Salesforce Customer Support Tools User Manual

Configure your Email-to-Case settings .

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Email-to-Case is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Email-to-Case:

•

“Customize Application”

To enable Email-to-Case:

•

“Modify All Data”

AND

“Customize Application”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Email Channels

Enable and Configure Email-to-Case

Get your company ready to automatically turn incoming email messages into cases by enabling

Email-to-Case and choosing the settings that fit your needs.

Note: Before you can enable and configure Email-to-Case, download and install the

Email-to-Case agent onto your local machine. If you’re using On-Demand Email-to-Case, then 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.

2. Click Edit.

3. Select

Enable Email-to-Case

5. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Configure Routing Addresses for Email-to-Case and On-Demand Email-to-Case

Email-to-Case Settings

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Email-to-Case:

•

“Customize Application”

To enable Email-to-Case:

•

“Modify All Data”

AND

“Customize Application”

Email-to-Case Settings

Configure your Email-to-Case settings to customize the way Salesforce handles and creates cases from incoming emails.

To access these settings, from Setup, enter

Email-to-Case

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Email-to-Case.

Email-to-Case Setting

Enable Email-to-Case

Description

Enables Salesforce to create cases from inbound emails.

Notify Case Owners on New Email

Allows case owners to automatically receive notifications of new emails for 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, simply deselect the checkbox.

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

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Email Channels

Email-to-Case Setting

Insert Thread ID in the Email Subject

Insert Thread ID in the Email Body

Description

copied to the email editor, instead of the HTML version.

Adds the thread ID to the subject of email. The thread ID is a 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.

Adds the thread ID to the body of email.

Place User Signatures before Email Threads

Adds the user signature after the reply, but before the email thread.

If this setting isn’t selected, the user signature is placed at the bottom of the email thread.

Use Unique Email Subject and Email Body IDs

Make sure 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.

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:

Enable and configure Email-to-Case .

Set Up On-Demand Email-to-Case

On-Demand Email-to-Case helps your company efficiently resolve customer inquiries via email.

Salesforce automatically creates cases and auto-populates case fields when customers send messages to email addresses you specify. On-Demand Email-to-Case lets you process customer emails up to

25 MB.

Unlike Email-to-Case, you don’t need to download and install an agent to use On-Demand

Email-to-Case.

for your organization.

Enable and configure On-Demand Email-to-Case .

Configure your routing address settings to customize the way Salesforce handles your customer

emails.

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.

6. 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.

7. Add the Emails related list to the Cases page layout.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

On-Demand Email-to-Case is available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up On-Demand

Email-to-Case:

•

“Customize Application”

To enable On-Demand

Email-to-Case:

•

“Modify All Data”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Email Channels

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 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:

enable and configure Email-to-Case .

Enable and Configure On-Demand Email-to-Case

Turn incoming emails into cases automatically without having to download and install software with On-Demand Email-to-Case.

Note: Before you enable On-Demand Email-to-Case, set the

Default Case Owner and

Automated Case User

and

1. From Setup, enter

Email-to-Case

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Email-to-Case.

2. Click Edit.

3. Select

Enable On-Demand Service

Select your

Over Email Rate Limit Action

and

Unauthorized Sender

Action

settings based on how your company plans to use On-Demand Email-to-Case.

5. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up On-Demand Email-to-Case

Routing Address Settings for Email-to-Case and On-Demand Email-to-Case

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

On-Demand Email-to-Case is available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up On-Demand

Email-to-Case:

•

“Customize Application”

To enable On-Demand

Email-to-Case:

•

“Modify All Data”

AND

“Customize Application”

On-Demand Email-to-Case Settings

Use the On-Demand Email-to-Case settings to specify how Salesforce handles incoming email messages that are beyond your organization’s daily processing limits or that come from unauthorized senders.

These settings are specific to On-Demand Email-to-Case. For more information about general

Email-to-Case settings, see

Email-to-Case Settings

On-Demand Email-to-Case Setting

Over Email Rate Limit Action

Description

Choose what On-Demand Email-to-Case does with email that surpasses your organization’s daily email processing limit:

•

Bounce message—The email service returns the message to the sender or to the

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

On-Demand Email-to-Case is available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

On-Demand Email-to-Case Setting

Unauthorized Sender Action

Creating Email Channels

Description

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.

If you limited the email addresses and domains available for

On-Demand Email-to-Case in the

Accept Email From

field, choose what happens to messages received from senders who are blocked:

•

Bounce message—The email service returns 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.

Make sure 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.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Email Channels

Configure Routing Addresses for Email-to-Case and On-Demand Email-to-Case

Set routing addresses to ensure that customer emails are handled correctly.

Before you set up routing addresses for Email-to-Case and On-Demand Email-to-Case,

enable

configure your Email-to-Case settings

and

1. From Setup, enter

Email-to-Case

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Email-to-Case.

2. In the

Routing Addresses

list, click New.

Enter your routing address settings

4. Click Save.

A verification email is sent to the routing email address you provided.

5. Click the link in the verification email.

A confirmation page opens in your web browser.

6. Click the link in the confirmation page to continue to Salesforce.

Configure your email system to forward case submissions to the email services address provided by Salesforce.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To configure routing addresses for Email-to-Case and On-Demand

Email-to-Case:

•

“Customize Application”

SEE ALSO:

Routing Address Settings for Email-to-Case and On-Demand Email-to-Case

You can define your email routing address settings after you add and verify your email routing addresses for Email-to-Case and On-Demand Email-to-Case.

EDITIONS

Setting Description

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Routing Name

The name for the routing address—for example,

Gold Support or Standard Support.

Email Address

Email-to-Case source only: The inbound email address for this On-Demand Email-to-Case routing address. Emails sent to this address creates cases using the specified settings. The email address must be unique.

Note that this is the email address to which you will provide a link on your company's support website.

Email-to-Case and

On-Demand Email-to-Case are available in:

Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions.

Save Email Headers

Email-to-Case source only: Select this checkbox to save the email routing information associated with each email submitted as a case. Saving email routing information counts towards your organization's overall storage limit.

To view email headers from an email converted to a case, see Working with Case Emails.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Setting

Accept Email From

Create Task from Email

Task Status

Case Owner

Case Priority

Case Origin

Creating Email Channels

Description

To limit the email addresses and domains available for On-Demand

Email-to-Case, entering them in this field. Leave it blank to allow

On-Demand Email-to-Case to receive email from any email address or domain.

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.

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.

The owner of the case, which can be either an individual user or a queue.

Note:

You can’t delete a queue that a routing address refers to. Either delete the routing address, or edit the routing address settings to point to a different queue.

The priority assigned to cases created from emails sent to this email routing address.

The value assigned to the

Case Origin

field for email sent to this email routing address.

Note: The

Priority

and

Case Origin

fields auto-populate the case via the routing address settings when the routing address is included in either the

, or

BCC

fields of an inbound email.

SEE ALSO:

How can I prevent spam from becoming cases?

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Email-to-Case FAQ

•

•

Is there a size limit for attachments using Email-to-Case?

Email attachments using On-Demand may be up to 25 MB. There is no attachment size limit when using the Email-to-Case agent.

SEE ALSO:

Email-to-Case FAQ

EDITIONS

Available in: both Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Group,

Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Creating Web and Social Channels

Web Cases

Get Ready to Capture Cases with Web-to-Case

Gather customer support requests directly from your company’s website and automatically generate up to 5,000 new cases a day with Web-to-Case. This can help your organization respond to customers faster, improving your support team’s productivity.

Before you set up Web-to-Case:

•

Create custom case fields, if needed.

•

Create a default email template for the automated notification that will be sent to your customers when they submit a case.

•

Create case queues if you wish to assign incoming cases to queues as well as to individual users.

•

Customize Support settings on page 299 to select the default owner of cases that don’t meet

the criteria in your assignment rule.

•

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 in the Support Settings.

Next, you’re ready to

set up Web-to-Case on page 10.

SEE ALSO:

Before you start, review Get Ready to Capture Cases with Web-to-Case

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Web-to-Case:

•

“Customize Application”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Set Up Web-to-Case

Gather customer support requests directly from your company’s website and automatically generate up to 5,000 new cases a day 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.

Note:

and Web-to-Case

Notes and Limitations for information on prerequisites and things to consider as you set up

Web-to-Case.

1. From Setup, enter

Web-to-Case

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Web-to-Case.

2. Select Enable Web-to-Case.

3. Choose a default case origin.

4. Select a default response template for automatically notifying customers that their case was created.

If you set up response rules to use different email templates based on the information submitted, the default email template is used when no response rules apply. Leave this option blank if you do not wish to send emails when no response rules apply. This template must be marked as

“Available for Use.”

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Web-to-Case:

•

“Customize Application”

5. Select Hide Record Information to hide the record information in the email sent to customers if the case creation fails.

6. Enter an email signature if you’d like to use a different signature than the default.

7. Click Save.

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. To generate HTML code, see Generate Web-to-Case HTML Code .

SEE ALSO:

Generate Web-to-Case HTML Code

Enable reCAPTCHA to Prevent Spam Cases

Enable reCAPTCHA to Prevent Spam Cases

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Generate Web-to-Case HTML Code

Generate HTML code that your webmaster can insert into your company's website to capture cases in a web form. Whenever someone submits information on any of those web pages, a case is created.

EDITIONS

You must have Web-to-Case enabled.

1. From Setup, enter

Web-to-Case HTML Generator

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Web-to-Case HTML Generator.

2. Use the Add and Remove arrows to move fields between the Available Fields list and the

Selected Fields list to select the fields to include on your Web-to-Case form. Use the Up and

Down arrows to change the order of the fields on your form.

For organizations using multiple currencies, add the

Case Currency

field to the HTML if you add any other currency amount fields, otherwise all amounts will be captured in your corporate currency. For organizations using record types on cases, select the

Case Record

Type

field if you want users submitting Web-generated cases to select specific record types.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Web-to-Case:

•

“Customize Application”

3. If your organization uses the Self-Service portal or the Customer Portal and you want

Web-generated cases to be visible to users in these portals, select

Visible in

Self-Service Portal

4. Specify the complete URL to which customers should be 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 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.

6. Click Generate.

7. Copy the generated HTML code and provide it to your company’s webmaster so he or she can incorporate it into your website.

8. Click Finished.

Tip:

Use a custom multi-select picklist to allow customers to report cases on several products at a time.

If you want to test the Web-to-Case form, add the line

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

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Enable reCAPTCHA to Prevent Spam Cases

Enable reCAPTCHA in Web-to-Case to make it easy for customers to contact your company while making it difficult for spambots to waste service representatives’ time.

Web-to-Case must be enabled to use reCAPTCHA for case submission.

The reCAPTCHA widget requires customers to select a checkbox successfully before they can create a case. Enabling spam filtering lets customer service agents focus on actual customer cases, and not on spam cases.

EDITIONS

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

To use Google’s reCAPTCHA service, go to the Google reCAPTCHA website and click Get reCAPTCHA to register your domain and receive a public and private key pair. Google reCAPTCHA is a resource leveraged by Salesforce to support its users and partners, and is not considered part of our Services for purposes of the salesforce.com Master Subscription Agreement.

1. From Setup, enter

Web-to-Case HTML Generator

in the Quick Find box, then select

Web-to-Case HTML Generator.

2. Select Enable Spam Filtering (Recommended).

USER PERMISSIONS

To configure Web-to-Case

•

“Customize Application”

3. Enter the key pair that you obtained from Google and registered on the Salesforce Platform. Use the lookup window to select a key that’s already registered on the Salesforce Platform.

4. Ensure that the Enable Server Fallback setting is selected.

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.

5. Click Generate.

Salesforce creates an HTML code that you can add to your website so that customers can create cases.

6. Add the HTML code to your website.

SEE ALSO:

Google reCAPTCHA

Generate Web-to-Case HTML Code

Web-to-Case Notes and Limitations

Learn more about how Web-to-Case works to be sure you set it up in the most effective way for your company.

EDITIONS

Keep these considerations in mind as you decide how to set up Web-to-Case.

•

Whenever possible, Web-generated cases are automatically linked to the relevant contact and account based on the customer’s email address.

•

Salesforce runs field validation rules before creating records submitted via Web-to-Case and only creates records that have valid values. All universally required fields must have a value before a record can be created via Web-to-Case.

•

The format for date and currency fields captured online is taken from your organization’s default settings -

Default Locale

and

Currency Locale

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

•

Salesforce doesn’t support rich text area (RTA) fields on Web-to-Case forms. If you use RTA fields on your forms, any information entered in them is saved as plain text when the case is created.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

•

If your organization exceeds its daily Web-to-Case limit, the default case owner (specified in your Support Settings page) will receive an email containing the additional case information.

Set Up Web-to-Case

What is the maximum number of web cases we can capture?

•

•

Who owns new web-generated cases?

•

How do I specify which information to capture?

•

Can I capture cases from multiple web pages?

•

How can our webmaster test the Web-to-Case page?

•

What status and origin are assigned to Web-generated cases?

•

How can I prevent spam from becoming cases?

•

How can I be sure that cases won't be lost?

EDITIONS

Available in: both Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Group,

Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

What is the maximum number of web cases we can capture?

In Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance, and Developer Edition organizations, you can capture up to 5,000 cases in a 24–hour period. If your company generates more case requests than 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.

When your organization reaches the 24–hour limit, Salesforce stores additional requests in a pending request queue that contains both

Web-to-Case and Web-to-Lead requests. The requests are 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:

Who owns new web-generated cases?

Your administrator can set an active case assignment rule to automatically assign web-generated cases to users or queues based on specific criteria in those cases. Cases that do not match any of the assignment rule criteria are assigned to the Default Case Owner specified in the Support Settings.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

How do I specify which information to capture?

When you generate the HTML for your company's website, you can choose which standard or custom case fields for which you want to gather information. You must create the custom case fields prior to generating the HTML code. From Setup, enter

Web-to-Case

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Web-to-Case to set up the feature and generate the HTML.

SEE ALSO:

Can I capture cases from multiple web pages?

Yes. Insert the generated HTML code into the web pages from which you want to capture cases. Whenever someone submits information on any of those web pages, a case will be created.

SEE ALSO:

How can our webmaster test the Web-to-Case page?

Add the following line to your Web-to-Case code if you want to see a debugging page when you submit the form. Don't forget to remove this line before releasing the Web-to-Case page on your website.

SEE ALSO:

What status and origin are assigned to Web-generated cases?

New Web cases are marked with the default status that your administrator selected from the

Case Status

picklist values. The default value for the

Origin

field is determined by your administrator when setting up Web-to-Case.

SEE ALSO:

How can I prevent spam from becoming cases?

You can limit spam through the following options:

•

Create a black list rule to reject emails from specified IP addresses.

•

Download spam filter apps from AppExchange .

SEE ALSO:

Email-to-Case FAQ

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

How can I be sure that cases won't be lost?

If your organization exceeds its daily Web-to-Case limit, the Default Case Owner (specified in the Support Settings) will receive an email containing the additional case information. If a new case cannot be generated due to errors in your Web-to-Case setup, Customer

Support is notified so that we can assist you in correcting it.

If your organization is using On-Demand Email-to-Case, Salesforce ensures that your cases won't be lost if users submit them during a scheduled Salesforce downtime.

SEE ALSO:

How is the “Age” calculated in case reports?

The Age of an open case is the time that has elapsed from its creation to the present. The Age of a closed case is the elapsed time from its creation to the time it was closed. Case reports display a drop-down list labeled “Units” that lets you choose to view the Age in days, hours, or minutes.

SEE ALSO:

Create a knowledge base for your customers using Salesforce Knowledge

Customer Portals

Setting Up Your Customer Portal

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

Whether you call it a portal, a help forum, a support site, or something else, an online community is a great place to connect with customers. Customer Communities have replaced Customer Portals and are where all the features and development are happening. If you don’t have a Customer Portal license, Customer Communities are your option. If you do have a Customer Portal license, we still encourage you to check out Customer Communities to see what we’ve been up to and how it can benefit you.

A Salesforce Customer Portal provides an online support channel for your customers—allowing them to resolve their inquiries without contacting a customer service representative. With a Customer

Portal, you can customize and deliver a visually stunning user interface to your customers, and use the following Salesforce features to help you and your customers succeed:

•

Determine which pages and fields customers see with page layouts and field-level security

•

Manage customers with profiles, permission sets, roles, and sharing rules

•

Provide and organize documents via Salesforce CRM Content or the Documents tab

•

•

Allow customers to participate in Ideas communities.

•

Display and collect data that is unique to your organization with custom objects

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up and update the

Customer Portal:

•

“Customize Application”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

•

Display custom s-controls and content from other websites via Web tabs

•

Provide customized reports via the Reports tab

Note: High-volume portal users are available for customer portals or communities intended for many thousands to millions of

users. See About High-Volume Portal Users

on page 51.

Setting up your Customer Portal consists of the following steps:

Enable the Customer Portal .

Create one or more portals

For each portal:

Configure the settings and communication templates .

You can standardize the communication templates sent to the users of all your Customer Portals by clicking the Set Default

Email Templates for All Customer Portals link on the Tools section of the Customer Portal Setup page. For more information, see

Creating Multiple Customer Portals

on page 21.

The

Convert Portal User Access wizard automatically displays after the first time you save settings for your first portal, whether

it is the Customer Portal or partner portal. You can use this wizard to help ensure that records and folders owned by Salesforce users are not shared with portal users.

Customize the fonts and colors

Customize the available tabs and tab order

Configure portal languages

3. Optionally, if

available to your portal user licenses , you can enable

Salesforce CRM Content ,

Ideas ,

Answers ,

Entitlement Management

or Salesforce Knowledge

as needed.

Create Customer Portal profiles

For each profile:

a. Customize page layouts. See Customize Your Customer Portal Pages

For set up tips and general information about Salesforce Customer Portal pages, see

Setup Tips and Considerations for Customer

Portal Pages

on page 42.

b. Customize list views.

Customer Portal users can automatically see any list view with visibility settings marked

Visible to all users

. We recommend that you create specific list views on all objects accessible to portal users, and then assign portal users to only the list views you want them to view.

c. Customize search layouts.

The search layouts in your Salesforce organization are the same search layouts used in your Customer Portal. Verify that search layouts on objects accessible to portal users only include fields you want them to view in search results.

5. Set up workflow:

a. Set up workflow rules or case assignment rules to automatically assign cases created by portal users to Salesforce users or queues by using the criteria

Current User: User Type contains Customer Portal

For case assignment rules to work on the Customer Portal, select the

Select Case Assignment checkbox by default

checkbox on case page layouts assigned to portal profiles. Portal users cannot view these checkboxes on the Customer

Portal. Note that assignment rules trigger when a case is created and when it is edited. To prevent cases from being automatically

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels reassigned when edited by portal users, add a rule entry using the criteria

Current User: User Type contains

Customer Portal

and select the

Do Not Reassign User

checkbox

b. Create workflow alerts or case auto-response rules to automatically respond to portal users when they create a case on your portal.

Configure portal user access

Grant high-volume portal users access to objects

8. Optionally, enable single sign-on.

Enable login on each Customer Portal

10. Add a link on your organization’s website to the portal.

Users can navigate to your Customer Portal after you copy the

from your portal’s settings and paste it into the HTML

of your website. For more information, see Enable Customer Portal Login and Settings

on page 23.

11. Enable contacts to use your portal.

To learn more about implementing a Customer Portal, see

Preparation for Setting Up Your Portal on page 80.

Note: Contact Salesforce about activating a Customer Portal for your organization.

SEE ALSO:

Customer Portal Setup Limits

Creating Multiple Customer Portals

Enable Single Sign-On for Portals

Configuring Multilingual HTML Messages for Customer Portals

Administrator setup guide: Salesforce Customer Portal Implementation Guide

What customer portals can I create with Salesforce?

Salesforce provides three ways to help you manage your customers. The following table briefly describes the differences between them:

Note:

Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the

Self-Service portal.

Purpose

User Interface

Chatter Answers

Provides customers with a Web

Community to resolve their inquiries with other community members or by contacting a support agent

Salesforce Customer Portal

Provides customers with an online support channel to resolve their inquiries without contacting a support agent

Highly customizable via a point-and-click editor and

Visualforce pages, as well as functionality from Salesforce features such as Answers,

Customer Portal, Force.com Sites, and Salesforce Knowledge

Highly customizable via a point-and-click editor, as well as functionality similar to Salesforce such as permissions, custom objects, sharing rules, and Web tabs

Self-Service Portal

Provides customers with an online support channel to resolve their inquiries without contacting a support agent

Customizable via a cascading style sheet (CSS) or point-and-click editor

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Supported Record

Types

Chatter Answers

•

Articles

•

Cases

•

Questions (answers)

Salesforce Customer Portal

Self-Service Portal

•

Activities

•

Assets

•

Cases

•

Documents

•

Solutions

•

Custom objects

•

Cases

•

Solutions

Quantity

Contact Salesforce for more information

One

Administrator Controls

•

Customize the look and feel of the community

•

Moderate questions and answers

•

Generate usernames and passwords

•

Manage Customer Portal user information

•

Manage Customer Portal users via permissions, roles, and sharing rules

•

Customize the look and feel of theCustomer Portal

•

Generate Customer Portal usernames and passwords

•

Manage Customer Portal user information

•

Manage Customer Portal users via permissions, roles, and sharing rules

•

Generate Self-Service usernames and passwords

•

Manage Self-Service user information

User Controls

Users can click Edit My Settings after they sign in to change their:

•

Community username

•

Community password

•

Locale

•

Language

•

Time zone

•

Notification settings

•

Contact information

Users can use the Customer Portal

Welcome component to change their:

None

•

Portal username

•

Portal password

•

Locale

•

Language

•

Time zone

•

Contact information

Note:

Contact Salesforce to activate a specific portal for your organization.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Enabling Your Customer Portal

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

To enable the Salesforce Customer Portal:

1. From Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Customer Portal Settings.

2. Click Edit.

3. Select

Enable Customer Portal

4. Click Save.

5. Continue setting up the portal

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To enable the Customer

Portal:

•

“Customize Application”

Tips on Enabling the Customer Portal

Consider the following when enabling the Customer Portal:

•

After you enable the Customer Portal, you can

create multiple Customer Portals

to satisfy the various business needs of your customers.

•

These items become available after you enable the Customer Portal:

–

The High Volume Customer Portal, Authenticated Website, Customer Portal Manager, and Customer Portal User profiles, if you

purchased user licenses for them.

–

The Enable Customer Portal User and View Customer Portal User buttons on contact and person account records.

–

The All Customer Portal Users and All Internal Users groups along with the Roles and Internal Subordinates sharing rule category.

•

After you enable a Customer Portal, you cannot disable it. However, you can prevent users from logging into it. See

Enable Customer

Portal Login and Settings on page 23.

SEE ALSO:

Configuring User Access to the Customer Portal

Considerations for the Convert Portal User Access Wizard

Your Customer Portal and partner portal users appear in the role hierarchy, however, they’re external contacts who don’t need access to your organization's internal data. When setting up a Customer

Portal or partner portal, you can use the Convert Portal User Access wizard to help ensure that no records or folders are shared with a portal user.

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

The wizard affects the following areas of your Salesforce org:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set sharing rules:

•

“Manage Sharing”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Sharing Rules

The Convert Portal User Access wizard converts any sharing rules that include the Roles, Internal and Portal Subordinates data set category to include the Roles and Internal Subordinates data set category instead.

The Roles and Internal Subordinates data set category allows you to create sharing rules that include all users in a specified role plus all users in roles below that role, excluding any Customer Portal and partner portal roles.

Only organization-wide sharing rules are updated when you convert Roles, Internal and Portal Subordinates to Roles and Internal

Subordinates. The Roles, Internal and Portal Subordinates category for queues, public groups, list views, documents, and manual sharing created on specific records by clicking the Sharing button is not converted to Roles and Internal Subordinates.

Note: After running the Convert Portal User Access wizard, you must recalculate the sharing rules to apply the changes. From the Setup

Quick Find

box, enter

Sharing Settings

. Under

Account Sharing Rules

, click Recalculate, then click OK.

The Roles, Internal and Portal Subordinates data set category is only available in your organization after you create at least one role in the role hierarchy.

The Roles and Internal Subordinates data set category is only available in your organization after you create at least one role in the role hierarchy and enable a portal.

Folder Sharing

The Convert Portal User Access wizard also enables you to automatically convert the access levels of any report, dashboard, or document folders that are accessible to Roles, Internal and Portal Subordinates to a more restrictive access level: Roles and Internal

Subordinates. This helps prevent Customer Portal and partner portal users from accessing folders. Using the wizard is more efficient than locating various folders in Salesforce and setting their access levels individually.

The wizard does not convert folders that are accessible to all users or accessible to public groups. You must manually update the access levels on those folders.

When you first save a Customer Portal or partner portal, Salesforce automatically displays the Convert Portal User Access wizard.

Using the Convert Portal User Access Wizard

Note:

Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

When setting up a Customer Portal or partner portal, you can use the Convert Portal User Access wizard to help ensure that no records or folders are shared with a portal user.

To use the wizard:

1. For the Customer Portal, from Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick

Find

box, then select Customer Portal Settings. For the partner portal, from Setup, enter

Partners

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Settings.

2. Click the Convert Portal User Access link.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set sharing rules:

•

“Manage Sharing”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

3. Select the checkboxes next to the sharing rules you want to convert to Roles and Internal Subordinates.

If there are no sharing rules to convert but you want to convert the access level for folders, proceed to the following step.

4. Click Next.

5. Select the checkboxes next to the folders whose access levels you want to change to Roles and Internal Subordinates.

The wizard does not convert folders that are accessible to all users or accessible to public groups. You must manually update the access levels on those folders.

A particular folder may display on multiple rows in the wizard. This is because the wizard displays a row for each Role, Internal and

Portal Subordinates category to which a folder is shared.

6. Click Next.

7. Click Save to apply your selected changes.

Creating Multiple Customer Portals

Note:

Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

After you have

enabled the Salesforce Customer Portal , you can create multiple Customer Portals

to satisfy the various business needs of your customers.

To create more than one Customer Portal:

1. From Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Customer Portal Settings.

2. Click New.

3. Follow the same steps used to set up your organization's first Customer Portal. See

Setting Up

Your Customer Portal

on page 15.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create multiple Customer

Portals:

•

“Customize Application”

Note: Contact Salesforce for information about the number of Customer Portals you can activate for your organization.

Before you begin creating multiple Customer Portals for your organization, review the following implementation tips and best practices.

Implementation Tips

•

Portal users can only log into Customer Portals assigned to their profile. To assign a profile to a Customer Portal, select the name of a portal from the Customer Portal Setup page, click Edit Profiles in the Assigned Profiles section, and select the

Active

checkbox next to the profile you want to assign to the portal.

A portal user can access all the Customer Portals assigned to his or her profile with one username and password.

You can view the number of active users associated with each profile assigned to a Customer Portal by creating a custom summary report and adding

Profile

to your report columns.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

•

The login URL of each Customer Portal you create contains a unique identifier, such as portalId=060D00000000Q1F. The unique identifier determines the specific portal a user can access. If a user accesses a login URL that does not contain a unique identifier, they are automatically directed to the login URL of the first Customer Portal you created. Note that portal users can only log into a

Customer Portal via the portal's login page and not through the Salesforce login page.

•

The settings on the following items apply to both your organization and your Customer Portals:

–

List views

–

Search layouts

–

Case assignment rules

–

Workflow alerts

Best Practices

•

Because you can uniquely customize the fonts, colors, email templates, and login message of each Customer Portal you create, you can build a Customer Portal for each product and customer service level supported by your organization. For example, if your organization provides gold, silver, and bronze levels of customer support, then you could create a unique Customer Portal for each.

Note: JavaScript and CSS code are automatically removed from HTML files used as the portal login message.

•

You can standardize the communication templates sent to the users of all your Customer Portals by clicking the Set Default Email

Templates for All Customer Portals link on the Tools section of the Customer Portal Setup page. These settings determine the email templates to use when sending email notifications, such as a new case comment or a reset password, to portal users whose profiles are associated with more than one Customer Portal.

By default, sample templates are automatically selected for you in the

New User Template

New Password Template

, and

Lost Password Template

lookup fields. However, sample templates are not selected for you in the

New Comment

Template

and

Change Owner to Portal User Template

lookup fields. Unless you select templates for these fields, users whose profiles are associated with more than one Customer Portal will not receive email notifications when new comments are added to their cases or when they become the new owner of a record in the Customer Portal. Email templates must be marked as

Available for Use

to be sent to portal users.

Tip: Because the default email templates are sent to users of multiple Customer Portals, we recommend that you create default email templates that do not contain portal-specific branding.

•

You cannot delete a Customer Portal, but you can prevent users from logging into a portal by deselecting the

Enable Customer Portal Login and Settings

on page 23.

•

You can create multiple Customer Portals that display different tabs for users with the same profile, as long as the profile has access to each object displayed on a tab. For more information, see

Customizing Your Customer Portal Tabs on page 32.

SEE ALSO:

Setting Up Your Customer Portal .

Administrator setup guide: Salesforce Customer Portal Implementation Guide

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Enable Customer Portal Login and Settings

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

1. From Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Customer Portal Settings.

2. Click Edit next to the name of the Salesforce Customer Portal you want to customize.

3. Set the following options:

Setting

Name

Description

Description

Name of the Customer Portal as displayed on the portal's detail and edit pages, as well as the Customer Portal Setup page. The name of the Customer Portal is not displayed on portal pages, but it does display in the browser title bar.

The name of your portal must be unique for your organization and not already in use by a

Customer Portal or partner portal.

Furthermore, an error may occur if you name a Customer Portal “partner portal” Customer

Portal

A description of the Customer Portal as displayed on the portal's detail and edit pages.

The description of the Customer Portal is not displayed in the portal.

Allows users to log in to the Customer Portal.

We recommend that you do not select this checkbox until you have completed the steps described in

Note: Users must be able to log in to the Customer Portal, be within their user profile’s restricted IP range, and be within designated Login Hours in order to be able to reset their passwords.

Administrator

Click the lookup icon ( ) to choose a default administrator for your Customer Portal. All email notifications regarding users who

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To enable login and settings for the Customer Portal:

•

“Customize Application”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Setting

Creating Web and Social Channels

Description

self-register for your Customer Portal will be sent to this Salesforce user.

Notifications include information about registration errors and any other issues self-registering customers may experience, such as inadvertently entering duplicate email addresses, creating duplicate contact records, and exceeding your organization's user license limit.

When choosing an administrator for your Customer Portal, you can only select users that have the “Edit Self-Service Users” permission. Furthermore, you cannot deactivate a user selected as a portal administrator.

Portal Default Settings

Setting

Logout URL

Top-Level Category for Portal

Enable Self-Close Case from Suggested

Solutions

Description

The URL of the Web page that displays when users log in to your

Customer Portal.

You can click this URL to log in to your portal and interact with it.

Insert this URL into your website so users can access the login page to your Customer Portal.

The login URL of each Customer Portal you create contains a unique identifier, such as portalId=060D00000000Q1F. The unique identifier determines the specific portal a user can access.

If a user accesses a login URL that does not contain a unique identifier, they are automatically directed to the login URL of the first Customer Portal you created. Note that portal users can only log into a Customer Portal via the portal's login page and not through the Salesforce login page.

The URL of the Web page that displays when users log out of the Customer Portal–for example, “http://www.acme.com.” If a logout URL is not specified, portal users return to the login page when they log out.

The top-level category accessible by customers in the Customer

Portal. Customers can view all solutions marked

Visible in

Self-Service Portal

in this category and its subcategories.

This field is available only if you have enabled solution browsing.

See

Customizing Solution Settings on page 605.

Allows users to close cases in the Customer Portal directly from suggested solutions. For example, when a user views a suggested

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Portal Default Settings

Setting

Show Action Confirmation

HTML Messages Default Language

Email Notification Settings

Setting

From Email Address

From Email Name

New User Template

New Password Template

Lost Password Template

Creating Web and Social Channels

Description

solution that helps them solve a case, he or she can click Yes,

please close my case if this setting is enabled.

Allows users to view confirmation messages after they complete an action in the Customer Portal. For example, after a user creates a case in your Customer Portal, he or she views the message

“Case has been submitted” if this setting has been enabled.

Confirmation messages may help users clearly understand actions they have completed in your Customer Portal.

Specifies the language that portal HTML messages are displayed in when custom language portal HTML messages are not configured. This setting is only available for organizations that have multiple languages enabled.

Description

The email address from which all Customer Portal communication templates are sent—for example, “[email protected].”

Salesforce sends the emails automatically, but they appear to portal users as if they were sent from this email address. If a portal user responds to a communication template, the response is sent to this address.

The name associated with the “From” Email Address—for example, “Acme Customer Support.”

The email template used to send a username and initial password to all newly enabled and self-registering Customer Portal users.

By default, a sample template is automatically selected for you.

You can also create your own template or modify the sample.

Be sure to mark the template as

Available for Use

The email template used to send a new password to existing

Customer Portal users when you reset their passwords. By default, a sample template is automatically selected for you. You can also create your own template or modify the sample. Be sure to mark the template as

Available for Use

The email template used to send a new password to existing

Customer Portal users when they reset their own passwords by clicking Forgot your password? on the login page of the

Customer Portal. By default, a sample template is automatically selected for you. You can also create your own template or

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Email Notification Settings

Setting

New Comment Template

Change Owner to Portal User Template

Description

modify the sample. Be sure to mark the template as

Available for Use

The email template used to send a notification to Customer Portal users when a public comment is added to one of their cases.

This template must be marked as

Available for Use

The email template used to send a notification to Customer Portal users when they become the new owner of a record in the portal.

This template must be marked as

Available for Use

Note: You can standardize the communication templates sent to the users of all your Customer Portals by clicking the Set

Default Email Templates for All Customer Portals link on the Tools section of the Customer Portal Setup page. For more information, see

Creating Multiple Customer Portals on page 21.

Tip: If you plan to use the same communication template for different objects, such as the Change Owner to Portal User

Template, we recommend that you include text and merge fields on the template that are appropriate for both objects. For example, if your organization has a Warranty custom object and a Training custom object, and you want to use the Change

Owner to Portal User Template for both, the text and merge fields on the template should read: “A new record has been assigned to you. Id: {!Training.ID}{!Warranty.Id}.” When the template is sent, only the relevant merge fields will display.

Look and Feel

Setting

Header

Footer

Description

A text or HTML file that allows you to incorporate your organization’s branding into the header of your Customer Portal.

Click the lookup icon ( ) to choose a file that has been uploaded to a publicly accessible folder on the Documents tab.

The files you include in the

Header

and

Footer

lookup fields can have a combined size of up to 10 KB.

We recommend that you do not add a header and a logo to your portal because they may not display properly together.

You can position the logout link anywhere on the header by using the HTML tag: “

<a href="/secur/logout.jsp">Logout</a>

.”

A text or HTML file that allows you to incorporate your organization’s branding into the footer of your Customer Portal.

Click the lookup icon ( ) to choose a file that has been uploaded to a publicly accessible folder on the Documents tab.

The files you include in the

Header

and

Footer

lookup fields can have a combined size of up to 10 KB.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Look and Feel

Setting

Logo

Self-Registration Settings

Setting

Self-Registration Enabled

Creating Web and Social Channels

Description

An image file that allows you to incorporate your organization's branding into the top left header of your Customer Portal. Click the lookup icon ( ) to choose a file that has been uploaded to a publicly accessible folder on the Documents tab and marked as an

Externally Available Image

The file you include in the

Logo

lookup field can be up to 20

KB.

We recommend that you do not add a header and a logo to your portal because they may not display properly together.

A text or HTML file that allows you to incorporate your organization’s branding into the header of the login page, forgot password page, and change password page of your Customer

Portal. Click the lookup icon ( ) to choose a file that has been uploaded to a publicly accessible folder on the Documents tab.

The file you include in the

lookup field can be up to 2 KB.

Note:

JavaScript and CSS code are automatically removed from HTML files used as the portal login message.

Description

Allows existing contacts to register themselves for access to your

Customer Portal.

When you select this checkbox and add the

Allow

Customer Portal Self-Registration

checkbox to contact page layouts, contacts whose records are marked

Allow Customer Portal Self-Registration can view a self-registration area on the Login page of your

Customer Portal. From the self-registration area, users can enter their email address and click Submit to receive an automatically assigned username and password for logging in to your Customer

Portal. Other email notifications sent to users regarding their registration status include:

•

Existing user, from which the user can enter another email address or click a Forgot Password? link to retrieve his or her password.

•

New user, which informs the user that the email address he or she submitted does not match an existing contact in your

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Self-Registration Settings

Setting

New User Form URL

Registration Error Template

Creating Web and Social Channels

Description

organization. If an administrator has implemented

Web-to-Case

or Web-to-Lead to capture new user information, then the user can click a link to enter his or her information on the appropriate form.

•

Internal error, which informs the user that an error occurred during the self-registration process and that your portal's administrator has been notified about the error.

•

Ineligible user, which informs the user that he or she is not eligible for self-registration to your Customer Portal. This notification is sent when a submitted email address matches a contact that does not have the

Allow Customer

Portal Self-Registration

checkbox selected.

It is also sent when a submitted email address does not match any contacts, and your administrator has not set up

Web-to-Lead or Web-to-Case to capture new user information.

Ensure that all required custom fields on users have default values. Otherwise, users who self-register for your Customer

Portal will receive an error message.

Note that person account users cannot self-register for your

Customer Portal. When person account users self-register for your Customer Portal, they receive an email notification that instructs them to contact the portal administrator.

Allows you to specify the URL of a Web-to-Lead or Web-to-Case form for users who self-register for access to your Customer

Portal.

The URL to this form is offered via the template selected in the

Registration Error Template

field to self-registering users who lack an existing contact record, so that their information can be captured and converted to a contact.

The email template sent to users who self-register for your

Customer Portal, but experience a registration error, or need to complete a Web-to-Case or Web-to-Lead form to register for your portal. By default, a sample template is automatically selected for you. You can also create your own template or modify the sample. Be sure to mark the template as

Available for Use

The

From Email Address

and

From Email Name fields on Customer Portal settings specify who this template is sent from.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Self-Registration Settings

Setting

Default New User License

Default New User Role

Default New User Profile

Creating Web and Social Channels

Description

Click the lookup icon ( ) to choose a default portal user license for users who self-register for your Customer Portal.

Click the lookup icon ( ) to choose a default portal role for users who self-register for your Customer Portal.

Click the lookup icon ( ) to choose a default portal profile for users who self-register for your Customer Portal.

You cannot delete the profile selected as the default portal profile.

4. Click Save to save your Customer Portal settings.

SEE ALSO:

To customize the header, footer, and logo of your Customer Portal, see Enable Customer Portal Login and Settings

Customize Your Customer Portal Fonts and Colors

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

You can customize the fonts and colors of the Salesforce Customer Portal to reflect your company’s branding. Your portal’s fonts and colors are specified in a portal “color theme.” Select a predefined color theme and, optionally, customize it to better match your branding. You can click the See

examples link to see all of the theme attributes you can customize.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

1. From Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

select Customer Portal Settings.

2. Select the name of your Customer Portal.

in the

Quick Find

box, then

To change the fonts and colors of the Customer

Portal:

•

“Customize Application”

3. Click Change Portal Fonts and Colors.

4. Select a color theme from the

Color Theme

drop-down list. Select Custom from the

Color

Theme

drop-down list to create your own theme from scratch. A preview of the color theme you select is automatically displayed in the Preview sections.

5. Optionally, customize the color of any theme you select by either:

•

Entering a hexadecimal value into any theme attribute, or

•

Clicking the hexadecimal value of any theme attribute and selecting a color from the point-and-click editor

When you customize a theme, it is automatically renamed Custom when saved. You can customize the following options, which, when customized, automatically display in the Preview sections:

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Tab Styles

Theme Attribute

Current Tab Text

Current Tab Background

Current Tab Border

Other Tab Text

Other Tab Background

Other Tab Border

Tab Bar Background

Page Styles

Theme Attribute

Page Background

Text

Field Label Text

Link

Link Hover

Field Separator

Bottom Border

Section Styles

Theme Attribute

Header Background

Creating Web and Social Channels

Description

Text color of the tab users have selected.

Background color of the tab users have selected.

Border color of the tab users have selected.

Text color of the tabs users have not selected.

Background color of the tabs users have not selected.

Border color of the tabs users have not selected.

Background color behind all tabs.

Description

Portal background color, excluding search, related lists, recent items, solution categories, document folders, and the Create

New drop-down list.

Text color, size, and font on all portal items, except for tabs, buttons, headers, and field labels.

Optionally, you can change the number in the percent field to increase or decrease the size of all portal items. Additionally, you can change the font of all portal items, except for tabs, buttons, headers, and field labels from the drop-down list.

Text color of the field names on records.

Optionally, you can change the font of the text from the drop-down list.

Text color of all links.

Text color of all links when a user hovers the mouse over them.

Color of the lines that separate fields on records.

Color of the line bordering the bottom of the portal.

Description

Background color of all headings, including search, recent items, related lists, solution categories, documents folders, and the selected tab.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Section Styles

Theme Attribute

Section Header Text

Left Border

Right Border

Top Border

Bottom Border

Section Background

Creating Web and Social Channels

Description

Text color and font on the headers of search, related lists, recent items, solution categories, and document folders.

Optionally, you can change the font of the text from the drop-down list.

Border to the left of search, related lists, recent items, solution categories, document folders, and the Create New drop-down list.

Optionally, you can change the number in the pixel field to increase or decrease the thickness of the border. Additionally, you can select the style of the line displayed for the border from the drop-down list.

Border to the right of search, related lists, recent items, solution categories, document folders, and the Create New drop-down list.

Border above search, related lists, recent items, solution categories, document folders, and the Create New drop-down list.

Border underneath search, related lists, recent items, solution categories, document folders, and the Create New drop-down list.

Background color of search, related lists, recent items, solution categories, document folders, and the Create New drop-down list.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

List Styles

Theme Attribute

List Header Text

Header Underline

Separator

Row Highlight

Creating Web and Social Channels

Description

Text color of the field names selected as column headings on list views.

Optionally, you can change the font of the text from the drop-down list.

Color of the lines underneath column headings on related lists and list views.

Color of the lines between records on list views.

Color of a record when a user hovers the mouse over it on list views.

6. Click Save to save all changes to the theme values.

Tip:

Changes are visible to Customer Portal users when they refresh their browsers. Therefore, we recommend updating your portal color theme at times when users are least likely to visit your Customer Portal.

Note:

on page

23.

SEE ALSO:

Customizing Your Customer Portal Tabs

Note:

Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

The Salesforce Customer Portal can display the following tabs:

•

Answers

•

Articles

•

Ideas

•

Home

•

Cases

•

Reports

•

Solutions

•

Web tabs

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To customize Customer

Portal tabs:

•

“Customize Application”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

•

Entitlements

•

Custom objects

•

Service contracts

•

Chatter Answers

•

Documents from the Documents tab

•

Salesforce CRM Content tabs: Libraries, Content, and Subscriptions

Additionally, the Customer Portal can display the following tabs to delegated external user administrators :

•

Accounts

•

Contacts

To choose which tabs display to users logged in to a Customer Portal, and to customize the order in which tabs display to portal users:

1. From Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Customer Portal Settings.

2. Select the name of the Customer Portal whose tabs you want to customize.

3. Click Customize Portal Tabs.

4. To add or remove tabs, select a tab title, and click the Add or Remove arrow to add or remove the tab to or from the Selected Tabs box. To change the order of the tabs, select a tab title in the Selected Tabs box, and click the Up or Down arrow.

5. Optionally, from the

Default Landing Tab

drop-down, you can select which tab to display to users when they log into your portal.

6. Click Save.

You can further specify which tabs users can access by editing tab settings in users’ associated profiles and permission sets.

Tip:

You can create multiple Customer Portals that display different tabs for users with the same profile, as long as they have

access to each object displayed on a tab.

To make the following tabs visible in the Customer Portal, use the steps above and change the tab visibility setting to Default On in all

Customer Portal profiles.

Allowing Portal Users to View Web Tabs

To allow portal users to view Web tabs, simply create Web tabs and assign them to Customer Portal profiles.

Granting Portal Users Access to the Documents Tab

To allow portal users to view a Documents tab, grant Customer Portal users access to the folders on your Salesforce Documents tab that contain the files you want them to view.

Allowing Portal Users to View the Reports Tab

To allow portal users to view a Reports tab:

1. Grant portal users access to the folders on your Salesforce Reports tab that contain the reports you want them to run.

2. Set the organization-wide default sharing model to Private on objects you want portal users to report on.

3. Assign portal users to permission sets or profiles that include the “Run Reports” permission.

When you add the Reports tab to your Customer Portal, portal users:

•

Cannot customize reports or filter report results; they can only run reports.

•

Can export reports to Excel if they have the “Export Reports” permission.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

•

Do not have access to the Unfiled Public Reports and My Personal Custom Reports folders.

•

Will receive an insufficient privileges error if they run a report that contains objects they do not have permission to view.

Providing Portal Users with Access to the Ideas Tab

To allow portal users to access the Ideas tab, configure Ideas to display in the portal. For more information, see

Creating and Editing

Zones

on page 98 and Enabling Ideas in the Customer Portal on page 36.

If your organization has the Ideas and Answers Portal license, hide the Reports tab in the Customer Portal. Otherwise, your Customer

Portal users receive an Insufficient Privileges message when they click the Reports tab. For information on hiding tabs, see

Customizing

Your Customer Portal Tabs on page 32.

Allowing Portal Users to Access Salesforce CRM Content Tabs

To allow portal users to access Salesforce CRM Content, see Enabling Salesforce CRM Content in the Customer Portal on page 34.

SEE ALSO:

After you have enabled your Customer Portal , complete the following steps to enable Salesforce CRM Content in your portals. Use these

Administrator setup guide: Salesforce Customer Portal Implementation Guide

Enabling Salesforce CRM Content in the Customer Portal

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up and update the Customer Portal:

To create and edit profiles:

“Customize Application”

“Manage Profiles and Permission Sets”

To manage Customer Portal users:

To create Salesforce CRM Content library permissions:

“Edit Self-Service Users”

“Manage Salesforce CRM Content” OR

“Manage Content Permissions”

To add users to a Salesforce CRM Content library:

“Manage Salesforce CRM Content”

Manage Library

checked in your library permission definition

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations. Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

Salesforce CRM Content is available in the Customer Portal. Two levels of access to Salesforce CRM Content can be granted to Customer

Portal users:

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

•

Portal users without a Salesforce CRM Content feature license can download, rate, comment on, and subscribe to content if they have the “View Content on Portals” user permission. They cannot view potentially sensitive data such as usernames, download history, and version history. The content delivery feature is not available to portal users.

•

Portal users with a Salesforce CRM Content feature license can access all Salesforce CRM Content features granted by their library permission(s), including contributing content, moving and sharing content among libraries, and deleting content. They can also view Salesforce CRM Content reports. The content delivery feature is not available to portal users.

Enabling Salesforce CRM Content for Non-Licensed Users

steps if you have not purchased Salesforce CRM Content feature licenses for your portal users.

1. Update Customer Portal profiles:

a. Clone the Customer Portal User or Customer Portal Manager profile.

b. In the cloned profiles, add the “View Content in Portals” user permission.

c. Change the tab visibility for the Libraries, Content, and Subscriptions tabs from Tab Hidden to Default On.

d. Assign the cloned profiles to your Customer Portal users.

2. Determine what privileges your portal users will have in each Salesforce CRM Content library by creating one or more library permissions.

Note: A library permission can only grant privileges that a user's feature license or profile permits. For example, even though

Tag Content

is a library permission option, selecting it does not allow portal users without a Salesforce CRM Content feature license to tag content.

3. Determine which libraries you want your portal users to have access to. Ensure that confidential content is not available in these libraries.

4. Add portal users to libraries. Portal users with the Customer Portal User profile or a clone of that profile can only be added to a library as part of a public group. Portal users with the Customer Portal Manager profile or a clone of that profile can be added to a library individually.

Add the Salesforce CRM Content tabs

to each Customer Portal.

Note:

The Documents tab is not part of Salesforce CRM Content.

Enabling Salesforce CRM Content for Licensed Users

After you have enabled your Customer Portal , complete the following steps to enable Salesforce CRM Content in your portals. Use these

steps if you have purchased Salesforce CRM Content feature licenses for your portal users

1. Update Customer Portal profiles:

a. Optionally, clone the Customer Portal User and Customer Portal Manager profile to include the “Create Libraries” user permission if you want to allow portal users to create and administer new libraries.

b. In your standard or cloned Customer Portal profiles, change the tab visibility for the Libraries, Content, and Subscriptions tabs from Tab Hidden to Default On.

c. Assign the cloned profiles to your Customer Portal users as needed.

2. Select the

Salesforce CRM Content User

checkbox on the user detail page for each Customer Portal user.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

3. Determine what privileges your portal users will have in each Salesforce CRM Content library by creating one or more library permissions.

Note: A library permission can only grant privileges that a user's feature license or profile permits. For example, even though

Tag Content

is a library permission option, selecting it does not allow portal users without a Salesforce CRM Content feature license to tag content.

4. Determine which libraries you want your portal users to have access to. Ensure that confidential content is not available in these libraries.

5. Add portal users to libraries. Portal users with the Customer Portal User profile or a clone of that profile can only be added to a library as part of a public group. Portal users with the Customer Portal Manager profile or a clone of that profile can be added to a library individually.

Add the Salesforce CRM Content tabs

to each Customer Portal.

Note: The Documents tab is not part of Salesforce CRM Content.

SEE ALSO:

set up your Customer Portal , follow the steps below to enable Ideas in your portal.

Enabling Ideas in the Customer Portal

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

Ideas is available in the Customer Portal.

After you have

1. Create zones in the Ideas context that are active and configured to display in the portal. For

more information, see Creating and Editing Zones

on page 98.

2. Add the Ideas tab to your Customer Portal. For more information, see

Customizing Your Customer

Portal Tabs on page 32.

3. If your organization has the Ideas and Answers Portal license, hide the Reports tab in the

Customer Portal. Otherwise, your Customer Portal users receive an Insufficient Privileges message when they click the Reports tab. For information on hiding tabs, see

Customizing Your Customer

Portal Tabs on page 32.

SEE ALSO:

set up entitlement management and

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up and update the

Customer Portal:

•

“Customize Application”

To create and edit profiles:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

To customize Ideas:

•

“Customize Application”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Enabling Entitlement Management in the Customer Portal

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

You can use the Customer Portal to provide your customers with access to their entitlements and service contracts. Contract line items don't display in the Customer Portal.

Note:

High-volume customer portal users do not have access to service contracts and entitlements.

After you have

enabled a Customer Portal

, complete the following steps to add entitlement management to your portals.

1. Update Customer Portal profiles:

a. Clone Customer Portal profiles and enable the “Read” permission on entitlements or service contracts.

b. Optionally, on the profiles of

delegated external user administrators

, enable the “Create” and “Delete” permissions on entitlement contacts. This lets delegated external user administrators update entitlement contacts.

c. In the cloned profiles, verify that the tab visibility for the Entitlements or Service Contracts tabs are Default On.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up and update the

Customer Portal:

•

"Customize Application"

To create and edit profiles:

•

"Manage Users"

To manage Customer Portal users:

•

"Edit Self-Service Users"

2. At the bottom of the customer portal detail page, click Edit Profiles and activate the new profiles.

3. Customize case page layouts to add the

Entitlement Name

lookup field. This lets portal users add entitlements to cases.

Tip: Don't add the following entitlement process fields to case page layouts for portal users because portal users shouldn't access information related to your internal support processes:

Entitlement Process Start Time

Entitlement

Process End Time

Stopped

, and

Stopped Since

4. Optionally, customize related lists on accounts and contacts to add Entitlements. This lets delegated external user administrators create cases automatically associated with the right entitlements.

Add the Entitlements or Service Contract tabs to each Customer Portal.

6. Assign the cloned profiles to your Customer Portal users:

a. To create a new Customer Portal user, click Manage External User and choose Enable Customer User on the contact detail page. To update an existing user, click Manage External User and choose View Customer User.

b. For a new user, select the cloned profile from the Profile drop-down menu. For an existing user, click Edit and then select the profile.

c. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

After you have set up Salesforce Knowledge in your organization

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Enabling Salesforce Knowledge in the Customer Portal

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

You can use the Customer Portal to provide your customers with access to Salesforce Knowledge articles. Portal users can view and rate articles but cannot create or edit articles.

and

enabled your Customer Portal

, complete the following steps to enable Salesforce Knowledge in your portals.

