the case when the article is published using one of the
following options.
• Create articles using the simple editor only when closing cases.
• Create articles using the standard editor any time an agent
creates an article. Make sure that users have Manage Articles,
Read, and Create permissions. Designate the following:
– The default article type from the dropdown list.
– For articles created when closing a case, assign the article
to a user.
– Help agents create articles fast by selecting an Apex class
that pre-populates fields on the draft. By default, the Title
field in all draft articles contains the case subject.
Use a profile to create article PDFs By default, when a user creates an article PDF directly from a case,
the PDF includes all the article fields visible to that user. If you want
PDFs generated according to a different profile, for example, a
profile that hides certain fields from customers, select Use a profile
to create customer-ready article PDFs on cases, and choose
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
Enable list of cases linked to an article Agents and Salesforce Knowledge managers can see a list of cases
an article is attached to. This helps validate if the article is the right
solution for a case and shows which articles are used most, without
running a report. The Linked Cases related list:
• Is visible on the detail or preview page of any article that has
been published at least once.
• Shows a maximum of 200 cases.
• Is sorted in descending order by the date the article was linked
to the case. The sort order can’t be changed.
• Doesn’t appear on archived articles or a translation’s edit and
detail pages.
• Doesn’t appear for external users such as portal or Experience
Cloud users or on the Salesforce app.
Allow agents to share articles via public URLs You can share an article that is available on a public knowledge
base with a URL. In the Available Sites list, select the sites you want
to allow your agents to send URLs from and add them to the
Selected Sites list. Agents can then email customer service clients
with a URL to link directly to the article in your public knowledge
base.
Answers Settings
Allow agents to create an article from a reply When this option is selected, members of an answers site or Chatter
Answers site can convert helpful replies into articles. The article
type you select determines which fields appear on the draft article.
However, on all articles the Title contains the question and the
Summary contains the reply. After a reply is promoted to an article,
the original reply has a status message indicating its association
with the draft article. When the article is published, the message
on the reply includes a link to the article.
Display relevant articles as users ask questions in Chatter (also Shows similar questions and relevant Salesforce Knowledge articles
applies to Experience Cloud sites with Chatter) when a user enters a question in the Search field.
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
SEE ALSO:
Build Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
Knowledge Article Types
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
Knowledge Scalability
Every Salesforce Knowledge article can have several versions: one draft, one published, and several
EDITIONS
archived versions, and each of these versions can have multiple translations. Thus, the total number
of article versions in an org can be much higher than the number of articles. When scaling your org, Available in: All Editions
pay attention to both the total number of article versions and edition-specific limits on articles.
Each Salesforce edition has its own limits on Knowledge articles, versions, and language translations.
Also, all editions share a maximum limit of total article versions allowed. Keep all of these limits in mind when scaling your org.
The total number of Knowledge articles in an org is calculated as follows.
Total # of versions = (# of articles) x (# of retained1 versions per article) x (# of translations per version)
For example, if you have 100,000 articles, each with a total of 5 versions (1 draft, 1 published, 3 archived), and 5 translations of each of
those versions, you have 2,500,000 total article versions.
So in calculating your capacity needs, and determining which edition you need, think versions. Do you have a multilingual customer
base with lots of translations? Do you have a rigorous editing process with many drafts? Do you keep archived versions of articles around
for a long time?
Note: Salesforce won’t extend an allocation to match that of an edition with a higher limit.
1
“Retained” articles can include not just versions you’ve created, but versions attached to other objects, such as cases or work items.
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
The default maximum number of total versions per org is 10 million for all editions. Limits on versions retained per article don’t include
versions linked to objects such as cases, work items, and undeletable lookup fields. So, for example, an article might have 25 versions,
even if the default limit is 10 versions per article, if 15 of those versions are linked to cases. However, versions attached to objects such
as cases count towards the total number of versions per org.
The total number of versions in the org is listed under “Knowledge Versions.” The number of articles in the org is listed under “Knowledge.”
SEE ALSO:
Plan Your Knowledge Base in Lightning Experience
Plan Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
Data and File Storage Allocations
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
• If an article type page layout doesn’t include a field with a validation rule, you can’t create or
edit an article of that article type. Make sure all page layouts assigned to the article type by
profile include all fields with validation rules.
• The Article Currency field and the VLOOKUP function don’t support validation rules.
• When importing articles, if the import data file has a valid article with an invalid translation, the translation is created, but its translated
content isn’t imported.
• Only the first validation rule error displays at the top of the page and in the import article log. If multiple errors exist but are not fixed,
they are displayed on subsequent saves or imports.
• In the API, KA fields, such as Case Association Count and Archived Date, don’t support validation rules. Only KAV (article version)
fields are supported in validation rules.
SEE ALSO:
Knowledge Article Types
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
To create or change
validation status picklist
values:
• Customize Application
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
2. Click Edit and move any category groups that you don't want available for articles from the Salesforce Knowledge is
Selected Category Groups list to the Available Category Groups list. available in Essentials and
Later, you can choose to make a hidden category group visible. Unlimited Editions with
Service Cloud.
Note: The order of category groups is not preserved from the edit page to the data
Salesforce Knowledge is
category assignment page.
available for an additional
3. Click Save. cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
You receive an email after the save process completes. Authors can now assign categories in
and Developer Editions. For
the selected groups to articles on the Article Management tab. Authors can only access categories
more information, contact
if the category group is active and the author's data category visibility settings provide access your Salesforce
to the category. representative.
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
5. Enter a rule name. Optionally, enter a description for the rule. To create or change
workflow rules and approval
6. Select the evaluation criteria, and choose how criteria are met. processes:
7. Enter criteria for the rule. • Customize Application
15. Provide a name, unique name, and description for the process.
16. Specify criteria for entering the process.
For example, you can specify that an article published on a public site requires approval: Visible on public site equals
True.
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
18. Select the email template that the process uses to notify approvers.
When an approval process assigns an approval request to a user, Salesforce automatically sends the user an approval request email.
The email contains a link to the approval page in Salesforce, where the agent can approve or reject the request and add comments.
20. Specify which users are allowed to submit articles for approval.
For example, for articles that require editing before approval, you could create a public group containing editors, and then specify
that only members of that group can submit articles for approval.
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
Note: When an article is published from the edit page, the article is first saved and then published. Workflow rules apply to
the saved draft article but not the published article.
• A user who only has read access to an article type can publish a draft article of that type if there is an approval process associated
to the article type and the approval process is complete but the article has not been published.
IN THIS SECTION:
Create Workflow Actions for Knowledge
Knowledge actions are templates that link a workflow action to an article type. When knowledge actions are enabled, you can use
them to link article types to specific workflow article actions, such as publishing. For example, if you want each FAQ to publish as a
new version when it completes the approval process, you can create a knowledge action that links an FAQ article to the Publish as
New action. Then, when you create an approval process for FAQs, select the new Knowledge action.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
8. When you’re ready to use the knowledge action in an approval or workflow process, click Activate on the Knowledge Action detail
page.
SEE ALSO:
Assign Article Actions to Public Groups
Create Public Groups for Knowledge
Classic Knowledge User Access
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
File Allows agents to upload and attach a file to an article. You can
make this field required to ensure that an agent enters a value
before saving an article. Note the following caveats about File fields:
• The maximum attachment size is 25 MB.
• You can add up to 5 File fields to each article type; contact
Salesforce to increase these limits.
• If the Disallow HTML documents and
attachments security setting is enabled, File fields do not
support HTML files.
• Text content in a File field attachment is searchable. You can
search up to 25 MB of attached files on an article. For example,
if an article has six 5-MB file attachments, the first 4.16 MB of
each file is searchable.
• You cannot attach Salesforce CRM Content files using the File
field.
• The File field type is not supported in Developer edition.
• The filename cannot exceed 40 characters.
• You cannot convert a File field type into any other data type.
Lookup Relationship Creates a relationship between two records so you can associate
them with each other. For example, opportunities have a lookup
relationship with cases that lets you associate a particular case with
an opportunity. A lookup relationship creates a field that allows
agents to click a lookup icon and select another record from a
popup window. On the associated record, you can then display a
related list to show all the records that are linked to it. You can
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
Number Allows agents to enter any number. This entry is treated as a real
number and any leading zeros are removed. You can make this
field required to ensure that an agent enters a value before saving
an article.
Note: If the decimal value is greater than 15, and you add
a percent sign to the number, a runtime error occurs.
Values lose precision after 15 decimal places.
Phone Allows agents to enter any phone number. Character limit is 40.
You can make this field required to ensure that an agent enters a
value before saving an article.
Salesforce automatically formats it as a phone number.
Picklist (Dependent) Allows agents to select a value from a list dependent on the value
of another field.
Picklist (Multi-select) Allows agents to select more than one picklist value from a list you
define. These fields display each value separated by a semicolon.
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
Text Area Allows agents to enter up to 255 characters that display on separate
lines similar to a Description field. You can make this field
required to ensure that an agent enters a value before saving an
article.
Text Area (Long) Allows agents to enter up to 131,072 characters that display on
separate lines similar to a Description field. You can set the
length of this field type to a lower limit, if desired. Any length from
256 to 131,072 characters is allowed. The default is 32,768
characters. Every time an agent presses Enter in a long text area
field, a line break and return character are added, and both count
toward the character limit. Also, smart links add more characters
than what is displayed.
Note: If you lower the character limit and you have articles
that surpass the new limit, the articles can’t be edited until
the limit is reset higher than their character counts.
Note:
• You can have up to 100 links to different Salesforce
Knowledge articles in one rich text field.
• When you convert a text area (rich) field to a text area
(long) field, links are displayed as link reference
numbers, not URLs.
• The upgraded editor doesn’t support Internet Explorer
version 7 or version 8 in compatibility mode. If you are
using these browsers, you use the older editor.
SEE ALSO:
Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles
Add Custom Fields to Article Types
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
Note: These field access settings override any less-restrictive field access settings on the article-type layouts.
5. Click Save.
Define field-level security via fields
1. For fields, from Setup, enter Knowledge Article Types in the Quick Find box, then select Knowledge Article
Types.
2. Select the article type that contains the field to modify.
3. Select the field and click Set Field-Level Security.
4. Specify the field's access level.
Note: These field access settings override any less-restrictive field access settings on the article-type layouts.
5. Click Save.
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
After setting field-level security, you can modify the article-type layouts to organize the fields on detail and edit pages.
SEE ALSO:
Add Custom Fields to Article Types
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
SEE ALSO:
Article History Tracking (Salesforce Classic)
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
SEE ALSO:
Send an Article PDF (Classic)
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
With the Lightning Knowledge component and related list actions, agents can directly embed article content into the body of customer
emails and in social, chat, and messaging conversations. Create a communication channel mapping to choose which article fields are
included for each record type and channel. Your customers can access article summaries without going to a website. With permissions,
some agents can choose to share internal articles—so they don't have to copy and paste articles that aren't published or are used
internally—, while other agents share only published, external articles.
Ensure that these setup requirements are met.
• To share articles in emails, Email-to-case must be enabled. The case page layout has the SendEmail action. HTML Body or Text must
be in the SendEmail layout.
• To share articles in social posts, Social Customer Service is enabled. You have a social account, and the Social channel is in the case
page layout.
• To share articles in chat or messaging conversations, configure Chat or Messaging and add the channel to the page layout.
Note: This feature isn’t available in Essentials edition because record types must be enabled to configure communication channel
mappings.
1. From the Object Manager, choose the Knowledge object.
2. Under Communication Channel Mappings, click New.
3. Enter a label and name.
4. Add the desired channels to the Selected Channels list.
Each channel has a different context. Create communication channel mappings for multiple channels only when those channels
have the same content needs. For example, you can share rich text fields in emails but not other channels. We recommend choosing
or creating text fields designated for channel use.
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• Only plain text is supported in social, chat, and messaging. If you insert rich text fields, styles and formatting are removed and
only the text is inserted.
• You can’t include smart links or embed videos in emails. HTML iframes are removed before the email is sent.
• The following fields are not supported in communication channels:
– isDeleted
– Language
– MultiPicklist and picklist fields
– Publication Status
– Source
– Validation Status
6. Optional: Choose whether to include field labels and related files with inserted articles.
By default, field labels are included with inserted articles in all channels and related files are attached to emails. When Files are
attached, agents can still detach files before they send the email.
• To hide field labels, select Omit field labels.
• To skip file attachments, select Don't attach related files to emails.
7. Click Save.
The appropriate action appears in the Knowledge component and article related lists in cases when you save a communication
channel mapping for the channel.
8. (Optional) To let users share the contents of internal articles, enable Share internal Knowledge articles externally under
Administrative Permissions for the profile or permission set.
Your agents can now send article contents in case emails, social posts, and chat and messaging conversations. And, agents can change
article contents before sending. If the article wasn't attached to the case previously, using these actions adds it to the related list.
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
• Picklist
• Publication Status
• Source
• Validation Status
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Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
Example: While solving customer cases, agents with the permission can insert article content into the body of an email. Anywhere
agents can attach articles to cases, such as the Knowledge One sidebar in the Salesforce Console, the Articles list in the case feed,
the Article widget, or the suggested articles in a Knowledge One search, they can email any article of that type within the body of
an email by selecting Email article with HTML in the action dropdown. The article content is inserted at top of email thread or
wherever the agent left their cursor. Once an article has been emailed, an envelope icon appears to the left of the title. When the
article has files that exceed the 10-mb attachment limit, agents are asked to select which files to attach and retry sending the
email.
Note: If rich text is not enabled on your case feed layout for the article type, only article text is embedded into the email
and the action changes to Email article text only.
SEE ALSO:
Article Type Page Layouts
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
926
Service Cloud Further Setup for Salesforce Knowledge
USER PERMISSIONS
SEE ALSO:
To administer Salesforce
Article Type Page Layouts
Knowledge:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources • Customize Application
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
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Service Cloud Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge
IN THIS SECTION:
1. Create a .csv File for Article Import
The import file maps the article contents to Knowledge article fields. For example, map a Title column in your .csv file with the
standard Title field to import each article's title.
2. Set Article Import Parameters
Specify import parameters in a property file using key names and corresponding values. For example, use the key DateFormat
to specify that a date custom field appears in the DateFormat=dd/MM/YYYY format. Or, specify the character encoding and
field separator used for the import file.
3. Create an Article .zip File for Import
To complete your article import, create a .zip file with your .parameters, .csv, and .html files, and upload them to Salesforce Knowledge.
4. Article and Translation Import and Export Status
You can monitor the status of your article imports and exports.
SEE ALSO:
Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge
Standard and custom fields Refer to an article type's standard fields using
field names and refer to custom fields using
API names. Leaving a row cell empty may
cause your articles to be skipped if the related
article type field is mandatory.
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Service Cloud Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge
File field Use the file custom fields to import any file type (.doc, .pdf, .txt).
Refer to an article type's file field using its API name.
Data category groups To categorize the imported articles, use category groups. Refer
to a category group using its unique name prefixed with
datacategorygroup.. For example, use
datacategorygroup.Products to specify the category
group Products.
Channel To specify where the imported articles are available, use the
keyword Channels.
Important: All file names are case-sensitive and must exactly match what is in the .csv file.
Consideration Notes
Standard or custom fields Enter the articles' data for each field, except for rich text area
fields where you must enter the relative path to the
corresponding .html file in your .zip file.
Rich text area field Always enter the .html file path relative to the location of the
.csv file. Never enter raw text. If the specified path doesn't exist,
the related article isn't imported. Note the following information
about importing HTML and images.
• We recommend that you create one folder for the .html files
(for example, /data) and another for images (for example,
/data/images).
• To import images, include the images in an .html file using
the <img> tag and src attribute. Ensure that the src
value is a relative path from the .html file to the image folder.
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Service Cloud Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge
Consideration Notes
File field
Note: In Lightning Knowledge, custom file fields are
replaced with Salesforce Files.
Enter the path relative to the file's location. If the specified path
doesn't exist, the related article isn't imported. Note the following
information about importing files.
• We recommend that you create a folder for your files (for
example, /files).
• Each file must not exceed 5 MB.
Category groups Use category unique names to categorize articles. Use the plus
symbol (+) to specify more than one category. For example,
Laptop+Desktop. Note the following information about
data category groups.
• Leaving the cell row empty causes your article to be set to
No Categories.
• If you specify a category and its parent (for example,
Europe+France) the import process skips the child category
France and keeps the parent category Europe, because
application of a parent category implicitly includes the
category's children.
• When importing articles with translations and associated
data categories, only the master article retains the data
categories. The article translations have no associated data
category upon import.
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Consideration Notes
Example: The following example shows .csv files to import product offer articles. The first file imports articles without translations.
The second .csv file imports articles with translations. The .csv files contain titles, summaries, and descriptions. They also classify
the articles in the category group Products and make them available for specific channels. The description__c field is a
rich text area and only supports paths to .html files. The summary__c field is a text field and only supports raw text. The summary
field is optional, and summary__c is left blank for some rows. The RecordTypeId sets the Product Offer record type for
two of the articles, and the “Best Desktop Computer Deals” article is an FAQ.
Title,summary__c,description__c,datacategorygroup.Products,Channels,RecordTypeId
Free Digital Camera Offer, Get the new Digital
Camera.,data/freecam.html,Consumer_Electronics,application+csp,012RM0000002Q5M
Best Desktop Computer Deals,,data/bestdeals.html,Desktop,application+csp,012RM0000002Q5g
Free Shipping on Laptop and
Desktops,,data/freeship.html,Laptop+Desktops,application+csp,012RM0000002Q5M
1 Free Digital Camera Offer Get the new Digital data/freecam.html Consumer_ Electronics application en_US 012RM0000002Q5M
Camera. +csp
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isMasterLanguage,Title,summary__c,description__c,datacategorygroup.Products,Channels,Language,RecordTypeId
1,Free Digital Camera Offer,Get the new Digital
Camera,data/freecam.html,Consumer_Electronics,application+csp,en,012RM0000002Q5M
0,Libérer l'Offre d'Appareil photo digital,Obtenir le nouvel Appareil photo
digital.,data/freecam/fr.html,,,fr,012RM0000002Q5M
0,Liberte Oferta Digital de Cámara,Consiga la nueva Cámara
Digital.,data/freecam/es.html,,,es,012RM0000002Q5M
1,Best Desktop Computer
Deals,,data/bestdeals.html,Desktops,application+csp,en,012RM0000002Q5g
0,Meilleures Affaires d'ordinateurs de
bureau,,data/bestdeals/fr.html,,,fr,012RM0000002Q5g
0,Mejores Tratos de ordenadores,,data/bestdeals/es.html,,,es,012RM0000002Q5g
1,Free Shipping on Laptop and
Desktops,,data/freeship.html,Laptops+Desktops,application+csp,en,012RM0000002Q5M
0,Libérer Affranchissement sur Portables et
Ordinateurs,,data/freeship/fr.html,,,fr,012RM0000002Q5M
0,Liberte Franqueo en Laptops y Ordenadores,,data/freeship/es.html,,,es,012RM0000002Q5M
Specify your import parameters in a property file using key names and corresponding values.
SEE ALSO:
Set Article Import Parameters
Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge
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Note: Specify only Java date formats. Make sure that the date format is not misleading.
For example, if you choose the format yyyy-M-d, a date entered as 2011111 can be
interpreted as 2011-01-11 or 2011-11-01. Specify at least:
• Two digits for month and day format (MM, dd)
• Four digits for year format (yyyy)
If a date in the .csv file does not match the date format specified in the property file, the
related article is not imported.
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DateFormat=yyyy-MM-dd
DateTimeFormat=yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
CSVEncoding=ISO8859_15_FDIS
CSVSeparator=,
RTAEncoding=UTF-8
SEE ALSO:
Create an Article .zip File for Import
Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge
2. From Setup, enter Import Articles in the Quick Find box, then select Import Articles.
3. Then:
a. In Lightning Knowledge, select Knowledge Base from the dropdown.
b. In Salesforce Classic, select the appropriate article type for the imported articles.
4. To select the .zip file, click Browse, and then click OK.
5. If your import contains translations, select Contains translations?.
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Note: When this option is selected, your .csv file must contain the isMasterLanguage, Title, and Language columns. If this
option isn’t selected, your .csv file can’t contain the isMasterLanguage , but it must contain the Title column. The Language
column is optional when importing articles without translations.
SEE ALSO:
Article and Translation Import and Export Status
Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge
Processing The import or export is processing. If you want to stop the process, or if the
process has been stopped, call Salesforce
Support. Salesforce might stop an import or
export if a maintenance task has to be
performed or the import or export exceeds
one hour.
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Aborted The import or export has been canceled. You can restart an import or export, delete
The articles that have already been an entry by clicking Del, or receive the
imported or exported successfully are completion email and check the details of
available in Salesforce. your import or export by clicking Email Log.
Completed The import or export is complete. This status doesn't mean the import or
Successfully imported articles are shown export is successful. Click Email Log to check
on the Article Management tab on the the details of your import or export.
Articles subtab. Successfully imported Click the exported .zip file to save or open
translations are listed on the Translations the file on your system.
subtab.
SEE ALSO:
Import Translated Articles
Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge
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SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
Note: Search highlights and snippets are not generated for searches with wildcards. Salesforce Knowledge is
available in Essentials and
Search highlights and snippets are generated from the following fields: the Unlimited Edition with
• Email Service Cloud.
• Long text area Salesforce Knowledge is
• Rich text area available for an additional
cost in: Professional,
• Text area Enterprise, Performance,
Search highlights and snippets aren’t generated from the following fields: and Developer Editions. For
more information, contact
• Checkbox
your Salesforce
• Currency representative.
• Date
• Date Time
• File
• Formula
• Lookup
• Multi-picklist
• Number
• Percent
• Phone
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• Picklist
• URL
Note: If a snippet is not generated, the article’s summary field is shown instead.
SEE ALSO:
Improve the Article Search Experience
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
Note: In the Article Management tab, if you sort the list by clicking a column header, the sort order, not priority, persists in
the current and additional searches.
Wildcards
If a wildcard is used in a search, the wildcard expands the search term, but the search doesn't match any synonyms, even if the
search phrase contains a defined synonym.
For example, if these synonym groups are defined:
fruit, oranges, apples
cabbage, lettuce
Then a search for orang* lettuce matches items that contain orange and oranges, but doesn't match items that contain fruit,
apples, and cabbage.
Operators
If a search phrase contains an operator (AND/OR/AND NOT), synonym matches are returned only if the entire search phrase is a
defined synonym.
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Then a search for orange marmalade matches items that contain orange marmalade and citrus, but doesn't match items that
contain apple or jam.
SEE ALSO:
Improve the Article Search Experience
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Improve the Article Search Experience
• The end user’s language setting determines the scope of the article search. Search results exclude article versions and any associated
promoted terms that are not in the user’s language.
SEE ALSO:
Article Search Results
Search Articles and External Sources on the Knowledge Tab
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Improve the Article Search Experience
Frequency
This algorithm calculates the frequency with which a term appears within each article. The algorithm then weighs them against
each other to produce the initial set of search results.
Relevancy
Articles that are frequently viewed or that are frequently attached to cases appear higher in the results. Article ownership and recent
activity also boost an article in the results list.
Proximity of Terms
Articles that contain all the keywords in a search are ranked highest, followed by articles with fewer keywords, followed by articles
with single keyword matches. Terms that are closer together in the matched document, with few or no intervening words, are ranked
higher in the list.
Exact Matches
Matches on exact keywords are ranked higher than matches on synonyms or lemmatized terms.
Title Field
If any search terms match words in an article title, the article is boosted in the search results.
Token Sequence
If the search term is broken up into multiple tokens because it contains both letters and numbers, the system boosts results based
on the same sequence of tokens. That way, exact matches are ranked higher than matches on the tokens with other tokens in
between.
SEE ALSO:
Promote Articles in Search Results
Search Articles and External Sources on the Knowledge Tab
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Improve the Article Search Experience
// if the case is of a certain type, select only 2 of the article types available
// in other cases, we keep the default behavior (all article types selected)
if (caseType=='Problem' || caseType=='Question') {
url += '&articleType_FAQ_kav=on';
url += '&articleType_How_To_kav=on';
}
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Service Cloud Improve the Article Search Experience
if (product.length>0)
url += '&ct_Products2=' + product;
8. Click Save.
9. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.
10. Click Edit next to Case Layout.
11. Drag your custom button for article search into the case layout.
12. Click Save.
13. Create a Visualforce page named CaseDetailsWithoutStandardKBSearchButton with the following code:
<apex:page standardController="Case">
<style type="text/css">
div.knowledgeBlock input {display: none}
</style>
<apex:detail/>
</apex:page>
14. Back in the Buttons, Links, and Actions area for cases, click Edit next to View.
15. Select Visualforce Page in Override with.
16. Select CaseDetailsWithoutStandardKBSearchButton from the drop-down.
17. Click Save.
SEE ALSO:
Improve the Article Search Experience
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
Salesforce Knowledge Guide (Classic)
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Note: In the auto-complete drop-down, article titles have a paper icon while the keywords have a magnifying glass icon.
• When an external source is selected, there are no filters, and the general article information displayed is controlled by your
external object search layout.
5. View information by clicking the article or external source title. Below the title you can find general article information such as: new
article indication, article number, article type, validation status, last published date, article view comparison, and article rating
comparison.
6. Use the drop down by each article to follow or unfollow, edit, publish, and delete an article, depending on your permissions.
SEE ALSO:
Promote Articles in Search Results
Article Search Results
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Use Salesforce Knowledge
Suggested articles are delivered right to the Knowledge component, so agents can find relevant articles without running a search.
Suggested articles are automatically enabled when Lightning Knowledge is enabled. To show intelligent article suggestions based
on historical case and article data, turn on Einstein Article Recommendations
Search and Sort Your Results
Use the search box in the component to perform a Knowledge search. You also can use Advanced Search for pre-filtering to narrow
the search results you see.
To sort your search results, click the sort icon and select a sort option from the list. You can sort your search results by relevance,
publish date (for published articles), last modified date (for article drafts), A to Z, and Z to A. Sorting doesn’t apply to suggested
articles.
By default, articles are sorted by relevance. If you go back to suggested articles or go to a new case, the sort order is reset to relevance.
Attach and Remove Articles in the Knowledge Component
Agents can attach Knowledge articles to cases and remove articles from cases using the dropdown next to any article.
Follow and Unfollow with the Knowledge Component
Agents can follow and unfollow an article from the component using the dropdown next to the article. Following articles helps
agents save articles that they want to read later.
Administrators, agents, and internal employees with read access to Knowledge can follow articles, and they can follow articles in
any state, such as published or draft. To let Knowledge users follow and unfollow articles, enable feed tracking in Setup > Chatter >
Feed Tracking.
Share Articles in Case Emails and Other Channels
Help customers by inserting article text into emails, social posts, and conversations. Or, insert article links from your Salesforce Sites
and Experience Cloud sites.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Knowledge Component Actions
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Service Cloud Use Salesforce Knowledge
Your org must have the relevant channel configured, such as email, social, or chat. Salesforce Knowledge is
1. From the Knowledge component or articles related list, select one of these actions: available in Essentials and
Unlimited Editions with
a. To insert URLs in Salesforce Classic, select Attach and share article or Share article for
Service Cloud.
the Salesforce or Experience Cloud site you want. Email is the default action, but you can
switch to the social or Experience Cloud action in the case feed before inserting the URL. Salesforce Knowledge is
available for an additional
b. To insert URLs in emails Lightning Experience, select Insert URL into Email and then cost in: Professional,
choose the Salesforce or Experience Cloud site. Enterprise, Performance,
c. To insert URLs in chat and messaging conversations in Lightning Experience, select Insert and Developer Editions. For
URL into Conversation and then choose the Salesforce or Experience Cloud site. more information, contact
your Salesforce
d. To insert URLs into social feeds in Lightning Experience, select Insert URL into Social Post
representative.
and then choose the Salesforce or Experience Cloud site.
The article link is inserted at the cursor position.
USER PERMISSIONS
2. Click Insert URL.
To share article links in the
Keep these considerations in mind:
case feed:
• Articles must be published. These actions aren’t available for draft and archived articles. • Edit on Case
• Articles must be shared publicly, meaning they are visible in the Public Knowledge Base, or to AND
customers or partners. Read on Knowledge
• You can post an article link from any Salesforce or Experience Cloud site in the selected list,
even if the article isn’t visible in the Salesforce or Experience Cloud site or if the customer doesn’t
have access. The agent must confirm that the article is available in the Salesforce or Experience Cloud site before sharing it with the
customer.
• If the article wasn’t attached to the case previously, using these actions adds it to the related list.
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Service Cloud Manage Articles and Content with Salesforce Knowledge
USER PERMISSIONS
IN THIS SECTION:
Authoring Actions in Lightning Knowledge
Use authoring actions like edit, publish, and restore to manage articles from the Knowledge home and article record pages.
Administrators, agents, and internal employees with the correct profile permissions can perform the actions.
Work with Articles and Translations
The Article Management tab is your home page for working with articles throughout the publishing cycle as they are created,
assigned to collaborators, translated, published, archived, and deleted.
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Service Cloud Manage Articles and Content with Salesforce Knowledge
IN THIS SECTION:
When Are Lightning Authoring Actions Available?
In Lightning Knowledge page layouts, actions are shown or hidden based on the article’s publication status. In Knowledge home,
bulk actions appear on all list views for users with the appropriate permission.
SEE ALSO:
Page Layout Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
Lightning Knowledge Home and Record Pages
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Service Cloud Manage Articles and Content with Salesforce Knowledge
Submit for Approval Send the article for approval and assign an Draft
approver. Approvals must be enabled.
Submit for Translation Submit the article to the translation queue Draft, Published
or assign to a user. Multiple languages must
be enabled.
SEE ALSO:
Lightning Knowledge User Access
Page Layout Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
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Service Cloud Manage Articles and Content with Salesforce Knowledge
Assigned to The user who is assigned work Draft articles and translations To submit articles for
on the article. translation:
• Manage Articles
Assignment Details Instructions for the assignment. Draft articles and translations
AND
Assignment Due Date Date to complete work on the Draft articles and translations Create, Read, and Edit
article. If the date has passed, it on the article type
displays in red.
To submit articles for
Created Date Date the article was written. Draft articles and translations approval:
• Permissions vary
Customer Ratings Average ratings from users on Published and archived articles depending on the
the Customer Portal and the and published translations approval process
public knowledge base. settings
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Service Cloud Manage Articles and Content with Salesforce Knowledge
Last Action The date and type of the last action taken Draft and published translations
on a translation.
Last Modified by Last person to update the article. Draft articles and translations
Last Modified Date Last date the article was edited. All articles and translations
Most Viewed by all Users Average views from users of your internal Published and archived articles and
Salesforce organization, Customer Portal, published translations
partner portal, and your public knowledge
base.
Most Viewed by Customers Average views from users on the Customer Published and archived articles and
Portal and the public knowledge base. published translations
Most Viewed by Partners Average views from users on the partner Published and archived articles and
portal and the public knowledge base. published translations
Partner Ratings Average ratings from users of your partner Published and archived articles and
portal and public knowledge base. published translations
Published Date Date the article was published. Published articles and translations
Source Article The original article before translation. Click Draft and published translations
the article title to view the article.
Translated Article The title of the translated article. Click the Draft and published translations
translation title to edit the translation.
Translation Status Status in the translation cycle. Hover over Articles submitted for translation
the icon to view the status for each
translation. If a translation has been
published, there are separate tabs for draft
and published translations.
Validation Status Shows whether the content of the article All articles and translations, when enabled
has been validated.
Version The article’s version. Hover over the version All articles
number to view details about other versions
of the article.
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Service Cloud Manage Articles and Content with Salesforce Knowledge
• Publish an article or translation by selecting it and clicking Publish.... If you have the “Publish Articles” article action and an approval
process is set up for an article, you see both Publish... and Submit for Approval buttons.
• Modify an article or translation by clicking Edit next to it.
• See how an article or translation appears for end users by clicking Preview next to it. From the Channel drop-down menu you
can choose any channel where an article is visible except the public knowledge base.
Note: Voting and Chatter information is not available when previewing a Knowledge article.
• See a list of an article’s or translation’s other versions by clicking its version number.
• Change the owner of an article or translation by selecting it and clicking Assign....
• Send an article or translation to the Recycle Bin by selecting it and clicking Delete.
• Archive a published article or translation by selecting it and clicking Archive....
• Submit articles for translation by selecting them and clicking Submit for Translation. You can set dues dates for each language
and assign it to another agent or a queue for export to a translation vendor.
• Go directly to the Setup pages for exporting and importing articles for translation with Export Articles for Translation and Import
Article Translations in the Related Links area.
IN THIS SECTION:
Create and Edit Articles
You can create or edit an article from the Knowledge tab or Article Management tab. If you’re creating an article, you may need to
select the article type and language. If you’re editing a published article or translation, choose whether to leave it published while
you work on a draft copy, or whether to remove the original article from publication and work on it directly. If you work on a copy,
publishing the copy replaces the last published version of the article. If you work on the original article, it is unavailable in the channels
until you republish it.
Publish Articles and Translations
Publishing articles and translations makes them visible in all channels selected. If you publish an article that has translations, all
translations of the article are published as well.
Translate Articles in Lightning Knowledge
If your organization supports a multilingual knowledge base, give agents and authors access to translated articles. Add authoring
actions to user profiles so your agents can access master language versions and translation drafts.
Translate Articles in Salesforce Classic
If your organization translates Classic Knowledge articles internally, you can enter the translation from the translation detail page.
Archive Articles and Translations
Archiving removes published articles and translations that are obsolete so they no longer display to agents and customers on your
organization's Salesforce Knowledge channels.
Delete Articles and Translations
You can delete articles and translations on the Article Management tab or the detail page of the article or translation. Deleting
permanently removes articles from the knowledge base. You can delete draft articles, draft translations of articles, or archived articles,
but not published articles or translations.
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SEE ALSO:
Search Articles and External Sources on the Knowledge Tab
Create and Edit Articles
Publish Articles and Translations
Translate Articles in Salesforce Classic
Archive Articles and Translations
Salesforce Knowledge Article Versions
Delete Articles and Translations
Articles or Knowledge Tab
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
SEE ALSO:
Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Manage Articles and Content with Salesforce Knowledge
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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You can’t change channels on an article translation and then publish the article. Doing so generates an error.
When you change channels on an article, make sure that the channels on the article’s translations match the new channels. Also, publish
translations before you publish the master language version.
To add authoring actions to a page layout created specifically for translations:
1. Click the Object Manager tab and select the Knowledge object.
2. Select a page layout from the Page Layout list. For example, a page layout that has already been created for translated articles.
3. From Mobile and Lightning Actions, drag Publish, Edit, Delete, Assign, and Submit for Translation actions onto the page.
4. Save your changes.
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You can’t change channels on an article translation and then publish the article. Doing so generates an error.
When you change channels on an article, make sure that the channels on the article’s translations match the new channels. Also, publish
translations before you publish the master language version.
1. Click the Article Management tab and select Translations in the View area.
2. Select Draft Translations.
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Note: You can also edit a published translation. It reverts to draft status until you republish it, although you can choose to
keep the existing version published while you update it.
3. Optionally, change the Assigned To filter to view articles that are not assigned to you for translation.
For example, you might want to view articles assigned to a translation queue.
4. Click Edit next to the article and language you want to translate.
5. Enter your translation.
6. Click Save.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Manage Articles and Content with Salesforce Knowledge
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Manage Articles and Content with Salesforce Knowledge
Salesforce Knowledge is
available in Essentials and
Unlimited Editions with
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is
available for an additional
cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
and Developer Editions. For
more information, contact
your Salesforce
representative.
For the best experience, view an older version and then choose a newer version to compare. Content that's new in the compared version
is green and underlined. Content deleted from the current version appears in red strikethrough text.
Considerations
Keep these considerations in mind when you compare articles.
• The HTML tags show because source code is used in the comparison. By comparing the HTML source, you can see differences in
formatting and image or video links, indicating content that changed.
• Articles are compared character by character. For instance, “Online” and “Archived” share an ‘i’ and ‘e’.
• You can use the Article Comparison component only for versions with the same record type and language.
• In Lookup fields, the linked record’s 18-character ID appears, such as the ID to identify users in Modified By and Created By fields.
• If another version is modified, created, or deleted while you view an article, it doesn't appear in the version dropdown. You can
refresh the page to see the latest list of article versions.
• Comparing articles isn’t supported in Microsoft IE11 or the Microsoft Edge browser.
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• Toggle to source view—edit HTML for complete control of your content Salesforce Knowledge is
• Use smart links and anchors—link to the latest version of other Knowledge articles, or create available in Essentials and
anchors within an article Unlimited Editions with
• Embed multimedia content Service Cloud.
SEE ALSO:
Rich Text Editor
Editing Rich Text Area Fields in Records
Rich Text Area Field Limitations
Set Up Actions to Insert Articles into Channels in Lightning Knowledge
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Service Cloud Manage Articles and Content with Salesforce Knowledge
To edit articles:
• Allow View Knowledge
AND View Draft Articles
Create and read on
Knowledge
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USER PERMISSIONS
To create articles:
• Manage Articles
AND
Read and Create in the
user profile
5. Optional: To specify how the smart link opens in public sites and Salesforce Classic, select the target from the dropdown.
6. Optional: To specify how the link opens in Lightning Experience apps and consoles, select the Lightning target.
7. Click Insert Link.
Smart links use more characters than what is displayed in the editor. If you see an error that you have surpassed the character limit,
have your administrator increase the limit.
IN THIS SECTION:
Target Behavior for Smart Links
You can specify how smart links open using the different types of target options. Understand the behavior of each option and how
smart links created in Salesforce Classic behave in Lightning Experience.
Smart Link Considerations
Keep these considerations in mind when you use smart links.
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To view articles:
• Lightning Knowledge
User
AND
Read on the Knowledge
Base object
AND
Read on URL Name field
https://example.lightning.force.com/lightning/o/Knowledge__kav/list?filterName=00BB00028DpSU,
the domain is example.lightning.force.com.
4. In the text file, append the path for the Lightning Knowledge article after your domain.
For example, after your domain string, add /lightning/articles/KnowledgeBaseName/, where the Knowledge base
name is the label for the object that contains your articles. By default, the label is Knowledge.
If your domain ends in .com, your URL now looks like this:
https://example.lightning.force.com/lightning/articles/Knowledge/
5. In the article record, locate the URL Name field, and copy the contents to the end of your new URL.
Note: The article URL is case-sensitive, so confirm that the /lightning/articles/KnowledgeBaseName/ portion
of the URL and the capitalization of your article’s URL name is correct.
The static URL looks something like this:
https://cunning-elephant.lightning.force.com/lightning/articles/Knowledge/My-knowledge-article
6. Optional: Specify the article’s language using the ISO code.
The format for adding the language parameter string is:
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SalesforceDomain/lightning/articles/KnowledgeBaseName/URLName?language=xx_XX
For example, if the URL name is shipping-faq and you want to link to the version in French, your static URL looks like this:
https://cunning-elephant.lightning.force.com/lightning/articles/Knowledge/shipping-faq?language=fr_FR
If the URL name is different for each language, use the version-specific name and don’t add the language code.
Smart links use more characters than what is displayed in the editor. If you see an error that you
have surpassed the character limit, have your administrator increase the limit. USER PERMISSIONS
To create articles:
• Manage Articles
AND
Read and Create on the
article type
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Note: When there is an existing draft for the article, the option to revert isn’t available.
You can delete an older, outdated version of a published article by selecting Delete This Version from the article detail page.
If you delete an article version associated to a case, it is no longer be attached to the case. Translated article versions depend on the
master language article. If the master language version is deleted, the translated versions are also deleted.
Versions also appear in custom reports, allowing you to find and read the article version attached to a case.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Support Articles in Multiple Languages
IN THIS SECTION:
Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base
Reach a global audience by offering your knowledge base in multiple languages.
Export Articles for Translation
If your organization sends Salesforce Knowledge articles to a vendor for translation, use the Export Articles for Translation feature in
Setup.
Import Translated Articles
If your organization sends Salesforce Knowledge articles to a vendor for translation, use the Import Article Translations feature in
Setup. You can only import articles that have been exported from the same Salesforce organization. For example, you can't export
articles from your test or sandbox organization and import them into your production organization.
Set Up Master Article and Translation Side-By-Side View
Look at a translated article and do a side-by-side comparison with the master language version of the article. Admins can add a
master article component to the page layout so authors can view the master language version beside the translated article.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
Salesforce Knowledge Guide (Classic)
979
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SEE ALSO:
Create Queues
Language Settings Overview
Select Languages for Your Org
Support Articles in Multiple Languages
980
Service Cloud Support Articles in Multiple Languages
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Service Cloud Support Articles in Multiple Languages
SEE ALSO:
Import Translated Articles
Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base
Support Articles in Multiple Languages
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
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Service Cloud Support Articles in Multiple Languages
2. Choose how Salesforce handles translations after they're imported. Salesforce Knowledge is
available in Essentials and
Option Description the Unlimited Edition with
Service Cloud.
Review imported translations Add imported translations to a queue from
on the Article Management tab which agents can review them. Salesforce Knowledge is
before publishing available for an additional
cost in: Professional,
Publish translations Publish imported translations without reviews. Enterprise, Performance,
immediately on import and Developer Editions. For
more information, contact
your Salesforce
representative.
3. Select the language of the articles you're importing.
4. If you chose to have articles reviewed before publishing, select to send the files to a user or a
queue. USER PERMISSIONS
5. Click Browse, choose the translation .zip file to upload, and click Open. To export articles:
You must place all the translation files (meaning, those exported from Salesforce and translated • Manage Salesforce
by your vendor) in a folder whose name is the same as the language code. For example, put Knowledge
French articles in an fr folder. Zip up this folder to create your import file. AND
Manage Articles
Important: To import translated articles successfully, verify that the file structure and
their extensions match the file structure and extensions of files exported from Salesforce AND
Knowledge for translation. For example, if the target language is French, the file structure Manage Knowledge
begins as follows: Article Import/Export
7. Click Finish.
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An email notification is sent to you when your import finishes. You can view the status of your import from Setup by entering Article
Imports and Exports in the Quick Find box, then selecting Article Imports and Exports.