1. Update Customer Portal profiles:

a. Clone the Customer Portal User or Customer Portal Manager profiles and enable the “Read” permission for article types you want to share with customers.

b. In the cloned profiles, verify that the tab visibility for the Articles tab is Default On.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

2. At the bottom of the customer portal detail page, click Edit Profiles and activate the new profile.

USER PERMISSIONS

3. Assign the cloned profiles to your Customer Portal users:

To set up and update the

Customer Portal:

•

“Customize Application” a. To create a new Customer Portal user, click Manage External User and choose Enable

Customer User on the contact detail page. To update an existing user, click Manage

External User and choose View Customer User on the contact detail page.

To create and edit profiles:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

b. For a new user, select the cloned profile from the Profile drop-down menu. For an existing user, click Edit and then select the profile.

c. Click Save.

To manage Customer Portal users:

•

“Edit Self-Service Users”

Add the Articles tab to each Customer Portal.

5. If you want your Customer Portal users to have different category group visibility settings than

the account owner, change the visibility settings for the Customer Portal user

To view Salesforce

Knowledge articles:

•

“Read” on the article's article type

By default, Customer Portal users inherit their data category access from the account owner.

For example, if the account owner has a role of CEO and the CEO role has full access to all the data categories in a category group, then Customer Portal users can also access all categories in that group. In some cases, you may want to limit which categories a Customer Portal user can access.

6. If you have high-volume portal users, make the categories these users need to access visible by default . Because high-volume portal

users don't have roles, they can only access categorized articles if the associated data categories have been made visible to all users regardless of role.

7. Notify users who create articles that they must select Customer Portal as a channel option when creating or modifying an article.

If the Customer Portal channel is not selected, the article will not be published in the portal.

8. To allow users to search for articles from the Home tab, add the Article Search component to the home page layout. Ensure that you assign the layout to the Customer Portal profiles.

SEE ALSO:

Set up your Customer Portal

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Enabling Answers in the Customer Portal

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

You can use the Customer Portal to provide your customers with access to an answers community.

To enable answers in your portal:

When customizing your portal fonts and colors , note that answers only supports the following

changes:

•

All tab styles

•

The following page styles:

–

Page Background

–

Text

–

Link

–

Link Hover

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up and update the

Customer Portal:

•

“Customize Application”

To create and edit profiles:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

To create an answers community:

•

“Customize Application”

Set up answers

, making sure that your answers community is configured to display in the

Customer Portal.

Add the Answers tab

to your Customer Portal.

4. Create Customer Portal users:

a. On the contact detail page, click Manage External User and then choose Enable Customer User.

b. Enter the required information, making sure to select the correct Customer Portal profile from the Profile drop-down menu.

c. Click Save.

5. If you want your Customer Portal users to have different category group visibility settings than the account owner,

change the visibility settings for the Customer Portal user

By default, Customer Portal users inherit their category access from the account owner. For example, if the account owner has a role of CEO and the CEO role has full access to all the data categories in the category group assigned to answers, then Customer Portal users can also access all categories in the answers community. In some cases, you may want to limit which categories a Customer

Portal user can access.

6. If you have high-volume portal users,

make the data categories these users need to access visible through permission sets or profiles .

7. If your organization has the Ideas and Answers Portal license, hide the Reports tab in the Customer Portal. Otherwise, your Customer

Portal users receive an Insufficient Privileges message when they click the Reports tab. For information on hiding tabs, see

Customizing

Your Customer Portal Tabs on page 32.

SEE ALSO:

information, see Customizing Your Customer Portal Tabs

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Customize Your Customer Portal Pages

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

You can customize your Salesforce Customer Portal pages just as you customize pages in Salesforce: with page layouts.

Page layouts control the layout and organization of buttons, fields, s-controls, Visualforce, custom links, and related lists on object record pages. They also help determine which fields are visible, read only, and required. Page layouts can include s-controls and Visualforce pages that are rendered within a field section when the page displays. You can control the size of the s-controls and

Visualforce pages, and determine whether or not a label and scroll bars display.

Customer Portal users view the layouts assigned to their profile when they log in to your Customer

Portal. You can customize the following objects' page layouts for your portal:

•

Home

•

Tasks

•

Events

•

Cases

•

Assets

•

Accounts

•

Solutions

•

Contacts

•

Entitlements

•

Custom Objects

•

Service Contracts

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To modify page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

To assign page layouts to profiles:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

Customizing Portal Page Layouts

From the object management settings for the object whose page layout you want to edit, go to Page Layouts.

By default, Customer Portal users have “Read” permissions on accounts, contacts, assets, products and price books, so that they can view their account name and choose a contact and asset for the cases they create on your portal. They may also have “Update” or “Create” permissions for assets and accounts, depending on the type of customer portal.

Note:

Customer Portal users can't view the tags section of a page, even if it is included in a page layout.

To display a custom object in your Customer Portal, you must:

•

Select the

Available for Customer Portal

checkbox on the custom object. You cannot assign a portal profile to a custom-object page layout unless this checkbox is selected.

•

Grant user permissions to the custom object on permission sets or profiles assigned to portal users.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

•

Add the tab of the custom object to your Customer Portal so that the tab is accessible to your Customer Portal users. For more

on page 32.

Enable Customer Portal Login and Settings

Setup Tips and Considerations for Customer Portal Pages

Configuring Multilingual HTML Messages for Customer Portals

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

If your organization has multiple languages enabled, you can upload HTML messages in any of the languages supported by Salesforce and configure the messages to display in the portal based on portal user language settings. For example, you can upload an HTML message in French to display on the Home tab for portal users with French language settings, and an HTML message in English to display on the Home tab for portal users with English language settings.

Note the following before configuring multilingual HTML messages:

•

Before you can add a multilingual HTML message to a portal, you must upload the

HTML-formatted file in the Documents tab.

•

Even if configured, portal HTML messages will not display on the Ideas, Reports, Content, or

Solutions tabs.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To configure languages in portals:

•

“Customize Application”

To configure multilingual HTML messages:

1. To configure a display language for the Customer Portal, from Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick

Find

box, then select Customer Portal Settings.

2. Click the name of the portal to edit.

3. Click Add New Language in the Assigned Languages related list.

4. Select a language from the

Language

drop-down list.

5. Click the lookup icon (

) next to a tab name, then select the HTML message to display on that tab. Optionally repeat this step for each tab that you want to display an HTML message.

6. Click Save.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Setup Tips and Considerations for Customer Portal Pages

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Consider the following set up tips and general information about Salesforce Customer Portal pages.

Setting Up Cases

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

•

When setting up your Customer Portal, clone the page layout for cases (Case Layout), and rename it

Portal Case Layout

. This allows you to easily differentiate between case page layouts for internal users and case page layouts for portal users.

•

By default, new cases are accessible in the Customer Portal, but you can include the

Visible in Self-Service checkbox on case page layouts so that you can deselect the checkbox to prevent a case from being displayed.

•

Do not select the

Show Case Email Notification

and

Show Case Email Notification by default checkboxes on case page layouts. These features only apply to Salesforce users.

•

Do not add the

Internal Comments

field to case page layouts assigned to portal profiles because portal users may view comments intended only for Salesforce users.

•

Include the

Asset

field on case page layouts if you want portal users to be able to associate cases with an asset related to their account.

•

Include the

Contact Name

lookup field on case page layouts so that users with “Edit” permissions on that field can change a case's contact to another portal user in the same account.

•

If a portal user is the owner of a case, the

Contact Name

field on the case must be the contact associated with the same portal user who owns the case. You can't specify a different contact, even if they’re associated with the same portal account.

•

Do not select the

Show solution information section

Show Contact Notification checkbox

, and

Select Contact Notification checkbox by default

checkboxes on close-case page layouts because their functions only apply to Salesforce users.

•

Create case record types to set the default value of the

Case Origin

picklist field for cases logged on your Customer Portal.

•

For case assignment rules to work on the Customer Portal, select the

Select Case Assignment checkbox by default

checkbox on case page layouts assigned to portal profiles. Portal users cannot view these checkboxes on the Customer

Portal. Note that assignment rules trigger when a case is created and when it is edited. To prevent cases from being automatically reassigned when edited by portal users, add a rule entry using the criteria

Current User: User Type contains

Customer Portal

and select the

Do Not Reassign User

checkbox.

•

Portal users can view all the values in the

Type

Status

Priority

, and

Case Reason

picklist fields unless you create record types for cases that contain separate picklist values for them.

•

You can prevent portal users from submitting cases with attachments by removing the Submit & Add Attachment button from case page layouts:

1. Edit a case page layout with the enhanced page layout editor.

2. Click Layout Properties.

3. Deselect Show Submit & Add Attachment Button.

4. Click OK.

5. Click Save.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Cases

•

Portal users need the “Read” permission on contacts to create cases.

•

Portal users cannot edit the value of the

Status

picklist field on cases.

•

Portal users can edit and delete attachments they have added to their cases, but portal users cannot edit and delete attachments added to cases by Salesforce users.

•

The Delete and Sharing buttons on case detail pages are not available to portal users.

•

The Email Message List, Next, and Previous links are not available to Customer Portal users when they view emails from the

Email related list on case detail pages. The Email related list is only available in organizations where Email-to-Case or On-Demand

Email-to-Case is enabled.

•

Optionally, you can create case auto-response rules to automatically respond to portal users when they create a case on your portal.

•

Portal users can view, search, and create notes and attachments on cases.

•

When creating a case, a portal user bypasses the Suggested Solutions page and is directed to their case if:

–

No relevant suggested solutions match the case.

–

He or she creates the case by clicking Submit & Add Attachment.

Note that suggested solutions are only available in organizations where they are enabled. For more information on suggested solutions, see

SEE ALSO:

Customize Your Customer Portal Pages

Customer Portal Setup Limits

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

Contact Salesforce for information about the number of Customer Portals and Customer Portal user licenses you can activate.

The maximum number of custom objects you can include in a Customer Portal is determined by the total number of custom objects your Edition allows.

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Also, user licenses control the number of custom objects a portal user can see in a Customer Portal. For information, contact Salesforce.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Enable Single Sign-On for Portals

Single sign-on (SSO) lets users access authorized network resources with one login. You validate usernames and passwords against your corporate user database or other client app rather than

Salesforce managing separate passwords for each resource.

You can set up Customer Portals and partner portals to use SAML single sign-on, so that a customer only has to login once.

Note: Single sign-on with portals is only supported for SAML 2.0.

To enable single sign-on for portals:

1. In addition to the SAML sign-on information that must be gathered and shared with your identity provider, you must supply your information provider with the Organization ID and the

Portal ID. In the SAML assertion that is sent from your identity provider, the portal_id

and organization_id

must be added as attributes.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Customer Portal is available in: Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Partner Portal is available in:

Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions

Note:

You can leave these attributes blank to differentiate between portal and platform users. For example, when blank, the user is a regular platform user and when populated, the user is a portal user.

a. From Setup, enter

Company Information

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Company Information and copy the ID located in the

Salesforce Organization

b. For Customer Portals, from Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick

Find

box, select Customer Portal Settings, click the name of the Customer Portal, and then copy the ID located in the

Portal ID

USER PERMISSIONS

To view the settings:

•

“View Setup and

Configuration”

To edit the settings:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Modify All Data”

c. For partner portals, from Setup, enter

Partners

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Settings. Next, click the name of the partner portal, and copy the ID located in the

Salesforce Portal ID

SEE ALSO:

Customer Portal Sharing Rules

Customer Portal Users

About Customer Portal User Management

USER PERMISSIONS

To manage Customer Portal users:

To manage profiles and permission sets:

To create, edit, and delete page layouts:

To set field-level security:

To set sharing rules:

“Edit Self-Service Users”

“Manage Profiles and Permission Sets”

“Customize Application”

“Manage Profiles and Permission Sets”

AND

“Customize Application”

“Manage Sharing”

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

Managing Customer Portal users is similar to managing regular Salesforce users. General user administration concepts like profiles and page layouts still apply. Review the following advice for managing Customer Portal users:

•

Customer Portal Profiles

•

•

Customer Portal Role Hierarchy

•

Customer Portal User Licenses

Note: High-volume portal users include both the High Volume Customer Portal and Authenticated Website license types.

Customer Portal Profiles

The profiles you assign to Customer Portal users define permissions for them to perform different functions within a Customer Portal, such as whether they can view, create, edit, or delete cases and custom object records.

When you enable a Customer Portal, the following profiles are automatically created if you purchased

user licenses

for them:

•

High Volume Customer Portal

•

Authenticated Website

•

Customer Portal User

•

Customer Portal Manager

The settings on Customer Portal profiles are similar. However, you can grant users with the Customer Portal Manager profile greater access to data via the Customer Portal role hierarchy and sharing rules (neither of which apply to

high-volume portal users

). You can also clone and customize each profile to suit the various support requirements of specific customers. You can also use permission sets to grant additional permissions and access settings to Customer Portal users.

Depending on the user licenses you purchased, you can configure Customer Portal profiles for custom objects, Salesforce CRM Content ,

reporting, and customer support functionality, such as cases and solutions.

Important: For portal users to be able to view their new cases, the New Cases Visible in Portal support setting must be selected.

From Setup, enter

Support Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, select Support Settings, then select New Cases Visible

in Portal.

Customer Portal Sharing Rules

After you enable a Customer Portal, the following groups and sharing rule category are created:

Groups and Sharing Rule

Category

Description

All Customer Portal Users group Contains all Customer Portal users, except for high-volume portal users.

All Internal Users group Contains all Salesforce users in your organization.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Groups and Sharing Rule

Category

Roles and Internal Subordinates sharing rule category

Description

Lets you create sharing rules with specific Salesforce users in your organization by role plus all of the users in roles below that role, excluding any Customer Portal and partner portal roles.

Because high-volume portal users don’t have roles, they aren’t included in this or any other sharing rule category.

You can use these groups and the sharing rule category to create sharing rules that:

•

Grant Customer Portal or Salesforce users access to specific data (except for high-volume portal users, because you can’t include them in any groups or sharing rules)

•

Link Customer Portal users and Salesforce users

•

Link Customer Portal users from different accounts as long as they have the Customer Portal Manager user license

Customer Portal Role Hierarchy

When you enable a Customer Portal on an account, the system creates a role hierarchy for the account’s portal users. The portal roles are unique for each account and include the account’s name—or example, “Account A Customer User.” In your organization’s overall role hierarchy, this account-specific hierarchy is directly below the account owner.

The roles in a portal role hierarchy are fixed. You cannot customize them or add new ones. They are:

•

Executive—for contacts

•

Manager—for contacts

•

User—for contacts

•

Person Account—for person accounts

Note: All users in a customer portal role (Executive, Manager, and User roles) have read access to all portal-enabled contacts under their portal account even when the contact sharing model is private.

As you enable customers as Customer Portal users, the system automatically assigns roles based on the user license . Person accounts

always have the Person Account role. Contacts with the High Volume Customer Portal or Authenticated Website license do not have a role.

If access to contacts are set to private, high-volume portal users only have access to their own contact and those they are granted access to.

Role hierarchies ensure that portal users from different accounts never see each other’s data. Even though high-volume portal users aren’t included in role hierarchies, they’re restricted from seeing records that aren’t associated with their account or contact, and they

can only see objects to which they’ve been granted access . You can, however, create sharing rules so that users with the Customer Portal

Manager license from different accounts can see each other’s data.

Accounts with different portal types—Customer Portal and partner portal—have a separate role hierarchy for each portal. Role names include the portal type with which they are associated. For example, if Account A has both a Customer Portal and a partner portal, then roles for the Customer Portal are named “Account A Customer User” and roles for the partner portal are named “Account A Partner User.”

To view the roles assigned to your Customer Portal users, create a custom report, choose Administrative Reports, select Users as the data type, and add

Role

to your report columns. Note that you can’t report on roles for high-volume portal users because they don’t have roles.

Note:

You cannot create a Customer Portal user associated with an account owned by a partner user.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Customer Portal User Licenses

A user license determines the baseline of features that the user can access. Every user must have exactly one user license.

You can assign the following user licenses to Customer Portal users:

•

High Volume Customer Portal

•

Authenticated Website

•

Customer Portal Manager Custom

•

Customer Portal Manager Standard (not available for new customers)

These user licenses determine the available Customer Portal profiles. They also determine users’ positions in the Customer Portal role hierarchy.

The following table shows the Customer Portal user licenses with their associated profiles and positions in the Customer Portal role hierarchy.

User License Profiles Roles and Sharing

High Volume Customer Portal and

Authenticated Website

Both user licenses are high-volume portal users

(Available to purchase)

High Volume Customer Portal or

Authenticated Website profile, or a profile cloned and customized from one of these.

High-volume portal users don’t have roles. See

About

High-Volume Portal Users on page 51.

Can’t share but can transfer records they own.

Can’t transfer cases from non-high-volume portal users to them.

Can’t include in:

•

Personal groups or public groups.

•

Sharing rules.

•

Account teams, opportunity teams, or

case teams .

•

Salesforce CRM Content libraries.

•

High-volume portal users can’t access standard Account and Contact detail pages. However, you can create a custom solution, using tools like Visualforce or the API, where they can access those records.

Can access custom objects depending on profile settings.

Customer Portal Manager Custom

(Available to purchase)

Customer Portal Manager profile or a profile cloned and customized from the Customer

Portal Manager profile.

Can assign to either the Executive, Manager, or User role.

Can view and edit data they directly own or data owned by or shared with users below them in the Customer Portal role hierarchy; and they can view and edit cases where they are listed in the

Contact Name

field.

Can have data shared to them just like other Salesforce users.

•

Can access custom objects depending on profile settings.

•

Can access reports depending on profile settings.

•

Can access Salesforce CRM Content depending on feature

license and profile settings. See Enabling Salesforce CRM

Content in the Customer Portal on page 34.

•

Can receive the “Portal Super User” and “Delegated

External User Administrator” permissions.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

User License Profiles

Customer Portal Manager Standard Customer Portal User profile or a profile cloned and customized from the Customer Portal User profile.

Roles and Sharing

Can only assign to either the Executive, Manager, or User role.

Can view and edit data they directly own or data owned by or shared with users below them in the Customer Portal role hierarchy; and they can view and edit cases where they are listed in the

Contact Name

field.

Can have data shared to them just like other Salesforce users.

•

Can access custom objects depending on profile settings.

•

Can receive the “Portal Super User” permission.

•

Can access Salesforce CRM Content depending on feature

license and profile settings. See Enabling Salesforce CRM

Content in the Customer Portal on page 34.

Note: This license is not available for new customers.

Note: Person accounts enabled as Customer Portal users are automatically assigned the Person Account role, which you cannot change. Person accounts are automatically assigned to this role because they include a single user, so multiple roles are not necessary for their account. Furthermore, all person accounts owned by the same user are assigned the same role.

SEE ALSO:

Delegating Customer Portal User Administration and Portal Super User

Administrator setup guide: Salesforce Customer Portal Implementation Guide

About High-Volume Portal Users

Note:

Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

High-volume portal users are limited-access portal users intended for organizations with many thousands to millions of portal users. Unlike other portal users, high-volume portal users don’t have roles, which eliminates performance issues associated with role hierarchy calculations. High-volume portal users include both the High Volume Customer Portal and Authenticated Website license types.

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Characteristics

High-volume portal users:

•

Are contacts enabled to access a Customer Portal.

•

Are assigned to the High Volume Customer Portal or Authenticated Website license.

•

Only share the records they own with Salesforce users in the high-volume portal users sharing group.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Access to Records

High-volume portal users can access records if any of the following conditions are met:

•

They have “Update” access on the account they belong to.

•

They own the record.

•

They can access a record’s parent, and the organization-wide sharing setting for that record is Controlled by Parent.

•

The organization-wide sharing setting for the object is Public Read Only or Public Read/Write.

•

They access the account or contact that they’re enabled under via the API (not via the standard account or contact detail page).

Administrators can create sharing sets to grant high-volume portal users additional access to records; see Granting High-Volume Portal

Users Access to Records

on page 54.

Limitations

•

High-volume portal users can’t manually share records they own or have access to.

•

You can’t transfer cases from non-high-volume portal users to high-volume portal users.

•

High-volume portal users can’t own accounts.

•

You can’t add case teams to cases owned by high-volume portal users.

•

You can’t include high-volume portal users in:

–

Personal groups or public groups.

–

Sharing rules.

–

Account teams, opportunity teams, or case teams

–

Salesforce CRM Content libraries.

–

These limitations also apply to records owned by high-volume portal users.

•

You can’t assign high-volume portal users to territories.

Granting High-Volume Portal Users Access to Records

Sharing Set Overview

Grant portal or community users access to records that are associated with their accounts or contacts using sharing sets, based on their user profiles.

Previously, a sharing set granted access to any record that has a lookup field to an account or contact that matches the user’s account or contact. With Spring ’14, you can also determine how access is granted using an access mapping in the sharing set, which supports indirect lookups from the user and target record to the account or contact. You can determine the objects to use in the access mapping, and they must both either point to an account or contact.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

For example, you might want to use a sharing set if you would like to:

•

Grant users access to all cases related to their account or contact record.

•

Grant users access to all cases related to a parent account or contact that is identified on the user’s account or contact record.

You can use sharing sets to grant access to accounts, contacts, cases, service contracts, users, and custom objects. Sharing sets can be used with these user profiles:

•

Authenticated Website

•

Customer Community User

•

Customer Community Login User

•

High Volume Customer Portal

•

High Volume Portal

•

Overage Authenticated Website User

•

Overage High Volume Customer Portal User

The following example shows an access mapping on a sharing set, which grants portal or community users access to all cases associated with the entitlements on their account, even if they are not directly associated with the case.

Example:

1. Account lookup on portal or community user

2. Related account on entitlement

3. Entitlement lookup on case

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Note:

Portal or community users gain access to all order entitlements and order items under an account to which they have access. To share records owned by high-volume portal users, use a share group instead.

Granting High-Volume Portal or Community Users Access to User Records

Granting High-Volume Portal Users Access to Records

Grant users access to records based on their profiles using sharing sets.

EDITIONS

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

A sharing set grants high-volume portal users access to any record that has a lookup field to an account or contact that matches the user’s account or contact.

USER PERMISSIONS

You can also grant access to records via access mapping in a sharing set, which supports indirect lookups from the user and target record to the account or contact. For example, grant users access to all cases related to an account that’s identified on the users’ contact records.

To grant high-volume portal users access to records:

•

“Customize Application”

1. From Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Customer Portal Settings.

2. In the Sharing Sets related list, click New to create a sharing set, or click Edit next to an existing sharing set.

3. In the Sharing Set Edit page, fill in the Label and Sharing Set Name fields. Label is the sharing set label as it appears on the user interface. Sharing Set Name is the unique name used by the API.

4. Enter a description.

5. Select the profiles of the users to whom you want to provide access.

6. Select the objects you want to grant access to.

The Available Objects list excludes:

•

Objects with an organization-wide sharing setting of Public Read/Write

•

Custom objects that don’t have an account or contact lookup field

7. In the Configure Access section, click Set Up or Edit next to an object name to configure access for the selected profiles, or click Del to remove access settings for an object.

Note:

Objects with Set Up in the Action column aren’t configured for high-volume portal user access. Until you configure an object, high-volume portal users have limited or no access to its records. For more information on access, see

About

High-Volume Portal Users

on page 51.

8. Grant access based on an account or contact lookup:

•

Select a value in the User drop-down list to determine the account or contact lookup on the user.

•

Select a value in the Target Object field to determine the account or contact lookup on the target object.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

For example, to grant access to all cases associated with an account identified on the user’s contact record, select

Contact.Account

and

Account

respectively.

Note: Both selected fields must point to either an account or contact. For example,

Contact.Account

and

Entitlement.Account

both point to an account.

9. Choose an access level of Read Only or Read/Write. (If the object’s organization-wide sharing setting is Public Read Only, then only

Read/Write is available.)

10. Click Update, then click Save.

Your settings apply to all of your organization’s Customer Portals or sites.

SEE ALSO:

About High-Volume Portal Users

Sharing Set Overview

Granting High-Volume Portal or Community Users Access to User Records

Grant users access to other users using sharing sets.

EDITIONS

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

You can create a sharing set to grant high-volume portal users access to internal users or other users in the same portal, enabling them to see or edit the target user records.

With Spring ’14, you can also grant access to users in other portals through an indirect lookup to an account or contact.

To grant access to selected users in the same portal, you would typically create a sharing set if you deselected the

Portal User Visibility

checkbox on the Sharing Settings page.

USER PERMISSIONS

To grant high-volume portal users access to records:

•

“Customize Application”

To create a sharing set to grant access to other users:

1. From Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Customer Portal Settings.

2. In the Sharing Settings for High-Volume Portal Users related list, click New to create a sharing set, or click Edit next to an existing sharing set.

4. Select the profiles of the users you want to have access.

5. Select the User object.

Target users can be other high-volume portal or community users or internal users.

6. In the Configure Access section, click Set Up or Edit next to the User object to configure access for the selected profiles, or click Del to remove access settings for an object.

7. Grant access based on an account or contact lookup:

•

Select a value in the User drop-down list to determine the account or contact that’s related to the user, either by a direct lookup or indirect lookup via an intermediate object.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

•

Select a value in the Target User drop-down list to determine the account or contact that’s related to the target user, either by a direct lookup or indirect lookup via an intermediate object.

For example, to grant access to target users associated with another account identified on the user’s account record, select

Account.Parent

and

Account

respectively.

Note:

Both selected fields must point to either an account or contact. For example,

Account.Parent

and

Contact.Account

both point to an account.

8. Choose an access level of

Read Only

Read/Write

. (If the User object’s organization-wide sharing setting is Public Read

Only, then only Read/Write is available.)

9. Click Update, then click Save.

Your settings apply to all of your organization’s Customer Portals or sites.

Example: The following example grants your portal users access to users whose contacts are related to the accounts identified on the portal users’ managers records. In other words, the account field on the portal user’s manager record must match the account field identified on the target user’s contact record.

1. Manager lookup on portal user

2. Account lookup on manager

3. Account lookup on contact

4. Contact lookup on target user

In this example, to grant access to the target users, you would select

Manager.Account

and

Contact.Account

in the

User and Target User drop-down list respectively.

SEE ALSO:

Sharing Set Overview

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Sharing Records Owned by High-Volume Portal Users to Salesforce Users

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

High-volume portal users are limited-access portal users intended for organizations with many thousands to millions of portal users. Unlike other portal users, high-volume portal users don’t have roles, which eliminates performance issues associated with role hierarchy calculations. Because high-volume portal users are not in the role hierarchy while Salesforce users are, a share group allows you to specify the Salesforce users who can access records owned by high-volume portal users. Each Customer Portal has its own share group.

To specify the Salesforce users who can access records owned by high-volume portal users:

1. From Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Customer Portal Settings.

2. Click the name of a Customer Portal.

3. Click the Share Group Settings subtab.

4. Click Activate to turn on the share group.

Activating the share group can take a while. An email is sent to you when the process finishes.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To share records owned by high-volume portal users to

Salesforce users:

•

“Customize Application”

Note:

Deactivating a share group removes all Salesforce users’ access to records owned by high-volume portal users. An email isn’t sent to you when the deactivation process finishes.

5. Click Edit to add Salesforce users to the share group:

a. From the

drop-down list, select the type of member to add.

b. If you don’t see the member you want to add, enter keywords in the search box and click Find.

c. Select members from the Available Members box, and click Add to add them to the group.

d. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

About High-Volume Portal Users

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Viewing Sharing Sets for High-Volume Portal Users

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

Administrators can create sharing sets to grant high-volume portal users access to objects based on their profiles. To view detailed information about a sharing set:

1. From Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Customer Portal Settings.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

2. In the Sharing Settings for High-Volume Portal Users related list, click the name of a sharing set.

The Sharing Set detail page shows the profiles included and the access granted to objects in the set. On this page, you can do any of the following:

•

To edit the sharing set, click Edit.

•

To remove the sharing set, click Delete.

•

To view the details of an included profile, click its name.

•

To change or remove access settings for an object, click the Edit or Del link next to the object name.

To grant high-volume portal users access to records:

•

“Customize Application”

SEE ALSO:

About High-Volume Portal Users

Granting High-Volume Portal Users Access to Records

Customer Portal Access

Configuring User Access to the Customer Portal

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up the Customer Portal:

To manage Customer Portal users:

To create, edit, and delete profiles:

To set default sharing access and sharing rules:

To enable Customer Portal users:

“Customize Application”

“Edit Self-Service Users”

“Manage Profiles and Permission Sets”

“Manage Sharing”

“Edit Self-Service Users”

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

When setting up a Salesforce Customer Portal for the first time, configure the following before enabling users to access your portal:

1. Set up your portal as described in

Setting Up Your Customer Portal .

2. Assign Customer Portal profiles to a portal:

a. Select the name of a portal from the Customer Portal Setup page.

b. Click Edit Profiles in the Assigned Profiles section.

c. Select the

Active

checkbox next to the profile you want to assign to the portal.

Portal users can only log into Customer Portals assigned to their profile. If you are

creating multiple portals , you must assign profiles

to each portal you want users to access.

3. Set the organization-wide defaults in your organization’s sharing model to Private on accounts, contacts, contracts, assets, and cases.

This ensures that portal users can only view and edit data related to their accounts.

Tip: To maintain Public organization-wide default behavior for Salesforce users, while ensuring that portal users can only view and edit data related to their accounts, you can create self-referencing sharing rules of “All Internal Users” to “All Internal Users”.

4. Optionally, set sharing rules for portal users (except for high-volume portal users). This lets you share records between portal users and Salesforce users or vice versa.

Note: If your organization uses sharing rules that share to Roles, Internal and Portal Subordinates, then update those sharing rules to share to Roles and Internal Subordinates instead. This is to help ensure that no records owned by a Salesforce user are accidentally shared with a portal user.

You can easily convert sharing rules that include Roles, Internal and Portal Subordinates to include Roles and Internal Subordinates instead by using the Convert Portal User Access wizard. Furthermore, you can use this wizard to convert any publicly accessible report, dashboard, and document folders to folders that are accessible by all users except for portal users.

5. Verify that portal users are not added to any queues and are not included in any public groups added to queues. This is because portal users added to queues may be able to access records from accounts to which they are not related.

6. Optionally, add the Welcome component to home page layouts assigned to portal users.

The Welcome component allows portal users to receive a welcome message with their name, plus the ability to change their own portal username, password, locale, language, time zone, and contact information. For details, see

Setup Tips and Considerations for

Customer Portal Pages

on page 42.

7. Optionally, allow contacts to register themselves for access to your portal. See

Enable Customer Portal Login and Settings on page

23.

SEE ALSO:

user profile, and role hierarchy options that you can select for the customer user. See Customer

Administrator setup guide: Salesforce Customer Portal Implementation Guide

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Enable the Customer Portal for Contacts and Person Accounts

To allow a customer to access your Salesforce customer portal, enable the customer’s contact or person account record as a customer user.

1. From a contact or person account detail page, click Manage External User, and then select

Enable Customer User.

2. Verify the general information and locale settings, and enter any missing information. The customer’s

Username

defaults to the customer’s

3. Select a portal user license. The user license that you choose determines the permission sets,

Portal User Licenses on page 50.

4. Select

Generate new password and notify user immediately

to email a customer portal username and password to the customer.

If your Salesforce org uses multiple customer portals, customer users can access all customer portals that are assigned to their profiles with a single username and password. See

Creating

Multiple Customer Portals

on page 21.

5. Click Save.

6. To troubleshoot or confirm the portal configuration, on the contact detail page, click Manage

External User, and then choose Log in to Portal as User. A new browser window opens and logs you in to the portal as the partner user.

You can deactivate customer users as needed.

SEE ALSO:

teams in which he or she is a member (for example, case teams

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To enable customer users or to log in as a portal user:

•

“Edit” on the account that’s associated with the customer user

AND

“Edit Self-Service Users”

Roles Per Customer Portal Account

Note:

Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

You can set the default number of roles for Customer Portal accounts. This benefits your customer portal by reducing the number of unused roles for Customer Portal accounts. You must have a

Customer Portal enabled to use this functionality.

For example, if you currently have three roles created when an account is enabled for your Customer

Portal, but only need one role for new accounts, you can reduce the number of roles to one. You can set up to three roles for Customer Portal accounts. The default number of roles for Customer

Portal accounts is three.

To set the number of roles per Customer Portal account:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set the number of roles per portal account:

•

“Customize Application”

1. From Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Customer Portal Settings.

2. Click

Set number of roles per Portal Account

3. Click Edit.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

4. In the

Number of Roles

drop-down list, set your default number of roles per Customer Portal account.

5. Click Save.

The number of roles for existing portal accounts doesn't change with this setting.

Disabling and Deactivating Portal Users

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

There are two ways in which you can remove a customer’s access to your Salesforce Customer

Portal or partner portal. As described in detail below, disabling a portal user is permanent, while

deactivating a portal user is not:

Disabling a portal user

Disabling a portal user includes the following actions:

•

Termination of the user’s access to your portal

•

Removal from all groups, teams, and sharing rules with which the user is associated.

•

Permanent loss of the portal user’s association with the contact

If you later re-enable a contact for portal access, a new portal user is created that is not related to the previous portal user record in any way.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Customer Portal is available in: Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Partner Portal is available in:

Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

•

The

Role

on the portal user record is removed.

•

For partner users, the partner user role becomes obsolete. As a result:

–

The user’s data no longer rolls up to the partner account owner role

–

Opportunities owned by that user are removed from your organization’s forecast hierarchy

Note:

Before disabling a partner user, we recommend transferring opportunities owned by that user to an active user.

To disable or deactivate

Customer Portal users:

•

“Edit” on the account associated with the

Customer Portal user

AND

“Edit Self-Service Users”

To disable or deactivate partner portal users:

•

“Edit” on the account associated with the partner portal user

AND

“Manage External Users”

We recommend disabling a portal user if:

•

A contact was accidentally enabled as a portal user

•

The portal user is associated with a duplicate contact

•

You do not want a contact to access the portal in the future

Note: Salesforce doesn’t delete user records, including portal user records. While you can’t re-enable a disabled portal user, you can view and update the record for a disabled user in Setup by entering

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then selecting

Users.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Deactivating a portal user

Deactivating a portal user prevents that user from logging into your portal and gives you the option to remove the user from any

and account teams). When you deactivate a portal user, the portal user record does not permanently lose its association with the contact. You can reactivate the portal user at any time.

Note:

When a delegated external user admin deactivates a portal user, the admin doesn’t have the option to remove the portal user from teams that user is a member of.

We recommend deactivating a portal user if you may reactivate the portal user in the future.

If a user on an account team has Read/Write access (Account Access, Contact Access, Opportunity Access, and Case Access) and is deactivated, the access will default to Read Only if the user is reactivated.

Disabling a Portal User

To disable a portal user:

1. On the contact detail page, click Manage External User and choose either Disable Customer User or Disable Partner User. On the account detail page of a person account, click Manage External Account and choose Disable Customer Account.

Person accounts are not available for the partner portal.

2. Click OK.

Deactivating a Portal User

To deactivate a portal user:

1. For the Customer Portal, click Manage External User and choose View Customer User on the contact or person account detail page. For the partner portal, click Manage External User and choose View Partner User on the contact detail page.

Person accounts are not available for the partner portal.

2. Click Edit, and deselect the

Active

checkbox.

To reactivate a portal user at any time, select the

Active

checkbox.

3. Click Save.

Note: You can’t mass deactivate portal users.

Tips on Disabling and Deactivating Portal Users

Consider the following when disabling or deactivating portal users (disabling is permanent; deactivating is not):

•

You can’t delete an active portal user; you can only disable or deactivate his or her access to the portal.

•

The following table describes whether you can delete contacts that are associated with portal users:

State of Portal User Associated to Contact

Active portal user

Inactive portal user

Disabled portal user

Can You Delete the Contact?

No. This is to ensure that the contact is available if you choose to reactivate the portal user.

Yes. Deleted contacts are sent to the Recycle Bin.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

•

To delete a portal-enabled contact, first disable the portal user, then delete the contact.

•

Cases associated with a portal user are not updated in any way when you disable or deactivate the portal user. For example, if a portal user owns a case, and the portal user is disabled, he or she remains the owner of the case until the case is updated with a new owner.

•

Before you disable a partner user, we recommend that you transfer any opportunities owned by the user to another user who will remain active. This is because when you disable a partner user, any opportunities he or she owns are removed from your organization’s forecast hierarchy (the partner user’s role becomes obsolete).

•

After you disable a portal user, it may take Salesforce up to ten seconds to disable the user. During that time, a portal user may still perform actions on a portal.

•

You can remove the Disable Customer User and Disable Partner User buttons from contact page layouts at any time. Doing so would prevent users with the “Edit Self-Service Users” or “Manage External Users” permissions from disabling portal users.

•

A disabled or deactivated portal user does not count against your organization’s available user licenses. However, disabling or deactivating a portal user does not reduce the number of licenses for which your organization is billed; you must change your organization’s license count to change your billing.

•

To disable all portal users associated with an account and permanently delete all of the account’s portal roles and groups:

–

Click Manage External Account and choose Disable Partner Account on a partner portal account.

–

Click Manage External Account and choose Disable Customer Account on a Customer Portal account or Customer Portal person account.

You can remove the Disable Customer Account and Disable Partner Account buttons from account page layouts at any time.

Doing so would prevent users with the “Edit Self-Service Users” or “Manage External Users” permissions from disabling portal accounts.

•

When you disable a portal user or portal account, the change is tracked in the setup audit trail.

•

Portal roles are not removed from disabled portal users associated with person accounts. However, you can remove the portal roles manually:

1. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

2. Select the name of a disabled portal user.

3. Click Edit.

4. Select None from the

Role

drop-down list.

5. Click Save.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Disabling Customer Accounts

Disabling a customer account disables customer users associated with the account. We recommend disabling a customer account only if the account was accidentally enabled.

You can’t delete customer accounts, but you can disable them. Disabling the account permanently disables up to 100 external users associated with the account and removes them from all communities, groups, teams, permission sets, and sharing rules that they’re associated with. This includes both active and inactive external users, but excludes partner users associated with the account. Additionally, roles and groups associated with the account are permanently deleted and you won’t have the option to restore them from the Recycle Bin.

Note:

You can’t disable an account if there are more than 100 active or inactive external users associated with it. You must disable the users before disabling the account.

1. Go to the Account detail page for the account you want to disable.

2. Click Manage External Account, then click Disable Customer Account.

3. Click OK to confirm.

If you decide to re-enable the account in the future, you can re-enable individual contacts as

Customer Portal users. Re-enabling a contact for a Customer Portal creates a new customer portal user record and role that is not associated with the previous customer portal user record and role.

You can’t restore deleted roles and groups.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To view accounts:

•

“Read” on accounts

To create or disable accounts:

•

“Create” on accounts

To enable a customer account:

•

“Manage External Users”

Editing Customer Portal User Information

USER PERMISSIONS

To manage Customer Portal users:

To manage profiles and permission sets:

To create, edit, and delete page layouts:

To set field-level security:

To set sharing rules:

“Edit Self-Service Users”

“Manage Profiles and Permission Sets”

“Customize Application”

“Manage Profiles and Permission Sets”

AND

“Customize Application”

“Manage Sharing”

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

You can edit Salesforce Customer Portal user information for contacts associated with accounts you have permission to access. To edit information for a Customer Portal user:

1. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

2. Click Edit next to a user’s name.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

3. Change the necessary information and click Save.

Tips for Editing Customer Portal User Information

Consider the following when editing Customer Portal user information:

•

Create a custom list view to display only Customer Portal users by filtering on the Customer Portal Manager and Customer Portal

User license types. For example, use the criteria “License Type equals Customer Portal User, Customer Portal Manager.”

•

When generating a new password for a user, the new password is automatically sent to the user’s email address and email verification is not enforced.

•

When changing a user’s email address to a new email address, email confirmation isn’t enforced.

•

Include the Customer Portal Welcome component on home page layouts assigned to Customer Portal users so that, upon logging in to the portal, they receive a welcome message with their name. From the component, a user can change their own portal username, password, locale, language, time zone, and contact information. When portal users change information about themselves, their user record is updated but their contact record is not automatically updated with those changes.

SEE ALSO:

Disabling and Deactivating Portal Users

Resetting Customer Portal User Passwords

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

If a Salesforce Customer Portal user loses his or her password, the user can click the Forgot your

password? link on the Customer Portal login page to have a new password emailed to him or her.

To reset a Customer Portal user's password:

1. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

2. Select the checkbox next to the user’s name. Optionally, to change the passwords for all currently displayed users, check the box in the column header to select all rows.

3. Click Reset Password. The user receives an email that contains a link and instructions to reset the password.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To reset Customer Portal users' passwords:

•

“Edit Self-Service Users”

Tip:

You can include the Customer Portal Welcome component on home page layouts assigned to Customer Portal users. Each

Customer Portal user who logs in to your portal receives a welcome message with his or her name. The users can also change their own portal username, password, locale, language, time zone, and contact information. When portal users change information about themselves their user records are updated but their contact records aren’t automatically updated with those changes.

SEE ALSO:

Delegating External User Administration Rights

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Delegating Customer Portal User Administration and Portal Super User

•

Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations.

Existing organizations continue to have access to the Customer Portal. If you don’t have a

Customer Portal, but want to easily share information with your customers, try Communities.

Existing organizations using Customer Portals may continue to use their Customer Portals or transition to Communities. Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.

You can delegate some administrative rights to Customer Portal users with the Customer Portal

Manager Custom user license. Delegated external user administrators can do the following for external users, including both customer users and partner users, associated with their own account:

•

Create new external users

Edit existing external users

Reset passwords for external users

Deactivate existing external users

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To manage Customer Portal users:

•

“Delegated External User

Administrator”

Note:

When a delegated external user admin deactivates a portal user, the admin doesn’t have the option to remove the portal user from teams that user is a member of.

To create, edit, and delete profiles:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets” Delegated external user administrators can also view their account’s detail page, along with contacts and cases related to their account via the Accounts tab. In addition, delegated external user administrators receive the “Portal Super User” permission. This permission lets delegated external user administrators do the following for their own account:

To view and edit all cases and contacts for an account:

•

“Portal Super User”

•

View, edit, and transfer all cases

•

Create cases for contacts

•

View and edit all contacts, whether portal enabled or not

•

View account details when they’re the contact on a case

•

Report on all contacts, whether portal enabled or not, if the Reports tab is added to your Customer Portal and the user has the “Run

Reports” permission

You can add just the “Portal Super User” permission to the profiles of external users (except for high-volume portal users) so that they have access to their account and can view and edit all of its cases and contacts without having the ability to manage other external users. However, super users can’t view the Contacts tab on the Customer Portal without the Delegated External User Administrator permission. To edit contacts, super users must select a contact from a case record. For more information, see:

•

•

Providing Users with the “Portal Super User” Permission

•

Tips on Setting Up Delegated Customer Portal User Administration

Delegating External User Administration Rights

Note: You must use the original profile user interface to delegate administration rights for external users. If you’re using the enhanced profile user interface, disable it temporarily in the User Interface settings to complete this procedure.

To delegate External User Administration Rights:

1. From Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles and click a custom Customer Portal profile.

You can’t add delegation rights or the “Portal Super User” permission to the standard Customer Portal Manager, Customer Portal

User, or High Volume Customer Portal profiles.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

2. Click Edit.

3. Select Delegated External User Administrator.

When you select Delegated External User Administrator, the Portal Super User is automatically selected after you click Save.

4. Click Save.

5. In the Delegated External Users Profiles related list, click Edit.

6. Select the external user profiles you want users with this profile to be able to administer. An external user delegated administrator can manage external users with Customer Portal, partner portal, or Communities profiles, as long as the users with the profile are under the same account.

7. Click Save.

To change which profiles a delegated Customer Portal user administrator can edit:

1. From Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles and click a custom Customer Portal profile.

2. Click Edit in the Delegated External User Profiles related list.

3. Select the external user profiles you want this profile to be able to administer.

4. Click Save.

Delegated Customer Portal administrators can perform the following tasks from a contact’s detail page:

•

Click Enable Customer Portal User to allow a contact to use a Customer Portal.

•

Click View Customer Portal User to view the Customer Portal user’s details. From a Customer Portal user’s detail page, delegated

Customer Portal users can:

–

Click Edit to edit a Customer Portal user’s details.

–

Click Reset Password to reset the Customer Portal user’s password.

–

Click Edit and deselect the

Active

checkbox to deactivate the user.

Providing Users with the “Portal Super User” Permission

To provide users with the “Portal Super User” permission:

1. From Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles and click a custom Customer Portal profile.

You can’t add the “Portal Super User” permission to the standard Customer Portal Manager, Customer Portal User, or High Volume

Customer Portal profiles.

2. Click Edit.

3. Select Portal Super User.

4. Click Save.

Tip: To report on profiles with the “Portal Super User” permission:

1. Note the names of profiles with the “Portal Super User” permission.

2. Select the Reports tab.

3. From the Administrative Reports folder, select the All Active Users report.

Tips on Setting Up Delegated Customer Portal User Administration

Consider the following when setting up delegated Customer Portal User Administration:

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

•

On the profile of users you are granting delegated portal administration:

–

Add the “Create” and “Edit” permissions on contacts so that delegated portal administrators and users with the “Portal Super

User” permission can create and update contacts related to their account.

–

Set the Accounts and Contacts tab settings to Default On so that delegated portal administrators can view the Accounts and

Contacts tabs and easily manage contacts related to their accounts.

•

Add the Accounts and Contacts tabs to your Customer Portal.

•

Set field-level security and page layouts so that delegated Customer Portal user administrators and portal super users can only access the account, contact, and case fields you specify.

Note: To allow portal super users to create cases for contacts other than themselves, set the field-level security on the

Contact Name

field on cases to Editable.

•

Customer Portal users are prevented from viewing related lists to objects they don’t have access to. For example, if a Customer Portal user views a contact, and the contact page layout includes the Opportunities related list, the portal user can’t view the Opportunities related list because portal users don’t have access to opportunities.

•

Delegated Customer Portal user administrators can update portal users on any account to which they are transferred.

SEE ALSO:

View the Object Access and Field-Level Security Report for Portal Users

Customer Portal Health

Portal Health Check

Your customers and partners can access your information via portals in many ways. With portal health check reports, you can easily monitor this access. Portal health check reports show your security-related portal settings and provide information you can use to improve portal security.

Customer Portals and partner portals let you collaborate with and provide services to your customers and partners. With portals, you share and capture information from third-party users. To ensure that you don't expose more information than intended, it's important to follow best practices for portal implementation.

Note: Portal health check reports show sensitive user permissions, object permissions, and field permissions granted through profiles, as well as organization-wide sharing settings and sharing rules. Your portal users can also access records via the following means, which aren't included in portal health check reports.

•

Permission sets

•

Manual sharing

•

Apex managed sharing

•

Territories

•

List views

•

Groups

•

Queues

•

Teams

•

Content libraries

EDITIONS

Available in: both Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To view portal health check reports:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Users”

AND

“Modify All Data”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

•

Folders

To view portal health check reports, from Setup enter

Portal Health Check

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Portal

Health Check. Lastly, click the report you want.

The following reports are included:

•

Administrative and User Permissions

•

Object Access and Field-Level Security

•

Sharing Organization-Wide Defaults

•

Sharing Rules

Note: The portal health check reports don't include information for criteria-based sharing, high-volume portal users, or Self-Service portal users.

View the Sharing Organization-Wide Defaults Report for Portal Users

View the Sharing Rules Report for Portal Users

View the Administrative and User Permissions Report for Portal Users

User permissions are powerful, as they expand users' access to data. It's important to use caution when setting permissions for a profile. Use the Administrative and User Permissions report—one of the portal health check reports—to see portal profiles and their critical permission settings.

EDITIONS

Note: This report doesn't show permissions granted through permission sets.

Available in: both Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

For each profile, the report lists the number of portal users assigned to it and the following permission settings:

•

Delegated External User Administrator

•

Send Email

•

Convert Leads

•

Edit Events

•

Edit Opportunity Product Sales Price

•

Edit Tasks

•

Transfer Cases

•

Portal Super User

•

API Enabled

•

Password Never Expires

•

Create Libraries

•

View Content in Portals

•

Export Reports

•

Run Reports

Note:

Depending on your organization's settings, some permissions won’t appear in the report.

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To view portal health check reports:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Users”

AND

“Modify All Data”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

To view this report:

1. From Setup, enter

Portal Health Check

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Portal Health Check.

2. Click Administrative and User Permissions.

From the report page, you can:

•

View a profile detail page by clicking the profile name.

•

Show a filtered list of items by selecting a predefined view from the drop-down list.

•

Return to the list of reports by clicking Back to list: Portal Health Check Reports.

SEE ALSO:

View the Object Access and Field-Level Security Report for Portal Users

Object permissions specify the access that users have to standard and custom objects. It is important to monitor this information for portal user profiles to ensure that portal users have access to only the appropriate objects and fields. The Object Access and Field-Level Security report—one of the portal health check reports—allows you to do just that.

The Object Access and Field-Level Security report shows how many portal profiles can access each standard and custom object in your organization. For each object, it also lists the number of portal users with access, the object access level, and the fields that are visible to those users.

Note:

The Object Access and Field-Level Security report doesn't show permissions granted through permission sets.

To view this report:

1. From Setup, enter

Portal Health Check

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Portal

Health Check.

2. Click Object Access and Field-Level Security.

3. From the report page, click an object name.

On the object detail page, you can:

•

View a profile detail page by clicking the profile name.

•

View a profile's field-level security detail page by clicking visible fields.

•

Return to the high-level object access and field-level security report by clicking Object

Access and Field-Level Security.

From both report pages, you can:

•

Show a filtered list of items by selecting a predefined view from the drop-down list.

•

Return to the list of reports by clicking Back to list: Portal Health Check Reports.

SEE ALSO:

Object Access and Field-Level Security report

EDITIONS

Available in: both Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To view portal health check reports:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Users”

AND

“Modify All Data”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

View the Sharing Organization-Wide Defaults Report for Portal Users

The Sharing Organization-Wide Defaults report—one of the portal health check reports—lists standard and custom objects and the default access setting for each object. You can use this report to review and edit the organization-wide default settings that expose records to portal users.

Organization-wide default settings specify each object's default access level for users in your organization. If an object's default access level is Public, users with enabled object permissions

(“Read,” “Create,” “Edit,” or “Delete”) may be able to access records that they don't own. For example, if the default access setting for the account object is Public Read/Write, then any user with the

“Read” permission on the account object can view any account record. When setting organization-wide defaults, you want to make sure you don't let portal users see objects they shouldn't access.

To view this report:

1. From Setup, enter

Portal Health Check

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Portal

Health Check.

2. Click Sharing Organization-Wide Defaults.

The report lists the default access setting for each object. If an object's default access is Public,

Show Details (for calendar), or Use (for price book), portal users with object permissions can access other users' records. In this case, the Security column indicates a weak organization-wide default setting. You can view the specific object permissions granted to portal profiles in the

If the object's default access is Private, Hide Details (for calendar), or No Access (for price book), the Security column indicates a strong organization-wide default setting.

EDITIONS

Available in: both Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To view portal health check reports:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Users”

AND

“Modify All Data”

To set default sharing access:

•

“Manage Sharing”

Note: Even with a strong organization-wide default setting, portal users may have access to other users' records through exceptions such as sharing rules.

Grant Access Using Hierarchies

is checked, any user above a record owner in a territory or role hierarchy can access the owner's records for that object.

From the report page, you can:

•

Change the organization-wide sharing settings for any object by clicking Edit, then changing the settings on the Organization-Wide

Sharing Defaults Edit page.

•

Show a filtered list of items by selecting a predefined view from the drop-down list.

•

Return to the list of reports by clicking Back to list: Portal Health Check Reports.

SEE ALSO:

the specific object permissions granted to portal profiles in the Object Access and

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

View the Sharing Rules Report for Portal Users

The Sharing Rules report—one of the portal health check reports—lists all sharing rules that give portal users access to records they don't own. It shows how many portal users can access records as a result of each sharing rule, and lets you edit access levels for each rule. For some user sets (like groups, roles, and territories), you can drill down to detail pages, and edit, delete, or manage the users in the set.

EDITIONS

Available in: both Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

To view this report:

1. From Setup, enter

Portal Health Check

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Portal

Health Check.

2. Click Sharing Rules.

The Number of Portal Users Affected column shows the number of portal users who can get access as a result of the sharing rule. This number includes users specified in the rule and, if

Grant Access Using Hierarchies is enabled for the object, any portal users above them in the role or territory hierarchy. If any users in this set have enabled object permissions (“Read,”

“Create,” “Edit,” or “Delete”), they can access records exposed by the rule.

Note:

•

The Sharing Rules report doesn't include criteria-based sharing rules.

•

The Sharing Rules report doesn't check portal users' object permissions. You can view

Field-Level Security report

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To view portal health check reports:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Users”

AND

“Modify All Data”

To create and edit sharing rules:

•

“Manage Sharing”

From the report page, you can:

•

Change the access level in a sharing rule by clicking Edit, then changing the settings on the sharing rule edit page.

•

View the details of a user set in a sharing rule by clicking the link in the Owned By or Shared With column.

•

Show a filtered list of items by selecting a predefined view from the drop-down list.

•

Return to the list of reports by clicking Back to list: Portal Health Check Reports.

Note: Account and account territory sharing rules can grant access to contacts, opportunities, and cases associated with the shared accounts. The Sharing Rules report shows access levels only for top-level objects, not associated objects.

SEE ALSO:

You can’t save any JavaScript as part of your custom code, and can only use certain

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Self-Service Portal

Self-Service Jump Start

Note:

Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

Get your Self-Service portal running quickly using the Jump Start button. It automates the setup process by choosing some default settings for you.

Note:

HTML elements and attributes

1. From Setup, enter

Self-Service Portal

in the

Quick Find

box, select Settings, then click Jump Start.

2. Review the process and click Continue.

3. Choose a color theme.

4. Edit the default settings as needed and click Save.

5. Test your Self-Service portal by:

a. Clicking Generate to retrieve a test username and password.

b. Clicking Access Self-Service Portal to preview your pages.

c. Optionally, click Invite to notify other users how to log in and preview your pages.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To use Self-Service Jump

Start:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

6. Enable your Self-Service portal by copying the link provided in the Enable Self-Service... section to an appropriate place on your website.

7. Click Done when finished.

8. Enable your customers to use your Self-Service portal. See Managing Self-Service Users on page 95.

Tip:

To make changes to your settings, see Enable Self-Service Features and Settings

on page 75. The Self-Service Jump Start automatically enables the Enable Self-Service button on contact detail pages.

SEE ALSO:

Enable Self-Service Features and Settings on page 75

Administrator tip sheet: Getting the Most from Your Self-Service Portal

Administrator setup guide: Self-Service Implementation Guide

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Setting Up Self-Service

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

Self-Service provides an online support channel for your customers - allowing them to resolve their inquiries without contacting a customer service representative.

Setting up your Self-Service portal is simple. Choose from two setup options:

•

Jump Start - Gets you up and running quickly; see

Self-Service Jump Start

on page 73.

•

Self-Service Setup - Complete setup which allows you more customization. The setup consists of:

–

–

Customizing Your Self-Service Look and Feel

on page 78

–

Customizing Your Self-Service Fonts and Colors on page 79

–

Customizing Your Self-Service Pages on page 80

–

Generating Login HTML

on page 94

–

See Preparation for Setting Up Your Portal

on page 95

to learn more about implementing Self-Service.

SEE ALSO:

Self-Service Jump Start

Customizing Your Self-Service Look and Feel

Customizing Your Self-Service Fonts and Colors

Administrator tip sheet: Getting the Most from Your Self-Service Portal

Administrator setup guide: Self-Service Implementation Guide

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To use Self-Service Jump

Start:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

To set up the Self-Service portal:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Enable Self-Service Features and Settings

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

1. From Setup, enter

Self Service Portal

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Settings.

2. Click Self-Service Setup on the Self-Service Settings page.

3. Set the following options:

Setting

Edit Self-Service Users

Logout URL

Default Case Origin

New Cases Visible in Portal

Description

Allows users to log into the Self-Service portal.

Displays the Enable Self-Service button on contact detail pages. Or, for contacts in which

Self-Service is already enabled, the View

Self-Service button displays.

The URL of the web page that will be displayed when users log out of the

Self-Service portal, for example, http://www.acme.com

. If a logout URL is not specified, the Logout button does not display to users.

The default origin assigned to all cases submitted via the Self-Service portal. Available values are taken from your organization's

Case Origin

picklist. You can assign different default origins for cases submitted via Self-Service and Web-to-Case.

Automatically selects the

Visible in

Self-Service Portal

checkbox for all new cases, 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.

Enable Solution Browsing

Top-Level Category for

Self-Service Portal

Enables solution categories in the Self-Service portal so that customers can browse solutions by category.

If multilingual solutions is enabled, you can translate solution categories.

The top-level category accessible by customers in the Self-Service portal.

Customers can view all solutions marked

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up the Self-Service portal:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Setting

Case Record Type

"From" Email Address

"From" Email Name

New User Template

New Password Template

Enable Notification Email on New Case

Comment

Description

Visible in Self-Service Portal

in this category and its subcategories.

Leave this blank to let customers view all solutions marked

Visible in Self-Service Portal

in all categories.

The record type to assign to any case submitted via the

Self-Service portal.

The email address from which all new user and password emails will be sent, for example, [email protected]

. When this field is blank, Salesforce uses:

•

The Automated Case User's email address for users who receive an email with a temporary password by clicking

Forgot your password? on the Login Page of the

Self-Service portal. The Automated Case User is specified on the Support Settings page in Setup.

•

The email address of the user who last posted a comment for users who receive a case comment notification email.

The name that will be associated with the “From” Email Address, for example, “Acme Customer Support.” When this field is blank,

Salesforce uses:

•

Your organization's name for users who receive an email with a temporary password by clicking Forgot your

password? on the Login Page of the Self-Service portal.

•

The name of the user who last posted a comment for users who receive a case comment notification email.

The email template used to send a username and initial password to all newly-enabled Self-Service users. Self-Service automatically selects a sample template for you, but you can modify the sample or create your own email template. This template must be marked as “Available for Use.”

The email template used to send a new password to existing

Self-Service users when you reset their passwords or when they reset their own passwords by clicking Forgot your password? on the Login Page of the Self-Service portal. Self-Service automatically selects a sample template for you, but you can modify the sample or create your own email template. This template must be marked as “Available for Use.”

When selected, indicates that the

Send Customer

Notification

option on a case comment is displayed.

Even if this checkbox is not selected, the

Send Customer

Notification

option still displays on cases if you have enabled email notifications to contacts who are not members

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Setting

New Comment Template

Enable Case Auto-Response Rules for

Self-Service Cases

Case Creation Template

Maximum Page Width

Minimum Page Height

Style Sheet URL

Color Theme

Case Single Term

Case Plural Term

Solution Single Term

Solution Plural Term

Creating Web and Social Channels

Description

of your Self-Service portal. See

Customize Support Settings

on page 299.

The email template used to send a notification to Self-Service users when a public comment is added to one of their cases.

Self-Service automatically selects a sample template for you, but you can modify the sample or create your own email template.

This template must be marked as “Available for Use.”

Note that case owners are sent a separate notification that you can't customize.

Indicates if cases submitted through your Self-Service portal will trigger your auto-response rules.

The email template to use when cases submitted through your

Self-Service portal do not match any auto-response rules.

The maximum pixel width of the Self-Service pages from

Salesforce. If hosting the portal yourself, this is the width of the inner HTML frame on your Self-Service login page.

The minimum pixel height of the Self-Service pages from

Salesforce.

The complete, publicly accessible URL of your organization’s

Self-Service style sheet, for example,

“http://www.acme.com/styles/selfservice.css.” See

Customizing

Your Self-Service Look and Feel

on page 78.

If you use a predefined color theme, leave this field blank.

Use one of Salesforce’s color themes if you do not have your own style sheet to use. Click the View link to see template settings.

To change the fonts and colors of one of Salesforce’s color

themes, see Customizing Your Self-Service Fonts and Colors

on page 79.

Term used on the Self-Service portal instead of “case” (singular form).

Term used on the Self-Service portal instead of “cases” (plural form).

Term used on the Self-Service portal instead of “solution” (singular form).

Term used on the Self-Service portal instead of “solutions” (plural form).

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

4. Click Save to save your Self-Service settings.

SEE ALSO:

1. Customize the headers and footers of the Self-Service pages; see Create Your Custom Page

Administrator tip sheet: Getting the Most from Your Self-Service Portal

Administrator setup guide: Self-Service Implementation Guide

Customizing Your Self-Service Look and Feel

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

To develop a meaningful look and feel for your Self-Service portal:

Header and Footer Sections on page 87.

2. Customize the Self-Service portal fonts and colors via one of these options:

•

Choose a predefined color theme or upload your own style sheet

on page 81.

•

Customize fonts and colors using a point-and-click editor

on page 79.

SEE ALSO:

Self-Service Page Attributes on page 92.

Creating Web and Social Channels

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up the Self-Service portal:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Customizing Your Self-Service Fonts and Colors

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

You can customize the fonts and colors of the Self-Service portal to reflect your company’s branding.

Your portal’s fonts and colors are specified in a portal “color theme.” Select a predefined color theme and customize it using a point-and-click editor.

1. From Setup, enter

Fonts and Colors

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Fonts

and Colors. Salesforce offers predefined themes that you can customize. Click Preview to view any theme.

2. Select the color theme you want to customize.

From the color theme page, you can:

•

Click the Reset to Default link to remove all customizations from a theme.

•

Click the Back to All Themes link to return to the list of color themes.

•

Click Preview

Theme Name

to view the theme you are customizing.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

3. Choose a portal page to customize. Color themes are customized page-by-page with some page elements being shared by multiple pages.

From the portal page, you can:

•

Click See Examples to see all of the elements that you can customize.

•

Click Clear next to an element to remove customizations.

•

Click Preview

Theme Name

to view the theme you are customizing.

•

Click the Back to All Pages link to return to the list of all portal pages.

To set up the Self-Service portal:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

4. Click Edit next to the visual element you want to customize. Some elements are visible only on the selected portal page, and some are shared across multiple portal pages. Changes you make to shared elements affect all pages.

Note: Depending on the visual element, you can customize attributes using a point-and-click editor or a custom style sheet editor which lets you modify the cascading style sheets (CSS) directly. Choose the click here link to switch between the two.

If you are using the point-and-click editor, select the Show advanced attributes box to access the click here link. We recommend that only users familiar with cascading style sheets (CSS) define them.

5. Edit the visual element as desired.

If you are using the point-and-click editor:

•

Click Edit next to a basic or advanced attribute. If you do not see the advanced attributes, select the

Show advanced attributes

box.

•

In the popup window, change the attribute as needed.

•

Click OK to confirm your changes in the popup window.

If you are using the custom style sheet editor, enter valid CSS code.

For a list of all the page attributes you can edit, see

6. Click Save to save all changes to the visual element and its attributes. Customizations are not visible to your Self-Service users until you set the color theme as active.

7. Repeat these steps to customize all visual elements and their attributes as necessary.

8. Return to the list of color themes by clicking the Back to All Pages link and then the Back to All Themes link.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

9. Click Set Active Theme.

10. Select the theme to activate for your portal, live and in real-time. Your organization can only have one active theme.

11. Click Save.

Note: Since changes to an active theme take effect immediately, we recommend that you fully customize a theme before activating it so as not to disturb your customers.

SEE ALSO:

Customize the Self-Service Portal Login Page

Customizing Your Self-Service Pages

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

1. From Setup, enter

Self-Service Portal

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Settings.

2. Make the necessary enhancements to any Self-Service pages. See the following for more information:

•

•

Customize the Self-Service Portal Home Page

•

Enable the Solutions Page

•

Customize the Self-Service Portal Log a Case Page

•

Customize the View Cases Page

•

Customize the Suggested Solutions Page

Note:

•

You cannot create multiple versions of the same Self-Service portal page. However, you can customize each Self-Service page.

•

Salesforce Knowledge

articles do not display in the Self-Service portal.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

SEE ALSO:

Self-Service Page Attributes

Create Your Custom Page Header and Footer Sections

Preparation for Setting Up Your Portal

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the

Self-Service portal.

Before setting up your Self-Service portal

or your Salesforce Customer Portal :

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

•

Build your public solutions - Review and mark your solutions as

Visible in Self-Service Portal

. Only solutions marked

Visible in Self-Service Portal

can appear in the Self-Service portal or the Customer Portal. For your

Self-Service portal only, identify the top five solutions you want to feature on the Home Page.

•

Determine the information to show and collect - Decide which case fields will be available when users view their cases. You should also decide which fields should be required when users submit cases online and which picklist values users can select when they solve their own cases with suggested solutions. (See Case Fields.)

•

Designate the portal's location - Choose where to add your portal's login URL on your corporate website. To locate the login URL

for your Self-Service portal, see Generating Login HTML; to locate the login URL for your Customer Portal, see Enable Customer Portal

on page 23.

•

Customize your portal communication templates - Decide which email templates to send to users to communicate a variety of information, such as reset passwords, notifications when public comments are added to cases, and case auto-responses with suggested solutions.

•

Customize and distribute the portal tip sheet - Download the Using the Self-Service Portal and Customer Portal tip sheet and edit it to match your portal's branding and features, such as suggested solutions and the ability to attach files to submitted cases.

Then distribute the document to your customers who want to learn how to answer their own inquiries using your portal.

SEE ALSO:

Customizing Your Self-Service Fonts and Colors on page 79.

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

Select a predefined color theme, or download a sample Self-Service color theme so you can customize it. This color theme allows you to incorporate your organization’s branding into your

Self-Service portal.

Note: To customize the Self-Service color theme using a point-and-click editor, see

1. From Setup, enter

Self-Service Portal

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Settings.

2. Click Self-Service Setup.

3. Click the View Color Theme Options link in the page settings section.

4. Find a set of fonts and colors you like and click Download This Color Theme.

To use a predefined color theme without customizing it, simply click Select This Color Theme.

5. Save the color theme you downloaded and give it to your webmaster if it needs more customization. The downloaded color theme is a CSS style sheet that your webmaster can edit.

6. Store the downloaded style sheet in a publicly accessible location and enter the URL for your style sheet in the

Style Sheet URL

field.

7. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

You can’t save any JavaScript as part of your custom code, and can only use certain HTML elements and attributes .

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up the Self-Service portal:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Customize the Self-Service Portal Login Page

Customize the Self-Service login page to specify what users see when they’re prompted to sign in to your portal.

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

1. From Setup, enter

Self-Service Portal

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Settings.

2. In the Portal Pages list, click Edit next to Login Page.

3. Check

Show Message

to display a custom message on the login page.

4. If you enabled a page message, enter it in the text box, using the format toolbar to change the size, color, or font.

Optionally, select

Show HTML

to view and edit your page message in HTML.

5. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

can only use certain HTML elements and attributes .

Customize the Self-Service Portal Home Page

Customize the Self-Service home page to include the features you want users to see when they log in to your Self-Service portal.

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

1. From Setup, enter

Self-Service Portal

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Settings.

2. In the Portal Pages list, click Edit next to Home Page.

3. Choose the features you want to enable:

Feature

Show Top Solutions List

Show My Open Cases

Show Message

Description

Lists the titles of up to five solutions of your choice on the Home Page.

Lists the open cases of the Self-Service user who is logged in.

The message that will be displayed at the top of the home page. You can enter a message of up to 32,000 characters including any HTML tags.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

4. If you chose to show a message on the page, enter your message in the text box, using the formatting toolbar to change the size, color, or font.

Select

Show HTML

to view your page message in HTML. You can’t save any JavaScript as part of your custom code, and

5. Optionally, insert merge fields for data that you want to replace dynamically.

6. Click Save.

7. To see how your Home Page will look, click Preview next to Home Page in the Portal Pages list. If you have customized the Self-Service style sheet, the preview shows your custom styles.

Set the Top Solutions

If you checked

Show Top Solutions List

from the Home page, click Add in the Solutions related list of the Self-Service

Settings page to search for and select solutions to display on the Home page. You can only select solutions that have been marked

Visible in Self-Service Portal

SEE ALSO:

can only use certain HTML elements and attributes

Enable the Solutions Page

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

You can enable the Self-Service Solutions Page from the Self-Service Portal Pages related list. The

Solutions Page allows users to see solutions that have been marked

Visible in

Self-Service Portal

and any files attached to those solutions.

1. To enable this page, click Edit on the Solutions Page line.

2. Select the

Show Solution Page

checkbox.

3. Check

Show Message

to display a message at the top of the Solutions Page.

4. If you enabled the message, enter your message in the text box, using the formatting toolbar to format the size, color, or font.

Optionally, check

Show HTML

to view your page message in HTML code. You can’t save any

JavaScript as part of your custom code, and

5. Optionally, insert any merge fields for data that you want to replace dynamically.

6. Click Save.

7. To see how your Solutions Page will look, click Preview on the Solutions Page line. If you have customized the Self-Service style sheet, the preview shows your custom styles.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

SEE ALSO:

as part of your custom code, and can only use certain HTML elements and attributes

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Customize the Self-Service Portal Log a Case Page

The Log a Case Page on the Self-Service portal lets users submit new cases to your customer support team. Customize the page by creating a page message, adding merge fields, and choosing the case fields you want to include.

Note:

Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

New cases submitted from this page are automatically created in Self-Service and assigned to the support representative or queue defined by your case assignment rules.

1. From Setup, enter

Self-Service Portal

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Settings.

2. In the Portal Pages list, click Edit next to Log a Case Page.

3. Select the

Show Log a Case Page

checkbox.

4. Select

Show Message

to display a message on this page.

5. If you enabled a page message, enter it in the text box, using the formatting toolbar to change the size, color, or font.

Select

Show HTML

to view and edit your page message in HTML. You can’t save any JavaScript

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

6. Optionally, insert merge fields for data that you want to replace dynamically.

7. Click Save.

8. To change the fields that display on the page, click the Page Layout link.

Note: If a case field is tied to a validation rule, the rule can prevent Self-Service portal users from logging a case if they do not have access to fill in that field. Consider making those fields visible on the Log A Case page.

9. Click Save at any time to finish.

10. To see how your Log a Case Page will look, click Preview next to Log a Case Page in the Portal Pages list. If you have customized the Self-Service style sheet, the preview shows your custom styles.

SEE ALSO:

can only use certain HTML elements and attributes .

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Customize the View Cases Page

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

You can enable and customize the View Cases Page from the Self-Service Portal Pages related list.

The View Cases Page allows users to view their open and closed cases, related solutions, completed activities, comments, and (optionally) to add comments to their cases.

1. Click Edit on the View Cases Page line.

2. Select the

Show View Cases Page

box to allow users to view their open and closed cases.

3. Select

Add Comments to Cases

to allow users to add comments to their cases. When a user adds a comment, an email is automatically sent to the case owner.

4. Select

Add Attachments to Cases

to allow users to upload files to their cases. When a user adds an attachment, an email is automatically sent to the case owner.

When editing the page layout for the View Cases Page, add the Case Attachments related list to allow Self-Service users to view the files they've added to their cases. Be aware that this related list also shows any files that support reps have added to the case.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

5. Check

Show Message

to display a message on this page.

6. If you enabled the message, enter your message in the text box, using the formatting toolbar to format the size, color, or font.

Optionally, check

Show HTML

to view your page message in HTML code. You can’t save any JavaScript as part of your custom code, and

7. Optionally, insert any merge fields for data that you want to replace dynamically.

8. Click Save.

9. To change the fields and related lists that display on the page, click the Page Layout link.

Add the Case Activities related list to allow Self-Service users to view public, completed activities related to their cases. You also need to set field-level security to visible for the

Visible in Self-Service Portal

checkbox on activity page layouts so support reps will be able to display or hide completed activities in the Self-Service portal by clicking

Make Public

Make

Private

in the case's Activity History related list.

10. Click Save at any time to finish.

11. To see how your View Cases Page will look, click Preview on the View Cases Page line. If you have customized the Self-Service style sheet, the preview shows your custom styles.

Tip: To hide specific cases from users in the portal, you can deselect the

Visible in Self-Service Portal

checkbox on the case.

Note: View Cases pages list cases in descending order via the

Case Number

field. Portal users cannot change this order; nor can they sort case columns in the Self-Service portal.

SEE ALSO:

You can’t save any JavaScript as part of your custom code, and can only use certain HTML elements and attributes

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Customize the Suggested Solutions Page

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

You can enable and customize the Suggested Solutions Page from the Self-Service Portal Pages related list. The Suggested Solutions Page displays up to ten relevant solutions that may help users solve a particular case. When submitting a case or viewing cases in the Self-Service portal, users can view suggested solutions and close their cases themselves.

To customize the Suggested Solutions Page:

1. Click Edit on the Suggested Solutions Page line.

2. Select

Show Suggested Solutions Page

to enable the page in the Self-Service portal.

3. Select a

Self-Closed Case Status

to show in the

Status

field for cases closed by Self-Service users. You must select at least one “Closed” value for this field.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

4. Choose the maximum number of suggested solutions to display to users at one time. You can show a maximum of ten.

5. Select the

Self-Closed Case Reasons

that Self-Service users can choose from when they self-close their cases.

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

6. Check

Show Message

to display a message on this page.

7. If you enabled the message, enter your message in the text box, using the formatting toolbar to format the size, color, or font.

Optionally, check

Show HTML

to view your page message in HTML code.

8. Optionally, insert any merge fields for data that you want to replace dynamically..

9. Click Save.

10. To see how your Suggested Solutions Page will look, click Preview on the Suggested Solutions Page line. If you have customized the Self-Service style sheet, the preview shows your custom styles.

SEE ALSO:

as part of your custom code, and can only use certain HTML elements and attributes

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Create Your Custom Page Header and Footer Sections

Apply your company’s branding to every page in your Self-Service portal by customizing your page headers and footers. Your portal page headers and footers can contain a company logo, your company messaging, or your company’s colors.

Note:

Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

1. From Setup, enter

Self-Service Portal

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Settings.

2. Click Edit next to the Page Header or Page Footer listed in the Portal Page Sections.

3. Check

Show Header

Show Footer

to display a header or footer on your portal pages.

4. Check

Show Header Separator

Show Footer Separator to include a line separating the header or footer from your body pages.

5. Optionally, enter a page message, and use the format toolbar to format it.

Select

Show HTML

to view and edit your page message in HTML.You can’t save any JavaScript

6. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Self-Service Page Attributes

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up the Self-Service portal:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

Supported HTML Elements and Attributes for Self-Service Portal Customization

Use HTML to customize the page message on your Self-Service portal pages.

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

You can customize any of your Self-Service portal pages, and the header and footer on these pages, to include a message, and can use the following HTML elements and attributes in that message.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Supported Elements

•

abbr

•

acronym

•

address

•

area

•

basefont

•

bdo

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

•

head

•

html

•

img

•

input

•

ins

•

kbd

•

label

•

legend

•

link

•

big

•

blockquote

•

body

•

button

•

caption

•

center

•

cite

•

code

•

col

•

colgroup

•

del

•

dfn

•

dir

•

div

•

fieldset

•

font

•

form

•

Creating Web and Social Channels

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

•

tfoot

•

thead

•

title

•

var

•

xmp

•

map

•

Supported Attributes

•

abbr

•

accept-charset

•

accesskey

•

action

Creating Web and Social Channels

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

•

compact

•

content

•

coords

•

data

•

datetime

•

declare

•

defer

•

dir

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disabled

•

enctype

•

face

•

frameborder

•

headers

•

height

•

href

•

hreflang

•

hspace

•

align

•

alink

•

alt

•

axis

•

background

•

bgcolor

•

border

•

cellpadding

•

cellspacing

•

char

•

charoff

•

charset

•

checked

•

cite

•

class

•

classid

•

clear

•

code

•

codebase

•

codetype

•

color

•

cols

•

colspan

Creating Web and Social Channels

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

•

rowspan

•

rules

•

scheme

•

scope

•

scrolling

•

selected

•

shape

•

size

•

span

•

src

•

standby

•

start

•

style

•

summary

•

tabindex

•

target

•

text

•

http-equiv

•

ismap

•

label

•

lang

•

language

•

link

•

longdesc

•

marginheight

•

marginwidth

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maxlength

•

media

•

method

•

multiple

•

name

•

nohref

•

noresize

•

noshade

•

nowrap

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readonly

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rel

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rev

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rows

Creating Web and Social Channels

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

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title

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usemap

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valign

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value

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valuetype

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version

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vlink

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width

Customize the Self-Service Portal Log a Case Page

Customize the Self-Service Portal Login Page

Create Your Custom Page Header and Footer Sections

Self-Service Page Attributes

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

The following is a list of Self-Service page attributes which can be modified with the point-and-click editor:

Page Attribute

Color

Bold

Font size

Font

Font Family

Underline

Border Color

Border Style

Border Width

Bottom Border Width

Description

The color of the text.

The bolded value of the text. For example, whether the text is bolded or not.

The size of the text.

A specific style of type in which letters are displayed.

A prioritized list of font family names for an element. Web browsers use the first font value recognized.

The underline value of the text. For example, whether the text is underlined or not.

The color of a border.

The style of a border, such as dotted, dashed, or solid.

The width of a border.

The width of a bottom border.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up the Self-Service portal:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Page Attribute

Padding

Padding Top

Padding Right

Padding Left

Padding Bottom

Height

Line Height

Background Color

Background Repeat

Background Image

SEE ALSO:

Creating Web and Social Channels

Description

The amount of space between the border and the element.

The amount of space to put between the top border and the element.

The amount of space to put between the right border and the element.

The amount of space to put between the left border and the element.

The amount of space to put between the bottom border and the element.

The height of the element.

The height of a line.

The background color of the element.

The format in which the background image displays. For example, whether the image displays repeatedly in a horizontal or vertical format.

The background image of the element. The relative or absolute

URL which hosts the image must be inside the surrounding URL() syntax. For example, url(/sserv/img/tabBg_gray.gif)

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Generating Login HTML

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

After enabling and customizing your Self-Service portal, generate the URL or HTML code where users will log in to your Self-Service portal.

1. From Setup, enter

Self-Service Portal

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Settings.

2. Click Generate Login HTML.

3. Insert the URL or HTML code provided into your portal’s Web page.

4. Click Finished to return to the Self-Service Settings page.

Note: You can’t be logged into Salesforce and the Self-Service portal at the same time, with the same browser. For example, if you log into Salesforce and then the Self-Service portal using the same browser, your Salesforce session becomes invalid. Conversely, if you log into the Self-Service portal and then Salesforce using the same browser, your Self-Service portal session becomes invalid.

SEE ALSO:

Enabling Multiple Self-Service Users

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To generate Self-Service portal HTML:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

Using the Portals Tab

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

The Portals Tab is where you set up an online support channel for your Self-Service customers allowing them to resolve their inquiries without contacting a customer service representative.

Clicking on the Portals tab displays the portals home page. From there, you can:

•

View your customer Self-Service portal home page.

•

Click on your Self-Service portal pages to see how your customers will interact with them.

•

Under Reports, click any report name to jump to that report.

•

Select any of the links under Tools to access utilities for managing your Self-Service portal and

Self-Service users.

Note: The Portals tab does not include the Customer Portal.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up the Self-Service portal:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

To modify Self-Service pages:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Customize Application”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Managing Self-Service Users

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

Manage your Self-Service user information from a single place and make changes to more than one user at a time. Before your customers can take advantage of the Self-Service portal, you must enable Self-Service access for each contact. You can enable access for one contact at a time from the Contacts tab or for multiple contacts via the Self-Service setup pages.

•

To enable Self-Service users individually from the Contacts tab, select a contact and click Enable

Self-Service on the contact’s detail page.

•

To enable multiple Self-Service users at once, see

on page

95.

•

To change Self-Service user information, see Editing Self-Service User Information on page 96.

•

To reset Self-Service user passwords, see Resetting Self-Service User Passwords on page 96.

SEE ALSO:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To manage Self-Service users:

•

“Edit Self-Service Users”

To mass manage

Self-Service users:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Edit Self-Service Users”

Enabling Multiple Self-Service Users

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

You can perform mass actions for Self-Service user management such as enabling Self-Service access for many contacts at once. Each contact must have an email address and must be associated with an account to be a Self-Service user.

To enable new users for your Self-Service portal:

1. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

2. Click Enable New User(s).

3. Enter search criteria to compile a list of the contacts you want to enable and click Search.

4. Select the contacts you want to enable and click Next.

5. Modify Self-Service user information as necessary.

6. Select the

Super User

checkbox to enable the contact as a Self-Service super user who can view case information, add comments, and upload attachments for all cases submitted by anyone in his or her company.

7. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To manage Self-Service users:

•

“Edit Self-Service Users”

To mass manage

Self-Service users:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Edit Self-Service Users”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Editing Self-Service User Information

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

Edit Self-Service user information to keep user information updated.

1. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

2. Select the users you want to change.

3. Click Edit User(s).

4. Make any necessary changes to these records.

5. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To manage Self-Service users:

•

“Edit Self-Service Users”

To mass manage

Self-Service users:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Edit Self-Service Users”

Resetting Self-Service User Passwords

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

If a Self-Service user loses his or her password, you can email a new password to him or her. To reset one or more Self-Service users’ passwords:

1. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

2. Select the users whose passwords you want to reset.

3. Click Reset Password(s).

4. Click OK.

SEE ALSO:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To manage Self-Service users:

•

“Edit Self-Service Users”

To mass manage

Self-Service users:

•

“Manage Self-Service

Portal”

AND

“Edit Self-Service Users”

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Zones for Salesforce Communities and Customer Portals

Using Zones to Organize Communities

Note:

Starting with the Summer ’13 release, Chatter Answers and Ideas “communities” have been renamed to “zones.”

Zones organize ideas and questions into logical groups, with each zone having its own focus and unique ideas and questions. Zones are shared by the Ideas, Answers, and Chatter Answers applications, allowing you to view and create zones from those locations. Professional Edition organizations can have only one internal zone. All other editions can have up to 50 zones shared between Ideas, Answers, and Chatter Answers.

Note: If you need more than 50 zones, contact Salesforce.

You can display a zone to the following types of users:

•

Salesforce Communities users.

•

Public users (requires setting up a Force.com site).

•

Internal Salesforce users. Salesforce users can access all zones regardless of whether the community is internal-only or displayed in a portal.

•

Customer Portal or partner portal users.

•

Salesforce console users.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Ideas zones available in:

Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Answers zones available in:

Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Chatter Answers zones available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Note:

You cannot use Salesforce sharing rules to restrict access to zones. When you create a zone , you can restrict access by selecting the portal where the zone should appear. Only the users assigned to that portal (and internal Salesforce users) will be able to access that unless you expose it publicly using Force.com sites.

Users will see zones, search results, and content that are associated with the context defined by their user profile:

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or edit a zone:

•

“Customize Application”

•

Community users see the zones associated with the community they’re signed in to.

•

Internal users with permission to see Ideas can see all internal-only zones in the organization. If internal users sign in to a community, they see only those zones associated with that community.

•

Internal users with permission to see Chatter Answers can see all internal-only zones for the organization in the Q&A tab. If internal users sign in to a community, they see only those zones associated with that community.

•

Portal users can see the zones associated with their portal.

•

Portal users with access to both a portal and a community can see the zones associated with the portal or community that they are currently signed in to.

•

Users who are accessing the portal or community through an API can access all zones that they have access to in all contexts.

•

Global searches in the internal application performed by internal users return results from all ideas that are available within the organization. Searches performed by all other users in Salesforce Communities return results from the ideas that are available within the community.

SEE ALSO:

Enabling Ideas in the Customer Portal

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Creating and Editing Zones

Zones are shared by the Ideas, Answers, and Chatter Answers applications, allowing you to view and create zones from those locations. Answers can only have one zone displayed at a time.

Supported editions allow up to 50 zones per organization.

To create a new zone or edit the details of an existing zone:

1. From Setup, enter

Zones

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Zones under Answers,

Ideas Zones, or Chatter Answers Zones.

2. Click Edit next to the zone you want to change or New to create a new zone.

3. Enter a unique name for your zone that clearly identifies the zone's purpose.

4. Optionally, enter a description in plain text. HTML and other markup languages are not supported.

5. Select the

Active

checkbox to display the zone to your community.

You can't delete zones, so if you need to hide a zone, make sure

Active

isn't selected. All active zones are automatically available from the Ideas tab, but you can only assign one active zone to Answers.

6. Select the

Username Format

to specify how usernames appear in posted questions and answers throughout the zone. Chatter Answers uses the Username Format for questions and answers only. Ideas uses the Nickname for usernames within a community rather than the

Username Format within in a zone.

Note:

For Chatter Answers, first names are used for users in the Customer Support Agents

Group even if Nickname is selected as the Username Format for the zone.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Ideas zones available in:

Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Answers zones available in:

Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Chatter Answers zones available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or edit a zone:

•

“Customize Application”

7. Specify where you want this zone displayed.

•

Community

lets you select a community in which to display the zone. For Chatter Answers only, you can also select Visible

Without Authentication to allow guest users to view activity within the zone through the community without signing in.

•

Internal Only

displays the zone to internal users only. Portal and Salesforce Communities members can’t see internal zones.

•

Portal

lets you select from a list of existing portals.

To make a zone publicly available, you must select the Customer Portal that you plan to expose publicly using Force.com sites.

Chatter Answers is supported on Force.com sites. Answers isn’t supported on Force.com sites.

Note: If you re-assign a zone to another community, the items associated with that zone move to the new community, as well. Users who are logged in to the original community can’t view the items that have been moved to the new community, including from the Recent Items section of the sidebar column. If the zone is moved back to the original community, the ability to view those items is restored.

8. To set up zones for Chatter Answers, follow these steps:

a. Select

Enable for Chatter Answers

to associate the zone with Chatter Answers.

b. Select

Enable Private Questions

to let customers post their questions privately to customer support (create cases).

If you don’t select this setting, support agents can still initiate private communications with customers.

c. In

Visualforce Page That Hosts Your Zone’s Feeds

, click and choose the Visualforce page on which questions, replies, and knowledge articles display.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

The page you choose must include either the chatteranswers:allfeeds

component or a combination of the following components: chatteranswers:aboutme, chatteranswers:guestsignin, chatteranswers:feedfilter, chatteranswers:feeds, chatteranswers:searchask, chatteranswers:datacategoryfilter

so that the zone is linked to your Force.com site correctly. If you don’t choose a Visualforce page, one is automatically generated when you save your zone. The generated page includes your zone’s

ID so that topics, questions, and replies are associated with your specific zone and can display on it. The page is named after your zone with a suffix of “_main,” for example,

ZoneName_main

. The page also includes a language attribute that matches your organization’s default language.

You can use the

NoSignIn

Boolean attribute in the chatteranswers:allfeeds, chatteranswers:aboutme, chatteranswers:feeds

or chatteranswers:searchask

components to remove all sign-in links from your zone. Use this option when you have an external sign-in path and want to ensure that your users follow it instead of the standard

Chatter Answers sign-in. When the

NoSignIn

Boolean attribute is true

, users can still search and view publicly accessible content for the zone. If they already have a valid session, they can still post questions, replies, vote, and flag content.

d. In

Site That Hosts Your Zone

, click and choose the Force.com site on which you want to host the zone.

•

If you associated the zone with a portal, you can enter a Force.com site domain.

•

If you associated the zone with a Salesforce Community that does not require authentication for users to view zone activity, we populate the Force.com site domain for you.

e. Optionally, in

Email Notification URL

, customize the URL that’s included in email notifications sent from the zone.

The email notification URL is generated automatically to be adapted to the visibility settings of the zone, but it can be modified to fit specific needs or use cases. If you have a customized login page, enter its URL. For example, if you’ve created a login page from which users can access multiple zones, you can customize

Email Notification URL

to redirect users to that page from email notifications.

Note: If you have an existing URL for email notifications for an internal zone and subsequently set up a custom domain using My Domain, you must manually update the Email Notification URL. To update the URL, clear the existing URL so that the field is blank. Save the page, and the system populates the field with the new My Domain URL.

f. In

Customer Support Agents Group

, select the public group of users who will act as support agents for the zone.

These users will have a headset icon next to their username in the zone.

g. Optionally, in

Header

Footer

, click and choose a text or HTML file that incorporates your organization’s branding into the headers or footers of email notifications sent from the zone.

You can only choose a file that has been uploaded to a publicly accessible folder on the Documents tab and marked

Externally Available Image

. The files you include in the fields can have a combined size of up to 10 KB.

h. Select the data categories that you want exposed to the zone from the list of pre-defined data categories.

9. To set up Ideas for the zone, use the

Experts group

field to select the public group of experts who will monitor the zone for

Ideas.

10. Click Save.

Designating Community Experts

Administrator setup guide: Salesforce Ideas Implementation Guide

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Answers Communities

Setting Up Answers

Note:

Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with Summer ’13,

Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter Questions, a Q&A feature that’s seamlessly integrated into Chatter. With Chatter Questions, users can ask questions and find answers without ever needing to leave Chatter. Existing orgs will continue to have access to Answers if it was enabled before the Summer ’13 release from now until Winter ’18.

To set up answers:

Enable answers and set the default zone

Create a category group for answers and

add data categories

to the category group.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Note: Even though you can create up to five hierarchy levels of categories in a category group, only the first level of categories is supported in your answers community. Child categories below the first level are not displayed in the community, and community members can't assign these child categories to questions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To customize answers settings:

•

“Customize Application”

Assign the data categories to your answers community

Review the category group visibility settings to decide how you want to restrict access to

categories and categorized questions in the answers community.

5. Using roles, permission sets, or profiles:

Customize data category group visibility

b. (Optional)

Designate default category group visibility for users without visibility through roles, permission sets, or profiles.

6. (Optional) To allow community members who work with cases to escalate an unanswered or problematic question to a new case:

a. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts. Then edit the case page layouts to include the

Question field.

b. From the object management settings for cases, go to Fields. Then ensure that field-level security for the

Question

field makes the field visible in the necessary profiles.

Only community members who have permission to create cases will see an Escalate to Case option on questions.

7. (Optional) If your organization uses Salesforce Knowledge, users can convert particularly helpful replies into articles in the knowledge base. From Setup, enter

Knowledge Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Knowledge Settings and ensure that

Allow users to create an article from a reply

is checked.

8. (Optional) Create validation rules for questions and replies to prevent offensive language from being posted to the answers community.

To create validation rules, from the object management settings for Chatter Answers question and Chatter Answers reply, go to

Validation Rules.

9. (Optional) Create workflow rules for questions. For example, you may want to create a workflow rule that sends the community administrator an email whenever a question has ten or more replies but no best answer. Questions do not support approval processes or workflow tasks.

10. (Optional) Create reports for your answers community.

11. (Optional) Enable answers in your Customer Portal

or enable answers in your partner portal.

100

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Tip: Any custom fields you create for questions or replies can’t display in the Salesforce user interface. However, you can add custom fields to questions or replies for API integration purposes. For example, add a custom text field to questions and use the

API to populate that text field with the name of the country from which each question is posted.

SEE ALSO:

Salesforce Answers Implementation Guide

Setting Up Answers

Enabling Answers and Assigning the Default Zone

Note: Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with Summer ’13,

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Answers is a feature of the Community application that enables users to ask questions and have community members post replies. Community members can then vote on the helpfulness of each reply, and the person who asked the question can mark one reply as the best answer.

To enable the answers feature:

Answers is available in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

1. From Setup, enter

Answers Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Answers

Settings.

To customize answers settings:

•

“Customize Application”

2. Click Edit.

3. Use the

Enable Answers

checkbox to enable answers.

Enabling answers adds the Answers tab to the Community application and creates azone named Internal Zone.

4. Select the default zone for the Answers tab. You can only display one answers zone at a time. You can either use Internal Zone as the default or

create a new zone

and use it as the default.

5. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Create a category group for answers and

Salesforce Answers Implementation Guide

101

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Assigning Data Categories to Answers

Note: Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with Summer ’13,

In an answers zone, a category group provides one or more categories that help organize questions for easy browsing. If the category group contains a hierarchy, only the first-level categories display on the Answers tab. For example, if you're a computer manufacturer you might create a Products category group for your Products zone that has four categories: Performance Laptops, Portable

Laptops, Gaming Desktops, and Enterprise Desktops. Zone members can choose one of the categories to assign to a question.

The following example shows how the categories within a category group appear on the Answers tab.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Answers is available in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To customize answers settings:

•

“Customize Application”

Answers tab displaying categories

1. The zone assigned to answers.

2. When you assign a category group to answers, the data categories within the group appear beneath the zone name on the Answers tab. Zone members can assign these categories to their questions and browse within categories to see related questions. The name of the category group isn't displayed within the answers community.

The name of the category group is not displayed in the answers community; however, all the categories within the group appear below the zone name on the Answers tab.

To assign a category group to answers:

add data categories

to the category group.

We recommend naming the category group the same as the answers community so other administrators understand where the category group is being used.

102

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

2. From Setup, enter

Data Category Assignments

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Data Category Assignments under Answers. The category group assignments page only displays after you

enable answers

3. Click Edit.

4. Select the category group you want to assign to your answers zone.

Note: If you change the category group for answers later, all the existing categories associated with your questions are removed. The questions in your answers community become uncategorized until community members assign the new categories to them.

5. Click Save.

You receive an email after the save process completes..

SEE ALSO:

Customizing Ideas Settings .

Ideas Communities

Encourage Idea Creation and Sharing in Salesforce Communities

Add your Ideas users to Salesforce Communities to take advantage of new ways to collaborate.

Create more engagement and collaboration around Ideas as you enable your customers to post and comment on Ideas right from their Salesforce Communities home page. Adding Ideas to

Salesforce Communities lets your users reap the benefits of a vibrant, creative partnership between community members. Communities are customizable, public or private spaces for employees, customers, and partners to collaborate on best practices and business processes. When you enable

Ideas in Salesforce Communities, you give your community members the ability to create ideas and idea themes and have a dialog around them. You can create public communities that let your customers or partners exchange ideas, as well as private internal communities that are specific to your employees.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

Moderating and managing ideation communities can be assigned to internal community members, depending on their privileges. Internal users can moderate both internal and external communities because they have access to internal communities as well as any public communities that they have permission to access.

To customize Ideas settings for Salesforce Communities:

•

“Customize Application”

To organize your community into smaller groups, you can create zones within a community that reflect special interests, product groupings, or types of customers. Zones are shared by the Ideas,

Answers, and Chatter Answers applications, allowing you to view and create zones from those locations. For example, if you're a computer manufacturer you can create a community named Laptop Products and another named Desktop Products. Within each of those communities, you can create zones that are specific to different aspects of the products.

Community members have visibility into different zones based on their user profiles:

•

Community users see the zones associated with the community they’re signed in to.

•

Internal users with permission to see Ideas can see all internal-only zones in the organization. If internal users sign in to a community, they see only those zones associated with that community.

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•

Portal users can see the zones associated with their portal.

•

Portal users with access to both a portal and a community can see the zones associated with the portal or community that they are currently signed in to.

•

Users who are accessing the portal or community through an API can access all zones that they have access to in all contexts.

•

Managing Ideas

Ideas is a community of users who post, vote for, and comment on ideas. Consider it an online suggestion box that includes discussions and popularity rankings for any subject. To further organize your community into smaller groups, you can create zones within a community that reflect special interests, product groupings, or types of customers.

You can display Ideas to internal Salesforce users, a Salesforce.com Community, Customer Portal or partner portal users, or to public users (requires setting up a Force.com site). You can also manage

Ideas from the console.

Professional Edition organizations can have only one internal zone. All other editions can have up to 50 zones shared between Ideas, Answers, and Chatter Answers.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

As an administrator, you can: USER PERMISSIONS

•

Control whether ideas are enabled for your organization and customize the half-life of ideas.

See

•

Create zones to organize ideas. See Creating and Editing Zones

•

Create Idea Themes that let you invite community members to post ideas about specific topics so that members can solve problems or propose innovations for your company.

To manage Ideas communities:

•

“Customize Application”

•

Define picklist values for the

Categories

and

Status

fields. See Define Picklist Values for the Categories and Status Fields

•

Specify the layout of custom fields. See

Set Page Layouts for Ideas

•

Make idea reports available to your users.

•

Customize idea search layouts.

•

Merge ideas to reduce the number of duplicate ideas.

•

Assign a status to an idea.

•

Delete a vote through the API to erase all history that the vote ever occurred.

Specifically, deleting a vote does the following:

–

Removes 10 points from the idea's overall score

–

Removes the user's name from the Last 100 Votes section on the idea's detail page

SEE ALSO:

Enabling Ideas in the Customer Portal

Administrator setup guide: Salesforce Ideas Implementation Guide

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Customizing Ideas Settings

To manage organization-wide settings for Ideas:

1. From Setup, enter

Ideas Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Ideas Settings.

2. Click Edit.

3. Use the

Enable Ideas

checkbox to enable or disable Ideas for your organization.

Disabling Ideas removes the Ideas tab and users will no longer be able to access active zones, but these zones will reappear on the Ideas tab the next time you enable Ideas.

4. Optionally, select

Enable Text-Formatting, Images and Links

to enable the Ideas HTML editor, which gives users WYSIWYG HTML editing and image referencing capabilities when they post or comment on ideas.

Warning:

Once you enable the Ideas HTML editor, you cannot disable it. If you do not see the

Enable Text-Formatting, Images and Links

checkbox, the

Ideas HTML editor is enabled for your organization by default.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To customize Ideas settings:

•

“Customize Application”

5. If your organization does not already have the multi-select

Categories

field enabled, click the Enable button located below the Categories message at the top of the page. This button is not displayed if your organization already has the

Categories field enabled.

If the

Categories

field is already enabled, the

Enable Categories

checkbox is selected. Once the field is enabled, you cannot disable it.

6. Select

Enable Reputation

to let users earn points and ratings based on their activity in each zone.

7. Select an

Ideas User Profile

type for all user profiles in the zone.

User Profile Type

Chatter profile

Ideas zone profile

Custom profile with a Visualforce page

Description

The user’s Chatter profile is the default user profile type. If you select this option and a user doesn’t have a Chatter profile, then the Ideas zone profile is used.

The profile that the user sets up for the Ideas zone. This profile type is used for Ideas zones in portals.

You can specify a Visualforce page for a custom profile for all

Ideas users in the zone. If you select this profile type, you must specify a Visualforce page in

Custom Profile Page

8. In the

Half-Life (in Days)

field, enter a number of days.

The half-life setting determines how quickly old ideas drop in ranking on the Popular Ideas subtab, to make room for ideas with more recent votes. A shorter half-life moves older ideas down the page faster than a longer half-life.

Note: This field does not appear if Ideas is disabled. To modify the

Half-Life (in Days)

field, save your changes after enabling ideas, and then click Edit on the Ideas Settings page.

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9. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Enable Idea Themes

Managing Ideas

Administrator setup guide: Salesforce Ideas Implementation Guide

Encouraging Innovation with Idea Reputation

Reward the most influential and innovative members of your Ideas community by acknowledging their participation and contribution to the community. By enabling Reputation in Ideas, and then choosing level names and thresholds, you let users earn points and ratings that reward and encourage frequent, meaningful activity in the community. As community members engage more frequently, they improve the overall quality of ideas, which means that everyone reaps the benefits of a vibrant, creative partnership with your customers.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Users are awarded points for many activities including:

•

Creating an idea

•

Receiving a comment on their idea

•

Receiving an upvote on their idea or comment

•

Commenting on someone else’s idea

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Reputation points are calculated separately for each zone, and for the cumulative activity within the entire organization. Users who participate in different zones will have different reputation values for each zone based on their activity in that zone. When users are logged into the internal application, their reputation score is based on their participation in all zones to which they belong.

Ideas comes with the following pre-defined reputation levels that apply to all zones and to the internal application. Using the API, reputation levels and points for each level can be added or edited to reflect the levels of participation in your community.

Name

Observer

Contributor

Influencer

Thought Leader

Points per Level

0 – 99

100 – 399

400 – 1499

1500+

Reputation levels are available through the API and can be displayed in custom Ideas implementations. To add or edit reputation level names, points per level, or other attributes of a reputation in any of your zones, use the IdeaReputation and IdeaReputationLevel objects in the API. You can create up to 25 different reputation levels for each zone.

SEE ALSO:

Zones and create a public group that

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Designating Community Experts

Designate your star users as experts in their communities.

EDITIONS

A community expert is a member of the community who speaks credibly and authoritatively on behalf of your organization. When community experts post comments or ideas, a unique icon ( ) displays next to their name. The Salesforce administrator can designate as many community experts as necessary.

If you want to have experts within your community, set up

includes the expert users. Then, during the setup process you can designate this public group as your community experts.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Before you select a public group to be community experts, note the following:

•

A community expert can be an employee of your organization who is responsible for providing official responses to the community.

A community expert can also be someone outside your organization who is active within the community and knowledgeable about the subject matter.

•

The only difference between a community expert and other community members is the unique icon that displays next to the community expert's name. Community experts do not have any extra permissions beyond what is specified in their user profile and permission sets.

•

Community experts must be part of a public group and that public group must be specified in the

Experts Group

drop-down list. You might need to create a public group for each community if the experts within those communities are different.

•

If a community is displayed in a Customer Portal or partner portal, you can use a cascading style sheet (CSS) to change the icon associated with the community expert. When creating a portal, specify your CSS in the

Header

of your portal and use the expertUserBadge

class to reference the new background image for the community expert. We recommend the icon be no larger than 16 by 16 pixels.

SEE ALSO:

Set Page Layouts for Ideas

When you create a custom field for Ideas, you can add it to the Additional Information section that appears on the Post Idea and Idea Detail pages.

You can specify the order in which a custom field appears in the Additional Information section as well as remove a custom field from these pages without permanently deleting the field from the system. Although it’s possible to move standard fields onto the page layout, by default they already appear in the Idea Detail section at the top of the page and their order is not customizable. However, you can drag the

Status

field to the Additional Information section to have the status of an idea appear in the page layout.

Note:

The label and layout of the Additional Information section can’t be customized.

1. From the object management settings for ideas, go to Page Layouts.

2. Click Edit.

3. Select a custom field from the box on the right and drag it to the Additional Information section.

Custom fields appear in the order they are placed in the Additional Information section.

4. To display an idea's status to zone members, select the

Status

field and drag it to the

Additional Information section.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set the layout of a Ideas custom field:

•

“Customize Application”

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5. To let users add files to ideas, select the

Attachments

field and drag it to the Additional Information section. Make sure you’ve set field-level security for your users.

6. Click Save.

Adding Apex Triggers to Idea Comments

Adding Apex triggers to Idea Comments lets you perform actions related to comments that users post to an idea.

A trigger is a set of Apex code that fires at a particular time in the life cycle of a record. You can add

Apex triggers to comments in Ideas to better manage ideas in your community.

Use triggers on comments to perform actions such as:

•

Send an email notification to the moderator or other user when a comment is left on an idea.

•

Send an email notification to the user with the contents of their comment.

•

Notify the moderator when a specified number of comments is reached for an idea.

•

Prevent posting of comments with specific words.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To define Apex triggers:

•

“Author Apex”

To manage Ideas communities:

•

“Customize Application”

Migrating to the Community Application

If your organization enabled Ideas prior to the Winter '10 release, we recommend that you migrate to the new Community application. The Community application:

•

Replaces the Ideas application in the Force.com app menu.

•

Includes the Ideas and Answers tabs.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Warning:

Once you migrate to the Community application, you cannot return to the old

Ideas application. The Ideas tab with all your existing data will still be available in the new

Community application.

To migrate to the Community application:

1. From Setup, enter

Ideas Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Ideas Settings.

The Community message appears at the top of the Ideas Settings page. If the Community message does not appear, the Community application is already enabled for your organization.

USER PERMISSIONS

To customize Ideas settings:

•

“Customize Application”

2. Click Enable below the Community message. Salesforce checks your organization for any custom objects named Community. If such an object exists, you must delete or rename the object before enabling the Community app.

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3. Click Enable when Salesforce confirms it's okay to migrate to the Community application.

Customizing Ideas Standard and Custom Fields

USER PERMISSIONS

To define picklist values:

To set field level security:

To define or change field validation rules:

To create Ideas custom fields:

To enable attachments for ideas:

“Customize Application”

Creating Web and Social Channels

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Administrators can customize Ideas standard and custom fields to meet the needs of an organization's unique requirements:

•

Define picklist values for the Categories and Status fields.

•

Click the name of a standard or custom field to set field-level security.

•

Click the name of a custom field to set validation rules.

•

Create a custom field for Ideas. Custom fields appear in the Additional Information section on the Post Idea and Idea Detail pages.

•

Add the

Attachment

field to the layout and set field-level security. Users can attach all supported file types, including Microsoft

PowerPoint

presentations and Excel

spreadsheets, Adobe

PDF files, image files, audio files, and video files. The maximum attachment size is determined by your organization.

Note: In custom implementations of Ideas, you can use the

URL.getFileFieldURL

Apex method to retrieve the download URL for file attachments.

SEE ALSO:

For information, see Define Picklist Values for the Categories and Status Fields

Select Picklist Values and Defaults for a Zone

After you define picklist values for the

Categories

and

Status

fields, you can add and remove picklist values from these fields on a per-zone basis and specify a default value. This allows you to customize the

Categories

and

Status

fields based on the unique purpose of a zone.

on page 110.

To add or remove picklist values from a specific zone:

1. From Setup, enter

Zones

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Zones.

2. Click the name of the zone.

3. In the

Idea Picklists Available for Editing

section, click Edit next to the

Categories

Status

field.