SEE ALSO:
Article and Translation Import and Export Status
Export Articles for Translation
Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base
Support Articles in Multiple Languages
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
USER PERMISSIONS
To set up:
• Manage Salesforce
Knowledge AND
Manage Articles
To view articles:
• Allow View Knowledge
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IN THIS SECTION:
Work with Data Categories
Data categories are used in Salesforce Knowledge (articles and article translations), Ideas, Answers, and Chatter Answers to help
classify and find articles, questions, or ideas. You can use data categories to control access to a particular set of articles, questions or
ideas.
Data Category Visibility
Data category visibility can be set with roles, permission sets, permission set groups, or profiles. Data category visibility determines
the individual data categories, categorized articles, and categorized questions that you can see.
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Maximum number of data categories from a 8 data categories from a data category group
data category group assigned to an article assigned to an article
In an answers zone, data categories help organize questions for easy browsing. Each answers zone supports one category group. For
example, if you're a computer manufacturer you might create a Products category group that has four sibling categories: Performance
Laptops, Portable Laptops, Gaming Desktops, and Enterprise Desktops. On the Answers tab, zone members can assign one of the four
categories to each question and then browse these categories for answers to specific questions.
Example:
Logical Classification of Articles
As a knowledge base administrator, you can organize your knowledge base articles into a logical hierarchy and tag articles
with the attributes that are significant to your business.
Easy Access to Questions
As an answers administrator, you can choose which data categories are visible on the Answers tab. Zone members can tag a
question with a category, which makes finding questions and answers easier for other members.
Control of Article and Question Visibility
As a knowledge base or answers community administrator, you can centrally control the visibility articles or questions by
mapping roles, permission sets, or profiles to categories in the category groups. When an article or question is categorized,
users with visibility can automatically see it.
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Article Filtering
As a support agent, when articles are classified into logical categories, you can quickly and easily locate the article you need
by filtering your organization's knowledge base. To ensure you see all relevant articles, filtering by category has expansive
results that include a category's upward and downward relatives in the category hierarchy. For example, if your category
hierarchy for products has the levels All Products > Computers > Laptops > Gaming Laptops and you are helping a customer
with a laptop problem, filtering by Laptops returns articles classified with Laptops as well as articles classified with Computers,
All Products, or Gaming Laptops. Effectively, you are made aware of useful related articles like a free shipping offer for all
products or an upgrade offer for gaming laptops. (To prevent irrelevant results, category filtering doesn't return nonlineal
relatives like siblings and cousins. Articles about Desktops, a sibling of Laptops, would not display.)
Article and Question Navigation
As an end user, you can navigate the categories on the Articles tab or Answers tab to find the information you need to solve
your problem.
Managing Category Groups for Articles and Questions
If your organization has Salesforce Knowledge and an answers community, you can create separate category groups or use
the same category group for articles and questions.
Data Categories in Articles
A category group is the container for a set of categories. In Salesforce Knowledge it corresponds to the name of the category
drop-down menus. For example, if you use the Data Categories page in Setup, (enter Data Category in the Quick
Find box, then select Data Category Setup) to create and activate a category group called Products, a Products menu
displays on the Article Management tab, the article edit page, the Articles tab in all channels, and the public knowledge base.
As an illustration, the figure below shows a knowledge base administrator's view of an article about laptop deals; using the
article edit page, the administrator has classified the article with Laptops in the Products category group, and USA in the
Geography category group.
The next figure now illustrates an agent finding that same article published on the Articles tab; the agent has selected Laptops
and USA respectively in the Products and Geography drop-down menus to retrieve an article that is classified with both Laptops
and USA.
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Service Cloud Create Data Categories for Articles, Answers, and Ideas
When you add categories to a category group, you build a hierarchy that can contain up to five levels of depth and up to 100
categories total. Each category can have one parent, many siblings, and many children. A robust and well-organized category
hierarchy helps users find the articles that are relevant to them quickly and easily.
By default, all Salesforce Knowledge users have access to all categories; however, you can restrict category visibility by role,
permission set, or profile.
Data Category Implementation Tips
Consider the following information when planning and implementing data categories for your organization:
• You can create up to three category groups with a maximum of five hierarchy levels in each group. Each category group
can contain a total of 100 categories.
• If you want to use data categories with Answers, after creating your category group you must assign it from Setup by
entering Data Category Assignments in the Quick Find box, then selecting Data Category Assignments
under Answers. You can only assign one category group to an answers community. Salesforce Knowledge supports multiple
category groups.
• Category groups are hidden from users until they are activated. Do not activate a category group until you have finished
defining its categories and their access settings, including their visibility.
• When assigning categories to articles, you can choose up to eight categories in a category group.
• If an article has no categories, it displays only when you choose the No Filter option in the category drop-down
menu.
• When searching for articles or article translations, selecting a category automatically includes the parent and children of
that category and any grandparents, up to and including the top level. Sibling categories are not included. For example,
if a category hierarchy has the levels All Products, Switches, Optical Networks, and Metro Core, selecting “Optical Networks”
from the category drop-down menu returns articles assigned to any of the four categories. However, if the Switches
category has a sibling category called Routers, selecting “Optical Networks” does not return articles classified within Routers.
Category visibility settings may limit the specific articles you can find.
• Once visibility settings have been chosen for the categories:
– Users who are not assigned visibility can only see uncategorized articles and questions unless default category visibility
has been set up.
– For role-based visibility, Customer Portal users and partner portal users inherit the category group visibility settings
assigned to their account managers by default. You can change the category group visibility settings for each portal
role.
– If you only have access to one category in a category group, the category drop-down menu for that category group
does not display on the Articles tab.
• Deleting a category:
– Permanently removes it. It cannot be restored. It never appears in the Recycle Bin.
– Permanently deletes its child categories.
– As applicable, removes the category and its children from the Answers, Article Management, and Knowledge tabs in
all channels, and your company's public knowledge base.
– Removes associations between the category and articles or questions. You can reassign articles and questions to
another category.
– Removes its mapping to visibility. Readers lose their visibility to articles and answers associated with the deleted
category.
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Service Cloud Create Data Categories for Articles, Answers, and Ideas
– Moves it to the Deleted Category Groups section, which is a recycle bin. You can view items in this section but not
edit them. It holds category groups for 15 days before they are permanently erased and cannot be recovered. During
the 15–day holding period, you can either restore a category group, or permanently erase it immediately.
– Deletes all categories within that group.
– Removes all associations between the group's categories and articles or questions.
– Removes all associations between the group's categories and visibility.
– As applicable, removes the category drop-down menu from the Articles tab in all channels, the Article Management
tab, and your company's public knowledge base.
• You can translate the labels of categories and category groups using the Translation Workbench.
Best Practices for Data Categories
Consider the following tips when using data categories:
• To quickly manage data categories, use keyboard shortcuts.
• After creating or updating categories, set up category group visibility rules.
• Save your changes frequently. The more actions you perform before clicking Save, the longer it takes to save.
IN THIS SECTION:
Keyboard Shortcuts for Data Categories
Use keyboard shortcuts to work quickly with data categories.
Create and Modify Category Groups
Category groups are used by Salesforce Knowledge (articles), answers (questions), or ideas. In all cases, category groups are containers
for individual data categories. For example, a Contracts category group sometimes contains Fixed Price, Cost Reimbursement, and
Indefinite Delivery categories.
Delete and Undelete Category Groups
Deleting a category group deletes all of its categories and removes all associations between the categories and articles or questions.
Read this entire topic carefully to understand the consequences of deleting category groups.
Add Data Categories to Category Groups
Once you have category groups, you can add data categories to help agents classify and find articles, questions, or ideas.
Modify and Arrange Data Categories
Modifying and arranging categories can result in long processing times, changes to the visibility and categorization of articles, and
other significant consequences. Read this entire topic carefully before modifying categories.
Delete a Data Category
Deleting data categories can result in long processing times, changes to the visibility and categorization of articles and questions,
and other significant consequences. Read this entire topic carefully before deleting categories.
SEE ALSO:
Sharing Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
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Service Cloud Create Data Categories for Articles, Answers, and Ideas
Saving the changes Save the last changes in the category Ctrl+S
hierarchy
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Service Cloud Create Data Categories for Articles, Answers, and Ideas
2. To create a category group, click New in the Category Groups section. Data categories are
By default, you can create a maximum of five category groups and three active category groups. available in all editions with
To edit an existing category group, hover your cursor over the category group name and then Knowledge except
Professional edition.
click the Edit Category Group icon ( ).
Salesforce Knowledge is
3. Specify the Group Name up to a maximum of 80 characters. This name appears as the title available in Essentials and
of the category dropdown menu on the Article Management and Articles tabs, and, if applicable, Unlimited Editions with
in the public knowledge base. The Group Name does not appear on the Answers tab. Service Cloud.
4. Optionally, modify the Group Unique Name (the unique name used to identify the Salesforce Knowledge is
category group in SOAP API). available for an additional
5. Optionally, enter a description of the category group. cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
6. Click Save. and Developer Editions. For
You receive an email after the save process completes. more information, contact
your Salesforce
Activating Category Groups representative.
When you add a category group, it's deactivated by default and only displays on the
administrative setup pages for Data Categories, Roles, Permission Sets, and Profiles. Keep your
USER PERMISSIONS
category groups deactivated to set up your category hierarchy and assign visibility. Until you
manually activate a category group, it does not display in Salesforce Knowledge or your answers To view the Data Categories
community. In addition to activating the category group, for answers communities you must page:
assign the category group to a zone before the categories are visible on the Answers tab. • View Data Categories in
Setup
To activate a category group so it is available to users, move the mouse pointer over the name
To create, edit, or delete
of the category group and click the Activate Category Group icon ( ). data categories:
You can now add categories to your category group. When you create a category group, Salesforce • Manage Data
automatically creates a top-level category in the group named All. Optionally, double-click All Categories
to rename it.
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Service Cloud Create Data Categories for Articles, Answers, and Ideas
Note: Save your changes frequently. The more actions you perform before clicking Save, the longer it takes to save.
Example:
How Changing the Hierarchy Affects Article Visibility
Changing the category hierarchy potentially changes which articles readers can see. In the example shown in the following
graphic, the category PDAs moves from the original parent category Computers to the new parent category Consumer
Electronics.
Note: When a category moves to a new parent category, users that have no visibility on the new parent category lose
their visibility to the repositioned category.
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Service Cloud Create Data Categories for Articles, Answers, and Ideas
To understand how this change affects which readers can see articles classified with the PDAs category, review the following
table.
Computers Yes No You don't have access to the branch of the category hierarchy where
PDAs is now located.
Consumer No Yes PDAs has moved to the branch of the category hierarchy where you
Electronics have been granted access.
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Service Cloud Create Data Categories for Articles, Answers, and Ideas
In the example depicted above, the category PDAs moves from the original parent category Computers to the new parent
category Consumer Electronics. As a result, the classification for each article can change.
• Articles formerly classified with both Consumer Electronics and PDAs lose PDAs, because having Consumer Electronics
now implies having PDAs.
• Articles formerly classified with only Consumer Electronics but not PDAs do not change. Access to PDAs is now implied.
• Articles formerly classified with only PDAs, but not Consumer Electronics, retain PDAs.
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Service Cloud Create Data Categories for Articles, Answers, and Ideas
Note: Only the first-level categories in the category group are visible on the Answers tab. In the Geography example, only
the continent categories appear on the Answers tab; therefore, if France is the category selected as visible in category group
visibility settings, zone members can see questions classified with Europe.
Category group visibility settings are enforced on the Answers tab, the Article Management tab, the Articles tab in all channels
(internal app, partner portal, Salesforce.com Community, and Customer Portal), and the public knowledge base. In the following
areas, users only see the categories that their visibility settings allow:
• On the Article Management tab, when creating or editing articles
• On the Article Management tab and the Articles tab, the category drop-down menu for finding articles
• On the Answers tab, the categories listed below the zone name
Initial Visibility Settings
If role, permission set, or profile data category visibility has not been set up, all users can see all data categories. However, if data
category visibility is set up, users who are not assigned data category visibility by a role, permission set, or profile, only see uncategorized
articles and questions unless you make the associated categories visible by default. Role, permission set, and profile visibility settings
restrict default visibility settings. For example, if a data category is visible by default, it is not seen by a user whose role restricts access
to that data category.
Note: If data category visibility is defined with roles, permission sets, and profiles, Salesforce uses a logical OR between the
definitions to create a visibility rule for each user.
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Service Cloud Create Data Categories for Articles, Answers, and Ideas
IN THIS SECTION:
How Category Visibility Differs from Other Salesforce Models
These settings are unique to articles and questions and differ from other Salesforce models
Category Group Visibility on Roles
The Category Group Visibility Settings related list summarizes which categories users in the role can see, according to category group.
Modify Default Data Category Visibility
You can edit the default data category visibility.
Edit Category Group Visibility
You can edit your data category visibility.
Category Group Article Visibility Settings Examples
Review examples of category group settings for article visibility permissions.
SEE ALSO:
Sharing Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
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Service Cloud Create Data Categories for Articles, Answers, and Ideas
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Service Cloud Create Data Categories for Articles, Answers, and Ideas
To view role details: View Setup and Configuration Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
To edit and delete roles: Manage Roles
orgs) and Lightning
To edit and delete permission sets and Manage Profiles and Permission Sets Experience
profiles:
Data categories are
To view users: View Setup and Configuration available in all editions with
Knowledge except
To edit users: Manage Internal Users Professional edition.
To view categories: View Data Categories in Setup
Salesforce Knowledge is
To manage data categories: Manage Data Categories available in Essentials and
Unlimited Editions with
AND Service Cloud.
View Data Categories in Setup Salesforce Knowledge is
available for an additional
cost in: Professional,
The Category Group Visibility Settings related list summarizes which categories users in the role Enterprise, Performance,
can see, according to category group. and Developer Editions. For
more information, contact
To view a role's category visibility setting, from Setup, enter Roles in the Quick Find box, then your Salesforce
select Roles, and select a role. To view the category visibility settings for a Customer Portal or partner representative.
portal role, from Setup, enter Users in the Quick Find box, then select Users and click the name
of the role.
The following table explains the possible values in the Visibility column of the related list:
Visibility Description
All Categories Users can see all categories in the category group. This option is
only available for the topmost role in the role hierarchy. When you
create a category group, its visibility is defaulted to All
Categories.
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USER PERMISSIONS
To view categories:
• View Data Categories in
Setup
To manage data categories:
• Manage Data
Categories
AND
View Data Categories in
Setup
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4. Click Save.
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Service Cloud Create Data Categories for Articles, Answers, and Ideas
• For role-based visibility, Customer Portal users and partner portal users inherit the role assigned to their account managers by
default. You can change the category group visibility settings for each portal role.
• Keep your category groups deactivated to set up your category hierarchy and assign visibility. Until you manually activate a
category group, it does not display in Salesforce Knowledge or your answers community
• For role-based visibility, always set up data category visibility in a top-down approach from the top of the role hierarchy down
to the bottom. Give the highest roles the most visibility and give subordinate roles reduced visibility.
– Computers
• Laptops
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• Desktops
• PDAs
– Asia
• China
• Japan
• India
– Europe
• France
• United Kingdom
• Poland
Acme Electronics Role Hierarchy Visible Geographic Categories Visible Product Categories
CEO All Countries All Products
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Acme Electronics Role Hierarchy Visible Geographic Categories Visible Product Categories
VP of Support All Countries All Products
Inherit from CEO Inherit from CEO
Table 32: Example: How Category Visibility Settings Restrict What Users See
Categories When User 1's visibility is When User 2's visibility is When User 3's visibility is
All countries/Computers, America/All products, the France/None, the category
the category is: category is: is:
All countries/Laptop VISIBLE VISIBLE NOT VISIBLE
User 1: The user must be granted visibility in each category that classifies the article, or each category that classifies the article must be
visible by default. In this example, User 1 can see Europe, because Europe is the child of All Countries, but he cannot see Switches,
because Switches does not belong to Computers. That's why User 1 cannot see articles classified with Europe/Switches.
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Service Cloud Sharing for Lightning Knowledge
User 2: When a category is made visible to a user through custom settings or is made visible by default, its child and parent categories
are implicitly included; therefore, User 2 can see articles categorized with All Countries because it is the parent category of America. He
can also see Articles classified with USA because it is the child of America.
User 3: If a user has no access to the whole category group, he can only see articles that are not categorized in that group. User 3 cannot
see the articles categorized with All countries/Laptop because he has no visibility in the category group that includes Laptop, but he
can see articles categorized with Europe/No categories.
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SEE ALSO:
Sharing Settings
Sharing Rules
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Service Cloud Sharing for Lightning Knowledge
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Service Cloud Einstein for Service
Note: The Article Type field differentiates articles in Knowledge for Salesforce Classic, while Lightning Knowledge uses Record
Type.
Limitations
The following Sharing features aren’t available for Knowledge.
• Manual sharing
• Apex sharing
SEE ALSO:
Sharing Settings
Organization-Wide Sharing Defaults
Sharing Rules
Lightning Knowledge User Access
Create Data Categories for Articles, Answers, and Ideas
IN THIS SECTION:
Einstein Bots
Build and manage Einstein Bots to ease the load on your service agents. Bots can handle routine requests and free your agents to
handle more complex issues. Bots can also gather pre-chat information to save your agents time.
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
SEE ALSO:
Einstein Recommendation Builder
Einstein Bots
Build and manage Einstein Bots to ease the load on your service agents. Bots can handle routine
EDITIONS
requests and free your agents to handle more complex issues. Bots can also gather pre-chat
information to save your agents time. Einstein Bots is available in
Salesforce Classic and
IN THIS SECTION: Lightning Experience. Setup
for Einstein Bots is available
First, What’s a Bot?
in Lightning Experience.
Technically speaking, a chatbot or bot is “a computer program which conducts a conversation
via auditory or textual methods.” Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Plan Your Einstein Bot and Developer Editions
Careful planning is essential to making your bot effective and your customers happy.
Get Started with Einstein Bots
On the Einstein Bots setup page, turn on bots, launch the Create an Einstein Bot Wizard, and access your list of bots.
Create an Einstein Bot
You can create an Einstein Bot from a template or from scratch.
What Makes Bots Tick?
Bots have many moving parts. But let’s start with a few fundamental components in Einstein Bots.
Best Practices for Conversation Design
Consider the following points when designing your bot.
Update the Bot Overview Page
The Bot Overview Page defines important bot settings such as channels, profiles, and logging conversations. Get acquainted with
the page to customize your bot.
Deploy Your Bot to Your Channels
View available channels, add new channels, and deploy your bot quickly in your bot’s Overview page.
Understand Einstein Bot Dialogs
A dialog is the workhorse of your bot’s interaction with your customer.
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
IN THIS SECTION:
Can My Bots Sound like My Company?
Every company has a “voice.” Banks and investment companies sound different from toy companies, which sound different from
cosmetic companies...you get the idea.
What Help Do I Need to Get Botting?
The best people to start with are the people you already have—your service agents.
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
Formal company bot “Hello, Ms. Smith. How can we help you?”
We’re exaggerating, of course. But even by customizing your initial greeting, you can make your bots sound like your company from
the get-go.
This plays out in more detailed ways. One key thing you write when building your bots are bot’s messages. They can be customized to
match your company’s voice and tone. So even though you don’t pretend that your bots are humans, you can make them sound an
awful lot like your support agents!
Want some more ideas? Check out how we at Salesforce create our voice in our Writing Style Trailhead module, and our corporate style
guide.
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
Description Limit
Dialogs per bot version 500
Time Limits
Description Limit
Apex action time limit 10 seconds
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
The bot stores different types of data at the Bot Name level versus the Bot Version level. At the Bot Name level, the following data is
available:
• Bot Name: The bot name listed on the Bot Overview page.
• Bot API Name: The API name associated with this bot when it was created.
• Bot Description: A short description of the bot. The description is created in the Wizard and can be edited on the Bot Overview page.
• Channel Association on page 1058: The channel name assigned to this bot on the Bot Overview Page.
• Entities on page 1085: The type of data that you want to collect from a customer.
• Local Intents & Utterances: The utterances used to train this particular bot.
• Intent Sets: groups of common utterances used to train intents over multiple bots.
At the Bot Version level, different data is stored. A team can have multiple versions of a bot, but only one active version at a time.
• Bot Language: The primary language assigned to the bot version in the Wizard.
• Bot Response Delay: The amount of time assigned to the bot to wait in between responses. This setting is on the Bot Overview page.
• Log Conversations: The setting defined on the Bot Overview Page that instructs the bot to log all conversations.
• Bot User: The profile attached to the bot. By default, the profile is the Basic Chatbot User, but if the bot requires access to more
objects, create and assign a custom profile.
• Dialogs on page 1059: The dialogs inside the bot. In the Builder, dialogs are in the Dialogs menu.
• Variables on page 1088: The variables assigned to the bot. Variables are in the Variables section of the Bot Builder.
Reporting on Bot Event Data
• You can use report types to build bot event data into reports. Bot event data can be built into reports by creating custom report
types on the Conversation Definition object.
• The entities that you can use inside report types are in the Bot Data Reference Guide on page 1017.
• Bot session data is available through standard reports. You can add more data such as chat transcripts, messaging sessions, and bot
event logs with access to Tableau CRM.
Bot Session & Event Data Limitations
• An intent set can only be assigned to a single bot intent at a time.
• To move the intent set to another dialog, you can remove the original connection on the Dialog Intent page and then reconnect it
to the new dialog.
• Before you delete a dialog, remove the intent set. If you delete a dialog with an attached intent set, that intent set remains assigned
to that dialog.
• Due to high volume, bot event and session data are only stored for 7 days. You can download this data or copy it to another object
for longer storage.
• Turn off the Log Conversation Data setting on the Bot Overview page if you have concerns about the bot capturing personal identifying
information (PII) of your customers.
Deleting Bot Event Data
Deleting data at the Bot Version level can have unintended ramifications on the data model. For instance, if a dialog is assigned to an
intent set in Version 1 of the Bot and then in Version 2 the dialog is deleted, the intent is still attached to the bot. To back out a dialog
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
intent set from a bot, remove the intent set from the dialog by clicking next to the intent set and clicking Delete. Once removed,
the dialog can be deleted and the intent set can be used elsewhere.
IN THIS SECTION:
Bot Data Reference Guide
A list of bot objects, events, and fields to use when you troubleshoot, develop, or build Einstein Bots.
Field Definition
AbandonedDialogCount The number of dialogs where flow was interrupted by a NLP
request.
ChoiceSelectionCount The number of choices the user made during the session.
GlobalChoiceSelectionCount The number of choices made by the user from the bot options
menu.
LastDialogName Name of the last dialog visited when the session with the bot
ended.
SessionEndTime Conversation Session end time, defined as the time of the last
message exchanged between the user and the bot.
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Field Definition
SessionStartTime Conversation Session start time, defined as the time of the first
message exchanged between the user and the bot.
Field Definition
Channel Type The type of channel in the session.
Example: Chat
Has Error Logs Identifies whether the session includes an error event.
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Field Definition
Session End Type The way that the session ended.
Examples: Ended by End User, Transferred, Session Timed Out,
Error, Action, Other
Session Start Time The start date and time of the session.
Session Transfer Result If a transfer was initiated, the status of the transfer.
Examples: Transfer Successful, Transfer Failed, No Transfer
Requested, No Agents Available
Session Transfer Target Type The destination of the transfer: Agent or Bot
Field Definition
BotDefinitionName The name of the bot.
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Field Definition
SessionEndType Categorizes the way the conversation session ended.
Examples: Action, Ended By End User, Error, Other, Session Timed
Out, or Transferred.
Field Definition
BotDefinitionName The name of the bot.
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
Field Definition
SessionTransferType The origin of the request to transfer.
Examples: Bot Request, Implementation Error, Invocation Timeout,
Insufficient Privileges
Note: Events that end with a colon include merged data specific to the event.
Error Invocation failed - errors: The bot invoked a flow or Apex but there
were errors.
Info Clear Variable: The bot used the Clear Variable Value dialog.
The Variable Name is included in the event
log.
Info External entities extracted The bot was able to successfully extract an
entity from an external source.
Info External intents detected The bot detected intents from an external
source.
Info Intent detected successfully: The bot was able to identify an intent.
Info Intent detection failed The bot was not able to identify an intent.
Info Invocation successful: The bot was able to invoke a flow or Apex.
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
Info Rule condition evaluation The bot is evaluating the customer input
based on the rule conditions.
Info Rule condition item result: False The bot is evaluated the customer input
based on the rule conditions and found it
to not meet those conditions.
Info Rule condition item result: True The bot is evaluated the customer input
based on the rule conditions and found it
to meet those conditions.
Info Sensitive data not available This event shows when the “Store Einstein
Bots conversation data” is not checked.
Info Set Variable The bot used the Set Variable dialog. The
Variable Name is included in the event log.
Info Transferred from bot: The conversation started with a bot transfer.
Info Variable already filled: The bot tried to enter data into a variable
but it was already filled.
The following AnalyticsBotSession fields are retrieved through the ConversationSessionMetrics object:
• LastDialogName can be retrieved by reaching through the LastDialog foreign key on ConversationSessionMetrics and querying the
MasterLabel
• TransferType can be retrieved from BotSessionTransferType on ConversationSessionMetrics
• Bot, BotVersion, BotName, and BotVersionNumber can be retrieved by querying the ConversationDefinition on
ConversationSessionMetrics
• SessionDuration can be retrieved by querying BotSessionDuration on ConversationSessionMetrics
• SessionStartTime can be retrieved by querying BotSessionStartTime on ConversationSessionMetrics
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Note: Users with the Modify Metadata or Customize Application permission have the same access as users with the Manage Bots
and Manage Bots Training Data permission.
Feature-Specific Permissions
Some features require extra permissions. Review the help article assigned to your feature to confirm the required permissions.
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To learn more about compliance, visit the Salesforce Trust site or the Einstein Platform Compliance Available in: Enterprise,
site. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
HIPAA Compliance Steps
1. Encrypt CovnersationDefinitionUtteranceSuggestions (bot training data) in Shield.
USER PERMISSIONS
a. You can set up Shield Platform Encryption using the instructions in Trailhead: Set Up and
Manage Shield Platform Encryption. To build and manage
Einstein Bots:
b. After you enable it, from Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Encryption Policy, then click
• Customize Application
Encrypt Fields, and then click Edit to check the Utterance field.
OR
Note: Learn more about Shield Platform Encryption at How Shield Platform Encryption Modify Metadata
Works.
OR
2. From the Bot Builder, review the utterances inside each dialog intent for Personally Identifiable Manage Bots
Information (PII). Modify or remove any utterances containing PII. To add, edit, or delete
channels
• Customize Application
Note: If you plan to provide a purely menu- or button-driven bot, no need to define customer intents.
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
Note: To use Einstein Bots, the org must have Chat or Messaging licenses. Einstein Bots is available in
Salesforce Classic and
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Einstein Bots, and then select Einstein Bots. Lightning Experience. Setup
for Einstein Bots is available
in Lightning Experience.
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
IN THIS SECTION:
Enable Einstein Bots in a Scratch Org
You can quickly enable Einstein Bots in a scratch org using Salesforce DX.
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
Note: Any use of this beta feature is subject to the Beta Services terms at
https://www.salesforce.com/company/legal/agreements.jsp.
The Intro Template requires extra permissions:
• To deploy a bot using the intro template, your org must have Chat and Messaging enabled.
• To deploy a bot with the Intro Template, a user must have the Manage User Profiles and Permission Sets permission.
• To deploy a bot that checks the status of an Order, your org must have Orders enabled.
The Bot from Scratch is automatically fitted with tools that help create exceptional bot experiences:
• Custom Dialogs with a welcome messages and a prebuilt Main Menu.
• System Dialogs that help close bot conversations or transfer to an agent.
• Entities and Variables to capture customer input with the correct formatting.
• Bot Analytics to measure performance.
You can launch the Guided Setup Flow from the Einstein Bots main page. To build your first bot, click Create a New Bot. Otherwise,
click New.
IN THIS SECTION:
Create an Einstein Bot from Scratch
Create a bot from scratch that includes standard Salesforce system dialogs such as Transfer to Agent and End Chat. This bot is perfect
for Bot admins who want to start with a blank slate.
Create an Einstein Bot from Template (Beta)
Create a bot from the Intro Template to generate a fully featured bot. The Intro Template includes popular Salesforce actions such
as creating a case, creating a lead, looking up an order, or adding a case comment to an existing case. Create a conversational
experience with included intent data.
Clone a Bot
Admins can clone a bot quickly to help with development, or they can create a similar bot for a different use case.
Learn About the Template Bot
Take a deep dive into the Einstein Bot Intro Template. You can learn how to create great bots by reviewing building tips, conversation
design strategies, and bot flow. Create a bot to connect with sales, report an issue, and check the status of an issue or an order.
Deliver Knowledge Articles with Article Answers
Use your Lightning Knowledge base to create an FAQ-based bot in minutes with Article Answers. Using clicks, not code, admins can
set up a bot to return fields from knowledge articles directly in the conversation. You can adjust Article Answers to fit your company’s
voice, surface multiple fields from your knowledge articles, and display a subset of your knowledge articles through the bot via
knowledge data categories. Prebuilt feedback capturing with event logging collects article feedback from your users in real time.
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5. Select the actions to include in your bot. Each action creates a dialog and adds it to the bot Main Menu. Click Next.
6. Select an Embedded Service Deployment for your bot. Each bot requires a unique deployment, and selecting an existing deployment
unlinks it from another bot or chat channel. To link this bot to a Messaging Channel, skip this step and add the channel on the Bot
Overview page.
a. If you don’t link a chat deployment, the Bot Preview page doesn’t automatically work. To set up an Embedded Service Deployment,
view the help article Set Up Your Embedded Chat Deployment on page 623.
b. Each bot must have a unique deployment. Selecting a deployment already in use by another bot or on a live site can disrupt
other services.
7. Click Proceed and then Finish. The system completes the bot creation, starts building the intent model, and enters the Bot Builder
Dialog menu.
Note: The intent model requires a few hours to build in the background. Until the model is built, text input into the bot isn’t
processed for intent. When the Model Management page is updated with metrics, the intent model is ready to use.
Clone a Bot
Admins can clone a bot quickly to help with development, or they can create a similar bot for a
EDITIONS
different use case.
Note: Cloned bots inherit settings from the Bot Overview page. They also inherit intent and Einstein Bots is available in
utterance data from the original bot. After cloning, admins can add channels and build intent Salesforce Classic and
Lightning Experience. Setup
models.
for Einstein Bots is available
1. Navigate to the Bot Setup Page and find the bot in the My Bots list. in Lightning Experience.
2. Click the dropdown and select Clone. Available in: Enterprise,
3. Enter a new Bot Display Name and API name. The bot requires a unique Bot Display Name and Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
API Name for the cloned bot.
4. After you save your work, the Bot Builder opens to the new bot.
USER PERMISSIONS
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The goal of this document is to explain each component and the best practices we used to implement each component. We hope you
use these methods to elevate your own bots, so your customers have a great experience every time. These small steps take good bots
and turn them into great bots.
IN THIS SECTION:
Learn About the Template Bot: Welcome Dialogs
Learn about how the bot kicks off the conversation and guides the end user towards common tasks.
Learn About the Template Bot: Connect with Sales
Build a bot to capture end user information and create a lead record.
Learn About the Template Bot: Report an Issue
You can create cases from bot conversations using the Report an issue dialog and the Create Case dialog.
Learn About the Template Bot: Check Issue Status
The bot uses dialogs such as Check the status of an existing issue, Case look up, Case found, Case not found, and Add case comment
to check the status of a case and add a case comment.
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But even before the greeting, there’s an action dialog step that calls the flow Intro Bot: Get Pre-Chat Context. This action is designed to
get context from the bot’s pre-chat form on page 1028 so the bot can have a more personalized conversation with your users.
Note: Not all bots have pre-chat forms. If your bot’s Embedded Service Deployment on page 624 has pre-chat functionality turned
on, the pre-chat form is shown before the bot.
The Get Pre-Chat Context action gets user details, such as name, email, phone number, and company name. It also pre-creates a case,
contact, or lead, if it exists. The bot then uses this information to skip irrelevant questions and dialogs. For example, if the user already
provided their name, the bot skips the questions asking for first name and last name.
The bot automatically moves from the Welcome dialog to the Main Menu dialog. Here, you see a rule action that calls the Clear Memory
dialog:
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
This dialog clears the values of certain variables to allow users to go back through the bot again. Read more about it in Conversation
Loopback on page 1043.
The first rule covers the scenario where a Lead was created by a pre-chat form. In this scenario, the Available in: Enterprise,
bot displays a message indicating that it already has lead information, and it routes the user to the Performance, Unlimited,
Anything else? dialog so they go back to the Main Menu. and Developer Editions
The second rule covers the scenario where the user has been through the Connect with Sales dialog skill one time and created a lead.
The bot follows the same behavior as the previous scenario, displaying a message and routing to the Anything else? dialog.
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Next, the bot handles the scenario where the information necessary to create a lead has been entered, but a lead hasn’t yet been created.
In this case, the bot still creates a lead, but it skips the step where it asks the user questions to gather information.
The next rule follows a common pattern across dialogs. The bot first calls the Get user info dialog to gather information, and then it calls
the Create Lead dialog to create a lead record using that information.
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Create Lead
Next, let’s look at the Create Lead dialog, where you see an action that invokes a flow to create a lead record:
The Routable Id is also included as an input so that the lead can be attached to the appropriate chat transcript.
Note: The Routable Id is a context variable that is equivalent to the Chat Transcript Id. To learn more about context variables,
check out Using Context and System Variables on page 1090.
The flow also outputs the ID of the created lead record, which is mapped to a bot variable. This way, the bot knows that a lead has been
created, so that it can avoid creating a lead again.
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Similar to the Create Lead dialog, the Create Case dialog also recognizes if information to create a case has been provided. Then the bot
skips the Get user info dialog to ask the end-user questions.
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Create Case
The action dialog step, which creates a case, is built similarly to the Create Lead on page 1032 action. However, this flow also outputs the
case number, so users can reference it later if they want to look up the case.
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The bot also asks for an email address. This check provides an extra layer of security and prevents bad actors from looking up cases if
they were able to obtain only a case number.
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Case look up
Within the Case look up dialog, we invoke a flow that returns a case based on the case number and email. If multiple cases match, the
flow returns the most recent case created.
If the case was found, case details such as subject and status are reported to the user. You can use merge syntax in bot messages to pull
out subject and status fields from the variable that contains the matched case.
Note: Merge syntax can be used across any bot variables on page 1088.
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
The rest of this dialog guides the conversation based on whether the order status variable is filled. If the variable is filled, the bot moves
to the Order Found dialog.
Order Found & Order Not Found
The order number, amount, and status are reported to the user using merge syntax:
The bot then asks the user if they want to update, cancel, or return an order:
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If the variable isn’t filled, the bot moves to the Order Not Found dialog and notifies the customer that the order wasn’t found. Then the
bot transfers to an agent.
Custom entities help validate user responses before they’re stored in bot variables. If bot variables are used to populate data fields,
entities help maintain data quality within Salesforce. For example, a custom email entity is used to capture the user’s email address:
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
If we take a closer look at the email entity, we see that it uses a regular expression (RegEx) to recognize an email format with an @ sign
and domain name:
If the user enters a phrase that doesn’t match the RegEx format, the bot becomes confused and moves to the Confused dialog.
Note: To learn more about how the bot processes free text and when the bot moves to the Confused dialog, see Navigating Bot
Conversations on page 1082.
With custom entities, it’s a good idea to use Conversation Repair on page 1069 to correct an input before defaulting to the Confused
dialog. Conversation repair can provide the user with specific guidance on how to format a response:
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
If no agents are available, the bot automatically routes to the No Agent dialog. A next step is provided, “Unfortunately, no agents are
available right now. Please try again later,” so the user has some guidance on what to do next. The user is also given the option to go
back to the Main Menu.
Note: If no agents are available, we recommend to not end the chat abruptly. To handle the conversation gracefully, set the No
Available Agents system dialog on page 1078.
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
Confused
If the bot doesn’t understand the user at any point in the bot’s conversation, the Confused dialog provides a message. This message is
generic because it must apply to all scenarios where the bot can get confused:
To learn more about when the Confused dialog is called in a bot conversation, visit Navigating Bot Conversations on page 1082.
End Chat
The End Chat dialog gives the user an out in case they don’t want to end the chat. If they respond to the message “Thanks for taking the
time to chat!” with something that doesn’t match the Goodbye entity, the bot sends a conversation repair on page 1069 message. If the
user again responds with an input that doesn’t match the Goodbye entity, they’re redirected to the Main Menu.
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
Exact Matching
The Intro Template comes with intent data preloaded to allow for exact matching to dialogs. At any point in the conversation, the user
can input any one of the utterances to be redirected to the Main Menu:
Similarly, entering one of the Transfer to Agent utterances starts the process of transferring to a human agent. The last thing we want
to replicate is the experience of having to step through a long interactive voice response (IVR) system before you can finally talk to a
human.
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• Article Answers works best with knowledge bases that include more than 10 articles. Available in: Enterprise,
• For best performance inside the conversation, we recommend shorter, conversational answers Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
in the Answer field.
Article Answers is configured on three levels: the Bots Setup Page, the Bot Overview Page, and the
Article Answers dialog. If Article Answers is turned off at the Setup Page, it doesn’t work for any bot USER PERMISSIONS
and the dialog is skipped. If Article Answers is turned off at the Bot Overview page, the dialog is
To build and manage
skipped. To troubleshoot this feature, start at the Bots Setup Page, and then work down to the Einstein Bots:
dialog. • Customize Application
1. To start with Article Answers, visit the bot setup page and click Get Started. OR
Modify Metadata
OR
Manage Bots
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
2. Select the fields and data categories that the bot uses to deliver answers. The bot requires a question field to use as an index to
compare the customer’s question, an answer field to deliver back to the customer as the answer, and a title field to display as a menu
button when there are multiple relevant articles.
Note: The Question, Answer, and Title field selections don’t support rich text fields. Only published articles with values in all
these selected fields are approved for the indexing stage. Article Answers searches successfully indexed articles.
3. Click Build. The bot indexes the knowledge base for approved articles and creates a build of the approved articles. It can take up to
24 hours to create the initial build.
4. To view the status of the build, check back to the Bot Setup Page in a few hours. When complete, the feature shows an Active status.
5. You can create and assign Knowledge Data Category Segments to your bots and display a subset of articles to specific audiences.
To assign categories to the segment, define a Segment Name and select multiple data categories. To include uncategorized articles
in the segment, check Include Uncategorized Articles then save your changes.
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6. When Article Answers is active, the build refreshes every 24 hours to capture the latest updates to the knowledge base. You can
manually refresh at any time using the Refresh button on the Setup page.
7. From the Bot Setup page, select the bot you want to configure, and then use the menu dropdown to access the Overview page.
8. In the Article Answers tile, click the pencil icon to edit the tile, and then check Use Article Answers with this bot.
9. Use the dropdowns to select a Knowledge Data Category Segment or additional fields to deliver along with the Answer field. Click
the checkmark to save.
10. Confirm Store Einstein Bots conversation data is checked, and select a Custom Chatbot User that has view access to knowledge
articles.
11. In the Menu dropdown, select Dialogs, and then click the Article Answers dialog. The Article Answers dialog is pre-configured to
work with your bot, but can be customized to your company’s needs.
Note: To maintain functionality, we recommend keeping the Answer Results pre-populated variable in the Input (List Variable)
field.
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12. After the bot delivers the answer to the customer, the bot asks the customer if the answer was helpful. The Action dialog step after
the Question dialog step comes pre-defined with variables to collect this feedback. Click Activate.
To test this feature inside your bot, activate a bot with an assigned channel and ensure that the bot user has access to Knowledge.
The bot follows the order set in Navigating Bot Conversations on page 1082 and inserts the Article Answers functionality after exact Menu
matching and Intent Recognition. If the bot doesn’t find an exact menu title match and doesn’t identify an intent, the bot searches for
a Knowledge article.
If the bot is confident the customer’s input text is related to an article, the bot displays the Answer field or the Title field. If multiple articles
are found, the bot displays the Title field for up to three articles in a menu. Otherwise, the bot moves to the Confused dialog. If the bot
doesn’t deliver an answer, check the Bot Event Logs in the Performance tab. If Article Answers is successfully configured, events in the
event log are recorded with the Article Answers dialog name.
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Variable A variable is a container that stores a specific If your bot books a flight for a customer, you
piece of data collected from the customer might create the entity, Airport Code, with
or output from Salesforce. Since variables two variables, Departure Airport Code and
are containers of information, they can be Arrival Airport Code.
used within dialog actions as both inputs
and outputs and can be inserted as part of
the text in messages.
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Takes communication turns with the user. Bot says: “Hi, I’m Helpful Bot, your support assistant.”
Customer says: “I need to do a return.”
Bot says: “Sure, I can help you with your return.”
Leaves time for the user to read what it says. Use the Bot Response Delay setting on your bot’s
Overview page to pace your bot’s responses.
Creates a path for follow-ups. If no agents are available, provide an alternative way for
the customer to get help. For example, provide an email
link, a phone number, or store locations.
Apologizes when it can’t do something. Bot says, “Sorry about this, but we aren’t set up for deliveries
just yet.”
Draws attention to buttons or menus. Bot says, “Here are some things you can do:”
Shop
Check Order Status
Connect to an Agent
Addresses the customer by name. Hi, Ariana. How can I help you?
Uses menus to help the customer get Bot says, “Welcome! What would you like to do today?”
started. Shop
Check Order Status
Get Store Locations and Hours
Uses quick replies to help user end a Bot asks, “Does this answer your question?”
conversational path. Yes
No
Acknowledges trouble in chat. Bot says, “Let me get someone who can help you.”
Has a clear voice and tone that is consistent Default bot greeting “Hi! I’m your helpful bot.”
with that of your company.
Formal company bot “Hello, Ms. Smith. How can we help
you?”
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Collects customer feedback about the Bot asks, “How was this experience for you?”
interaction with the bot. Great!
Not so great.
IN THIS SECTION:
Maintain Chatbot Conversation Quality
The best industry chatbots include graceful solutions to error handling. Einstein Bots has many features to ensure data quality without
creating frustration.
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USER PERMISSIONS
1. From the Einstein Bot setup page, click the name of your bot to launch the Bot Builder.
2. To access the Bot Overview page, select the Overview menu.
IN THIS SECTION:
View and Edit Your Bot’s Name and Description
When you create a new bot, you give it a name and an optional description that’s not visible to customers. These details can be
changed.
Add a Bot Profile
Expand a bot’s capabilities and give it access to features like Field Service by assigning it a custom profile. Each bot has a Basic Chatbot
User profile, but you can create a custom profile and add it to a bot.
Create a Bot for a Specific Language
Your customers are global, and they expect bots to understand their questions in their native language. Like humans, bots must
know how a language works to truly recognize what your customers say. Bots use natural language processing (NLP) and named
entity recognition (NER) to understand language and local details such as dates, currency, or number formatting. Einstein Bots that
use a specific language can better understand the customer and route to the correct dialog.
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3. Update the name and description for your bot as needed. USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
Einstein Bots support natural language processing and named entity recognition for the following Available in: Enterprise,
languages with at least 50 utterances per intent: Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
• Chinese Simplified
• Chinese Traditional
USER PERMISSIONS
• Dutch
• Japanese To build and manage
Einstein Bots:
• Russian
• Customize Application
In addition, the following languages are in beta with at least 50 utterances per intent:
OR
• Danish Modify Metadata
• Korean OR
• Swedish Manage Bots
Note: The beta languages are defined as a Beta Service. Customer may opt to try such Beta
Service in its sole discretion. Any use of the Beta Service is subject to the applicable Beta
Services Terms provided at Agreements and Terms.
Einstein Bots intent models can be built with as few as 20 utterances in the following languages:
• Brazilian Portuguese
• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Portuguese
• Spanish
Einstein Bots doesn’t support right-to-left text.
To set a language for the bot:
1. From setup, enter Einstein Bots in the Quick Find to select Einstein Bots.
2. Click New.
3. Select the type of bot to build. Click Next.
4. Select the bot's default language.
5. Click Next and complete the setup steps.
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To set the language outside of the Setup Wizard, edit the Bot Overview section of the Overview menu.
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3. Select the channel and search for the deployment for your bot.
Note: Chat users can enter the name of their chat deployment in the Deployment field, and Messaging users can enter their
channel name. Bots search for active Messaging channels.
4. To disable the chat button when no agents are available for escalation, select Require Agent Online.
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in the Main Menu dialog. We provide a Main Menu dialog to get you started but you can create your own and use the action menu
(5) to set it to Main Menu.
• We provide some basic dialogs to get you started (6). Edit them as needed.
Note: The Confused dialog helps you smoothly address requests that are out of scope for your bot. The messages displayed
in this dialog, combined with intent training, are used by the bot to respond whenever it’s unable to resolve a customer’s
input.
Design the way the dialog works by adding one or more of the following elements. Send an outgoing message from the bot to your
customers using the Message element. Help the bot gather information from your customers using Question elements. Perform actions
on your Salesforce data using Action elements. Perform specific tasks based on certain conditions using Rules elements.
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Question Gathers information from your customer. What town do you live in?
Also, Question elements let you present
choices for customer responses as buttons
or menus.
Tip: Spot each conversation’s turns, references, and rule conditions with an easy-to-use visual representation. Build and create
dialogs in Dialog Details, then switch to Map to see the conversation’s configuration and framework. Dialog Map is read-only, so
you can’t create or update dialogs from it.
IN THIS SECTION:
Add a Dialog
Name the dialog and decide whether to include it in the Bot Options menu that’s always available to your customers in the chat
window.
Set Up a Dialog
After you add a dialog, set it up by adding elements (outgoing message, question, action, rules) and tell the bot what to do after
the dialog finishes. If you’re using intents, train the bot to understand the customer intent associated with the dialog.
Clone a Dialog or Dialog Step
Cloning a dialog is a quick way to build your bot. Dialog step cloning helps you set up similar dialog steps with fewer clicks.
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Add a Dialog
Name the dialog and decide whether to include it in the Bot Options menu that’s always available
EDITIONS
to your customers in the chat window.
Note: Dialogs are specific to the version of the bot in which they’re created. Einstein Bots is available in
Salesforce Classic and
1. From the Bot Builder menu, click Dialogs. Lightning Experience. Setup
for Einstein Bots is available
in Lightning Experience.
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
Set Up a Dialog
After you add a dialog, set it up by adding elements (outgoing message, question, action, rules)
EDITIONS
and tell the bot what to do after the dialog finishes. If you’re using intents, train the bot to understand
the customer intent associated with the dialog. Einstein Bots is available in
1. From the Bot Builder menu, click Dialogs. Salesforce Classic and
Lightning Experience. Setup
for Einstein Bots is available
in Lightning Experience.
USER PERMISSIONS
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3.
To add an element to the dialog, click to display the element palette. Then click the element that you want to add.
4. When the bot finishes a dialog, it can wait for customer input and evaluate the intent, show a menu of options, start another dialog,
or transfer the customer to an agent. Tell the bot what to do next.
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Note: Each menu item is a dialog. You can build a menu to display or display the Main Menu dialog.
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up a Dialog Message Element
Use the Message element to send a message from the bot to your customer.
Using the Dialog Question Element
Question elements allow bots to ask the customer questions, receive data from the customer, and inform the bot about what action
to take next.
Set Up a Dialog Action Element
Use Action elements to run autolaunched flows and send emails. Action elements also enable your bot to use Apex to create, read,
update, or delete Salesforce objects, retrieve data and display it to the customer, and retrieve external data from a third-party API.
Set Up a Dialog Rule Element
Use rules to specify the conditions that start any of the following actions: call a dialog from within the current dialog, redirect to a
different dialog, clear a variable value, transfer to an agent, and set a variable. Use rules to send targeted messages to your customers
with Conditional Messaging. Rule conditions are optional.
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SEE ALSO:
Set Up a Dialog
• Choices provide the customer with a set of options. Some of the benefits of selecting choices Modify Metadata
include consistent data, a quicker setup, and ease of use from the customer’s perspective. OR
Choose static options that are delivered the same way every time or dynamically generated Manage Bots
options from a flow, Apex, or list variable. Choices don’t allow for text input.
– Set Up a Dialog Question Element with Choice Responses
• Text allows customers to enter unstructured data and allows the bot to act on it. For example, to capture an email address or order
number. Text responses are more complex to set up because we don't know the customer response. However, we include features,
such as Conversion Repair, to help the bot handle input errors gracefully.
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Question elements also require a great understanding of Entities and Variables, as the bot must know where to place this data and in
the correct format.
• What’s an Entity?
• What’s a Variable?
Finally, the bot must know what to do with the data. Bots can act on this information through Dialog Action elements, or through Dialog
Rule elements. Actions refer to Salesforce-related functions, such as launching a flow or Apex. Rules handle conversation-specific actions,
such as routing inside the bot.
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up a Dialog Question Element with Choice Responses
Use the Question element to gather information from your customers by offering them clickable choices.
Set Up a Dialog Question Element with Text Responses
Use the Question element to gather information from your customers using text input.
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Einstein Bots
2. Enter the question from your bot to the customer in the Bot Asks field.
Note: You can call standard fields in standard objects using the {!FieldName} format found in Object Manager. For custom
fields, use the Field Name and include __c at the end: {!CustomField__c}. To call a specific record, use {!Record.Field}.
To call an item in a list variable, use FieldName[X], with X referring to the location of the item in the list. Einstein Bots uses a
zero-based index with list variables, you can call the first item of the list using FieldName[0].
3. Select or create an entity that matches the information you want to gather and a variable to store the answer.
4. Tell the bot what to do if the variable already contains a value. Conversations that use the same dialog multiple times can retain the
value and skip the question (for example, asking for the customer’s name). Or, the bot can ask the question and override the value
(for example, looking up multiple orders).
5. To present buttons or menus that let your customers answer questions quickly, click Choice Type - Static. We recommend that
you limit choices to three.
6. To change the way the choices are displayed to the customer, click Display Choices As. You can offer choices as buttons or as menu
items. Customers can reply by clicking the static option or by replying with 1, 2, or 3.
• If the bot is delivered over SMS, display options aren’t clickable and the customer must enter 1, 2, or 3.
7. Optionally, you can offer dynamically created choices based on the output of a selected action. You can create an Apex action or a
Flow that returns a list of a list of values, or introduce a list variable that holds a list of values. The merge field syntax for objects is
{!Field}. To select your Action Type (Apex, Flow, or List Variable), click Dynamic, and then select your Apex, Flow, or List Variable
from the dropdown provided.
• Define the action if the dynamic list generates only one choice. The bot can skip the question and auto-select the choice, or the
bot can ask the question and display the choice (useful in situations requiring confirmation).
• Dynamic Choices require an Error Rule Action in case the dynamic choice generation fails. Select Call Dialog or Redirect to
Dialog, and then define the appropriate dialog.
• When using Flow as the Action Type, the variable created to collect the output of the flow must be designated as a List Variable.
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SEE ALSO:
Add a Custom Entity
Set Up a Dialog Rule Element
Use Intents to Understand Your Customers
Set Up a Dialog
Note: If the customer input doesn't match the entity used to collect the question's answer, the bot attempts intent prediction.
If the customer’s input leads to an intent identification, it will redirect to the new dialog. If the bot isn’t able to identify an intent,
it executes Conversation Repair. If the bot is unable to identify an intent and Conversation Repair isn’t set, the bot calls the “Confused”
dialog.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Introduce Object Search in a Dialog
Deliver records from standard or custom objects to your Einstein Bot to create an integrated bot experience. Using a Question dialog
step and Action dialog step, the bot can deliver one, two, or three records that match the end user’s search criteria.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up a Dialog
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2.
To add an Action dialog step, click the icon and select Object Search as the Action Type. Select your object in the Object field.
The functionality differs slightly depending on the object selected.
Object Search (except Knowledge object)
a. Enter your Search Criteria. Object Search supports AND searches where all the criteria is met, and it supports OR searches, where
any of the criteria are met.
b. Enter your delivery options in the Results section. The bot can deliver up to three records and hold three fields for each record.
c. Set an object list variable for the bot to store the results in the Search Results Variable field.
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Note:
• Object search with the Knowledge object is best used to define exactly when you want the bot to search Knowledge
articles. To automatically search for knowledge articles when a customer inputs text into the bot, use Answer Automation
(Pilot).
• Object search with the Knowledge object is supported for Lightning Knowledge only, and it isn’t supported with Knowledge
in Salesforce Classic.
a. Select the text variable that the bot uses to search Knowledge articles. If you’re using object search with a question element,
select the variable used to store the customer’s response. Otherwise, you can use the Last Customer Input system variable on
page 1090.
b. Define the number of results delivered back to the customer and the fields stored from each record. Select the object list variable
that you want to use to store these records.
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3. To define the bot’s action in case it doesn’t find any results, build a Rule dialog step. Set the condition to check if the number of
results in the search results variable is less than one. If no results are found, redirect to a dialog of your choosing, such as creating a
case, or to the Confused dialog.
Note: We recommend letting the customer know that their search wasn’t successful. Adding a friendly message before the
redirect keeps the customer informed and builds trust.
4. To deliver the results to the end user, add a Question dialog step and enter a message. Select an object list variable to save the
selection.
Note: You can call standard fields in standard objects using the {!FieldName} format found in Object Manager. For custom
fields, use the Field Name and include __c at the end: {!CustomField__c}. To call a specific record, use {!$Record.Field}.
To call an item in a list variable, use FieldName[X], with X referring to the location of the item in the list. Einstein Bots uses
a zero-based index with list variables, you can call the first item of the list using FieldName[0].
d. For the Input (List Variable) field, select the Object list variable used as the result variable in the search step. For Error Rule, set a
redirect to the Confused dialog.
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5. To deliver the contents of the article to the customer, add a Message dialog step and include the field names using merge syntax.
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3. To define what happens when the conditions are true, click Add Rule Action.
Rule actions are:
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• Call Dialog: Retains the context of the conversation and returns the conversation back to the original dialog after the second
dialog is completed.
– If a Redirect to Dialog is used within a call condition, the Call Dialog chain ends and the Redirect to Dialog continues.
– If an intent is detected, the Call Dialog chain ends and the dialog associated with the intent is started.
– We recommend no more than five Call Dialogs in a chain.
• Redirect to Dialog: Interrupts the current dialog and starts another dialog.
– In cases where a Confused system dialog is used, add Redirect to Dialog as a new dialog step within the Confused Dialog.
This step moves the conversation flow forward instead of using an action in the Next Step section.
– Unlike Call Dialog, Redirect to Dialog is a one-way transfer to the new dialog.
• Clear Variable Value: Changes the variable that you specify to an unset state.
• Transfer to Agent: Escalates the chat session to an agent.
• Set Variable: Copies the contents of a context variable into a variable that you define.
• Set Routing Type: Routes the chat session to a specialized queue that you define as a context variable. Use this action to transfer
to the right agent or queue by overriding the default queue on chat buttons for Chat (Live Agent) or the channel ID for Messaging.
• End Chat: Ends the bot conversation.
• Send a Message: Sends a message to the customer. This rule action is useful for providing directed messaging based on a
customer’s input.
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Note: Rule actions fire in the order shown. To change the order, drag the rule actions and save the dialog.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up a Dialog
What’s an Entity?
USER PERMISSIONS
3. Enter a new dialog name and API name. The bot requires a unique Dialog Name and API Name To build and manage
for the cloned dialog. Einstein Bots:
• Customize Application
4. If intent is enabled on your dialog, you can choose the destination of the intent data. You can
choose to keep utterances and intent sets in the original dialog or move to the cloned dialog. OR
Modify Metadata
OR
Manage Bots
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USER PERMISSIONS
Give the dialog group a name and API name and then save the new group. Drag existing dialogs into or out of this group. You
can assign new dialogs to this group when you create them.
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The dialog group is removed and any dialogs that were in the group become ungrouped dialogs in the Dialogs panel. Drag
them to other dialog groups as needed.
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No Available Agents The system dialog sends a message to the end user if no agents
are available. This feature supports Chat and Messaging (SMS)
channels only.
In Chat, the bot checks to see if agents are available in the default
queue attached to the channel before transferring the conversation.
If all agents assigned to the queue are unavailable, a custom
message is sent to the customer. You can edit channels on the Bot
Overview Page.
Bots using Messaging channels check the business hours attached
to the channel. The bot sends a message to the end user if an
incoming message arrives outside business hours.
Transfer to Agent This action dialog automatically transfers the conversation from a
bot to an agent in the queue attached to the Chat deployment.
You can edit chat deployments on the Bot Overview Page.
Welcome The first dialog that your bot sends to your customer interacting
with a bot. This dialog is represented with the Home icon and
allows for a customized message.
IN THIS SECTION:
Setting System Bot Dialogs
System Bot Dialogs help guide the bot through the conversation flow, and you can assign custom dialogs as system dialogs to
customize the experience.
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• Between the plus and minus buttons is a Zoom to View button, which snaps the view to a closer format.
• To switch to the Detail View for that dialog, click a dialog inside the Map View.
• To view the tree for a specific dialog, use the dropdown in the top right of the Map View.
• Map View is fully functional with screen readers.
Map View Keystroke Commands:
• You can use the up, down, left, and right keys to move through the bot with a keyboard.
• Use F6 to navigate between nodes, the dialog dropdown, and the zoom buttons.
• To navigate into a call node, press Shift+Right. To return, press Shift+Left.
• To return to the parent of a call, press Shift+Left.
• Use the Tab key to move between trees and access the zoom buttons.
• Use the Enter key or the spacebar to expand/collapse a dialog or use the zoom buttons.
Map View Visual References:
Icon Description
The starting dialog for the bot.
A dialog.
A rule action dialog step inside a dialog. Hover over the image to
view the rule step conditions.
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Note: Successful, repeatable intent matches rely on balanced and robust intent models. If the model is unbalanced, your bot
transfers to an unintended intent. Use the Bot Event Logs on page 1125 to identify when an intent match occurred inside a
conversation and review the Intent Management on page 1100 section to better understand how to build a successful model.
3. If the bot has configured Article Answers, the bot searches knowledge articles using the free text to identify a match. If the bot is
confident the customer’s input text is related to an article, the bot displays the Answer field or the Title field. If multiple articles are
found, the bot displays the Title field for up to three articles.
4. Confused Dialog on page 1078: If the text input doesn’t match any of the above, the bot moves to the Confused dialog. The confused
dialog sends a message and then returns to the start of the dialog step where the bot became confused.
a. The bot skips the Next Steps section inside the Confused dialog, because the Confused dialog is always called. Instead, the bot
returns to the beginning of the original dialog. If the bot is confused within a question element, the bot follows the question
element order.
Note: Adding a pause element to a flow doesn’t cause the bot to pause and wait for an event to resume the flow. The bot
continues with the flow outputs that come out of the flow invocation until the moment the flow is paused.
Dialog Question Element on page 1066: All dialog question elements follow this specific order:
1. Named Entity Recognition (NER): The bot checks if the free text is recognizable as the entity data type defined in the Entity Name
field.
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a. Recognize and save from customer input: If checked, the bot reviews the free text that triggered the intent originally for an entity
match and skips the question if a match is found. Example: If a customer says “I’d like to check on order 12345”, the bot skips
the question asking for the order number and saves it to the Order Number variable.
2. Intent Recognition on page 1100: If NER fails and intent is enabled, the bot reviews the free text and redirects to an intent if the bot
is confident that the text is a match to a specific intent.
3. Conversation Repair on page 1069: If NER and Intent Recognition both fail, or if Intent Recognition is not enabled, the bot executes
any Conversation Repair messages defined in the question.
a. Up to two repair attempts are delivered, and then the bot follows the setting defined in What should the bot do next?. The bot
either repeats the original question and the Repair Attempts until entity recognition is achieved (and fill the variable), or moves
to the next dialog step without filling the variable.
4. Confused Dialog on page 1078: If no Entity or Intent is recognized, and Conversation Repair is not configured, the bot calls the Confused
dialog, and then returns to the start of the last dialog step to ask the question again.
Dialog Rule Element on page 1074: The following actions exist within Dialog Rules:
• Call Dialog: Call dialogs act as a loop — the bot returns back to the original dialog after the call is complete. These dialog steps retain
the context of the conversation. Call Dialogs are ideal in use cases that require reusing dialogs in a conversation, such as user
authentication, or collecting user feedback.
– When a dialog is called, the Next Step section at the end of the dialog isn’t triggered.
– We recommend no more than five Call Dialogs in a chain.
– If a Redirect to Dialog is invoked inside a Call Dialog, the Call Dialog chain ends and the Redirect to Dialog continues.
– If an intent is detected, the Call Dialog chain ends and the dialog associated with the intent is started.
• Redirect to Dialog: Redirects are a one-way transfer to another dialog. Redirects are best used when you want to branch the bot
conversation based on conditions in the conversation— a bot collecting RSVPs provides different messages depending on how the
customer responds.
• Clear Variable Value: Removes any previous value from a specific variable.
– For bots that run through a dialog multiple times within one conversation we recommend that you include Clear Variable Value
at the first dialog rule step.
– If Clear Variable Value is not used, the bot retains the old value and moves on to the next dialog step. Because the variable is
already filled, any question asked is skipped.
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• Transfer: Requires a value, for example, Queue ID, to be set in a variable to complete the transfer.
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2. In the Settings area, select the pencil icon to edit the delay from the default number of seconds
to a precise number of seconds between each message. To save your changes, click the
checkmark.
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What’s an Entity?
An entity represents a type of data that you want to collect from a customer. We provide the
EDITIONS
following system entities: Text, Number, Boolean, Date, DateTime, Object (standard or custom),
and Currency. You can create your own custom entities as needed. Einstein Bots is available in
Restricting the type of data that can be input into a field is crucial for data integrity. In Salesforce Salesforce Classic and
objects, fields are defined by an included Field Type, which describes the type of data stored inside Lightning Experience. Setup
the field. In Einstein Bots, the Data Type and the Field are separated into two: an entity and a variable. for Einstein Bots is available
Entities store the type of data that you want to store and can be shared across multiple variables in Lightning Experience.
or versions of the same bot. Available in: Enterprise,
When you use a Question element to gather information from a customer, you specify the entity Performance, Unlimited,
to look for in the customer input. You also specify a variable to store the information the bot finds. and Developer Editions
The bot examines the customer input for the entity you specify, and stores the information in the
variable you specify.
System Entities and Custom Entities
Einstein Bots includes system entities, which are defined by the data type. They’re intentionally generic so you can reuse them frequently
across your bot. For example, using the Text system entity accepts any and all text that the customer inputs in response to a question.
If your variable must be more specific, you can create custom entities to further define the data stored. Custom entities can have the
data type of Text, Number, Boolean, Date, DateTime, and Currency.
Entities and Conversation Repair
Entity extraction is helpful when used with Conversation Repair on page 1069. If a customer response doesn’t match the entity format,
you can provide extra messages to help the customer correct the formatting.
Boolean Entities
Boolean Entities define yes or no answers. When selected, bots look for words, emoji, or phrases that commonly refer to either yes or
no. You can include static choices to encourage the end user to pick one, but if they type instead, the bot filters that text through the
boolean entity parameter.
If the bot can’t identify yes or no from the input, the text is categorized as a neutral response.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Add a Custom Entity
Create custom entities to gather information that matches a regex pattern or list of synonym values.
Add a Value List Entity
A value list entity provides a way to extract the entity if there is an exact match to a value or a synonym in a list of values.
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What’s a Variable?
A variable is a container that stores a specific piece of data collected from the customer or output
EDITIONS
from Salesforce. Since variables are containers of information, they can be used within dialog actions
as both inputs and outputs and can be inserted as part of the text in messages. Einstein Bots is available in
There are three types of variables in the Einstein Bot builder: Custom, Context, and System. Create Salesforce Classic and
custom variables to store information gathered from your customers. Use context variables to create Lightning Experience. Setup
channel-independent bots. Use the system variable to capture the last customer input with the for Einstein Bots is available
bot. Variables are specific to the version of the bot in which they’re created. in Lightning Experience.
Note: Variables can be inserted in bot messages and questions using standard merge syntax. Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
The following types are available for custom variables. and Developer Editions
• Text
• Number
• Boolean
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• Object
• Date
• DateTime
• Currency
• Id
Object type variables store full records with fields. For example, use a flow to retrieve a contact record. Store the record in an object type
variable. Then access one of the fields, such as “Name”. Id is a text type variable with restricted character count.
IN THIS SECTION:
Add a Custom Variable
Create custom variables to store information gathered from your customers.
Using Context and System Variables
Use context and system variables to access important information during your bot conversation. Context variables let your bot gather
customer information regardless of channel. System variables show back-end information about conversations.
USER PERMISSIONS
SEE ALSO:
What’s a Variable?
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For example, if the bot conversation uses Chat, the Contact Id is read from the LiveChatTranscript Available in: Enterprise,
object. If the conversation uses Messaging, the Contact Id is read from the MessagingEndUser object Performance, Unlimited,
tied to the MessagingSession object. and Developer Editions
Bots can reference multiple objects in Salesforce to determine who your customer is. If a Contact
Id exists, you can use the Contact Id context variable with a Flow or Apex. This method outputs the
Contact First Name, Last Name, and any other field.
We provide the following context variables:
• Chat Key: The Chat Key is the session ID of the chat transcript. It can be used to reference an order or a case, and it can also access
custom fields created on the chat transcript record. Use the Chat Key to pass information to Apex or a flow.
• Contact Id: Use the Contact ID when a known contact has been matched in the session to access more fields.
– With Messaging, the ContactId context variable in Bot Builder is filled if an agent has previously linked the Messaging User and
Contact. This variable is tied to the MessagingEndUser.ContactId field. The link is made when an agent receives a link notification
on page 533 or through Channel-Object Linking on page 785. The ContactId variable is null the first time a Messaging user
contacts an agent, or for the returning Messaging user who has only encountered a bot.
• End User Id: To find information about the customer using your Messaging channel with your bot, use the End User Id context
variable from the Einstein Bot builder. With Flow or APEX, you can use the End User Id to look up the Messaging user’s Contact Id.
• Routable Id: If you’re using a pre-chat form in embedded Chat, the Routable Id gives you access to the LiveChatTranscript record
for the current bot session. From there, you can look up the Contact Id and Lead Id fields.
Context variables are identified with [Context] tags before the variable name. Use context variables as inputs for dialog actions.
Label API Data Chat Channel Field Chat Omni-Channel Field Messaging Channel Field Mapping
Name Type Mapping Mapping
Chat Key ChatKey Text LiveChatTranscript.ChatKey LiveChatTranscript.ChatKey Not applicable
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Label API Data Chat Channel Field Chat Omni-Channel Field Messaging Channel Field Mapping
Name Type Mapping Mapping
Routable RoutableId ID Not applicable LiveChatTranscript.Id MessagingSession.Id
Id
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You can also use the Last Customer Input system variable in dialog rule conditions.
Like other Einstein Bot variables, you can merge context and system variables into bot messages with merge syntax. For custom fields,
use the Field Name and include __c at the end: {!CustomField__c}. To call a specific record, use {!Record.Field}. To call an item in a list
variable, use FieldName[X], with X referring to the location of the item in the list. Einstein Bots uses a zero-based index with list variables,
you can call the first item of the list using FieldName[0].
{!$System.LastCustomerInput}
{!$Context.ContactId}
{!VariableName}
IN THIS SECTION:
Create Custom Context Variables
Context variables for the contact are included, but you can create any type of context variable to use in your bot implementation.
Use context variables for product names, store locations, referral URLs, or items in a customer’s shopping cart.
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Note: Custom context variables must have a Data Type of Text, Number, or ID.
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4. To open the variable detail page, click the variable name. To create a variable mapping, click New.
5. To map to the variable, select the Channel and the Field. Save your changes. The mapping shows with the channel and the API name
of the mapped field.
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If you use the Dialog Rule Element, you can transfer bot conversations to a queue. Set the variable with the queue's ID, and then
initiate a transfer.
4.
Click between dialog elements and select Rules.
5. In Rule Action, select Set Routing Type.
6. In the Route Type field, select Queue. In the Route Source field, select the queue that you want to transfer to. In the Destination
Variable field, select the ID variable that you created.
7. Click Add Rule Action.
8. In the Rule Action field, select Transfer. In the Destination Variable field, select the ID variable set in the previous step.
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3. For the Data Type, select ID. For the SObject Type, select Bot. To build and manage
Einstein Bots:
4. Click Save.
• Customize Application
After the variable is created, you can use the Dialog Rule Element to set the transfer.
OR
5. Modify Metadata
Click between dialog elements and select Rules to add a Dialog Rule Element.
OR
6. In Rule Actions, select Set Routing Type.
Manage Bots
7. In the Route Type field, select Bot. In the Route Source field, select the destination bot. In the
Destination Variable field, select the ID variable that you created.
8. Click Add Rule Action.
9. In the Rule Action field, select Transfer. In the Destination Variable field, select the ID variable set in the previous step.
10. Click Save.
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1. In your bot, create a list variable with the data type of ID. Set the SObject Type to Skill.
2. To add a set of skill IDs to a list, create an Apex class. We recommend adding the list of Skill IDs as a comment for reference.
global with sharing class GetSkillsIdsAction {
@InvocableMethod(label='Get Skills Ids' description='Return Ids of Skills')
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/*
* 18 char Skills Ids in the org:
*
* Dutch - 0C5RM000000028I0AQ
* French - 0C5RM000000028D0AQ
* Spanish - 0C5RM000000026R0AQ
*/
skillsIds.add('0C5RM000000028I0AQ');
skillsIds.add('0C5RM000000026R0AQ');
3. In the Einstein Bot Builder, add an Action Dialog Step to call the Apex class and set the skills IDs in the bot variable.
4. Add a Rule Dialog Step without conditions. In the Rule Action, select to Transfer to the bot variable.
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Note: Exact Matching is case-sensitive, so include all available spellings and capitalizations in the utterance to ensure a good
match.
The best way to identify when you’re ready to move to an intent model is to view your chat logs. What common phrases are your
customers asking the bot? It's likely that they're asking the bot the same questions that they're asking your agents. If the utterances
apply to a task that you feel the bot can handle, such as canceling an appointment, they’re likely great additions to the intent model.
You’re ready to build an intent model when you think you have enough utterances, or can create enough utterances, to outfit three to
five intents.
Note: Identifying the right number of utterances at the beginning can be difficult. A minimum of 20 utterances per intent is
required to build the model, but more utterances make the model more accurate.
Building an Intent Model
Start by identifying dialogs that are great candidates for building your intent model. Intent models are made up of multiple intents,
which have many utterances assigned to each intent. Here’s some important information to know when starting your intent model:
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Note: Chat data and event logs are only available for the last 7 days. If you want to extend the maintenance longer than a weekly
cadence, we recommend that you download the data or migrate it to a separate object.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Use Exact Matching for Intents
Turn on Exact Matching for intents that have too few utterances to be included in the intent model. These case-sensitive phrases
allow the bot to recognize a common intent and route accordingly.
Creating, Storing, and Managing Intent Data
Bots have two sets of data: the data around events and the data around intents. Event data refers to the things that happen inside
bot conversations. Intent data refers to the data used to train the model so your bot understands your customers. To create a robust
bot, you must have a strategy for handling both data sets.
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turned
. f fo
2. Add utterances to the intent by selecting the Dialog Intent submenu. You can add utterances manually, or you can use an Einstein
Intent Set through the Intent Set section. The total count of utterances (manual and from intent sets) is listed in the top-right corner
of the page.
Dialogs with Exact Match have an icon signifying that Exact Matching is enabled.
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Note: You must have Version 47 or higher of the Data Loader to access the Intent Utterance Einstein Bots is available in
object. Salesforce Classic and
Lightning Experience. Setup
1. To enable intents for a dialog, click Enable Dialog Intent. for Einstein Bots is available
2. Create a three-column CSV file with the following headers: MlDomainName, MlIntentName, in Lightning Experience.
and Utterance. When uploading directly to a bot, MIDomainName (Capital M, lowercase l) refers Available in: Enterprise,
to the bot API name and MIIntentName (Capital M, lowercase l) refers to the dialog API name. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
USER PERMISSIONS
3. Log into Data Loader, and click Insert. After authentication, click Show all Salesforce objects. To build and manage
Einstein Bots:
• Customize Application
OR
Modify Metadata
OR
Manage Bots
6. To save your success and error files, select a directory. Click Finish.
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4. Log into Data Loader, and click Insert. After authentication, click Show all Salesforce objects.
5. Select Intent Utterance (MlIntentUtterance) as the Object, and then click Browse to select your CSV file.
6. To map your fields to MlDomainName, MlIntentName, and Utterance, click Map Fields. Click Next.
7. Select the directory where your success and error files are saved. Click Finish.
8. Return to the Bot Builder, and select the dialog you want to add the intent data. In the Intent Sets section, click Add Intent.
9. Select your intent from the list then save your changes.
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Note: Starting in Summer ’21, utterances are assigned to languages. If utterances exist in Einstein Bots is available in
your org before Summer ’21, they’re identified as an unassigned language. All new utterances Salesforce Classic and
Lightning Experience. Setup
require a language, and we recommend that you assign languages to any existing unassigned
for Einstein Bots is available
utterances.
in Lightning Experience.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Einstein Intent Sets, and then select
Einstein Intent Sets. Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
2. Click the down button next to the intent set, and click Edit. Click the down button next to the and Developer Editions
intent you want to update, and click Edit.
3. Filter the list of utterances by language using the Language drop down.
USER PERMISSIONS
4. Use the checkboxes to select the utterances to bulk edit and click the global action buttons.
To build and manage
• Assign Language: Assigns a language to the selected utterances. You can select Clone Einstein Bots:
selected utterances and preserve the original utterances to make a copy of the selected • Customize Application
utterances and assign the language to the copies. Bots built to handle multiple dialects can
OR
quickly generate utterances using this feature.
Modify Metadata
• Reassign Utterances: Moves the selected utterances to a new intent or intent set.
OR
• Delete Utterances: Deletes the selected utterances.
Manage Bots
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To enable Input Recommender, click Get Started on the Bot main page and follow the setup To manage intent sets and
instructions. Input Recommender builds the model in the background and is ready to use within bot training:
24 hours after setup is initiated. • Customize Application
OR
Modify Metadata
OR
Manage Bots
OR
Manage Bots Training
When the process is complete, you can generate utterances for a new intent or find similar Data
suggestions based on existing utterances.
To view the available languages, click View details in the Active Languages section of the setup page.
Note: To integrate new chat data into Input Recommender, you must rebuild the model. Return to the Bot Setup page and click
Rebuild to start the process.
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4. After a moment, Einstein returns utterance recommendations from your chat data. Select the recommendations you want to add
to the intent model and then click Add.
a. To edit a recommendation, for instance, to remove Personal Identifying Information or to clarify a phrase, click the pencil icon
to the right. Editing the recommendation doesn’t alter the chat logs.
5. To find more utterance recommendations, select the recommendations you want to add to your intent model and then click Add
& Find More. You can also start the steps over with a different recommendation to further balance the model.
Add to Existing Utterances
To use your chat data to find similar utterances, enter your intent and click Find Similar on any existing utterance, or add an utterance
and click Add and Find Similar.
Add to Intent Sets
To launch Input Recommender from an intent set, use the quick find tool on the Setup page to enter Einstein Intent Sets. Click the intent
set name and select a language that’s included in the Active Languages part of Input Recommender on the Setup page. Click Get
Recommendations inside a new intent, or click Find Similar to launch inside an intent with existing utterances.
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– Includes an actionable verb or task. For example: "play," "display," or "switch on/off." Modify Metadata
– Includes a specific entity or noun to be acted upon. For example: "Silicon Valley episode," OR
"bank transactions", or "weather." Manage Bots
OR
1. Navigate to the Bot Builder, and select the dialog you want to add utterances to the intent.
Manage Bots Training
2. Under Utterances, type in your utterance, and click Add. Data
3. Repeat for another utterance.
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USER PERMISSIONS
3. After the build is complete, your bot can collect text for bot training. To collect text, activate To build and manage
and interact with your bot. Einstein Bots:
• Customize Application
4. In the Model Management page, enter the Bot Training sub menu, and then click Train Bot.
OR
Modify Metadata
OR
Manage Bots
6. The Utterance field on the UtteranceSuggestion object is available for encryption with Shield Platform Encryption. This field includes
customer suggestions to add to the Intent Model, and contains data when admins select Store Einstein Bots conversation data
on the Bot Overview page. This field only supports case-insensitive deterministic encryption. To encrypt this field, check Encrypt
on the Encrypt Field page in Setup. Learn more about Shield Platform Encryption at How Shield Platform Encryption Works.
7. To act on many inputs at once, select multiple customer inputs, and use the Bulk Action buttons from the list view.
8. After working through all open training items, click Build Model to integrate your suggestions.
Send New Utterances to Intent Sets
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You can reclassify inputs to an intent inside the current bot or into an intent set. By reclassifying inputs into an intent set, admins can
share authentic customer inputs with other bots or move the data to a sandbox.
To send a new customer input to an intent set, click the Reclassify button and then define the destination. To select an intent in the
current bot, click Search Intents and select the intent. To assign to an intent set, select the intent set in the dropdown and select the
intent.
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Adding utterances and clarifying intents are great ways to improve F1 scores. It’s also important to frequently integrate new customer
data from conversation transcripts to keep the bot current. A minimum of 20 utterances is required to build the model, but more
utterances make the model more accurate.
4. To act on the recommendations provided, click Edit Intent to go to the intent details for that dialog.
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2. Right-click the dialog you want to add to the bot options menu and then click Edit.
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2. To make changes to your bot, you must first deactivate it. Click Deactivate. To build and manage
Einstein Bots:
• Customize Application
IN THIS SECTION:
OR
Preview Your Bot
Modify Metadata
Preview your Einstein Bot using Embedded Chat.
OR
Manage Bots
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To build and manage Einstein Bots: Customize Application Einstein Bots is available in
Salesforce Classic and
OR Lightning Experience. Setup
Modify Metadata for Einstein Bots is available
in Lightning Experience.
OR
Manage Bots Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
To manage intent sets and bot training: and Developer Editions
Customize Application
OR
Modify Metadata
OR
Manage Bots
OR
Manage Bots Training Data
Note: To preview your bot, you must first activate it. Preview requires an active Chat license and a linked Embedded Service
Deployment in the Channels section of the Bot Overview page.
1. From the Bot Builder menu, click Dialogs.
2. Click Preview.
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3. Select the Embedded Service Channel for your bot. Click the button to preview your bot.
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To access analytics:
• Use Analytics
To create, edit, and delete
Analytics dashboards:
• Create and Edit Analytics
Dashboards
To create, edit, delete, and
share Analytics applications:
• Create Analytics Apps
Reports include:
• All Bot Sessions Last 30 Days
• All Bot Sessions Today
• Confusion Frequency Last 30 Days
• Confusion Frequency Today
• Dialog Frequency Last 30 Days
• Dialog Frequency Today
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2. Select the Events Log tab. For information on Events Log details, see Troubleshoot Your Bot.
IN THIS SECTION:
View Bot Performance in Tableau CRM
Monitor bot performance using Tableau CRM.
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SEE ALSO:
Get Started with Einstein Bots
To build and manage Einstein Bots: Customize Application Einstein Bots is available in
Salesforce Classic and
OR Lightning Experience. Setup
Modify Metadata for Einstein Bots is available
in Lightning Experience.
OR
Manage Bots Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
To use Tableau CRM: Access Service Cloud Analytics Templates and Developer Editions
and Apps
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2. Identify whether the issue is a channel issue or a bot issue. Are all bots with Chat enabled Available in: Enterprise,
behaving the same way? Does the problem only include bots with SMS enabled? The best way Performance, Unlimited,
to test is to spin up a bot with similar channels to confirm. and Developer Editions
3. If the issue is with the bot, the best place to start is with the event logs. For the best results
when troubleshooting your bot, enable Log Conversations on the Einstein Bots setup page. If USER PERMISSIONS
Log Conversations isn’t enabled, Message, Input, and Output values are replaced with
[logSensitiveData not allowed]. To build and manage
Einstein Bots:
a. From the Bot Builder menu, click Performance. • Customize Application
b. To review bot activity, display the Events Log tab. The log displays information for seven OR
days and can be filtered or downloaded on the All Sessions page. If a session has an error, Modify Metadata
it shows in the Errors column.
OR
Manage Bots
c. To drill into the session, click any session ID. Each session includes events, which map to Dialogs. If there’s an error with an event,
click next to the event for more information. A description of each event can be found in the Bot Data Reference Guide on page
1017.
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• As of this release, rule evaluations only show whether the bot used the dialog, regardless of whether the rule evaluation
is true or false.
• Input arrays always start with 0.
• Event logs older than seven days are removed.
4. If you find that the issue is permission-based, for instance, the bot can’t access a flow, you must add the correct permissions to the
Permission set called sfdc.chatbot.service.permset.
a. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Permission Sets, and then select Permission Sets. Select the
sfdc.chatbot.service.permset permission set.
b. From the permission set options, select Apex Class Access, or Run Flows.
c. Always make sure that the bot has permission to access objects and classes as required.
5. Review Dialog Action Element specifications in Set Up a Dialog Action Element on page 1070 to ensure that your bot is working as
designed.
6. If your bot is heavily customized with Apex, more information is available in the Debug Logs. From Setup, search for Debug Logs.
Create a User Trace Flag, and specify Platform Integration as the Trace Entity Type.
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7. You can now inspect logging information from your bots. To learn more about Salesforce debug logs, see Monitor Debug Logs from
Salesforce Help.
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conversations) and session data (the conversations themselves). If you want to report on bot sessions, use the Conversation Definition
Session object in Report Builder. If you want to capture bot activity over time, we recommend that you create reports from the Conversation
Definition Dialog Daily Metrics and Conversation Definition Hourly Dialog Metrics objects.
Note: You can install the free Einstein Bot Metrics AppExchange package to gain access to prebuilt reports on bot activity. Get it
here
Event data can be collected through the API (ConversationDefinitionEventLog object). Event data can also be exported in the Event Logs
in the Performance tab To learn more about event types, visit the Bot Data Reference Guide on page 1017. To gain a full picture of the
bot, we recommend that you include data that lives outside of the bot: different objects for recording CSAT, or comparing bot trends
to the company calendar.
In building your Snapshot Report, we recommend that you pick the reports that work best for your company’s bot goals. Not every bot
has data in all four categories. For instance, bots that don’t use Intent Management don’t have NLP data, but they accept customer text.
Also, every company collects data on customer interactions and KPIs in different ways. The success of your Bot Snapshot Report isn’t in
how it looks but how it’s used to recommend areas of growth.
User Activity Data: This data includes data about the sessions themselves.
• Conversation Definition Session:
– Session Duration: The length of the conversation.
– Session Transfer Target Type: Identifies whether a conversation ended in a transfer to a bot or an agent.