4. To remove a picklist value, select the value from the Selected Values list and click Remove.

5. To add a picklist value to the zone, select the value from the Available Values list and click Add.

6. To specify a default value for the field, use the Default drop-down list.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To add or remove picklist values from a zone:

•

“Customize Application”

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7. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Select Picklist Values and Defaults for a Zone

Define Picklist Values for the Categories and Status Fields

Overview

For members of a zone to assign categories to an idea or be able to view an idea's status, the Ideas administrator needs to define picklist values for the

Categories

and

Status

fields. These fields are only available in an ideas community and not in an answers community.

Categories are administrator-defined values that help organize ideas into logical sub-groups within a zone. The View Category drop-down list on the Ideas tab allows users to filter ideas by category, and the

Categories

picklist on the Post Ideas page lets users add categories to their ideas.

An idea's status helps zone members track the progress of the idea. For example, “Under Review”,

“Reviewed”, “Coming Soon”, and “Now Available” are common status values an administrator can define and assign to ideas. An idea's status appears next to the idea's title for all zone members to see.

Note:

If the

Category

field is displayed (instead of

Categories

), then your zone members can only assign a single category to an idea. To allow them to assign multiple categories to an idea, from Setup, enter

Ideas Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Ideas Settings and enable

Categories

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To define picklist values:

•

“Customize Application”

Defining Picklist Values

To define picklist values for the

Categories

and

Status

standard fields:

1. From Setup, enter

Ideas

in the

Quick Find

box, then select FieldsFrom the management settings for ideas, go to Fields.

2. Click Edit next to the

Categories

Status

standard field.

3. On the picklist edit page, click New to add new picklist values to the standard field. You can also edit, delete, reorder, and replace picklist values.

Note: Once you add picklist values to the

Categories

Status

field, the field will always require at least one picklist value. This means you can delete picklist values until there is one remaining for the field.

4. Add one or more picklist values (one per line) in the provided text area.

5. Select the zones that you want to include the new picklist values.

6. Save your changes.

7. To specify a default value for the

Categories

Status

fields, see

Note: Do not use the Edit link on the Fields page to specify a default value for

Categories

Status

. You can only specify a default value from the Zone Detail page.

8. To display an idea's status to zone members, select the

Status

field and drag it to the Additional Information section. You can find this field from Setup by entering

Ideas

in the

Quick Find

box, then selecting Fields.

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Once you select this checkbox, you can assign a status to any idea when you post a new idea or edit an existing idea.

SEE ALSO:

Managing Ideas

Select Picklist Values and Defaults for a Zone

Enabling the Categories Field

Organizations using the

Category

field can switch to the multi-select

Categories

field that allows zone members to associate more than one category with an idea. The

Category

field only allows one category to be associated with an idea.

EDITIONS

Warning: Once you enable the

Categories

field, you cannot disable it. Also, enabling the

Categories

field automatically disables the old

Category

field in Salesforce and the API.

When you enable the

Categories

field, Salesforce automatically does the following:

•

Checks your organization's workflow rules, triggers, validation rules, custom fields, and Apex code and lists any area that references the

Category

field. You must manually fix or remove these references before Salesforce allows you to enable the

Categories

field.

•

Automatically moves all picklist values and search layouts from the old

Category

field to the new

Categories

field.

•

Ensures each idea is associated with the appropriate picklist value in the new

Categories field.

•

Makes the new

Categories

field available in Salesforce and the API.

To enable the

Categories

field:

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To customize Ideas settings:

•

“Customize Application”

1. From Setup, enter

Ideas Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Ideas Settings.

2. Click Enable located below the Categories message at the top of the page. This button is not displayed if your organization already has the

Categories

field enabled.

Salesforce checks your organization's workflow rules, triggers, validation rules, custom fields, and Apex code for references to the

Category

field and lists any areas where this reference needs to be removed.

3. If you need to remove references to the

Category

field, click Cancel. Once you have removed the references, try enabling the

Categories

field again.

Note: For validation and workflow rules you must delete the rule or fix the Category reference within the rule. It is not sufficient to deactivate the rule. If you need to delete a custom field that references the

Category

field, make sure to erase the field after it has been deleted. .

4. Read the information in the pop-up window, and click Enable. It may take several minutes for Salesforce to enable the new field.

5. Fix any custom reports that reference the old

Category

field.

SEE ALSO:

Select Picklist Values and Defaults for a Zone

Define Picklist Values for the Categories and Status Fields

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Enable Idea Themes

1. From Setup, enter

Idea Themes Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Idea

Themes Settings.

2. Click Edit.

3. Select

Enable Idea Themes

4. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To customize Idea Themes settings:

•

“Customize Application”

Chatter Answers Communities

Chatter Answers Implementation Overview

Note:

Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

Questions, a Q&A feature that’s seamlessly integrated into Chatter. With Chatter Questions, users can ask questions and find answers without ever needing to leave Chatter. Existing orgs will continue to have access to Chatter Answers if it was enabled before the Summer ’16 release from now until Winter ’18.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

Note:

We recommend that advanced Salesforce administrators and developers set up and maintain Chatter Answers, as it involves several Salesforce features.

Chatter Answers is a self-service and support community where users can post questions and receive answers and comments from other users or your support agents. Chatter Answers brings together Case, Questions and Answers, and Salesforce Knowledge articles in a unified experience. Before administrators can set up Chatter Answers, their organizations must have implemented

Data Categories . If

you want Salesforce Knowledge articles to display in your zones, then administrators need to implement

Salesforce Knowledge .

Unlike other Salesforce features, Chatter Answers spans across several areas of setup. There isn’t one location in Salesforce where you can update and configure all the settings related to Chatter Answers. For example, configuring Chatter Answers might require you to update Customer Portal settings from Setup by entering

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then selecting

Customer Portal Settings, and Force.com Site settings by entering

Sites

in the

Quick Find

box, then selecting Sites.

Setting up Chatter Answers also includes customizing or maintaining:

•

Cases

•

Case assignment rules

•

Workflow rules on cases or questions

•

Apex triggers on questions

•

Visualforce pages

•

Customer Portal users

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•

Organization-wide sharing defaults

•

Feature licenses

Customizing the appearance of your Chatter Answers zone to match your company’s branding involves creating or updating Visualforce pages and adding them to the Force.com Site used to host your zone.

SEE ALSO:

need to implement Salesforce Knowledge

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

Note: The steps below are general guidelines for setting up Chatter Answers. Chatter Answers integrates several Salesforce features, including features administrators may have implemented already, so each Chatter Answers implementation may be different. Contact Salesforce for specifics on your implementation.

Before administrators can set up Chatter Answers, their organizations must have implemented

Categories

. If you want Salesforce Knowledge articles to display in your zones, then administrators

Enable Chatter Answers .

Configure email notification settings .

Data

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Chatter Answers:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Users”

AND

“Edit Self-Service Users”

Implement a Customer Portal (if one doesn’t already exist for your organization).

Configure your organization’s Customer Portal for Chatter Answers .

Configure high-volume portal users for self-registration .

6. Implement a Force.com site (if one doesn’t already exist for your organization and you want to use a site).

Configure your organization’s Force.com site for Chatter Answers .

Configure cases for Chatter Answers

Set Questions tab visibility .

10. Optionally:

•

Assign data categories to Chatter Answers .

•

Configure Salesforce Knowledge for Chatter Answers .

•

Add Chatter Answers to your Customer Portals or Partner Portals

11.

Configure one or more zones .

12.

Troubleshoot any setup issues

Important: After you set up Chatter Answers, it may not work properly if you change any of the configurations in the features mentioned above. If certain configuration issues are detected, Salesforce sends email notifications to the

Site Contact

user.

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Tip:

•

You can add custom fields to questions or replies for API integration purposes only. For example, add a custom text field to questions and use the API to populate that text field with the name of the country from which each question is posted. Any custom fields you create for questions or replies can’t display in the Salesforce user interface.

•

You can customize fields, page layouts, buttons and links, Apex triggers, and validation rules for questions and replies for

Chatter Answers from Setup by entering “Chatter Answers” in the

Quick Find

box, then selecting Chatter Answers and choosing the appropriate setting.

•

You can rename

Customer Support

on your zones’ user interface. For example, you can change “Customer Support” to “Acme Support.” Just edit the Customer Support label on the Question object.

•

You can rename the Chatter Answers tab in your portal, as well.

SEE ALSO:

Chatter Answers Implementation Guide

Enable Chatter Answers

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

Enable Chatter Answers to set up Chatter Answers zones.

1. From Setup, enter

Chatter Answers Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Chatter Answers Settings.

2. Click Edit.

3. Select Enable Chatter Answers.

4. Optionally, select:

Option

Show Chatter Answers in Portals

Optimize Question Flow

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To enable Chatter Answers:

•

“Customize Application”

Description

Lets you add Chatter Answers as a tab to your Customer Portal or Partner Portal. If you choose this option, you must add the

Chatter Answers tab to each portal and assign the Chatter

Answers User license to portal users.

If you only want to display Chatter Answers in your portals, then you don’t need to set up a Force.com site to host Chatter

Answers. However, a site lets guest users access some Chatter

Answers data without a login, whereas portals do not.

Lets users filter search results by articles or questions before they post a question to any of your Chatter Answers zones. Also, adds

Title

and

Body

fields to questions for easier text input and

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Option

Enable Rich Text Editor

Show Search/Ask Publisher Inline

Enable Reputation

Allow Posting Answers via Email

Enable Facebook Single Sign On

Facebook Authentication Provider

Custom Profile Page

Creating Web and Social Channels

Description

scanning. This setting is turned on automatically when you enable Chatter Answers.

Lets zone members use the rich text editor to format text and upload images when posting questions and replies. This setting is turned on automatically when you enable Chatter Answers.

Note:

Optimize Question Flow

must be enabled to select this option.

Embeds the Search/Ask Publisher inline instead of using a pop-up window.

Note:

Optimize Question Flow

must be enabled to select this option.

Lets users earn points and ratings that display as hover text on their profile pictures. Reputation is enabled across all zones. This setting is turned on automatically when you enable Chatter

Answers.

Lets users post answers by replying to email notifications.

Lets users sign in to your Chatter Answers zones with their

Facebook logins. If you choose this setting, your zones display an option to

next to your zones’

. When a user signs in to Chatter Answers with a

Facebook login, the first name, last name, and the photo associated with the Facebook account is used in posts to your zones.

When you enable this feature, you must define and enable a

Facebook authentication provider in your organization’s security controls.

Lets you choose an existing Facebook authentication provider after you select

Enable Facebook Single Sign On

You must choose a Facebook authentication provider to implement Facebook Single Sign On for your Chatter Answers zones. This setting is ignored if you have associated the Chatter

Answers zone to a Chatter community with a different Facebook authentication provider.

Lets you select a custom Visualforce page for users’ profiles for

Chatter Answers on a public Chatter community site. You must have Visible without authentication set for the zone in order for the user profile pages to be used. The following attributes are passed to the custom Visualforce page that you select:

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Option

Creating Web and Social Channels

Description

•

communityId

. This attribute indicates which zone the currently selected feed item, such as a question or a reply, belongs to.

•

userId

. This attribute indicates the owner of the currently selected feed item, such as a question or a reply.

•

showHeader

. This attribute is a Boolean value that specifies whether the Salesforce tab header is included in the page.

If this attribute is set to true, the Salesforce tab header is displayed.

5. Click Save.

After you enable Chatter Answers, several items are automatically added to your organization for use with setting up zones:

•

A Q&A tab where internal users and administrators can view and use Chatter Answers. Administrators can rename this tab.

•

Standard permission settings for Questions on user profiles so that you can grant users permissions to questions and replies.

•

Visualforce pages that you can add to a Force.com site, a tab in a Community, or a Customer Portal so that users can register, sign in, and view feed items on a zone.

•

An Apex class named

ChatterAnswersRegistration

with a method for customizing Account creation for portal users.

•

An Apex trigger for questions named chatter_answers_question_escalation_to_case_trigger

so that questions with specified attributes are automatically escalated to cases.

•

A workflow field update named chatter_answers_num_subscriptions_above_

so that when a question is escalated to a case,

Priority

on questions is updated.

•

Two workflow rules, chatter_answers_no_best_reply_within_time_limit_wf

and chatter_answers_num_subscriptions_above_limit_wf

, which you can customize and activate so that questions without best replies or questions with a specified number of followers are automatically escalated to cases.

SEE ALSO:

Visualforce Pages for Chatter Answers

Note:

Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

After you enable Chatter Answers, the Visualforce pages below are automatically added to your organization. You can use these pages to set up and configure Chatter Answers.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

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Visualforce page

ChatterAnswersAgentView

ChatterAnswersChangePassword

ChatterAnswersForgotPassword

ChatterAnswersForgotPasswordConfirm

ChatterAnswersHelp

ChatterAnswersLogin

ChatterAnswersRegistration

When you create a zone, the following page is added to your organization:

Community Name_main

(Home Page)

Description

The Visualforce component that displays questions on case detail pages when questions are converted to cases. This component is optional and offers an alternative to the case detail page.

The page where users can change their passwords to your zone.

The forgot password page for your zone.

The forgot password confirmation page for your zone.

The online help page displayed to users when they click Need

Help?.

The login page for your zone.

The page where users can self-register for access to your zone.

The page that includes the question, reply, and Salesforce

Knowledge article feeds for your zone. This page is also used to determine the community from which email notifications are sent to users.

This page is automatically generated when you save a new zone without choosing

Visualforce Page That Hosts

Your Community’s Feeds

. The generated page includes your zone’s ID so that topics, questions, and replies are associated with your specific zone and can display on it. The page is named after your zone with a suffix of “_main,” for example,

ZoneName_main

. The page also includes a language attribute that matches your organization’s default language.

SEE ALSO:

Enable Chatter Answers

Customizing Chatter Answers using Visualforce Pages

You can create a Visualforce page that displays a Chatter Answers zone customized for your users.

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

By using a Visualforce page, you can add custom widgets to Chatter Answers, such as announcements or ads, which let you extend your branding and change the experience for users.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

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You can also control the arrangement of elements on the page. Your customers can access your custom Chatter Answers zone through a Force.com site, a tab in a Community, or a Customer Portal to which you’ve added the Visualforce page. When internal users access a

Chatter Answers zone that uses a Visualforce page, they see only the zone that is related to the page; they can’t switch zones as they can when using the standard Q&A tab.

Note: You can’t customize the Chatter Answers Q&A tab with a Visualforce page, but you can add a Visualforce tab in your organization and create an internal Chatter Answers experience with your custom Visualforce page.

In order to display the zone, the Visualforce page you create must include either the chatteranswers:allfeeds

Example: Custom Visualforce Page using the

chatteranswers:allfeeds

Component

The chatteranswers:allfeeds

component provides an out-of-the-box Chatter Answers Visualforce page. A page that uses the chatteranswers:allfeeds

component includes the following Chatter Answers elements:

•

Chatter Answers sign in

•

Chatter Answers profile

•

Data category filters

•

The Search/Ask bar

•

Feed filters

•

The questions feed

For example, the following Visualforce page including the chatteranswers:allfeeds

component has all of the Chatter Answers elements in the standard arrangement for a zone without any other custom widgets.

<apex:page>

<body>

<chatteranswers:allfeeds communityId="09aD00000000K7c"/>

</body>

</apex:page>

Example: Custom Visualforce Page using All of the Chatter Answers Page Components

Using the Chatter Answers page components allows you to pick and choose which elements of your Chatter Answers zone appear to your customers. You can use as few as one component or you can customize your page to use all of them. You can include the following components:

•

chatteranswers:aboutme

•

chatteranswers:guestsignin

•

chatteranswers:feedfilter

•

chatteranswers:feeds

•

chatteranswers:searchask

•

chatteranswers:datacategoryfilter

Using the Chatter Answers page components instead of the chatteranswers:allfeeds

component allows you more flexibility over the arrangement of the elements on the page. For example, the following Visualforce page includes all of the standard Chatter

Answers elements, but they appear in a different order on the resulting page than they do when you use the

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels chatteranswers:allfeeds

component. In this example, the Search/Ask component and the feed filter appear below the feed instead of above it.

<apex:page language="en_US" showHeader="false" cache="true">

<body>

<chatteranswers:guestsignin />

<chatteranswers:aboutme communityId="09aD00000000cfE"/>

<chatteranswers:datacategoryfilter communityId="09aD00000000cfE"/>

</div>

<chatteranswers:feeds communityId="09aD00000000cfE"/>

<chatteranswers:searchask communityId="09aD00000000cfE"/>

<chatteranswers:feedfilter />

</div>

</div>

</body>

</apex:page>

Visualforce Pages for Chatter Answers

Configuring Email Notifications for Chatter Answers Users

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

Determine when emails are sent to users by configuring the notification settings that apply to all of your zones. Each email includes a link to a specific zone so that users can easily return to it.

1. From Setup, enter

Email Notification Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Email Notification Settings.

2. Click Edit.

3. Choose from the following settings:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To configure email notifications for your Chatter

Answers users:

•

“Customize Application”

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Option

Replies to a question they own

Sends a private reply to their question

(Customer Support)

Description

Notify customers when other users reply to their questions.

Replies to a question they follow

Notify customers when other users reply to questions they’re following.

Selects a best answer on a question they follow

Notify customers when a best answer is selected for a question they’re following.

Notify customers when customer support responds to their questions privately.

4. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

recommend you choose the profile you cloned and customized for self-registration

Configuring a Customer Portal for Chatter Answers

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

Note: Even if you don’t plan on using a Customer Portal, you must configure one for Chatter

Answers to authenticate users who sign in to your Chatter Answers zone.

1. From Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Customer Portal Settings.

2. Click Edit next to the Customer Portal you want to configure for Chatter Answers.

3. Click

to let customers sign in to Chatter Answers.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up and update the

Customer Portal:

•

“Customize Application”

4. In

From Email Address

, type the address from which all email communications from your Chatter Answers zone are sent. For example, [email protected].

5. In

From Email Address Name

, type the name associated with the

From Email Address

. For example, Acme Customer

Support.

6. Click

Self-Registration Enabled

to let customers register themselves for access to Chatter Answers.

7. In

Default New User License

, choose the portal user license that’s automatically assigned to customers who self-register.

We recommend you choose the High Volume Customer Portal license.

8. In

Default New User Profile

, choose the profile that’s automatically assigned to customers who self-register. We

9. Click Save.

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10. Assign the profile you selected as the

Default New User Profile

to your Customer Portal so that users can sign in to your zone:

a. From Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Customer Portal Settings.

b. Select your portal’s name.

c. In the Assigned Profiles section, click Edit Profiles.

d. Click

Active

next to the profile you selected as the

Default New User Profile

e. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Enable Customer Portal Login and Settings

Configuring Portal Users for Self-Registration to Chatter Answers

Note:

Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

Configure Customer Portal users for self-registration to your Chatter Answers community.

1. Clone the High Volume Customer Portal profile so that you can customize it:

a. From Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles.

b. Click Clone next to High Volume Customer Portal.

c. Type a name for the new profile.

d. Click Save.

2. Customize the cloned profile to include permissions to the standard objects on your community:

a. From Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles.

b. Click the name of the cloned profile.

c. Click Edit.

d. In Standard Object Permissions, click on the following permissions to these objects:

Object

Cases

Contacts

Questions

Account

Permissions

Read

Create

Read

Create

Read

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up and update the

Customer Portal:

•

“Customize Application”

To manage Customer Portal users:

•

“Edit Self-Service Users”

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e. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Configuring a Customer Portal for Chatter Answers

Chatter Answers Users Overview

Configuring a Force.com Site for Chatter Answers

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

Note: Configuring a Force.com site is recommended for self-service communities.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

Configure a Force.com site for Chatter Answers to host a domain and publicly display some of your

Salesforce data, such as questions, replies, and Salesforce Knowledge articles.

1. From Setup, enter

Sites

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Sites.

2. Click Edit next to the name of the site you want to configure for Chatter Answers.

3. Click

Active

to activate the site.

You can activate the site after you’ve finished setting up Chatter Answers

4. In

Active Site Home Page

, choose a Visualforce page as the home page for your site.

5. Click Save.

6. Click Edit on the Site Visualforce Pages related list.

a. Use the Add and Remove buttons to enable the following Visualforce pages for your site:

•

ChatterAnswersAgentView

•

ChatterAnswersChangePassword

•

ChatterAnswersForgotPassword

•

ChatterAnswersForgotPasswordConfirm

•

ChatterAnswersHelp

•

ChatterAnswersLogin

•

ChatterAnswersRegistration

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and edit

Force.com sites:

•

“Customize Application”

b. Click Save.

7. Click Public Access Settings to grant guest users (unauthenticated, non-Customer Portal users) access to cases, questions, and

Salesforce Knowledge articles.

a. Click Edit on the profile for Chatter Answers users.

b. In Standard Object Permissions, click Read on Cases and Questions.

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c. Optionally, if you want articles to display in Chatter Answers , click Read on articles types in Article Type Permissions.

d. Click Save.

8. Click Edit next to a category group in the Category Group Visibility Settings related list to grant users access to the categories so that they can browse questions, replies, and Salesforce Knowledge articles.

a. Next to

Visibility

, click

All Categories

b. Click Save.

9. Return to the site and select its name from Setup by entering

Sites

in the

Quick Find

box, then selecting Sites.

10. Click Login Settings to enable user authentication for the site.

a. Click Edit.

b. In

Enable Login For

, choose the Customer Portal you created for Chatter Answers.

c. Click Save.

After you configure your Force.com site for Chatter Answers, you can replace the default Visualforce pages that make up your community with customized ones. The Visualforce pages are automatically set to your site’s URL so that portal users can navigate to them.

Note:

To make your site’s page URLs short and easy to remember, you can use the Chatter Answers URL rewriter. The following pages use the URL rewriter:

•

ChatterAnswersHelp

•

ChatterAnswersLogin

•

ChatterAnswersRegistration

•

ChatterAnswersForgotPassword

Chatter Answers is also compatible with custom URL rewriters for sites.

1. From Setup, enter

Sites Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Sites Settings.

2. Click Edit next to a site.

3. Choose the pages to replace. If you replace the

Change Password Page

, the

Change Password Page

for your site is automatically updated too.

4. Click Save.

Note: Internet Explorer 8 users receive a security warning if you customize with URLs that don't include https://.

SEE ALSO:

Visualforce Pages for Chatter Answers

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Configuring Cases for Chatter Answers

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

Configure case features for Chatter Answers so that cases are created, escalated, and accessed by the appropriate users of your Chatter Answers zones.

1. Set your organization-wide sharing defaults to

Private on Account

Controlled by Parent on Contact

, and

Private on Case

to prevent users from accessing each others’ information.

2. Set field-level security on

Question

on cases to

Visible

for profiles assigned to your

Customer Portal so that users can access their private questions.

3. Update

Origin

on cases with the value in the Question trigger so that support agents can see which cases originated from Chatter Answers.

4. Create a case assignment rule where Case Origin equals the value of Chatter Answers so that cases created from private questions are assigned to support agents.

Grant high-volume portal users access to cases so that they can access their private questions

on Chatter Answers.

SEE ALSO:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To set organization-wide sharing defaults:

•

“Manage Sharing”

To set field-level security:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

AND

“Customize Application”

To customize fields:

To create assignment rules:

To grant high-volume portal users access to cases:

•

“Customize Application”

Setting Q&A Tab Visibility

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

Set the visibility of the Q&A tab to

Default On

so that support agents can view, search, filter, and moderate questions posted to your Chatter Answers zones.

1. From Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles.

2. Select a support agent profile.

3. Depending on which user interface you're using, do one of the following:

•

Enhanced profile user interface—In the Find Settings... box, enter the name of the tab you want and select it from the list, then click Edit.

•

Original profile user interface—Click Edit, then scroll to the Tab Settings section.

4. Specify the visibility of the Q&A tab to

Default On

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To set Q&A tab visibility:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

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5. (Original profile user interface only) To reset users’ tab customizations to the tab visibility settings that you specify, select Overwrite

users' personal tab customizations.

6. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Assigning Data Categories to Chatter Answers

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

Assign a data category group to Chatter Answers so that it’s available to all of your Chatter Answers zones. You configure each zone with a top-level data category (topic) in which customers and support agents can categorize and filter questions and knowledge articles.

1. From Setup, enter

Data Category Assignments

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Data Category Assignments under Chatter Answers.

2. Click Edit.

3. Select a category group.

4. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To assign data categories to

Chatter Answers:

•

“Customize Application”

Note: Each zone in Chatter Answers can be associated with a top-level category. For a zone to be visible to a customer, the customer’s user profile must have visibility to that zone’s top-level data category. In addition, if a customer has visibility to child data categories but not to the top-level data category associated with a zone, the zone won’t be visible to them.

SEE ALSO:

Implement Data Categories

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Configure Salesforce Knowledge for Chatter Answers

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

To display Salesforce Knowledge articles in your Chatter Answers zones, you must:

(if you haven’t done so already).

Implement Salesforce Knowledge

(if you haven’t done so already).

3. Configure both for Chatter Answers.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

You configure each zone with a top-level data category (topic) in which customers and support agents can categorize and filter questions and knowledge articles.

1. If you use role-based data category visibility, set the Default Data Category Visibility to

All

Categories

so that customers not included in your organization’s role hierarchy, such as high-volume portal users, can access categories that include questions and Salesforce Knowledge articles.

Alternatively, use permission sets or profiles to set data category visibility .

To create or edit users:

•

“Manage Internal Users”

To create article types and article actions:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

Create one category group for all of your communities so that you’re less likely to reach the

limit of three active data categories. Then add a child category for each community; and add child categories to those categories to provide topics.

Activate the category group you want available to Chatter Answers so that users can access it.

Grant “Read” permissions to specific article types on the profiles of Chatter Answers users so

that they can access articles from your zones.

To manage synonyms:

•

“Manage Synonyms”

To create data categories:

•

“Manage Data

Categories”

Optionally, allow support agents to promote replies to draft articles in the knowledge base so that your support team can capture

useful information quickly.

SEE ALSO:

Create and Modify Category Groups

Data Category Visibility

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Adding Chatter Answers to a Portal

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

You can add Chatter Answers to an existing Customer Portal or Partner Portal so that portal users can access Chatter Answers zones from one of your established channels. After users log in to one of your portals, they can access Chatter Answers from a tab and choose which zone to view from a drop-down list. If you only want to display Chatter Answers in your portals, then you don’t need to set up a Force.com site to host

Chatter Answers. However, a site lets guest users access some Chatter Answers data without a login, whereas portals do not.

The following occurs to Chatter Answers when it appears in a portal:

•

Chatter Answers displays as a tab, which you can rename.

•

A drop-down list lets portal users switch between all of your Chatter Answers zones.

•

The My Settings link for users is replaced by Enable Emails and Disable Emails.

•

Sign In and Sign Up are removed because portal users can only view Chatter Answers after they’ve logged in to your portal.

•

Chatter Answers displays a look and feel, which you can’t customize.

•

The Need help? link is removed.

•

If you display Chatter Answers with a Visualforce page on a portal, the option for users to switch zones in a portal isn’t available.

SEE ALSO:

Adding Chatter Answers to a Portal

Add Chatter Answers to a Customer Portal

Note:

Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

You can add Chatter Answers to an existing Customer Portal so that portal users can access Chatter

Answers zones from one of your established support channels.

1. Enable Chatter Answers for portals:

a. From Setup, enter

Chatter Answers Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Chatter Answers Settings.

b. Click Edit.

c. Select

Show Chatter Answers in Portals

d. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To add Chatter Answers to a Customer Portal:

•

“Customize Application”

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2. Edit Customer Portal user profiles to support Chatter Answers.

Using the enhanced profile user interface, follow these steps:

a. From Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles.

b. Click Edit next to a portal user profile.

c. In the Apps section of the page, select Object Settings.

d. On the Object Settings page, select Q&A.

e. In Tab Settings, select

Default On

f. Click

Save

and navigate back to the Objects Settings page.

g. Select Questions and Answers, and in the Object Permissions section select

Read

and

Create

h. Click Save.

Using the original profile interface, follow these steps:

a. From Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles.

b. Click Edit next to a portal user profile.

c. In Tab Settings, select

Default On

for Q&A.

d. In Standard Object Permissions, select

Read

and

Create

on Questions.

e. Click Save.

3. Add the Chatter Answers User feature license to Customer Portal users:

a. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

b. Click Edit next to a portal user.

c. In the General Information area, select

Chatter Answers User

d. Click Save.

4. Add Chatter Answers as a tab to your Customer Portal:

a. From Setup, enter

Customer Portal Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Customer Portal Settings.

b. Click the name of a Customer Portal.

c. Click Customize Portal Tabs.

d. Select Q&A and click the Add arrow to move it into the Selected Tabs box.

e. Click Save.

5. Optionally, rename the Q&A tab for your Customer Portal:

a. From Setup, enter

Rename Tabs and Labels

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Rename Tabs and Labels.

b. Click Edit next to Questions.

c. Click Next.

d. In Other Labels, rename Q&A. You can only rename it as

Singular

, not

Plural

e. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web and Social Channels

Adding Chatter Answers to a Partner Portal

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

You can add Chatter Answers to an existing Partner Portal so that portal users can access Chatter

Answers zones from one of your established partner channels.

1. Enable Chatter Answers for portals:

a. From Setup, enter

Chatter Answers Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Chatter Answers Settings.

b. Click Edit.

c. Select

Show Chatter Answers in Portals

d. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To add Chatter Answers to a Partner Portal:

•

“Customize Application”

2. Edit Partner Portal user profiles to support Chatter Answers:

a. From Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles.

b. Click Edit next to a portal user profile.

c. In the Apps section of the page, select Object Settings.

d. On the Object Settings page, select Q&A.

e. In Tab Settings, select

Default On

f. Click

Save

and navigate back to the Objects Settings page.

g. Select Questions and Answers, and in the Object Permissions section select

Read

and

Create

h. Click Save.

3. Add the Chatter Answers User feature license to Partner Portal users:

a. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

b. Click Edit next to a portal user.

c. In the General Information area, select

Chatter Answers User

d. Click Save.

4. Add Chatter Answers as a tab to your Partner Portal:

a. From Setup, enter

Partners

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Settings.

b. Click the name of a Partner Portal.

c. Click Customize Portal Tabs.

d. Select Chatter Answers and click the Add arrow to move the Chatter Answers tab into the Selected Tabs box.

e. Click Save.

5. Optionally, rename the Chatter Answers tab for your Partner Portal:

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a. From Setup, enter

Rename Tabs and Labels

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Rename Tabs and Labels.

b. Click Edit next to Questions.

c. Click Next.

d. In Other Labels, rename Q&A. You can only rename it as

Singular

, not

Plural

e. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Adding Chatter Answers to a Portal

Adding a Custom Visualforce Page to Display Chatter Answers

Use a Visualforce page to provide a custom Chatter Answers experience for your customers.

EDITIONS

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

You must have a Visualforce page created that includes either the chatteranswers:allfeeds

To add a custom Visualforce page for displaying Chatter Answers:

1. From Setup, enter

Tabs

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Tabs to display a list of your organization’s Visualforce tabs.

2. In the Visualforce section, click

New

to create a new Visualforce tab.

3. Select the Visualforce page you want to use and add details for the other fields on the page.

4. Click

5. Select which user profiles can see the tab.

6. Select the custom apps from which the tab will be available.

7. Click

Save

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create a Visualforce page:

•

“Customize Application”

To add a Visualforce tab:

•

“Customize Application”

To add the Visualforce tab as a Community tab, make sure the page is available in the community’s tabs.

To add the Visualforce tab to a Customer Portal, make sure the Visualforce tab is configured to show in the portal.

You don’t need to add the Visualforce tab to a Force.com site. Just make sure that you have created the Visualforce page with Chatter

Answers components before you set up the site.

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Troubleshooting Chatter Answers Setup

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

After you set up a Chatter Answers community, you can view a snapshot of all of its configurations on one page so that you don’t have to visit several pages in setup to diagnose issues.

1. From Setup, enter

Sites Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Sites Settings.

2. In the Site Snapshot column, click View next to the Force.com site associated with your community.

3. Click

to show or to hide various settings.

4. Click Go! to go to a specific page in setup where you can change settings.

Example: For example, you can use a site snapshot to see if the Force.com site hosting your community is marked

Active

or to verify the names of the user profiles assigned to your

Customer Portal.

SEE ALSO:

Chatter Answers Users Overview

Sharing sets let you selectively grant record access to defined groups of high-volume portal users.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To view Setup:

•

“View Setup and

Configuration”

To set up Chatter Answers:

•

“Customize Application”

Chatter Answers Users Overview

Note:

Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

Because Chatter Answers integrates several features with the Customer Portal, managing Chatter

Answers users is similar to managing Customer Portal users. Use the following to manage the data and functions that are accessible to Chatter Answers users:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

•

Profiles, permissions, and access settings determine a user’s permission to perform different functions, such as adding comments to a case.

•

User licenses define which profiles and permission sets are available to a user, such as the High Volume Customer Portal (Service

Cloud Portal User) or Customer Portal Manager Custom license.

•

Feature licenses entitle a user to additional Salesforce features, such as Chatter Answers.

•

Field-level security defines which fields users can access, such as fields on Salesforce Knowledge articles.

•

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Chatter Answers excludes some features typically available to Customer Portal users, such as:

•

Ideas

•

Groups

•

Teams

•

Reports

•

Content

•

Page layouts

•

Custom objects

•

Delegated external user administration

•

Customer Portal role hierarchy (available, but not used)

•

Customer Portal sharing rules, except for high-volume portal users

Chatter Answers users can only access the following records from your zone:

•

Cases

•

Questions

•

Replies (answers)

•

Salesforce Knowledge articles

Chatter Answers is designed to support one user language for each zone that you create. When you enable Chatter Answers , the

Visualforce pages automatically added to your organization inherit your organization’s default language. However, you can change the language attribute on each Visualforce page. Users who self-register for your zone inherit your organization’s default language. Guest users view your zone in the language specified in the Visualforce pages, no matter the language chosen for their browsers.

Note:

•

Chatter Answers users can’t change their language, timezone, or locale settings.

•

Portal users must have the Chatter Answers User feature license to use Chatter Answers. This feature license is automatically assigned to high-volume portal users who self-register forChatter Answers. You can manually assign the license to users who don’t self-register by editing a user and clicking

Chatter Answers User

•

Authenticated Website User profiles don't have access to Chatter Answers.

Internal users with permission to see Chatter Answers can see all zones in the Q&A tab in their organization. If internal users sign in to a community, they see only those zones associated with that community.

SEE ALSO:

Chatter Answers Users Overview

Encouraging Participation with Chatter Answers Reputation

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

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Tap into the expertise and knowledge of your most active community members by rewarding their activity. By enabling reputations, you let users earn points and ratings that display in hover details over a user’s photo in the feed. As your star posters engage more frequently, they improve the overall content in your community and provide better answers for users who are searching for help with an issue. This means that users who are searching for a solution can be confident that an answer from an expert can be trusted, which means fewer support calls for your organization.

Users earn points when their posts receive votes or are selected as having resolved the question in any of the zones to which they belong.

When they earn enough points, the hover details show their reputation as well as the number of posts and questions they’ve resolved in that zone. Reputation points are calculated separately for each zone, and for the cumulative activity within the entire organization.

Users who participate in different zones will have different reputation values for each zone based on their activity in that zone. When users are logged into the internal application, their reputation score is based on their participation in all zones to which they belong.

Chatter Answers comes with the following pre-defined reputation levels that apply to all zones:

Name

Newbie

Smartie

Pro

All Star

Points per Level

0 – 499

500 – 1999

2000 – 4999

5000+

Color

Green

Blue

Purple

Orange

To add or edit reputation level names or points per level in any of your zones, use the ChatterAnswersReputationLevel object in the API.

You can create up to 25 different reputation levels for each zone. Colors for the different reputation levels can be changed at the style sheet (CSS) level.

SEE ALSO:

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Chatter Answers Implementation Tips

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

Consider the following information when planning and implementing Chatter Answers.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Chatter Answers is available in: Enterprise, Developer,

Performance, and

Unlimited Editions.

•

We recommend that advanced Salesforce administrators and developers set up and maintain

Chatter Answers, as it involves several Salesforce features.

•

Before administrators can set up Chatter Answers, their organizations must have implemented

Data Categories

. If you want Salesforce

Knowledge articles to display in your zones, then administrators need to implement Salesforce Knowledge

•

You can customize fields, page layouts, buttons and links, Apex triggers, and validation rules for questions and replies for Chatter

Answers from Setup by entering “Chatter Answers” in the

Quick Find

box, then selecting Chatter Answers and choosing the appropriate setting.

•

After you enable Chatter Answers, several items are automatically added to your organization for use with setting up zones:

–

A Q&A tab where internal users and administrators can view and use Chatter Answers. Administrators can rename this tab.

–

Standard permission settings for Questions on user profiles so that you can grant users permissions to questions and replies.

–

Visualforce pages that you can add to a Force.com site, a tab in a Community, or a Customer Portal so that users can register, sign in, and view feed items on a zone.

–

An Apex class named

ChatterAnswersRegistration

with a method for customizing Account creation for portal users.

–

An Apex trigger for questions named chatter_answers_question_escalation_to_case_trigger

so that questions with specified attributes are automatically escalated to cases.

–

A workflow field update named chatter_answers_num_subscriptions_above_

so that when a question is escalated to a case,

Priority

on questions is updated.

–

Two workflow rules, chatter_answers_no_best_reply_within_time_limit_wf

and chatter_answers_num_subscriptions_above_limit_wf

, which you can customize and activate so that questions without best replies or questions with a specified number of followers are automatically escalated to cases.

•

You can add Chatter Answers to an existing Customer Portal or Partner Portal so that portal users can access Chatter Answers zones from one of your established channels.

•

Chatter Answers is designed to support one user language for each zone that you create. When you

enable Chatter Answers , the

Guest users view your zone in the language specified in the Visualforce pages, no matter the language chosen for their browsers.

•

You can rename

Customer Support

on your zones’ user interface. For example, you can change “Customer Support” to “Acme

Support.” Just edit the Customer Support label on the Question object.

•

Questions escalated to cases display a Chatter-like feed on case detail pages. The case detail page also includes a Customer View section that lets support agents reply publicly or privately to the thread posted to the zone.

•

Case comments marked

Public

display as private messages from customer support in Chatter Answers. They don’t display to the entire community. 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. .

•

Chatter Answers sends email to users when they:

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–

Follow a question (answers or comments).

–

Receive an answer or comment to their question.

–

Receive a private reply to their question from customer support.

•

Internet Explorer 8 users receive a security warning if you customize with URLs that don't include https://.

•

Before you make a zone public, add at least 20 frequently asked questions, answers, or articles. This content will generate conversations.

•

Create Salesforce Knowledge articles that contain:

–

Your support organization's phone number so that customers can contact your support agents directly.

–

Terms and conditions for zone members, such as when support agents might delete customers' questions and comments.

•

Chatter Answers uses the following API objects:

–

Case

–

ChatterAnswersActivity

–

ChatterAnswersReputationLevel

–

Community (Zone)

–

Question

–

QuestionReportAbuse

–

QuestionSubscription

–

ReplyReportAbuse

SEE ALSO:

Chatter Answers Best Practices

Chatter Answers Implementation Tips

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Escalating a Question to a Case in Chatter Answers

If a question in Chatter Answers isn’t resolved or its replies aren’t satisfactory, administrators and trusted community members such as moderators can escalate the question to a case.

Note: Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with

Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

After a case is created, the question detail page provides a link to the case for the life of the question.

This link also shows the status of the case.

To escalate a question to a case:

1. Click the question title.

2. Click the triangle next to the question to display the drop-down menu, and click Escalate to

Case.

Note: This option only appears if the user has permission to create cases. Users created from contacts cannot escalate questions to cases.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Developer, Performance, and Unlimited editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To view the Q&A tab:

•

“Read” on questions

To ask and reply to questions:

•

“Create” on questions

To create cases:

•

“Create” on cases

3. Update the case fields if you want to change any default values. The question title automatically becomes the case subject.

4. Click Save. You are returned to the question detail page, and the case is now available for the Case Owner to resolve.

Note: Closing the case does not mark the question as resolved, and resolving the question does not close the case. The case and the question must be updated separately.

Chatter Answers Best Practices

Note:

Chatter Answers is scheduled for retirement in all Salesforce orgs as of Winter ’18 release. For more information, see Chatter

Answers to Retire in Winter ’18 . Starting with Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs. Instead, you can use Chatter

Summer ’16 release from now until Winter ’18.

Consider the following tips when planning and using Chatter Answers.

•

We recommend that you tell support agents that:

–

The

Case Origin

field lists Chatter Answers on any case converted from a question.

–

If they answer a question privately, they can't convert it to a public answer.

•

We recommend that you assign a support agent to review public questions from the Q&A tab. Agents can’t click Flag next to questions or replies that are spam, hateful, or inappropriate, but they can edit and delete questions or replies from a zones via the

Q&A tab if they have the “Delete” permission on questions.

•

To moderate many questions quickly, we recommend that support agents review questions from pinned lists on the Salesforce console (this requires adding the Q&A tab to the console’s Navigation tab.

•

To see a list of cases converted from questions, we recommend that administrators or support agents create a case view where Case

Origin equals Chatter Answers.

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•

Because photos added to profiles display externally on Chatter Answers, we recommend that support agents choose photos that match their company's policies and branding.

SEE ALSO:

Creating Phone Channels

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.

Here’s how Open CTI connects to your telephony system.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

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 any adapters built on the CTI Toolkit won’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.

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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

Salesforce CTI Toolkit

The CTI Toolkit lets developers build computer-telephony integration (CTI) adapters that integrate Salesforce with third-party CTI systems.

With the CTI Toolkit, developers can build CTI adapters that Salesforce Call Center users install on their machines so they can use the features of a CTI system through a softphone.

Available in: Salesforce Classic

Available in: Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Important:

The CTI Toolkit is retired. Softphones built with the CTI Toolkit aren’t supported. To continue using your softphone, migrate your CTI implementation to Salesforce Open CTI . For more information about the retirement of CTI Toolkit and details about how to migrate to Open CTI, see CTI Toolkit Retirement FAQ .

There are three versions of the CTI Toolkit. Each version provides users with different Salesforce CRM Call Center functionality. However,

Salesforce only distributes CTI Toolkit version 4.0 or higher. The following table lists the functionality available in CTI adapters built with each CTI Toolkit:

Functionality

Change the fields and order of fields that display in a SoftPhone

Version 1.0 or Higher Version 2.0 or Higher Version 3.0 or Higher Version 4.0 or Higher

Change the objects and order of links to objects that display in a

SoftPhone

Specify the fields that display in the SoftPhone if a single record for a particular object is found

Specify screen pop settings for inbound calls with single, multiple, or no record matches

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels

Functionality

Specify screen pops for inbound calls to display in browser windows that are already open, or in new browser windows or tabs

Version 1.0 or Higher Version 2.0 or Higher Version 3.0 or Higher Version 4.0 or Higher

Specify screen pops to

Visualforce pages for inbound calls

Specify screen pops to search pages for inbound calls with multiple record matches

View a call center's version in a

Version field (from Setup, enter

Call Centers

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Call Centers and choose a call center)

View an enhanced

SoftPhone user-interface in the footer of the

Salesforce console

Log calls in the customizable interaction log of the Salesforce console

Support browsers that are cross-domain messaging compatible

Reduce CTI adapter size and complexity

For information about customizing and building CTI adapters, see:

•

CTI Toolkit Developer's Guide (Version 4.0)

•

CTI Toolkit Developer's Guide (Versions 1.0 to 3.0)

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels

Partners and developers can download the CTI Toolkit by visiting developer.salesforce.com

. The CTI Toolkit provides you with all of the source code, libraries, and files you need to develop your own custom CTI adapter.

SEE ALSO:

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.

Note: 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.

To set up a call center, work with a developer or partner to create a CTI implementation that uses the Open CTI API and works with your existing telephony system. Most call centers are created by installing an AppExchange package, then all you have to do is decide which users you want to access the call center.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

After a call center is set up, call center users can make and receive calls with a softphone. Each softphone looks and behaves differently because each CTI implementation is unique. In the console and in Lightning Experience, softphones appear in a footer. In Salesforce

Classic, softphones appear in the left sidebar of every Salesforce page.

The call center is all about customization. You can modify softphone layouts and assign specific layouts to selected user profiles. You can also add phone numbers to call center directories so your users all have access to key phone numbers. As your needs change, your call center can be customized and changed too. As an admin, some customization you can do yourself. However, you might want to work with your developers or partners to make functionality changes.

SEE ALSO:

Open CTI Developer Guide

If you’re developing your own implementation, define a new call center record for every CTI

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels

Set Up a Call Center

Before Salesforce users can access and use a call center, an administrator must complete various tasks.

EDITIONS

1. Work with a developer or partner to create a computer-telephony integration (CTI) implementation that uses the Open CTI API and works with your existing telephony system.

Most call centers are created by installing a package from the AppExchange.

system in use at your business.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

Assign Salesforce users to the appropriate call center

a call center to view the softphone.

3. Optionally, you can make further customizations.

. A call center user must be associated with

To manage call centers, call center users, call center directories, and SoftPhone layouts:

•

“Manage Call Centers”

•

Configure call center phone directories

with additional directory numbers and updated phone number search layouts.

•

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 rep might show related cases and solutions.

SEE ALSO:

Open CTI Developer Guide

Deploying Adapters to Call Center Machines

Important:

The CTI Toolkit is retired. Softphones built with the CTI Toolkit aren’t supported.

To continue using your softphone, migrate your CTI implementation to Salesforce Open CTI .

For more information about the retirement of CTI Toolkit and details about how to migrate to Open CTI, see CTI Toolkit Retirement FAQ .

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Except for call centers built with Open CTI, any machine that uses Salesforce CRM Call Center must have a CTI adapter installed. A CTI adapter is a light-weight software program that controls the

appearance and behavior of a Salesforce SoftPhone. The

a SoftPhone's functionality.

CTI Developer's Toolkit

version determines

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Because a CTI adapter communicates directly with an individual CTI system, an organization must use a different CTI adapter for each type of CTI system that is in use. For example, if an organization wants to integrate one call center that runs Cisco IPCC Enterprise

™

and one call center that runs

Cisco IPCC Express

™

, the organization must have two CTI adapters available. A call center user's machine only requires the SoftPhone

CTI adapter for the call center to which it connects.

To download a SoftPhone CTI adapter, visit AppExchange . Adapter installation packages include both the adapter setup files and a

call center definition file that can be used in conjunction with the adapter.

To install a CTI adapter on a single machine, run the CTI adapter's

Setup.exe

application as a Windows administrator user.

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To deploy a CTI adapter to all the machines in a call center at once, use the

.msi

file that is packaged with the installer and your preferred Software Management System.

Once a CTI adapter is installed, you can perform the following operations:

•

Start the CTI adapter application by clicking Start > Programs > salesforce.com > <Your CTI System Name> Adapter. You can verify that the CTI adapter is running by looking for the icon in the system tray of the computer.

•

Stop the CTI adapter application by right-clicking the CTI adapter system tray icon ( ) and choosing Exit.

•

Modify CTI adapter log settings by right-clicking the CTI adapter system tray icon ( ) and choosing Logging.... In the CTI Log

Settings dialog:

–

Select the types of messages that you want to log. Keep log levels at Low - Errors unless you are troubleshooting an issue with your adapter.

–

Specify the location for the two log files that the CTI adapter generates. For more information on these files, see the CTI Toolkit

Developer's Guide .

SEE ALSO:

importing the call center definition file into Salesforce. Subsequent call centers can be created by

Call Center Definition Files

A call center definition file specifies a set of fields and values that are used to define a call center in

Salesforce for a particular CTI system. Salesforce uses call center definition files in order to support the integration with multiple CTI system vendors.

By default, any CTI adapter installation package includes a default call center definition file that works specifically with that adapter. This XML file is located in the adapter installation directory and is named after the CTI system that it supports. For example, the Cisco IPCC Enterprise

™

adapter's default call center definition file is named

CiscoIPCCEnterprise7x.xml

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

The first instance of a call center for a particular CTI adapter must be defined by

cloning the original call center

that was created with the import.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

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

To view a sample call center definition file, see Sample Call Center Definition File on page 143.

on page 143.

•

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels

•

To import a call center definition file into Salesforce, see

Importing a Call Center Definition File

on page 145.

SEE ALSO:

Cloning a Call Center

If you have built a custom CTI adapter you must write a call center definition file to support it. Use

Creating a Call Center Definition File

a text or XML editor to define an XML file according to the guidelines outlined in the following topics:

•

•

•

Specifying Values for

<item>

Elements

•

SEE ALSO:

Importing a Call Center Definition File

Cloning a Call Center

Sample Call Center Definition File

The following XML code makes up a sample

Creating a Call Center Definition File on page 143.

. For more information on the

XML format of a call center definition file, see

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

<!--

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.

Note that the value for the reqInternalName item is limited to

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

-->

40 alphanumeric characters and must start with an alphabetic character. reqInternalName must be unique for all call centers that you define.

<item sortOrder="0" name="reqInternalName" label="Internal Name">callCenter001</item>

<item sortOrder="1" name="reqDisplayName" label="Display Name">My Call Center</item>

<item sortOrder="2" name="reqDescription" label="Description">Located in San Francisco, CA</item>

<item sortOrder="3" name="reqProgId" label="CTI Connector ProgId">MyAdapter.MyAdapter.1</item>

<item sortOrder="5" name="reqAdapterUrl" label="CTI Adapter URL">http://localhost:11000</item>

</section>

</section>

</section>

</callCenter>

SEE ALSO:

144

Creating Phone Channels

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels

Importing a Call Center Definition File

To create your first call center for a

CTI adapter

that was just installed, you can import the adapter's default

clone the adapter's existing call center , or

into Salesforce:

1. From Setup, enter

Call Centers

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Call Centers.

2. Click Import.

3. Next to the

Call Center Definition File

field, click Browse to navigate to the default call center definition file in your CTI adapter installation directory. This XML file is named after the type of CTI system that the adapter supports. For example, the Cisco

™

IPCC Enterprise adapter's default call center definition file is named

CiscoIPCCEnterprise7x.xml

Click Open to enter the path in the

Call Center Definition File

field.

4. Click Import to import the file and return to the All Call Centers page. The new call center record is listed with the other call centers in your organization.

Note: If you receive the error

A call center with this internal name already exists

, a call center definition file for this CTI adapter has already been imported into Salesforce. To create additional call center records for this CTI adapter,

modify the call center definition file

to include a different value for reqInternalName

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To import call center definition files:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Call Centers”

5. Click Edit next to the name of the new call center to modify the call center's settings.

To create additional call centers for a particular CTI adapter, see Cloning a Call Center

on page 150.

To define a new call center definition file for a CTI adapter that was customized specifically for your organization, see Creating a Call

Center Definition File

on page 143.

SEE ALSO:

call center definition file consists of three XML elements:

Call Center Definition XML Format

callCenter

, section

, and item

The following list provides details about the properties and attributes of each element:

callCenter

This element represents a definition for a single call center phone system. At least one

element must be included in every call center definition file. A

element consists of one or more

elements.

section

This element represents a grouping of related data fields, such as server information or dialing prefixes. When a call center is edited in Salesforce, fields are organized by the section to which they are assigned. A

element belongs to a single

element, and consists of one or more

<item>

elements.

Attributes:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels

Name

sortOrder name label

Type

Positive Integer

String

Required?

Required

Optional

Description

The order in which the section should appear when the call center is edited in Salesforce. For example, a section with sortOrder="1"

comes just before a section with sortOrder="2"

The values for sortOrder

must be non-negative integers, and no numbers can be skipped within a single call center definition.

For example, if there are three section elements in a call center definition file, one

element must have sortOrder="0"

, one

element must have sortOrder="1"

, and one

element must have sortOrder="2"

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 147). Other reserved words that cannot be used for the name attribute include label

, sortOrder

, internalNameLabel

, and displayNameLabel

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.

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

element.

Attributes:

Name

sortOrder

Type

Positive Integer

Required?

Required

Description

The order in which the item should appear when the call center is edited in Salesforce. For example, an item with sortOrder="1" comes just before an item with sortOrder="2"

The values for sortOrder

must be non-negative integers, and no numbers can be skipped within a single call center definition.

For example, if there are three item elements in a call center definition file, one

<item>

element must have sortOrder="0"

, one

<item>

element must have

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels

Name

name label

Type

String

Required?