– Session Transfer Type: Identifies the reason for transfer (Bot Request, Implementation Error, Invocation Timeout, Insufficient
Privileges).
– Session Transfer Result: The result of the transfer (Transfer Successful, Transfer Failed, No Transfer Requested, No Agents Available).
• Conversation Definition Dialog Daily Metrics & Conversation Definition Hourly Dialog Metrics:
– Session Count: The number of conversations automated by the bot.
– Number of dialogs started: A count of dialogs started, by bot dialog name.
– Number of sessions per channel: The number of sessions grouped by channel.
– Transfers by type: A count of transfers, grouped by destination.
– Menu choices: A count of the static choices selected by end users.
• Event Logs (use these events to count the number of times each happens in a session):
– Call dialog: The bot called a dialog.
– Clear Variable: The bot used the Clear Variable Value dialog. The Variable Name is included in the event log.
– End chat requested: The bot ended the chat.
– End dialog: The end of a dialog.
– Entity extracted: The bot was able to successfully extract an entity.
– Escalation requested: An escalation to an agent was requested.
– External entities extracted: The bot was able to successfully extract an entity from an external source.
– Initializing context variable: The bot is accessing a context variable.
– Invocation successful: The bot was able to invoke a flow or Apex.
– Message sent: A message sent to a customer.
– Prompt sent: A question sent to a customer.
– Redirect to dialog: The bot redirected to a dialog.
– Rule condition evaluation: The bot evaluated the customer input based on the rule conditions.
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– Rule condition item result: False: The bot evaluated the customer input based on the rule conditions and found it to not meet
those conditions.
– Rule condition item result: True: The bot evaluated the customer input based on the rule conditions and found it to meet those
conditions.
– Search Successful: A successful attempt at Object Search.
– Sensitive data not available: Shows when the “Store Einstein Bots conversation data” isn’t checked.
– Session ended: The bot session ended.
– Set Variable The bot used the Set Variable dialog. The Variable Name is included in the event log.
– Start dialog: The start of a new dialog.
– Starting a new session The bot is started a new session.
– Transfer successful: The transfer was successful.
– Transferred from bot: The conversation started with a bot transfer.
– User response: The response from the customer.
Error Data: This data includes data about any errors that occur inside a conversation.
• Conversation Definition Dialog Daily Metrics & Conversation Definition Hourly Dialog Metrics:
– Number of exceptions thrown by a dialog
• Event Logs (use these events to count the number of times each happens in a session):
– Error: Identifies when an error occurred inside a conversation.
– Invocation failed - errors: Highlights when an error occurred in a flow or Apex. Admins can pair this data with event log listings
of Invocation Successful to create a success rate.
– Variable already filled: Identifies whether a skip in conversation occurred because a variable was already filled. If the skip is
unintentional, the admin can include Clear Variable actions to ensure the bot doesn’t skip the variable.
– Search failed - errors: Identifies the number of times the search encountered an error.
– Transfer failed: Identifies the number of times a transfer attempt failed.
NLP Data: This data reflects the processing of free text and the performance of the Intent Model (if applicable).
• Conversation Definition Dialog Daily Metrics / Conversation Definition Hourly Dialog Metrics:
– Confused: Number of times the bot is confused by a text input.
• Event Logs (use these events to count the number of times each happens in a session):
– Intent detected successfully: An event listing where the bot was able to identify an intent.
– Intent detection failed: An event listing where the bot wasn’t able to identify an intent.
– External intents detected: An event listing where the bot was able to detect an intent from an outside source.
KPI Data: This data is included in the bot data. These performance metrics are specific to your company. They can include, but aren’t
limited to, the following:
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• Case Deflection
• Average Handle Time compared to Bot Session Time
• CSAT (Customer Satisfaction score)
• Active Lead Qualification: Sessions that result in an instant transfer to agent
• Passive Lead Qualification: Number of lead records created
• Number of opportunities in the pipeline with “Bot” as the source
Prioritize Bot Growth
Now that you have these insights in one place, revisit your bot goals to create a prioritized list of improvements. Many bot goals fall into
the following areas:
Service Goals: The most common way that a bot adds value to a company is in cost savings. By automating low-effort tasks, your agents
are able to handle more complex issues and can easily manage traffic spikes. Bots that are focused on cost savings can prioritize goals
like increasing the number of functions. Bots can also expand into new digital channels such as SMS or Facebook Messenger to meet
customers where they are.
To increase the number of functions, check for popular dialogs or menu selections to see what interests your customers the most. In
addition, check Bot Training to see what your customers are asking your bot.
Sales Goals: Another common goal for bots is in the lead qualification space. Many end users are more comfortable answering questions
in a conversation rather than filling out a form. In addition, including contextual data such as the channel or source page help match
that lead to the best sales representative for the job.
To increase lead qualification, add your bot to more pages on your website or expand into different channels.
Customer Satisfaction Goals: A great bot experience encourages repeat visits, so it’s important to prioritize customer satisfaction. Bot
goals focused on customer satisfaction include training a robust NLP model, introducing new languages, and decreasing error or confusion
rates.
Common tasks to increase customer satisfaction include generating new skills to increase functionality or fixing bot dialogs to reduce
error rates. In addition, you can clone the bot to create the same bot in a different language or for a new audience. Training the NLP
model and rewriting dialogs to match your company’s voice and tone helps the bot understand your customers and inject personality
into the experience.
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The setup process is similar for both apps. Here’s what it looks like.
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1. Review the data requirements, key concepts, and rollout tips. For Einstein Case Wrap-Up, make sure that you’ve set up Chat.
2. Turn on Einstein classification apps.
3. Configure a classification model. Choose an app type for the model, which case fields to predict, and which closed cases Einstein
learns from. Einstein guides you through the steps.
4. Build your model to let Einstein analyze your closed-case data.
5. Configure field prediction settings. Choose when Einstein recommends, selects, or saves field values. Optionally, for Einstein
Case Classification, Einstein Case Routing can route auto-updated cases to the right agent.
6. Give your agents access to the app by assigning permissions and updating your console layouts.
7. Activate your model to start showing predictions to agents.
8. Maintain your model with the help of the prediction performance dashboard.
To get started, explore the Try Einstein version of the classification apps. This trial version is available in supported editions and lets you
build a single model for each app. The Service Cloud Einstein add-on license, which provides the full version, lets you create five models
per app. That way, you can customize models for different parts of your business. The add-on license also lets Einstein Case Classification
automate field completion and optionally route cases.
IN THIS SECTION:
Einstein Classification Key Concepts
When using Einstein classification apps, it’s helpful to understand some terms that we use.
Prepare for Einstein Classification Apps
Before you set up Einstein classification apps, review the data requirements, address data problems early, and learn how to introduce
these features to your support team.
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Optionally, if you want specific closed cases to serve as examples, define filter criteria that identify example cases. Einstein learns from
closed cases that meet your example criteria. If you define a segment and example case criteria, your example cases are a subset of your
segment.
You can use segments and example cases together to focus on certain types of cases and filter out low-quality data from your model.
For example, in your Enterprise division segment, exclude cases with a certain record type or cases that use obsolete picklist field values.
Just keep in mind that cases from your segment and example filters must meet the minimum data requirements of 400 closed cases
created in the past six months.
Here’s another way of looking at it.
Approach Cases that Einstein learns from Cases that get predictions
No segment or example cases All closed cases that: All new cases
• Were created in the past six months
• Include a subject or description
Segment defined All closed cases that: All new cases that meet your segment
• Were created in the past six months criteria
Segment and example cases defined All closed cases that: All new cases that meet your segment
• Were created in the past six months criteria
Example cases defined All closed cases that: All new cases
• Were created in the past six months
• Include a subject or description
• Meet your example case criteria
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• Automate Value (full automation): This option is available only in the paid version of Einstein Case Classification. When a prediction
meets your confidence threshold, Einstein saves the best value for the field—no agent review is needed. You can have Einstein Case
Routing run your existing case assignment rules on auto-updated cases.
For each field in an Einstein Case Classification model, you can turn on Select Best Value, Automate Value, or both, or just use the default
top three recommendations. For an Einstein Case Wrap-Up model, you can turn on Select Best Value or show the default top three
recommendations for each field. You can update prediction settings at any time without rebuilding your model.
SEE ALSO:
Einstein Classification Prediction Confidence FAQ
Einstein Case Wrap-Up depends on Chat, so turn on Chat if it’s not active already. While you can Available in: Enterprise,
start using Einstein Case Wrap-Up without chat transcripts on your past cases, Einstein’s Performance, and
recommendations are more accurate when your cases have them. But don’t worry if your initial Unlimited Editions. In
batch of closed cases lacks chat conversations. Einstein keeps learning as your agents close cases Enterprise Edition, Einstein
that have chats. Case Wrap-Up requires the
Digital Engagement add-on
SKU.
Address Data Issues Early
During setup, you get to decide which closed cases Einstein analyzes and learns from. Einstein can
learn from all recently closed cases or from a subset of cases that you define using filters. Here’s more about that. These cases serve as
Einstein’s textbook, and inform every field value prediction. It’s essential that they consistently and accurately represent your business
practices.
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The following issues can hurt the quality of the case data that Einstein analyzes and slow your setup process. Consider them when you’re
setting up your predictive model.
Misleading duplicate cases. Einstein assumes that your closed cases are filled If you use a custom field to flag duplicate cases, use
out correctly. If Case 1 and Case 2 are duplicates, differences between their field it to create an example set that excludes those cases.
values send Einstein mixed messages about correct data patterns.
Incorrectly completed fields. Similarly, cases whose fields aren’t filled out Find a way to programmatically label high-quality
correctly make it hard for Einstein to know what’s correct. cases, and use them as your example case set.
Overlapping field values. When a picklist field’s values are too similar or generic, • Identify the field’s potentially problematic values,
it’s hard for agents—and therefore for Einstein—to know which value is correct. and then exclude cases with those values from
For example, values like “General” or “Other” can be overused, or overlapping your model.
values like “Mobile” versus “Mobile Application” can dilute your data.
• Simplify your case data structure to remove
redundancies.
Too many field values. If a picklist field included in your model has more than • Find a way to programmatically label high-quality
100 values, it hurts the model’s accuracy. Here’s why: cases, and use them as your example case set.
• Einstein likely won’t have enough example cases to understand when each • Simplify your case data structure.
value is appropriate.
• Because selecting from such a large list of field values requires time and
expertise, agents are more likely to make wrong or inconsistent selections.
SEE ALSO:
Einstein Classification Key Concepts
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USER PERMISSIONS
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USER PERMISSIONS
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2. Select an app and enter a name for your model. Click Next.
3. Decide which type of cases your model will focus on. If you want, define criteria to narrow the scope of your model to a subset, or
segment, of cases. Your segment limits which closed cases Einstein learns from and which new cases get predictions. Then, click
Next.
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4. If you want specific cases to serve as examples, define additional criteria to identify example cases. Einstein will learn only from cases
that meet your criteria. If you defined a segment, your example cases come from your segment. Then, click Next.
This table shows how segments and example cases affect Einstein’s predictions. To learn more about when to use segments and
example cases, see Einstein Classification Key Concepts.
Approach Cases that Einstein learns from Cases that get predictions
No segment or example cases All closed cases that: All new cases
• Were created in the past six months
• Include a subject or description
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Approach Cases that Einstein learns from Cases that get predictions
Segment defined All closed cases that: All new cases that meet your segment
• Were created in the past six months criteria
Segment and example cases defined All closed cases that: All new cases that meet your segment
• Were created in the past six months criteria
Example cases defined All closed cases that: All new cases
• Were created in the past six months
• Include a subject or description
• Meet your example case criteria
5. Add the fields that you want Einstein to predict. For help, see Considerations for Choosing Fields to Predict. Then, click Next.
6. Address any warning or error messages to make sure that you have enough data.
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If you have a low volume of closed-case data (400–1,000 closed cases) in your segment or example case set or for a field in your
model, you can still save your settings and build the model. However, the low volume may hurt your prediction results. If you have
fewer than 400 closed cases in any of those categories, gather more data or adjust your filters.
7. Click Finish and move on to building your model. Your new model appears on the Einstein Classification setup page.
Tip: If you create multiple models, drag them into priority order in the list. If a case matches multiple models’ criteria, predictions
come only from the active model with the highest priority. For example, suppose that the higher-priority Model 1 predicts the
Priority and Reason fields, and Model 2 predicts the Escalated field. If a new case matches both models’ filter criteria, agents see
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predictions for the Priority and Reason fields but not for the Escalated field. Keep in mind that you can add the same field to multiple
models.
IN THIS SECTION:
Considerations for Choosing Fields to Predict
When you create your Einstein classification model, you select the fields that Einstein will predict. Follow these guidelines when
choosing fields.
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SEE ALSO:
Einstein Classification Key Concepts
Supported Languages
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USER PERMISSIONS
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3. The Fields to Predict section lists the fields whose values Einstein will predict. To remove a field from the model, click Remove in
the field’s action menu. To add fields, click Edit under Configure Data.
4. To build the model, click Build.
Einstein starts analyzing your closed cases and building the model for the fields you selected. We notify the model’s owner as Einstein
completes learning for each predicted field.
If you want to add more fields later, edit the model, add the fields, and then rebuild. After the model finishes building, you can configure
each field’s prediction settings. Then, activate the model to start showing recommendations in the Service Console.
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USER PERMISSIONS
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5. If you have the paid version of Einstein Case Classification, you can also tell Einstein to update and save the field without agent
review. Turn on Automate Value. Then drag the slider to choose a prediction confidence threshold for auto-updating the field.
Because the case field update happens automatically, the Automate Value threshold must be higher than the Select Best Value
threshold.
Note: For Einstein Case Wrap-Up, you can set the Select Best Value threshold only. Automate Value isn’t an option.
6. Save your changes. They take effect immediately, and you can see your prediction settings in the field list.
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Example: You add the Priority field to your Einstein Case Classification model and use these prediction settings for the field.
• Select Best Value ON with a 70% confidence threshold
• Automate Value ON with a 90% confidence threshold
If Einstein predicts a new case’s priority with a confidence level lower than 70%, Einstein shows the top three recommended values
for the Priority field but doesn’t select one. The agent selects and saves a value.
If Einstein predicts the priority with a confidence level of 70-89%, Einstein shows the field with the priority already selected. The
agent confirms and saves the value.
If Einstein predicts the priority with a confidence level of 90% or higher, Einstein updates the Priority field and saves the case.
IN THIS SECTION:
Einstein Classification Prediction Confidence FAQ
Review common questions about field prediction options and confidence thresholds.
Run Assignment Rules for Einstein Case Classification
When Einstein Case Classification automatically saves predicted field values to a case, Einstein Case Routing can use your existing
case routing logic to route the case to the right agent. You need the Service Cloud Einstein add-on license to use Einstein Case
Routing.
Identify Changes Made by Einstein Case Classification
If you want Einstein Case Classification to automatically update case fields, attribute the updates to an Einstein user to make reporting
easier. Alternatively, you can use the default automated process user.
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SEE ALSO:
Einstein Case Routing
Subscribing to Platform Events
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USER PERMISSIONS
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USER PERMISSIONS
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USER PERMISSIONS
SEE ALSO:
Create Object-Specific Quick Actions
Action Layout Editor
Set Up and Work with Service Console
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USER PERMISSIONS
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Stop Predictions
Above the list of fields, click Pause.
When a model is paused, agents don’t see its predictions on cases in the console. To resume predictions, reactivate the model. If multiple
models are active, keep in mind that the other models’ predictions are still visible.
3. Click through the steps. When you reach the step to add fields, select any that you want to add.
4. Click Next > Finish, and rebuild and reactivate the model to show predictions on the fields you added.
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USER PERMISSIONS
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The left-hand chart indicates how often one of the top three recommended values matches the final field value at the time the case is
closed. The right-hand chart shows how often the top recommended value matches the final field value when the case is closed. When
a case with field predictions is closed, the dashboard refreshes.
Note: The dashboard reflects final field values when cases are closed. If an agent accepts a field prediction but then changes the
value before closing the case, the dashboard doesn’t report the case as a match.
In the top-left corner, the dashboard shows the total number of closed cases on which Einstein predicted field values, regardless of
whether predictions were rejected, accepted, or automatically saved. This number increases by one when a case with predictions is
closed. If a closed case with predictions is reopened and then closed, both closures count.
Closed cases that didn’t receive recommendations aren’t counted. Here’s why a case might not receive recommendations.
• The case doesn’t match the filter criteria in your segment.
• The case was created when Einstein Classification Apps weren’t enabled.
• The case’s subject and description are empty, so there’s no text for Einstein to analyze.
• The case was closed on or immediately after creation. Only open cases receive recommendations, and recommendations are typically
available a few seconds after a case is created.
Tip: The performance dashboard is just one way to monitor the impact of Einstein classification apps. Here are a few others.
• For Einstein Case Classification, review cases whose field predictions failed to meet the required confidence level for automatic
updates. Use platform events to subscribe to AIUpdateRecordEvent so you’re notified any time Einstein tries to predict the
value of a case field. The IsUpdated field indicates whether a field was automatically updated. Then, use this information to
add cases to a queue for review or rerun case routing logic.
• Generate custom reports about how many cases received predictions or how often agents accepted or rejected them. Use
the root AIRecordInsight object and its related child objects, AIInsightFeedback and AIInsightValue.
Note: AIRecordInsight and its child objects provide different information than the dashboard. Reports with these objects
can show agent reactions to recommendations. For example, you can build reports to show how often agents acted on
the top three predictions and whether a recommended value was applied and saved.
• Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the impact of Einstein classification apps. For example, review changes in:
– Average handle-time to triage a case
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USER PERMISSIONS
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If you’re using Einstein Case Classification in Salesforce Classic, recommendations appear in the Case Classification sidebar.
How do I view recommendations?
Click Get Einstein Recommendations to see Einstein’s predictions. Fields with recommendations appear with a green dot, and
the text at the top of the component changes to Einstein Recommendations Applied.
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Note: Depending on your org’s field prediction settings, Einstein Case Classification may automatically update and save
certain fields if the value is likely to be correct. These updates are attributed to a user of the admin’s choosing in the case
feed—usually, a custom Einstein user.
When does Einstein make recommendations?
For Einstein Case Classification, Einstein makes recommendations once, right after the case is created. For Einstein Case Wrap-Up,
chat agents see them on-demand or when the chat conversation ends. You may need to refresh the page.
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Note: In certain orgs with Knowledge, we turn on article recommendations for you and supply a pre-built model that’s based on
generic data and default field and language settings. Agents then see Einstein's recommendations in the Knowledge component
right away. If your business uses specific case and knowledge fields, customize the model so that Einstein analyzes the closed-case
data in your org and provides more accurate recommendations. To customize the model, in Setup, accept the terms, select your
fields, and build your model.
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Otherwise, to get Einstein Article Recommendations up and running, follow these simple steps.
IN THIS SECTION:
Prepare for Einstein Article Recommendations
To get the best results from Einstein Article Recommendations, review its data requirements and get tips for testing the feature.
How Does Einstein Article Recommendations Work?
Einstein Article Recommendations helps support agents resolve customer cases efficiently by recommending knowledge articles
that were attached to similar cases in the past. Agents don’t have to waste time searching or scrolling through lists of articles, and
can quickly attach recommended articles or dismiss them as not helpful. They can also still conduct searches if they need to.
Set Up Einstein Article Recommendations
Switch on Einstein Article Recommendations so you can build, activate, and benefit from your custom predictive model. Einstein
Article Recommendations analyzes the data in case and knowledge article fields that you select to determine which articles are most
likely to solve a customer inquiry. Agents see recommendations in the Knowledge component of the Lightning Service Console.
Use Einstein Article Recommendations in the Lightning Service Console
Use Einstein Article Recommendations in the Lightning Service Console to find and attach relevant articles to cases.
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Note: Einstein Article Recommendations is available for articles written in Dutch, English, Available in: Lightning
French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Einstein Article Recommendations is available Experience
in Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited edition orgs with the Service Cloud and Lightning Available in: Enterprise,
Knowledge. The Service Cloud Einstein add-on license isn’t needed. Performance, and
Unlimited editions. Einstein
Article Recommendations
Make Sure You Have Enough Data isn’t available in partner
Plants need water, support agents need hugs, and Einstein needs data! Without high-quality edition orgs or the
historical data to learn from, Einstein can’t make accurate recommendations. Here’s what you need. Salesforce Government
Cloud.
What You Need Required or Details
Recommended?
Three or more knowledge Required When your Salesforce Knowledge article
articles coverage is extensive and addresses common
customer questions, Einstein can make more
useful recommendations. Articles don’t need
any special tags, data categories, or metadata
to be recommended. Newly published or
overwritten articles automatically undergo term
analysis within one day to be considered for
recommendation.
1,000 or more cases Recommended To learn how your organization works, Einstein
looks at cases created in the past two years,
whether or not they’re closed. These cases need
at least one text field that describes the
customer’s issue—for example, Description.
They don’t need articles attached, but if they
have them, that’s even better.
500 or more case-article Recommended Einstein learns from each instance of an article
attaches being attached to an open or closed case (also
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To show recommendations in multiple supported languages, you only need three or more knowledge articles in one of the languages.
Case-article attaches in a language can help Einstein make more accurate recommendations.
SEE ALSO:
Einstein Article Recommendations FAQ
Improve Einstein Article Recommendations
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Language Considerations
Einstein Article Recommendations is available in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Einstein uses a single
model to generate article recommendations in these languages.
In a new org, you select which languages and fields that Einstein should use in the predictive model. If you’re already using Einstein
Article Recommendations, we preselect languages for you. If you modify the selected languages in Setup, rebuild your model to show
recommendations in those languages. Make sure that the selected languages are active in your Knowledge settings. You can add articles
in a supported language without rebuilding the model.
Einstein uses a language prediction model to detect the language on a case. The Language field on a knowledge article version identifies
its language.
• If the case language is supported, Einstein recommends relevant articles in that language. If there aren’t any relevant articles in the
language, then no article recommendations appear.
• If the case language isn’t supported, Einstein recommends relevant articles in the org’s Knowledge master language.
• If both the case and Knowledge master languages aren’t supported and English is a selected language, Einstein recommends relevant
English articles.
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Service Cloud Einstein Article Recommendations
These considerations mean that a case and its recommended articles can use two different languages.
Feature Design
Here’s what takes place behind the scenes, from case creation or update to article recommendation.
Step 1: Case Creation or Update
A case is created, or a field included in your article recommendation model is updated on a case.
Step 2: Search
Einstein Article Recommendations intercepts the case and conducts multiple searches using the case’s language and terms from
case fields in your model. The search results are combined into the candidate article set, which can include new articles with no
previous attaches.
Step 3: Re-Ranking
Articles are re-ranked. A set of NLP features is computed for each case-article pair. The model evaluates each article’s feature set and
uses prediction probabilities to rank the articles for recommendation.
Step 4: Recommendation
Articles above the recommendation threshold are classified as positive and recommended to the agent on the case.
Step 5: Agent Interaction
The agent interacts with the recommendations by clicking, hovering over, accepting, or dismissing them. Their actions are recorded
to improve future recommendations.
Step 6: Retraining
Your model is periodically retrained, or rebuilt, to capture changes to your case and article data. Relevant changes include new cases,
new articles and article versions, and new case-article attaches. The retrained model replaces your current model only if Einstein
determines that the retrained model will provide better article recommendations.
Retraining completes within a day, and the new model is put to work immediately. This automatic retraining isn’t visible in the UI
and doesn’t require action from the admin.
This diagram shows how data flows in Einstein Article Recommendations.
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Einstein Article Recommendations uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a third-party hosting provider. For details about infrastructure
and sub-processors, see Trust and Compliance Documentation.
SEE ALSO:
Einstein Article Recommendations FAQ
Improve Einstein Article Recommendations
Note: If you only see an option to request an order form supplement, submit your request so you can enable Einstein Article
Recommendations. The supplement resolves differences between your Salesforce Master Service Agreement and the Einstein
Master Service Agreement.
IN THIS SECTION:
1. Add the Knowledge Component to the Lightning Service Console
If it’s not there already, add the Knowledge component to the Lightning Service Console so your agents can receive article
recommendations.
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USER PERMISSIONS
To view apps:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To manage apps:
• Customize Application
4. Click Save.
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1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Einstein Article Recommendations, and select Einstein Article
Recommendations.
2. To create your model, under Select Fields, click Next.
3. Select supported languages that you want to include in your model, and click Next.
Verify that these languages are active in your Knowledge settings.
4. Select unencrypted case fields that you want to incorporate into your model, and click Next.
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Service Cloud Einstein Article Recommendations
5. Select unencrypted fields from Knowledge articles that you want to incorporate into your model, and click Save.
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Service Cloud Einstein Article Recommendations
After you select languages and fields, build the model so you can activate it.
SEE ALSO:
Einstein Article Recommendations FAQ
Improve Einstein Article Recommendations
Note: You can have only one article recommendation model at a time. If you save changes Available in: Lightning
to an existing model and build it, the new model replaces the previous one. Experience
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Einstein Article Recommendations, Available in: Enterprise,
and select Einstein Article Recommendations. Performance, and
Unlimited editions. Einstein
2. Confirm the case and knowledge article fields and languages that you selected for your model. Article Recommendations
Then, under Build Model, click Build > Build Model. isn’t available in partner
Sit tight while the system builds your article recommendation model. This process can take up edition orgs or the
to 48 hours. Salesforce Government
Cloud.
Note: If Einstein finds that your cases and articles don’t contain enough high-quality
data to ensure accurate article recommendations, a warning appears and you can’t activate
your model. This can happen if too many fields on your cases or knowledge articles are USER PERMISSIONS
blank, incomplete, or improperly filled out.
To use Einstein Article
The warning tells you how often the fields in your model were left blank. Use this Recommendations:
information as a starting point to conduct a quality review of your knowledge based and • Customize Application
recent cases. Or, boost your model’s data quality by choosing different case and knowledge
fields for Einstein to learn from. Then rebuild your model.
3. After your model finishes building, click Activate to start showing recommendations to agents.
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In the activation window, indicate whether to show recommendations to all Lightning Knowledge users or to specific users. If you
choose to limit access to specific users, assign them the View and Act on Einstein Article Recommendations user permission.
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Service Cloud Einstein Article Recommendations
– In a profile:
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Profiles, and select Profiles.
2. Click Edit next to the name of the profile that needs access to Einstein Article Recommendations.
3. Under Administrative Permissions, select View and Act on Einstein Article Recommendations.
4. Click Save.
You can change your user access preference at any time. From Setup, navigate to the Einstein Article Recommendations page and
update the User Access setting.
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Service Cloud Einstein Article Recommendations
• To attach a recommended article to a case, click the dropdown next to the title and select Attach Article.
• To edit a recommended article, click the dropdown next to the title and select Edit as Draft.
• If an article isn’t relevant to the case, click Not Helpful.
Note: Marking an article as not helpful indicates that the article isn’t relevant to the case, and helps Einstein makes better
recommendations next time. It doesn’t relate to the quality of the article’s content.
SEE ALSO:
Einstein Article Recommendations FAQ
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Service Cloud Einstein Article Recommendations
Note: Only unencrypted fields of the string or text area type—including rich text area and long text area fields—can be
added to your model. You might find that an unsupported field, such as a picklist, provides valuable information that could
help Einstein find relevant articles. To include that information in your model, write a process that copies the field value into
a custom text field on the case or knowledge object. Then, add the custom field to your model.
• Rank fields based on importance. When you select fields to include in your model, drag them into priority order. Einstein wants
to know what matters most to you. By ranking your fields, you’re essentially telling Einstein what to look for first.
• Review the model scorecard. The scorecard shows metrics that can help you identify where there are opportunities to improve
your data.
SEE ALSO:
Learn About Model and Data Quality
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SEE ALSO:
Improve Einstein Article Recommendations
What’s the difference between Einstein Article Recommendations and Suggested Articles?
Like Einstein Article Recommendations, the Suggested Articles feature suggests knowledge articles in the Lightning Service Console.
However, it relies only on keyword-based search and can’t refine its suggestions or incorporate data from past cases.
For example, many cases contain the same subject, description, and category. Because Einstein Article Recommendations considers
which articles were attached to similar cases in the past, the top recommended article is likely to address the issue. Suggested Articles
can search your knowledge base for articles containing case keywords, but the exclusion of case data and AI features such as term overlap
means that agents can waste time searching through article suggestions to find the one they need.
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Service Cloud Einstein Reply Recommendations
If you use Einstein Article Recommendations, we recommend disabling Suggested Articles to ensure a clean user experience for your
support team. Otherwise, agents see two sets of articles that relate to the case.
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Service Cloud Einstein Reply Recommendations
Reply recommendations appear right where agents need them, in the Einstein Replies component in the Lightning Service Console.
There’s no need to manually compose or search for replies; agents can simply select the most relevant replies from a short list to insert
into open chats or messaging sessions, editing them further if they need to. Reply recommendations are extra helpful to new agents or
agents handling multiple chats simultaneously. Admins also benefit; they no longer have to set aside time to periodically gather, curate,
and distribute standard replies to their support team.
Einstein Reply Recommendations is included in the Service Cloud Einstein add-on license. To get the feature up and running, follow
these simple steps.
1. Review the data requirements and get tips on rolling out the feature to your team.
2. Turn on Einstein Reply Recommendations in Setup.
3. Build your model so Einstein can analyze closed chats and generate a list of commonly used replies.
4. Review and publish replies to quick text, editing them as needed.
5. Give agents access to reply recommendations.
6. Activate your model to start displaying recommendations during chat and messaging sessions.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Prepare for Einstein Reply Recommendations
Before you set up Einstein Reply Recommendations, review the data requirements and testing tips. Reply recommendations are
available only in English, and are included in the Service Cloud Einstein add-on license.
Set Up Einstein Reply Recommendations
Follow a few simple steps to deliver valuable chat and messaging replies to your agents.
Use Reply Recommendations in the Lightning Service Console
When you’re managing multiple chats at once or helping an anxious customer, having the right reply at your fingertips makes your
job easier. Einstein Reply Recommendations suggests relevant replies during chat and messaging sessions so you can insert them
into your conversations with customers.
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Service Cloud Einstein Reply Recommendations
four parts: the data and time that the chat started, the chat origin, an agent name, and the chat conversation content. To analyze a
chat transcript and identify language patterns, Einstein Reply Recommendations looks for “Chat Started:” in the chat body.
USER PERMISSIONS
3. On the Einstein Reply Recommendations Setup page, click Let’s Go. To enable Einstein Reply
Recommendations and
If you don’t have enough closed chats to build a model, we’ll let you know here. build the model:
• Customize Application
4. Click Build Model to allow Einstein to analyze your chat data and generate a list of replies.
Then, sit back and let the pixie dust fly! Building can take up to 48 hours but doesn’t affect the
app’s performance for your agents.
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Service Cloud Einstein Reply Recommendations
After you start a build, you can’t pause or cancel it. You can leave the Setup page and come back to it at any time to check the build
status.
Note: If you build the model with only 1,000 chat transcripts, Einstein performs a one-time refresh of your reply templates
when there are 10,000 transcripts to analyze. We notify you when this refresh is completed. It’s not possible to refresh Einstein’s
list of reply templates otherwise. However, you can edit replies or create your own responses from the Quick Text tab.
When the model is finished building, the Einstein Reply Recommendations Setup page shows a list of up to 100 common replies that
Einstein has generated. You can search replies and create other list views if you’d like.
It’s now time to review, fine-tune, and publish the replies to quick text.
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Service Cloud Einstein Reply Recommendations
• To publish a single reply, select Publish to Quick Text in the reply’s action menu (1).
• To publish multiple replies, select them in the list and click Publish to Quick Text above the list (2).
Tip: While there’s no limit to the number of replies you can publish at once, we recommend reviewing each reply before
publishing it. Because the replies generated by Einstein are taken from closed chats with your customers, they may contain
customer or agent data, such as names. Revise replies if they contain information that you don’t want to display. Reviewing
each reply also gives you a chance to catch spelling errors, remove highly similar replies, and fine-tune phrasing and tone.
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Service Cloud Einstein Reply Recommendations
Setting What To Do
Record Type If prompted, select a quick text record type to customize access to the replies. If you’re publishing multiple
replies at once, the record type you select applies to all of them.
Quick Text Name Optionally, change the reply’s name from an auto-number to something more meaningful.
(visible only if you’re
publishing a single reply)
Message Optionally, update the text of the reply. For example, add a merge field such as the contact’s name.
(visible only if you’re
publishing a single reply)
Folder Select a quick text folder to store the replies in. If you don’t select a folder, replies aren’t added to any
folder. We recommend creating one or more folders just for your published replies.
Important: Agents need access to the folder you select in order to view its replies as
recommendations or quick text. You can group replies—for example, designating replies as Tier
1 or Tier 2 support—and assign access accordingly by using multiple folders.
If you don’t see the Folder field, turn on folder sharing for quick text. Then, in the Object Manager
in Setup, find the Quick Text object and add the Folder field to its page layout.
Category Select a quick text category. Categories are customizable and make it easier to search for quick text.
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Service Cloud Einstein Reply Recommendations
Setting What To Do
Channel Optionally, select channels where agents can access and search for the replies as quick text. This option
is separate from reply recommendations. Only Chat and Messaging support quick text.
Include in reply Select this option so that the replies can be recommended to agents in the Einstein Replies console
recommendations component.
Include in selected Select this option to make the replies available as quick text in the channels you selected above. If you
channels select both Include in reply recommendations and Include in selected channels, agents can see
the replies as recommendations in the Einstein Replies component, and can also search for them as
quick text in the selected channels.
3. Click Publish. The replies’ status in the list changes from New to Published to Quick Text.
Tip: Publishing failure, indicated by a Publish Failed status, can be caused by validation errors, access errors, corrupted files,
or something else.
When a reply is published, a corresponding quick text record is created. To update a reply’s settings, edit its corresponding quick text
record from the Quick Text tab.
After you publish replies, give agents access to reply recommendations and activate your model.
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Service Cloud Einstein Reply Recommendations
Setting Purpose
Header Label Customize the component header. Leave it blank to use the default “Einstein Replies” header.
Go to active conversation for (Not selected by default) Control what happens when the Einstein Replies component is docked
docked edits and a user clicks Edit on a recommended reply. If this option is selected, clicking Edit sends the user
to the active conversation window so they can edit and send the reply. Otherwise, clicking Edit keeps
the user on the current tab. The reply appears in the message field for editing as expected, but the
user may have to navigate to the conversation to see it.
Note: If you need to manually add the Einstein Replies component to the Lightning Service Console, here’s how.
1. From Setup, enter App Manager in the Quick Find box and select App Manager.
2. Click the dropdown next to the Service Console app where you want to add the Einstein Replies component, and click Edit >
Navigation Items.
3. Select Einstein Replies from the Available Items list, and add it to the Selected Items list.
4. Click Save.
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Einstein Reply Recommendations
Agents will now start seeing recommended replies in the console. To learn how to pause recommendations or edit your published
replies, see Maintain Your Recommended Replies.
If you want to stop showing recommendations to agents for any reason, you can click Pause Recommendations on the Einstein Reply
Recommendations Setup page. For example, if you update a business policy, you can pause recommendations to remove or update
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Service Cloud Einstein Reply Recommendations
replies that reflect your old policy. During this time, the Einstein Replies component in the console indicates that recommendations are
paused. Changes to quick text records go into effect immediately, so if the updates you’re making are minor, you probably don’t need
to pause recommendations.
Note: If you disable the Einstein Reply Recommendations feature rather than pausing it, reply recommendations stop and the
Einstein Replies component disappears from page layouts. Published replies are still available as quick text records. If you re-enable
the feature, any previously generated replies are still visible on the Einstein Reply Recommendations Setup page.
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Service Cloud Einstein Reply Recommendations
What happens when I’m switching between multiple chats or messaging sessions?
We’ve got your back. Click the top-right icon to dock, or pin, the Einstein Replies component in the corner of the console.
When it’s docked, you can send replies from any console subtab. The docked component shows replies for the current tab’s open chat
or messaging session.
Tip: Use the header bar actions to minimize, maximize, or close the docked component. The header bar also shows the transcript
number of the open chat or messaging session for your current tab.
In docked mode, you can interact with recommended replies even if the conversation isn’t visible from your current subtab. For example,
click Post or Not Helpful on a recommended reply while scanning a related knowledge article. Clicking Edit pastes the reply into the
conversation’s message field for editing. You may need to navigate to the conversation to polish and send the reply.
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Service Cloud Field Service
Field Service
Field Service (formerly known as Field Service Lightning) gives you a powerful, highly customizable,
EDITIONS
mobile-friendly field service hub in Salesforce.
Running a field service business means managing numerous moving parts. With Field Service, you Available in: Salesforce
get the tools that you need to manage work orders, scheduling, and your mobile workforce. Here Classic and Lightning
are some of the things you can do. Experience
• Create records that represent your field service workers, dispatchers, and agents, and add details The Field Service core
about their skills, location, and availability features, managed
• Set up multilevel service territories that represent the regions where mobile workers can provide package, and mobile app
services are available in Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
• Track the location and status of your inventory, warehouses, service vehicles, and customer and Developer Editions.
sites Work orders are also
• Schedule one-time or recurring work orders for customers, and add details about worker available in Professional
preferences, required skills, and parts Edition.
• Create maintenance plans and templates to standardize your field service tasks
• Generate service reports to keep customers informed about service progress
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Service Cloud Field Service
• Scheduling policies and triggers that help you customize your scheduling model and display preferences
Mobile App
The offline-friendly Field Service mobile app for iOS and Android makes work a pleasure for your mobile workers. App users can
update work orders, track parts, gather customer signatures, and connect with dispatchers from their mobile devices. Download
the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Ready to get started? The following resources will help you stay organized.
Tip: Check out the Field Service Developer Guide for object relationship diagrams, API reference information, and code samples.
IN THIS SECTION:
Field Service Limits and Limitations
Learn about Field Service limits and limitations.
Set Up Field Service
Build and manage your field service operation in one place. Create records representing your workforce, set up work order tracking
and inventory management, and customize the Field Service mobile app to set up your mobile workforce for success.
Manage Work Orders for Field Service
Work orders, which track work to be performed for customers, are the heart of Field Service. Learn how to create and customize
work orders and maintenance plans.
Manage Shifts
Shifts in Field Service let you define variable working periods for your shift-based workforce, such as contractors or on-call staff.
Create shifts for particular dates and times when you need coverage, and assign them to service resources. When the managed
package is installed, scheduling and optimization consider workforce availability during shifts.
Manage Service Resources
Service resources are mobile workers that can be assigned to service appointments. Learn how to create time sheets and view a
service resource’s travel routes and calendar.
Manage Service Crew Membership
Efficiently manage your service crews to accommodate a fast-changing field service schedule. Create crews, find and add members
with the right skills, adjust membership dates to match appointment times, and view all crews’ schedules and members in one
place.
Manage Service Appointments
Learn how to create, schedule, reschedule, and unschedule service appointments. Tighten up your schedule by fixing overlaps,
grouping nearby appointments, and filling schedule gaps.
Manage Your Field Service Inventory
Stay on top of the movement of inventory in your field service operation. Learn how to request and transfer products, track
consumption, and process customer returns.
Record Product Warranties
Use Warranty Terms to record details of the labor, parts, expenses, and exchange options that you provide to rectify issues with
products you sell or install. To create a standard warranty, assign warranty terms to a product or product family. Then, when you sell
or install a product, record details of additional or extended warranties along with exclusions and void terms.
Manage Product Service Campaigns
Track and manage a product recall, manual firmware upgrade, safety or compliance audit, end-of-life communication, or similar
product update.
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Service Cloud Field Service Limits and Limitations
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Service Cloud Field Service Limits and Limitations
Limit Details
maintenance assets per maintenance plan. When maintenance
assets have multiple maintenance rules—either applied directly
or inherited from the maintenance plan—the practical number of
maintenance assets is lower.
Each maintenance work rule can generate work order and work
order line item records.
For example:
• If every maintenance asset for a maintenance plan contains
two maintenance work rules, the practical limit on maintenance
assets is less than 1,300.
• If a maintenance plan has four maintenance work rules, the
practical limit on maintenance assets is less than 650.
Also, a maintenance plan with a maintenance work rule using
COUNT is limited to 2,000 maintenance assets.
Salesforce recommends that you add no more than 5 maintenance
work rules to each maintenance plan or asset.
Maximum size of asset hierarchies that can be viewed in the tree 500
grid view
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Service Cloud Field Service Limits and Limitations
Limit Details
object to Private, and use sharing so dispatchers only see polygons
that are relevant to them.
Maximum number of skills displayed in the Gantt Skills filter panel 2,000
Minimum screen resolution for a smooth dispatcher console 1366 x 768 pixels (minimum)
experience 1920 x 1080 pixels (recommended)
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Service Cloud Field Service Limits and Limitations
Limit Details
Maximum service resources optimized per request 500
Limitations
Dispatcher Console
• Service appointments without assigned resources appear on the appointment list but not on the Gantt.
• Territory utilization calculation doesn’t consider secondary territory members.
• The dispatcher console map can look different than the map shown on service territory member detail pages because of a
difference in geocoding granularity. The dispatcher console map tends to be more accurate.
• Because Google Maps is restricted in China, Field Service features that depend on Google Maps don’t work there. To minimize
errors and customize access for users in China, see Disable Google Maps-based Field Service features for China users.
• If a service resource has more than 23 stops in a period of 24 hours (including starting point, ending point, appointments, and
absences), the resource map shows only the first 23 stops on the route and displays an error. This is a Directions API limitation.
Inventory Management
• Workers using the Field Service mobile app can consume—via the Products Consumed related list—only one serialized product
item per product per work order. This limitation doesn’t apply to nonmobile platforms.