Required

Optional

Description

sortOrder="1"

, and one

<item>

element must have sortOrder="2"

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 147). Other reserved words that cannot be used for the name attribute include label

, sortOrder

, internalNameLabel

, and displayNameLabel

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:

Required Call Center Elements and Attributes

There must be one

that includes

<item>

elements with the following names in every

<item>

Name

reqInternalName

Description

Represents the unique identifier for the call center in the database. It must have a sortOrder

value of

, and its value must be specified in the call center definition (see

on page 148). A value for reqInternalName must be composed of no more than

40 alphanumeric characters with no white space or other punctuation. It must start with an alphabetic character and must be unique from the reqInternalName of all other call centers defined in your organization.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

147

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels

<item>

Name

reqDisplayName reqDescription reqProgId reqVersion reqAdapterUrl

Description

Represents the name of the call center as displayed in Salesforce. It must have a sortOrder

value of

. A value for reqDisplayName has a maximum length of

1,000 UTF-8 characters.

Represents a description of the call center. A value for reqDescription has a maximum length of 1,000 UTF-8 characters.

Represents the Program ID (progId) of the CTI adapter that should be used for this call center. This value is specified in the default call center definition file that comes bundled with every CTI adapter installer, or in the base COM class of a custom CTI adapter.

Represents the version of the CTI Toolkit with which the adapter was built. This element is available for call centers built with CTI Toolkit versions 3.0 or higher.

Represents the location of where the CTI adapter is hosted. For example, http://localhost:11000

. This element is available for call centers built with

CTI Toolkit versions 4.0 or higher.

You can add additional

<item>

elements to this section if needed.

SEE ALSO:

Specifying Values for

<item>

Elements

With the exception of the reqInternalName <item>

, whose value must always be specified in a

, you can specify

<item>

values either in the call center definition file or in Salesforce once the definition file has been imported.

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:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

<item sortOrder="0" name="reqInternalName" label="Call Center Internal

Label">MyCallCenter</item>

148

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels sets the value of the reqInternalName <item>

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

A call center in

Import a call center definition file into Salesforce . Use this method to create your first call center

corresponds to a single computer-telephony integration

(CTI) system already in place at your organization. Salesforce users must be assigned to a call center record before they can use any Salesforce CRM Call Center features.

There are two ways to create a call center record in Salesforce:

•

for a CTI adapter that was just installed.

•

Clone an existing call center definition . Use this method to create additional call centers for a

particular CTI adapter. For example, if you already have a call center record for a Cisco IPCC

Enterprise

™

call center based in one location, you can clone that record for a Cisco IPCC Enterprise call center based in another location.

To view a list of call centers that have already been created, from Setup, enter

Call Centers

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Call Centers.

SEE ALSO:

Open CTI Developer Guide

Call Center Definition Files

Displaying and Editing a Call Center

for every call center defined in your organization. For more information, see Call Center Fields

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create a call center by importing or cloning:

•

“Manage Call Centers”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels

Cloning a Call Center

To create more than one call center for a particular CTI adapter, you can clone an existing one. For example, if you already have a call center record for a Cisco IPCC Enterprise

™

call center based in one location, you can clone that record for a Cisco IPCC Enterprise call center based in another location.

To clone a call center:

1. From Setup, enter

Call Centers

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Call Centers.

2. Click the name of the call center that you want to clone.

3. Click Clone. This action opens a new call center for editing with the same fields and values as the original call center. Only the

Internal Name

field is left intentionally blank to allow you to provide a new name. The

Internal Name

field is limited to 40 alphanumeric characters and must start with an alphabetic character.

Internal Name

must be unique

on page 157.

4. Make any additional changes to the new call center as necessary.

5. Click Save to save the new call center, or click Cancel to return to the All Call Centers page without saving the cloned call center.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To view and clone a call center:

•

“Manage Call Centers”

Note: If you have read-only access to a field, the value of that field is not carried over to the cloned record.

SEE ALSO:

Displaying and Editing a Call Center

Importing a Call Center Definition File

Displaying and Editing a Call Center

A call center in

associated directory numbers

corresponds to a single computer-telephony integration

(CTI) system already in place at your organization. Salesforce users must be assigned to a call center record before they can use any Salesforce CRM Call Center features.

To view call center details:

1. From Setup, enter

Call Centers

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Call Centers.

2. Click the name of the call center that you want to view.

From the Call Center Detail page you can:

•

Click Edit to modify the properties of the call center.

•

Click Delete to erase the call center record from Salesforce. When you delete a call center, all

are also deleted. Any users associated with the call center must be reassigned to another call center to continue using Salesforce CRM Call Center features .

•

Click Clone to create a duplicate copy of the call center with the same fields and values as the

current call center.

•

Click Manage Call Center Users to designate Salesforce users as members of this call center

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To view or edit a call center:

•

“Manage Call Centers”

150

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels

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

Enabling HTTPS in a Call Center

Call Center Definition Files

Customizing a Call Center Directory

Every call center in

Adding additional directory numbers

includes a call center directory that allows users to search for phone numbers throughout your organization. You can customize call center directories by:

•

, either to a single call center or to all defined call centers in your organization

•

Updating phone number search layouts

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

SEE ALSO:

Open CTI Developer Guide

USER PERMISSIONS

To manage call center directories:

•

“Manage Call Centers”

Adding a Number to a Call Center Directory

To customize call center directories by adding additional directory numbers, either to a single call center or to all defined call centers in your organization:

1. From Setup, enter

Directory Numbers

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Directory

Numbers. From this page, you can:

•

Click Edit to edit an existing additional directory number.

•

Click Del to delete an existing additional directory number.

•

Click the name of an existing additional directory number to view its details in the Additional

Directory Number Detail page. From this page you can click Edit to edit the number, click

Delete to delete it, or click Clone to quickly create a new additional directory number with the same information as the existing number.

2. Click New to define a new additional directory number.

3. In the

Name

field, enter a label that identifies the additional directory number.

4. In the

Phone

field, enter the phone number, including any international country codes. Dialing prefixes, such as 9 or 1, do not need to be included.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To view, add, edit, or delete an additional directory number:

•

“Manage Call Centers”

151

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5. In the

Call Center

field, select the call center directory to which you want to add the new directory number. To add the number to every call center directory in your organization, choose -- Global --.

6. In the

Description

field, optionally enter text that provides further information about the additional directory number.

7. Click Save to save the number and return to the All Additional Directory Numbers page. Alternatively, click Save & New to save the number and create another.

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

Customizing a Call Center Directory

Customizing Softphone Layouts

A softphone is a customizable call-control tool that appears to users assigned to a call center. Similar to page layouts, you can design custom softphone layouts and assign them to Call Center users based on their user profile. See:

•

Designing a Custom Softphone Layout

•

Assigning a Softphone Layout to a User Profile

SEE ALSO:

Open CTI Developer Guide

In a softphone layout you can control the call-related fields that are displayed and the Salesforce

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To view, create, edit, or delete a softphone layout:

•

“Manage Call Centers”

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Designing a Custom Softphone Layout

objects that are searched for an incoming call. To design a custom softphone layout:

1. From Setup, enter

Layouts.

3. In the

Name

Softphone Layouts

in the existing layout definition to view or modify it.

Quick Find

box, then select Softphone

2. Click New to create a new softphone layout definition, or click Edit next to the name of an

field, enter a label that uniquely identifies your softphone layout definition.

4. In the

Select Call Type

picklist, choose the type of call for which the currently displayed softphone layout should be used. Every softphone layout definition allows you to specify different layouts for inbound, outbound, and internal calls. These three layouts are grouped together in a single softphone layout definition.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

5. In the

Display these call-related fields

section, click Edit to add, remove, or change the order of fields in the currently-displayed softphone layout:

To view, create, edit, or delete a softphone layout:

•

“Manage Call Centers”

•

To add a field to the softphone layout, select it in the Available list and click Add.

•

To remove a field from the softphone layout, select it in the Selections list and click Remove.

•

To change the order of a field in the softphone layout, select it in the Selections list and click Up or Down.

Any changes that you make are automatically updated in the softphone layout preview image on the right side of the page. To hide the Available and Selections lists, click Collapse.

Phone-related fields only appear in a user's softphone if a valid value for that field is available. For example, if you add a Caller ID field to the layout of an outbound call, Caller ID will not appear.

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.

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 record(s) in Salesforce. The following table describes each record-matching row and its screen pop options:

Record-Matching Row

Screen pops open within

Description

Use to set where screen pops display.

Screen Pop Options

Existing browser window

Select to display in open browser windows.

New browser window or tab

Select to display in new browser windows or tabs.

Users' browsers may handle these settings differently:

•

Internet Explorer 6.0 always displays screen pops in new windows.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels

Record-Matching Row

No matching records

Description Screen Pop Options

•

Internet Explorer 7.0 displays screen pops based on what users select in its tabs settings.

•

Firefox 3.5 displays screen pops based on what users select in its tabs settings.

Use to set the screen pop options for when the details of an inbound call don't match any existing Salesforce records.

Don't pop any screen

Select if you don't want any screen to display.

Pop to new

Select to display a new record page you specify from the drop-down 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 additional data to the Visualforce page if necessary.

Single-matching record

Use to set the screen pop options for when the details of an inbound call match one existing Salesforce record.

Don't pop any screen

Select if you don't want any screen to display.

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

(the number that the caller dialed). The URL can pass additional data to the Visualforce page if necessary.

Multiple-matching records

Use to set the screen pop options for when the details of an inbound call match more than one existing Salesforce record.

Don't pop any screen

Select if you don't want any screen to display.

154

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Record-Matching Row Description

Creating Phone Channels

Screen Pop Options

Pop to search page

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 additional data to the Visualforce page if necessary.

To hide expanded record-matching rows, click Collapse.

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

Assigning a Softphone Layout to a User Profile

Once you have defined one or more custom softphone layouts , you can assign them to user profiles:

1. From Setup, enter

Softphone Layouts

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Softphone

Layouts.

2. Click Layout Assignment.

3. For each user profile that appears in the page, select the softphone layout that the profile should use. Profiles are only listed in this page if they include users that are currently assigned to a call center, or if they have already been assigned a custom softphone layout.

4. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To assign a softphone layout to a user profile:

•

“Manage Call Centers”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels

Note: Call center users will see their newly assigned softphone layout the next time they log into Salesforce.

SEE ALSO:

Open CTI Developer Guide

Customizing Softphone Layouts

Enabling HTTPS in a Call Center

With CTI adapters built with version 4.0 of the CTI Toolkit, you can specify a secure URL, or one that uses the secure hypertext transfer protocol (HTTPS), for your call center. Using HTTPS provides added security for your call center, and also helps prevent the Mixed Content warnings that can appear in your browser if your Salesforce organization uses the HTTPS protocol but your call center does not.

Important:

The CTI Toolkit is retired. Softphones built with the CTI Toolkit aren’t supported.

To continue using your softphone, migrate your CTI implementation to Salesforce Open CTI .

For more information about the retirement of CTI Toolkit and details about how to migrate to Open CTI, see CTI Toolkit Retirement FAQ .

To enable HTTPS:

1. From Setup, enter

Call Centers

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Call Centers.

2. Click the name of a call center.

3. Click Edit.

4. Type the secure URL for your adapter in

CTI Adapter URL

. For example, https://localhost:11000

5. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To enable HTTPS in a call center:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Call Centers”

Important: In addition to specifying a secure URL on the Call Center Settings page, you also need to make changes to the CTI adapter's configuration file, and create and install a new certificate for the CTI adapter. For more information, see the

CTI Toolkit Developer's Guide

Note: Previous versions of CTI are secure but use Windows

technologies that are different than those in CTI 4.0.

SEE ALSO:

Salesforce CTI Toolkit

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Managing Call Centers

A call center in

Click the name of a call center to view call center details

corresponds to a single computer-telephony integration

(CTI) system already in place at your organization. Salesforce users must be assigned to a call center record before they can use any Salesforce CRM Call Center features.

To view a list of call centers that have already been created, from Setup, enter

Call Centers

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Call Centers. From this page, you can:

•

•

Click Import to import a call center definition file that you have already created.

•

Click Edit next to any call center to modify call center details

•

Click Del next to any call center to erase the call center record from Salesforce. When you delete

a call center, all associated directory numbers

are also deleted. Any users associated with the call center must be reassigned to another call center to continue using Salesforce CRM Call

Center features .

SEE ALSO:

Open CTI Developer Guide

Call Center Definition Files

Call Center Fields

All call centers include the following required fields, though additional fields may be available depending on the content of the

Displaying and Editing a Call Center

that was used to create the call center:

Field

Internal Name

Display Name

Description

CTI Connector

ProgId

Description

Represents the unique identifier for the call center in the database.

Internal Name must be composed of no more than 40 alphanumeric characters with no white space or other punctuation. It must start with an alphabetic character and must be unique from the

Internal Name of all other call centers defined in your organization.

Once a value for

Internal Name

has been saved for a call center, it cannot be changed.

Represents the name of the call center as displayed in Salesforce. It must have a sortOrder

value of

Display Name has a maximum length of 1,000 UTF-8 characters.

Represents a description of the call center.

Description has a maximum length of 1,000 UTF-8 characters.

Represents the Program ID (progId) of the CTI adapter that should be used for this call center. This value is specified in the default call center

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To import, view, edit, or delete a call center:

•

“Manage Call Centers”

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

157

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels

Field Description

definition file that comes bundled with every CTI adapter installer, or in the base COM class of a custom CTI adapter.

SEE ALSO:

Adding a User to a Call Center

A Salesforce user cannot use a softphone unless an administrator has assigned the user to a call center.

Also keep in mind that every call center user has access to a set of personal softphone settings.

These settings specify:

•

Whether the user should be automatically logged into his or her softphone when he or she logs into Salesforce

•

How a record should be displayed when it is the only one that matches an incoming call

To change the default personal softphone settings for all new call center users, use the Force.com

API.

IN THIS SECTION:

Removing a User from a Call Center

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To add or remove users from a call center:

•

“Manage Call Centers”

SEE ALSO:

Open CTI Developer Guide

To add a user to a call center in Salesforce CRM Call Center

158

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Phone Channels

Adding a User to a Call Center

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter

Call Centers

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Call Centers.

2. Click the name of the call center to which you want to assign the Salesforce user.

3. In the Call Center Users related list, click Manage Call Center Users.

4. Click Add More Users.

5. Specify search criteria to find the Salesforce users who should be assigned to the call center.

6. Click Find to display the list of Salesforce users that meet your search criteria. All users who already belong to a call center are excluded from search results because a user can only be 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.

Alternatively, you can change a particular user's call center in the User Edit page:

1. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To add users to a call center:

•

“Manage Call Centers”

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:

Removing a User from a Call Center

To remove a user from a call center in Salesforce CRM Call Center:

1. From Setup, enter

Call Centers

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Call Centers.

2. Click the name of the call center from which you want to remove the Salesforce user.

3. In the Call Center Users related list, click Manage Call Center Users.

4. Click Remove next to the name of the user that you want to remove from the call center.

To remove multiple users at once, select the

Action

checkbox next to each user you want to remove and click Remove Users.

Alternatively, you can change a particular user's call center in the User Edit page:

1. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

2. Click Edit next to the name of the user.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To remove users from a call center:

•

“Manage Call Centers”

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3. Modify the

Call Center

SEE ALSO:

within the Salesforce console. See Let Your Agents Block Visitors by IP Address

Creating Web-Chat Channels

Live Agent for Administrators

Welcome to Live Agent for administrators! Live Agent is a comprehensive chat solution that makes it easy for your support organization’s agents and support supervisors to assist customers. With Live

Agent, your support organization can leverage the comprehensive customer service tools that are available in the Salesforce console while providing real-time chat support.

As an administrator, you can set up and customize Live Agent for your users, including agents and support supervisors. Live Agent is easy to set up and highly customizable. You can enable a suite of features that your agents and supervisors can use to assist customers.

Watch a Demo: Live Agent Configuration (Salesforce Classic)

A few major steps are involved in enabling, setting up, and deploying Live Agent in your Salesforce org. Let’s get started.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Live Agent:

•

“Customize Application”

To create user profiles or permission sets:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

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Create a Basic Live Agent Implementation

Before you customize Live Agent, you need to create the basic Live Agent implementation for your

Salesforce org. After you complete the basic setup steps, you’ll have a functioning Live Agent implementation that your agents can use to chat with customers.

Watch a Demo: Live Agent Configuration (Salesforce Classic)

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Live Agent:

•

“Customize Application”

To create user profiles or permission sets:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

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Enable Live Agent

Get started with Live Agent by enabling it for your Salesforce org. After you enable Live Agent, you can customize it.

1. From Setup, enter

Live Agent Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Live

Agent Settings.

2. Select

Enable Live Agent

3. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To enable Live Agent:

•

“Customize Application”

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Create Live Agent Users

Before your users can assist customers with chat, you need to assign the users as Live Agent users.

Live Agent users are support agents and supervisors who have the Salesforce permissions to assist customers with chat.

All Live Agent users need the

API Enabled

administrative permission enabled on their associated profile before they can use Live Agent.

1. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

2. Click Edit next to a user’s name.

3. Select

Live Agent User

. If you don’t see this checkbox, verify that your support organization has purchased enough Live Agent feature licenses.

4. Click Save.

After creating users, make sure that you assign them a Live Agent configuration and associate them with the appropriate skills.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or edit users:

•

“Manage Internal Users”

To enable agents to use Live

Agent:

•

“API Enabled” administrative permission

Permissions for Live Agent Support Agents

You need to enable a few specific permissions for Live Agent support agents so that they have access to all the tools that they’ll need to provide help to customers.

General Permissions

Necessary Permission

“API Enabled”

Description

Required for all Live Agent users

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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Object Permissions

Record Type

Live Agent Sessions

Permission

“Read”

Live Chat Visitors “Read”

Live Chat Transcripts “Read”

Quick Text “Read”

“Create”

Creating Web-Chat Channels

164

Description

Enables agents to view session records

Enables agents to view visitor records

Enables agents to view chat transcripts

Enables agents to view Quick

Text messages and include

Quick Text in chats.

Considerations

We don’t recommend giving agents the ability to create, edit, and delete session records.

Session records are created automatically and are meant to provide a paper trail with information about the time that agents spend online, so we don’t recommend giving agents the ability to change these records.

We don’t recommend giving agents the ability to create, edit, and delete 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.

We don’t recommend giving agents the ability to create, edit, and delete chat transcripts.

Transcripts are created automatically and are meant to provide a paper trail about your agents’ interactions with customers, so we don’t recommend giving agents the ability to change these records.

Without the “Read” permission on Quick Text, agents can’t access the Quick Text sidebar in the Salesforce console.

Enables agents to create Quick

Text messages

If your Quick Text messages need to be standardized across your organization, limit your agents’ ability to create Quick

Text messages. In that case, give the “Create” permission to support supervisors instead.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web-Chat Channels

Record Type Permission

“Edit”

“Delete”

Description

Enables agents to edit Quick

Text messages

Considerations

If your Quick Text messages need to be standardized across your support organization, limit your agents’ ability to edit Quick

Text messages. In that case, give the “Edit” permission to support supervisors instead.

Enables agents to delete Quick

Text messages

If your Quick Text messages need to be standardized across your organization, limit your agents’ ability to delete Quick

Text messages. In that case, give the “Delete” permission to support supervisors instead.

Permissions for Live Agent Support Supervisors

You must enable certain permissions for Live Agent support supervisors so that they have all the tools they need to monitor agents’ activities and review customers’ information.

General Permissions

Necessary Permission

“API Enabled”

Description

Required for all Live Agent users

Optional Permission

“Assign Live Agent Skills to Users”

Description

Enables supervisors to assign skills to agents.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

Object Permissions

Record Type

Live Agent Sessions

Permission

“Read”

“Create”

Description Considerations

Enables supervisors to view session records

None

Enables supervisors to create session records

Session records are created automatically and are meant to provide a paper trail that provides information about the time that agents

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Record Type Permission

Live Chat Transcripts

“Edit”

“Delete”

“Read”

“Create”

“Edit”

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Description

Enables supervisors to edit session records

Considerations

spend online. We don’t recommend tampering with these records, but you can give supervisors the ability to create them manually.

Session records are created automatically and 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.

Enables supervisors to delete session records

Session records are created automatically and 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.

Enables supervisors to view chat transcripts

None

Enables supervisors to create chat transcripts

Chat transcripts are created automatically and 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 create transcripts manually.

Enables supervisors to edit chat transcripts

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Record Type Permission

“Delete”

Live Chat Visitors

Quick Text

“Read”

“Create”

“Edit”

“Delete”

“Read”

“Create”

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Description

Enables supervisors to delete chat transcripts

Considerations

Enables supervisors to view visitor records

Enables supervisors to create visitor records

None

Visitor records are created automatically and 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.

Enables supervisors to edit visitor records

Enables supervisors to delete visitor records

None Enables supervisors to view

Quick Text messages

Enables supervisors to create

Quick Text messages

None

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web-Chat Channels

Record Type Permission

“Edit”

“Delete”

Description

Enables supervisors to delete

Quick Text messages

Considerations

Enables supervisors to edit Quick

Text messages

None

Create and Assign Live Agent Skills

Skills identify your agents’ areas of expertise. When you assign an agent to a skill, that agent receives chat requests that are related to the agent’s skill areas. You can also empower your supervisors to assign skills to agents.

1. From Setup, enter

Skills

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Skills.

2. Click New.

3. Enter a name for the skill.

For example, you can create a skill that’s called “Accounts” for agents who specialize in questions about customer accounts.

4. In the Assign Users area, select the users whom you want to associate with the skill.

5. In the Assign Profiles area, select the profiles that you want to associate with the skill.

6. Click Save.

To enable supervisors to assign skills, enable the “Assign Live Agent Skills to Users” permission on their profiles, or assign it to individual users via a permission set. When supervisors have this permission, they can go to Setup > Customize > Live Agent Skills and update the assigned profiles or users under each skill.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create skills:

•

“Customize Application”

To assign skills (supervisors):

•

“Assign Live Agent Skills to Users”

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Create Live Agent Configurations

Live Agent configurations define the Live Agent functionality that’s available to your agents and support supervisors when agents chat with customers. Create Live Agent configurations to control the functionality of Live Agent in the Salesforce console.

For efficiency, create profiles and users before you create configurations. That way, you can create a configuration and assign it to users and profiles at the same time.

Live Agent configurations enable you to control your users’ access to certain Live Agent features.

You can create multiple configurations that define Live Agent’s functionality for multiple types of users. For example, you might create a configuration specifically for experienced agents that gives them more permissions than new agents have, or you might create a configuration for support supervisors that gives them the permissions that they need to monitor their employees.

1. To get started with creating a configuration, in Setup, enter

Live Agent

Configurations

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Live Agent Configurations.

2. Click New.

3. Choose the settings for your Live Agent configuration.

4. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and edit configurations:

•

“Customize Application”

Live Agent Configuration Settings

Live Agent configuration settings control the functionality that’s available to agents and their supervisors while agents chat with customers.

Apply settings when you create or edit a Live Agent configuration.

Basic Information

Configure the basic functionality that’s available to agents when they chat with customers.

Setting

Live Agent Configuration Name

What It Does

Names the configuration.

This configuration name, or a version of it, automatically becomes the

Developer

Name

Developer Name

Chat Capacity

Sets the API name for the Live Agent configuration.

Indicates how many chats an agent who is assigned to this configuration can be engaged in at the same time.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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Setting

Sneak Peek Enabled

Request Sound Enabled

Disconnect Sound Enabled

Notifications Enabled

Custom Agent Name

Auto Greeting

Auto Away on Decline

Auto Away on Push Time-Out

Critical Wait Alert Time

Agent File Transfer Enabled

Visitor Blocking Enabled

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What It Does

Indicates whether agents can see what a chat customer is typing before the customer sends a chat message.

Indicates whether to play an audio alert when the agent receives a new chat request.

Indicates whether to play an audio alert when a chat is disconnected.

Indicates whether to display a desktop alert when an agent receives a new chat request.

Sets the agent’s name as it appears to customers in the chat window.

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 Live Agent 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.

Sets the agent’s Live Agent status to “Away” automatically when the agent declines a chat request.

This option applies only when agents are assigned to chat buttons that use push routing.

Sets an agent’s Live Agent status to “Away” automatically when a chat request that's been pushed to the agent times out.

This option applies only when agents are assigned to chat buttons that use push routing.

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.

Indicates whether an agent can enable customers to transfer files through a chat.

Indicates whether an agent can block visitors from an active chat

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web-Chat Channels

Setting

Assistance Flag Enabled

What It Does

Indicates whether an agent can send a request for help (“raise a flag”) to a supervisor.

Chatlets

Chatlets are tools that are available only to organizations that use Live Agent in the Live Agent console. The Live Agent console is no longer supported, so we don’t recommend setting up chatlets. But don’t worry—if you use Live Agent in the Salesforce console, you don’t need chatlets.

Assign Users

Assign eligible users to the configuration to give them access to Live Agent 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 profile.

Warning: Users can be assigned to only one Live Agent configuration at a time. If you assign the same user to a second Live

Agent configuration, the system removes that user from the first Live Agent configuration without warning you. So make sure that you know exactly which Live Agent configuration each user should be assigned to!

For example, let’s say that User A is assigned to Live Agent Configuration A. Then, you create Live Agent Configuration B and accidentally assign User A to it. Salesforce automatically removes User A from Live Agent Configuration A and reassigns the user to Live Agent Configuration B without notifying you.

Setting

Available Users

Selected Users

What It Does

Indicates the users who are eligible to be assigned to the configuration.

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 Live Agent 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.

Setting

Available Profiles

Selected Profiles

What It Does

Indicates the user profiles that are eligible to be assigned to the configuration.

Indicates the user profiles that are assigned to the configuration.

Supervisor Settings

Supervisor settings determine the Live Agent functionality that’s available to support supervisors. In addition, these settings determine the default filters that apply to the Agent Status list in the supervisor panel.

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Setting

Chat Monitoring Enabled

Whisper Messages Enabled

Agent Sneak Peek Enabled

Default Agent Status Filter

Default Skill Filter

Default Button Filter

Assigned Skills

Creating Web-Chat Channels

What It Does

Indicates whether supervisors can monitor their agents’ chats in real time while their agents interact with customers.

Indicates whether supervisors can send private messages to agents while agents chat with customers.

Indicates whether supervisors can preview an agent’s chat messages before the agent sends them to the customer.

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.

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.

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.

Determines the skills that are visible to supervisors 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 these skills. If you don’t select any skills, the Agent Status list displays agents who are assigned to any skill.

Chat Conference Settings

Determine whether agents can invite other agents to join them in a customer chat. Chat conferencing lets your agents include multiple agents in a single chat. That way, your agents can help your customers get the solutions that they need without making your customers wait for their chats to be transferred.

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.

Setting

Chat Conferencing Enabled

What It Does

Indicates whether agents can invite other agents to join them in customer chats.

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Chat Transfer Settings

Determine how agents can transfer chats to other agents.

Setting

Chat Transfer to Agents Enabled

Chat Transfer to Skills Enabled

Chat Transfer to Skills

What It Does

Indicates whether agents can transfer chats to another agent directly.

Indicates whether agents can transfer chats to agents assigned to a particular skill.

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 Live Chat Buttons Enabled

Indicates whether agents can transfer chats to a button or queue.

Chat Transfer to Live Chat Buttons

Determines the buttons to which agents can transfer chats.

Agents can transfer chats to available agents who are assigned to those buttons.

Supported Browsers for Live Agent Notifications

Live Agent 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.

Two types of chat notifications are available in Live Agent.

Chat request notifications

Notifies an agent when the agent receives a chat request; available as audio notifications and desktop notifications

Disconnect notifications

Notifies an agent when the agent is disconnected from Live Agent; available as audio notifications only

Browser Version

Google Chrome

™

Audio Notifications

Supported?

Desktop

Notifications

Supported?

Yes Yes

Mozilla

Firefox

Apple

Safari

Windows

Internet

Explorer

Most recent stable version

6.x on Mac OS X

Yes

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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Create Live Agent Deployments

A deployment is a place on your company’s website that’s enabled for Live Agent. Create deployments to implement Live Agent and control its functionality on your website.

To customize the chat window that your customers see, you first need to create a Force.com site to host your custom images.

A deployment consists of a few lines of JavaScript that you add to a Web page. Your organization can have a single Live Agent deployment or multiple deployments. For example, if you have a single service center that supports multiple websites, creating a separate deployment for each site enables you to present multiple chat windows to your visitors.

1. From Setup, enter

Deployments

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Deployments.

2. Click New.

3. Choose the settings for your deployment.

4. Click Save.

Salesforce generates the deployment code.

5. Copy the deployment code, and then paste it on each Web page where you want to deploy

Live Agent. For best performance, paste the code immediately before the closing body tag

(that is,

</body>

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

Note:

If you’re using security zones in Internet Explorer 9, verify that your deployment and any website that hosts that deployment are in the same security zone. Due to an issue with Internet Explorer, it’s not possible to launch a chat window from a website that’s in a different security zone. For more information on security zones, refer to Internet

Explorer help.

To create deployments:

•

“Customize Application”

Note:

If you move instances for an instance refresh or org migration, regenerate the code using these steps after the maintenance is complete.

Live Agent Deployment Settings

Live Agent deployment settings control the functionality that’s available to agents and their supervisors while agents chat with customers.

Apply settings when you create or edit a Live Agent deployment.

Basic Information

Configure the basic functionality that’s available on a particular Live Agent deployment.

Setting

Live Chat Deployment Name

Developer Name

What It Does

Names the deployment.

This deployment name, or a version of it, automatically becomes the

Developer

Name

Sets the API name for the Live Agent deployment.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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Setting

Chat Window Title

Allow Visitors to Save Transcripts

Allow Access to Pre-Chat API

Permitted Domains

Enable Custom Timeouts

Idle Connection Warning Duration

Idle Connection Timeout Duration

What It Does

Sets the name of the chat window as it appears to customers.

Indicates whether customers can save copies of their chat transcripts after they finish chatting with an agent.

Indicates whether developers can access and implement the pre-chat API.

Warning: The pre-chat API gives developers access to potentially personal information that customers provide in pre-chat forms, such as the customer’s name and email address.

Determines the domains that can host the deployment.

When using permitted domains:

•

List as many domains as you need to, 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.

Indicates whether a warning and timeout for the agent are enabled for when the customer is idle in a chat.

Indicates the duration, in seconds, that the customer can remain idle or disconnected before a warning is sent to the agent. The default value is 40 seconds. Appears when

Enable Custom

Timeouts

is selected.

Indicates the duration, in seconds, that the customer can remain idle or disconnected before the chat ends. The default value is 110 seconds. Appears when

Enable Custom Timeouts

is selected.

Chat Window Branding

You can optionally customize your chat windows with custom images by associating your deployment with a Force.com site and its static resources.

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Setting

Branding Image Site

Chat Window Branding Image

Mobile Chat Window Branding Image

What It Does

Determines the Force.com site that’s associated with the deployment.

By associating your deployment with a Force.com site, you can customize your deployment with branding images. Store your branding images as static resources with your Force.com site.

Sets the custom graphic that appears in the customer’s chat window.

Sets the custom graphic that appears in the customer’s chat window when the customer accesses chat from a mobile site.

Permitted Domains and Live Agent Deployments

To enhance security and minimize the number of illegitimate chat requests that you receive, use the permitted domains option when you create Live Agent deployments. There are a few considerations to keep in mind when you use permitted domains.

•

List as many domains as you need to, but only one per line.

•

Use only the domain and subdomain—for example, 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.

•

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.

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Create Chat Buttons

Create chat buttons to enable customers to request a chat with an agent directly from your website.

Before you create chat buttons, you need to:

•

Create skills. Each chat button is associated with a particular skill or set of skills so that chats that are initiated from the button are routed to the appropriate agents.

•

Create a Force.com site and static resources to use custom images for the online and offline versions of your button. If you don’t have a Force.com site, you can specify online and offline button images or text by modifying the code that’s generated when you create a button.

You need to create the buttons that visitors click to start chats. Like a deployment, a button consists of several lines of JavaScript that you copy and paste into Web pages. A single deployment can have multiple buttons; each button enables you to refine the chat experience for visitors. For example, your service deployment might have buttons for personal computer, laptop, or tablet issues. Each button is mapped to a skill or set of skills to ensure that visitors’ inquiries go to only those agents who can solve the visitors’ problems.

1. From Setup, enter

Chat Buttons

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Chat Buttons

& Invitations.

2. Click New.

3. Select Chat Button from the

Type

field.

4. Choose the remaining settings for your chat button.

5. Click Save.

6. Copy the button code, and then paste it on each Web page where you’ve deployed Live Agent.

Make sure that you paste the code in the area on the page where you want the button to appear.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and customize chat buttons:

•

“Customize Application”

Tip:

Because the code changes with each modification, remember to copy and paste the code each time that you update the button.

Chat Button Settings

Chat button settings control the behavior of the chat buttons that customers use to interact with agents.

Apply settings when you create or edit a Live Agent chat button.

Basic Information

Configure the basic functionality that’s available on a particular Live Agent chat button.

Setting

Type

What It Does

Determines the type of button that you want to create.

Warning:

When you create a chat button to host on your website, you must set this option to Chat Button.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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Setting

Name

Developer Name

Language

Enable Customer Time-Out

Customer Time-Out (seconds)

Customer Time-Out Warning (seconds)

Custom Agent Name

Auto Greeting

Creating Web-Chat Channels

What It Does

Names the chat button.

This button name, or a version of it, automatically becomes the

Developer Name

Sets the API name for the chat button.

Sets the default language for text in the chat window.

Indicates whether chats are ended if the customer doesn’t respond within a specified period.

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. The timer resets to 0 each time the agent sends a message.

Sets the amount of time that a customer has to 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. The warning value must be shorter than the time-out value (we recommend at least 30 seconds).

Sets the agent’s name as it appears to customers in the chat window.

Sets a customized greeting message that the customer receives automatically when an agent accepts the customer’s chat request.

Note: If you specify an automatic greeting message in both your Live Agent 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.

Setting

Routing Type

What It Does

Sets how chats are routed to an agent.

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Setting

Skills

Push Time-Out (seconds)

Enable Queue

Queue Size Per Agent

Overall Queue Size

Reroute Declined Requests

Automatically Accept Chats

What It Does

Associates skills with the button. Incoming chat requests that originate from the button are routed to agents with the skills that you specify.

Sets the amount of time an agent has to answer a chat request before the request is rerouted to another agent.

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.

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 is the number of chats allowed to queue for each agent.

Determines the queue’s capacity to hold chat requests. For Live

Agent routing or when chats have a size of 1, this is the maximum number of chats allowed to queue.

Lets a chat request that’s been declined by all available agents be rerouted and sent to all available agents again. Available only for requests with Least Active and Most Available routing types.

Lets chat requests originating from this button be automatically accepted by the first available agent.

Chat Button Customization

You can optionally customize your chat button with custom images by associating your deployment with a Force.com site and its static resources.

Setting

Site for Resources

Online Image

Offline Image

Custom Chat Page

What It Does

Determines the Force.com site that’s associated with the chat button. By associating your button with a Force.com site, you can customize the button with branding images. Store your branding images as static resources with your Force.com site.

Sets the custom button graphic that appears when the chat button is unavailable.

Sets the custom button graphic that appears when the chat button is available for customers to request new chats.

Replaces the standard Live Agent 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 that Live Agent provides.

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Setting

Pre-Chat Form Page

Pre-Chat Form URL

Post-Chat Page

Post-Chat Page URL

What It Does

Directs Live Agent to the Force.com page that hosts your customized pre-chat form that customers see before they begin a chat with an agent.

Directs Live Agent to the URL of the Web page that hosts your pre-chat form.

Directs Live Agent to your customized post-chat page that customers see after they complete a chat.

Directs Live Agent to the URL of the Web page that hosts your post-chat page.

Chat Routing Options

Routing options in Live Agent enable you to specify how incoming chat requests are directed to agents.

Routing Option

Choice

Least Active

Most Available

Omni

Description

Incoming chat requests are added to the queue in Live Agent in the Salesforce console and are available to any agent with the required skill.

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.

Incoming chats are routed to the agent with the required skill and the greatest difference between chat capacity and active chat sessions.

For example, if Agent A and Agent B each have a chat capacity of five, and Agent A has three active chat sessions while Agent B has one, incoming chats will be routed to Agent B.

Incoming chats are routed to agents using

Omni-Channel queues.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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Chat Queuing Options

Queuing options in Live Agent let you control how incoming chat requests are handled when no agents are available.

For each Live Agent chat button or invitation that you create, you can enable queuing to put incoming chat requests on hold if no agents with the required skills are available to accept the requests. You can also specify the maximum number of requests in a queue. By enabling queues and setting limits for them, you can control how incoming chat requests are handled, which helps agents manage chat backlogs.

With queuing enabled, your company can accept incoming chat requests even when agents are at capacity, and you can specify the maximum number of requests to accept. This helps agents work effectively and limits the amount of time that customers spend waiting to chat.

The way that chat queuing works is determined by chat routing options. Routing options are set

through your chat button or automated invitation. See Chat Routing Options to learn more about

how you can route chats to the right agents.

Let’s look at how queuing and routing options work together:

Queuing Option

Queuing is not enabled

With This Routing Option Results

Choice

•

Users see the online version of your chat button and can submit new requests unless there are no agents with the required skill who are available or all online agents have reached capacity.

•

Incoming chat requests are added to the Live Agent widget.

•

When agents have capacity for new chat sessions, they can select incoming requests from the list.

Least Active

Most

Available

•

Users see the online version of your chat button and can submit new requests unless there are no agents with the required skill who are available or all online agents have reached capacity.

•

When agents have the capacity for new chat

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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Queuing Option With This Routing Option

Queuing is enabled without a per-agent or overall limit

Choice

•

Users see the online version of your chat button and can submit new requests unless there are no agents with the required skill who are 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.

Queuing is enabled without a per-agent or overall limit

Least Active

Most Available

•

Users see the online version of your chat button and can submit new requests unless there are no agents with the required skill who are available.

•

When agents have the capacity for new chat sessions, requests are routed to them.

Queuing is enabled with a per-agent or overall limit defined

Results

sessions, requests are routed to them.

Queuing is enabled with a per-agent or overall limit defined

Choice

•

Users see the online version of your chat button and can submit new requests unless there are no agents with the required skill who are available or until the queue limit is reached. Users then see the offline version of the button until older chat sessions have ended.

•

Incoming chat requests are added to the queue until the per-agent or overall limit is reached, at which point 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.

Least Active

Most Available

•

Users see the online version of your chat button and can submit new requests unless there aren’t any available agents with the required skill, or until the queue limit is reached. In those cases, users see the offline version of the button until older chat sessions have ended and an agent is available.

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Queuing Option With This Routing Option

Creating Web-Chat Channels

Results

•

Incoming chat requests are added to the queue until the per-agent or overall limit is reached, at which point no new requests are accepted until older chat sessions have ended.

•

When agents have the capacity for new chat sessions, requests are routed to them.

Customize Your Live Agent Branding with Force.com Sites

To customize your Live Agent implementation with branding images, use a Force.com site to upload the images for your chat window and chat buttons.

To customize your chat window and chat buttons, you need to create one or more Force.com sites and then upload the images that you want to use as static resources. Static resources enable you to upload content that you can reference in a Visualforce page. Each static resource has its own

URL that Salesforce uses to access the images when the chat window loads.

1. Create a Force.com site to host your images.

When you create a Force.com site for your Live Agent deployment, you need to provide only the following information.

•

A site label and site name

•

A site contact

•

The active site’s home page

•

A site template

2. Upload your branding images as static resources.

Note:

The maximum size for a standard chat window images is 50 pixels.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and edit

Force.com sites:

•

“Customize Application”

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Customize Your Live Agent Implementation

After you set up your basic Live Agent implementation, customize it with solutions that are appropriate for your agents, supervisors, and customers. Live Agent offers several options for customizing your implementation declaratively, which means that no coding is required.

IN THIS SECTION:

Create Live Agent Objects

The first step towards getting your Live Agent implementation up and running is to create the necessary objects in Salesforce.

Set Visibility for Live Agent Users

Choose how your Live Agent users can view the Supervisor Tab and Live Agent Sessions using

Profiles and Permission Sets.

Set Privacy Options for Live Agent Users

Protect your agents and the customers they assist by blocking sensitive data and unwanted visitors.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Live Agent:

•

“Customize Application”

To create user profiles or permission sets:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

Create Live Agent Objects

The first step towards getting your Live Agent implementation up and running is to create the necessary objects in Salesforce.

IN THIS SECTION:

Create Automated Chat Invitations

Set up automated chat invitations that appear as animated pop-ups on your website to invite customers to chat with an agent.

Pre-Chat Forms and Post-Chat Pages

Pre-chat forms and post-chat pages in Live Agent enable you to exchange information with customers who contact your company through chat.

Create Quick Text Messages

Quick Text messages enable agents to include standardized notes with case updates and to send common responses to customers without having to type the responses each time. Create custom messages for your agents to use when they email and chat with customers.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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Create Automated Chat Invitations

Set up automated chat invitations that appear as animated pop-ups on your website to invite customers to chat with an agent.

Before you create automated invitations, you need to:

•

Create skills. Each chat button is associated with a particular skill or set of skills so that chats that are initiated from the button are routed to the appropriate agents.

•

Automated invitations can be set to trigger based on certain criteria, such as whether a customer remains on a Web page for more than a specified amount of time. Invitations can be associated with specific skills, which ensures that customers will be routed to the appropriate agent when they accept an invitation to chat.

1. From Setup, enter

Chat Buttons & Invitations

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Chat Buttons & Invitations.

2. Click New.

3. Under

Type

, select Automated Invitation.

4. Click Save.

5. Copy the invitation code, and then paste it on each Web page where you’ve deployed Live

Agent. Make sure that you paste the code in the area on the page where you want the invitation to appear.

Tip: Because the code changes with each modification, remember to copy and paste the code each time that you update the invitation.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and customize automated chat invitations:

•

“Customize Application”

IN THIS SECTION:

Automated Invitation Settings

Automated invitation settings control the behavior of the invitations that are sent to your customers to prompt them to chat with agents while they visit your website.

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Automated Invitation Settings

Automated invitation settings control the behavior of the invitations that are sent to your customers to prompt them to chat with agents while they visit your website.

Apply settings when you create or edit a Live Agent automated invitation.

Basic Information

Configure the basic functionality that’s available on a particular Live Agent chat button.

Setting

Type

Active

Name

Developer Name

Deployments

Language

Enable Customer Time-Out

Customer Time-Out (seconds)

Customer Time-Out Warning

(seconds)

What It Does

Determines whether to create a chat button or automated invitation.

Warning: When creating an automated chat invitation, you must set this option to Automated Invitation.

Determines whether the automated invitation is “active” or can automatically be sent to customers.

Names the invitation.

This invitation name, or a version of it, automatically becomes the

Developer

Name

Sets the API name for the invitation.

Allows you to choose the deployments where this invitation appears.

Sets the default language for text in the chat window.

Indicates whether chats are ended if the customer doesn’t respond within a specified period.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

186

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Setting

Custom Agent Name

Auto Greeting

Creating Web-Chat Channels

What It Does

warning value must be shorter than the time-out value (we recommend at least 30 seconds).

Sets the agent’s name as it appears to customers in the chat window.

Sets a customized greeting message that the customer receives automatically when an agent accepts the customer’s chat request from an invitation.

Note: If you specify an automatic greeting message in your

Live Agent configuration and in an invitation, the message that’s associated with your invitation will override the message that’s associated with your configuration.

Routing Information

Specify how this invitation routes chats to the best-fit agent.

Setting

Routing Type

Skills

Queue

Enable Queue

Queue Size Per Agent

Overall Queue Size

What It Does

Determines how incoming chat requests that originate from the invitation are routed to agents with the appropriate skills.

Associates skills with the invitation. Incoming chat requests that originate from the invitation are routed to agents with ALL the skills that you specify.

Selects the queue for this invitation.

Indicates that queuing is enabled, allowing incoming chat requests to wait in a queue until an agent with the appropriate skills is available to accept the chat.

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 is the number of chats allowed to queue for each agent.

Determines the queue’s capacity to hold chat requests. For Live

Agent routing or when chats have a size of 1, this is the maximum number of chats allowed to queue.

Invitation Animation

Customize your invitation’s animations to determine how the animation will appear to customers.

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Setting

Display Time

Allow invitation to be triggered again after accepting

Allow invitation to be triggered again after rejecting

Animation

What It Does

Determines how long the invitation will be displayed to customers before it disappears.

Indicates whether the invitation can be sent to the customer again after the customer has accepted a previous invitation.

Indicates whether the invitation can be sent to the customer again after the customer has rejected a previous invitation.

Determines the type of animation for your invitation. Depending on which animation you choose, you’ll be prompted to select the positions where the invitation will appear on-screen to customers.

Note: Animations won’t render for agents using Internet

Explorer versions 9 and below.

Invitation Customization

You can optionally customize your invitation with custom images by associating your deployment with a Force.com site and its static resources.

Setting

Site for Resources

Invitation Image

Custom Chat Page

Pre-Chat Form Page

Pre-Chat Form URL

Post-Chat Page

Post-Chat Page URL

What It Does

Determines the Force.com site that’s associated with the invitation.

By associating your invitation with a Force.com site, you can customize the invitation with branding images. Store your branding images as static resources with your Force.com site.

Sets the custom button graphic that appears for this invitation.

Directs Live Agent to the Force.com page that hosts your customized pre-chat form that customers see before they begin a chat with an agent.

Directs Live Agent to the URL of the Web page that hosts your pre-chat form.

Directs Live Agent to your customized post-chat page that customers see after they complete a chat.

Directs Live Agent to the URL of the Web page that hosts your post-chat page.

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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. Additionally, if your sending rule requires more complicated logic, you can apply Boolean operators to your sending rule.

Setting

Criteria

Operator

Value

What It Does

Sets the criteria to be evaluated by the sending rule. For example, you can create a rule that sends the invitation based on how many seconds a customer has been viewing a Web page.

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.

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.

Pre-Chat Forms and Post-Chat Pages

Pre-chat forms and post-chat pages in Live Agent enable you to exchange information with customers who contact your company through chat.

Pre-chat forms and post-chat pages offer a standardized way of collecting information from customers who contact your company through chat. These forms and pages also offer a standardized way of sharing information with customers after their chat sessions are finished. In addition, by using these forms and pages, you can customize the chat experience for your users.

By using pre-chat forms, you can collect information from a customer, such as a name or a description of a problem, after the customer requests to chat with an agent. This information can help direct chat requests efficiently and can reduce the amount of time that agents need to spend collecting information before beginning a chat session. You can also use this information to customize a customer’s experience while the customer chats with an agent, such as including the customer’s first name in the chat window.

By using post-chat pages, you can share information with customers at the end of a chat session.

For example, you can direct your customers to another Web page after they complete a chat with an agent, and you can forward them to a survey about their chat experience.

You have to create pre-chat forms and post-chat pages programmatically, using Live Agent’s APIs.

For information on creating customized pre-chat forms and post-chat pages, see the

Live Agent

Developer’s Guide

(English only).

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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Create Quick Text Messages

1. Click the Quick Text tab.

2. Click New.

3. If you have more than one Quick Text record type, select a record type for the new message, and then click Continue.

4. Type a message name.

5. Type the message.

It can include line breaks, lists, and special characters and can be up to 4,096 characters.

6. Click Available Merge Fields to display the merge field selector.

7. Select the channels in which you want the message to be available.

Depending on which features are enabled in your organization, these channels might be available.

•

—the Case Feed Email action

•

Live Agent

— Live Agent in the Salesforce console

•

Portal

—a community or a customer portal

•

Phone

—the Case Feed Log a Call action

•

Internal

—the Case Feed Change Status action

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Group,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create Quick Text messages:

•

“Create,” “Read,” “Edit,” and “Delete” on Quick

Text

8. Select a category.

9. Optionally, select a subcategory.

10. Click Save.

Tip: Click Test and Verify Merge Fields to view a sample of the quick text, populated with data from records that you choose.

SEE ALSO:

Set Visibility for the Supervisor Tab through Profiles

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Set Visibility for Live Agent Users

Choose how your Live Agent users can view the Supervisor Tab and Live Agent Sessions using

Profiles and Permission Sets.

IN THIS SECTION:

The Live Agent supervisor panel is your supervisors’ one-stop shop for finding information about their organizations’ chat buttons and chat agents. Make the Live Agent supervisor tab visible to users who are assigned to specified profiles.

Set Visibility for the Live Agent Sessions Tab through Permission Sets

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 Live Agent sessions tab visible to users who are assigned to specified permission sets.

Set Visibility for the Live Agent Sessions Tab through Profiles

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

Set Visibility for the Supervisor Tab through Profiles

1. From Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles.

2. Click Edit next to the profile that you want to give access to the supervisor tab.

3. Set the visibility of the Live Agent supervisor tab to

Default On

4. Click Save.

After you give your users permission to access the Live Agent supervisor tab, set up access to the

Live Agent supervisor panel in the Salesforce console.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set tab visibility for Live

Agent features:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

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Set Visibility for the Live Agent Sessions Tab through Permission Sets

Alternatively, you can give users access to the Live Agent sessions tab through profiles.

1. From Setup, enter

Permission Sets

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Permission

Sets.

2. Click the name of a permission set, or create a permission set.

3. Click Object Settings.

4. Click Live Agent Sessions.

5. Click Edit.

6. In Tab Settings, select

Available

and

Visible

7. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set tab visibility for Live

Agent features:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

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Set Visibility for the Live Agent Sessions Tab through Profiles

Alternatively, you can give users access to the Live Agent sessions tab through permission sets.

1. From Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles.

2. Select a support agent profile.

3. Click Edit.

4. Set the visibility of the Live Agent sessions tab to

Default On

5. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set tab visibility for Live

Agent sessions:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

Set Privacy Options for Live Agent Users

Protect your agents and the customers they assist by blocking sensitive data and unwanted visitors.

IN THIS SECTION:

Block Sensitive Data in Chats

Sensitive data rules let you block specific patterns, such as credit card, Social Security, phone and account numbers, or even profanity. You can choose to remove the text or replace it with your preferred characters.

Let Your Agents Block Visitors by IP Address

Help your agents avoid troublesome customers by blocking chats from specified IP addresses.

Create an IP Blocking Rule to Block Chat Visitors

Help your agents avoid troublesome customers by blocking chats from specified IP addresses.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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Block Sensitive Data in Chats

1. In Setup, enter

Sensitive Data

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Sensitive Data

Rules.

2. Click New.

3. Write each pattern as a JavaScript regular expression (regex), and choose your preferred settings.

The regex is case-sensitive.

4. Click Test Your Pattern.

5. Enter some text in the format of the data you want to block, such as 123-45-6789 for a Social

Security number.

6. Preview your results to ensure that the rule is working correctly.

7. Select the roles for which you want to enforce this rule.

8. 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 > Live Agent > Live Agent 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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create sensitive data rules:

•

“Customize Application”

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Let Your Agents Block Visitors by IP Address

Help your agents avoid troublesome customers by blocking chats from specified IP addresses.

You can enable your agents to block chat requests from specified IP addresses while they work in the console. For example, if a customer is using abusive language or sending spam messages, the agent can block that user from starting a new chat.

An agent action blocks chats from an individual IP address.

Blocked visitors will see a message indicating that chat isn’t available.

If a customer attempts to request a chat from a blocked IP address, the chat won't enter a queue, nor will it be routed to agents. In addition, you can modify or delete blocking rules.

1. In Setup, enter

Live Agent Configurations

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Live Agent Configurations.

2. Click Edit next to the configuration that you want to modify.

3. Under Basic Information, select Visitor Blocking Enabled.

4. Click Save.

As a Salesforce admin, you can also block individual IP addresses. Or, if your Salesforce org is receiving spam chats from a particular region, you can block entire IP ranges. See

Create an IP Blocking Rule

for more information.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To chat with visitors in Live

Agent in the Salesforce console:

•

Live Agent is enabled, set up, and included in a Salesforce console app

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web-Chat Channels

Create an IP Blocking Rule to Block Chat Visitors

Help your agents avoid troublesome customers by blocking chats from specified IP addresses.

You can block chat requests from specified IP addresses. For example, if a customer is using abusive language or sending spam messages, you can block that user from starting a new chat. If your

Salesforce org is receiving spam chats from a particular region, you can block entire ranges of IP addresses.

Blocked visitors will see a message indicating that chat isn’t available.

If a customer attempts to request a chat from a blocked IP address, the chat won't enter a queue, nor will it be routed to agents. In addition, you can modify or delete blocking rules.

1. In Setup, enter

Block Visitors

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Block Visitors.

For guidelines on entering valid IP ranges, see Set Trusted IP Ranges for Your Organization.

2. Click New and fill in the parameters of your Blocking Rule.

3. Click Save.

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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To chat with visitors in Live

Agent in the Salesforce console:

•

Live Agent is enabled, set up, and included in a Salesforce console app

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Set Up Live Agent in the Salesforce Console

After you set up and customize your basic Live Agent implementation, add it to the Salesforce console so that your agents and supervisors can start using chat to assist customers. Additionally, you can set up some other features in the Salesforce console to create an even more robust chat experience for your agents and your customers.

IN THIS SECTION:

Add Live Agent to the Salesforce Console in Salesforce Classic

Adding Live Agent to the Salesforce console enables agents and supervisors to chat with customers and access other customer service tools in one place.

Set Up Chat Answers from Knowledge Articles

If your organization uses Salesforce Knowledge, you can enable your agents to answer customer questions by using information from your knowledge base. Set up chat answers on articles so that agents can search for articles from Live Agent in the Salesforce console and include the information in chats.

Add the Supervisor Panel to the Salesforce Console

Add the supervisor panel to the Salesforce to make your support supervisors’ work easier. That way, supervisors can access information about their agents without having to switch between workspaces.

Add a Console Sidebar Lookup Component for Chats Routed with Omni-Channel

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 (Beta).

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Live Agent:

•

“Customize Application”

To create user profiles or permission sets:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

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Add Live Agent to the Salesforce Console in Salesforce Classic

Adding Live Agent to the Salesforce console enables agents and supervisors to chat with customers and access other customer service tools in one place.

Before you add Live Agent to a Salesforce console app, you need to create a Salesforce console app if you don’t have one set up.

After you set up Live Agent, add it to a Salesforce console app. After Live Agent is set up in the console, your agents can interact with chat customers. With the Salesforce console, your agents and supervisors can access Live Agent and other Service Cloud products in one place to provide customers fast and efficient customer service.

1. From Setup, enter

Apps

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Apps.

2. Click Edit next to the name of the Salesforce console app in which you want to set up Live

Agent.

3. Select

Include Live Agent in this App

4. Choose the records or pages that you want to open as subtabs of chat sessions in the chat workspace.

5. Optionally, if your Salesforce org has Knowledge enabled, select

Include Suggested

Articles from Knowledge in Live Agent

to display the Knowledge One widget in the chat workspace.

6. Click Save.

You can run multiple Salesforce apps at the same time. However, if you log in to another Salesforce app while you’re logged in to a Salesforce console app, you can’t accept new chat requests.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To add Live Agent to the

Salesforce console:

•

“Customize Application”

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Set Up Chat Answers from Knowledge Articles

To give support agents the ability to include information from Knowledge articles in chat sessions by using the Knowledge One widget, you need to add a custom field that’s called “Chat Answer” to article types. This field stores information from the article that’s appropriate to share with customers during a live chat. Using this field can be helpful for articles that are too long for an agent to include easily in a response.

Create the custom field as a Text, Text Area, or Text Area (Long). The Rich Text Field option is not supported. You need to add this custom field to each article type that contains information that you want operators to access from the Knowledge One widget.

1. From Setup, enter

Knowledge Article Types

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Knowledge Article Types.

2. Create or edit an article type.

3. Click New in the Fields related list.

4. Select

Text

Text Area

, or

Text Area (Long)

Don’t select

Text Area (Rich)

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

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.)

To set up the Knowledge

One widget:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Knowledge”

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.

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Add the Supervisor Panel to the Salesforce Console

1. In 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 supervisor panel to.

3. In the Choose Navigation Tab Items section, add

Live Agent Supervisor

to the

Selected Items list.

4. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Live Agent and manage apps:

•

“Customize Application”

Add a Console Sidebar Lookup Component for Chats Routed with Omni-Channel

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 (Beta).

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Before you add a sidebar component to the Salesforce console app, you need:

•

A Salesforce console app with Live Agent and Omni-Channel added to it.

•

At least one chat button that uses the routing option Omni.

•

Edit access for Live Chat Transcript granted to agents handling chats routed through

Omni-Channel.

1. From Setup, enter

Live Agent

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Live Chat

Transcripts > Page Layouts.

2. Click Edit next to the Live Chat Transcript (In Progress) Page Layout.

3. Click Custom Console Components.

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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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.

5. Click Save.

Agents can now link and unlink records using the sidebar component.

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Sidebar Lookup Component with No Linked Records

Creating Web-Chat Channels

Sidebar Lookup Component with Linked Contact Record

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Use Omni-Channel with Your Existing Live Agent Implementation

Are you loving Live Agent and want to add Omni-Channel to the mix? Here’s what changes for you and your organization (and not for your agents!).

So, you’ve decided to take your customer service to the next level by using Live Agent and

Omni-Channel in tandem. That’s great! Once everything’s set up, you’ll find that the two work together in perfect harmony.

Live Agent is powered by Live Agent Configurations, which control the behaviors and settings that are available to Live Agent users. Similarly, Omni-Channel uses Presence Configurations to control the behaviors and settings that are available to Omni-Channel users. You can integrate Live Agent with Omni-Channel so chats are routed just like other work items, and you can even use

Omni-Channel routing for your chats. Whichever way you use Omni-Channel with Live Agent, your agents are then able to accept or reject chat requests right from the Omni-Channel widget.

When you integrate Live Agent and Omni-Channel, your Live Agent users also become Omni-Channel users, so your chat agents need to be associated with both a Live Agent Configuration and a Presence

Configuration. Luckily, Salesforce does some of the heavy lifting for you when you enable

Omni-Channel with your current Live Agent implementation.

For each Live Agent Configuration that you already have in your org, Salesforce:

•

Creates a corresponding Presence Configuration for each of your Live Agent Configurations

•

Sets the chat capacity for each Presence Configuration to what’s set in its corresponding Live

Agent Configuration

•

Assigns your chat agents to the new corresponding Presence Configurations

If you have Live Agent enabled but don’t have an implementation, when you enable Omni-Channel,

Salesforce creates a Live Agent Service Channel.

Salesforce does all this automatically so there’s no disruption to your agents’ workflow. They can start accepting chats through the Omni-Channel widget in the console. The only difference they see is that they now use the Omni-Channel widget 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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

IN THIS SECTION:

Compare Live Agent and Omni-Channel Routing for Chats

See the benefits and limitations of using Omni-Channel routing for chats (beta) or keeping Live Agent routing for chats.

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Compare Live Agent and Omni-Channel Routing for Chats

See the benefits and limitations of using Omni-Channel routing for chats (beta) or keeping Live

Agent routing for chats.

There’s a lot to keep in mind as you decide whether to try Omni-Channel routing for chats (beta).

Omni-Channel routing for chats is enabled when you enable Live Agent for the first time, or when you create a chat button that uses the routing option Omni.

Let’s compare the two routing model options when using Live Agent and Omni-Channel together.

Live Agent Routing Omni-Channel Routing

Agents use the Omni-Channel widget to handle their work.

Agents use Omni-Channel Presence, including its configurable statuses.

Use Omni-Channel sound notifications in the

Presence Configuration for chats.

Use Omni-Channel sound notifications in the

Presence Configuration for chats.

Agent capacity is set and consumed by

Omni-Channel.

Chats are routed to agents using Skills.

Agent capacity is set and consumed by

Omni-Channel.

Chats are routed to agents using Omni-Channel queues.

Chats can’t be prioritized with Omni-Channel work, or relative to each other. Un-routed

Omni-Channel items are always routed ahead of chats.

Chats always have the size 1.

Chats are prioritized with Omni-Channel work, and can be prioritized relative to each other using queues.

Chat size is configurable by queue.

Chat supervisors use the Live Agent Supervisor

Panel to observe chats and assist agents with their chats.

Chat supervisors use Omni-Channel Supervisor to see agent activity and real-time data.

Reports and data for chats are separate from

Omni-Channel data.

Chat data is included in Agent Work reports in addition to Live Agent reports.

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 chats.

You can customize the Live Chat Transcript page layout for Waiting, In Progress, and Ended chats.

Live Chat Transcripts aren’t created for missed chats, so your reports don’t include missed chats.

Live Chat Transcripts are created for missed chats, so your reports include missed chats.

Agents associate records with the chat transcript only after the chat has ended.

Agents can associate records with the chat transcript during the chat. They have the option to do this on the chat transcript itself or use a console sidebar lookup component.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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Live Agent Routing

Uses the Console Integration Toolkit Methods for Live Agent .

Omni-Channel Routing

Uses the Console Integration Toolkit Methods for Omni-Channel .

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.

•

You can’t use direct-to-agent routing with chats routed by Omni-Channel.

•

You can’t use chat conferencing with chats routed by Omni-Channel.

•

Queues with multiple object types can cause problems when using Omni-Channel routing for chats. We recommend creating a queue for each object type, such as Chats, Cases, and Leads, instead of setting queues to handle multiple object types.

•

Chats routed with Omni-Channel can’t use supervisor whisper messages and assistance flags with Omni-Channel Supervisor.

•

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 is because Omni-Channel changes ownership of the chat transcript when the transfer is initiated, before the chat is accepted by the next agent.

Adding Snap-ins Chat to Your Website

Snap-ins Chat

Add the Snap-ins chat widget to your website so customers can quickly get answers to their questions by chatting with an agent while browsing your site. Snap-ins chat uses Live Agent, but with a simpler setup, to power your chats.

The chat widget button sits unobtrusively on the web page. When customers want to chat, they just click the button to launch the chat.

EDITIONS

Snap-ins setup node is available in: Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Professional, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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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 widget persists across your web pages, so customers can continue browsing other pages on your site while chatting with an agent.

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Snap-ins Chat uses a lightweight Live Agent deployment that you can quickly configure and simply add the chat code to the web pages where you want the chat widget to be available. When agents chat with customers via snap-in chat, the agents use Live Agent.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Snap-ins Chat for Your Website

Snap-ins Chat Limitations

Set Up Snap-ins Chat for Your Website

Ensure that your org meets the following prerequisites before starting to set up Snap-ins Chat.

Follow these steps to configure the Snap-ins chat widget and add it to your web pages. The setup node for Snap-ins chat is available only in Lightning Experience.

To set up snap-ins chat, your org must meet these prerequisites:

•

Lightning Experience must be enabled to set up snap-ins

•

Service Cloud License

•

Live Agent License

•

Live Agent must be enabled in your org

•

A Live Agent chat button and a Live Agent deployment must be set up and available in your org

•

A Salesforce Community (preferable) or a Force.com site must be set up on your org and available for guest user access

EDITIONS

Snap-ins setup node is available in: Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Professional, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Snap-ins Chat:

•

“Customize Application”

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Note: Administrators must use Lightning Experience to access the Snap-ins setup pages. However, other users in the org aren’t required to have access to or use Lightning Experience with Snap-ins.

To set up Snap-ins Chat, follow these steps:

IN THIS SECTION:

Add Your Website to the CORS Whitelist

Add the URLs of the web pages where you intend to add the Snap-ins chat widget to the CORS whitelist in your org. The web page where you add the Snap-ins Chat is the page that customers use to access chat.

Create a Snap-ins Deployment

Create a Snap-in deployment for each Snap-in widget that you’re using. The setup node for Snap-ins chat is available only in Lightning

Experience.

Specify the Live Agent Settings for Your Snap-ins Chat Deployment

The Snap-ins chat widget uses a Live Agent deployment ID and button so customers can chat with your agents. The Live Agent details that you provide are used to generate the chat widget code that you add to your web pages.

Customize the Branding and Appearance of Your Snap-ins Chat Widget

Select the colors and font used in the Snap-ins chat widget to reflect your company’s brand identity.

Customize the Pre-Chat Form

Gather contact information from your customers and find out about their needs using a pre-chat form. You can create a pre-chat form that addresses different business needs and associates customer information with Salesforce records like leads, cases, and contacts. You can also customize the fields used on the form.

Copy the Snap-ins Chat Code Snippets and Paste the Code into Your Web Pages

Salesforce generates a unique code snippet based on the information you provided during the Snap-ins Chat setup. Copy and paste the chat code snippet so you can add the Snap-ins chat widget to your web pages. Copy and paste the optional meta tag code snippet to make your web pages responsive to different form factors such as mobile and desktop.

Customizable Parameters in the Snap-ins Chat Code

Use a text or HTML editor to customize the optional parameters in the chat widget code snippet.

You can customize certain parameters that affect the appearance and behavior of the Snap-ins chat widget so that the chat experience reflects your company’s branding. Use these parameters to customize the pre-chat banner 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 widget when the chat is loading, when agents are online, when agents are offline.

Test the Snap-ins Chat Experience

Now that you’ve add Snap-ins Chat in your web pages, it’s time to test it out.

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Add Your Website to the CORS Whitelist

You can use HTTP and HTTPS domains with Snap-ins Chat.

1. From Setup, enter

CORS

in the

Quick Find

box, then select CORS.

2. Select New.

3. Enter an origin URL pattern.

The origin URL pattern must include the HTTP or HTTPS protocol and a domain name. The origin URL pattern can include a port. The wildcard character (*) is supported and must be in front of a second-level domain name. For example, https://*.example.com

adds all subdomains of example.com

to the whitelist.

The origin URL pattern can be an IP address. However, an IP address and a domain that resolve to the same address are not the same origin, and you must add them to the CORS whitelist as separate entries.

EDITIONS

Snap-ins setup node is available in: Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Professional, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Snap-ins Chat:

•

“Customize Application”

SEE ALSO:

Create a Snap-ins Deployment

Create a Snap-in deployment for each Snap-in widget that you’re using. The setup node for Snap-ins chat is available only in Lightning Experience.

The Snap-ins Chat setup uses a Salesforce Community or Force.com site, so that you can associate users with a guest user profile. Check if you already have any communities or sites that you can use.

If a site is already available, you can use that as your endpoint. Otherwise, create a site for this purpose.

1. From Setup, enter

Snap-ins

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Snap-ins.

2. In the Snap-ins configuration page, click New Deployment.

The snap-ins deployment page is displayed.

EDITIONS

Snap-ins setup node is available in: Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Professional, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

3. In the

Snap-in Deployment Name

field, enter a name for your snap-in.

The deployment name is shown in the list of snap-ins on the Snap-in page. If you have several snap-in deployments, use a descriptive name so it’s easy to distinguish this snap-in from other snap-ins.

To set up Snap-ins Chat:

•

“Customize Application”

4. The

API Name

field is automatically populated.

5. In the

Site Endpoint

menu, select a Salesforce community or Force.com site from the dropdown list.

If nothing appears in the menu, it’s because there aren’t any communities or sites configured in your org.

6. Click Create.

The snap-in deployment is created.

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After you’ve created a snap-in deployment, configure the Live Agent settings used in the snap-in chat widget.

Before you specify the Live Agent settings, ensure that you have a Live Agent deployment and a

Live Agent chat button available to use with the Snap-ins chat widget.

EDITIONS

Snap-ins setup node is available in: Lightning

Experience

1. From Setup, enter

Snap-ins

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Snap-ins.

2. Select the snap-in deployment that you want to work with.

3. In the Snap-insconfiguration page, go to the

Live Agent Basic Settings

section and click Start.

4. In the

Live Agent Deployment

menu, select the Live Agent configuration that you want to use with snap-in chat from the dropdown list.

Available in: Enterprise,

Professional, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Snap-ins Chat:

•

“Customize Application”

5. In the

Live Agent Button

menu, select the Live Agent button that you want to use with the snap-in chat widget from the dropdown list.

6. Click Save.

After you’ve provided the Live Agent settings, get the code to add the Snap-ins chat widget to your web pages.

Customize the Branding and Appearance of Your Snap-ins Chat Widget

Select the colors and font used in the Snap-ins chat widget to reflect your company’s brand identity.

Before you start, talk with the team that maintains your website to get the color codes for your company’s brand. You can specify branding colors by entering their hex code or RGB code, or by selecting a color in the color palette.

The screenshots show how the branding elements appear in the chat widget.

EDITIONS

Snap-ins setup node is available in: Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Professional, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Snap-ins Chat:

•

“Customize Application”

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Brand Element

Brand Primary

Brand Secondary

Contrast Primary

Table 1: Brand Elements That Can Be Customized in the Snap-ins Chat Widget

Description

Sets the color of the:

•

Pre-chat image backdrop

•

Pop message outlines

•

Loading balls

•

Loading balls when chat is minimized

By default, the color is set to hex #222222 (Night Black).

In the screenshots, brand primary elements are indicated by [1].

Sets the color of the:

•

Call to Action buttons, such as “Start Chat”or “Chat with an Expert”

•

Input field focus

•

Send button

•

Guest message chat payload

•

Secondary buttons

•

Chat when it is minimized and there’s a new message

By default, the color is set to #005290 (Nimbostratus Blue).

In the screenshots, brand secondary elements are indicated by [2].

Sets the color of the:

•

Chat body text

•

Chat input text

By default, the color is set to #333333 (dark gray).

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Brand Element

Nav Bar

Font

Creating Web-Chat Channels

Description

The background color is white.

In the screenshots, contrast primary elements are indicated by [3].

Sets the color of the:

•

Chat widget’s navigation bar

•

Chat button when the chat is minimized

By default, the color is set to hex #222222 (Night Black).

In the screenshots, the nav bar element is indicated by [4].

Sets the font used in the chat widget.

Note:

Some fonts aren’t supported on mobile browsers. If you select a font that isn’t available for a chat visitor’s mobile browser, the browser’s default font is displayed.

The following fonts are supported in mobile browsers for both iOS and Android:

•

Georgia

•

Times New Roman

•

Arial

•

Courier New

The following fonts are supported in mobile browsers for iOS only:

•

Trebuchet MS

•

Verdana

•

Lucida Console

To customize the branding of the chat widget:

1. From Setup, enter

Snap-ins

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Snap-ins.

2. Select the snap-in deployment that you want to work with.

3. In the Snap-ins configuration page, go to the Branding section and click Edit.

4. Select the colors that you want to show in the chat widget.

Enter the color using the hex code. To enter an RGB code or to select a color from the palette, open the color palette by clicking the down arrow in the color field.

5. Click Done.

6. Repeat steps 4–5 for the remaining brand colors.

7. Select the font that you want to use in the Snap-inschat widget.

8. Click Finish.

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Important: Changing the branding of an existing chat widget changes the code snippet for the chat widget. If you update the branding for an existing chat widget, you must update the code snippet on your webpages. If you customized the code snippet, you must add those customizations to the new code snippet.

Customize the Pre-Chat Form

EDITIONS

Snap-ins setup node is available in: Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Professional, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Snap-ins Chat:

•

“Customize Application”

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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If you select:

Sales

Service

Basic

Creating Web-Chat Channels

Table 2: Use Cases for Associating Pre-Chat Information with Salesforce Records

Then Salesforce associates the pre-chat information with these record types:

Lead records

Contact records

Case records

Contact 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.

To set up the pre-chat form:

1. From Setup, enter

Snap-ins

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Snap-ins.

2. Select the snap-in deployment that you want to work with.

3. In the Snap-ins configuration page, go to the Pre-chat section and move the radio button to Active.

4. Click Edit.

5. Select the use case for the pre-chat form.

a. Select the main reason that customers use chat. The reason that you select affects the type of Salesforce record that’s created from the information that customers enter into the pre-chat form.

b. Select the record type that’s created from the pre-chat form. The drop-down menu shows record types that are available on the object.

c. Click Next.

6. Select the fields shown on the pre-chat form.

a. To change the order of the fields, use the up arrow and down arrow.

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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Copy the Snap-ins Chat Code Snippets and Paste the Code into Your Web Pages

Salesforce generates a unique code snippet based on the information you provided during the

Snap-ins Chat setup. Copy and paste the chat code snippet so you can add the Snap-ins chat widget to your web pages. Copy and paste the optional meta tag code snippet to make your web pages responsive to different form factors such as mobile and desktop.

Ensure that you have access to the web pages where you want to add the chat widget. You might need to work with your company’s webmaster.

EDITIONS

Snap-ins setup node is available in: Lightning

Experience

When you add the chat code snippet to your web pages, customers can see and use the Snap-ins chat widget. If you’re not ready for customers to access the chat yet, add the code snippets to a private web page.

You can customize the code to change certain aspects of chat widget’s appearance.

Available in: Enterprise,

Professional, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

The

<meta>

tag code makes your web page responsive, so that the web page and the chat widget look good and perform well on different devices. For example, if a customer is looking at your web page and chat widget on a mobile phone, then the page and chat are resized to accommodate the smaller form factor.

To set up Snap-ins Chat:

•

“Customize Application”

This tag is the recommended

<meta>

tag for proper code snippet responsiveness. If your page is already responsive, then you might not need to add this snippet or change your

<meta>

tag. If you see issues with behavior on other devices, you can try updating your

<meta>

tag to code snippet that’s provided. This tag is added to the head section of every page where the snap-in chat widget is used. If you don’t include an appropriate

<meta>

tag, then the snap-in chat widget appears as it does on a desktop, regardless of the device used to access the page.

1. From Setup, enter

Snap-ins

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Snap-ins.

2. Select the snap-in deployment that you want to work with.

3. In the Snap-ins configuration page, go to the

Snap-in Code Snippets

section and click Get Code.

4. Copy the chat code snippet and paste it immediately above the closing

</body>

tag on your web page to add the Snap-ins chat widget to the page.

Paste the chat code snippet into every web page where you want the chat widget to appear. Optionally, customize the chat code snippet.

5. Optionally, copy and paste the meta code snippet into the

<meta>

tag head section in every web page where you want the chat widget to appear.

6. Click Done.

The code snippets page closes.

SEE ALSO:

Customizable Parameters in the Snap-ins Chat Code

Test the Snap-ins Chat Experience

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Customize the Snap-ins Chat Widget Code

Use a text or HTML editor to customize the optional parameters in the chat widget code snippet.

You can customize certain

parameters

that affect the appearance and behavior of the snap-ins chat widget.

1. From Setup, enter

Snap-ins

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Snap-ins.

2. Select the snap-in deployment that you want to work with.

3. In the Snap-ins configuration page, go to the

Snap-in Code Snippets

section and click Get Code.

4. Copy the chat code snippet to a text editor or HTML editor.

5. In the text editor or HTML editor, specify the image URLs for the chat widget parameters.

6. Save your changes.

After modifying the chat code snippet,

add the code

to every web page where you want the Snap-ins chat widget to appear.

Customizable Parameters in the Snap-ins Chat Code

EDITIONS

Snap-ins setup node is available in: Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Professional, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Snap-ins Chat:

•

“Customize Application”

Customizable Parameters in the Snap-ins Chat Code

You also can customize the wording that appears on the chat button and on the chat widget when the chat is loading, when agents are online, when agents are offline.

EDITIONS

Snap-ins setup node is available in: Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Professional, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Customize Images Used in the Snap-ins Chat Widget

If the images are hosted in the same repository as the web page where you plan to add the chat widget, you can use either relative URL paths and names or full URLs. If the images are hosted elsewhere, use the full URLs for the images.

Before customizing the code, upload the image files that you want to use in the chat widget.

To customize this image:

Pre-chat banner image

Set this parameter: Description

embedded_svc.settings.prechatBackgroundImgURL

= "..."

Specify a URL to set the image shown in the pre-chat form between the greeting (for example, “Hello Guest!”) and the subtext (for example, “An agent is on the way.”).

The recommended image size is

320x100 pixels.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Creating Web-Chat Channels

To customize this image:

Logo for minimized waiting state

Waiting state image

Agent avatar

Set this parameter: Description

embedded_svc.settings.smallCompanyLogoImgURL

= "..."

Specify a URL to set the logo shown when the chat is minimized.

The recommended image size is

25x25 pixels.

embedded_svc.settings.waitingStateBackgroundImgURL

= "..."

Specify a URL to set the background image when the chat is in a waiting state.

The recommended image size is

200x60 pixels.

embedded_svc.settings.avatarImgURL = "..."

Specify a URL to set the image of the agent that appears when the agent is chatting.

The recommended image size is

40x40 pixels.

Create your images in .png format and use the following sizes to ensure that the images don’t become distorted during the snap-in chat experience.

Customize the Default Chat Button Used in the Snap-ins Chat Widget

Parameter Description

embedded_svc.settings.displayHelpButton =

To show the default chat button that connects your customers to the chat widget, set the displayHelpButton = true;

The chat button lets your customers start a chat from your web page.

Valid values are

true

false

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Customize Whether the Prechat Form Appears in the Snap-ins Chat Widget

Parameter Description

embedded_svc.settings.initialInteractionState

= "..."

To specify whether the pre-chat form appears when a customer initiates a chat, set initialInteractionState =

"PRECHAT";

Valid values are

PRECHAT

WAITING

Note: These values are case-sensitive.

By default, the parameter is set to show the pre-chat form. If you set it to

WAITING

, then the chat widget doesn’t show the pre-chat form and immediately opens a chat window.

Customize Wording Used in the Snap-ins Chat Widget

Parameter

embedded_svc.settings.onlineText = "..."

Description

To customize the text that appears in the chat button when agents are online, set the parameter onlineText = "..."

to whatever text you want to show.

If you don’t specify a value, the default text shown is “Chat with an

Expert.” embedded_svc.settings.offlineText = "..."

To customize the text that appears in the chat button when agents are offline, set the parameter offlineText = "..."

to whatever text you want to show.

If you don’t specify a value, the default text shown is “Agent Offline.” embedded_svc.settings.onlineLoadingText =

"..."

To customize the text that appears in the chat button when the chat window is loading, set the parameter onlineLoadingText = "..."

to whatever text you want to show.

If you don't specify a value, the default text shown is "Loading."

Live Agent support agent permissions on page 163.

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Test the Snap-ins Chat Experience

Now that you’ve add Snap-ins Chat in your web pages, it’s time to test it out.

To test the snap-in chat from the agent’s perspective, log in to Salesforce as a Live Agent user with all the

1. Log in to Service Cloud and go online as the agent assigned to the appropriate button.

2. Test the chat from the customer’s perspective. In another window in the same browser, initiate a chat by navigating to a web page where you’ve placed the code snippet and starting the chat.

The chat should be available.

3. On the customer side (that is, on your web page), verify that:

•

Pre-chat form looks how you expected

•

Chat window looks how you expected

EDITIONS

Available in: Enterprise,

Professional, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

4. On the agent side (that is, in the Salesforce Console for Service), verify that:

•

You receive a chat request when the chat is initiated

If the chat widget and experience appears as you expected, your customers can start using embedded chat to communicate with your agents.

Localization and Translation for Snap-ins Chat

The primary language for a Snap-ins chat is set differently when Translation Workbench is enabled or disabled.

EDITIONS

If you’re using Translation Workbench:

•

The language set in the visitor’s Accept-Language HTTP header for their browser is used when it matches a language in the list of active Translation Workbench languages. When the visitor has multiple languages set for their browser, the highest-ranked language that matches a language in the list of active Translation Workbench languages is used.

•

When there’s no match, the language specified for the Site Guest User of the Site associated with your Snap-ins deployment is used.

Snap-ins setup node is available in: Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Professional, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

If Translation Workbench is disabled, the language specified for the Site Guest User of the Site associated with your Snap-ins deployment is used.

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Snap-ins Chat Limitations

Snap-ins Chat has the following limitations.

EDITIONS

The setup node for Snap-ins chat is available only in Lightning Experience.

The following Live Agent features aren’t supported in Snap-ins Chat. When you enable any of these settings in the Live Agent Configuration, Button, or Deployment that you use with Snap-ins Chat, agents can’t use them.

Snap-ins setup node is available in: Lightning

Experience

•

Agent File Transfer

•

Customer Idle Time-outs

•

Chat Transfers

•

Save Transcripts for Visitors

•

Sensitive Data Rules

•

Visitor Blocking

Available in: Enterprise,

Professional, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

The Snap-ins chat window title shows the agent’s name instead of the Live Agent

Chat Window Title

setting. When you enable this setting in the Live Agent Configuration, it doesn’t work in the Snap-ins Chat.

Other usage limitations for Snap-ins Chat:

•

Visitors can’t chat with an agent if they’re using private browsing mode on iOS.

•

You can’t embed Snap-ins Chat into Lightning components. Use a Visualforce page, Community, or web property only.

•

Field-level validation rules aren’t supported with Snap-ins Chat.

•

When you host your Snap-ins Chat deployment on a Visualforce page, you must access the page using HTTPS. If you use HTTP, the chat widget doesn’t load.

Live Agent Console

The Live Agent console is a legacy feature that agents could use to chat with customers before

Spring ’13. Salesforce no longer supports the Live Agent console. If your support organization still uses it, we recommend migrating to Live Agent in the Salesforce console as soon as possible, because the Live Agent console will eventually be discontinued.

To upgrade to Live Agent in the Salesforce console, see Live Agent for Administrators . The Salesforce

Help walks you through the end-to-end process of setting up Live Agent in the Salesforce console, including implementing and customizing it for your Salesforce org.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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Live Agent Console Limitations

The Live Agent console provides only limited access to some features and doesn’t include Live

Agent features that were released after Spring ’13.

To upgrade to Live Agent in the Salesforce console, see Live Agent for Administrators . The Salesforce

Help walks you through the end-to-end process of setting up Live Agent in the Salesforce console, including implementing and customizing it for your Salesforce org.

Agent Features

The Live Agent console doesn’t provide support for some of the agent features that agents use during chats in the Salesforce console.

Feature

Attaching articles to chats

Supported?

Yes

Attaching records to transcripts Yes

Quick Text

Transferring chat requests

Chat conferencing

Critical wait alert times

Knowledge chat answers

Transferring files

Autogreetings

Custom agent names

Yes

Limited

None

Notes

None

This feature is supported with the CRM chatlet, a legacy plug-in for the Live Agent console.

None

The Live Agent console supports autogreetings that are specified in Live Agent configurations only; it doesn’t support autogreetings that are specified in your chat button settings.

The Live Agent console supports custom agent names that are specified in Live Agent configurations only; it doesn’t support custom agent names that are specified in your chat button settings.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

Supervisor Features

The Live Agent console was originally designed only for agents’ interactions with customers. As a result, the Live Agent console doesn’t support any supervisor features that are supported in the Salesforce console.

Set Up Omni-Channel

Omni-Channel for Administrators

Omni-Channel is a comprehensive customer service solution that lets your call center route any type of incoming work item—including cases, chats, or leads—to the most qualified, available agents in your organization. Omni-Channel integrates seamlessly into the Salesforce console-.

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.

Let’s get started!

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Omni-Channel:

•

“Customize Application”

To modify permission sets and profiles:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

Create Omni-Channel Objects

The first step towards getting your Omni-Channel implementation up and running is to create the necessary objects in Salesforce.

EDITIONS

IN THIS SECTION:

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Enable Omni-Channel

Enable Omni-Channel to gain access to the objects that you’ll need to set up the feature in your organization.

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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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Associate Routing Configurations and Agents with Queues

Queues are a classic element of Salesforce that help your teams manage leads, cases, and custom objects. Omni-Channel supercharges your queues to be able to route work items to your agents in real time. Agents don’t have to select work items manually from queues because Omni-Channel routes work items to agents automatically and in real time!

Create Presence Configurations

Let’s focus on agents for a minute. Presence configurations determine how much work agents can take on and what Omni-Channel behaviors they can access while they assist customers. Your organization can have multiple configurations for different groups of agents who support different channels.

Create 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.

Enable Omni-Channel

Enable Omni-Channel to gain access to the objects that you’ll need to set up the feature in your organization.

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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Omni-Channel:

•

“Customize Application”

Create Service Channels

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. In Setup, enter

Service Channels

in the

Quick Find

box, select Service Channels, then click New.

2. Specify the settings for your service channel.

3. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Omni-Channel:

•

“Customize Application”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

IN THIS SECTION:

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?

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.

Setting

Service Channel Name

What It Does

Names the service channel.

This service channel name, or a version of it, automatically becomes the

API Name

Salesforce Object

Sets the API name for the service channel.

The type of Salesforce standard or custom object that’s associated with this service channel. For example, if you have a service channel for Web cases set the

Object Type

Case

. For a complete list of objects that service channels support, see

Supported Objects for Omni-Channel

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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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?

Omni-Channel currently supports routing for the following objects and records.

•

Cases

•

Chats

•

SOS video calls

•

Social posts

•

Orders

•

Leads

•

Custom objects

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

Create Routing Configurations

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. In Setup, enter

Routing

in the

Quick Find

box, select Routing Configurations, then click New.

2. Specify the settings for your routing configuration.

3. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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.

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Omni-Channel:

•

“Customize Application”

Routing Configuration Settings

Customize your routing configuration settings to define how work items are pushed to agents.

Basic Information

Setting

Routing Configuration Name

Developer Name

Overflow Assignee

What It Does

Names the service routing configuration.

This routing configuration name, or a version of it, automatically becomes the

Developer

Name

Sets the API name for the service channel.

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

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

226

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Routing Settings

Setting

Routing Priority

Routing Model

Push Time-Out (seconds)

Work Item Size

Setting

Units of Capacity

Set Up Omni-Channel

What It Does

The order in which work items from the queue that are associated with this routing configuration are routed to agents. Objects in queues with a lower number are routed to agents first.

For example, if you set the priority for highly qualified leads to

and the priority for less qualified leads to

, highly qualified leads are routed and assigned to agents before less qualified leads.

On the backend, we identify agents with available capacity; then we assign work to them based on this priority order:

1. The priority of the queue from which the work item came

2. The amount of time that the work item has been waiting in the queue

3. Members of the queue who are available to receive new work items from the queue

When the work item is assigned to an agent, the owner of the object changes from the queue to the agent. If an agent declines the work item, we reassign it back to the queue with its original age so that it can be properly rerouted.

Determines how incoming work items are routed to agents who are assigned to the configuration’s service channel.

Sets a time limit for an agent to respond to an item before it’s pushed to another agent.

What It Does

Indicates the amount of an agent’s overall capacity that’s consumed when the agent is assigned a work item from queues that are associated with this configuration.

The

Capacity

setting in the presence configuration the agent is assigned to determines the agent’s overall capacity. When the agent is assigned a work item from the queue that’s associated with this configuration, the

Capacity Weight

is subtracted from the agent’s overall capacity. Agents can be assigned work items until their overall capacity reaches 0.

You can select a

Capacity Weight

or a

Capacity

Percentage

, but not both.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Setting

Percentage of Capacity

Set Up Omni-Channel

What It Does

The percentage of an agent’s overall capacity that’s consumed when the agent is assigned a work item from queues that are associated with this configuration.

The agent’s overall capacity is determined by the

Capacity setting in the presence configuration that the agent is assigned to. When the agent is assigned a work item from the queue that’s associated with this configuration, the

Capacity

Percentage

is deducted from the agent’s overall capacity until the agent has 0% capacity remaining.

You can select a

Capacity Weight

or a

Capacity

Percentage

, but not both.

Omni-Channel Routing Model Options

Specify how incoming work items are directed to agents using Omni-Channel.

In Omni-Channel, work items are automatically routed or “pushed” to agents who are assigned to the appropriate queue.

Routing Option

Least Active

Most Available

Description Example

Incoming work items are routed to the agent with the least amount of open work.

When work items all consume

1 capacity, the agent with the lowest number of work items receives incoming work. The example presents a scenario in which agents have work with varying capacity impacts.

•

Agent A and Agent B each have an overall capacity of

•

Agent A has 3 active work items with capacity impact of 1. Agent B has 1 active work item with capacity impact of 4.

•

Because Agent A has a lower capacity impact than

Agent B, incoming work items are routed to Agent

Incoming work items are routed to the agent with the greatest difference between work item capacity and open work items. Capacity is determined by the presence configuration that the agent is assigned to.

•

Agent A and Agent B each have an overall capacity of

•

Agent A has 3 active work items while Agent B has 1.

•

Because Agent B has the most open capacity, incoming work items are routed to Agent B.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

Associate Routing Configurations and Agents with Queues

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.

If your organization doesn’t use queues, create at least one 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.

For routing to work correctly, assign each of your agents to the queue from which they are receiving work items.

For more information about queues, see “Queues Overview” in the Salesforce Help.

1. In Setup, enter

Queues

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Queues.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Omni-Channel:

•

“Customize Application”

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.

Create Presence Configurations

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. In Setup, enter

Presence

in the

Quick Find

box, select Presence Configurations, then click New.

2. Choose the settings for your presence configuration.

3. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Omni-Channel:

•

“Customize Application”

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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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

Presence Configuration Settings

Customize your presence configuration settings to define the Omni-Channel settings that are assigned to agents.

Basic Information

These settings configure the basic functionality that’s available to agents when they’re signed in to Omni-Channel.

Setting

Presence Configuration Name

What It Does

Names the presence configuration.

This configuration name, or a version of it, automatically becomes the

Developer

Name

Developer Name

Capacity

Automatically Accept Requests

Sets the API name for the configuration.

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 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 widget.

Allow Agents to Decline

Requests

is enabled, you can’t use this setting.

Allow Agents to Decline

Requests

Update Status on Decline

Allow Agents to Choose a

Decline Reason

Allows agents to decline incoming work items.

Automatically Accept Requests is enabled, agents can’t decline requests.

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.

Allows agents to choose a reason when declining work assignments.

This setting is available only if

Allow

Agents to Decline Requests

is enabled.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

Setting

Update Status on Push Time-Out

Request Sound Enabled

Disconnect Sound Enabled

What It Does

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.

Plays a sound in the agent’s widget when a work request is received.

Plays a sound in the agent’s widget when the agent loses connection with Omni-Channel.

Assign Decline Reasons

These settings appear when

Allow Agents to Decline Requests

and

Allow Agents to Choose a Decline

Reason

are selected.

Setting

Available Decline Reasons

Selected Decline Reasons

What It Does

Indicates the decline reasons that are eligible to be assigned to the configuration.

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.

Setting

Available Users

Selected Users

What It Does

Indicates the users who are eligible to be assigned to the configuration.

Indicates the users who are assigned to the configuration.

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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.

Setting

Available Profiles

Selected Profiles

What It Does

Indicates the user profiles that are eligible to be assigned to the configuration.

Indicates the user profiles that are assigned to the configuration.

Create 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.

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. In Setup, enter

Presence

in the

Quick Find

box, select Presence Statuses, then click

New.

2. Choose the settings for your presence status.

3. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

IN THIS SECTION:

To set up Omni-Channel:

•

“Customize Application”

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.

Presence Status Settings

Basic Information

Use these settings to name your presence status.

Setting

Status Name

What It Does

Names the presence status.

This presence status name, or a version of it, automatically becomes the

API Name

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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Setting

API Name

What It Does

Sets the API name for the presence status.

Status Options

These settings indicate whether agents are online or busy when they use this status.

Setting

Online

Busy

What It Does

Lets agents who use this status receive new work items.

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.

Setting

Available Channels

Selected Channels

What It Does

Indicates the service channels that are eligible to be assigned to the presence status.

Indicates the service channels that are assigned to the presence status.

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.

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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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Give Users Access to Presence Statuses with Permission Sets

Make presence statuses available to agents who are assigned to certain 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. You can give users access to presence statuses through permission sets, or alternatively, through profiles.

1. In Setup, enter

Permission Sets

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Permission

Sets.

2. Click the name of the permission set to which you want to give access to statuses.

3. Click Service Presence Statuses Access.

4. Click Edit.

5. Select the presence statuses that you want to associate with the permission set.

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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Omni-Channel:

•

“Customize Application”

To modify permission sets:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

Give Users Access to Presence Statuses with Profiles

Make presence statuses available to agents who are assigned to certain profiles.

Presence statuses indicate whether an agent is online and available to receive incoming work items, or whether the agent is away or offline. You can give users access to presence statuses through profiles, or alternatively, through permission sets.

1. In Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles.

2. Click the name of the profile to which you want to give access to statuses.

Don’t click Edit next to the profile name. If you do, you won’t see the correct page section where you can enable statuses.

3. In the Enabled Service Presence Status Access section, click Edit.

4. Select the presence statuses that you want to associate with the profile.

Agents who are assigned to this profile can sign in to Omni-Channel with any of the presence statuses that you make available to them.

5. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Omni-Channel:

•

“Customize Application”

To modify profiles:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

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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.

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 Live Agent to manage chats, you can either use the Live

Agent widget or the Omni-Channel widget to manage chats, but not both. To learn more

about managing Live Agent, see Use Omni-Channel with Your Existing Live Agent

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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Omni-Channel:

•

“Customize Application”

IN THIS SECTION:

Control Visible Work Item Details in the Omni-Channel Widget with Compact Layouts

Ever wanted to customize the information that your agents see when they get a new work item in the Omni-Channel widget? You can! Just customize primary compact layout for that work item’s object.

Control Visible Work Item Details in the Omni-Channel Widget with Compact Layouts

Ever wanted to customize the information that your agents see when they get a new work item in the Omni-Channel widget? You can! Just customize primary compact layout for that work item’s object.

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 widget. 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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Tip: The Omni-Channel widget is, 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, the Omni-Channel widget will only display 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.

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Omni-Channel:

•

“Customize Application”

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 the

Omni-Channel widget when an agent receives a request.

4. Click Save.

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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.

Test Your Omni-Channel Implementation

Now that you’ve got Omni-Channel set up and enabled, test your implementation to make sure it’s working correctly.

To test your implementation, route a work item to yourself through the Salesforce console.

1. Log in to the Salesforce console.

Make sure that you log in as a user who’s enabled to use Omni-Channel. For the sake of testing the feature, make sure that you’re the only agent who’s signed in to Omni-Channel.

2. In the Omni-Channel widget, change your status so that you can receive incoming work items.

3. In the console, navigate to the record that corresponds to your current presence status’s channels.

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. We’ll assume that your “Available for Cases” status is associated with a cases service channel. After all, it wouldn’t make much sense if your “Available for Cases” status made you available for, say, leads, would it?

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Omni-Channel:

•

“Customize Application”

4. Select the checkbox next to the record that you want to route to yourself.

5. Click Change Owner.

You’ll be redirected to the Change Case Owner page.

6. Select

Queue

from the

Owner

list.

7. Enter the name of the queue that you associated with your routing configuration.

Sit back and relax. You’ll see an incoming request notification in the Omni-Channel widget within a few seconds.

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Use Omni-Channel with Your Existing Live Agent Implementation

Are you loving Live Agent and want to add Omni-Channel to the mix? Here’s what changes for you and your organization (and not for your agents!).

So, you’ve decided to take your customer service to the next level by using Live Agent and

Omni-Channel in tandem. That’s great! Once everything’s set up, you’ll find that the two work together in perfect harmony.

Omni-Channel routing for your chats. Whichever way you use Omni-Channel with Live Agent, your agents are then able to accept or reject chat requests right from the Omni-Channel widget.

When you integrate Live Agent and Omni-Channel, your Live Agent users also become Omni-Channel users, so your chat agents need to be associated with both a Live Agent Configuration and a Presence

Configuration. Luckily, Salesforce does some of the heavy lifting for you when you enable

Omni-Channel with your current Live Agent implementation.

For each Live Agent Configuration that you already have in your org, Salesforce:

•

Creates a corresponding Presence Configuration for each of your Live Agent Configurations

•

Sets the chat capacity for each Presence Configuration to what’s set in its corresponding Live

Agent Configuration

•

Assigns your chat agents to the new corresponding Presence Configurations

If you have Live Agent enabled but don’t have an implementation, when you enable Omni-Channel,

Salesforce creates a Live Agent Service Channel.

Statuses are configurable.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

IN THIS SECTION:

Compare Live Agent and Omni-Channel Routing for Chats

See the benefits and limitations of using Omni-Channel routing for chats (beta) or keeping Live Agent routing for chats.

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Compare Live Agent and Omni-Channel Routing for Chats

See the benefits and limitations of using Omni-Channel routing for chats (beta) or keeping Live

Agent routing for chats.

There’s a lot to keep in mind as you decide whether to try Omni-Channel routing for chats (beta).

Omni-Channel routing for chats is enabled when you enable Live Agent for the first time, or when you create a chat button that uses the routing option Omni.

Let’s compare the two routing model options when using Live Agent and Omni-Channel together.

Live Agent Routing Omni-Channel Routing

Agents use the Omni-Channel widget to handle their work.

Agents use Omni-Channel Presence, including its configurable statuses.

Use Omni-Channel sound notifications in the

Presence Configuration for chats.

Use Omni-Channel sound notifications in the

Presence Configuration for chats.

Agent capacity is set and consumed by

Omni-Channel.

Chats are routed to agents using Skills.

Agent capacity is set and consumed by

Omni-Channel.

Chats are routed to agents using Omni-Channel queues.

Chats can’t be prioritized with Omni-Channel work, or relative to each other. Un-routed

Omni-Channel items are always routed ahead of chats.

Chats always have the size 1.

Chats are prioritized with Omni-Channel work, and can be prioritized relative to each other using queues.

Chat size is configurable by queue.

Chat supervisors use the Live Agent Supervisor

Panel to observe chats and assist agents with their chats.

Chat supervisors use Omni-Channel Supervisor to see agent activity and real-time data.

Reports and data for chats are separate from

Omni-Channel data.

Chat data is included in Agent Work reports in addition to Live Agent reports.

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 chats.

You can customize the Live Chat Transcript page layout for Waiting, In Progress, and Ended chats.

Live Chat Transcripts aren’t created for missed chats, so your reports don’t include missed chats.

Live Chat Transcripts are created for missed chats, so your reports include missed chats.

Agents associate records with the chat transcript only after the chat has ended.

Agents can associate records with the chat transcript during the chat. They have the option to do this on the chat transcript itself or use a console sidebar lookup component.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Live Agent is available in:

Performance Editions and in Developer Edition orgs that were created after June

14, 2012

Live Agent is available in:

Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud

Live Agent is available for an additional cost in: Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

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Live Agent Routing

Uses the Console Integration Toolkit Methods for Live Agent .

Omni-Channel Routing

Uses the Console Integration Toolkit Methods for Omni-Channel .

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.

•

You can’t use direct-to-agent routing with chats routed by Omni-Channel.

•

You can’t use chat conferencing with chats routed by Omni-Channel.

•

Chats routed with Omni-Channel can’t use supervisor whisper messages and assistance flags with Omni-Channel Supervisor.

•

Reference

How Does Omni-Channel 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 routing work under the hood? Let’s dive in.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel routes work through two separate processes.

•

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. (We’ll get into the details of how that happens in a minute.)

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

•

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 a work item that can be routed to that agent.

Routing New Work Items

When a work item is created, it gets assigned to a queue. If that queue is associated with a Routing Configuration, it’s added to a list of items that are still waiting to be routed to agents.

Then Omni-Channel determines which agents are available and how much work each agent is currently working on. This information comes from the UserServicePresence API object, which tracks an agent’s current capacity for work items.

Routing Pending Work Items

When a new work item is added to the list of pending items, Omni-Channel determines whether it can immediately route the work item to an agent.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

First, we identify if any agents are online with a Presence Status that’s linked to the correct Service Channel. Let’s say your organization receives a new case that’s assigned to an Omni-Channel queue. Omni-Channel determines if there’s a Service Channel for cases. Then we check which agents are online with a status that lets them receive new cases.

Scenario

No agents are available.

Agents are available, but don’t have capacity for new work.

Agents are available and have capacity for more work.

What Happens

If there isn’t an agent online who has the right status, we keep our work item in the list of items that need to be assigned to an agent.

If there are one or more agents who are available, we check 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, we leave the work item in the list.

If there are agents that 1) are available and 2) have capacity to work on the item, we check which agent is going to be the proud parent of the work item based on your organization’s routing settings.

If your routing configuration uses the Least Active routing

model, we look for the agent who currently has the least amount of work compared to other agents who could take on the work item. We then route the work item to that agent.

If your routing configuration uses the Most Available routing

model, we look 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. We then route the work item to that agent.

But what if there’s a tie between two or more agents? In that case, to the agent who has been waiting the longest amount of time for a new work item. After all, we wouldn’t want anyone on our support staff getting lazy.

When an Agent’s Ability to Receive Work Changes

When an agent logs in to Omni-Channel, finishes a work item, or changes status, Omni-Channel checks to see if there is any work that those agents can take on.

Scenario

The agent is away.

The agent is available, but doesn’t have capacity for work.

The agent is available and has capacity for more work

What Happens

We move on with our lives without performing any more checks.

We quit while we’re ahead.

We look at the list of work items that are waiting to be routed to an agent. We check 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, we check to see if there are any cases in our list.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Scenario

Set Up Omni-Channel

What Happens

If the list has work items that the agent is qualified to work on, 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.

Rerouting a Work Item

Sometimes an agent declines a work item or becomes unavailable before the agent can start working on it. In that case, the work item is rerouted until it finds a safe and loving home in the arms of a capable, qualified agent.

First, Salesforce automatically changes the owner of the work item to the queue from which the object was originally routed. We then try to route the work item to a different agent (Agent B) than the agent who declined it (Agent A). However, the work item can be routed to Agent A again if Agent A changes his or her status, or if we attempted to route the work item to Agent B at least once. We do this until our work item finds a safe and loving home in the arms of a capable, qualified agent.

And our agents, their work items, and your customers, live happily ever after.

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.

An Agent Work record has the following fields, listed in alphabetical order.

Field

Accept Date

Active Time

Agent Capacity when Declined

Agent Work ID

Assign Date

Cancel Date

Close Date

Created By

Created Date

Decline Date

Decline Reason

Definition

The date and time that the work item was accepted by an agent.

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 amount of an agent’s capacity that was available when the agent declined the work item.

The Salesforce ID of the Agent Work record.

The date and time that the work item was assigned to an agent and pushed to the agent’s Omni-Channel widget.

The date and time that the work item was canceled.

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.”

The name of the agent who accepted the work item.

The date that the work item was created.

The date that an agent declined the work item request.

The provided reason for why an agent declined the work request.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field

Handle Time

Last Modified By

Last Modified Date

Live Agent Session ID

Name

Percentage of Capacity

Push Time-Out

Push Time-Out Date

Queue

Request Date

Service Channel

Speed to Answer

Status

Units of Capacity

User

Set Up Omni-Channel

Definition

The amount of time an agent has the work item open, from the accepted time to the closed time.

The name of the user who last modified the work item.

The date the work item was last modified.

The session ID for Live Agent chats routed with Omni-Channel.

The unique, Salesforce-generated number of the Agent Work record.

The percentage of capacity that the work item consumes of the agent’s total, possible capacity.

The number of seconds set for push time-out.

is returned when push time-out isn’t enabled.

The date and time when push time-out occurred.

The Salesforce queue from which the work item was routed.

The date and time that the Salesforce object was assigned to the queue, creating the associated work item.

The Service Channel that’s associated with the work item.

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).

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.

The number of units of an agent’s capacity that the work item consumes of the agent’s total, possible capacity.

The name of the agent to whom the work item was routed.

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Field

Work Item

Definition

The name of the work item that’s associated with the Agent Work record—for example, “Case 123456.”

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.

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

At Capacity Duration

Configured Capacity

Created By

Created Date

Idle Duration

Is Away

Is Current Status

Last Modified Date

Service Presence Status

Status Duration

Status End Date

Status Start Date

Definition

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.

The agent’s overall capacity, as indicated in the agent’s Presence Configuration.

The name of the agent who set the Presence

Status in Omni-Channel.

The date when the User Presence record was created.

The amount of time in seconds that the agent was assigned no work items.

Indicates whether the agent’s status is a “busy” status.

Indicates whether the agent’s Presence Status in the Service Presence Status field is the agent’s current Presence Status.

The date the User Presence record was last modified.

The API name of the Presence Status the agent used to log in to Omni-Channel.

The amount of time in seconds that the agent’s status was set to the Presence Status indicated by the Status Name field.

The date and time that the agent logged out of

Omni-Channel or changed to another Presence

Status.

The date and time that the agent set the

Presence Status.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

Field

User

User Presence ID

Alias

Username

Status Name

Definition

The name of the agent who is signed in to Omni-Channel.

The autogenerated Salesforce ID of the User Presence record.

The agent’s custom name.

The agent’s Salesforce username.

The name of the Presence Status the agents used to log in to

Omni-Channel.

Omni-Channel Supervisor

Access real-time operational intelligence with Omni-Channel Supervisor.

With Omni-Channel Supervisor, real-time information about your Omni-Channel agents, queues, and work are streamed live into the panel. Yes, you read that right: live. You’ll see waiting times, open work, and more with real-time updates. Omni-Channel Supervisor updates continuously to reflect the most up-to-date data so you’ll always know how your agents are doing.

Monitor Omni-Channel activity for agents, queues, and work 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, and seamlessly drill down to see details for specific agents, queues, or work items. The best part? You never have to leave the console.

So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get Omni-Channel Supervisor up and running!

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

IN THIS SECTION:

Add Omni-Channel Supervisor to the Salesforce Console

Add Omni-Channel Supervisor to the console to get your supervisors up and running.

Get to Know the Omni-Channel Supervisor Tabs

Supervisors can check the health of their call center in real time using the Agents, Queues, and Work tabs in Omni-Channel Supervisor.

These tabs let supervisors survey the landscape and see what’s open and active, who’s assigned to what, and other details such as open capacities and average wait times for customers.