• The Location field on serialized product items can’t be updated manually. The location auto-updates if a related product transfer
is marked received. To enable serialized product transfers (a beta feature), contact Salesforce.
Linked Articles
Linked articles are knowledge articles attached to a work order, work order line item, or work type. They have the following limitations.
• Quick actions and global actions aren’t supported for linked articles.
• The Article widget and Feed Articles Tool aren’t available in the feed view.
• In Lightning Experience, clicking an article link in a feed item redirects you to the article page in Salesforce Classic. In the Salesforce
mobile app, linked articles can’t be accessed from feed items.
• The Linked Work Types related list isn’t available on articles in any platform.
• The Knowledge One widget isn’t available on work types in the console. To manage linked articles on work types in the console,
use the Articles related list.
• Linked articles are read-only in the Salesforce mobile app.
Multiday Scheduling
With multiday scheduling, you schedule service appointments that span multiple days. It includes the following limitations.
• A service resource can’t be assigned to any other appointment during a multiday service appointment.
• Multiday service appointments that overlap with other appointments don’t trigger the Fix Overlaps action.
• Multiday service appointments can’t be assigned to capacity-based service resources.
• Multiday service appointments can’t span more than 8 weeks.
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Service Cloud Field Service Limits and Limitations
• If a multiday service appointment has a scheduling dependency, its Scheduled End date isn't calculated when the appointment
is scheduled. For this reason, we recommend against creating dependencies between multiday appointments.
Operating Hours
• You can’t create a master-detail relationship between a custom object and Time Slot where Time Slot is the master object.
• Operating hours can't span a full 24 hours. Instead, use the operating hours 00:00–23:59.
• Operating hours for secondary service territory memberships must be identical to or contained within the resource’s primary
territory membership’s hours.
• Multiple time slots aren't supported for secondary STM operating hours.
Salesforce App
Most Field Service features are available in all versions of the Salesforce mobile app. Be aware of these mobile app limitations.
• In Salesforce for iOS:
– You can’t create service appointments, and the Recent related list isn’t available.
– You can’t create service resources or absences, and the Recent related list isn't available on service resources or absences.
• On field service records created via a related list, the field that lists the parent record doesn’t populate until you save the record.
This issue applies to all versions of the Salesforce mobile app. For example, when you create a service appointment from the
Service Appointments related list on a work order, the Parent Record field is blank until you tap Save. After you create the record,
the parent record field lists the parent work order.
• If the Created Date or Last Modified Date fields are in the future, creating or updating records can cause an error when working
offline with the offline sync permission disabled.
• The dispatcher console—a Field Service managed package feature—isn’t available in the Salesforce mobile app.
• The Linked Work Orders and Linked Work Order Line Items related lists on articles aren’t available.
• Linked articles are read-only. You can search the Knowledge base and read attached articles, but you can’t attach or detach
articles. To manage linked article settings and attach or detach articles, use the desktop site.
• Linked articles can’t be accessed from feed items.
Salesforce on iPad Safari
• Creating service reports from work orders or service appointments isn't supported on Lightning Experience on iPad Safari.
• The dispatcher console isn’t supported on iPad Safari. We recommend that you use Lightning Experience on a desktop to use
the dispatcher console.
Scheduling and Optimization
• A scheduling policy can contain up to five Match Boolean work rules.
• The Gantt and Appointment Booking features can retrieve up to 2,000 security policies.
• Match Fields work rules aren’t supported for schedule optimization.
• If the Emergency Chatter action is used for an appointment with a scheduling dependency, the dependency isn’t considered
during scheduling.
• Schedule optimization is supported only for service appointments whose parent record is a work order or work order line item.
• Schedule optimization is supported only for service territories with at least one primary territory member.
• Only active territories included in the scheduled optimization job are optimized.
• If a service appointment doesn’t include an address, the scheduling optimizer assumes that the appointment is at the assigned
resource’s home base.
• Global and In-day optimization validate that for already scheduled service appointments, the Scheduled End -Scheduled Start
time = Duration, while taking resource efficiency into consideration. Service appointments that violate this are unscheduled.
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• If a multiday service appointment has a scheduling dependency, its Scheduled End date isn't calculated when the appointment
is scheduled. For this reason, we recommend against creating dependencies between multiday appointments.
• If you drag and drop a multiday service appointment, or manually change its Scheduled Start, the Scheduled End doesn’t go
beyond the due date regardless of the appointment Duration.
• Resource schedule optimization has the following limitations and considerations.
– Under Keep these appointments scheduled, you can select a category of appointments that must remain scheduled.
The optimization can move and then reschedule appointments in this category. If the optimization must keep more than
50 appointments scheduled, it fails.
– Complex work information that’s not fully available in the optimization data is considered excluded from resource schedule
optimization. For example, a partial chain of a scheduling dependency is excluded.
– Resource schedule optimizations can’t run in parallel for the same service resource on the same time interval.
– The Gantt doesn’t show percentage-based progress for resource schedule optimization requests.
• If the Fix Overlaps feature is in use, the Reshuffle other assignments option is only partially supported for this setting: When
unable to find a valid schedule for an appointment. If more than one appointment is dropped from the schedule during a
Fix Overlaps operation, only one of the appointments is reshuffled.
• You can use platform encryption with standard Salesforce objects and fields. With the managed package, if you encrypt custom
objects and fields, scheduling and optimization can sometimes yield unexpected results.
Service Appointments
• The Owner and Parent Record fields on service appointments aren't available in custom report types. They also can’t be referenced
in formulas, validation rules, workflow rules, flows, or processes. To limit the available owners or types of service appointment
parent records, use an Apex trigger.
• Service appointment fields whose values are inherited from the parent record can’t be referenced in formulas, validation rules,
workflow rules, flows, or processes. The standard inherited fields are Work Type, Account, Parent Record Type, and Parent Record
Status Category.
Service Reports
• Service reports can’t be created on service appointments whose parent records are assets, accounts, leads, or opportunities.
• The Create Service Report action isn’t available in the Salesforce mobile app.
• Section titles and rich text fields in service reports can’t be translated.
• Digital signature field labels can’t be customized.
• Related list filtering on service reports has the following limitations:
– The Status field on contract line items isn’t available for filtering.
– The Filters tab isn’t available in Internet Explorer 8.
• Service Report Template lookup isn’t supported in Visualforce pages. To include Service Report Lookup in a Visualforce page for
the edit of a Work Order, create a Custom lookup.
Service Resources
• If you deactivate a service resource, make sure to update records that were associated with that resource. For example, if a
deactivated service resource was a required resource for an account, update that account to prevent scheduling issues.
• Capacity-based service resources have the following limitations.
– If the managed package is installed, capacity-based resources must include a Hours per Time Period value on their capacity
record. If the user’s capacity should be measured in work items, fill out Work Items per Time Period as well and set the Hours
per Time Period to a high number which likely won’t be achieved.
– The Fix Overlaps feature isn’t support for capacity-based service resources.
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Sharing
In Setup, Sharing Settings let you specify default internal and external access to Field Service records. For example, you can share
dispatched service appointments to external Experience Builder site users, such as a team of contractors. But if the Default Internal
Access is Private or Public Read Only, set the Default External Access to Private or Public Read Only also. If the internal setting is Public
Read Write, external resources can see dispatched appointments only when the external setting is Public Read Write and you enable
dispatch sharing to resources.
Street-Level Routing (SLR)
• If a service appointment requires a travel distance of more than 100 kilometers, aerial routing is used.
• Multiday work scheduling doesn’t support SLR and uses aerial routing instead. Predictive travel isn’t supported with complex
work.
• Any scheduling action that is triggered in a transaction with data manipulation language (DML) uses aerial routing. When SLR
is enabled and scheduling requires SLR travel results that are not primed locally, you must use a callout to retrieve the results. If
DML occurs in the same transaction as the callout, it causes an exception. To avoid this exception, allow the system to use aerial
routing or ensure that DML is completed in a separate transaction. If you want transactions of this type to cause an exception
rather than a switch to aerial routing, from the App Launcher, find and open the Field Service Admin app, and then click Field
Service Settings > Scheduling. Select Avoid aerial calculation upon callout DML exception.
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SEE ALSO:
Field Service Mobile App
Field Service Developer Guide
Trailhead: Get on the Road with Field Service
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SEE ALSO:
Trailhead: Field Service Basics
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Once the package is installed, the App Launcher includes two new apps.
• The Field Service app is for dispatchers. The Field Service tab in this app leads to the dispatcher console.
• The Field Service Admin app is for administrators. The Field Service Settings tab in this app leads to the managed package settings.
You can add the Field Service and Field Service Settings tabs to other apps.
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Note: Salesforce Setup includes a separate Field Service Settings page where you can customize general settings related to field
service.
SEE ALSO:
Trailhead: Supercharge Field Service
Field Service Mobile App
Field Service Limits and Limitations
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Field Service Mobile Provides access to the Field Service mobile Mobile users (typically technicians/team
app members)
You don’t need a permission set license to access field service objects. For example, inventory managers, admins, and customer support
agents probably don’t need one. However, for these users to access Field Service records, Field Service must be enabled.
IN THIS SECTION:
Create Field Service Permission Sets
Create Field Service permission sets from the Field Service Admin app.
Assign Field Service Permissions
After you create your field service permission sets, give users the permissions they need to complete their field service tasks. You
can assign permissions in Setup or in Guided Setup.
Set Custom Permissions for Field Service
The Field Service managed package includes custom permissions that control users’ access to actions and views. For example, you
can control access to bulk actions, such as dispatching, optimizing, and scheduling, or the ability to drag and drop appointments
on the Gantt.
Assign Field Service Page Layouts
The Field Service managed package provides standard object page layouts that include field service Visualforce components and
Chatter actions. Assign these page layouts to the System Administrator and Standard User profiles.
SEE ALSO:
Limit Access to Field Service Records
Let Users Manage Inventory from the Field Service Mobile App
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Field Service Agent Field Service Agent License* FSL Agent Permissions To assign a permission set
license:
FSL Agent Permissions provides the minimum
• Manage Users
permissions needed to use
the field service Chatter To create a permission set:
actions, such as Book • Manage Profiles and
Appointment, Get Candidates, Permission Sets
and Emergency actions.
Field Service Resource Field Service Mobile License • Field Service Mobile
Field Service Scheduling License provides the
License permission set license
FSL Resource Permissions needed for users to log in
to the Field Service
mobile app.
• Field Service Scheduling
License provides the
permission set license
needed for the user to be
shown on the Gantt and
scheduled by the
scheduling engine and
optimizer.
• FSL Resource Permissions
provides the minimum
permissions needed for
users to update
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Field Service Dispatcher Field Service Dispatcher License • Field Service Dispatcher License gives
FSL Dispatcher Permissions users the permission set license
needed to load the dispatcher console.
• FSL Dispatcher Permissions contains
the permissions included in FSL Agent
Permissions and FSL Resource
Permissions along with permissions to
operate the dispatcher console and
run optimization.
Field Service Self Service Field Service Self Service License Let Experience Builder site users view all
FSL Self Service Permissions global actions and their related objects for
creating, booking, and scheduling their
own appointments.
Field Service Community Dispatcher Field Service Community Dispatcher Let users view and use the dispatcher
License console, view global actions and their
FSL Community Dispatcher Permissions related objects, and schedule, optimize,
and dispatch service appointments.
*Newer Salesforce orgs don’t need the Field Service Agent License and Field Service Admin License permission sets. In these orgs,
Salesforce doesn’t create these two permission sets.
When a permission set is current, the Create Permissions link on the tile is replaced by a message indicating that it’s up to date.
SEE ALSO:
How Are Field Service Permission Sets Updated?
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Agent: Access all global actions and their • Field Service Agent License*
USER PERMISSIONS
related objects to create, book, and schedule
• FSL Agent Permissions To assign a permission set
service appointments.
license:
Dispatcher: Access all global actions and their • Field Service Dispatcher License • Manage Users
related objects to create, book, and schedule To create a permission set:
• FSL Dispatcher Permissions
service appointments. • Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets
Technician: Manage service appointments • Field Service Mobile License
and their related parent objects.
• Field Service Resource License
• FSL Resource Permissions
*Newer Salesforce orgs don’t need the Field Service Agent License and Field Service Admin License permission sets. In these orgs,
Salesforce doesn’t create these two permission sets, so they don’t need to be assigned.
Tip: Alternatively, you can assign permission sets to users from Guided Setup in the Create Service Resources and Create
Dispatchers and Agents steps. Simply click an icon in the Licenses column to assign a permission set license and its associated
permission sets to a user. You can always make further changes in Setup.
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IN THIS SECTION:
How Are Field Service Permission Sets Updated?
Permission sets provided by the Field Service managed package are automatically updated at the beginning of each major release.
Important: Auto-update of permission sets is logged on the behalf of the user who triggered the update, even if the user doesn’t
have permission to update permission sets. To turn off this process, ask Salesforce to disable the Auto Update of Field Service
Permission Sets feature. To update permissions for Apex Class, Record Types, and Tabs Visibility, you must be an admin or have
ModifyAllData or ModifyMetadata permissions.
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Bulk Optimize Submit an optimization request using Optimize in the appointment list action menu.
Bulk Schedule Schedule selected appointments with the Schedule button on the appointment list or on polygons.
Bulk Unschedule Unschedule selected appointments from the appointment list action menu or on polygons.
Create Custom Gantt Filters Create custom filters for appointments on the Gantt.
Fill-in Fill in schedule gaps using Fill-In Schedule on the resource action menu.
Fix Overlaps Resolve overlapping appointments using Fix Overlaps on the resource action menu.
Enable Check Rules - All Services Initiate a rule validation check on demand with the Check Rules button. This checks rules for all
services loaded on the Gantt when the rule validation frequency isn’t Always.
Enable Gantt Locker Lock and unlock the Gantt chart using the Gantt locker. This action also disables drag and drop to
the Gantt chart from the appointment list or map. Without this permission, Gantt access is read-only.
Standard and custom actions on the appointment list and map are still shown and enabled according
to your org’s setup. (This permission is an extended custom permission.)
Gantt - Enable Gantt Policy Select a non-default policy for scheduling and calculating rule violations. (This permission is an
Picker extended custom permission.)
Gantt and List - Enable Bulk Check rules for multiple service appointments when right-clicking services on the Gantt chart or
Check Rule appointment list.
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Gantt and List - Show Get Find resources for an appointment using Get Candidates on the appointment list, or when
Candidates right-clicking services on the Gantt. (This permission is an extended custom permission.)
Gantt and Map - Enable Drag Drag selected services and resource absences from the appointment list, map, or Gantt, and place
and Drop them on the Gantt. (This permission is an extended custom permission.)
Gantt Palettes View View the Palettes tab in the Gantt and apply the selected palette.
Gantt - Show Change Status Change status when you right-click services on the Gantt. Without this permission, users can't dispatch
Action from the map. (This permission is an extended custom permission.)
Gantt - Show Pin Service Pin or unpin appointments when you right-click services on the Gantt. (This permission is an extended
custom permission.)
Gantt - Show Unschedule Unschedule appointments when you right-click services on the Gantt. (This permission is an extended
custom permission.)
Group Nearby Adjusts the schedule to find other appointments on that day that are close to the selected
appointment. The Group Nearby action is available when you right-click services on the Gantt.
Hide map on Emergency Wizard Hide the map view in the Emergency Wizard and show just the candidates instead.
Longterm View See the Long-Term Gantt view in the dispatcher console. When this permission is enabled, the
Long-Term Gantt view replaces the multi-day view.
Map Polygons - Show In Show the In Jeopardy flag when you right-click a map polygon. (This permission is an extended
Jeopardy custom permission.)
MDT View See the multi-day view in the dispatcher console. The Long-Term Gantt view replaces the multi-day
view.
Monthly Utilization Show utilization in the Gantt resolution menu in the top-right corner.
Policy Picker in Appointment Change the scheduling policy in the Book Appointment action.
Booking
Policy Picker in Get Candidates Change the scheduling policy in the Get Candidates action.
Publish custom Gantt filters Share custom filters for appointments on the Gantt.
Reshuffle Reshuffle appointments from the appointment action menu, or when you right-click services on the
Gantt.
Resource Schedule Optimization Optimize a resource's schedule using Resource Schedule Optimization from the resource action
menu.
Schedule Schedule an appointment from the appointment list or from the map.
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Service List View - Rule Violating Show the Rule Violating appointment list.
Streaming API After activating Gantt Live Updates in your org, use the streaming API to send live streaming updates
of the Gantt. When this permission is disabled, users see only Gantt changes timed using the interval
defined in Field Service Settings > Dispatcher Console UI > Timed Updates.
Utilization on Service Territory For the selected Gantt horizon, view utilization percentages for each territory’s workforce.
View resource on secondary STM If enabled, show a resource’s secondary territory membership on the Gantt.
Example: To limit the dispatchers who can optimize your schedule so the system isn’t bogged down with optimization requests,
remove custom permissions for bulk actions in the dispatcher console:
• FSL.Bulk Dispatch
• FSL.Bulk Optimize
• FSL.Bulk Schedule
• FSL.Bulk Unschedule
A user with the FSL.Bulk Optimize custom permission sees the Optimize action. Users without it can’t run an optimization. Removing
any of these custom permissions hides the action in the user interface.
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Set Up Service Territories, Operating Hours, and Shifts for Field Service
Create service territories to track the places where your team performs field service work. Assign
EDITIONS
regular operating hours to each service territory to indicate when work can be performed. Create
shifts to assign resources to ad hoc hours, such as holiday hours or for workers without a set schedule. Available in: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
IN THIS SECTION: Experience
Create Service Territories for Field Service The Field Service core
Create hierarchies of service territories to organize your field service workforce and ensure that features, managed
service resources are assigned to service appointments near their home base. Service territories package, and mobile app
typically represent geographical areas where your team works, but they can also be functional are available in Enterprise,
territories such as field sales and field service. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions.
Set Up Shifts for Field Service Work orders are also
Shifts in Field Service let you define variable working periods for your shift-based workforce, available in Professional
such as contractors or on-call staff. Create shifts for particular dates and times when you need Edition.
coverage, and assign them to service resources. When the managed package is installed,
scheduling and optimization consider workforce availability during shifts.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Your Field Service Workforce
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Create hierarchies of service territories to organize your field service workforce and ensure that service resources are assigned to service
appointments near their home base. Service territories typically represent geographical areas where your team works, but they can also
be functional territories such as field sales and field service.
Before you start, make a list of the territories you want to create and who works in each territory. To keep scheduling straightforward,
try to create territories with no more than 50 mobile workers assigned to them.
You can organize service territories into hierarchies of up to 10,000 territories. We recommend creating the highest-level territories first.
For example, create a San Francisco Bay Area territory with four child territories: Peninsula, North Bay, South Bay, and East Bay.
If the Field Service managed package is installed, use Guided Setup to quickly create your service territories.
1. From the App Launcher, find and open the Field Service Admin app, and then click the Field Service Settings tab.
2. Click Go to Guided Setup. When you launch guided setup, your Field Service permission sets are scanned to make sure that they’re
up-to-date. You see a message if you’re missing a necessary permission.
3. Click Create Service Territories.
4. Create your territories one by one. Click a territory name to update its name, operating hours, and address.
5. Operating hours indicate the working hours of mobile workers in the territory. Territory members use these hours unless different
hours are specified on their service territory member records. Use the lookup to select existing operating hours, or click New
Operating Hours to create your own.
• To create more complex or varying time slots, save your new operating hours and click Open Operating Hours Record below
the Operating Hours field. Then, customize your time slots in the Time Slots related list.
• To avoid issues with appointment booking, always specify a time zone on your operating hours.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Creating Service Territories for Field Service
Learn how to use service territories to track where your field service team works.
Guidelines for Creating Operating Hours for Field Service
Operating hours in Field Service can represent mobile worker hours, service territory hours, appointment arrival windows, and
customer appointment time preferences. Learn how to set operating hours for each scenario.
SEE ALSO:
Service Territory Fields for Field Service
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Note: We recommend using 00:00 because it aligns with Field Service’s default Start of Day, which is 00:00. However,
you can set a custom Start of Day on Service Resource Availability work rules if the default doesn’t make sense—for
example, if your team typically works night shifts. To enforce a custom Start of Day, from the Field Service Admin app, click
Field Service Settings > Scheduling and select Set the hour that starts a new day based on the Availability rule(s).
If the applied scheduling policy uses a custom Start of Day, set your service territory memberships to start and end at that
time rather than at midnight.
• During scheduling and optimization, Field Service uses the service territory member’s own time zone—set on the user record—to
interpret the territory membership start and end times. If the user’s time zone differs from the service territory’s time zone, adjust
the membership start and end time accordingly. For example, if the user’s time zone is 3 hours behind the service territory’s time
zone, set the territory membership start time to 3:00 rather than 00:00.
• If you're using optimization, service territory memberships can't be longer than three years. If you need a service territory
membership to be longer than three years, keep the End Date fields blank.
Deleting Service Territories
You can’t delete a service territory with service appointments. If you try to delete it, you’re prompted to assign the appointments to
a different territory.
If you delete a service territory with members, the service resources who were members no longer have a connection to the territory.
Adding Locations to Service Territories
Associate location records with service territories from the Service Territory Locations related list. Add site, plant, and warehouse
locations to the service territory in which they’re located. Add mobile locations, like vans, to the service territories where they can
be used for field service work.
SEE ALSO:
Service Territory Fields for Field Service
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Service Cloud Set Up Field Service
To view operating hours and time slots: Read on operating hours Available in: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
To create operating hours: Create on operating hours
Experience
To assign operating hours to service Edit on service resources
The Field Service core
resources:
features, managed
To assign operating hours to service Edit on service territories package, and mobile app
territories: are available in Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
To assign operating hours to accounts: Edit on accounts and Developer Editions.
To update, create, or delete time slots: Edit on operating hours Work orders are also
available in Professional
Edition.
Operating hours in Field Service can represent mobile worker hours, service territory hours,
appointment arrival windows, and customer appointment time preferences. Learn how to set
operating hours for each scenario.
Service territories The default working hours for the service Select operating hours when creating a
territory members, unless different hours service territory in Guided Setup. Or, update
are specified on a service territory member the Operating Hours field on the service
record. territory record.
Service territory members The hours when the member (a service Update the Operating Hours field on a
resource) is available to work service territory member record.
Appointment booking The appointment booking arrival windows Select your default operating hours for
offered to customers during scheduling appointment booking in the Customize
Appointment Booking step in Guided
Setup. Or, from the App Launcher, find and
open the Field Service Admin app, and
then click Field Service Settings > Global
Actions > Appointment Booking. Then,
update the Default Operating Hours field.
Tip: If different appointment booking windows are needed for different level of service—for instance, standard customers get
4-hour booking windows while VIP customers get 2-hour windows—add entitlements to your work orders. In the Operating Hours
field on the entitlement, select the appropriate appointment booking window operating hours.
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Note: If you have access to 2,000 or more service territories, the appointment list shows only selected territories. Use the search
bar to find territories that aren't selected.
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Tip: Create Apex triggers that limit time slot settings. For example, restrict the start and end times on time slots to half-hour
increments, or prohibit end times later than 8 PM.
SEE ALSO:
Operating Hours Fields for Field Service
Time Zones and Appointment Booking
Work Rule Type: Service Appointment Visiting Hours
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• To select job profiles when you create shifts, add the Job Profile field to shift layouts.
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Field Value
Shift Template Name Daily delivery shifts
Pattern Length 1
For the shift pattern entries, add the morning, afternoon, and evening delivery shift templates. Because the pattern is for a single
day, the Day Position is one for each of the templates. When the shifts are created, you can optionally assign a service territory and
service resource to the shifts. You can’t assign multiple territories or resources, so we recommend keeping the patterns fairly simple.
Field Value
Shift Template Name Front desk shifts, Weekly (Monday)
Pattern Length 7
For the shift pattern entries, add the morning, afternoon, and weekend shift templates.
• Add the morning shift seven times, iterating through the day positions 1 through 7.
• Add the evening shift seven times, iterating through the day positions 1 through 7.
• Because the pattern starts on Monday, add the weekend surge shifts for Day Position four, five, and 6.
You now have a shift pattern that creates 17 shifts per week.
IN THIS SECTION:
Create Shift Templates
Use shift templates to help manage your team’s schedule. Store the details of commonly used shifts such as the duration, start time,
and job profile.
Create Shift Patterns
Create shift patterns that store commonly used sets of shifts. Your team can use the New from Pattern action to quickly create shifts
from templates.
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USER PERMISSIONS
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8. Make sure that the shift templates and the shift pattern are active.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Recordset Filter Criteria
Filter criteria let you match records in one object to those in another. For example, you can choose criteria to filter which service
appointments can be scheduled during a shift.
SEE ALSO:
Guidelines for Recordset Filter Criteria
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SEE ALSO:
Manage Work Orders for Field Service
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Service Cloud Set Up Field Service
8. To apply a work type to a work order or work order line item, select the work type in the Work Type field on the record when creating
it. When you add a work type, the record inherits settings from the work type.
If the managed package isn’t installed, create and manage work types from the Work Types tab.
IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Creating Work Types for Field Service
Work types help you standardize your field service processes. Learn about inherited work type settings, required skills and products,
auto-created service appointments, and attaching knowledge articles.
Guidelines for Creating Skills for Field Service
Assign skills to service resources to represent certifications or areas of expertise. Add skill requirements to work types, work orders,
and work order line items to indicate the skills needed to complete the work.
SEE ALSO:
Work Type Fields for Field Service
Add Required Skills to Work Orders or Work Types for Field Service
Attach Knowledge Articles to Work Orders or Work Types
Track Required Inventory
Trailhead: Field Service Center Customization
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Skill Requirements
Skill requirements on work types represent the skills that are needed to complete the work. Work orders and work order line items inherit
their work type’s skill requirements. Define required skills in the Skill Requirements related list.
You can enforce skill requirements during schedule optimization using the Match Skills work rule in a scheduling policy. If you’re not
using the Field Service managed package, skill requirements serve as a suggestion rather than a requirement.
If you add a work type to an existing work order, the work order only inherits the skill requirements if the work order didn’t yet have any.
Similarly, updating a work type’s skill requirements doesn’t affect work orders that were already created using that work type.
The previous rules are also true for work order line items. Work order line items don’t inherit their parent work order’s skill requirements.
Note: Customizations to skill requirements, such as validation rules or Apex triggers, are not carried over from work types to work
orders and work order line items.
Required Products
Required products on work types represent the products that are needed to complete the work. Work orders and work order line items
inherit their work type’s required products. Define required products in the Products Required related list.
If you add a work type to an existing work order, the work order only inherits the required products if the work order didn’t yet have any.
Similarly, updating a work type’s required products doesn’t affect work orders that were already created using that work type.
The previous rules are also true for work order line items. Work order line items don’t inherit their parent work order’s required products.
Note: Customizations to required products, such as validation rules or Apex triggers, are not carried over from work types to work
orders and work order line items.
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Knowledge Articles
When you attach a knowledge article to a work type, the article shows up on work orders and work order line items that use the work
type. For example, if you have a work type named Solar Panel Replacement, you can attach an article that explains how to replace a
solar panel. Any work order using that work type automatically includes the article, and the person assigned to the work order has the
instructions at their fingertips.
Articles on work types work a little differently than articles on work orders and work order line items. Here are the differences:
• A Linked Work Types related list isn’t available on article page layouts, so you can’t see which work types an article is attached to.
• The Knowledge One widget isn’t available on work types in the console in Salesforce Classic, but the Articles related list is.
• To ensure that field service records are associated with the most current versions of knowledge articles, articles attached to work
types don’t specify an article version. For this reason:
– When work orders and work order line items inherit an article from their work type, they inherit the latest version of the article
published in their org’s default Knowledge Settings language.
– An article attached to a work type may display in a different title or language in the Articles related list versus in the Knowledge
Lightning component. The Articles related list reflects the article version that is inherited by work orders and work order line
items using the work type.
SEE ALSO:
Work Type Fields for Field Service
Set Up Knowledge for Work Orders
Add Required Skills to Work Orders or Work Types for Field Service
Create, update, and delete skills in Setup: Customize Application Available in: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Assign skills to service resources: Edit on service resources
Experience
View service resources’ skills: Read on service resources
The Field Service core
Add required skills to work orders or work Edit on work orders features, managed
order line items: package, and mobile app
are available in Enterprise,
Add required skills to work types: Edit on work types Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions.
Work orders are also
Assign skills to service resources to represent certifications or areas of expertise. Add skill requirements available in Professional
to work types, work orders, and work order line items to indicate the skills needed to complete the Edition.
work.
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If the Field Service managed package is installed, you can easily create and assign skills in Guided Setup when you create work types
and service resources.
If you’re not using Guided Setup, create skills in Setup first. Then, assign them to service resources or create skill requirements.
1. Decide how to measure skill level. Skills and skill requirements can be assigned a skill level between 0 and 99.99. For example, use
the Skill Level field to indicate years of experience, or create a matrix that corresponds professional license classes to skill level
numbers.
Tip:
• Create validation rules to limit potential skill level values. For example, only allow multiples of 10.
• Create field-level help to let your users know how skill level is determined.
3. Assign the skill to service resources (supported in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience).
a. From a service resource record, create a new resource skill in the Skills related list.
b. Select a skill, and enter a skill level from 0 to 99.99.
c. Enter a start date and, if needed, an end date. For example, if a mobile worker must be recertified in a particular skill every six
months, enter an end date that’s six months later than the start date.
d. Save your skill.
4. Add the skill as a requirement on work types, work orders, or work order line items (supported in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning
Experience). Work orders and work order line items inherit their work type’s skill requirements.
a. From a work type, work order, or work order line item record, create a new skill requirement in the Skill Requirements related
list.
b. Select a skill, and enter a skill level from 0 to 99.99.
c. Save your skill requirement.
SEE ALSO:
Skill Fields for Field Service
Add Required Skills to Work Orders or Work Types for Field Service
Create Work Types for Field Service
Guidelines for Creating Work Types for Field Service
Create Service Resources for Field Service
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Service Cloud Set Up Field Service
Create, clone, edit, or delete Edit on work orders Standard User, Solution
work order line items Manager, Contract Manager,
Marketing User, and System
Administrator
2. Customize the fields and related lists on the following objects’ page layouts.
Note: If you have your own field service terminology, remember that you can rename an object’s tab and labels. In Setup,
select Rename Tabs and Labels, and enter your own term for the object you’d like to rename.
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• Optionally, add your own custom values to the Status picklist field. The Status field comes with these
default values:
– New
– In Progress
– On Hold
– Completed
– Cannot Complete
– Closed
– Canceled
When you create a custom value, select a status category that the value falls into. The available status
categories match the default status values. For example, if you create a Customer Absent value, you
may decide that it belongs in the Cannot Complete category.
To learn which processes reference Status Category, see How are Status Categories Used?
Work Order Line Item • Arrange the fields. The default layout includes only some of the available fields.
• Optionally, add your own custom values to the Status picklist field. The Status field is identical to
the Status field on work orders.
• Confirm that your page layout has the desired related lists:
– Child Work Order Line Items: The line item’s child line items
– Product Request Line Items: Line items on product requests
– Product Requests: Products requested for the line item
– Products Consumed: Products used during the completion of the line item
– Products Required: Products needed to complete the line item
– Service Appointments: Appointments indicating when the work is scheduled
– Service Reports: Reports summarizing the work for customers
– Skill Requirements: Skills needed to complete the line item
– Time Sheet Entries: Schedule of mobile workers’ time spent on the line item
Work Type • Arrange the fields. The default layout includes only some of the available fields.
• Confirm that your page layout has the desired related lists:
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a. To let users view and manage work orders in a variety of places, add the Work Orders related list to any of the following objects’
page layouts.
• Accounts
• Assets
• Cases
• Contacts
• Entitlements
• Maintenance plans
Note: Before adding the related list, update the field-level security for the Maintenance Plan and Suggested
Maintenance Date fields on work orders to make them available to users.
• Return orders
• Return order line items
• Service contracts
IN THIS SECTION:
How are Status Categories Used?
Service appointments, work orders, and work order line items have two status-related fields—Status and Status Category—which
come with the same standard values. Status categories, which are referenced in many field service processes, allow you to use custom
status values while maintaining a consistent work classification for tracking, reporting, and business process management.
SEE ALSO:
Work Order Fields for Field Service
Work Order Line Item Fields for Field Service
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Many field service triggers and processes are based on appointment, work order, or work order line item status. To ensure that these
processes work as expected when custom statuses are in use, Salesforce references the Status Category field—rather than the Status
field— before making changes.
The following field service processes are based on status category, rather than status. If you create custom status values or reference the
Status or Status Category fields in custom apps, triggers, or validation rules, keep these in mind.
• Status-based sharing rules for work orders, work order line items, and service appointments
• Status-based paths on work orders, work order line items, and service appointments
• Dispatcher console appointment list filters
• Dispatch scheduled jobs, which are triggered by an appointment’s status category being updated to Dispatched
• Dispatch Chatter notification settings, which are triggered by an appointment’s status category being changed to Dispatched
• Dispatch drip feed—found in the Field Service Admin app > Field Service Settings tab > Dispatch—which dispatches one or
more appointments when the assigned resource’s previous appointment’s status category changes from Dispatched or In-Progress
to Canceled, Completed, or Cannot Complete
• Calendar syncing, which checks for appointments whose status category is Dispatched
• Completed icon on the dispatcher console map, which appears when an appointment’s status category changes to Completed
• KPI for completed service appointments shown on the Gantt, capacity view, and service resource view, which is based on appointments
whose status category is Completed
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• In Lightning Experience, navigate to Linked Article in the Object Manager. To attach or detach an
article on a work type:
• In Salesforce Classic, navigate to the Linked Articles page under Knowledge. • Read on work types AND
Read on the article type
Note: Linked articles include the following limitations. AND Knowledge
• Quick actions and global actions aren’t supported for linked articles. enabled
• The Article widget and Feed Articles Tool aren’t available in the feed view. To edit page layouts:
• Customize Application
• In Lightning Experience, clicking an article link in a feed item redirects you to the article
page in Salesforce Classic. In the Salesforce mobile app, linked articles can’t be accessed To edit console layouts:
from feed items. • Customize Application
AND Service Cloud User
• The Linked Work Types related list isn’t available on articles in any platform.
• The Knowledge One widget isn’t available on work types in the console. To manage linked
articles on work types in the console, use the Articles related list.
• Linked articles are read-only in the Salesforce mobile app.
SEE ALSO:
Attach Knowledge Articles to Work Orders or Work Types
View Knowledge Articles in the Field Service Mobile App
Linked Article Fields
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USER PERMISSIONS
To set up a path:
• Modify All Data
To create, customize, or
publish an Experience Cloud
site:
• Create and Set Up
Experiences AND View
Setup and Configuration
You can set up one path per record type. The steps in a path (1) correspond to the Status picklist values. Help users succeed by displaying
up to five key fields and handy step-specific guidance beneath each path step (2).
Several statuses can represent the record’s conclusion: Canceled, Cannot Complete, Completed, and Closed. Therefore, the last stage of
the path displays as Final Status when the record is open. Users are prompted to select a final status from these values when they try
to close the record, and the path then shows the selected final status. The order of the path steps is based on the order of the values in
the Status picklist, though statuses representing conclusion are grouped in the final step.
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Path is available for work orders, work order line items, and service appointments in Lightning Experience and Experience Builder sites.
It isn’t available in Salesforce Classic, the Salesforce mobile app, or the Field Service mobile app.
1. On the Path Settings page in Setup, enable Path. Select Remember User's Path Preferences to let users decide whether
the path remembers its previous state or is always closed when the page loads.
2. If you plan to create a path based on the Status field for a field service object, assign a status category to each status. From the field
settings for the object’s Status picklist field in Setup, click Edit next to a value. Select the corresponding status category and save
your changes. Status categories determine which statuses are grouped in the Final Status stage on the path, and are also used in
scheduling.
3. From the Path Settings page in Setup, follow the prompts to create a path for the Work Order, Work Order Line Item, or Service
Appointment object. Paths can be based on the Status field or a custom picklist. Optionally, select key fields or add guidance for
each step in the path.
4. To add your path to record detail pages in your org, drag the Path component onto the object detail page in Builder.
5. To add your path to an Experience Builder site, drag the Path component onto the object detail page in Experience Builder.
SEE ALSO:
Lightning Flow for Service and the Actions & Recommendations Component
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SEE ALSO:
Manage Service Resources
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Service resources are individual users or groups of users—known as service crews—who can perform field service work. Create service
resources so you can assign service appointments to them.
Tip: If the Field Service managed package is installed, you can use Guided Setup to quickly create service resources and assign
them the proper permission sets. From the App Launcher, find and open the Field Service Admin app, and then click the Field
Service Settings tab. Click Go to Guided Setup > Create Service Resources and follow the guidance to update or create
service resources.
1. From the Service Resources tab, click New.
2. Select a user and enter a resource name—typically, the user’s name.
3. If the resource represents an individual user, select the user in the User field. If the resource represents a service crew, leave the User
field blank and select the crew in the Service Crew field. Service resources must list a user or a service crew.
4. Select Active to be able to assign the resource to service appointments. Inactive resources also can’t access the Field Service mobile
app.
5. Indicate whether the resource is a technician (a mobile worker), dispatcher, or crew.
Note: Field Service users can see Asset as a picklist option in the Resource Type field. However, you can’t save the record
when you select Asset in an org that doesn’t have access to Lightning Scheduler.
Resources who are dispatchers can’t be capacity-based, included in schedule optimization, or added to service crews. Only users
with the Field Service Dispatcher permission set license can be dispatchers.
6. Enter a location if applicable. Service resources might be linked to a location if they manage or operate the location (such as a
warehouse or van). A location can’t be linked to more than one service resource.
7. Select Capacity-Based if the resource is limited to working a certain number of hours or appointments in a specified time period.
You can define the resource’s capacity in the Capacities related list.
Contractors are likely capacity-based.
8. Select Include in Scheduling Optimization to check if the resource has the permission set license needed for optimization.
To be included in optimization, users need the Field Service Scheduling permission set license.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Define a Service Resource’s Capacity
Typically, contractors in field service can work a specified amount in a given time period. Define a service resource’s capacity so they
aren’t overbooked during schedule optimization.
Estimate a Service Resource’s Efficiency
People work at different paces depending on their skills and level of experience. Assign an efficiency score to service resources to
facilitate scheduling. The scores are considered during scheduling and can affect an appointment’s scheduled end time.
Guidelines for Creating Service Resources for Field Service
Learn how to view, create, and manage service resources to keep your field service operation running smoothly.
Guidelines for Setting Up Field Service Contractors
If you’re running a field service operation, it’s likely that you work with contractors in addition to your full-time employees. Learn
how to incorporate contractors into your field service processes.
SEE ALSO:
Service Resource Fields for Field Service
5. Save your changes. You can create multiple capacities for a resource as long as the start and end dates don’t overlap.
Tip: If the Field Service managed package is installed, view and update a service resource’s capacity on the Capacity tab on the
service resource detail view.
Considerations
• If the managed package is installed, capacity-based resources must include a Hours per Time Period value on their capacity record.
If the user’s capacity should be measured in work items, fill out Work Items per Time Period as well and set the Hours per Time Period
to a high number which likely won’t be achieved.
• The Fix Overlaps feature isn’t support for capacity-based service resources.
• Schedule optimization respects daily capacity, but not weekly or monthly.
• Resource schedule optimization—the optimization of an individual service resource’s schedule—isn’t supported for capacity-based
service resources.
• If a service resource is capacity-based with a defined capacity, their utilization percentage isn’t shown in the Gantt.
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SEE ALSO:
Guidelines for Setting Up Field Service Contractors
Set Up Field Service in Experience Cloud Sites
Example: The estimated duration on the Battery Replacement work type is 60 minutes.
• Alexander, an expert, has an efficiency of 2.0. If Alexander is assigned to a Battery
Replacement appointment, the appointment is scheduled to end 30 minutes after the
scheduled start (60/2=30).
• Jane, a mobile worker, has an efficiency of 1.0. If Jane is assigned to a Battery Replacement
appointment, the appointment is scheduled to end 1 hour after the scheduled start
(60/1=60).
• Janice, a junior worker, has an efficiency of 0.5. If Janice is assigned to a Battery
Replacement appointment, the appointment is scheduled to end 2 hours after the
scheduled start (60/0.5=120).
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Tip: Create a trigger that sends an approval request to a supervisor when a resource creates an absence.
SEE ALSO:
Service Resource Fields for Field Service
Create Service Crews
3. Make the contacts Experience Cloud site users. Depending on the licenses that your
organization has purchased, you can assign
them the Customer Community Plus or Partner
Community license. If both are available, partner
licenses are ideal for users who are engaged in
sales or distribution with your company.
4. Assign permission set licenses, create a Assign field service permission set licenses to
contractor user profile, and configure object each user:
permissions. • The Field Service Scheduling permission set
license allows the user to be included in
scheduling.
• The Field Service Mobile permission set
license gives the user access to the Field
Service mobile app.
For help assigning the permission set licenses,
see Manage Field Service Permissions.
Then, create a user profile for contractors
(recommended) and configure their object
permissions.
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Step Details
5. Create a service resource to represent the contractor users. You can create service resources for every contractor worker or just
for the contractor manager. Each service resource is linked to a
user—in this case, the partner or customer site user.
6. Create a service territory for each contractor company, and add Creating a contractor-specific territory lets the contractor manager
the contractor users as service territory members. see only their employees in the dispatcher console. For example,
if you’re contracting with Ursa Major Solar, create a territory named
Ursa Major Solar Contracting.
7. Add the dispatcher console to the Experience Builder site. For help, see Add the Dispatcher Console to an Experience Builder
Site.