Sort and Filter in Omni-Channel Supervisor

Organize and focus your real-time data in Omni-Channel Supervisor to effortlessly find the information you need.

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Add Omni-Channel Supervisor to the Salesforce Console

Add Omni-Channel Supervisor to the console to get your supervisors up and running.

EDITIONS

Before adding Omni-Channel Supervisor to the console:

•

Make sure you have Omni-Channel enabled and ready-to-go with agents and queues running.

•

Make sure you have a working console app.

1. In 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 Omni-Channel Supervisor to. Or, create a new console app. We recommend creating a profile for your supervisors so you can customize a console just for them.

3. In the Choose Navigation Tab Items section, add

Omni Supervisor

to the Selected Items list.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

4. Select the profiles you want to assign to this Supervisor-enabled console. The users in the selected profiles must have tab visibility in order to view Omni-Channel Supervisor in their console.

To set up Omni-Channel and manage apps.

•

“Customize Application”

5. Click Save.

Verify that Omni-Channel Supervisor is in the console by opening the console and viewing the tab selections. You should see the option

Omni Supervisor.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

Get to Know the Omni-Channel Supervisor Tabs

Supervisors can check the health of their call center in real time using the Agents, Queues, and

Work tabs in Omni-Channel Supervisor. These tabs let supervisors survey the landscape and see what’s open and active, who’s assigned to what, and other details such as open capacities and average wait times for customers.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

IN THIS SECTION:

Agents Tab

See who’s working, who’s available, and who’s busy with the Omni-Channel Supervisor Agents tab.

Queues Tab

Gauge your backlog with the Omni-Channel Supervisor Queues tab.

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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 Work tab.

Agents Tab

See who’s working, who’s available, and who’s busy with the Omni-Channel Supervisor Agents tab.

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 they last accepted new work.

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

Agents tab because it provides the best overall picture of how your agents are doing. Agents logged in through the Omni-Channel widget appear in rows, where you can see their status, channels, queues, workload, and capacity.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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 won’t be tracked anymore.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

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 detail on the agent’s activity and timestamps, while the Agent Timeline displays the agent’s status changes and work via an intuitive calendar view.

Agent Detail view

Agent Timeline

Agents by Queue 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 lets you see if you need to rearrange any agents to make sure your incoming work is covered.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

IN THIS SECTION:

Agents Tab Fields

Fields for the Omni-Channel Supervisor Agents tab.

Agents Tab Fields

Fields for the Omni-Channel Supervisor Agents tab.

All Agents Fields

The All Agents view in the Agents tab contains fields with information that lets you know how your agents are doing.

Column

Agent

Status

Action

Time in State

Time Since Login

Time Since Last Accept

Description

The first and last name of the agent.

The agent’s current presence status, as set in the Omni-Channel widget.

Allows you to change an agent’s status.

Amount of time the agent has been in the current presence status.

Amount of time the agent has been logged into an online or busy Omni-Channel status. This 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.

Amount of time since the agent last accepted a work item, either explicitly or through auto-accept.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

248

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Column

Channels

Assigned Queues

Work Items

Workload

Capacity

Set Up Omni-Channel

Description

The agent’s associated Service Channels (for agents in an online status), so you know what types of work the available agent can handle.

Omni-Channel-enabled Salesforce queues that the agent can receive work through in Omni-Channel.

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

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.

Percentage calculated from the Workload column.

•

0-50% capacity is shown with a green icon

•

51-80% capacity is shown with a yellow icon

•

81-100% capacity is shown with a red icon

Agent Detail Fields

The All Agents view in the Agents tab contains fields that provide information about the particular agent’s current work.

Column

Type

Details

Queue

Work Size

Status

Description

Salesforce object type for the work, such as Lead, Case, SOS, etc.

Information from the object’s primary compact layout to provide more context about the work item.

The Omni-Channel-enabled queue used to assign and route the work to the agent.

Size of the Omni-Channel work based on the routing configuration associated with the queue.

Omni-Channel work status. It includes:

•

Assigned work items in the agent’s widget waiting for acknowledgment

•

Open work items that are assigned to an agent and have an open work tab in the agent’s console

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

Column

Requested Time

Assigned Time

Accepted Time

Handle Time

Speed to Answer

Description

Datetime the item was assigned to the Omni-Channel-enabled queue, which triggers the routing.

Datetime when Omni-Channel pushed and assigned the item into the agent’s Omni-Channel widget.

Datetime the item was accepted, either explicitly or through auto-accept. Accepted items are opened in the agent’s console.

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.

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.

Agents by Queue Fields

The Agents by Queue view in the Agents tab contains fields with information about the work agents are doing in your Omni-Channel queues.

Column

Queue

Total

# Online

% Online

# Away

# At Capacity

% At Capacity

# Idle

% Idle

Average Capacity

Description

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.

Total number of agents in the queue.

Number of agents with an Online status.

Percentage of agents in the queue who have an online status.

Number of agents with an Away status.

Number of agents who are at capacity.

Percentage of Agents in the queue who are at capacity.

Number of agents who are idle. Idle agents have no current work, with 0% capacity consumed.

Percentage of agents in the queue who are idle.

Average capacity among the online and away agents in the queue.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Queues Tab

Gauge your backlog with the Omni-Channel Supervisor Queues tab.

Spend some time catching up on the activity in your Omni-Channel queues using the Queues

Summary view in the Queues tab. You can see your queues’ priority, configured work size, type, and wait times. This high-level information can give you an idea of how efficiently work moves through the queue and to your agents, so you can determine which queues are doing well and which could use a few more agents on board.

Set Up Omni-Channel

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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.

IN THIS SECTION:

Queues Tab Fields

Fields for the Omni-Channel Supervisor Queues tab.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

Queues Tab Fields

Fields for the Omni-Channel Supervisor Queues tab.

Queues Summary Fields

The Queues Summary view in the Queues tab contains fields that let you know how your agents are doing.

Column

Queue

Priority

Work Size

Type

Total Waiting

Longest Wait Time

Average Wait Time

Description

The Omni-Channel-enabled queue used to assign and route the work to the agent.

You can click the queue’s name to see more detail about it.

The queue’s priority based on its routing configuration.

Size of the work items in the queue based on its routing configuration.

Salesforce object type for the work, such as Lead,

Case, SOS, etc.

Total number of items currently assigned to the

Omni-Channel queue that are waiting for an available agent.

Duration of the longest wait time.

Average wait time of all items currently assigned to the queue.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Queue Detail Fields

The Queue Details view in the Queues tab contains fields that provide information about the work items in the queue.

Column

Position

Type

Details

Wait Time

Requested Time

Description

The work item’s position in the queue.

Salesforce object type for the work, such as Lead, Case, SOS, etc.

Information from the object’s primary compact layout to provide more context about the work item.

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.

Datetime the item was assigned to the queue.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

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 Work tab.

Use the Work Summary view in the Work tab to get a breakdown of the work that’s in your queues.

See the type of work each queue can handle alongside a state-of-the-union of its active work items.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: 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.

IN THIS SECTION:

Work Tab Fields

Fields for the Omni-Channel Supervisor Work tab.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

Work Tab Fields

Fields for the Omni-Channel Supervisor Work tab.

Work Summary Fields

The Work Summary view in the Work tab contains fields that show you how work items are being handled.

Column

Queue

Type

Assigned

Open

Average Handle Time (AHT)

Average Speed to Answer (ASA)

Description

The Omni-Channel-enabled queue used to assign and route the work to the agent.

You can click a queue for more details about its work.

Salesforce object type for the work, such as Lead,

Case, SOS, etc.

Total number of items assigned and waiting in the agent’s Omni-Channel widget for acknowledgment.

Total number of items accepted and opened in the agent’s console.

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.

Average amount of time an item is waiting before an agent accepts it. It’s calculated using the difference between the time the work was requested and accepted.

When an agent accepts a work item, the item is removed from this calculation.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Work Detail Fields

The Work Details view in the Work tab contains fields that provide information about the work items in the queue.

Column

Type

Details

Agent

Requested Time

Description

Salesforce object type for the work, such as Lead, Case, SOS, etc.

Information from the object’s primary compact layout to provide more context about the work item.

The name of the agent assigned to the work.

Datetime the item was assigned to the queue.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Omni-Channel

Column

Assigned Time

Handle Time

Speed to Answer

Description

Datetime when Omni-Channel pushed and assigned the item into the agent’s Omni-Channel widget.

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.

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.

Sort and Filter in Omni-Channel Supervisor

Organize and focus your real-time data in Omni-Channel Supervisor to effortlessly find the information you need.

Now that we’ve seen what Omni-Channel Supervisor has to offer, we’ll show you how to optimize all this great data so you can quickly find what you’re looking for. Filter the tables to display particular agents, queues, work types, capacity percentages, etc. and group that information with sorting.

Use filtering to pare down what’s on your screen and get what you need faster. For example, if you want to see information about one particular team of agents, go to the All Agents view and select just those agents in the filter. You can apply multiple filters to the same grid, too. Hop seamlessly from an agent’s open Leads to the Tier One Queue’s open Cases with a Wait Time over 5 minutes.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Omni-Channel is available in: Professional, Enterprise,

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.

255

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up SOS Video Chat and Screen-Sharing

Set Up SOS Video Chat and Screen-Sharing

Want to connect with your customers in a whole new way? SOS is the Service Cloud’s mobile support solution. With SOS, you can add a help button to your native iOS or Android mobile application so your customers can connect with agents over a one-way video and two-way audio chat.

Gone are the days when your customers had to connect with a nameless, faceless agent over the phone. With one click, your customers can video chat with agents who provide personalized, in-app guidance with screen-sharing and annotations.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

SOS is available for an additional cost in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

SOS is integrated into the Salesforce console for the Service Cloud. Your agents can access cases, account records, and customer information quickly and easily during their video calls. Agents can also draw on customers’ screens during an SOS session, giving your customers in-app guidance to solve their problems. Your customers get a comprehensive, personal support experience, and your agents have the information they need in the console to solve customer issues.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up SOS Video Chat and Screen-Sharing

Even better, SOS is fully integrated into Omni-Channel, the Service Cloud’s routing engine. Use Omni-Channel to customize how work items—including SOS video calls—are routed to your agents. Route SOS calls to the most available, capable agents in your organization in real time.—no third-party routing engine required!

For more information on integrating SOS into your mobile applications, see Snap-ins for iOS and Snap-ins for Android .

Before you set up SOS,

enable Omni-Channel in your organization

IN THIS SECTION:

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.

Enable the SOS License

Use a permission set to enable the SOS license for your users.

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.

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.

Give Users Access to Your SOS Presence Statuses with Profiles

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.

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.

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.

Create an SOS Deployment

Create an SOS deployment to integrate your SOS settings from Salesforce into your mobile application.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up SOS Video Chat and Screen-Sharing

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.

1. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

2. Select the user that you want to assign an SOS license to.

3. Click Permission Set License Assignments.

4. Click Edit Assignments.

5. Check the Enabled checkbox for SOS User.

6. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

SOS is available for an additional cost in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up SOS:

•

“Customize Application”

Enable the SOS License

Use a permission set to enable the SOS license for your users.

You can add only users who have been assigned the SOS license to the permission set.

1. From Setup, enter

Permission Sets

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Permission

Sets.

2. Select the SOS permission set.

If you don’t have an SOS permission set, create one. For

User License

, select

None

3. Click App Permissions.

4. Click Edit.

5. Select Enable SOS Licenses.

6. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

SOS is available for an additional cost in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up SOS:

•

“Customize Application”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up SOS Video Chat and Screen-Sharing

Create an SOS Presence Status

A presence status can be associated with one or more channels of work items. Associate the SOS presence status with the SOS service channel. That way, your agents can receive SOS calls when they’re signed in with the SOS presence status.

1. From Setup, enter

Presence

in the

Quick Find

box, select Presence Statuses, then click New.

2. Name your status.

Let’s call our status “Available for SOS.” A version of that name becomes the Developer Name automatically.

3. In the Status Options section, select Online.

4. In the Service Channels section, add SOS to the Selected Channel list.

5. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

SOS is available for an additional cost in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up SOS:

•

“Customize Application”

Give Users Access to SOS Presence Statuses with Permission Sets

Alternatively, you can give users access to presence statuses through profiles.

1. From Setup, enter

Permission Sets

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Permission

Sets.

2. Click the name of the permission set that contains your SOS agents.

3. Click Service Presence Statuses Access.

4. Click Edit.

5. Select the SOS presence status that we created earlier, “Available for SOS.”

6. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

SOS is available for an additional cost in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up SOS:

•

“Customize Application”

To modify permission sets:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up SOS Video Chat and Screen-Sharing

Give Users Access to Your SOS Presence Statuses with Profiles

Alternatively, you can give users access to presence statuses through permission sets.

1. From Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles.

2. Click the name of the profile that contains your SOS agents.

Don’t click Edit next to the profile name. If you do, you won’t see the correct page section where you can enable statuses.

3. In the Enabled Service Presence Status Access section, click Edit.

4. Select your SOS presence status, “Available for SOS,” to associate it with the profile.

5. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

SOS is available for an additional cost in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up SOS:

•

“Customize Application”

To modify profiles:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

Create an SOS Routing Configurations

After you create this configuration, we’ll create an SOS queue for your SOS calls. Then, we’ll associate our routing configuration with our SOS queue so that your agents can receive calls after we get

SOS set up.

1. From Setup, enter

Routing

in the

Quick Find

box, select Routing Configurations, then click New.

2. Name your routing configuration.

Let’s call our routing configuration “SOS Routing Configuration.” A version of that name becomes the Developer Name automatically.

3. Set your routing priority.

If SOS calls are the most important or the only work items your agents handle, set your routing priority to

. That priority ensures that SOS calls are routed to your agents before other types of work items.

4. Select your routing model .

5. Set the value of the

Percentage of Capacity

field to

100

Agents can accept only one SOS call at a time, so SOS calls take 100% of an agent’s capacity.

6. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

SOS is available for an additional cost in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up SOS:

•

“Customize Application”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up SOS Video Chat and Screen-Sharing

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.

The work items in the SOS queue are assigned the priority that you specified in the SOS routing configuration that you created earlier.

For routing to work correctly, assign each of your agents to a queue from which they’ll be receiving work items.

For more information about queues, see “Queues Overview” in the Salesforce Help.

1. From Setup, enter

Queues

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Queues.

2. Click New.

3. In the

Label

field, name your queue.

Let’s call our queue “SOS Queue.” A version of this name becomes the

Queue Name automatically.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

SOS is available for an additional cost in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up SOS:

•

“Customize Application”

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.

7. Click Save.

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.

You need to add the Omni-Channel and SOS widgets to your console, as well as whitelist the URL

salesforceliveagent.com

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

The SOS and Omni-Channel widgets appear in the footer of the Salesforce console. From the

Omni-Channel widget, agents can change their presence status and triage their incoming work assignments, including SOS calls. When an agent accepts an SOS call, the call opens in the SOS widget, where agents can view the customer’s screen.

You also need to whitelist the URL

salesforceliveagent.com

to make sure your calls aren’t blocked by your company’s firewalls. This ensures that all of your customers’ SOS calls make it safely to your agents.

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 and SOS widgets to.

3. In the Choose Console Components section, add Omni-Channel and SOS to your list of selected items.

SOS is available for an additional cost in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To customize a console app:

•

“Customize Application”

4. In the

Whitelist Domain

field, add

salesforceliveagent.com

to the list of whitelisted domains.

5. Click Save.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up SOS Video Chat and Screen-Sharing

Create an SOS Deployment

Create an SOS deployment to integrate your SOS settings from Salesforce into your mobile application.

When you create an SOS deployment, your deployment is assigned a unique ID number. Your mobile developers use this deployment ID to integrate your SOS settings in Salesforce into SOS in your mobile application.

1. From Setup, enter

SOS Deployments

in the

Quick Find

box, then select SOS

Deployments.

2. Click New.

3. Choose the settings for your deployment.

4. Click Save.

5. Copy the SOS Deployment ID from the detail page and send it to your mobile developers.

To integrate the SOS deployment with a mobile application, mobile developers use the SOS

iOS SDK.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

SOS is available for an additional cost in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create SOS deployments:

•

“Customize Application”

IN THIS SECTION:

SOS Deployment Settings

SOS deployment settings control how your Salesforce SOS settings integrate into your mobile application.

SOS Deployment Settings

SOS deployment settings control how your Salesforce SOS settings integrate into your mobile application.

Apply settings when you create or edit an SOS deployment.

Setting

SOS Deployment Name

What It Does

Names the deployment.

This deployment name, or a version of it, automatically becomes the

API Name

Activate Deployment

Voice-Only Mode

Enable Backward-Facing Camera

Sets the API name for the Live Agent deployment.

Activates the deployment so customers can request SOS calls when SOS is deployed in your mobile application.

Disables video functionality and allows agents and customers to communicate with audio only.

Allows the customer to relay video from the customer’s backward-facing mobile camera to agents.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

SOS is available for an additional cost in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

262

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Setting Up Agent Console in the Console Tab

Setting

Queue

Session Recording Enabled

What It Does

Determines the queue that you want to route incoming SOS calls to.

Automatically records SOS sessions.

Session Recording Storage Provider

Session Recording Storage Provider API

Secret

Determines the data storage provider that stores your SOS session recordings. Available only if session recording is enabled.

Session Recording Storage Provider API Key

The ID of the access key that’s associated with your Amazon S3 storage account. Available only if session recording is enabled.

The ID of the access secret that’s associated with your Amazon S3 storage account. Available only if session recording is enabled.

Session Recording Storage Provider Bucket

The name of the Amazon S3 bucket where you want to store your

SOS session recordings. Available only if session recording is enabled.

Setting Up Agent Console in the Console Tab

Setting up the Agent Console

Get started with the Agent console quickly.

Note: As of the Spring ’15 release, Agent console is not available to new organizations.

The newer Salesforce console improves the Agent console by providing you with more options and more advanced technologies. See Salesforce Console.

You can quickly set up the Agent console so that users have all the information they need on one screen when working with Salesforce. To set up the Agent console:

Create console layouts to define what objects are available to users in the console's list view

frame.

Define mini page layouts to customize the fields and related lists of the objects that display in

the console's mini view.

Assign profiles to a console layout to provide users access to specific objects in the console's

list view.

5. Add the Agent console to custom apps so that users can access the console from specific apps.

Note: You can't add the Agent console to partner portals or customer portals.

Visualforce pages might not display properly in the Agent console, as there is no cross-domain communication between Salesforce and Visualforce domains.

EDITIONS

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic. Setup for

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic and

Lightning Experience.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up the Agent console:

•

“Customize Application”

SEE ALSO:

Tip sheet: Using the Console

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Create Agent Console Layouts

Note: As of the Spring ’15 release, Agent console is not available to new organizations.

The newer Salesforce console improves the Agent console by providing you with more options and more advanced technologies. See Salesforce Console.

To create a layout for the Agent console:

1. From Setup, enter

Console Layouts

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Console

Layouts.

2. Click New and optionally choose an existing layout to clone.

3. Enter a name for the new layout.

4. Click Save.

5. Click Edit in the Selected List Views section.

6. To add or remove objects to the layout, select an object, and click the Add or Remove arrow.

To change the order of the objects as they appear in the console's list view frame, select an object in the Selected List box, and click the Up or Down arrow.

A user can only view objects in the console's list view frame if those objects are added to the console layout to which their profile is assigned.

7. Click Save.

8. Next, choose the related objects

to show in the mini view of the console.

EDITIONS

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic. Setup for

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic and

Lightning Experience.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create console layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

Customizing Agent Console Layouts

To customize layouts for the Agent console:

1. From Setup, enter

Console Layouts

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Console

Layouts.

2. Select a layout name.

3. To modify the

Name

Description

of the layout, click Edit in the Console Layout Detail section.

4. To add or remove objects to the layout, click Edit in the Selected List Views section, select an object, and click the Add or Remove arrow.

To change the order of the objects as they will appear in the console's list view frame, select an object in the Selected List box, and click the Up or Down arrow.

A user can only view objects in the console's list view frame if those objects are added to the console layout to which their profile is assigned.

5. Click Save to finish.

EDITIONS

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic. Setup for

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic and

Lightning Experience.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To customize console layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

264

Setting up the Agent Console

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Setting up the Agent Console

Deleting Agent Console Layouts

To delete a layout for the Agent console:

1. From Setup, enter

Console Layouts

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Console

Layouts.

2. Click Del next to the console layout name.

Note:

You cannot delete a console layout that is assigned to a profile

. You must first reassign the profile to another console layout or no console layout.

EDITIONS

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic. Setup for

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic and

Lightning Experience.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To delete Agent console layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

Managing Console Layouts for the Agent Console

Console layouts define what objects are available to users in the Agent console's list view frame.

For example, if you want users to see list views of cases and contacts in the console, then you would add both cases and contacts to a console layout, and then assign that console layout to the appropriate user profiles. A user can only view objects in the console's list view frame if those objects are added to the console layout to which their profile is assigned.

From the console layouts list page, accessed in Setup by entering

Console Layouts

in the

Quick Find

box, then selecting Console Layouts, you can:

•

Click New to

create layouts .

•

Click Edit to

modify a layout

•

Click Del to

delete a layout

•

Click Console Layout Assignment to

assign console layouts to profiles

SEE ALSO:

Setting up the Agent Console

EDITIONS

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic. Setup for

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic and

Lightning Experience.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create, edit, delete, and assign Agent console layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

265

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Setting up the Agent Console

Choose Related Objects for the Agent Console's Mini View

While you can choose which related objects appear in the Agent console's mini view, you can only choose objects with a lookup or master-detail relationship on the primary object. For example, from the cases object, you can choose account and contact because cases have account and contact lookup fields.

1. From the object management settings for the object whose page layout you want to edit, go to Page Layouts.

The standard or custom object you choose in this step represents the record in the detail view of the console, and the related objects in the mini view will be records associated with it.

2. Next to a page layout name, click Edit.

3. In the page layout header, click Mini Console View.

4. To select which related objects will be displayed in the mini view, select a field name, and click

Add or Remove. You can select objects only if they are defined as lookup relationships and those lookup fields are included on the page layout. To change the order of the related objects in the mini view, select a field name in Selected Relationship Fields, and click Up or Down. Click

Save when finished.

EDITIONS

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic. Setup for

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic and

Lightning Experience.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up the Agent console:

•

“Customize Application”

5. Click Save.

6. Next, define mini page layouts

to specify the fields and related lists to show for the related objects in the mini view.

Tip: The fewer related objects you add to the Agent console's mini view, the easier it is for users to read the information displayed.

The console can also process data faster when fewer related objects are added to the mini view.

Note: You cannot choose related objects for the Close Case Layout or the Log a Case Page and View Cases Page layouts on the

Self-Service Portal.

SEE ALSO:

Setting up the Agent Console

266

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Setting up the Agent Console

Define Mini Page Layouts for the Agent Console

You can define mini page layouts for the records that appear in the mini view of the Agent console, hover details, and event overlays. A mini page layout contains a subset of the items in an existing page layout. Mini page layouts inherit record type and profile associations, related lists, fields, and field access settings from their associated page layout. The visible fields and related lists of the mini page layout can be further customized, but the other items inherited from the associated page layout can’t be changed on the mini page layout itself.

The event mini page layout is used for the event detail and edit overlays, not the Console tab.

Related lists on mini page layouts only display in the Console tab, not hover details.

1. From the object management settings for the object whose page layout you want to edit, go to Page Layouts.

EDITIONS

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic. Setup for

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic and

Lightning Experience.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

2. Next to a page layout name, click Edit.

3. In the page layout header, click Mini Page Layout.

USER PERMISSIONS

4. Select which fields and related lists will be displayed for this type of record in the mini view.

For each related list you select, choose which fields to display in that related list.

To set up the Agent console:

•

“Customize Application”

•

You can select all of the available fields and up to five related lists to display in the console; however, it is recommended that you only select a few so that users do not have to scroll to find information.

•

Selected fields and related lists display in the console even when they do not contain content.

•

Fields marked

Always Displayed

Always on Layout

on page layouts are automatically included on the mini page layout and cannot be removed unless they are removed from the page layout.

•

Field properties on the page layout determine field properties on the mini page layout. For example, if a field is read-only on the page layout, that same field will be read-only on the mini page layout. To change the field properties of fields on the mini page layout, you must change the field properties of fields on the page layout. Note that the console respects field-level security in organizations where it is available.

•

To add or remove fields, select a field name, and click Add or Remove. To change the order of the fields, select a field name in

Selected, and click Up or Down. Click Save when finished.

•

The order of related lists on the page layout determines the order of related lists on the mini page layout. To change the order of related lists on the mini page layout, you must change the order of related lists on the page layout, then select the mini page layout and click Save.

5. Click Save.

Note: You can’t define mini page layouts for the Close Case Layout or the Log a Case Page and View Cases Page layouts on the

Self-Service Portal.

You can define mini page layouts for the user object; however, you cannot add standard fields or related lists. Also, a customized mini page layout won’t display in the Agent console.

SEE ALSO:

Setting up the Agent Console

267

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Setting Up Case Feed

Assign Layouts for the Agent Console

After you

create console layouts

, assign which layouts users see in the Agent console on the console tab. A user’s profile determines which console layout is seen.

To assign console layouts:

1. From Setup, enter

Console Layouts

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Console

Layouts.

2. Click Console Layout Assignment.

3. Select a console layout to assign to a profile via the drop-down list.

4. Select the Console tab visibility settings for a profile via the drop-down list. You can only select

Console tab visibility settings for profiles assigned to a console layout.

5. Click Save.

Note:

Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance, and Developer Edition users with the “Customize

Application” permission can assign a console layout to a profile via the profile detail page.

From Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles, select a profile name, then clickEdit in the Console Settings section.

EDITIONS

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic. Setup for

Agent console available in

Salesforce Classic and

Lightning Experience.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To assign console layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

Setting Up Case Feed

Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic

Follow these high-level steps to set up Case Feed in Salesforce Classic.

Prerequisites and Basic Setup

Before you enable and customize Case Feed:

•

Decide which actions and tools you need:

–

To use the Email action, set up Email-to-Case .

–

To use the articles tool,

set up Salesforce Knowledge

•

Review how cases are upgraded and know what to expect when you enable Case Feed actions

and feed items.

When you’re ready,

enable Case Feed actions and feed items

Note:

In organizations created before Winter ’14, you also need to:

•

Enable Chatter and actions in the publisher.

•

Enable feed tracking on cases. On the feed tracking page, turn off tracking for the Status field. Turning off tracking for the Status field prevents duplicate feed items when agents update a case’s status using the Change Status action.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up and customize

Case Feed:

•

“Manage Cases”

AND

“Customize Application”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic

Customizing Page Layouts

Choose what you want to appear on Case Feed page layouts based on your company’s needs and how your support agents work.

•

Create layouts for case detail and close case pages and

highlights panels

•

Create layouts for feed view pages to specify which actions, fields, and tools agents see when they’re working with cases.

Giving Users Access

The easiest way to give users access to Case Feed is to assign them to profiles that use the feed-based case page layouts you create.

In organizations created before Spring ’14, you may also be able to give users access in two other ways:

•

By creating permission sets and

assigning them to users

•

Through custom profiles

Setting Up Case Feed: Adding More Functionality

Follow these optional steps to add more functionality to Case Feed.

•

To let agents include short, pre-written messages in their emails, set up Quick Text and

create Quick Text messages .

•

To give agents the option of emailing customers to let them know when questions they’ve posted to a portal have been answered,

enable portal email notifications

•

To allow agents to save email messages as drafts before sending them, and to make it possible to create approval actions for email,

enable email drafts .

•

To help agents save time and increase consistency when sending emails to customers, create text, HTML, or Visualforce email templates.

•

To let agents automate repetitive tasks, add the macros browser to the console and give agents permission to use macros.

•

To give agents access to more functionality,

create and add custom actions

Enable Case Feed Actions and Feed Items

Enabling Case Feed actions and feed items gives your users access to some standard actions they’ll need when working with cases, such as Email and Change Status, and to feed items related to those actions.

Note: In Salesforce orgs created before the Winter ’14 release, you must enable feed tracking on Cases before you can enable the Case Feed actions and feed items. If feed tracking isn’t enabled, then the

Enable Case Feed Actions and Feed Items

isn’t visible.

In Salesforce organizations created after the Winter ’14 release, feed tracking on cases and Case

Feed actions and feed items are automatically enabled.

1. From Setup, enter

Support Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Support

Settings.

2. Click Edit.

3. Select

Enable Case Feed Actions and Feed Items

4. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To change support settings:

•

“Manage Cases”

AND

“Customize Application”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic

Once you enable Case Feed actions and feed items, your cases are upgraded to the new user interface automatically. We recommend that you wait until this upgrade process is finished before giving users access to Case Feed.

SEE ALSO:

Case Feed Upgrade Results

Assign Case Feed to Users

Create Permission Sets for Case Feed

After you enable Case Feed for your organization, create a permission set to give users access to it.

Note: The Use Case Feed permission is available only on orgs created before Winter ‘14 that haven’t enabled feed-based layouts. Case Feed is automatically enabled and assigned to all standard profiles in Salesforce organizations created after the Winter ’14 release.

1. Create a permission set for Case Feed.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Walk Through It

2. On the Permission Set page, click App Permissions.

3. Select

Use Case Feed

. Optionally, select any other permissions you want to include in the set.

4. Click Save.

Tip: If you have an existing permission set, you can edit it to include the

Use Case

Feed

permission.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create permission sets:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

SEE ALSO:

Assign Case Feed to Users

270

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic

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.

1. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

2. Select a user’s name.

3. In the Permission Set Assignments list, click Edit Assignments.

4. Select the permission set you want in the

Available Permission Sets

list, and then click Add.

5. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Create Permission Sets for Case Feed

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To change support settings:

•

“Manage Cases”

AND

“Customize Application

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.

1. Create a profile.

2. On the Profile page, click Edit.

3. In General User Permissions, select

Use Case Feed

4. Click Save.

5. Assign users to the profile.

SEE ALSO:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and edit profiles:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

Case Feed Upgrade Results

When you enable Case Feed for your organization, an upgrade process converts active cases to the new interface and creates feed items for activity on those cases.

During the upgrade process, users won’t notice anything different. After the process is complete, users for whom you've enabled Case Feed see existing and new cases in the new interface, while users without Case Feed continue to see traditional cases.

Here’s what happens when cases are upgraded to the new interface:

•

The 5000 most recent, active cases in your organization are converted to the Case Feed interface.

How long this takes varies depending on the number of cases being converted and the

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

271

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic 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:

Enable Case Feed Actions and Feed Items

Enable Portal Reply Email Notifications in Case Feed

If your organization uses a portal or community, support agents can use the Community action in

Case Feed to respond to customers. Enabling portal reply email notifications gives agents access to the

Send Email

option in the Community action.

1. From Setup, enter

Support Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Support

Settings.

2. Click Edit.

3. Select

Enable Case Comment Notification to Contacts

4. Select a template for email notifications.

5. Click Save.

Emails sent to external users include a link to the community. If the user receiving the email is a member of multiple active communities, the link goes to the oldest active community. If the user is already logged in to a community and clicks the link in the email, the link goes to that community.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To change support settings:

•

“Manage Cases”

AND

“Customize Application”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic

If the user is not a member of any community, the link goes to the internal organization. If the user is a member of a portal and a community, the link goes to the community.

SEE ALSO:

Highlight Externally Visible Feed Items in Case Feed

You can highlight feed items in Case Feed that are visible to external users. Now support agents can easily distinguish between feed items that are visible only to internal users and items that are visible to external users.

By default, Case Feed doesn’t distinguish feed items according to who can see them.

Enable both the

Enable Community Case Feed

and

Highlight Externally

Visible Feed Items

settings for the highlighting to work properly.

EDITIONS

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

When the

Enable Community Case Feed

and

Highlight Externally Visible

Feed Items

settings are 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 (such as Facebook posts)

•

Questions escalated from Communities

•

Tasks that have the All with Access or Public settings

•

Events that have the All with Access or Public settings

•

Chatter posts that have the All with Access or Public settings

USER PERMISSIONS

To change support settings:

•

“Manage Cases”

AND

“Customize Application”

When only

Highlight Externally Visible Feed Items

is enabled, then the following feed items are highlighted in the case feed:

•

Incoming and outgoing email feed items that are sent to, or received from, the email address for the contact person on a case

When only

Enable Community Case Feed

is enabled, then no feed items are highlighted.

This setting is only available for compact feed.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic

1. Feed items that are highlighted in orange are visible to external users, such as customers.

2. Feed items that are not highlighted are visible only to internal users, such as support agents.

1. Enable the

Highlight Externally Visible Feed Items

setting.

a. From your object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.

b. Select the feed-based page layout that you want to edit, and click Edit.

c. Scroll to the Feed View settings and select

Highlight Externally Visible Feed Items

2. Enabled the

Enable Community Case Feed

setting.

a. From your object management settings for cases, go to Support Settings.

b. Select

Enable Community Case Feed

Enable Email Drafts in Case Feed

Draft emails let support agents who use Case Feed write and save messages without having to send them immediately. This option also makes it possible to implement approval processes so messages can be reviewed by supervisors or senior agents before they’re sent to customers.

Before enabling draft emails,

set up Email-to-Case and

Case Feed

1. From Setup, enter

Support Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Support

Settings.

2. Click Edit.

3. Select

Enable Email Drafts

4. Click Save.

Note:

Changes to fields other than

From

BCC

, and

Subject

in the Email action 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.

SEE ALSO:

Create Approval Processes for Email Drafts

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To change support settings:

•

“Manage Cases”

AND

“Customize Application”

274

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic

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.

For example, you might create a map component that lets agents see where a customer is located, or a tool agents can use to look up the products related to cases they’re working on. You can use any Visualforce page that includes the standard case controller as a custom component.

Once you’ve created a Visualforce page to use as a custom component, add it to the Case Feed layout.

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 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.)

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To change Case Feed settings:

•

“Manage Cases”

AND

“Customize Application”

2. In the Other Tools and Components section, click + Add a Visualforce page and choose the 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:

a Case Feed layout, see Configure the Case Feed Publisher with the Enhanced Page Layout

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.

Actions in Case Feed let support agents perform tasks like emailing customers, writing case notes, and changing the status of a case. Using Visualforce pages, you can create custom actions that offer agents more functionality. For example, you might create a Map and Local Search action that lets agents look up the customer’s location and find nearby service centers.

You can use any Visualforce page that uses the standard case controller as a custom action.

Note:

If you’ve opted to use the advanced page layout editor to configure the publisher for

Editor

for instructions on adding actions.

1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.

2. How you access the Case Feed Settings page depends on what kind of page layout you’re working with.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To add custom actions to

Case Feed:

•

“Customize Application”

275

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic

•

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 only for organizations created before Spring ’14.)

and choose

Edit feed view

. (This section appears

3. Click + Add a Visualforce Page in the list of custom actions.

4. Select the page you want to add as an action.

5. Specify the height of the action in pixels.

6. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Settings for Feed Views in Case Feed

Developer’s Guide: Customizing Case Feed with Visualforce

Create Custom Feed Filters for Case Feed

Custom feed filters help support agents focus on the items that are most relevant for them.

1. From Setup, enter

Cases

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Feed Filters.

2. Click New.

3. In the Feed Filter Information section, enter the filter label, name, and description.

4. In the Feed Filter Criteria section, define how to populate this filter. You can create more refined filters using the OR function.

Field

Feed Item Type

Related Object

Visibility

Description

Specifies the feed type to include in the filter. For example, the Created Record feed item type shows feed items about new records.

Specifies the object associated with the selected feed item.

The list includes all objects related to the Case object. The objects in the list vary depending on how your organization is set up. For example, if you selected Created Record as the feed item type, you might select Case as the related object.

This filter then shows new Cases.

Specifies whether to include a feed item in the filter based on the feed item’s visibility. The visibility depends on the security and sharing settings for the related object. Visibility can include either All Users or Internal Users. For example, suppose that you selected Case Comment Feed as the feed item type and

Internal Users as the visibility. This feed filter then shows case comments made by internal users.

EDITIONS

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited,

Developer with a Service

Cloud license

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and edit page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

To assign page layouts:

•

“Manage Users”

5. Click Save.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic

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.

Case Feed Page Layouts Overview

When support agents work with cases in Case Feed, they use the case page layout. To specify the fields, tools, and functionality that support agents see when working with open cases, customize the feed view, detail view, highlights panel in the case page. When agents close a case, they see the close case page layout, where agents can enter information about the case resolution. You also can customize the close case page layout.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

You can customize different parts of the case page layout in Case Feed:

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

•

Highlights panels, which appear at the top of both feeds and case detail pages. The highlights panel shows key information about a case so that the most important information is immediately visible to agents.

•

Feed views, which agents see when managing and interacting with cases. The feed view shows the case history using a Chatter-like feed, so that agents can see what’s happened in a case in context.

•

Detail views, which agents see when they click View Case Details. The detail view shows useful information about the case, such as a description of the contact’s company, the account’s address, and related lists.

You also can customize the close case page layout in Case Feed:

•

Close case pages, which appear when agents close cases. The close case page lets agents enter information about the case resolution.

From the object management settings for cases, you can create, edit, and assign all four types of layouts by going to Page Layouts.

Configure the Case Feed Publisher with the Enhanced Page Layout Editor

Customize the Highlights Panel in Case Feed

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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.

1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.

2. In Page Layouts for Case Feed users, click

next to a layout and choose Edit detail view.

Hover your mouse pointer over the Highlights Panel until the icon appears, then click it.

4. On the Highlights Panel Properties page, click a box to edit the fields in it.

5. Use the drop-down list to choose the type of information to include in each field. To leave a field blank, choose

None

. You can’t move or delete

Case Number

Created Date

6. Click OK.

SEE ALSO:

Choose the tools, components, and options for your feed view page .

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and edit page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

To assign page layouts:

•

“Manage Users”

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.

Note: Before creating a new feed view page layout, you need to create a new case detail page layout.

1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.

2. 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 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.)

If you’ve already opted to use the advanced page layout editor to configure the publisher for a layout, choose

Edit detail view

to add, change, or remove actions.

4. Click Save.

Once you’ve created or edited feed view page layouts, assign them to profiles.

SEE ALSO:

Case Feed Page Layouts Overview

Configure the Case Feed Publisher with the Enhanced Page Layout Editor

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and edit page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

To assign page layouts:

•

“Manage Users”

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Settings for Feed Views in Case Feed

Use Case Feed settings to customize the feature according to your support department’s processes and business needs.

Apply these settings when you

create or update feed views for Case Feed .

Feed View Options

Option

Enable Full-Width

Feed View in the

Console

Enable Compact Feed

View in the Console

Use It to...

Notes

Expand the width of the feed to take up all available space when agents view cases in

Salesforce console tabs or subtabs.

The portion of the page the feed takes up with this setting enabled depends on whether you have tools or components in the right column of the Case Feed layout, and whether you have console sidebar components.

This setting is automatically enabled in organizations created after Summer ’14.

Update the overall look and feel of the feed view and compress feed items when agents view cases in Salesforce console tabs or subtabs.

Compact feed lets agents see more information about a case with much less scrolling than they need to do when working with cases in the standard feed view.

This option is only available if you have

Actions in the Publisher

and

Use Page Layout

Editor to Configure Actions

enabled.

Highlight Externally

Visible Feed Items

Indicate which feed items are visible to external users by changing the background color of the feed item to orange.

This option is only available for compact feed.

When this setting and the

Enable Community

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 Communities

•

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 Community Case Feed.

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Publisher Options

Option

Use Page Layout

Editor to Configure

Actions

Automatically

Collapse Publisher

Use It to...

Notes

Make the advanced page layout editor the default for choosing the actions that appear in the Case Feed publisher.

This setting appears only if your organization has

Actions in the Publisher

enabled.

Automatically reduce the height of the publisher when it’s not in use, showing more of the feed below. The publisher expands to its normal height as soon as an agent clicks inside it.

This setting is automatically enabled in organizations created after Summer ’14 and is only available if you have

Actions in the Publisher

and

Use

Page Layout Editor to Configure

Actions

enabled.

Choosing and Configuring Actions

Option

Menu Placement

Custom Actions

Select Action

Use It to...

Notes

Choose whether you want the publisher menu to appear in the center column or the left column.

This setting appears only if you haven’t selected

Use Page Layout Editor to

Configure Actions

Select up to 10 custom Visualforce pages to add to the publisher as actions. Pages must use the standard case controller.

This setting appears only if you haven’t selected

Use Page Layout Editor to

Configure Actions

Select actions to include in the Case Feed publisher, and choose the order in which the actions appear.

This setting appears only if you haven’t selected

Use Page Layout Editor to

Configure Actions

Log a Call Action

Option Use It to...

Select Action Fields

Select fields to include in the Log a Call action.

Notes

Log a Call automatically includes the

Customer

Name

field.

You can’t include rich text area fields in Case Feed actions.

Change Status Action

Option

Select Action Fields

Use It to...

Select fields to include in the Change Status action.

Notes

The Change Status action automatically includes the

Current Status

and

Change to fields. If you add the

Status

field to the action, it will automatically replace these two fields.

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Option Use It to...

Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic

Notes

You can’t include rich text area fields in Case Feed actions.

Email Action

Option

Select Action Fields

Use It to...

Select fields to include in the Email action.

Notes

Any fields you add appear below the email body field in the action.

You can’t include rich text area fields in Case Feed actions.

Select Header Fields

Select fields to include in the header of the Email action.

The Email header automatically includes the

From

Bcc

, and

Subject

fields.

Select Email Tools

Enable Rich Text

Editor

Require Use of Rich

Text Editor

Specify From

Address(es)

Choose the tools to make available to agents when they use the Email action.

The Templates, File Attachments, and Address

Lookup Buttons tools are included automatically.

Make the rich text editor available to agents so they can include formatting, such as bolded or underlined text, bulleted or numbered lists, links, and inline images in their email messages.

Agents can click in the editor’s menu bar to switch to plain text mode.

Prevent agents from switching to plain text mode when they write email.

This setting helps ensure that agents write and send only formatted emails, not plain text messages.

Automatically include specific email addresses in the

From

field.

To use multiple addresses, separate them with commas. They’ll appear as a picklist in the Email action header.

You can use only Salesforce-validated email addresses as From addresses.

Allow Collapsible

Body Field

Allow Collapsible

Email Header

Automatically collapse the email body field until an agent clicks inside it. Having the body collapsed by default makes it easier for agents to see more of what’s below the email action on the page.

Once an agent expands the email body, it will stay expanded until the page is reloaded, even if the agent clicks on other actions or elsewhere on the page.

Automatically collapse the email header until an With this setting enabled, agents can expand and collapse the header as needed while they work.

agent clicks to expand it.

Exclude Email Thread from Drafts

Exclude the previous emails in the thread when composing emails in the feed.

This prevents the previous emails in the thread from being incorporated in the outbound email message.

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Option

Replace Send Email

Button with

Use It to...

Choose a button to replace the standard Send

Email button. This can be useful if you want to label the button something else, change how it looks, or include custom functionality, such as triggering a workflow when an agent sends a message.

Notes

You can use any custom button you’ve created for cases, except those that have s-controls as content sources.

Case Feed Tools

Option

Select Case Feed

Tools

Use It to...

Notes

Choose which tools to make available to agents when they use Case Feed.

The Articles tool is included by default, but it won’t appear on the Case Feed page unless your organization uses Salesforce Knowledge.

Articles Tool

Option

Enable Email PDF

Attachments

Use It to...

Give agents the ability to attach Knowledge articles to email messages as PDFs.

Notes

This setting appears only if your organization uses

Salesforce Knowledge. If you use Knowledge and

don’t enable this setting, agents will be able to attach articles only to cases, not to email messages.

Use Case Feed

Articles Tool in the

Console

Replace the Knowledge sidebar in the Salesforce console with the Case Feed articles tool.

This setting appears only if your organization uses

Salesforce Knowledge. If you use Knowledge and

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.

Other Tools and Components

Option

Custom Components

Choose Placement

Use It to...

Notes

Select up to 10 custom Visualforce pages to add as components. You can use as a custom component any Visualforce page that uses the standard case controller.

Once you add a Visualforce page, you can specify its height and choose where on the page you want it to appear.

Specify where on the page you want tools and components like custom buttons, custom links,

Custom links and buttons are only available as right sidebar components on the feed view page layout if you’ve added them to the related case detail page layout.

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Option

Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic

Use It to...

Notes

and the followers list to appear. You can also choose to hide anything your agents don’t need access to.

The Milestone Tracker is available only if you’ve enabled entitlement management in your organization.

The Topics list is available only if you’ve enabled topics on cases.

Filter Options

Option

Filters Appear

Select Filters

Use It to...

Specify where and how feed filters appears:

•

As a fixed list in the left column

•

As a floating list in the left column

•

As a drop-down list in the center column

Notes

Choose “As a floating list in the left column” if you want the feed filters list to remain 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.

Choose the filters to include in the feed filters list, and specify the order of the list.

We recommend putting the filters agents are likely to use most often at the top of the list.

Add the Attachment Component to Case Feed

Add the attachment component to the Case Feed page so your support agents can quickly view and manage all of the files associated with a case.

Access to all of the files associated with a case is critical to support agents when they’re helping your customers. The attachment component lets agents view and manage all of the Chatter files, attachments from emails, and case attachment related list files for a case, all on the Case Feed page.

Using the attachment component, agents can quickly attach a file to an email and download a file.

Agents can toggle between a view of the most recent attachments for a case across all sources and a view of all of the files associated with a case sorted by their creation date.

1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.

2. 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 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.)

3. In the Other Tools and Components section, select Files, and specify where on the page you want it to appear.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and edit page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

To assign page layouts:

•

“Manage Users”

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4. Click Save.

Add the attachment component to your custom pages by including the

<support:caseUnifiedFiles>

component in a

Visualforce page, or add it as a Salesforce console component to make it available to agents without having to take up space on a Case

Feed page.

Add the Case Experts Component (Pilot) to Case Feed

Easily identify the experts on case topics so agents can collaborate to solve customer issues quickly.

EDITIONS

•

Note: Case Experts is currently available through a pilot program. For information on enabling

Case Experts for your organization, contact salesforce.com.

Using the power of topics on cases, support agents can be endorsed as experts on specific topics.

Agents endorsed as experts can help other agents who might be less knowledgeable on the topic.

To establish case experts in your organization, you must have Chatter and topics for cases enabled.

To enable Case Experts, display the Experts component on Case Feed.

1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.

2. 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 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.)

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and edit page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

To assign page layouts:

•

“Manage Users”

3. In the Other Tools and Components section, select Case Experts, and specify where on the page you want it to appear.

4. Click Save.

Add the experts component to your custom pages by including the

<apex:support:caseExperts>

component in a Visualforce page.

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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Note: This option is selected by default for new Salesforce organizations that use Case Feed, and for organizations that enable Case Feed after the Summer ’13 release.

1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.

2. 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 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.)

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To configure the Case Feed publisher:

•

“Customize Application”

3. Select

Use Page Layout Editor to Configure Actions

4. Click Save.

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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 appears only for organizations created before Spring ’14.)

and choose

Edit detail view

. (This section

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

•

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 Overview

Create and Edit Feed Layouts in Case Feed

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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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Note: Page layouts for Case Feed users are available only in organizations created prior to

Spring ’14.

Feed-based case layouts include the same features as page layouts for Case Feed users: a feed, which includes a publisher with actions, feed filters, tools such as an articles tool, and sidebar 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 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.

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and edit page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

To convert page layouts for Case Feed users to feed-based case layouts:

1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.

To assign page layouts:

•

“Manage Users”

2. Click

next to a layout in the Page Layouts for Case Feed Users list and choose

Convert 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 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.

Configure the Case Feed Publisher with the Enhanced Page Layout Editor

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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.

1. Create the global action (for the Create action) and the custom quick action (for the Update action).

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 field, you must have a contact-specific update action.

EDITIONS

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer with a

Service Cloud license

USER PERMISSIONS

2. Add the actions as components to the case page layouts so that the quick actions are available for your agents to use.

a. From Setup, enter “Case” in the Quick Find box, then select Page Layouts.

b. Select the page to which you want to add the quick actions and click Edit.

To create actions:

•

“Customize Application”

To add custom console components:

•

“Customize Application”

c. In the Case Layout page, select Custom Console Components.

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.

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.

Before you can enable default email templates, you need to create text, HTML, or Visualforce templates, and create an Apex class that contains template selection logic.

Default email templates make it easy for support agents to respond to customers more quickly, more accurately, and with greater consistency. The email templates are preloaded, so agents don’t need to browse for the templates they need before writing email. You can create as many templates as needed and assign them based on your company’s needs. For example, if your support center handles issues related to multiple products, you can create a specific template for each product and preload the appropriate template based on a case’s origin, subject, or other criteria.

To enable default email templates:

1. From Setup, enter

Support Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Support

Settings.

2. Click Edit.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To enable default email templates:

•

“Customize Application”

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3. Select

Enable default email templates

4. Choose the Apex class that contains your template selection logic.

5. Click Save.

Create Approval Processes for Email Drafts

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.

Note: Send actions are available only in organizations that have email drafts enabled.

1. From Setup, enter

Send Actions

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Send Actions.

2. Click New Send Action.

3. Select Email Message from the object drop-down list.

4. Enter a unique name for the action.

5. Optionally, enter a description for the action.

6. Click Save.

After you create a send action, create an approval process that includes it.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create Send actions:

•

“Customize Application”

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.

Enable draft emails .

Though you can create approval processes for email messages without this step, those processes won’t be triggered until your organization has email drafts available.

Create a send action .

Send actions ensure that email messages are sent once they’ve been approved.

3. Create approval processes.

Be sure to choose Email Message from the Manage Approval Processes For: drop-down list.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create approval processes:

•

“Customize Application”

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4. To give certain users, such as senior support agents, the ability to choose whether to submit an email message for approval or simply send the message, assign them to a profile that has the

Bypass Email Approval

permission selected.

Rename Actions and Feed Filters in Case Feed

Rename Case Feed actions and feed filters so they match the terms your company uses.

For example, if your company refers to your portal as a customer community, you might rename the Portal action “Customer Community.”

1. From Setup, enter

Rename Tabs and Labels

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Rename Tabs and Labels.

2. Click Edit next to Cases in the list of standard tabs.

3. Click Next.

4. Find the label you want to change in the Other Labels list.

5. Type the new name for the label in the text box next to it.

6. If the new label begins with a vowel sound, check

Starts with vowel sound

7. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To rename actions and feed filters:

•

“Customize Application”

“View Setup and

Configuration”

AND

Designation as a translator

Set Up Cases for Lightning Experience

Before you can use case feed in Lightning Experience, recreate standard publishers with quick actions.

Quick actions appear on mobile devices, whereas standard case feed publishers do not. To use the feed-first design on cases, recreate these publishers as quick actions.

•

Create a Log a Call Quick Action

•

Create a Change Status Quick Action

EDITIONS

Available in: Lightning

Experience

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up cases for Lightning

Experience:

•

“Manage Cases”

AND

“Customize Application”

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Create a Send Email Quick Action for Cases

Create a Send Email quick action to let agents send emails from the case feed in Lightning Experience and Salesforce1.

You must have Email-to-Case enabled to use the Send Email quick action on the Cases object.

EDITIONS

The Send Email quick action is created by default when you enable Email-to-Case on new orgs. If your org was created before Spring ’17, or if you enabled Email-to-Case before Spring ’17, create a

Send Email quick action.

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

1. Create the Send Email quick action.

a. From Setup, enter “Case” in the Quick Find box, then select Buttons, Links, and Actions.

b. Click New Action.

c. In the

Action Type

picklist, select Send Email.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and modify the

Send Email quick action:

•

“Manage Cases” AND

“Customize Application”

To edit a page layout:

•

“Customize Application”

d. In the

Standard Label Type

field, select a label for this action. When you add the action to the case page layout, this label is displayed in the actions bar.

e. 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.

f. 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 quick action for 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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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Lightning Experience

The

To Address

From

picklist,

Subject

, and

Text Body

fields are added by default. For information about the fields, see Fields Available on the Send Email Quick Action

b. To make a field read-only or required, click the wrench icon and specify the field properties.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Lightning Experience

c. To save the field properties, click OK.

d. 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.

Fields Available on the Send Email Quick Action

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 Salesforce1 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.

You must have Email-to-Case enabled to use the Send Email quick action on the Cases object.

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 on an email template aren’t supported. However, agents can manually add attachments when they use the email quick action.

1. Create a Send Email quick action or modify an existing Send Email quick action.

a. From Setup, enter “Case” in the Quick Find box, then select Buttons, Links, and Actions.

b. Click New Action, or select the quick action that you want to change.