• The contractor manager is an Experience Cloud site user but • You want to track individual contractor workers’ details in
not a service resource Salesforce
• The contractor workers are service resources with Field Service • You want contractor workers to be able to view or update
Mobile licenses appointment details in the field
1. The dispatcher shares the work order with the contractor • You want the scheduling engine to consider each contractor
manager. worker’s schedule when making assignments
2. In your site, the contractor manager uses the Book
Appointment action to assign the associated service
appointment to a mobile worker.
3. The mobile worker uses the mobile app to view the
assignment, and update the service appointment and work
order status when the work is complete.
• The contractor manager is an Experience Cloud site user and • You don’t want to track individual contractor workers’ details
a service resource in Salesforce
• The contractor manager tracks the contractor workers in a • You want the contractor manager to be responsible for viewing
separate system and updating appointment details in the field
1. The dispatcher assigns the service appointment to the • You don’t need to differentiate between different contractor
contractor manager by creating an assigned resource record. workers’ schedules when assigning work with the scheduling
engine
2. The contractor coordinates with the contractor team to
complete the work.
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Tip: The Contractors list view in the dispatcher console Service Appointment List shows only service appointments that are
assigned to capacity-based service resources.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Field Service in Experience Cloud Sites
Define a Service Resource’s Capacity
To view service crew members: Read on service crews AND Read on service
resources
Set up teams who can be assigned to field service appointments as a unit. A service crew is a group of service resources whose combined
skills and experience make them a good fit to work together on appointments. For example, a wellhead repair crew might include a
hydrologist, a mechanical engineer, and an electrician.
Create service crews from the crew management tool or the Service Crews tab.
From the Crew Management Tool
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Note: Not sure how to get to the crew management tool? Ask your admin to follow the steps in Set Up Crew Management
and let you know where the tool is located.
Note: Though the User and Service Crew fields won’t be marked required in the UI, service resource records can’t be
saved unless one of the fields is filled out.
b. Update the field-level security settings of the Gantt Label field on service crew members so it’s not hidden. Then, add the field
to the Service Crew Member page layout.
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5. Create a service resource to represent the crew, which is required for scheduling. Changing a crew’s members doesn’t affect its
service appointment assignments.
a. From the Service Resources tab, click New.
b. Enter a name for the crew.
c. Leaving the User field blank, select the crew in the Service Crew field.
d. Select a Resource Type of Crew.
e. Select Active to be able to assign the crew to service appointments and manage its membership with the crew management
tool. Service resources of type Crew can’t be activated unless the crew has at least one active member.
f. Skip the optimization option, which doesn’t apply to service crews.
g. Save your changes.
IN THIS SECTION:
Considerations for Scheduling Service Crews
Service crews, much like individual service resources, can be assigned to service appointments. Learn how absences, efficiency, and
crew settings affect service crew scheduling.
SEE ALSO:
Service Crew Fields
View Service Crews on the Gantt
Set Up Crew Management
Manage Service Crew Membership
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If you want appointments that don’t require crews to be assigned only to individual service resources, use the Resource Priority
service objective in your scheduling policy. Give your mobile workers a lower priority so the scheduler prefers to assign work to them.
To prohibit the scheduling of all appointments to crews, assign a “No Crew” skill to your individual service resources. Then, add this
skill as requirement to the work type, work order, or work order line item in question.
Capacity
Capacity-based scheduling isn’t supported for service crews because a service resource of type Crew can’t be capacity-based.
Efficiency
When an appointment is scheduled to a crew, the Crew Efficiency field on the crew’s service resource is used to calculate the
appointment’s Scheduled End. The crew members’ efficiencies aren’t considered.
Geolocation Tracking and Service Territories
• The Last Known Location is tracked for crew leaders only. If a crew has more than one leader, the most updated location is
displayed on the map.
• If a service resource is relocated to another service territory while they belong to a crew, the service resource membership record
is drawn only on the relocation territory.
• The service resource representing the service crew is the home base considered by Field Service while belonging to the crew.
• Travel calculation follows the service territory or the service territory member's address of the service resource representing the
service crew.
Membership Requirements
• Only active service resources of the Technician resource type can be added to crews.
• To belong to a crew, a service resource needs service territory membership in the territory where the crew provides service. The
time span of service crew membership must match or be fully contained in the time span of the service resource of type Technician
service territory membership.
• A service resource can be a member of multiple crews as long as the membership dates don’t overlap.
• Service resources that belong to a service crew don’t receive notifications about assignments or assignment changes. Assignment
notifications are sent only to service resources that are assigned individually to appointments.
• Removing all members from a service crew deactivates the related service resource of type Crew.
Minimum Crew Size
Work orders, work order line items, and work types come with a Minimum Crew Size and a Recommended Crew Size. For example,
a crew might have a recommended size of 3, but a minimum size of 2. Work orders and work order line items inherits their work
type’s crew size settings.
Note: The crew size fields are hidden for all users by default. If you don’t see them, update their field-level security settings
in Setup.
Field Service doesn’t consider the Recommended Crew Size when assigning appointments. To determine whether a service crew
fits the minimum crew size requirement for an appointment, the scheduling engine either counts the crew’s service crew members
or checks the Service Crew Size field on the Service Crew record. You can adjust these settings on the Service Crew Resources
Availability work rule. If the Minimum Crew Size is blank or 1, the scheduler may assign the work to mobile workers or to crews.
You can customize the Service Crew Resources Availability work rule to serve one of two purposes:
• Compare a service appointment parent record’s Minimum Crew Size field to the Crew Size field on the service crew.
• Compare a service appointment parent record’s Minimum Crew Size field to the actual number of allocated service crew members
at the time of the assignment. Consider Service Crew Membership must be selected on the Service Crew Resources Availability
work rule.
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If the Minimum Crew Size is blank or 1 on the service appointment’s parent record, all service resources (of either the Crew or
Technician type) are considered as candidates. This is also true for optimization, although a crew isn’t a candidate if it has no valid
crew members and Consider Service Crew Membership is selected on the Service Crew Resources Availability work rule.
If your org was created before Spring ’18, you must create this work rule and add it to your scheduling policies.
Multiday Appointments
When a multiday appointment is scheduled for a worker whose start date on a service crew is in the future, the multiday appointment
is elongated to last the duration of the worker’s membership in the service crew.
Resource Preferences
Service resources that belong to a crew can’t be candidates for appointments while they belong to a crew. Therefore, the Required
Resource and Excluded Resource work rules and the Preferred Resource service objective don’t apply to active service crew members.
Scheduling Candidates
When the scheduler is looking for candidates to perform a job, only service resources of type Crew and Technician are considered
as candidates. If a service resource is a current member of a service crew, the resource isn’t considered as a candidate. If a service
resource is manually assigned to a service appointment while they belong to a crew, the dispatcher console shows a rule violation.
Sharing
When a service appointment is dispatched, members of the assigned service crew get Read access to the appointment and its parent
record and the crew leader gets Read/Write access. If the Field Service managed package isn’t installed, service crew leaders don’t
receive any extra permissions.
If an appointment’s Scheduled Start changes or an assigned resource of type Crew is updated, the appointment’s assigned resources
are refreshed to keep the sharing settings current. A change in a service crew membership record doesn’t trigger the refresh.
Skills
Skills can be assigned to service resources of any type—Technician or Crew—and are considered during scheduling. Unless skills
are assigned to a service crew directly on the service resource of type Crew, a service crew’s combined skills aren’t considered and
the crew may be under-scheduled.
If you want the scheduling engine to consider a service crew’s combined skills—that is, all skills assigned to the service crew
members—enable skill grouping. This way, if an appointment requires Drilling and Installation skills, a service crew that has members
with that group of skills is considered as a candidate.
From the App Launcher, find and open the Field Service Admin app, and then click the Field Service Settings tab. On the
Scheduling tab, select Enable resource crew skill grouping and save your changes.
Note:
• When skill grouping is enabled, the scheduling engine calculates the crew’s skill set for that time slot. The skill set is
recalculated each time the scheduling engine searches for appointment candidates because it can change based on crew
member allocations and skills that expire. For example, if a resource skill requires recertification every six months, the
scheduling engine considers crew members with the skill while their certifications are valid.
• If multiple members of a service crew have the same skill, the scheduling engine considers the highest skill level when
calculating the crew’s combined skill set.
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Utilization
When utilization is calculated for the utilization view and metrics shown in the dispatcher console, a service crew member is considered
to be utilized like the service resource representing the crew they belong to.
SEE ALSO:
Service Crew Fields
View Service Crews on the Gantt
Set Up Crew Management
Manage Service Crew Membership
USER PERMISSIONS
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1. Decide which users need access to the crew management tool. Ensure that each user has at least one of these permission sets:
• FSL Admin Permissions
• FSL Dispatcher Permissions
2. Add the crew management tool to your org in one of two ways:
• Create a Visualforce tab named Crew Management for the FSL.CrewManagement page.
• Embed the Crew Management custom Lightning component in a Lightning page. Because the component includes a detailed
chart, give it plenty of space on the page.
3. Create a permission set with access to the following elements, and assign it to the relevant users.
• Crew Management tab, if you created one
• FSL.CrewManagement Visualforce page
• FSL.CrewsResourceLightbox Visualforce page
• FSL.CrewsSaLightbox Visualforce page
• FSL.CrewsWorkorderLightbox Visualforce page
• FSL.CrewsWorkorderLineItemLightbox Visualforce page
• FSL.CrewManagement Apex class
You’re all set! For help using crew management, see Manage Service Crew Membership.
SEE ALSO:
Manage Service Crew Membership
Create Service Crews
View Service Crews on the Gantt
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Note: User territories give users access to the following objects for that territory.
• Resource Absences
• Service Appointments
• Service Resources
• Service Territories
• Parent objects of shared Service Appointments; for example, Accounts, Assets, Opportunities, Work Orders, and Work
Order Line Items
3. Set up sharing settings for service resources. These settings allow dispatchers to control access to the appointment and its related
information until they have finalized the appointment's details.
a. From Setup, enter Field Service Settings in the Quick Find box, then click Field Service Settings.
b. Select any of the following options. Hover over a setting’s information icon for details.
• Share dispatched service appointments with their assigned resources
• Share service appointments’ parent work orders with their assigned resources
• Let service crew members edit their service appointments
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Note: When a service resource is removed from a service appointment, sharing is deleted only for that service appointment.
Sharing on the parent work order is still retained.
4. Because record access needs can change, Field Service regularly checks that users have access to the right records. After your service
resources are assigned to service territories, confirm that this sharing update process is active.
a. From the App Launcher, find and open the Field Service Admin app, and then click the Field Service Settings tab.
b. Select Sharing > Scheduled Jobs.
c. Expand the User Territories scheduled job, and confirm that Active is selected.
d. Select which territories to check sharing for, and configure the job frequency.
Tip:
• Limit each job to fewer than 100 territories.
• If territory membership changes frequently, try a frequency of 1 day. If territory membership is generally static, you
can decrease the frequency to 30 days, for example.
Note:
• When an appointment is canceled, it’s visible only to the appointment owner and the relevant dispatchers based on the user
territory object. The sharing rules no longer apply.
• You can give dispatchers access to records by sharing information across territories and syncing calendars to include absences
and other events.
• In some orgs, the Field Service Admin app has similar sharing options. We recommend disabling the app sharing settings and
using the Setup settings.
• When User Territory Sharing is enabled and the option Automatically populate user groups based on User Territory is
selected, the User Territory Apex Rule does the following.
– If you create a service territory, it creates a public group with the same name. The public group is added to
ServiceTerritoryShare object.
– If you create a user territory record, it adds the user to the public group for that service territory.
– If you create a service appointment with that service territory, the public group is added to the ServiceAppointmentShare
object to grant access to the record.
– When a service appointment with that territory is shared, related parent records (such as Accounts, Assets, Opportunities,
Work Orders, and Work Order Line Items) are also shared. The service appointment record and its parent record are shared
with the associated public group and its users. If the parent record of the appointment is a Work Order Line Item, the
associated Work Order is also shared. Optionally, in Field Service Settings under Sharing > Scheduled Jobs, select
which parent objects are shared when an appointment is shared. For example, to share Work Orders but not Accounts,
check Share parent Work Order when Service Appointment is shared and deselect Share parent Account when
Service Appointment is shared.
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If you don't have User Territory Sharing enabled or sharing settings weren’t private when you created the service territory
records, you must manually create the sharing records.
• Public group names must be unique. For example, User Territory Sharing doesn't work if you have a queue with the same
name as one of your public groups.
• When a service appointment is created without a user territory, it’s associated with the Field Service Default public group. This
default group allows a user to access a service appointment and work order even when there’s no associated territory. Field
Service adds users in all user territories as members of this public group. If you’re a dispatcher, you can filter the Gantt and
show service appointments that aren’t associated with a territory.
Example: John is a dispatcher for the New Jersey service territory, and his user territory record gives him access to New Jersey
field service records. Madison is a mobile worker for the Pennsylvania service territory, but on August 1 she is moving to the New
Jersey territory.
To reflect Madison’s move, the admin adds an end date of July 31 to her Pennsylvania service territory member record. The admin
then creates a New Jersey service territory member record for Madison with a start date of August 1.
The admin has configured the User Territory sharing job to run daily for all service territories, including Pennsylvania and New
Jersey. This job calculates which records users need access to. Because the job’s backwards time horizon is set to one day, John
receives access to Madison’s field service records one day before she starts work in New Jersey.
SEE ALSO:
Manage Field Service Permissions
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Sync Services and Resource Absences with Events Using Calendar Sync
You can keep your services and resource absences in sync with calendar events using Calendar
EDITIONS
Sync. Syncing services and resource absences to or from calendar events lets you maintain an
accurate view of your services and resource availability when you create events and request meetings Available in: Salesforce
from your Salesforce calendar. Events can then be synced between external calendars and Salesforce. Classic and Lightning
Experience
This is a Field Service managed package feature.
The Field Service core
1. From the App Launcher, find and open the Field Service Admin app, and then click the Field
features, managed
Service Settings tab.
package, and mobile app
2. Select Sharing > Calendar Sync, and under Service Appointments and Resource Absence are available in Enterprise,
configure the following settings. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions.
Setting Description Work orders are also
available in Professional
Synchronize Services from Salesforce calendar If enabled, whenever an Event record is created, Edition.
events and the value of the Event Type field is equal to
the value specified in the Calendar Event Type
setting, a Work Order and Service Appointment USER PERMISSIONS
is created.
To sync services and
• If the Event's Subject matches the name of resource absences to
an existing Work Type, the Service Salesforce calendar events:
Appointment's parent Work Order is created • Create and Edit on
using that Work Type. service appointments
and Edit on Resource
• The Event's Start Time is mapped and Absence
synced to the Scheduled Start Time of the
To sync services and
Service Appointment.
resource absences from
• The Event's End Time is mapped and synced Salesforce calendar events:
to the Scheduled End Time of the Service • Create and Edit on
Appointment. service appointments
and Edit on Resource
• The Event's Assigned To is mapped and
Absence
synced to the Assigned Resource.
• The Event's Location field is mapped to the
Service Territory field of the Service
Appointment.
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Setting Description
• The Service Appointment's Assigned Resource is mapped and
synced to the Event's Assigned To field.
• The Service Appointment's Service Territory is mapped and
synced to the Event's Location field.
If there are multiple Assigned Resources an Event record is only
created for the first assigned resource.
If the Service Appointment is reassigned, the Event's Assignee isn’t
updated.
If the Event's Assignee is updated the Service Appointment's
Assigned Resource is also updated.
If the Service Appointment is rescheduled, the Event Start and End
time are updated, but only if the Service Appointment has a parent
record of type Work Order or Work Order Line Item.
Important:
• If there’s an error updating the synced Event, errors
aren’t shown. For example, if you update the Service
Appointments Scheduled Start Time and there’s a
Validation Rule on the Event object that prevents
updates to the Event's Start Time, the Scheduled
Appointment is updated, but the Event update fails.
The Event still has the Service Appointment's original
Start Time.
• For Field Service, Service Appointment, if Scheduled
Start to Schedule End is greater than 14 days, events
aren’t created in the Salesforce Calendar due to a 14-day
limit.
Calendar Event type The value on the Event Type field on the Event object that controls
whether a Service Appointment and Work Order are created.
Enforce validations when syncing Service Appointments and Controls whether to ignore the update if the matching record can’t
Salesforce calendar events be updated, or to continue without updating the matching record.
For example, if this setting isn’t enabled and you update the Service
Appointment Scheduled Start Time, and there’s a Validation Rule
on the Event object that prevents updates to the Event's Start Time,
the Scheduled Appointment is updated, but the Event isn’t. The
Event still has the Service Appointment's original Start Time. If this
setting is enabled, both records aren’t updated.
Synchronize Absences from Salesforce calendar If enabled, whenever an Event record is created and the value of
the Event Type field is equal to the value specified in the Calendar
Event Type setting, a Resource Absence record is created for the
assigned user.
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Setting Description
Synchronize Absences to Salesforce calendar If enabled, whenever a Resource Absence record with Record Type
Non-Availability is created for a Service Resource, an Event record
is created for the User linked to the Service Resource record.
Calendar Event type The value on the Event Type field on the Event object that controls
whether a Resource Absence record is created.
Enforce validations when syncing resource absences and Salesforce Controls whether to ignore update if the matching record can’t be
calendar events updated, or to continue without updating the matching record.
Considerations
• Child events aren’t supported.
• Recurring events create a single Service Appointment record and a single Resource Absence record.
• Crews aren’t supported since the Service Resource, as a Crew, doesn't have a User to assign appointments to.
• When creating, updating, or deleting events in bulk, if one of the event records results in a failure, Calendar Sync doesn’t sync any
of the events in that request.
• You can’t create an event of type Resource Absence or Service Appointment when the Name field is populated with a Lead, or the
Related To field is populated with any value. The Related To field is preserved for the Resource Absence or Service Appointment that
is created and linked after the new event is inserted. You can’t relate an event to a Lead record if the event is already linked to another
object through the Related To field.
• Since Site Guest Users can’t be assigned with Edit Events permission, Calendar Sync with Site Guest User isn’t supported. This means
that events aren’t created, changed, or deleted after a Guest user has changed a Service Appointment or Resource Absence.
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• Product item transactions describe actions performed on a product item. They’re auto-generated records that help you track
when a product item is replenished, consumed, or adjusted.
• Product requests are orders for products, which you might create when stock is running low.
• Product request line items are subdivisions of a product request.
• Product transfers track the transfer of product items between inventory locations.
• Return orders track the return or repair of products.
• Return order line items are subdivisions of a return order.
• Shipments represent the shipment of product items between locations.
Now that you’ve got the important terms under your belt, it’s time to configure your org for inventory management.
IN THIS SECTION:
Customize Inventory Settings
To control how your team manages inventory, customize page layouts and assign user permissions.
Create Inventory Locations for Field Service
Locations are places, like warehouses, customer sites, or work vehicles, where inventory is stored for a field service operation. Create
locations so you can track the items stored there and restock when necessary.
Create Product Items to Represent Inventory
After you customize your field service inventory settings, track where your inventory is stored by creating product items.
SEE ALSO:
Manage Your Field Service Inventory
Let Users Manage Inventory from the Field Service Mobile App
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Create, edit, or delete products consumed on Create on work orders AND Read on product USER PERMISSIONS
work orders or work order line items items To edit page layouts and set
View product item transactions Read on product items field history tracking:
• Customize Application
Edit product item transactions Edit on product items To create and edit users:
Create addresses for locations Create on Addresses • Manage Internal Users
2. Customize the fields and related lists on the following objects’ page layouts.
Tip: If you have your own field service terminology, remember that you can rename an object’s tab and labels. In Setup, select
Rename Tabs and Labels, and enter your own term for the object you’d like to rename.
Important:
– Add the Inventory Location field so you can track where inventory is stored.
– Add the Mobile Location field so you can flag mobile locations such as service vehicles.
– If you plan to create location hierarchies, add the Parent Location field, and optionally
the read-only Root Location and Hierarchy Level fields.
– Optionally, customize the values in the Location Type field. Its out-of-the-box values are
Warehouse, Van, Site, and Plant.
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Address • Arrange the fields, which appear in the Addresses related list on locations.
• Optionally, customize the values in the Address Type field. Its default values are Mailing, Shipping,
Billing, and Home.
Associated Location Associated locations let you associate multiple accounts with one location. For example, a shopping
center location may have multiple customer accounts.
• Arrange the fields, which appear in the Associated Locations related list on locations and accounts.
Product • Confirm that your layout includes the following related lists:
– The Product Items related list shows product items that track the storage of the product in an
inventory location.
– The Return Order Line Items shows return order line items that track the return or repair of the
product.
• Define values for the Quantity Unit of Measure picklist field, which comes with one value (Each).
These values are reflected in the Quantity Unit of Measure field on product items, product request
line items, product transfers, products consumed, and products required.
a. From Setup, enter Products in the Quick Find box, then select Fields under Products.
b. Click Quantity Unit of Measure.
c. In the Quantity Unit of Measure Picklist Values related list, click Edit to change the default or
New to add values. For example, you may need values like Kilograms or Liters.
d. Save your changes.
Product consumed Arrange the fields that appear in the Products Consumed related list.
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Product required Arrange the fields that appear in the Products Required related list.
Product transfer • Arrange the fields. The default layout includes only some of the available fields.
• Optionally, customize the Status field values. The default values are Ready for Pickup and Completed.
• Confirm that your layout includes the Product Item Transactions related list, which automatically
tracks the replenishment, consumption, and adjustment of the product items being transferred.
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Work order Confirm that your layouts include the following related lists.
Work order line item • The Products Required related list shows products needed to complete the work.
• The Products Consumed related list shows product items used to complete the work.
• The Product Requests related list shows product requests created to ensure that the assigned service
resources have the parts they need to complete the work.
• The Product Request Line Items related list shows product request line items associated with the
work.
• The Return Orders related list shows return orders associated with the work.
• The Return Order Line Items related list shows return order line items associated with the work.
SEE ALSO:
Product Item and Inventory Fields
Product Request and Transfer Fields
Location Fields for Field Service
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4. If inventory is stored at the location, select Inventory Location. This allows you to you associate the location with items in your
inventory, known as product items.
5. If the location can be moved, like a van or tool box, select Mobile Location.
6. Complete the other fields as appropriate.
7. Click Save.
8. In the Addresses related list, create addresses for the location. The available types of addresses are Mailing, Shipping, Billing, and
Home.
9. In the Files related list, attach files like blueprints, photographs, or registration information.
10. In the Service Territory Locations related list, create records to indicate which service territories the location belongs to. Service
territory locations are warehouses, customer sites, or vehicles that are located or operate in the service territory.
SEE ALSO:
Location Fields for Field Service
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Important: Before you get started, choose whether to assign serial numbers to product The Field Service core
items for identification purposes. features, managed
package, and mobile app
• If you assign a serial number, each product item represents a single item in your inventory: are available in Enterprise,
for example, create one product item representing a motor with serial number 012345 Performance, Unlimited,
stored at Warehouse A. Before serializing product items, review the Inventory Management and Developer Editions.
limitations in Field Service Limits and Limitations. Work orders are also
• If you choose not to assign serial numbers, you can specify a quantity on each product available in Professional
item. Product item quantities auto-update to reflect transfers between locations. Create Edition.
one product item for every location that has the product in stock. For example, create:
– One product item representing 100 batteries stored at Warehouse A USER PERMISSIONS
– One product item representing 15 batteries stored in Service Van 1
To create product items:
• Create on product items
1. From the Product Items tab, click New.
To view product item
2. Use the lookup field to select a product. transactions:
• Read on product items
Tip: To add products to your org, see Guidelines for Creating Products.
To create, update, or delete
3. Use the lookup field to select the location where the product item is stored. Only locations that product item transactions:
have the Inventory Location option selected can be associated with product items. • Edit on product items
4. Enter the Quantity on Hand, which is the amount at this location. If you intend to add a serial
number, this value will likely be 1.
5. If needed, add a unit of measure; for example, grams, packs, or units. These values are inherited from the Quantity Unit of Measure
field on products.
6. If the Quantity on Hand is 1, enter a serial number.
7. Click Save.
The product item now appears in the Product Items related list on the associated location and product records. In addition, the Product
Item Transactions related list on the product item now contains a “Replenished” transaction that tells you when the product item was
created.
If you update a product item, a new product item transaction is created with a type of “Adjusted” and a quantity that is the difference
between the old and new Quantity On Hand. Deleting a product item deletes all related product item transactions.
SEE ALSO:
Product Item and Inventory Fields
Manage Your Field Service Inventory
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SEE ALSO:
Optimize Your Field Service Schedule
What’s Schedule Optimization?
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Tip: Update the status names to fit your business by editing the Status picklist values in
Setup. Changing the name doesn’t change a status’s automatic transition behavior.
Here’s how to customize your service appointment life cycle.
1. From the App Launcher, find and open the Field Service Admin app, and then click the Field Service Settings tab.
2. Click Service Appointment Life Cycle.
3. Click SA Status. Select a status value for each description.
4. Save your changes.
5. Click the Status Transitions tab.
6. Each row represents a flow or transition in the service appointment life cycle. Modify the existing flows, delete flows, or add new
ones.
7. Optionally, click More Details to limit the user profiles that can make each status change. You can also select a custom Visualforce
page to display when a user tries to make the status change. The status flow diagram at the bottom of the page shows your status
flows, but doesn’t show profile-based restrictions.
8. Save your changes.
SEE ALSO:
Service Appointment Fields for Field Service
Manage Service Appointments
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Tip:
• You can also change this setting on the Customize
Appointment Booking page in Guided Setup.
• Optionally, create a custom Scheduling Policy lookup
field for an object and map it to the object on the
Derivations tab in Global Actions. This way, records of
that object type use the policy you selected rather than
the default policy.
Default operating hours The operating hours that determine the arrival window time slots
that are offered to customers. Each appointment’s scheduled start
falls within the arrival window requested by the customer.
By default, the Gold Appointments Calendar operating hours are
used, which consist of two-hour time slots, Monday–Friday, from
9 AM to 5 PM. You can change the arrival window operating hours
on the Customize Appointment Booking page in Guided
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Ideal grading threshold An appointment’s grade represents its adherence to the scheduling
policy’s service objectives. Enter a value 0–100. When potential
appointments are shown in the Book Appointment action,
appointments with a grade equal to or higher than the ideal
grading threshold have an Ideal flag.
Recommended grading threshold An appointment’s grade represents its adherence to the scheduling
policy’s service objectives. Enter a value 0–100. When potential
appointment times are shown in the Book Appointment action,
appointments with a grade below the ideal grading threshold and
equal to or higher than the recommended grading threshold have
a Recommended flag.
Number of hours for initial appointment search If the difference between the earliest start permitted and due date
is greater than this value, the appointment is displayed in an initial
list while the search continues for additional candidates.
Show grades explanation When this option is selected, clicking the info icon next to an option
shows its score for each service objective in the applied scheduling
policy. These scores are averaged to form the overall score.
Custom CSS (cascading style sheet) To customize the appearance of the Book Appointment and
Candidates actions, enter a name of a CSS file.
Disable service territory picker in appointment booking Hide the service territory field in the Book Appointment action.
Pin three highest graded time slots to the top Highlight the three highest-graded time slots and pin them to the
top of the list in a Golden Slots section.
Open extended view by default Display appointment details in the extended view. When this option
isn’t selected, users must click Show More Options to see the
Earliest Start Permitted and Due Date fields.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Time Zones and Appointment Booking
In large field service operations, the service appointment’s support agent, assigned resource, and customer could all be in different
time zones. Field Service’s appointment booking process shows each user’s appointment details in their own time zone.
SEE ALSO:
Manage Service Appointments
Example:
• The support agent’s time zone is Eastern Time (ET).
• The service resource’s time zone is Mountain Time (MT) on both the user record and the primary service territory.
A customer in Nevada calls the company for an appointment, and the support agent creates a work order. The work order sets
the customer’s service territory to the match the site address. The service territory uses the customer’s time zone—in this case,
Pacific Time (PT).
On the Book Appointment page, the customer selects an arrival window of 1–3 PM. The arrival window is in the customer’s time
zone (PT) because it uses the work order’s service territory’s time zone.
After the appointment is booked, each person involved can view its details in their time zone.
• When the customer (PT) receives an email confirmation, the arrival window is listed as 1–3 PM.
• When the support agent (ET) views the service appointment, the arrival window is listed as 4–6 PM.
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• When the assigned resource (MT) checks the schedule in the Field Service mobile app, the arrival window is listed as 2–4 PM.
2. Add the TimeSlot Designated Work work rule to one or more scheduling policies. When the
policy is in use, the scheduling optimizer respects your designated time slot preferences during scheduling.
a. Click the Scheduling Policies tab and select a policy.
b. In the Scheduling Policy Work Rules related list, click New.
c. In the Work Rule field, select New Work Rule.
d. Select Field Service - TimeSlot Designated Work and click Next.
e. Add a name and description.
f. Save your changes.
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If an appointment doesn’t meet the criteria of your designated time slot, the scheduling optimizer won’t schedule it within the time
slot.
SEE ALSO:
Work Rule Type: TimeSlot Designated Work
Create Work Types for Field Service
This is a Field Service managed package feature. The Field Service core
features, managed
Point-to-point predictive routing is gradually replacing predictive travel (beta) and street-level
package, and mobile app
routing and is available in all scheduling and optimization operations. As of Spring ’21, new Salesforce
are available in Enterprise,
orgs get point-to-point predictive routing by default. Salesforce orgs before this retain predictive
Performance, Unlimited,
travel (beta) and their configuration but can switch to point-to-point predictive routing. and Developer Editions.
Per-appointment travel time is one of the most important KPIs that a field service organization Work orders are also
tracks. A small improvement can give a mobile worker more time to work, drive less, reduce their available in Professional
carbon footprint, and promptly reach the customer. Accurate route planning helps your mobile Edition.
workforce perform at the highest level.
Field Service uses routing to calculate and minimize travel time and distance between appointments,
and shares this information with users. Travel time also factors into the scores assigned to available time slots and service resources
during scheduling. Several routing options are available:
• Aerial routing: Computes the shortest distance between two locations based on a straight-line route.
• Street-level routing: Computes the distance along roads or transportation routes. SLR is based on actual road speed measurements
and the expected travel speed based on road type. SLR calculation takes a bit longer than aerial routing calculation.
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• Predictive travel (beta): Builds on SLR by incorporating time-of-day data into the calculation. Predictive travel applies only to
optimization operations; scheduling operations like the Book Appointment and Candidates actions don’t use it.
• Point-to-point predictive routing: Estimates travel time using the exact service appointment location and considers time of day.
This routing is used across all scheduling and optimization operations.
Emergency work uses Real Time Travel provided by Google.
To set your travel time calculation preferences, open the Field Service Admin app from the App Launcher. Select Field Service Settings >
Scheduling > Routing.
Considerations
• Routing avoids toll roads, which can result in longer travel times.
• When you switch from aerial routing to SLR, scheduling recalculates travel times, including times for already scheduled appointments.
• When SLR is activated, resource travel speed isn’t considered. However, if the calculation returns to aerial routing, travel speed is
considered.
• The Street Level Routing Cache custom object improves SLR calculation time for distances that were calculated in the previous 30
days between two given points. Don’t delete this object.
• The travel time is based on the Driving profile in Google maps and can’t be changed.
• SLR creates a grid of 200-meter squares. Every service appointment within the grid gets the same geolocation for routing purposes.
• When a service appointment is dragged onto the Gantt to be scheduled, the routing calculation depends on the chosen start time.
The time of day can affect typical road speed measurements, for example.
• If you’re scheduling work using Queueable Apex, use the Database.AllowsCallouts annotation to estimate travel time with SLR. If
you don’t include this annotation, aerial routing is used instead. For more information, see Queueable Apex: More Than an @future.
• The Travel From field on service appointments displays Aerial as the calculation method for all appointments, except for the last
appointment of the day. Because Travel From is calculated only for the last service appointment of the day, its value is zero for every
other appointment. The last appointment of the day is calculated with SLR.
• If a service appointment requires a travel distance of more than 100 kilometers, aerial routing is used.
• Multiday work scheduling doesn’t support SLR and uses aerial routing instead. Predictive travel isn’t supported with complex work.
• Any scheduling action that is triggered in a transaction with data manipulation language (DML) uses aerial routing. When SLR is
enabled and scheduling requires SLR travel results that are not primed locally, you must use a callout to retrieve the results. If DML
occurs in the same transaction as the callout, it causes an exception. To avoid this exception, allow the system to use aerial routing
or ensure that DML is completed in a separate transaction. If you want transactions of this type to cause an exception rather than a
switch to aerial routing, from the App Launcher, find and open the Field Service Admin app, and then click Field Service Settings >
Scheduling. Select Avoid aerial calculation upon callout DML exception.
• Optimization can use aerial, SLR, or predictive travel, and can report which routing method was used.
Important: When you switch to point-to-point predictive routing, scheduling and optimization recalculate travel times, including
times for already scheduled appointments. You may incur an overlap of appointments because of the more accurate, slightly
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longer, travel times. Use resource schedule optimization to fix overlaps locally (for specific resources), or run global or in-day
optimization to re-optimize the whole schedule (this takes longer). Apply the Fix Overlaps scheduling policy.
Example: Let’s say you want to find the best resource to complete a multiday service appointment in San Francisco. Your service
resources in San Francisco have operating hours from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and their Resource Availability Work Rule gives them
30 minutes of travel time to and from appointments.
You need to schedule a multiday service appointment that lasts 10 hours. Given your service resources’ travel and time constraints,
the Dispatcher Console finds the best service resource for the job. In this example, Alan Reed is the service resource who’s most
available for this service appointment.
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The Dispatcher Console automatically takes your service resources’ travel and break times into account to optimize your multiday
appointments.
IN THIS SECTION:
Considerations for Multiday Scheduling
Keep these considerations in mind when you implement multiday scheduling in your org.
SEE ALSO:
Create Scheduling Dependencies Between Service Appointments
Field Service Limits and Limitations
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– Candidates (shows only the time that the multiday work can begin) The Field Service core
– Book Appointment features, managed
package, and mobile app
– Scheduling from the Gantt or quick actions
are available in Enterprise,
– Reshuffle Performance, Unlimited,
– Optimization and Developer Editions.
Work orders are also
• On multiday service appointments, the Scheduled Start and End times must fall within the available in Professional
assigned resource’s time slots in their operating hours. Edition.
• Multiday scheduling is based on the customer’s operating hours only if the applied scheduling
policy includes a Service Appointment Visiting Hours work rule. USER PERMISSIONS
• Multiday work calculations are run when the assigned resource changes or the service
appointment Duration or Scheduled Start changes. To customize the Field
Service managed package:
• If the Break Start and Break Duration fields are filled out on the Service Resource Availability
• Customize Application
work rule of the applied scheduling policy, the schedule includes breaks.
To use the Long-Term Gantt
• If you drag and drop a multiday service appointment, or manually change its Scheduled Start, view:
the Scheduled End doesn’t go beyond the due date regardless of the appointment Duration. • Longterm View custom
• To prevent the scheduling optimizer from proposing time slots that don't fully respect resources' permission
availability, configure a TimeSlot Designated Work work rule.
• Multiday scheduling assumes that the assigned resource begins and ends each day at their
home base, so the daily schedule includes travel time to and from the site.
Tip: To change the travel time logic, update the Travel From Home and Travel To Home fields on the Service Resource
Availability work rule. These fields let you allocate a number of minutes at the day’s start and end for the resource’s travel at
their own expense. If they’re left blank, the schedule automatically includes calculated travel time. For example, enter 60 in
each field if resources must be present at the site at the start of the day. This way, the schedule doesn’t include travel time for
resources whose home base is less than an hour from the site.
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SEE ALSO:
Set Custom Permissions for Field Service
Check Rule Violations on the Gantt
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Set Up Optimization
Configure optimization so that you can schedule appointments, address last-minute challenges,
EDITIONS
and minimize surprises for your team. You can set up optimization to run regularly, or run it manually.
Available in: Salesforce
This is a Field Service managed package feature.
Classic and Lightning
Note: Setting up optimization consumes one Salesforce license, so check that a license is Experience
available.
The Field Service core
1. From the App Launcher, find and open the Field Service Admin app, and then click the Field features, managed
Service Settings tab. package, and mobile app
are available in Enterprise,
2. Click Optimization > Activation. Click Create Optimization Profile to create an optimization
Performance, Unlimited,
profile and an optimization user that submits optimization requests.
and Developer Editions.
3. When you’re prompted, switch to the newly created optimization user. Work orders are also
a. From Setup, navigate to the Users page and locate the optimization user. available in Professional
Edition.
b. Click Edit next to the user and select Active on their profile.
If you deactivate the optimization user, you can’t use optimization.
USER PERMISSIONS
c. Select Generate new password and notify user immediately.
To create users:
d. Log out. • Manage Internal Users
4. When you receive the password reset email, click the link and complete the steps to log in as
the optimization user.
5. When you’re logged in, click the + icon in the tab bar to see your full list of tabs. Click the Field Service Settings tab.
6. Click Activate Optimization.
7. Click Allow to allow remote site access and be redirected back to Field Service Settings.
8. Log out as the optimization user and log back in with your regular username and password.
Optimization is now ready to use in your org.
Scheduling recipes Tackle common scheduling challenges with optimization “recipes” Create Scheduling Recipes for
that adjust your schedule after appointment cancellations, time Common Events
changes, and overlaps. Cover all scenarios by creating multiple
recipes in each category
Predictive travel (beta) Predictive travel builds on the street-level routing service by Set Up Routing for Travel Time
incorporating time-of-day route data into travel time estimates. Calculations
Predictive travel applies only to optimization operations. This
routing option is unavailable from Spring ’21. Point-to-point
predictive routing replaces predictive travel.
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Shift availability Shifts let you assign workers for time periods that don’t follow a Manage Shifts
recurring pattern.
Note: If the Fix Overlaps feature is in use, the “Reshuffle other assignments” option is only partially supported for the setting:
When unable to find a valid schedule for an appointment. If more than one appointment is dropped from the schedule
during a Fix Overlaps operation, only one of the appointments is reshuffled.
SEE ALSO:
Optimize Your Field Service Schedule
What’s Schedule Optimization?
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SEE ALSO:
Track Availability and Reliability
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Note: Linked articles, which are knowledge articles attached to supported field service records, aren’t supported in Experience
Builder sites.
IN THIS SECTION:
Add the Dispatcher Console to an Experience Builder Site
Hand over the dispatching reins to a field service contractor manager by embedding the dispatcher console in an Experience Builder
site.
Provide Access to Asset Availability and Reliability Information
Let Experience Cloud site users view or record asset downtime details and view information on asset availability and reliability.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up and Manage Experience Cloud Sites
Objects Supported by Out-of-the-Box Components and Pages in Experience Builder Templates
Visualforce Page Component
Field Service Objects
Guidelines for Setting Up Field Service Contractors
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Note: Site dispatchers can’t access the complex work feature—for details, see Create Scheduling Dependencies Between Service
Appointments—or Live Gantt updates.
SEE ALSO:
Customize the Dispatcher Console
Work in the Dispatcher Console Gantt
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IN THIS SECTION:
Install the Visual Remote Assistant
Deliver service from anywhere with Visual Remote Assistant.
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4. View your results. To get more information on failed tests, select More Info in the Actions dropdown menu.
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Maintenance Plans View maintenance plans’ work orders and Maintenance Assets
assets. Work Orders
Product Request Line Items View the transfers related to parts in your Product Transfers
inventory.
Product Requests View the line items and return orders Product Request Line Items
associated with product requests. Return Orders
Product Items
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Return Orders View return orders’ line items. Return Order Line Items
Service Contracts View service contracts’ maintenance plans Field service objects:
and work orders. Maintenance Plans
Work Orders
Service Territories Compare the number and types of service Service Appointments
appointments, work orders, and work Service Territory Members
order line items across service territories,
and view the service resources that belong Service Territory Locations
to each territory. Work Orders
Work Order Line Items
Time Sheets View time sheets’ owners, entries, and Time Sheet Entries
duration.
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Tip: In the Store in Category dropdown menu, we recommend choosing Customer Support Reports or Other
Reports. This is the category where users find the custom report type on the Reports tab. You can also create your own field
service report folder. Make your choices on the Define Report Records Set page.
4. Click Save.
5. As needed, remove and rearrange fields from your report layout.
Salesforce also offers the Field Service Analytics App, which is bundled with the Service Analytics App. To learn more, see The Field
Service Analytics App.
Tip: To view work orders with milestones in your org, use the Object Milestones custom report type. The Milestone Status and
Milestone Status Icon fields are not available in work order reports.
This geolocation data feature, known as “geocoding”, is enabled for all supported field service The Field Service core
objects when you enable Field Service. The API contains values for the three fields in the following features, managed
table on: package, and mobile app
are available in Enterprise,
• Work orders
Performance, Unlimited,
• Work order line items and Developer Editions.
• Service appointments Work orders are also
available in Professional
• Service territories
Edition.
• Resource absences
• Service territory members
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GeocodeAccuracy The accuracy of the latitude and longitude. This field contains one
of the following values, listed in order from most to least accurate:
• Address: In the same building
• NearAddress: Near the address
• Block: Midway point of the block
• Street: Midway point of the street
• ExtendedZip: Center of the extended ZIP code area
• Zip: Center of the ZIP code area
• Neighborhood: Center of the neighborhood
• City: Center of the city
• County: Center of the county
• State: Center of the state
• Unknown: No match for the address was found (for instance,
the address is invalid)
Note: Because Google Maps is restricted in China, Field Service features that depend on Google Maps don’t work there. To
minimize errors and customize access for users in China, see Disable Google Maps-based Field Service features for China users.
Note: If bulk geocoding is turned off for a data integration rule, deactivating or reactivating the rule doesn't refresh the geocoding
fields. Bulk geocoding is enabled by default.
To keep an eye on the status of a record’s geocoding data:
• In Lightning Experience: On the record, select Check Integration Status in the action menu.
• In Salesforce Classic: Add the Data Integration Rules related list to the detail page layout of the records you’d like to track. The
related list includes:
– The time the record’s geocoding data was last refreshed.
– The record’s geocoding status. To learn what each status means, see Statuses for Data Integration. A status of In Sync means
that your geocoding data is current.
– An Update link that lets you manually run an instant refresh.
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SEE ALSO:
Track Service Resource Geolocation with the Field Service Mobile App
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Work Order Management for Field Service
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IN THIS SECTION:
Add Service Resource Preferences to Accounts or Work Orders for Field Service
Designate certain service resources as preferred, required, or excluded on accounts or work orders.
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Add Required Skills to Work Orders or Work Types for Field Service
Ensure that every field service appointment is assigned to a service resource with the right skills. Add skill requirements to work
types, work orders, and work order line items so they can be checked against a service resource’s assigned skills.
Attach Knowledge Articles to Work Orders or Work Types
Learn how to interact with knowledge articles on work orders, work order line items, and work types.
Guidelines for Creating Work Orders for Field Service
Work orders help you track tasks to be performed on a product. Learn how to create and manage work orders.
Work Order Pricing Guidelines for Field Service
Work orders and work order line items have several price-related settings. Learn about these settings and how to apply them to your
business.
SEE ALSO:
Work Order Fields for Field Service
Customize Work Order Settings for Field Service
Trailhead: Field Service Center Customization
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Add Service Resource Preferences to Accounts or Work Orders for Field Service
Designate certain service resources as preferred, required, or excluded on accounts or work orders.
EDITIONS
Work orders inherit their account’s resource preferences. If you don’t want to establish resource
preferences at the account level, add them to individual work orders. To use resource preferences, Available in: Salesforce
the service appointment's parent record must be a work order, not a work order line item. Classic and Lightning
Experience
To enforce resource preferences during schedule optimization, use the Required Resources and
Excluded Resources work rules, which are included in the Customer First scheduling policy. The The Field Service core
Resource Priority service objective also measures an appointment’s adherence to resource preferences features, managed
of the Preferred type. If you’re not using the Field Service managed package, resource preferences package, and mobile app
serve as a suggestion rather than a requirement. are available in Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
1. On a work order or account, click New in the Resource Preferences related list.
and Developer Editions.
2. Select a service resource. You can’t add preferences for service resources who are inactive or Work orders are also
dispatchers. available in Professional
Edition.
3. Select a preference type: Preferred, Excluded, or Required.
4. Save your changes.
USER PERMISSIONS
Example:
To view resource
• If your customer had a positive experience with Alicia, a service resource, create a resource preferences:
preference on the customer’s account that designates Alicia as “Preferred” • Read on the parent
• If your customer had a bad experience with Nigel, a service resource, create a resource object (work orders or
preference on the customer’s account that designates Nigel as “Excluded” accounts) AND Read on
service resources
• If your customer purchased a complex piece of equipment that was installed by Evan, a
service resource, create a resource preference on the customer’s account that designates To create, edit or delete
Evan as “Required” resource preferences on
work orders:
The customer’s work orders automatically list those three preferences. This helps the dispatcher • Edit on work orders AND
know to assign their service appointments to Evan and, if a second worker is needed, to Alicia Read on service
if she is available. The dispatcher also knows never to assign the account’s service appointments resources
to Nigel. To create, edit or delete
resource preferences on
accounts:
SEE ALSO:
• Edit on accounts AND
Work Rule Type: Excluded Resources Read on service
Work Rule Type: Required Resources resources
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Add Required Skills to Work Orders or Work Types for Field Service
Ensure that every field service appointment is assigned to a service resource with the right skills.
EDITIONS
Add skill requirements to work types, work orders, and work order line items so they can be checked
against a service resource’s assigned skills. Available in: Salesforce
Adding required skills to work types saves you time and keeps your business processes consistent. Classic and Lightning
Work orders and work order line items inherit their work type’s required skills. For example, a Experience
refrigeration company can add a skill requirement of Refrigerator Maintenance—skill level 50—to
The Field Service core
their Annual Maintenance work type. When an agent creates a work order for their customer’s features, managed
annual fridge maintenance, selecting that work type on the work order adds the required skill. package, and mobile app
If the Field Service managed package is installed, you can use Guided Setup to add required skills are available in Enterprise,
to work types. From the App Launcher, find and open the Field Service Admin app, and then click Performance, Unlimited,
the Field Service Settings tab. Then, click Go to Guided Setup, select Create Work Types and and Developer Editions.
Skills, and enter skills in the Skill Requirements field of any work type. Work orders are also
available in Professional
You can also add required skills to work orders, work order line items, or work types from the Skill Edition.
Requirements related list, outside of Guided Setup.
1. Navigate to the record that needs required skills.
USER PERMISSIONS
2. In the Skill Requirements related list, click New.
To view skill requirements:
3. Select a skill. When you’re not using of Guided Setup, skills must be created before they can be
• Read on the parent
added as a requirement; to learn how, see Guidelines for Creating Skills for Field Service. object (work orders or
4. Enter a skill level from 0 to 99.99 based on how your business measures skill level. work types) AND Read
on skills
5. Click Save. The skill now appears in the Skill Requirements related list on the record.
To create, edit or delete skill
You can enforce skill requirements during schedule optimization using the Match Skills work rule.
requirements on work
This rule ensures that appointments are assigned only to service resources who possess the required orders or work order line
skills listed on the parent record. If you’re not using the Field Service managed package, skill items:
requirements serve as a suggestion rather than a rule.
• Edit on work orders AND
Read on skills
SEE ALSO: To create, edit or delete skill
Skill Fields for Field Service requirements on work types:
• Edit on work types AND
Guidelines for Creating Skills for Field Service
Read on skills
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Detach an Article
Detach articles from the Articles related list or Knowledge One console widget in Salesforce Classic, and from the Knowledge component
in Lightning Experience.
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SEE ALSO:
Set Up Knowledge for Work Orders
View Knowledge Articles in the Field Service Mobile App
Tip: Add work orders to the console to manage work orders and their associated records in one place.
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Child work orders help you account for cancellations. When work is canceled, you can set the work order status to Canceled and create
a child work order. This lets you track first-time rates and analyze cancellation reasons.
SEE ALSO:
Work Order Fields for Field Service
Subtotal (Read only) The total of the work order line items before discounts
and taxes are applied.
Total Price (Read only) The total of the work order line items’ price after
discounts but before tax is added.
Grand Total (Read only) The total price of the work order with tax added.
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Tax The total tax on the work order in a currency format. (Do not enter a percentage.) For example,
in a work order whose total price is $100, enter $10 to apply a 10 percent tax. You can enter
a number with or without the currency symbol and you can use up to two decimal places.
Subtotal (Read only) The line item’s unit price multiplied by the quantity.
Total Price (Read only) The line item’s subtotal with discounts applied. This field is blank until you add a
unit price and save the line item.
List Price (Read only) The price of the line item (product) as listed in its corresponding price book entry.
If a product isn’t selected, the list price defaults to zero.
Note: When you select a product to link to the line item, you can see the product’s
list price next to its name and ID in the lookup window. The list price field populates
when you save the line item.
Product The name of the product associated with the line item. The lookup only lists products that
are included in the parent work order’s price book. When you select a product and save the
line item, the following fields are populated on the line item:
• List Price
• Unit Price
• Subtotal
• Total Price
Note: Inline editing isn’t supported on the Product field. To change the product on
a line item, click Edit. Adding a product updates the list price, unit price, subtotal, and
total price based on the related entry in the work order’s price book.
Unit Price By default, the unit price for a work order line item is the line item’s list price from the price
book, but you can change it.
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• Work order line items don’t have to be linked to a product. For example, perhaps you use line items only to track tasks. Just keep in
mind that if the Product field is blank, you can’t use the List Price, Unit Price, Discount, Quantity, Subtotal, or Total Price fields.
• If you plan to use price books for work orders, users need “Use” sharing access to the price book object to complete the following
actions:
– Create or edit work orders with the Price Book field completed
– Create work order line items with the Product field completed
– Create products consumed with the Price Book Entry field completed
SEE ALSO:
Work Order Fields for Field Service
Work Order Line Item Fields for Field Service
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Automate how work plans are assigned to work orders or work order line items using work plan selection rules. Service managers
configure rules that add plans based on fields such as work type, asset, location, and service contract. A selection rule generates a
point-in-time copy of a work plan and its steps from the templates, and it adds them to work orders or work order line items.
For example, for break-fix procedures, define work step templates and work plan templates for different assets. The selection rules map
required work plans to asset types. When the service manager creates a work order or work order line item for an asset, the rules add
instances of the right plans and steps.
Front-line and back-office workers view work plans on the work order or work order line item. As they complete steps, quick actions and
flows guide them through the work.
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USER PERMISSIONS
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Note: For the information to display properly on the Work Plans Lightning Web Component, we recommend that you first
include these fields in the layout:
– For work plans: Execution Order, Name, and Work Order Line Item
– For work steps: Execution Order, Name, and Status
• In Object Manager, edit page layouts for the work plan template object. To display the standard New Work Plan Selection Rule screen
to users, select the New button to show in the layout of the work plan selection rule related list. To display the enhanced New Work
Plan Selection Rule screen, select the New Rule button.
• Adjust service reports to include work plans and work steps information. To do that, adjust your service report template on page 1418
to include work plans and work steps related lists information in reports. By default, work steps are grouped by work plan.
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– If a quick action or mobile flow fails to load for a work step, an error icon appears next to the step’s status icon. For actions
showing errors, confirm that the action still exists and that it works on mobile. For flows showing errors, confirm that the user
has Flow permissions.
SEE ALSO:
Introducing Lightning Web Components
Quick Actions
Flows
Activate Lightning Experience Record Pages
Create and Configure Lightning Experience Record Pages
Manage Service Reports
Customize Related Lists
• To let users work with the Manage Work Plan Template Entries window, assign them Read and Edit permissions on the Execution
Order field of the Work Plan Template Entry object.
• To view the Work Plans Lightning Web Component, assign users Read access on the Execution Order, Status, and Status Category
fields.
SEE ALSO:
Introducing Lightning Web Components
Quick Actions
Flows
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• Map custom fields from work step templates and work plan template entries to work steps.
Note: You can’t delete a custom field mapped to a work plan or a work step.
3. Save your work. When work plans are generated, the custom fields are copied from the templates to the work plan and work steps
of a work order or work order line item.
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IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Mapping Custom Fields for Work Plans
Learn the best practices for mapping custom fields from templates to work plans and work steps. Mapping custom fields helps your
front-line workers retain important information that they use to complete their work.
• Each target field can have one source field mapped to it.
• You can map Auto Number fields to field types Text or Text Area.
• You can map Text and Text Area fields to custom field types of Text, Text Area, Text Area (Long), and Picklist. If you map to a Picklist
field, the picklist must be unrestricted.
• You can map custom Picklist fields to custom field types of Text, Text Area, and Picklist (unrestricted), but not Text Area (Long).
• When mapping between Picklist and Text fields, if the source field value is longer than the target field allows, your data truncates.
• You can map custom lookup fields to custom lookup fields pointing to the same object.
• When mapping source entity custom fields (Work Plan Templates / Work Step Templates / Work Plan Template Entries), the selected
target entity custom field (Work Plan / Work Step) must be of equal or greater length.
• You can’t delete mapped custom fields from the source entity or the target entity. To delete a field, remove its mapping first.
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• You can’t change the field type of a mapped field. To change a field’s type, remove its mapping first.
• You can’t uninstall a package that references fields included in Work Plans Custom Field Mapping. Before uninstalling the package,
remove any mappings of referenced fields.
• When mapping custom number, currency, or percent fields, the target field must have the same length and number of decimal
places.
• Don’t map custom formula fields to other formula fields or any other type of field.
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2. Refill reservoirs
3. Drain and replace hydraulic fluid
For this planned maintenance example, work plan selection rules use the work type field to represent the type of visit. Because the same
safety and blade/bearing maintenance procedures occur at both visits, the rules can replicate the work plans for both visit types.
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USER PERMISSIONS
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To create work plan templates: Create and Read on work plan templates Available in: Lightning
Experience
To view work plan templates: Read on work plan templates
The Field Service core
To update work plan templates: Edit and Read on work plan templates
features, managed
To delete work plan templates: Delete and Read on work plan templates package, and mobile app
are available in Enterprise,
To associate a work step template with a Create and Read on work plan template Performance, Unlimited,
work plan template: and Developer Editions.
Work orders are also
available in Professional
Build work plan templates from your work step templates. Edition.
1. In the app launcher, click Work Plan Templates.
2. Click New, and enter a name for the work plan template.
3. Optionally, enter a positive value for relative execution order and a description.
4. Click Active.
5. Save the work plan template.
6. To associate a work step template with a work plan template, see Manage Work Step Templates on page 1322.
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USER PERMISSIONS
2. To add steps to the work plan template, click Add, and select work step templates from the
To manage work plan
list. template entries:
• Create, Update, and
Delete on work plan
templates
To add work plan template
entries:
• Create on work plan
templates
To reorder work plan
template entries:
• Update on work plan
templates
To remove work plan
3. Save your work.
template entries:
4. To remove steps from the work plan template, select the relevant work step templates, and • Update and Delete on
click Remove Selected. work plan templates
5. To confirm the action, click Remove.
6. To reorder the work step templates, click Reorder, and select the relevant work step templates.
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7. To reorder the steps, click Move to Top , Move Up , Move Down , or Move to Bottom , and then click Save Reorder.
8. If you’re done, click Done.
Note: The rule generates a work plan when all fields in the rule match corresponding To view work plan selection
fields in the work order or work order line item. For example, if the rule specifies a work rules:
• Read on work plan
type and an asset as the selection criteria, it adds the work plan only when both fields
selection rules
match on the work order.
To update work plan
selection rules:
• Edit and Read on work
plan selection rules
Read permissions on
objects if changed
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Note: You can also create work plan selection rules by clicking New in the Work Plan Selection Rules list view.
If your Salesforce admin configured the enhanced New Work Plan Selection Rule screen for you, follow these instructions to create a
work plan selection rule.
1. In the app launcher, click Work Plan Templates.
2. On the work plan template, open the Related tab. On the work plan selection rules related list, click New Rule.
3. Enter an optional description for your rule.
4. Click Active.
5. Select one or more selection rule values as rule criteria. Values for work types, assets, locations, service contracts, products, or service
territories can be specified in the work plan selection rule criteria. These field values are matched with the corresponding fields on
the work order or work order line item to determine whether this selection rule is applicable to the work order or work order line
item. If applicable, the corresponding work plan template is copied as a work plan for the work order or work order line item.
Note: The rule generates a work plan when all fields in the rule match corresponding fields in the work order or work order
line item. For example, if the rule specifies a work type and an asset as the selection criteria, it adds the work plan only when
both fields match on the work order.
Note: If you don't select any values and the work plan selection rule is active, the related work plan template is added to all
new work orders or work order line items.
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USER PERMISSIONS
On an existing work order or work order line item, you can select Generate Work Plans from the action menu. When columns in a rule
match a field in the work order or work order line item, the rule generates a work plan on that record. This action doesn’t change existing
work plans, but it’s a handy way to add a new plan.
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USER PERMISSIONS
3. Click Add. Added work plans and work step instances appear in the related lists.
Note: You can add work plans more than one time. We don’t prevent duplicates.
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Note: This action deletes all work plans on the work order or work order line item. Available in: Lightning
Experience
1. On the work order or work order line item, select Delete Work Plans from the action menu.
The Field Service core
Note: If the work order includes a work order line item that has its own plans, we don’t features, managed
delete the plans from the child work order line item. package, and mobile app
are available in Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions.
Work orders are also
available in Professional
Edition.
USER PERMISSIONS
2. To add the latest versions of your plans and steps, select Generate Work Plans from the action menu.
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SEE ALSO:
Introducing Lightning Web Components
USER PERMISSIONS
If the step is a simple instruction, such as “Put on your safety gear”, we mark the step’s status
as completed. If the step includes a quick action or a field service mobile flow, selecting Complete starts it. When a flow or quick
action is completed, we change the status to Complete. Completed work steps remain on the work plan record.
SEE ALSO:
Introducing Lightning Web Components
Quick Actions
Flows
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2. On the action menu of a step, select Complete. The Field Service core
features, managed
package, and mobile app
are available in Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions.
Work orders are also
available in Professional
Edition.
USER PERMISSIONS
If the step is a simple instruction, such as “Put on your safety gear”, we mark the step’s status
as completed. If the step includes a quick action or a field service mobile flow, selecting Complete starts it. For example, this step
starts the Log a Call quick action.
When a flow or quick action is completed, we change the status to Complete. Completed work steps remain on the work step related
list.
SEE ALSO:
Quick Actions
Flows
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8. In the Generation Timeframe and Generation Timeframe Type fields, enter how far in advance you want work orders to be generated
at one time.
For example, to generate 3 months’ worth of work orders at a time, enter 3 and select Months.
9. Enter the date of the first work order in the next batch, which corresponds to the work order’s Suggested Maintenance Date.
For example, if you want the first maintenance visit to take place on May 1, enter May 1. When you generate work orders, the earliest
work order shows a Suggested Maintenance Date of May 1. The dates on the later work orders are based on the Generation Timeframe,
Frequency, and End Date settings. Also, batch timing is calculated at the maintenance asset level or at the work rule level. So if the
maintenance plan includes assets or work rules, after each batch is run, the Suggested Maintenance Date auto-updates on:
• if assets have no work rules, the maintenance assets
• if assets have work rules, on the work rules.
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10. Optionally, enter the days for the maintenance window start and end. These settings impact the Earliest Start Permitted and Due
Date fields on the maintenance plan’s work orders’ service appointments. If the maintenance window fields are left blank, the service
appointment date fields list their work order’s suggested maintenance date.
For example, enter 3 for both the maintenance window start and end. The Earliest Start Permitted and the Due Date will be, respectively,
3 days before and 3 days after the Suggested Maintenance Date on each work order.
11. To automatically generate a batch of work orders when the current batch nears completion, select Auto-generate work orders.
If this option isn’t selected, you must click Generate Work Orders on the maintenance plan to generate a new batch.
A separate work order is created for each maintenance asset for each maintenance date. Therefore, batch size reflects the generation
timeframe, frequency, and the number of assets covered by the plan. For example, if the plan covers two assets and has a generation
timeframe of 2 months and a frequency of 1 month, four work orders are generated at a time.
12. If you selected the option to auto-generate work orders, you can add details about when new batches are generated:
• To run batch generation before the maintenance plan’s Date of the first work order in the next batch, enter a generation horizon.
For example, a generation horizon of 5 means that a new batch of work orders is generated 5 days before the maintenance
plan’s Date of the first work order in the next batch. If you don’t specify a generation horizon, it defaults to zero.
• If you don’t want a new batch of work orders to be generated until the final work order in the current batch is completed, select
Generate new batch upon completion. A work order is considered completed when its status falls into one of the following
status categories: Cannot Complete, Canceled, Completed, or Closed.
13. If more than one asset is associated with this maintenance plan, select a Work Order Generation Method: one work order for each
asset or one work order line item for each asset.
14. If work order generation method is One work order line item per asset, select a Service Appointment Generation Method: one
service appointment for the parent work order or one service appointment for each work order line item.
To learn more about work order and service appointment generation, see How Do Generation Methods Work?.
Tip: To control which fields appear in the related list, edit the Related List on the Maintenance Assets page layout in Setup.
18. To use advanced recurrence, add maintenance work rules in the Maintenance Work Rules related list to schedule maintenance for
all of the plan’s assets, these rules act as the default for any assets without their own maintenance work rule. If not all assets are
covered by the same maintenance schedule, add maintenance work rules to those assets to override the maintenance work rules
on the maintenance plan.
19. If you didn’t select the option to auto-generate work orders, click Generate Work Orders on the maintenance plan to generate a
batch of work orders. Otherwise, they’re automatically generated for you.
Generation can’t create a combined total of more than 2,600 work orders and work order line items at a time. To decrease the number
of work orders and work order line items generated, make one of these changes:
• Increase the Frequency value
• Decrease the Generation Timeframe value
• Remove assets from the maintenance plan
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IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Generating Work Orders from a Maintenance Plan
Maintenance plans offer a quick way to automate the creation of work orders for periodic maintenance visits. Learn how to generate
work orders from a maintenance plan using the maintenance plan frequency fields.
Troubleshooting Work Order Generations
If work orders aren’t generating as expected these guidelines can help you resolve any issues.
SEE ALSO:
Maintenance Plan Fields
Trailhead: Field Service Preventive Maintenance
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Note: If both Auto-generate work orders and Generate new batch upon completion are selected, Salesforce doesn’t generate
a new batch of work orders for a maintenance asset until the final work order for that asset in the current batch is completed. If
one maintenance asset’s final work order is completed but another’s is stalled, work orders are generated only for the first
maintenance asset. This behavior results in a staggered batch generation schedule for the maintenance plan.
Tip: To provide guidance on which asset to service first, second, and so on, create guided actions, or flows, in the parent work
order.
If Work Order Generation Method is left as None, the generation is defaulted to one work order per asset.
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If Work Order Generation Method is set to One work order per asset, you
can’t set a Service Appointment Generation Method.
Each asset and relevant maintenance work rule creates a work order. If a work
type is associated with auto-create service appointment enabled, a service
appointment is created for each work order.
Example: A maintenance plan with four assets, a generation time frame of 6
months, and a frequency of 1 month produces:
• Four work orders a month, 24 work orders for 6 months.
• A service appointment for each work order, if the auto-create service
appointment is enabled on an associated work type.
Invalid: If Work Order Generation Method is set to One work order line
item per asset, you must select a Service Appointment Generation Method.
One parent work order is created, a work order line item is created for each asset
and relevant maintenance work rule, and one service appointment is created
for the parent work order, even if the associated work type doesn’t have
auto-create service appointment enabled.
Example: A maintenance plan with four assets, a generation time frame of 6
months, and a frequency of 1 month produces:
• One work order each month, six work orders for 6 months.
• Four work order line items on each work order.
• A service appointment for each parent work order, 1 per month, and six
work orders for 6 months.
One parent work order is created, a work order line item is created for each asset
and relevant maintenance work rule, and if the associated work type has
auto-create service appointment enabled for work order line items, one service
appointment is created for each work order line item.
Example: A maintenance plan with four assets, a generation time frame of 6
months, and a frequency of 1 month produces:
• One work order each month, six work orders for 6 months.
• Four work order line items on each work order.
• If auto-create service appointment for work order line item is enabled on
the work type, a service appointment for each work order line item, four
service appointments per month, 24 work orders for 6 months.
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Why Aren’t Service Appointment Due Dates Following Maintenance Plan Settings?
When a service appointment is created for a generated work order, the work type Due Date Offset overrides the due date set by the
maintenance plan.
To avoid this override, create two work types, one for non-maintenance plan service appointments and another for maintenance plan
service appointments. Leave the Due Date Offset empty in the work type for maintenance plan service appointments. For example,
create a Site Survey work type with a Due Date Offset of 5 days and Site Survey - Maintenance Plan with Due Date Offset left empty.
How Do I Change Generation Methods or Maintenance Schedules After Work Orders Are Generated?
If your maintenance plans have work orders or work order line items associated with them, changing their generation schedule on the
maintenance asset or in the maintenance work rules isn’t recommended. To change maintenance plan generation frequencies, either
delete the incomplete work orders and regenerate them or set an end date to expire the current maintenance plan and create one with
the appropriate generation method and recurrences.
SEE ALSO:
Create Maintenance Plans
Maintenance Plan Fields
Trailhead: Field Service Preventive Maintenance
3. Verify that custom automation, including triggers, processes, and workflows, on the following objects aren't interfering with the
process by disabling them and rerunning work order generation:
• Maintenance Plan
• Work Order
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4. Verify whether you can generate work orders with custom validation rules on the following objects disabled:
• Work Order
• Work Order Line Item
• Asset
• Service Appointment
• Assigned Resource
5. Verify whether you can generate work orders after deactivating custom lookup filters on fields from the following objects:
• Work Order
• Work Order Line Item
• Asset
• Service Appointment
• Assigned Resource
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Debug Logging
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Recurrence rules for maintenance schedules are defined using RRULE notation. To simplify the specification of RRULEs, and the creation
and maintenance of maintenance work rules, use the Salesforce Labs package Maintenance Work Rule Editor.
The RRULE string must not include spaces. When viewing maintenance work rules, the RRULE is presented as a readable description.
But if there are typos in the RRULE, conversion to a readable description fails.
The following RRULE keywords are supported:
• FREQ for the values DAILY, WEEKLY, MONTHLY, and YEARLY
• UNTIL specified as a data time, for example, 20211224T125837Z. However, the time portion is ignored for work order generation.
• COUNT taking a positive numeric value
• BYDAY, for example, BYDAY=SU,MO,TU,WE,TH,FR,SA
• BYWEEKNO taking a comma-separated list of positive or negative numeric values
• BYMONTH taking a comma-separated list of positive numeric values, for example, BYMONTH=1,7
• BYMONTHDAY taking a comma-separated list of positive or negative numeric values, for example, BYMONTHDAY=2,15
• BYYEARDAY taking a comma-separated list of positive or negative numeric values, for example, BYYEARDAY=1,-2
• BYSETPOS taking a comma-separated list of positive or negative numeric values
• INTERVAL taking a comma-separated list of positive numeric values
• WKST taking MO, TU, WE, TH, FR, SA, or SU, for example, WKST=SU
The following RRULE keywords aren’t supported:
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• BYSECOND
• BYMINUTE
• BYHOUR
The following RRULE keywords are partially supported:
• FREQ doesn’t support MINUTELY or HOURLY.
• UNTIL only accounts for the date portion of datetime.
Note: Don’t use the New button on the Work Order and Work Order Line Item related lists or list views on Maintenance Work
Rules. This button creates work order and work order line item records, but it doesn’t link the maintenance work rules to the work
order and work order line item record. It doesn't establish a link because the MaintenanceWorkRule field on Work Order and Work
Order Line Item is read-only. This field can’t be updated with the API.
IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Working with Maintenance Work Rules
With maintenance work rules you set up multiple recurring maintenance schedules for maintenance assets. Learn how maintenance
work rule settings affect work order generation.
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Recurrence scenario Maintenance plan Maintenance plan Maintenance plan Maintenance plan
without maintenance without maintenance with maintenance with maintenance
work rules work rules work rules work rules
Generation mode Automatic Manual Automatic Manual
Date range that Date of first work order Date of first work order Date of first work order Date of first work order
determines eligible for in the next batch in the in the next batch is in the next batch in the in the next batch is
work order generation range of today minus before maintenance plan range of today minus before maintenance plan
Generation Time Frame End Date. Generation Time Frame End Date.
to the first of today plus to today plus
Generation Horizon or Generation Horizon
maintenance plan End plus Generation Time
Date. Frame, as long as this
range is before the
maintenance plan End
Date
Last possible The earliest of Date of The earliest of Date of Today plus Generation The earliest of Date of
suggested first work order in the first work order in the Horizon plus first work order in the
maintenance date that next batch plus next batch plus Generation Time next batch plus
work orders are Generation Time Frame Generation Time Frame Frame. Generation Time Frame
generated for or maintenance plan End or maintenance plan End or maintenance plan End
Date. Date. Date.
Last day in the Work orders generated Work orders generated Work orders generated Work orders generated
generation window can include the last day. can include the last day. exclude the last day. exclude the last day.
Generation approach, Fixed batch Fixed batch Rolling window Fixed batch
see Batch Versus Rolling
Generation on page 1342
Respects sort order N/A N/A If Generate new batch Yes. except when the
upon completion isn’t Date of first work order
selected, then Sort in the next batch values
Order is respected. are offset.
If Generate new batch See also, Manual
upon completion is generation example on
selected, then page 1346 in Sort Order
maintenance work rules and the Generate New
associated with the last Batch Upon Completion
incomplete work orders Setting.
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Recurrence scenario Maintenance plan Maintenance plan Maintenance plan Maintenance plan
without maintenance without maintenance with maintenance with maintenance
work rules work rules work rules work rules
or work order line items
aren’t considered when
evaluating sort order.
See also, Automatic
generation example on
page 1345 in Sort Order
and the Generate New
Batch Upon Completion
Setting.
Work Order Generation Generates up to 2,600 Show an online error Sends a Chatter Sends a Chatter
Limit Enforcement work orders and advises message and doesn’t notification and doesn’t notification and doesn’t
of limit enforcement in a generate any work generate any work generate any work orders.
Chatter message. orders. orders.
In rolling window generation, when work order generation runs it creates work orders according to the recurrence pattern for eligible
maintenance work rules from the current date to the current date plus the generation horizon plus the generation timeframe.
Eligible maintenance work rules are those whose date of first work order in the next batch is between:
• the current date minus the generation time frame and
• the current date plus the generation time frame plus the generation horizon.
If an eligible maintenance work rule's date of first work order in the next batch is earlier than the current date, generation doesn’t create
work orders for the period between the date of the first work order in the next batch and the current date.
Maintenance work rules whose date of first work order in the next batch is earlier then the current date minus the generation time frame
will start generating work orders when the date of first work order in the next batch is updated to fall into the eligible date range.
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For example, take the case where today is 1/8 and a maintenance work rule has a generation time frame of 10 days and generation
horizon of 8 days:
• if the date of first work order in the next batch is 1/11, the maintenance work rule is eligible for generation and work orders following
the recurrence pattern are generated from 1/11 to 1/26.
• If the date of first work order in the next batch is 1/1, the maintenance work rule is eligible for generation and work orders following
the recurrence pattern are generated from 1/8 to 1/26.
• If the date of first work order in the next batch is 12/15, then no work orders are generated because 12/15 is before today's date
minus the generation timeframe, that is 1/8 minus 10 days giving 12/29.
Date of the First Work Order in the Next Batch and Maintenance Work Rule Alignment
If the entered Date of first work order in the next batch doesn’t match the RRULE pattern, the system uses the earliest date in the current
month or later that matches the RRULE and is within the generation time frame. It’s possible that a date matching the RRULE in the
current month isn’t within the generation time frame, as shown in most of the following examples.
For example, if the RRULE is set to generate work orders on the first day of every other month, with a generation time frame of 2 months,
and today is 8/19/2020 the following occurs:
Entered Date of first work order in Earliest date in the current month Suggested maintenance date of
the next batch according to the RRULE work orders or work order line items
generated
8/19, meaning today 8/1, but it’s in the past 10/1
8/4, or any date in the past in the current 8/1, but it’s in the past 10/1
month
8/29, a date in the future in the current 8/1, but it’s in the past 10/1
month
7/30, a date in the past in a past month 7/1, but it’s in the past 9/1
9/20, a date in the future in a future month 9/1, it’s in the future, but the generation 11/1
time frame is 9/20 to 11/20
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Service Cloud Manage Work Orders for Field Service
Entered Date of first work order in Earliest date in the current month Suggested maintenance date of
the next batch according to the RRULE work orders or work order line items
generated
9/1, the earliest date matching the RRULE 9/1 9/1
after the current date
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Edge Cases in Sort Order and the Generate New Batch Upon Completion Setting
When the Generate new batch upon completion option is selected and a maintenance work rule with the lowest sort order value is
eligible for a generation but its last work order is incomplete, the maintenance work rule’s work order isn’t generated. The rule’s Date
of first work order in the next batch is advanced as though it was generated. Then:
• If there are other maintenance work rules with the lowest sort order value eligible for generation, work orders corresponding to
these rules are generated else,
• If there are maintenance work rules with a higher sort order value eligible for generation, work orders corresponding to these rules
are generated.
When the maintenance work rule's last work order is marked as complete, the rule will be considered for generation in the next generation
cycle.
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Note: A maintenance plan with a maintenance work rule using COUNT is limited to 2,000 maintenance assets. If such a maintenance
plan has more than 2,000 maintenance assets, no work orders are generated.
What Happens if Work Order Generation Tries to Create More Than 2,600 Work Orders?
When work order generation tries to create more than 2,600 work orders:
• If maintenance work rules are used, for either automatic or manual generation: doesn’t generate work orders and provides an error
message. This behavior occurs because, unlike work orders based on maintenance frequency specified in the maintenance plan, the
presence of multiple work rules whose generation is determined by sort order could result in partial creation of the required work
orders when the 2,600 limit is reached. To rectify, reduce the maintenance plan generation timeframe.
• If manual generation for maintenance plan with frequencies is used: doesn’t generate work orders and provides an error message.
To rectify, reduce the maintenance plan generation timeframe.
• If automatic generation for maintenance plans with frequencies is used: generates 2,600 work orders and posts a message on chatter
advising that the limit was reached. No further action is needed.
What Happens When the Option to Generate One Asset to One Work Order Line Item is Selected?
When the option to Generate One Asset to One Work Order Line Item is selected:
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• If maintenance work rules are used, the system puts the limit on the count of work order line items if generating work order line
items and on the count of work orders if there are only work orders generated. Take the case where a plan has 2,600 assets each
with 3 maintenance work rules for generation. Because of the limit, we report an exception when there are more than 2,600 work
order line items generated.
• If maintenance plans with frequencies are used, 2,600 work order line items are generated. If all the maintenance assets have the
same next suggested maintenance date, one work order is generated. If the maintenance assets have different next suggested
maintenance dates, then work order is generated for each of the next suggested maintenance dates.
Example: Take a maintenance plan where one asset to one work order line item is set with:
• A turbine with weekly on Monday and monthly on the first Monday of the month recurring maintenance work rules with the
same sort order (see Using Sort Order on page 1344 for more details.
• A chiller with monthly recurrence on the first Monday of the month.
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The weekly turbine maintenance requires work on 6/22, 6/29, 7/6, and 7/13. The monthly turbine and chiller maintenance requires
work on 7/6. So on 7/6, there’s one work order with three work order line items for the weekly turbine, monthly turbine, and
monthly chiller maintenance. But on 6/22, 6/29, and 7/13, there’s one work order with one work order line item for the weekly
turbine maintenance.
Example: Take a maintenance plan with one order line item per asset selected and four maintenance assets divided into two
sets of two, sharing the same next suggested maintenance date where:
• Each maintenance asset has a maintenance work rule with recurrence every 6 months.
• The first two maintenance work rules have the same next suggested maintenance date of 7/1.
• The last two maintenance work rules are offset by 1 month, to 8/1, from the first group.
In this case, the:
• First two are grouped in one work order (on 1/July) with two work order line item, and one service appointment.
• Last two are grouped in a separate work order (1/August) with two work order line item, and one service appointment.
Example: There’s no rollup of work order line item details into work orders when you select the option for one work order line
item to be generated per asset.
Take a maintenance plan with one work order line item per asset selected and two assets. Each asset has a maintenance work rule
with different work types. For example, the first asset has a work type for filter replacement that takes 2 hours and the second for
battery replacement that takes 5 hours. Each maintenance work has the same frequency and next suggested maintenance date.
If the option for one service appointment per work order line item is selected:
• one parent work order is created
• a work order line item is created for each asset, and
• if the associated work type has auto-create service appointment enabled for work order line items. one service appointment
is created for each work order line item. The service appointment duration is populated from the work type, for example 2
hours for a filter replacement and 5 hours for battery replacement.
If one service appointment per work order is selected:
• one parent work order is created
• a work order line item is created for each asset, and
• one service appointment is created for the parent work order, even if the associated work type doesn’t have auto-create service
appointment enabled.
• The duration of the service appointment isn’t populated.
If you populate the work type of the work order after it”s generated, the work order inherits the work type’s duration, duration
type, and required skills.
Reparenting
The parent item of a maintenance work rule can be changed. But to ensure data integrity, don’t reparent a maintenance work rule after
it has generated work orders.
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Service Cloud Manage Shifts
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Debug Logging
Track Field History for Standard Objects
Manage Shifts
Shifts in Field Service let you define variable working periods for your shift-based workforce, such as contractors or on-call staff. Create
shifts for particular dates and times when you need coverage, and assign them to service resources. When the managed package is
installed, scheduling and optimization consider workforce availability during shifts.
IN THIS SECTION:
View Your Shift Schedule
Identify which shifts are covered, and which ones still require a worker to confirm that they’re available. The list view for shifts lets
you examine upcoming shifts and their status. Switch to the schedule view to see shifts grouped by service territory or job profile
in a calendar.
Create Flexible Work Shifts
Create shifts that vary from day to day or week to week. Shifts let you assign workers for time periods that don’t follow a rigid pattern,
such as rotating on-call duties or occasional overtime.
Create Shifts from a Pattern
Create a set of shifts from a predefined pattern of shift templates. Assign a service territory and resource to quickly prepare the
schedule.
Guidelines for Shift Availability
Learn how to define valid shifts and show when your workers are available for shift work. Shifts can work alone or alongside operating
hours and service territory memberships to define workforce availability. Designate shifts to show availability for specific types of
work or tasks, or for specific territories. For example, you can designate an on-call shift for emergency appointments only.
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USER PERMISSIONS
• To see a calendar of shifts that are assigned to each job profile, click the Shifts tab.
To view, create, and update
• To see a calendar of shifts that are assigned to each service resource, click the Resources
a shift
tab.
• View, create, and edit on
Shifts, Job Profiles,
Service Territories,
Service Resources,
Service Territory
Memberships
Keep the following considerations in mind when you work with shifts.
• If the managed package is installed, availability for confirmed shifts appears on the Gantt.
• In the Shifts tab, you can't use the quick search box to filter.
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• The NOT operator isn't supported when you define filter logic for shifts. If your filter logic uses NOT, we recommend adjusting the
filter type instead, for example by using the does not contain operator.
• You can create a shift from the schedule view by hovering in an empty space and clicking + New Shift.
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Manage Shifts
c. Enter dates and times for the shift's start and end.
d. Optional: Optionally, select a service territory and a service resource.
If you assign a service territory to the shift, the assigned service resource must be a member of the service territory.
e. Optional: Optionally, for Time Slot Type, select the type of working hours included in the shift. Normal hours fall within the service
resource's normal working hours, while extended fall outside those hours (for example, overtime hours).
f. Optional: Optionally, choose a job profile that defines the skills required to work during this shift.
g. Optional: Optionally, choose a filter in the Recordset Filter Criteria field to limit which service appointments can be scheduled
during the shift.
4. Click Save.
SEE ALSO:
Build Repeating Shift Patterns
Guidelines for Shift Availability
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Service Cloud Manage Shifts
6. Optionally, select a service territory. If you select a territory, you can also assign a service resource.
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Service Cloud Manage Shifts
SEE ALSO:
Build Repeating Shift Patterns
Guidelines for Shift Availability
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Service Cloud Manage Shifts
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Service Cloud Manage Service Resources
SEE ALSO:
Guidelines for Creating Operating Hours for Field Service
Guidelines for Recordset Filter Criteria
Guidelines for Creating Service Territories for Field Service
Reserve Time Slots for Designated Types of Work
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Service Cloud Manage Service Resources
SEE ALSO:
Create Service Resources for Field Service
Service Resource Fields for Field Service
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Service Cloud Manage Service Resources
IN THIS SECTION:
Create Time Sheet Templates
You can automatically create time sheets from a template so that service resources can track their time and work. Specify the time
period each time sheet covers, such as a week or month, and track specific tasks, travel time, and break time. Time sheets are created
one day before their start date. You can only create time sheets for service resources of the type Technician.
USER PERMISSIONS
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• For Label, enter a descriptive name for the template so that you can distinguish it from others.
• For Name, enter an API name for the template, which uses underscores instead of spaces.
• For Start Date, enter the date that you want the time sheet template to take effect. Because the time sheet autocreation job runs
once per day, we recommend setting a start date that is at least 24 hours in the future.
• For Frequency, select the time range that you want each time sheet to cover. New time sheets are automatically created on the
frequency you specify. For example, if you select Daily, a time sheet is created every day. If you select Monthly, each time sheet
covers an entire month, beginning on the start date that you entered.
• For Work Week Start Day, select the day that you want each work week to begin on.
• For Work Week End Day, select the day that you want each work week to end on.
• Enter a description for the time sheet template.
• Mark the time sheet template as Active.
Important: Time sheets are automatically created only if the template is marked Active.
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The template name appears next to each profile that you assigned it to.
To confirm that time sheets were created successfully, navigate to Time Sheets in the App Launcher, and create list view filters. If the
autocreation process can’t create a time sheet, it doesn’t retry. If a time sheet isn’t created as expected, you can manually create it.
Important: Editing the frequency of an existing time sheet template isn't recommended. To avoid errors, first deactivate the
existing template. Then create a template with the correct frequency, mark it as active, and assign it to the desired user profiles.
Considerations for time sheets:
• If you add a required custom field that uses custom values, time sheets aren't automatically created.
• Using the same work week start day and work week end day results in a work week that is one day long.
• The Twice a month frequency uses days 1–15 as the first half of the month and days 16–31 as the second half of the month.
• Start date defines the day your time sheet begins. So if your time sheet template's start date is on a Tuesday, your work week start
day is Monday, and you set the frequency to every two weeks, the first time sheet starts on Tuesday. The time sheet autocreation
job creates the first batch of time sheets when it runs on Monday. Thereafter, time sheets start on Mondays, and they are automatically
created when the job runs on Sundays.
• Time sheet templates aren't included in updates to the managed package.
SEE ALSO:
Time Sheet Fields
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Service Cloud Manage Service Resources
4. Enter a start and end time and description. To add or edit picklist values:
• Customize Application
5. *Optionally, add a Gantt label. The Gantt label appears on the absence in the Gantt. For
example, Bahamas or Driver Training. (We know which option we’d choose…) To customize the Field
Service managed package:
Note: Gantt labels aren’t visible on Break resource absences. • Customize Application
6. Optionally, enter an address, such as a training location. For absences that don’t span an
entire shift—like a morning medical appointment—the absence address is used to determine travel time to and from adjacent
service appointments. Appointments aren’t scheduled during dedicated travel time.
*If the Field Service managed package isn’t installed, you don’t see options to select a record type or enter a Gantt label.
The Gantt shows breaks to the left of travel to appointments. If a break is planned during travel time, optimization can still schedule the
appointment. The resource can drive, take the break at the specified time, and then complete the travel.
If an absence doesn’t have an address, optimization uses the resource’s home base to calculate travel time to the next service appointment.
For a more precise travel estimate, add an address to the absence, such as the location of the previous appointment or an address for
the break.
Non Availability absences are shown on the Gantt with a “no entry” icon, while Break absences are shown with a teacup icon. Update
the Gantt Color field on a resource absence to customize its color on the Gantt.
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Note: If a service resource of type Crew has resource absences, those absences are considered in scheduling and shown on the
Gantt. Absences associated with individual crew members’ corresponding service resources aren’t considered.
SEE ALSO:
View Resource Absences on the Gantt and Map
View a Service Resource’s Calendar
Create Resource Absences in the Field Service Mobile App
Work Rule Type: Service Resource Availability
Service Resource Fields for Field Service
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At the top of the map, select which date to show, and choose one or more types of data to display: Route (shown in blue), Actual Route
(shown in pink), and Traffic. The actual route can be shown only if history tracking is set on the service resource’s Last Known Location
field and geolocation tracking is turned on for them.
The truck icon signifies an appointment. The X icon signifies a resource absence with a valid address, meaning its latitude and longitude
can be calculated.
Note: To show or hide resource absences on the map, from the App Launcher, find and open the Field Service Admin app, and
then click Field Service Settings. Then, click Dispatcher Console UI > Gantt Configurations and select or deselect Show
absences on resource map.
On the right-hand side of the map, you can show or hide the route details pane. To zoom in on an appointment, hover over the
appointment number in the pane and click Center on Map.
Note: If a service resource has more than 23 stops in a period of 24 hours (including starting point, ending point, appointments,
and absences), the resource map shows only the first 23 stops on the route and displays an error. This is a Directions API limitation.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Routing for Travel Time Calculations
Track Service Resource Geolocation with the Field Service Mobile App
USER PERMISSIONS
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2. To color-code resource absences on the calendar, update the Gantt Color field on resource absences with a 6-digit hex code.
This field lets you represent different types of absences with different colors—for example, lunch breaks in red and internal meetings
in green.
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Service Cloud Manage Service Crew Membership
USER PERMISSIONS
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Service Cloud Manage Service Crew Membership
2. Open the crew management tool by clicking the Crew Management tab or opening the Lightning page that contains it.
Note: If you have trouble finding it, ask your admin to follow the steps in Set Up Crew Management and let you know where
the tool is located.
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Hover over a service crew membership in the chart to view the membership start and end dates. Crew leaders appear with a star.
Double-click an appointment to open a window that shows the appointment’s fields and its parent record’s fields and related records.
Find the Right Crew Member
If the territory filter is visible in the sidebar, click the map icon to hide it and show the service resource list. The sidebar shows service
resources who are members of the selected service territories during the dates shown on the chart.
• Click a service resource’s name in the sidebar to view their skills, service territory membership, and service crew membership.
Click the card icon to the right of their name to view the service resource record.
• Select a scheduling policy using the Policy dropdown menu.
• Filter service resources by skill in one of two ways:
– Click the filter icon in the resource list to select skills to filter for.
– Click Match Crew Skills on a crew to show only service resources with the skills listed on the crew’s service resource record
of type Crew.
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Service Cloud Manage Service Crew Membership
• If an appointment shows missing skills or members, right-click the appointment and click Get Candidates to filter the resource
list based on skills, availability, and operating hours. If the crew just needs members, all available resources are shown. If skills
are missing, available service resources with the missing skills are shown first. Select one or more resources and click Assign
Selected to add them to the crew for the appointment’s time frame.
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Service Cloud Manage Service Appointments
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Crew Management
Create Service Crews
Considerations for Scheduling Service Crews
View Service Crews on the Gantt
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Service Cloud Manage Service Appointments
SEE ALSO:
Customize Appointment Booking Settings
b. Optionally, define an arrival window, which is the window of time when the mobile worker To create assigned
resources:
is expected to arrive at the site. This window is typically larger than the scheduled start and
• Edit on service
end window to allow time for delays and scheduling changes. You may choose to share
appointments AND Read
the arrival window start and end with the customer, but keep the scheduled start and end on service resources
internal-only.
To update or delete
4. Assign service resources to the appointment in the Assigned Resources related list. If the parent assigned resources:
record is a work order or account, check the parent for any resource preferences. • Edit on service
appointments
Note:
• Service resource who are dispatchers can’t be assigned to service appointments.
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Service Cloud Manage Service Appointments
• In the Gantt, service appointments are labeled using their appointment number. To customize a service appointment's
label, fill in the Gantt Label field on the appointment record.
• If an assignment is made during scheduling or optimization—Field Service managed package features—assigned resource
records are automatically created.
• If an appointment has more than one assigned resource, only the first created assigned resource is recognized in scheduling
and in the dispatcher console. However, if the appointment is assigned to a service resource of type Crew, assigned resource
records are auto-created for the crew members, and the assignment details are displayed correctly in the dispatcher
console.
5. When the mobile worker completes the appointment, have them fill out the Actual Times section to indicate when the appointment
started and ended. In addition, they can enter the minutes it took to travel to the appointment in the Actual Travel Time field on
their assigned resource record.
If Auto-Create Service Appointment is selected on a work type, a service appointment is created when a work order or work order
line item lists that work type. For details, see Create Work Types for Field Service.
IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Creating Service Appointments for Field Service
A service appointment tracks field service work to be performed for a customer, and is typically associated with a work order or work
order line item. Learn how to create and manage service appointments.
SEE ALSO:
Service Appointment Fields for Field Service
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Service Cloud Manage Service Appointments
• Service appointments on work orders and work order line items offer a more detailed view of the work being performed. While
work orders and work order line items let you enter general information about a task, service appointments track scheduling
and ownership. If you select Auto-Create Service Appointment on a work type, a child service appointment is added to all
work orders or work order line items that use the work type. In scheduling and optimization, service appointments are scheduled
according to your settings.
• Service appointments on assets represent work being performed on the asset.
• Service appointments on accounts represent work being performed for the account.
• Service appointments on opportunities represent work that is related to the opportunity.
• Service appointments on leads represent work that is related to lead—for example, a site visit to pursue a promising lead.
SEE ALSO:
Service Appointment Fields for Field Service
Schedule Appointments from the Record Feed The Field Service core
Use the Book Appointment or Candidates Chatter actions to schedule and reschedule service features, managed
appointments for work orders, work order line items, accounts, assets, leads, and opportunities, package, and mobile app
or from a service appointment itself. To reflect different visits, you can schedule one or more are available in Enterprise,
service appointments for a record. Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions.
Schedule Appointments from the Dispatcher Console Work orders are also
You can schedule service appointments from the Field Service dispatcher console by using the available in Professional
mass schedule action or by dragging them onto the Gantt. Edition.
Schedule an Appointment Automatically
Schedule an appointment in a hurry with Auto Schedule—right from the appointment itself.
Auto Schedule finds the best available slot based on your scheduling policy.
Create Scheduling Dependencies Between Service Appointments
To stay on top of complex projects, create scheduling dependencies between related service appointments. For example, ensure
that a particular appointment can’t start until a related appointment is complete.
Schedule Appointments Using Priorities
Schedule critical service appointments over less urgent visits. When a scheduling action can’t find an available time slot, it overlaps
lower priority appointments with services that you specify as high priority.
Schedule Emergency Appointments
Swiftly schedule, dispatch, and track emergency appointments with the help of a real-time map view. The Emergency Chatter action
on a service appointment shows a map view of your closest field resources so that you can dispatch work immediately.
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SEE ALSO:
Create Service Appointments for Field Service
Unschedule Service Appointments
Reschedule Service Appointments
Customize Appointment Booking Settings
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5. To view time slots for yourself only, click Assign to Me. You see this option if you’re associated with a service resource record and
the default scheduling policy includes a Required Resources work rule.
6. If you clicked Book Appointment:
a. To change the earliest start permitted and due date, click Show more options.
b. To view a graded list of available arrival windows, click Get Appointments. The list considers all scheduling constraints, such
as the current schedule and work rules, and is graded according to the service objectives. Depending on your appointment
booking settings, arrival windows can be flagged as Ideal or Recommended or shown in yellow to indicate a prime window. To
see how each window ranks against the scheduling policy’s service objectives, click its information icon.
c. To view a wider range of service appointment dates, click Extend Dates.
d. To create the service appointment, select an arrival window. You can then view its details.
8. To rerun the search using a different scheduling policy than the default policy, select a policy in the Change Scheduling Policy
field.
Book Appointment Window
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Candidates Window
Note: Booking from objects other than work orders or work order line items creates a work order, and the service appointment
is created for that work order. For instance, booking an appointment from an asset record creates a related work order and service
appointment.
Note: Choosing the same or adjacent appointment slots at the same time can create overlaps on the dispatch console. Service
appointment overlaps can occur if there are long-running customizations. We recommend such customizations be asynchronous.
Travel or lunch break overlaps can also occur. Contact your Salesforce rep to change the custom setting that checks for appointment
changes during the entire day, and prevents travel overlaps. In this case, false positive errors can occur if there’s no real overlap.
SEE ALSO:
Service Appointment Fields for Field Service
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Customize the drag settings from the Field Service Admin app.
1. From the App Launcher, find and open the Field Service Admin app, and then click the Field Service Settings tab.
2. Click Dispatcher Console UI.
3. In the Drag jumps on Gantt field, enter the minutes segment. For example, if you enter 15, you can drag an appointment into slots
starting at 0, 15, 30, and 45 minutes after the hour.
4. Save your changes.
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SEE ALSO:
Work in the Dispatcher Console Appointment List
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Auto Schedule tries to find the best slot for the appointment. It’s then deselected in the appointment record regardless of whether
scheduling is successful.
2. Customize the service appointment page layout to show complex work features.
a. In the layout editor, open the service appointment page layout.
b. Add a single-column section to the layout. Name it Scheduling Dependencies or something similar.
c. Select Visualforce Pages and drag the vf739_ComplexWork page to the new section.
d. Click the wrench icon on the Visualforce page to display its properties. Set the height in pixels to 600.
e. Remove the following fields from the service appointment page layout. These fields were used before complex work was available,
and aren’t needed. If these fields appear in their own section, remove the section.
• Time Dependency
• Same Resource
• Same Day
• Related Service
3. From the Object Manager in Setup, open the Appointment Dependency object. Under Fields & Relationships, select the
Dependency field. Activate the dependency values that you want to be available for complex work.
Create Dependencies
You can create dependencies between two or more existing service appointments. Each appointment’s parent record must be a work
order.
1. On a service appointment detail page, find the Scheduling Dependencies section.
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After the agent adds the dependency, it’s visible in a diagram and in a list at the bottom of the Scheduling Dependencies section.
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You can now schedule the appointments. Appointments with dependencies can be scheduled in the usual ways—scheduling quick
actions, the dispatcher console, and optimization—or by clicking Schedule Appointments in the Scheduling Dependencies section.
IN THIS SECTION:
Considerations for Scheduling Dependencies
Keep these considerations in mind when you schedule dependencies between service appointments.
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• The combination of multiday scheduling and complex work isn’t supported. If a multiday service appointment is part of a chain of
appointments, its scheduled end date isn’t calculated when the appointment is scheduled.
• To be considered for Same Resource dependencies, each service resource must have a single service territory membership. A chain
of appointments in complex work can’t span different service territory memberships.
• Experience Builder site dispatchers can’t access this feature.
SEE ALSO:
Create Scheduling Dependencies Between Service Appointments
Enable Multiday Service Appointments
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Example: To schedule an urgent break-fix, create a work order and set its priority to 1. Open the related service appointment,
and click Schedule over lower priority appointment. Then, in the dispatcher console, select the critical break-fix
appointment from the appointment list. You can use any of the scheduling actions, such as Book Appointments or get Candidates.
Scheduling ignores lower priority appointments, even if an overlap results. For example, when you click Candidates, the Gantt
shows available time slots, including slots that overlap lower priority appointments. For an appointment with a priority of 2 (High),
scheduling considers slots that overlap appointments with a priority of 3 (Medium), 4 (Low), or a higher value.
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Considerations:
• When scheduling considers slots for the appointment, it protects already scheduled appointments that have Schedule over
lower priority appointment set.
• When you have many high priority appointments to schedule, use In-Day or Global optimization. Optimization considers priority
fields and reschedules lower priority appointments if possible. Optimization doesn’t use the Schedule over lower priority
appointment field.
SEE ALSO:
Optimize Appointments Using Priorities
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3. If you’re having trouble finding a candidate, select a different scheduling policy directly on the map or modify your emergency
booking settings.
Tip:
• If you want a candidate to complete their current appointment before heading to the emergency appointment, change the
dispatcher setting on the map from “as soon as possible” to “after current Service Appointment”. Changing this setting updates
the candidates’ ETA.
• Click Candidates to view a list of all candidates organized by ETA. Hover over a resource name in the list to see options to
dispatch them or view them on the map.
• Quickly spot emergency appointments in the Gantt by looking for the lightning icon.
Last known location validity The number of minutes after which a data breadcrumb—like
resource location or geolocation—is no longer valid. For example,
if the breadcrumb validity is 20 minutes and the Last Known
Location of resource X was last updated 30 minutes prior, the
emergency dispatcher calculates the resource’s ETA based on the
location of the last appointment they completed, or (if no
appointments were completed that day) their home base. The
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Emergency search timeframe The amount of time you have to resolve the emergency, not
counting the appointment duration. The Earliest Start
Permitted on the appointment is set to the current time, and
the Due Date is the current time + appointment duration +
Emergency Search Timeframe.
For example, if an appointment requires 1 hour of work and the
Emergency Search Timeframe is 360 minutes (6 hours), the
emergency wizard shows only resources who can travel to and
complete the task in the next 7 hours.
Emergency Chatter Post Destination Choose whether the Chatter post notifying the assigned resource
about the appointment is added to the appointment’s feed or its
parent record’s feed.
Note: If the Emergency Chatter action is used for an appointment with a scheduling dependency, the dependency isn’t considered
during scheduling.
SEE ALSO:
Customize Service Appointment Chatter Settings
Service Appointment Fields for Field Service
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SEE ALSO:
Service Appointment Fields for Field Service
Auto-Dispatch Service Resources
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a. To open the dispatcher console, from the App Launcher, find and open the Field Service app, and then click Field Service.
b. Find the appointment in the appointment list (or on the Gantt, if it’s already scheduled). Right-click the appointment and select
Reshuffle. This action can reschedule or unschedule lower priority appointments and reschedule higher priority appointments
(though not past their due date).
SEE ALSO:
Schedule Service Appointments for Field Service
When unable to find a valid schedule for an • Leave on Gantt and set
appointment In-jeopardy: If an appointment can’t
be rescheduled without breaking work rules,
leave the appointment in its original time
slot with an In Jeopardy flag.
• Unschedule the
appointment(s): If an appointment
can’t be rescheduled without breaking work
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Setting Description
rules, unschedule the appointment and remove it from the
Gantt.
• Reshuffle other assignments: If an appointment
can’t be rescheduled without breaking work rules, use the
Reshuffle action. This action reschedules appointments to favor
high-priority appointments. To learn more, see Reschedule
Service Appointments.
Considerations
• Fix Overlaps respects the original order of scheduled appointments. The earliest appointment remains the earliest and the last
remains last.
• If an appointment is pinned, Fix Overlaps doesn’t reschedule it. However, appointments with a pinned status can be rescheduled.
• Fix Overlaps reschedules appointments only within the given day. If the operation progresses to use the Reshuffle action, appointments
can be rescheduled to another day.
• Fix Overlaps considers only service appointments in the Scheduled or Dispatched Status Category.
• Fix Overlaps doesn't run on past service appointments.
• Fix Overlaps isn’t supported for capacity-based resources.
• Fix Overlaps doesn't update service appointment status.
• When a service appointment is scheduled by Fix Overlaps, the appointment’s Schedule Mode is set to Automatic.
SEE ALSO:
Optimize Your Field Service Schedule
Reschedule Service Appointments
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Setting Description
Service Appointment candidate Boolean field Select any standard or custom checkbox field, including formula
fields. This field must be selected (set to True) for an appointment
to be a candidate in appointment grouping.
Work Order candidate Boolean field Select any standard or custom checkbox field, including formula
fields. If a service appointment’s parent record is a work order, this
field must be selected (set to True) for the appointment to be a
candidate in appointment grouping.
Work Order Line Item candidate Boolean field Select any standard or custom checkbox field, including formula
fields. If a service appointment’s parent record is a work order line
item, this field must be selected (set to True) for the appointment
to be a candidate in appointment grouping.
Max appointments to schedule When searching for nearby appointments, the scheduling engine
ends its search after finding this many candidate appointments.
The maximum is 50 appointments.
Max runtime (seconds) The scheduling engine spends this many seconds searching for
nearby service appointments. The maximum is 60 seconds. The
search ends after either the max runtime or max appointments to
schedule is reached.
When attempting to schedule the unscheduled service after the • Schedule to original resource only: Assign rescheduled
nearby services appointments only to the original assigned resource.
• Schedule to all resources: Consider all qualified service
resources when rescheduling appointments.
Radius for nearby appointments The radius around the originating service appointment, which
determines the number of appointments affected by Group Nearby
Appointments. The distance unit—kilometers or miles—is set on
the Routing tab in the Scheduling section of Field Service Settings.
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After customizing your appointment grouping settings, right-click an appointment on the Gantt and select Group Nearby.
Considerations
• In order to run Group Nearby Appointments successfully, service appointments must have the same address as their parent work
order.
• Group Nearby Appointments uses the parent work orders' latitude and longitude values.
• In Group Nearby Appointments, only unscheduled service appointments can be candidates.
• Group Nearby Appointments only schedules appointments within the given day, which is the first day on the Gantt.
• By default, the Is Fill In Candidate field on service appointments, work orders, and work order line items is selected. This means that
all service appointments are considered as candidates when grouping appointments.
• When a service appointment is scheduled by Group Nearby Appointments, the appointment’s Schedule Mode is set to
Automatic.
SEE ALSO:
Optimize Your Field Service Schedule
Reschedule Service Appointments
Work Order Candidate Boolean field Select any standard or custom checkbox field,
including formula fields. If a service
appointment’s parent record is a work order,
this field must be selected (set to True) for the
appointment to be a candidate in fill-in
scheduling.
Work Order Line Item Candidate Boolean field Select any standard or custom checkbox field,
including formula fields. If a service
appointment’s parent record is a work order line
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Setting Description
item, this field must be selected (set to True) for the appointment
to be a candidate in fill-in scheduling.
Order candidate appointments by • Priority: Sort candidates based on their priority field, which is
set in Scheduling > General Logic . Distance is a secondary
consideration.
• Distance: Sort candidates based on their proximity to the
previous appointment, or if it’s the first appointment of the
day, on their proximity to the mobile worker’s home base. After
an appointment is scheduled, its location is used to calculate
distance. Priority is a secondary consideration.
Max appointments to schedule When searching for nearby appointments, the scheduling engine
ends its search after finding this many candidate appointments.
The maximum is 50 appointments.
Max runtime (seconds) The scheduling engine spends this many seconds searching for
nearby service appointments. The maximum is 60 seconds. The
search ends after either the max runtime or max appointments to
schedule be reached.
Considerations
• Fill-In Schedule only schedules appointments for the given day, which is the first day shown on the Gantt.
• By default, the Is Fill In Candidate field on service appointments, work orders, and work order line items is selected. This means that
all service appointments are considered as candidates when filling in a schedule.
You might want to limit which appointments are considered as candidates. For example, perhaps repair appointments require a
phone booking before a mobile worker is sent to the site. To limit candidate appointments, try one of the following approaches.
– Using Process Builder or an Apex trigger, set the value of the Is Fill In Candidate field to False if specified criteria aren’t met.
– Create a checkbox formula field that evaluates whether a record is a candidate. Then, change the three settings that control
which fields are evaluated when searching for candidates so that your custom field is considered instead of Is Fill In Candidate.
• If candidate appointments are sorted by distance, appointments without a geolocation are sorted last.
• Only unscheduled appointments or appointments that are scheduled on a future date are considered as candidates.
• When a service appointment is scheduled by Fill-In Schedule, the appointment’s Schedule Mode is set to Automatic.
SEE ALSO:
Optimize Your Field Service Schedule
Reschedule Service Appointments
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Tip: To turn on in-app notifications for mobile app and Lightning Experience users, see Enable Field Service.
SEE ALSO:
Chatter in the Field Service Mobile App
Schedule Emergency Appointments
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When the job runs, it changes the status of the dispatched appointments from Scheduled to Dispatched. If you customize statuses
for the service appointment lifecycle, the job changes status from the Service Appointment is tentatively
scheduled setting to the status for the Service appointment is sent to its resource setting.
Example: Create a job that runs daily at 6AM and dispatches resources in Los Angeles for appointments that are In Jeopardy.
The job dispatches resources with a primary or relocation service territory membership of Los Angeles for the selected In Jeopardy
appointments.
SEE ALSO:
Drip Feed Service Appointments
Customize the Service Appointment Life Cycle
SEE ALSO:
Auto-Dispatch Service Resources
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SEE ALSO:
Set Up Your Field Service Inventory
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Find out the Look at the Product Items related list To learn the number of wheelbarrows
quantity of a on the product record. in your inventory and their locations,
particular part Helpful links: look at the Product Items related list
across all on the Wheelbarrow product record.
inventory • Create Product Items to Represent
locations Inventory
Review changes Look at the Product Item Transactions To review the use, transfer, and
to the stock of a related list on the product item. restock of extra-large bolts at
particular product Helpful links: Warehouse C, look at the Product Item
at a particular Transactions related list on the
location • Guidelines for Transferring product item whose Product is
Inventory Extra-Large Bolt and Location is
Warehouse C.
Specify that a Create a record in the Products To let the assigned technicians know
certain part is Required related list on the work that they need a forklift to complete
needed to order. work order #00046982, create a
complete a work Helpful links: product required for the Forklift
order product on the work order.
• Track Required Inventory
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Transfer parts from an 1. Create a product request, listing the outside To transfer 20 safety glasses from your safety
outside vendor to an vendor as the account. equipment provider to Service Van A, create a
inventory location product request that lists your outside vendor as the
2. Create a product transfer. Make sure to specify Account. Then, create a product transfer with these
the quantity, destination location, and product. settings:
3. Create a shipment to track the transfer’s shipping • Product: Safety Glasses
details.
• Destination Location: Service Van A
4. Mark the product transfer received when the
• Quantity: 20
items arrive.
• Quantity Unit of Measure: Each
Helpful links:
Because the items are coming from outside of your
• Request Inventory inventory, leave the Source Location and Source
• Transfer Inventory Product Item blank.
• Guidelines for Transferring Inventory Create a shipment to track the shipping details for
the glasses transfer.
Select Received on the product transfer when the
glasses arrive at Service Van A.
Indicate that parts from Create a product consumed record on the related You used 15 bolts from your service van, Service Van
your inventory were work order. A, to complete work order #00046982. To track the
consumed while Helpful links: consumption, create a product consumed record on
completing a work order the work order with these settings:
• Track Inventory Consumption
• Product Item: Service Van A Bolts
• Guidelines for Consuming Inventory
• Quantity Consumed: 15
The product item quantity is automatically reduced
by 15 to reflect that the bolts are no longer in stock.
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Track the repair of a 1. Create a work order to repair the product. A customer calls your company to request a repair
customer product of their front gate. Create a work order, and then
2. Create a return order that tracks the return of the create an associated return order that tracks the
product to the repair workshop. return of the gate to the workshop.
3. When the product is repaired, create a product After the gate is repaired, mark the work order
transfer to track the return of the product back complete. Create a product transfer to track the return
to the customer. of the gate from the workshop to the customer.
Helpful links:
• Track Customer Returns
• Guidelines for Tracking Customer Returns
Track the return of Create a return order that lists the unused inventory To prepare for an on-site installation appointment,
unused inventory from in the Product or Product Item field. create a product request for three motors. Upon
my stock back to the Helpful links: arriving at the site, you learn that only two motors
warehouse are needed. To return the unwanted motor to the
• Track Customer Returns main warehouse, create a return order with one line
• Guidelines for Tracking Customer Returns item that lists the motor in the Product field.
After the motor is returned to the warehouse,
increase the quantity of the motor product item by
1.
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For example, if all light bulb replacement jobs require a ladder and a light bulb, add the ladder and The Field Service core
light bulb as required products to your Light Bulb Replacement work type. When it’s time to create features, managed
a work order for a customer’s light bulb replacement, applying that work type to the work order package, and mobile app
adds the required products. are available in Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Here’s how to add a required product to a work order, work order line item, or work type.
and Developer Editions.
1. Navigate to the record that needs required products. Work orders are also
2. In the Products Required related list, click New. available in Professional
Edition.
3. Use the lookup field to select a product.
4. Enter the quantity required.
USER PERMISSIONS
5. Select a quantity unit of measure.
To view products required:
6. Click Save.
• Read on the parent
object (work orders or
SEE ALSO: work types) AND Read
on products
Product Item and Inventory Fields
To create, update, or delete
Guidelines for Creating Work Types for Field Service products required on work
Add Required Skills to Work Orders or Work Types for Field Service orders or work order line
items:
• Edit on work orders AND
Read on products
To create, update, or delete
products required on work
types:
• Edit on work types AND
Read on products
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Request Inventory
When your stock gets low or you need a part for a particular work order, create a product request.
EDITIONS
Product requests can be associated with work orders, work order line items, cases, and accounts.
You can specify when and where the parts are needed, and divide the request into line items that Available in: Salesforce
each represent a needed part. Classic and Lightning
Mobile workers can create product requests when they find defective parts in their vehicles or their Experience
stock has run out. Dispatchers or service managers can create product requests on behalf of their
The Field Service core
mobile workers if they see their stock getting low. And schedulers can create product requests features, managed
when they schedule work orders that require parts which aren’t normally found in a worker’s vehicle package, and mobile app
stock. are available in Enterprise,
1. From the Product Requests tab or the Product Requests related list on a work order or work Performance, Unlimited,
order line item, click New. and Developer Editions.
Work orders are also
2. If the request is being made for a particular job, select the related work order or work order line available in Professional
item. Edition.
3. Optionally, select the related account or case.
4. Enter the destination location, which is where the parts are needed. USER PERMISSIONS
Tip: Service vehicles can also be locations. Mobile locations like vehicles have Mobile To create product requests:
Location selected on their detail page. • Create on product
requests
5. Enter the address where the parts should be shipped; for example, the mailing address of the
warehouse that is requesting them. To view product request line
items:
6. Select a shipment speed, and enter the Need By Date. • Read on product
7. If the parts are being transferred from another location such as a warehouse, enter the source requests
location. To create, update, or delete
product request line items:
8. Add a description.
• Edit on product requests
9. Assign the product request a status:
• Draft: Finalizing the product request details.
• Submitted: The product request is ready for processing.
• Received: The department in charge of fulfilling the request is working on it.
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The product request now appears in the Product Requests related list on the related work order or work order line item. You can also
view and sort line items from all product requests from the Product Request Line Items tab in Salesforce.
SEE ALSO:
Product Request and Transfer Fields
Set Up Product Requests in the Field Service Mobile App
Transfer Inventory
To fulfill a product request, create a product transfer. Product transfers track the movement of
EDITIONS
inventory from one field service location to another. The inventory numbers at your storage locations
update automatically to reflect transfers. Available in: Salesforce
Note: To allow the creation of product transfers for serialized product items (a beta Classic and Lightning
Experience
functionality), contact Salesforce.
Create one product transfer for each product request line item so you can track the status of each The Field Service core
part being requested. The Product Transfers related list on a product request shows all product features, managed
transfers associated with the request’s line items. In addition, product request line items have their package, and mobile app
own Product Transfers related list that shows related transfers. are available in Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
While product transfers are typically created in response to a product request, they don’t have to and Developer Editions.
be. For example, when a new mobile worker joins your team, you can create a series of product Work orders are also
transfers to track the initial stocking of their service vehicle. available in Professional
1. From the Product Transfers tab or the Product Transfers related list on a product request, product Edition.
request line item, product item, location, or shipment, click New.
2. Enter a source product item or product. USER PERMISSIONS
• If the parts are being transferred from a location within your inventory, such as a warehouse, To create product transfers
enter a source product item. The source product item shows where the parts are being for field service:
transferred from, and updates the quantity at the source location. For example, if you need • Create on product
five hammers to be transferred from Warehouse A to Warehouse B, select the product item transfers
record that tracks the hammers stored at Warehouse A. To mark product transfers
• If the products are being transferred from outside your inventory—for example, if they’re received:
being ordered from a manufacturer—enter a product name. • Edit on product items
3. Enter the quantity being transferred and the Quantity Unit of Measure. Quantity Unit of Measure
picklist values are inherited from the Quantity Unit of Measure field on products.
4. If it’s not already populated, enter the related product request line item.
Tip: Set the status of the related product request line item to Received to indicate that the request is being processed.
5. Use the lookup field to select the shipment on which the product items are being transferred.
6. Enter the destination location, and if applicable, the source location.
7. Enter the expected pickup date.
8. Add a description.
9. After the transferred parts are received, select Received and update the following fields:
• Received By
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• Quantity Received
• Status
Once you mark a product transfer received, you can’t undo it.
IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Transferring Inventory
Product transfers track the transfer of inventory between locations in field service. Learn how to link product transfers to other
inventory management records, and how they can help you manage inventory in your field service operation.
SEE ALSO:
Product Request and Transfer Fields
While product transfers are typically created in response to a product request, they don’t have to The Field Service core
be. For example, when a new mobile worker joins your team, you can create a series of product features, managed
transfers to track the initial stocking of their service vehicle. package, and mobile app
are available in Enterprise,
If the product transfer is fulfilling a product request, create one product transfer for each product Performance, Unlimited,
request line item. This way, you can track the status of each part being requested. The Product and Developer Editions.
Transfers related list on a product request lists all product transfers associated with the request’s Work orders are also
line items. In addition, product request line items have their own Product Transfers related list that available in Professional
shows related transfers. Edition.
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Example: Warehouse A has 100 hammers in stock. Your new mobile worker, Jessica, has received her service van, and you’ve
created a location to represent the van in Salesforce. You create a product transfer to track the transfer of five hammers from
Warehouse A to Jessica’s van. Since Jessica’s van hasn’t contained hammers before, selecting Received on the transfer causes the
following events.
• The quantity on the existing product item for hammers stored at Warehouse A is reduced from 100 to 95
• A second product item is created with these settings:
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– Product: Hammer
– Quantity: 5
– Location: Jessica’s Van
• A product item transaction is created for the hammer product item with a transaction type of Transferred and a quantity of 5
SEE ALSO:
Product Request and Transfer Fields
1. In the Products Consumed related list on a work order or work order line item, click New. The Field Service core
2. If applicable, enter a work order line item. The work order is auto-populated. features, managed
package, and mobile app
3. In the Product Item field, select the product item where the part originated. For example, if 10 are available in Enterprise,
bolts that were stored in Warehouse B were used to complete the work order, select the product Performance, Unlimited,
item that represents all bolts stored in Warehouse B. and Developer Editions.
4. Enter the quantity consumed. Work orders are also
available in Professional
5. To link the consumed product to a price book entry, select a price book entry and enter the Edition.
unit price.
Note: To create a product consumed that lists a price book entry, you need “Use” sharing USER PERMISSIONS
access to price books.
To view products consumed:
6. Add context in the Description field. • Read on work orders
7. Save your changes. To create or delete products
consumed:
Tip: After a product item is consumed, track it as an asset (an installed or purchased product) • Edit on work orders AND
and add product details like a serial number. Read on product items
To update products
IN THIS SECTION: consumed:
• Edit on work orders
Guidelines for Consuming Inventory
When inventory is consumed as part of a work order, logging the consumption kicks off several
behind-the-scenes changes. Learn how product consumption fits into your field service
operation.
SEE ALSO:
Product Item and Inventory Fields
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Note: If you want to track product consumption but don’t need to track the movement of inventory between locations, you can
skip creating locations and product items. Instead, complete the Price Book Entry field on product consumed records to indicate
which product was consumed. However, this approach offers a limited view of your inventory.
SEE ALSO:
Product Item and Inventory Fields
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c. Enter a quantity and unit of measure. If a product or product item is selected, the unit of
measure is autopopulated.
d. Select a reason for the return.
e. In the Processing Plan field, indicate what should happen to the returned item.
f. In the Repayment Method field, indicate how the owner should be reimbursed for the return. If the return order is tracking the
return of items from van stock to an inventory location, you’ll probably leave this field blank.
g. If needed, update the source and destination location. These are inherited from the return order, but can be updated.
h. Add notes or context about the returned items in the Description field.
i. Save your changes.
IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Tracking Customer Returns
You can use return orders to track customer returns, customer repairs, or the return of inventory from a mobile worker’s van stock
to a warehouse or supplier. Learn about common return scenarios and how to log them in Salesforce.
SEE ALSO:
Return Order Fields
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For example, a customer of a hypothetical robotic arms company, Rockin’ Robotics, purchased a small hydraulic arm by mistake. To
return it, they create a case from the customer site. The assigned agent creates a return order for the customer which lists the related
order and order product. The agent then creates a product transfer to track the return of the arm to the warehouse. Upon its arrival,
the on-site worker updates the quantity on the appropriate product item to indicate that the warehouse has gained a small hydraulic
arm.
Customer Repairs
When a customer wants their product repaired or retrofitted, use a return order to track the repair and return of the product. Follow
these guidelines.
• On the return order:
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– Link the return order to related work orders in the Work Orders or Work Order Line Items related lists. Most repairs involve
a work order that was created for the customer.
– If a customer case was created to address the repair, select it in the Case field
– In the Source Location field, select the customer’s site where the product is at the start of the return. You may leave this field
blank if the customer’s site isn’t tracked as a location in Salesforce.
– In the Ship From address, enter the customer’s address where the product is at the start of the return.
– In the Destination Location field, select the workshop where the product is repaired. You can use product transfers to track
the movement of the product to and from the workshop.
For example, a Rockin’ Robotics customer wants their eight-year-old hydraulic arm retrofitted to use the most current technology.
They call Rockin’ Robotics and the support agent creates a work order to have the arm retrofitted. The agent then associates the
work order with a return order that tracks the return of the arm to the Rockin’ Robotics Workshop. After the arm is retrofitted, the
work order is marked complete and a product transfer is created to track the return of the arm from the workshop to the satisfied
customer.
Mobile Worker Returns
When a product is requested for a field service job but ends up going unused for any reason, use a return order to track the return
of the product to the supplier or an inventory location. Follow these guidelines:
• On the return order
– In the Product Request field, select the product request that the product was intended to fulfill. You can also associate the
return order line items with the product request’s line items.
– In the Account field, select the account that the product was intended for.
– In the Source Location field, select the product’s location at the time of the creation of the return order. For example, a mobile
worker’s service vehicle.
– In the Destination Location field, select the product’s intended destination. For example, an inventory location such as a
warehouse, or a supplier’s site.
– In the Ship From address, enter the starting address of the return.
• If needed, create an associated product transfer to track the transfer of the product from its current location back to your inventory.
For example, to prepare for an on-site installation appointment, a Rockin’ Robotics mobile worker creates a product request for three
large hydraulic arms. Upon arriving at the site, the worker learns that only two arms are needed. To return the unwanted arm to the
main warehouse, the worker creates a return order with one line item that lists the arm in the Product field. After the arm is returned
to the warehouse, the warehouse product item can be updated to reflect the change in inventory numbers.
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Service Cloud Record Product Warranties
Note: While you can track the return of products to your inventory using only a product transfer, return orders let you add
information about why the product is being returned.
SEE ALSO:
Return Order Fields
Report on Field Service
SEE ALSO:
Organize Products with Product Families
Setup for Product Warranties
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Note: Where there are many assets for the product subject to the product service campaign, create the product service
campaign items using Data Loader.
Add Work Orders and Return Orders
• Navigate to either Product Service Campaign or Product Service Campaign Items, and from the Work Orders and Return Orders
or Work Order Line Items and Return Order Line Items related list, click New.
• Enter the details of the work order and return order or work order line items and return order line items.
• Save the record.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Product Service Campaigns
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Service Cloud Track Availability and Reliability
Note: After updating Asset Downtime Periods, reload the Asset record to see the updated
cumulative downtime, cumulative unplanned downtime, availability, and reliability.
About the calculations
Note: Availability and reliability are calculated when an uptime record start date is provided. When no uptime record start date
is provided we don't calculate availability or reliability, and both fields are blank.
Availability and reliability values are calculated as the ratio between expected uptime and actual uptime allowing for:
• planned and unplanned downtime (in calculating availability), that is Availability = (expected uptime - accumulated planned and
unplanned downtime) / expected uptime
• planned downtime (in calculating reliability), that is Reliability = (expected uptime - accumulated unplanned downtime) / expected
uptime
Expected uptime is calculated as follows:
• If the uptime record end time is in the future or no uptime record end time is provided
– Uptime = the average uptime per day * number of days between the uptime record start time and now
• Else
– Uptime = the average uptime per day * number of days between the uptime record start time and uptime record end time
Note: If you record details of future planned downtime, we recommended that you maintain the uptime record end time as a
date close to now. This ensures that the availability and reliability calculations exclude future planned downtime information. If
the uptime record end time isn't set, and the accumulated planned downtime exceeds the accumulated uptime to date, the
reliability and availability statistics may be reported as negative.
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Service Cloud Track Availability and Reliability
The read only Outside Uptime Calculation Period checkbox indicates whether a record is excluded from the cumulative downtime
calculation.
Note: When reporting on asset downtime records, you cannot filter records using the Outside Uptime Calculation Period flag
nor can you include the flag in the report
IN THIS SECTION:
Record Asset Downtime
Use the Asset Downtime Periods related list to record details of planned and unplanned downtime.
Unplanned.
4. Enter the date and time for the start and end of the downtime.
5. Enter a description of the reason for the downtime.
6. Save your changes.
Note: Enter details for downtime that occurs during the hours when the asset is expected to be available. For example, a public
elevator in a retail store is expected to be available from 8 AM to 8 PM. In this example:
• Planned maintenance performed between 9 PM and 10 PM isn’t recorded as downtime.
• Unplanned maintenance performed between 7 AM and 9 AM is recorded as unplanned downtime from 8 AM to 9 AM.
• Unplanned maintenance performed between 1 PM and 11 AM the following day is recorded as two down time records:
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Service Cloud Manage Service Reports
If downtime outside the expected uptime is recorded, the reliability and availability figures are understated. In extreme cases, they
can be reported as negative.
Note: When an asset is shared, its asset downtime period records are also shared.
SEE ALSO:
Service Report Fields
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Service Cloud Manage Service Reports
1. If you want your team to collect signatures on service reports using the Field Service mobile
app, create picklist values for the Signature Type field on digital signatures. Signature types USER PERMISSIONS
represent the role of the person signing a report.
To edit page layouts and
a. Navigate to the Setup page. picklist values:
• In Salesforce Classic, from Setup, enter Digital Signatures in the Quick Find • Customize Application
box, then select Fields under Digital Signatures. To create service report
templates:
• In Lightning Experience, go to Digital Signature in the Object Manager, then click Fields
• Modify All Data,
and Relationships.
Customize Application,
b. Click Signature Type. and View Setup and
Configuration
c. From the Signature Type Picklist Values related list, add up to 1,000 values. For tips on
creating signature types, see Guidelines for Using Signatures on Service Reports.
2. Add the Create Service Report button to page layouts for the following objects:
• Work orders
• Work order line items
• Service appointments
Each template comes with four sub-templates, which enables service reports for multiple record types:
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Service Cloud Manage Service Reports
Note: When you preview the report template, it shows the System Administrator profile view. The data shown is simulated,
except for images and rich text. If the person creating the service report doesn’t have Read permission on objects or fields
in the service report template, those fields don’t appear on the report they create.
g. (Recommended) Select another sub-template in the Related Templates field, and customize its layout. Repeat until you’ve
reviewed the layout of all four sub-templates.
h. Click Activate next to the template name on the Service Report Templates home page.
IN THIS SECTION:
Guidelines for Creating Service Report Templates
Service report templates in field service determine the type and order of data in service reports. Learn how to customize your service
report templates to suit your needs.
Guidelines for Using Signatures on Service Reports
Field service workers can capture signatures from customers and partners on service reports. On the service report template, you
define the number and type of signatures allowed.
SEE ALSO:
Service Report Fields
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Service Cloud Manage Service Reports
Note:
• The Status field on contract line items isn’t available for filtering.
• The Filters tab isn’t available in Internet Explorer 8.
• If the user generating the service report doesn’t have access to a field used to filter the related list, the filtering doesn’t
occur.
Note: If the user generating the service report doesn’t have access to the field used to sort the related list, the sorting doesn’t
occur.
Adding Signatures
To let mobile workers collect signatures on a service report, drag the Signature element onto your layout. You can add up to 20 signature
blocks to a sub-template. Every signature block needs a different signature type. To learn more about signatures, see Guidelines for Using
Signatures on Service Reports.
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Service Cloud Manage Service Reports
• To add space between fields or sections in the template, use the Blank Space field. Each Blank Space field adds 5 pixels of vertical
space to the report PDF.
SEE ALSO:
Service Report Fields
Apex Trigger: Send Email when Service Report is Created
Capture Customer Signatures on Service Reports with a Flow