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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and modify the

Send Email quick action:

•

“Manage Cases” AND

“Customize Application”

To edit a page layout:

•

“Customize Application”

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,

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Lightning Experience 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

Unless you’re familiar with working with the API, we suggest not editing this field.

h. In the

Description

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

Text Body

field is added to the Send Email quick action layout by default. If your email template uses images or HTML formatting, remove the

Text Body

field and add the

HTML Body

field to the email layout.

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.

Fields Available on the Send Email Quick Action

You can drag fields from the Email Message Fields palette to the email layout.

Field

Blank Space

Table 3: Fields Available on the Send Email Quick Action

Description

Adds empty space to the email layout. This field can be used multiple times within the email layout.

BCC Address

Email header field where agents can enter BCC addresses.

BCC Address

is added to an email layout that includes the

To Address

field, the

BCC

Address

field is collapsed and appears as a link in the email layout on the case page layout.

When an agent clicks the BCC link, the field expands and doesn’t collapse again. If the field is required, a red line appears next to it and the field is always expanded.

EDITIONS

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field

CC Address

From

From Address

HTML Body

Is Externally Visible

Parent Case

Related To

Subject

Text Body

Set Up Cases for Lightning Experience

Description

Email header field where agents can enter CC addresses.

CC Address

is added to an email layout that includes the

To Address

field, the

CC Address

field is collapsed and appears as a link in the email layout on the case page layout. When an agent clicks the CC link, the field expands and doesn’t collapse again. If the field is required, a red line appears next to it and the field is always expanded.

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.

Email header field where agents can enter a From email address.

The

From Address

field is a text field.

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.

If the community case feed is enabled,

IsExternallyVisible

controls the external visibility of emails in communities.

For more information, see EmailMessage in the API Guide.

Field for the parent case record ID.

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.

Email header field where agents can enter a subject.

Email body field that supports only plain text.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Lightning Experience

Field

To Address

Description

Email header field where agents can enter To email addresses.

Apply a Default Email Template Using the Send Email Quick Action

Create a Send Email Quick Action for Cases

Fields Available on the Send Email Quick Action

Create a Log a Call Quick Action

Before you can use case feed in Lightning Experience, you must recreate the Log a Call publisher as a quick action.

1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Buttons, Links, and Actions.

2. Click New Action.

3. Under

Action Type

, select Log a Call.

4. Under

Standard Label Type

, select Log a Call.

5. Click Save.

6. To choose the fields users see, customize the action’s layout, then click Save.

7. On case page layouts, drag the new quick action to the Salesforce1 and Lightning Experience

Actions section, then click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Cases for Lightning Experience

Add Quick Actions to the Case Page Layout for Lightning Experience

Create a Change Status Quick Action

Before you can use case feed in Lightning Experience, you must recreate the Change Status publisher as a quick action.

1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Buttons, Links, and Actions.

2. Click New Action.

3. Under

Action Type

, select Update a Record.

4. Under

Standard Label Type

, select Change Status.

5. Click Save.

6. To choose the fields users see, customize the action’s layout, then click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Lightning

Experience

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up cases for Lightning

Experience:

•

“Manage Cases”

AND

“Customize Application”

EDITIONS

Available in: Lightning

Experience

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up cases for Lightning

Experience:

•

“Manage Cases”

AND

“Customize Application”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Lightning Experience

7. On case page layouts, drag the new quick action to the Salesforce1 and Lightning Experience Actions section, then click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Cases for Lightning Experience

Add Quick Actions to the Case Page Layout for Lightning Experience

Create a Quick Action to Change the Case Owner

Make it simpler for agents to reassign cases in Lightning Experience by adding an Update a Record quick action to the case page layout.

Cases can be reassigned to the following:

•

Community partner user

•

Community portal user

•

Queue

•

User

EDITIONS

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

Note:

When you use a quick action to change the Case Owner, only the owner of the case is changed. The owner of related activities, notes, and tasks that are attached to the case isn’t changed.

1. From Setup, enter “Case” in the Quick Find box, then select Buttons, Links, and Actions.

2. Click New Action.

To create and modify the

Send Email quick action:

•

“Manage Cases” AND

“Customize Application”

To edit a page layout:

•

“Customize Application”

3. In the

Action Type

picklist, select Update a Record.

4. In the

Standard Label Type

picklist, select

None

5. In the

Label

field, enter a name for this action. When you add the action to the case page layout, this label is displayed in the actions bar.

For example, Transfer Case or Update Case Owner.

6. The

Name

7. In the

Description

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.

10. Click Save.

After you define the update quick action,

add it to the case page layout so it’s available for agents to use.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Cases for Lightning Experience

Add Quick Actions to the Case Page Layout for Lightning Experience

Make actions available to your agents by adding them to the Salesforce1 and Lightning 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 action, it appears in the palette.

You can drag and drop actions from the palette to the page layout.

1. Add quick actions to the case page layout.

a. From Setup, enter “Case” in the Quick Find box, then select Page Layouts.

b. Select the page layout that you want to add the action to, and click Edit.

c. Click Salesforce1 & Lightning Actions.

d. Drag the action into the Salesforce1 and Lightning Experience Actions section, and place the action where you want it to appear.

EDITIONS

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To edit a page layout:

•

“Customize Application”

e. Click Save.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Automating Contact Centers

Automating Contact Centers

Set Up Customer Support

If your organization uses cases and solutions, set up automated support features to make your support processes more efficient.

EDITIONS

From Setup:

•

Enter

Business Hours

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Business Hours

to set

your organization’s support hours.

•

Enter

Assignment Rules

in the

Quick Find

Rules to create rules for automatically routing cases.

box, then select Case Assignment

•

Enter

Escalation Rules

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Escalation Rules to create rules for automatically escalating cases.

•

Enter

Support Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Support Settings

customize email templates and defaults for automated support features.

Available in: both Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

The available support setup options vary according to which Salesforce Edition you have.

•

Enter

Auto-Response Rules

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Case Auto-Response Rules to set up rules that send email to customers when they submit cases from one of the following.

–

A Web-to-Case form

–

An Email-to-Case message

–

An On-Demand Email-to-Case message

–

A Customer Portal

–

A Self-Service portal

•

Enter

Email-to-Case

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Email-to-Case

to set up the ability to capture customer emails

as cases. The setup specifies how the content of each customer email automatically populates case fields.

For support features related to solutions, from Setup, enter

Solution

in the

Quick Find

box, then:

•

Select

Solution Categories

to set up categories so your users can categorize the solutions they create.

•

Select

Solution Settings

to enable specific options for solutions.

For additional support features, from Setup, enter

Self-Service

in the

Quick Find

box, then:

•

Select

Public Solutions

to set up public solutions for your customers to use when searching for solutions.

•

Select

Web-to-Case

to set up the ability to capture cases from your website.

•

Select Settings under Self-Service Portal to set up your organization’s web portal for your customers to log cases and search for solutions.

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the

Self-Service portal.

For support features related to a Salesforce Customer Portal, from Setup, enter

Customer Portal

in the

Quick Find

box, then:

•

Select

Customer Portal Settings

to set up your organization's Customer Portal so that your customers can log cases, search for

solutions, and access any custom objects you may have created for them.

For support features related to

to set up new call centers and manage the users who are assigned to them.

, from Setup, enter

Call Center

in the

Quick Find

box, then:

•

Select

Call Centers

•

Select

Directory Numbers

to set up additional phone numbers that can be searched in a call center user's phone directory.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Customize Support Settings

•

Select

SoftPhone Layouts

to set up the layouts that are used to display call information in a call center user's SoftPhone.

To create support queues for cases or custom objects, from Setup, enter

Queues

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Queues.

The support features include the ability to notify customers when their case is created manually or via the web, or when their case is resolved. You can also automatically notify users when a case is escalated, created, or reassisgned. To use notification emails, you must create email templates for each type of notification.

SEE ALSO:

Administrator tip sheet: Setting Up Customer Support

Administrator tip sheet: Getting the Most from Your Self-Service Portal

Administrator setup guide: Self-Service Implementation Guide

Administrator setup guide: Case Management Implementation Guide

Customize Support Settings

Turn on or set various support processes to automate case management. Choose email templates, default case owner, case notifications, and more.

To work with these settings, from Setup, enter

Support Settings

in the

Quick Find box, then select Support Settings and click Edit.

Field

Default Case Owner

Notify Default Case Owner

Record Type Setting

Automated Case User

Description

The user or queue automatically assigned to all cases that don't match any case assignment rule entries. This user must be

Active

Select this checkbox to notify the default case owner when a case is assigned to him or her. If the new owner is a queue, the notification is sent to the queue email address. Notifications are system-generated and can't be modified.

Indicates which record type to assign to cases created by users applying assignment rules.

Select either:

•

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

The user listed in the Case Feed feed items and

Case History related list for automated case changes. Automated case changes can occur from assignment rules, escalation rules,

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To change support settings:

•

“Manage Cases”

AND

“Customize Application”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Customize Support Settings

Field

Case Creation Template

Case Assigned Template

Case Close Template

New Cases Visible in Portal

Enable Case Comment Notification to

Contacts

Notify Case Owner of New Case Comments

Description

On-Demand Email-to-Case, or cases logged in the Self-Service portal. You can:

•

Select

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 grayed out.

•

Select

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.

The template used to notify contacts that their case was created manually by a support agent. The notification is optional; it's triggered by a checkbox on the case edit page. This template must be

Available for Use

The template used to notify users that a case was manually assigned to them by an 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

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

Automatically selects the

Visible in Self-Service

Portal

checkbox for all new cases, 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 Salesforce Communities, this setting does not apply for partner or customer users viewing cases in communities. New case visibility in communities is controlled by sharing rules.

Select this checkbox to notify contacts who aren't Self-Service portal users when a case comment has been modified or added to a case. If you select this setting, click

Case Comment

Template

and choose the email template to use for these notifications. This template must be

Available for Use

Select this checkbox to notify the case owner when a user adds a public or private comment to a case. If you select this setting, case owners can't opt out of receiving these notices. (Notices aren't sent to inactive case owners.)

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Customize Support Settings

Field

Early Triggers Enabled

Description

Select this checkbox to enable early triggers for escalation rules and their actions.

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 Solutions

Enable Suggested Articles

Select this checkbox to enable the Suggested Solutions button on case detail pages so agents can propose specific solutions to help resolve cases.

Select this option to provide suggested articles on the Articles related list. You can make suggested articles available in all

Salesforce Knowledge channels except the public knowledge base.

Send Case Notifications from System Address

Select this checkbox to specify that case comment, attachment, and assignment notifications sent to case owners are sent from a system address, rather than the address of the user who updated the case.

System notifications display a “From” email address of

“[email protected]”, and an email “Name” related to the message, such as “Case Comment Notification”.

You can select this checkbox to prevent Self-Service or Customer

Portal users who update their cases from receiving “out-of-office” emails from case owners.

Notify Case Owners when Case Ownership

Changes

Select this checkbox to automatically select

Send

Notification Email

on cases when users change a case owner to another user. This helps prevent users from forgetting to notify other users that they're the new owner of a case.

Selecting this setting doesn't automatically select

Send

Notification Email

when users change a case owner to a queue.

Show Closed Statuses in Case Status Field

Select this checkbox to add closed statuses to the

Status

field on cases so agents can close cases without having to click 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.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Customize Support Settings

Field

Hide Save & Close Button and Cls Links

Enable Case Feed Actions and Feed Items

Size of Email Feed Item Body

Description

After selecting

Show Closed Statuses in Case

Status Field

as described above, you can select this checkbox so that the

Save & Close

button on case edit pages and Cls links on Cases related lists don't display unnecessarily.

Instead, users close cases via the

Status

field and Save button.

Use this setting to turn on Case Feed-specific actions and feed items. When you select this option, existing cases are upgraded to the Case Feed user interface.

Control the size of email feed items by setting a character limit on the email feed item body. You can set the character limit to:

•

Small = 400 characters (default)

•

Medium = 1200 characters

•

Large = 5000 characters

•

Custom = a value between 400 and 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 Feed Item Body

Select this checkbox to save space in Case Feed by removing blank lines in the body of email feed items.

Collapse Previous Emails in Email Feed Item

Body

Select this checkbox to show only the most recent email in the email feed item body. Users can click More to see previous emails in the thread.

Enable Default Email Templates or the

Default Handler for Email Action

Enable Email Drafts

Select this checkbox to specify an Apex class that loads a default email template in the Case Feed. Or, you can select this checkbox to specify the default values for the email fields that the Case Feed can automatically populate in emails.

Use this setting to enable email draft functionality.

Enable Question-to-Case in Salesforce

Create Auto-Response Record After

Customer’s First Email

Let moderators create cases from Chatter questions in your organization.

Change the order of case feed items and records, so feed items that are automatically generated appear after the customer’s first email to your support center.

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the

Self-Service portal.

SEE ALSO:

Guidelines for Setting Business Hours

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Business Hours

Set Business Hours

Specify the hours when your support team is available to serve customers. This helps make your department’s processes, such as escalations and milestones, more accurate.

Setting business hours lets you apply specific time zones and locations to:

•

Milestones in entitlement processes

•

Entitlement processes

•

Cases

•

Case escalation rules

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

You can also make the profile.

Business Hours

field available on the Case Layout page so that your support agents can set the times a support team is available to work on the case. By default, business hours are set 24 hours, seven days a week in the default time zone specified in your organization's

Additionally, users with the “Customize Application” permission can add business hours to escalation rules so that when the details of a case match the criteria of an escalation rule, the case is automatically updated and escalated with the times and location on the rule. For example, a case updated with Los Angeles business hours escalates only when a support team in Los Angeles is available.

To set business hours:

1. From Setup, enter

Business Hours

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Business

Hours.

2. Click New Business Hours.

Entitlements and milestones available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To set business hours:

•

“Manage Business

Hours Holidays”

3. Type a name for the business hours.

We recommend using a name that will remind users of a location or time zone when they view business hours on a case, entitlement process, or milestone. For example, if your business hours are for a support center in San Francisco, you could use the name

San

Francisco Business Hours

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.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Business Hours

•

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.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Support Holidays

On cases that include entitlements, business hours are applied according to a hierarchy. For details, see How Business Hours Work in Entitlement Management

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.

EDITIONS

•

After you set business hours, add the

Business Hours

lookup field to case layouts and set field-level security on the

Business Hours

field. This lets users view and update the business hours on a case.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

•

Business hours on a case are automatically set to your organization's default business hours, unless the case matches the criteria on an escalation rule associated with different business hours.

•

Salesforce automatically calculates daylight savings times for the time zones available for business hours, so you don’t have to configure rules to account for time zones.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

•

Business hours on a case include hours, minutes, and seconds. However, if business hours are less than 24 hours, the system ignores the seconds for the last minute before business hours end. For example, suppose it is 4:30 PM now, and business hours end at 5:00 PM. If you have a milestone with a 30-minute target, it’s more common to say that the target is 5:00 PM, not 4:59

PM. To accommodate this, the system stops counting seconds after 5:00. If seconds were counted from 5:00:00-5:00:59, the 30-minute target would occur after the 5:00:00 PM target cut-off and would roll over to the next day.

Entitlements and milestones available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

•

Escalation rules only run during the business hours they’re associated with.

•

You can update cases associated with business hours that are no longer active. without having to reactivate business hours.

•

You can’t include the

Business Hours

field in list views or reports.

•

You can create multiple business hours for support teams that operate in the same time zone but at different hours.

•

For simplicity, we recommend that you create one set of business hours per support center.

•

You can’t deactivate business hours that are included in escalation rules. You must first remove them from the escalation rules.

•

You can associate up to 1000 holidays with each set of business hours.

•

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Support Holidays

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

Holidays let you specify the dates and times your customer support team is unavailable. After you create a holiday, you can associate it with business hours to suspend business hours and escalation rules during holiday dates and times.

For example, you could create a holiday called New Year’s Day that begins at 8 p.m. on December

31 and ends at 9 a.m. on January 2. Escalation rules and entitlement milestones wouldn’t apply during the holiday.

1. From Setup, enter

Holidays

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Holidays.

2. Click New, or click Clone next to the name of an elapsed holiday.

You can only clone elapsed holidays.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

3. Type a name for the holiday.

4. Type a date for the holiday.

If you want the holiday to span more than one day:

a. Select the

Recurring Holiday

checkbox.

Entitlements and milestones available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

b. Enter the first day of the holiday in the

Start Date

field.

c. Deselect the

No End Date

checkbox in the

End Date

field.

USER PERMISSIONS

d. Enter the last day of the holiday in the

End Date

field.

To set holidays:

•

“Manage Business

Hours Holidays”

5. Optionally, you can:

•

Specify the exact times at which the holiday takes place by deselecting the

All Day checkbox next to the

Time

field and entering the exact times.

•

Select the

Recurring Holiday

checkbox to schedule the holiday to recur during specific dates and times:

–

In the

Frequency

field, select the frequency at which the holiday recurs. When you click the

Daily

Weekly

, or

Monthly

fields, more options display that allow you to refine frequency criteria.

–

In the

Start Date

and

End Date

fields, specify the dates during which you wish the holiday to recur.

The following error message displays if you select a start date and end date that does not correspond with the frequency you selected:

The recurring holiday has no occurrence

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.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Support Holidays

Note: All users, even those without the “View Setup and Configuration” user permission, can view holidays via the API.

Set Business Hours

Viewing and Editing Assignment Rules

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.

EDITIONS

•

You can associate up to 1000 holidays with each set of business hours.

•

Holidays automatically acquire the time zone of the business hours with which they are associated. For example if you associate a holiday to business hours that are in Pacific Standard

Time, the holiday will take effect for those business hours in Pacific Standard Time

•

You can only add business hours marked as

Active

to holidays.

•

Holiday names don’t need to be unique. For example, you could create multiple holidays named

New Year's Day

•

Currently, report results do not take holidays into account.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

•

If you schedule a holiday to recur on a specific day of every month, the holiday will only recur on months that have that specific day.

For example, if you schedule a holiday on the 31st day of every month, then the holiday will only recur on months that have 31 days.

If you want a holiday to recur on the last day of every month, choose last from the

On day of every month

drop-down list.

•

All users, even those without the “View Setup and Configuration” user permission, can view holidays via the API.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Support Holidays

Set Business Hours

306

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Assignment Rules

Set Up Assignment Rules

Define conditions that determine how leads or cases are processed.

1. From Setup, enter

Assignment Rules

in the

Quick Find

box, then select either

Lead Assignment Rules or Case Assignment Rules.

2. Choose New, and then give the rule a name. Specify whether you want this to be the active rule for leads or cases created manually and via the web and email. Then click Save.

3. To create the rule entries, click New. For each entry, you can specify:

Field

Order

Description

Sets the order in which the entry will be processed in the rule, for example,

Salesforce evaluates each entry in order and tries to match the criteria of the entry. As soon as a match is found, Salesforce processes the item and stops evaluating the rule entries for that item. If no match is found, the item is reassigned to either the default Web-to-Lead owner, the administrator doing a lead import, or the default case owner.

Criteria

Specifies conditions that the lead or case must match for it to be assigned.

Enter your rule criteria.

•

Choose criteria are met

and select the filter criteria that a record must meet to trigger the rule.For example, set a case filter to

Priority equals High

if you want case records with the

Priority

field marked High to trigger the rule.

If your organization uses multiple languages, enter filter values in your organization’s default language. You can add up to 25 filter criteria, of up to 255 characters each.

When you use picklists to specify filter criteria, the selected values are stored in the organization's default language. If you edit or clone existing filter criteria, first set the

Default Language

on the Company

Information page to the same language that was used to set the original filter criteria. Otherwise, the filter criteria may not be evaluated as expected.

•

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(ISCHANGED(

Priority ), ISPICKVAL (Priority, "High") )

triggers a rule that changes the owner of a case when the

Priority

field is changed to High.

If your condition uses a custom field, the rule entry will be deleted automatically if the custom field is deleted.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Lead Assignment Rules available in: Group,

Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Case Assignment Rules available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create assignment rules:

•

“Customize Application”

307

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Assignment Rules

Field

User

Description

Specifies the user or queue to which the lead or case will be assigned if it matches the condition. 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, or are assigned to the default global division if no contact is specified.

Specifies that the current owner on a lead or case will not be reassigned to the lead or case when it is updated.

Do Not

Reassign

Owner

Template

Predefined

Case Teams

Specifies the template to use for the email that is automatically sent to the new owner. If no template is specified, no email will be sent. When assigning a lead or case to a queue, the notification goes to the

Queue

address specified for the queue and all queue members.

Specifies the predefined case team(s) to add to a case when it matches the condition. Case teams help groups of people work together to solve a case, such as a support agent, support manager, and a product manager.

Click the Lookup icon ( ) to select a predefined case team to add to the assignment rule. To add more predefined case teams, click Add Row to add a new row with which you can add a predefined case team.

Replace any existing predefined case teams on the case

Specifies that any existing predefined case teams on the case are replaced with the predefined case teams on the condition, when a case matches the condition.

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 catches any leads or cases that the previous rule entries didn’t assign.

SEE ALSO:

Managing Assignment Rules

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Assignment Rules

Viewing and Editing Assignment Rules

To view and edit assignment rules:

•

To edit the name of a rule, click Rename next to the rule name.

•

To edit the entries for a rule, choose the rule name from the list of rules. Click New to add an entry; choose Edit or Del to edit or delete an entry; select Reorder to change the order in which the entries apply.

SEE ALSO:

Managing Assignment Rules

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Lead Assignment Rules available in: Group,

Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Case Assignment Rules available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To change assignment rules:

•

“Customize Application”

To view assignment rules:

•

“View Setup and

Configuration”

309

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Assignment Rules

Managing Assignment Rules

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

•

Lead Assignment Rules—Specify how leads are assigned to users or queues as they are created manually, captured from the web, or imported via the Data Import Wizard.

•

Case Assignment Rules—Determine how cases are assigned to users or put into queues as they are created manually, using Web-to-Case, Email-to-Case, On-Demand Email-to-Case, the

Self-Service portal, the Customer Portal, Outlook, or Lotus Notes.

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

Each rule consists of multiple rule entries that specify exactly how the leads or cases are assigned.

For example, your standard case assignment rule may have two entries: cases with “Type equals

Gold” are assigned to “Gold Service” queue, and cases with “Type equals Silver” are assigned to

“Silver Service” queue.

To create an assignment rule, from Setup, enter

Assignment Rules

in the

Quick Find box, then select Lead Assignment Rules or Case Assignment Rules.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Lead Assignment Rules available in: Group,

Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Case Assignment Rules available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Sample Assignment Rule

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

Rule Name

—

Hot Account Assignment

Rule Entries:

Order

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or change assignment rules:

•

“Customize Application”

Criteria

ISPICKVAL(Account.Rating, "Hot")

Assign To

Tier 1 Support Queue

OR( ISPICKVAL(Account.Rating, "Warm") ,

ISPICKVAL(Account.Rating, "Cold") )

Tier 2 Support Queue

SEE ALSO:

Viewing and Editing Assignment Rules

310

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Auto-Response Rules

Set Up Auto-Response Rules

Send automatic email responses to lead or case submissions based on the record’s attributes. Set up auto-response rules to send quick replies to customers to let them know someone at your company received their inquiry or details about their issue.

Create auto-response rules for leads captured through a Web-to-Lead form and for cases submitted through a:

•

Self-Service portal

•

Customer Portal

•

Web-to-Case form

•

Email-to-Case message

•

On-Demand Email-to-Case message

Create as many response rules as you like based on any attribute of the incoming lead or case. Keep in mind that you can activate only one rule for leads and one for cases at a time. Sales and service reps can find the email responses in the Activity History related list of the lead or contact and in the

Email related list on cases.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create auto-response rules:

•

“Customize Application”

Creating Auto-Response Rules

To create a Web-to-Lead response rule, from Setup, enter

Auto-Response Rules

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Lead

Auto-Response Rules. To create a response rule for cases, from Setup, enter

Auto-Response Rules

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Case Auto-Response Rules. On the Auto-Response Rules page:

1. Click New.

2. Enter the rule name.

3. Check the active box to make this rule the only one activated.

4. Click Save.

5. Create rule entries.

Creating Response Rule Entries

1. Click New from the rule detail page.

2. Enter a number to specify the order this entry should be processed.

The rule processes entries in this order and stops processing at the first matching entry and then sends the email using the specified email template. If no response rules apply, the rule uses the default template you specify on the Web-to-Case or Web-to-Lead

Settings page.

Note:

To create an error-proof rule, always create the last rule entry with no criteria. This rule entry will catch any leads or cases that the previous rule entries did not. This is especially important for Email-to-Case and On-Demand Email-to-Case which don't have default templates.

3. Enter your rule criteria:

•

Choose criteria are met

and select the filter criteria that a record must meet to trigger the rule. For example, set a case filter to

Priority equals High

if you want case records with the

Priority

field marked High to trigger the rule.

If your organization uses multiple languages, enter filter values in your organization’s default language. You can add up to 25 filter criteria, of up to 255 characters each.

311

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Auto-Response Rules

When you use picklists to specify filter criteria, the selected values are stored in the organization's default language. If you edit or clone existing filter criteria, first set the

Default Language

on the Company Information page to the same language that was used to set the original filter criteria. Otherwise, the filter criteria may not be evaluated as expected.

•

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 if 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 must be either one of your verified organization-wide email addresses or the email address in your Salesforce user profile, and must be different from the routing addresses you use 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

and

fields in the original message.

9. Save your work.

Auto-response rules and workflow email alerts provide similar functionality. The following table lists some of the differences between workflow alerts and auto-response rules to help you determine which process to use:

EDITIONS

Type of

Process

Designed For Runs

When

Sends

Email To

Number of Emails Sent

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Workflow email alerts

Notifications to interested parties.

A case or lead is created or edited.

Anyone you choose.

Sends one email per email alert.

Each workflow rule can have up to:

•

10 email alerts as immediate actions

•

10 email alerts per time trigger as time-dependent actions

•

10 time triggers

Auto-response rules are available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Workflow is available in:

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, Developer, and

Database.com Editions

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Escalation Rules

Type of Process Designed For

Auto-response rules Initial response to the contact who created a case or the person who submitted the lead on the

Web.

Runs When Sends Email To Number of Emails Sent

A case or lead is created.

Contact on a case or the person who submitted the lead on the Web.

Sends one email based on the first rule entry criteria it matches in a sequence of rule entries.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Auto-Response Rules

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.

Before you get started:

•

If you want to assign cases to queues, create queues

•

If you want to send notification emails when a case escalates, create email templates.

When Salesforce applies an escalation rule to a case, it inspects the case and compares the case to the criteria in the rule entry. If the case matches the criteria defined in the rule entry, Salesforce runs the escalation actions.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Orgs typically use one escalation rule that consists of multiple rule entries. For example, your standard case escalation rule could have two entries: cases with

Type

set to Gold are escalated within two hours, and cases with

Type

set to Silver are escalated within eight hours.

1. From Setup, enter

Escalation Rules

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Escalation

Rules.

2. Create the escalation rule.

USER PERMISSIONS

a. Click New and name the rule. Specify whether you want this rule to be the active escalation rule.

You can have only one active escalation rule at a time.

To create or edit escalation rules:

•

“Customize Application”

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.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Escalation Rules

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.

SEE ALSO:

Escalation Rule Entries

Escalation Actions

Monitor the Case Escalation Rule Queue

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.

SEE ALSO:

Escalation Rule Entries

Escalation Actions

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Escalation Rule Entries

Escalation criteria specify the conditions under which a case escalates. We store your criteria in a rule entry.

Let’s break down the parts of an escalation rule entry and go over the best practices for each step:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

314

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Escalation Rules

Step 1: Rule Entry Order

The

Sort Order

determines the sequence in which Salesforce evaluates rule entries [1]. Typically, orgs use one escalation rule that’s made up of several rule entries.

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.

Step 2: Rule Entry Criteria

The rule entry criteria define the case field values that trigger an escalation. When Salesforce evaluates the rule entry, it looks at the criteria and sees if the criteria match the field values set on the case. If the criteria match, the case is escalated.

Run this rule if the criteria are met

You can define escalation criteria using field values by selecting criteria are met [2.1].

Select the field, select the operator, and select the value [2.2]. For example, suppose that we want to escalate cases that are high priority and from our two biggest customers, Acme and Global Media. We can create a

315

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Escalation Rules 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.

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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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Escalation Rules

When case is created, and disable after case is first modified

The escalation clock starts ticking when the case is created but stops when the case is modified, provided that the case is modified before the Age Over time period expires.

Age Over

is set to 5 hours, then the case escalates five hours after the case is created unless the case is modified before five hours elapse. If the case is created at 9 AM on Monday morning and isn’t modified within the five-hour period, then the case would escalate at 2 PM on Monday afternoon. However, if the case is created at 9 AM on Monday and a support agent modifies the case at 10 AM, then the case wouldn’t escalate.

Based on last modification time

The escalation clock starts ticking when the case is modified.

Age Over

is set to 5 hours, then the case escalates five hours after the case is last modified. Suppose that the case is created at 9 AM on Monday morning and an agent modifies the case at 10 AM. The case would escalate at 3 PM on Monday afternoon, which is five hours after the 10 AM modification.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Escalation Rules

Escalation Actions

Escalation actions specify when the case escalates and what happens when the case escalates. An 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, and to other recipients.

Let’s break down the parts of an escalation action and go over best practices for each step:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

317

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Escalation Rules

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

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.

318

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Quick Text

•

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

When do rules execute?

Salesforce processes rules in a certain order.

1. Validation rules

2. Assignment rules

3. Auto-response rules

4. Workflow rules (with immediate actions)

5. Escalation rules

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Set Up Quick Text

Quick Text lets users create messages, such as greetings, answers to common questions, and short notes, which support agents can easily insert into case updates and communications with customers to save time and increase standardization. When you set up Quick Text, you enable it, set the user permissions so agents can use it, and create standardized messages.

Enable Quick Text

Quick Text is automatically enabled for organizations that have enabled Live Agent, but you might not see it enabled in your Quick Text settings. If you encounter this, manually enable

Quick Text.

2. Optionally, customize Quick Text settings.

Grant permissions to users so that they can create Quick Text messages .

Create Quick Text messages .

5. If your organization uses Live Agent,

give agents access to the Quick Text sidebar in the Live

Agent console .

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Group,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Quick Text:

•

“Customize Application”

319

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Quick Text

Enable Quick Text

Enable Quick Text for your organization so your agents can use pre-defined messages to respond to your customers and update cases quickly and easily.

Note: Once you enable Quick Text, you can’t disable it.

1. From Setup, enter

Quick Text Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Quick

Text Settings.

2. Click

Enable Quick Text

3. Click Save.

After enabling Quick Text, give support agents access to Quick Text by updating the user permissions.

SEE ALSO:

Create Quick Text Messages

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Group,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To enable Quick Text:

•

“Customize Application”

Give Support Agents Access to Quick Text

Giving agents access to Quick Text lets them choose standard messages to include in their chats and emails with customers, and in their case notes and updates.

To allow agents to use Quick Text in the Live Agent console, in Live Agent in the Salesforce console, or in the Email, Portal, Log a Call, and Change Status actions in Case Feed:

•

Give them “Read” permission on Quick Text , and

•

Do one of the following:

Option

Give agents ownership of at least one Quick

Text message

Steps

–

Transfer ownership of existing Quick Text messages to the agents (click Change next to

Owner

on the record), or

–

Have agents create new messages

Change your organization-wide default sharing setting for Quick Text

1. From Setup, enter

Sharing

Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Sharing Settings.

2. In

Organization-Wide

Defaults

, click Edit.

3. Select Public Read Only or Public

Read-Write in the

Default Access dropdown list forQuick Text.

4. Click Save.

Use sharing rules If you don’t want to change your organization-wide default sharing settings, create sharing rules to specify which groups

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Group,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up Quick Text:

•

“Customize Application”

320

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Option

Set Up Quick Text

Steps

of users should have at least read-only access to Quick Text messages.

After giving support agents access to Quick Text, you optionally can create standardized messages that they can use.

SEE ALSO:

Create Quick Text Messages

1. Click the Quick Text tab.

2. Click New.

3. If you have more than one Quick Text record type, select a record type for the new message, and then click Continue.

4. Type a message name.

5. Type the message.

It can include line breaks, lists, and special characters and can be up to 4,096 characters.

6. Click Available Merge Fields to display the merge field selector.

7. Select the channels in which you want the message to be available.

Depending on which features are enabled in your organization, these channels might be available.

•

—the Case Feed Email action

•

Live Agent

— Live Agent in the Salesforce console

•

Portal

—a community or a customer portal

•

Phone

—the Case Feed Log a Call action

•

Internal

—the Case Feed Change Status action

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Group,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create Quick Text messages:

•

“Create,” “Read,” “Edit,” and “Delete” on Quick

Text

8. Select a category.

9. Optionally, select a subcategory.

10. Click Save.

Tip: Click Test and Verify Merge Fields to view a sample of the quick text, populated with data from records that you choose.

SEE ALSO:

Escalation Rule Examples and Best Practices

321

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Monitoring Support Processes

Monitoring Support Processes

Monitor Automated Article Process Actions

Salesforce Knowledge users can schedule articles to be published or archived on a specific date.

Use the automated-process actions queue to view these pending actions and cancel them if necessary.

1. From Setup, enter

Automated Process Actions

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Automated Process Actions.

2. Click Search to view all pending actions for any article, or set the filter criteria and click Search to view only the pending actions that match the criteria.

The filter options are:

Process Definition

The process that is triggering the action. This value is always “KBWorkflow.”

Object

The object that triggered the pending action. This value is always “Knowledge Article.”

Scheduled Date

The date the pending actions are scheduled to occur.

Create Date

The date the article that triggered the pending action was created.

Created By

The user who created the article that triggered the pending action.

Record Name

The name of the article that triggered the pending action.

The filter is not case-sensitive.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To manage automated-process actions:

•

“Modify All Data”

To cancel pending actions, select the box next to the pending actions you want to cancel and click Delete.

Monitor the Case Escalation Rule Queue

When Salesforce triggers a case escalation rule that has time-dependent actions, use the escalation rule queue to view pending actions and cancel them if necessary.

To view pending actions:

1. From Setup, enter

Case Escalations

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Case

Escalations.

2. Click Search to view all pending actions for any active case escalation rule, or set the filter criteria and click Search to view only the pending actions that match the criteria. The filter options are:

Case To Escalate

The

Case Number

of the escalated case. The

Case Number

is a unique, automatically generated number used for identifying the case.

Escalation Rule

The name of the rule used to escalate the case.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To manage the case escalation rule queue:

•

“Modify All Data”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Monitoring Support Processes

Rule Entry

The order in which the rule entry will be processed. A rule entry is a condition that determines how a case escalation rule is processed. Each escalation rule can have a maximum of 3000 rule entries.

Escalation Action

The time criteria specified for the case to escalate as defined in the rule entry.

Ignore Business Hours

Indicates if the

Ignore Business Hours

checkbox is selected on the rule entry, meaning that the rule entry is in effect at all times and ignores your organization's business hours.

Escalate At

The date and time at which the case will escalate as defined in the rule entry. Dates and times display in the time zone of the user viewing the escalation rule queue.

Added Date

The date and time at which the case was added to the queue. Dates and times display in the time zone of the user viewing the escalation rule queue.

The filter is not case-sensitive.

To cancel pending actions:

1. Select the box next to the pending actions you want to cancel.

2. Click Delete. Salesforce cancels the pending action.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Escalation Rules

Monitor the Entitlement Process Queue

When Salesforce triggers an entitlement process that has time-dependent milestone actions, use the entitlement process queue to view pending actions and cancel them, if necessary.

To view pending actions:

1. From Setup, enter

Entitlement Processes

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Entitlement Processes.

2. Click Search to view all pending actions for any active workflow rules, or set the filter criteria and click Search to view only the pending actions that match the criteria. The filter options are:

Entitlement Process Name

The entitlement process.

Case Number

The case's automatically generated identifying number.

Milestone Name

The milestone that triggered the action.

Evaluation Date

The date the evaluated actions are scheduled to occur.

Created Date

The creation date of the case that triggered the entitlement process.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

Entitlement process monitoring is not available in Professional Edition orgs.

USER PERMISSIONS

To manage the entitlement process queue:

•

“Modify All Data”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Entitlements and Service Agreements

Username

The user who updated the case to trigger an entitlement process.

The filter is not case-sensitive.

To cancel pending actions:

1. Select the box next to the pending actions you want to cancel.

2. Click Delete.

Adding Entitlements and Service Agreements

What Is Entitlement Management?

Entitlement management helps you provide the correct support to your customers. It includes a variety of features that let you define, enforce, and track service levels as part of your support management process.

Entitlement management features include:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

•

Entitlements, which let support agents determine whether a customer is eligible for support.

•

Entitlement processes, which let you design 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.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

•

Community access to entitlements, which lets community 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.

Because entitlement management is highly customizable, you have full control of which features you use and how you set them up to reflect your customer support model. We’ll walk you through important planning decisions and setup steps to help you make the most of entitlement management. To get started, we recommend that you check out the Entitlement Management Trailhead module:

Entitlement Management .

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 .

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Planning for Entitlement Management

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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Choose What Determines Support Eligibility

You can set up entitlement management so customers are eligible for support based on one or several of the following types of records:

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

•

Accounts: Any contact on the account is eligible for support.

•

Contacts: Specific contacts are eligible for support.

•

Assets: Specific assets (purchased products) are eligible for support.

•

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:

Choose a Setup Model

There are three general ways to set up entitlement management. Once you’ve decided what should determine support eligibility, review the three models and select the one that best meets your business needs. You can always change which model you’re using.

325

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Planning for Entitlement Management

Entitlement model

Entitlements only (simplest option)

Entitlements + service contracts

What determines support eligibility

Support agents determine whether a customer is eligible for support at the account, contact, or asset level.

Use this model if

•

There's no need to manage your customers' entitlements as part of a service contract

•

Your entitlements don't have a renewal process

•

Entitlements aren't purchased by your customers; they're bundled with products (warranties)

•

Your customers' entitlements are short term and managed independently of each other

Support agents determine whether a customer is eligible for support based on their service contract.

•

Entitlements are purchased and managed separately from the products they cover and are part of a service contract

•

Your customers' entitlements are renewed at a contract level

•

You use Salesforce for customer support but not necessarily for service contract management

Entitlements + service contracts + contract line items (most complex option)

Support agents determine whether a customer is eligible for support based on the products covered in their service contract.

•

You use Salesforce for customer support and to manage your customers' service contracts

•

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 communities

•

Report on entitlements

326

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Entitlement Management Setup Checklist

After you select a setup model, head to the invaluable

SEE ALSO:

What Is Entitlement Management?

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.

Step

Read Planning for Entitlement Management

Set Up Entitlements

Complete if...

You’re thinking about using entitlements in your org.

You want customer support eligibility to be determined at the account or contact level.

You want to use entitlements in your org.

Enable Entitlements

Customize Entitlements

Set Up Entitlement and Asset Lookup

Filters on Cases

Give Users Access to Entitlement

Management

You want to control which fields users see on entitlements, and how and where users associate entitlements with other records.

You want to control which entitlements and assets users can link to a case.

You want to give users the appropriate user permissions, field access, and tab access.

Set Up an Entitlement Template

You want to predefine the terms of support for specific products.

Automatically Add Entitlements to

Cases from Web, Email, and Communities

You want the correct entitlement to be added automatically to cases created using

Web-to-Case, Email-to-Case, or communities.

Set Up Milestones

You want to define required steps that support agents must complete to close a support record.

Customize Milestone Page Layouts

Enable Milestone Feed Items

Set Up the Milestone Tracker

You want to control which milestone-related fields users see.

You want automatic notifications to be added to the feed and the record owner’s profile page when a milestone is completed or violated.

You want your support team to be able to see a list of upcoming and closed milestones and countdowns for active and overdue milestones.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up entitlement management

•

“Manage Entitlements”

327

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Entitlement Management Setup Checklist

Step

Limit User Updates to Milestones

Create a Milestone

Auto-Complete Case Milestones

Create an Entitlement Process

Customize Entitlement Process Fields

Add a Milestone Action to an Entitlement Process

Apply an Entitlement Process to an Entitlement

Create a New Version of an Entitlement Process

Use a New Version of an Entitlement Process

Set Up Service Contracts

Set Up Contract Line Items

Set Up Entitlement Management in Communities

Report on Entitlements

Give your support team entitlement management guidelines.

Complete if...

You want to prevent users from updating milestones unless certain criteria are met.

You want to define a required step in your support process.

You want milestones to be automatically marked Completed on cases that match unique criteria.

You want to be able to apply the required steps in your support process to specific records.

You want to create a timeline that includes all of the steps that your support team must complete to resolve support records.

You want to control which entitlement process fields users see.

You want to specify which required support steps occur, and when, on your timeline.

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.

You want a specific entitlement’s support records to follow the steps defined in your entitlement process.

You want to update an entitlement process.

You want to apply a new version of an entitlement process to new or existing entitlements.

You want customer support eligibility to be determined at the service contract level.

You want to be able to limit a service contract to cover specific products.

You want customers or partners to be able to view their entitlements and service contracts and create support records from them.

You want to view and share data on entitlements and service contracts.

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

328

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Step

Entitlement Management Limitations

Complete if...

•

How entitlement processes affect the way they resolve cases or work orders

SEE ALSO:

Planning for Entitlement Management

Entitlement Management Limitations

The following limitations apply to entitlements and their related features.

EDITIONS

Entitlement Limitations

•

Every entitlement must be associated with an account.

•

You can’t share entitlements. Entitlements inherit their parent account’s sharing settings.

•

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.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

•

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. If needed, you can add entitlements to these features using Apex code. For a sample trigger, see

Automatically Add Entitlements to Cases from Web, Email, and

Communities

Milestone Limitations

•

You can't add milestones to support records without using entitlement processes. Entitlement processes apply milestones to support records.

•

An org can have up to 1,000 entitlement processes, with up to 10 milestones per process. If your org was created before Summer

’13, its maximum number of entitlement processes may be lower, but you can ask Salesforce to increase it.

•

Milestones aren’t marked completed automatically. If you’d like, you can set up automation to auto-complete milestones on support records that match unique criteria. To learn more, see

Auto-Complete Case Milestones .

•

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.

•

Only one instance of a milestone can count down on a record at a time. For example, if a Response Time milestone begins counting down on a case, a second Response Time milestone can’t be created until the first is completed.

•

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 Force.com Migration Tool

–

Remove the business hours from the entitlement process before adding it to a change set

329

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Entitlements

Contract Line Item Limitations

•

You can only use contract line items if your org uses the Product object.

•

You can’t create list views for contract line items.

•

You can’t share contract line items. Contract line items inherit their parent service contract’s sharing settings. For example, users with the “Read” permission on service contracts inherit the “Read” permission on contract line items.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Entitlement and Asset Lookup Filters on Cases

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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

IN THIS SECTION:

Enable Entitlements

Enable entitlements in your Salesforce org to help support agents deliver the correct service level to your customers.

Customize Entitlements

Customize entitlement fields and page layouts based on your business needs and how your agents work.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

Set up lookup filters on entitlement-related case fields to restrict the entitlements that users can select on a case.

Give Users Access to Entitlement Management

After you set up entitlement management, make sure that users have the appropriate user permissions, field access, and tab access.

Set Up an Entitlement Template

Entitlement templates let you predefine terms of support that users can add to products.

Automatically Add Entitlements to Cases from Web, Email, and Communities

Entitlements don’t automatically apply to cases created using Web-to-Case, Email-to-Case, or communities. However, you can add entitlements to these features using Apex code.

330

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Entitlements

Enable Entitlements

Enable entitlements in your Salesforce org to help support agents deliver the correct service level to your customers.

1. From Setup, enter

Entitlement Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Entitlement Settings.

2. Select

Enable Entitlement Management

3. Click Save. This takes you to a page where you can customize entitlement management settings.

You’ll come back to those settings later on in the entitlement management setup process.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

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 work.

1. Customize entitlements fields.

This lets you control what information users add to entitlements.

Tip:

Create custom entitlement fields that are specific to your industry or your support processes. For example:

•

Customize the values for the

Type

field to match the types of entitlements your team provides or sells, like online support or online training.

•

If your business charges for entitlement renewals, create a currency field on entitlements named

Cost to Renew

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

2. Customize entitlement page layouts.

This lets you specify which fields and related lists users see on entitlements. Consider making the following customizations:

•

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

USER PERMISSIONS

To edit page layouts and set field history tracking:

•

“Customize Application”

3. Set field history tracking on entitlements.

This 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.

4. Customize other objects’ page layouts.

331

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Entitlements

•

Add the

Entitlement Name

lookup field to case and work order page layouts. This lets users add entitlements to cases or work orders.

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 other objects’ page layouts:

Add the Entitlements related list to this object’s page layouts...

So users can view and create entitlements when...

Accounts Any contact on the account is eligible for support

Contacts

Assets

Specific contacts are eligible for support

Specific assets (purchased products) are eligible for support

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. Users need the “Read” permission on entitlements to see the Entitlements tab.

Set Up Entitlement and Asset Lookup Filters on Cases

Set up lookup filters on entitlement-related case fields to restrict the entitlements that users can select on a case.

For example, when community users create a case and use the lookup on the

Entitlement

Name

field, you can set up lookup filters so they can choose only entitlements registered to their account or contact.

1. From Setup, enter

Entitlement Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Entitlement Settings.

2. Choose the item(s) you'd like returned in the lookup fields.

Lookup Field on Cases

Asset

Click...

To Return...

Same account on the case

Assets registered to the account on the case.

Tip:

If you want the lookup field to return all assets that share an account with the case, select only this option.

Same contact on the case

Assets registered to the contact on the case.

Entitlements on the case's account

Assets associated with entitlements that belong to the case’s account.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up entitlement-related lookups on cases: “Manage

Entitlements”

•

“Manage Entitlements”

332

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Entitlements

Lookup Field on Cases

Entitlement

Click...

Entitlements on the case's contact

To Return...

Assets associated with entitlements related to the case’s contact.

Active status

Same account on the case

Entitlements with an Active

Status

Entitlements associated with the account on the case.

Same asset on the case

Same contact on the case

Entitlements associated with the asset on the case.

Entitlements associated with the contact on the case.

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.

Note:

Equivalent lookup filters aren’t available for work orders.

Give Users Access to Entitlement Management

After you set up entitlement management, make sure that users have the appropriate user permissions, field access, and tab access.

1. Assign entitlement management permissions to users.

Users Who Will

Set up entitlement management, including milestones, entitlement processes, and entitlement templates

Need These Permissions Permissions Are

Auto-Enabled on These

Standard Profiles

“Manage Entitlements”

AND

“Customize Application”

Provide entitlement management to a community

“Customize Application”

AND

“Create and Set Up

Communities”

System Administrator

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and edit users:

•

“Manage Internal Users”

333

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Users Who Will Need These Permissions

Create or update custom report types that include entitlement management

“Manage Custom Report Types”

Create and run reports based on entitlement management custom report types

“Create and Customize Reports”

Create cases with entitlements “Create” on cases

AND

“Read” on entitlements

Change a case’s entitlement “Edit” on cases

AND

“Read” on entitlements

Create work orders with entitlements

Change a work order’s entitlement

Verify or view entitlements

“Create” on work orders

AND

“Read” on entitlements

“Edit” on work orders

AND

“Read” on entitlements

Create entitlements

Change entitlements

View entitlement contacts

Change entitlement contacts

Verify or view service contracts

“Create” on entitlements

“Edit” on entitlements

“Read” on entitlement contacts

“Create” on entitlement contacts

AND

“Delete” on entitlement contacts

“Read” on service contracts

Set Up Entitlements

Permissions Are Auto-Enabled on

These Standard Profiles

System Administrator

Read Only, Standard User, Solution

Manager, Contract Manager, Marketing

User, and System Administrator

Standard User, Solution Manager, Contract

Manager, Marketing User, and System

Administrator

Standard User, Solution Manager, Contract

Manager, Marketing User, and System

Administrator

Standard User, Solution Manager, Contract

Manager, Marketing User, and System

Administrator

Standard User, Solution Manager, Contract

Manager, Marketing User, and System

Administrator

Read Only, Standard User, Solution

Manager, Contract Manager, Marketing

User, and System Administrator

None: enable the permission in a permission set or custom profile

Read Only, Standard User, Solution

Manager, Contract Manager, Marketing

User, and System Administrator

None: enable the permissions in a permission set or custom profile

Read Only, Standard User, Solution

Manager, Contract Manager, Marketing

User, and System Administrator

334

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Entitlements

Users Who Will

Create service contracts

Change service contracts

Need These Permissions

“Create” on service contracts

“Edit” on service contracts

Permissions Are Auto-Enabled on

These Standard Profiles

None: enable the permission in a permission set or custom profile

Verify or view contract line items “Read” on contract line items Read Only, Standard User, Solution

Manager, Contract Manager, Marketing

User, and System Administrator

Add contract line items to service contracts “Edit” on service contracts

AND

“Create” on contract line items and “Read” on products and price books

None: enable the permissions in a permission set or custom profile

Change contract line items on service contracts

“Edit” on service contracts

AND

“Edit” on contract line items and “Read” on products and price books

None: enable the permissions in a 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.

2. Set field-level security.

Choose which entitlement management fields users can view and edit. Field-level security settings let you specify users’ access to fields in several areas of the user interface:

•

Detail and edit pages

•

Related lists

•

List views

•

Reports

•

Search results

•

Email and mail merge templates

•

Communities

You can set field-level security from a permission set, profile, or a particular field.

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.

335

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Entitlements

Set Up an Entitlement Template

Entitlement templates let you predefine terms of support that users can add to products.

You can create entitlement templates for specific products so support agents can quickly add the right entitlement whenever a customer purchases the product. For example, you can create entitlement templates for web or phone support so agents can easily add entitlements to products offered to customers.

Purchased or installed products are represented in Salesforce as assets. That means:

•

A product (for example, “Laser Scanner”) is linked to an entitlement template

•

A corresponding asset (for example, the laser scanner purchased by ABC Labs) is linked to an entitlement that was created from the entitlement template

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Available in: Professional,

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Note: Entitlement templates are only available if entitlements and products are enabled in your org.

USER PERMISSIONS

Tip:

The Entitlement Management Trailhead module introduces you to common terms and walks you through the process of creating an entitlement template. And, it’s fun! To get started, see Entitlement Management .

To create entitlement templates:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

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:

Field

Entitlement Template Name

Term (Days)

Entitlement Process

Per Incident

Cases Per Entitlement

Business Hours

Description

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.

The number of days the entitlement is in effect.

For example, if you want the entitlement template to entitle all customers who purchase this product to 90 days of phone support, enter

The entitlement process associated with the entitlement.

Lets you limit the number of cases the entitlement supports.

The admin determines whether this field is visible.

The total number of cases the entitlement supports.

This field is only available if

Per Incident

is selected.

The entitlement’s supported business hours.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field

Type

Set Up Entitlements

Description

The type of entitlement, such as Web or phone support.

Admins can customize this field’s values.

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.

Note: All users, even those without the “View Setup and Configuration” user permission, can view entitlement templates via the

API.

Automatically Add Entitlements to Cases from Web, Email, and Communities

Entitlements don’t automatically apply to cases created using Web-to-Case, Email-to-Case, or communities. However, you can add entitlements to these features using Apex code.

When a case is created via Web-to-Case, Email-to-Case, or a community, it isn’t automatically associated with an entitlement. When a case’s

Entitlement

field is empty, this sample trigger checks whether the case contact has an active entitlement. If the contact has an active entitlement, the entitlement is added to the case. If the contact doesn’t have an active entitlement, the trigger then checks whether the case account has an active entitlement. If the case account has an active entitlement, the entitlement is added to the case. The trigger helps ensure that cases are resolved according to your customer support agreements.

To define this case trigger in your Salesforce org:

1. From Setup, enter

Case Triggers

in the Quick Find box, then select Case Triggers.

2. Click New.

3. Copy the text below and paste it in the text field.

4. Click Save.

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Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

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USER PERMISSIONS

To define Apex triggers:

•

“Author Apex” trigger DefaultEntitlement on Case (Before Insert, Before Update) {

List <EntitlementContact> entlContacts =

[Select e.EntitlementId,e.ContactId,e.Entitlement.AssetId

From EntitlementContact e

Where e.ContactId in :contactIds

And e.Entitlement.EndDate >= Today

And e.Entitlement.StartDate <= Today];

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Milestones

}

} if(entlContacts.isEmpty()==false){ for(Case c : Trigger.new){ if(c.EntitlementId == null && c.ContactId != null){ for(EntitlementContact ec:entlContacts){ if(ec.ContactId==c.ContactId){ c.EntitlementId = ec.EntitlementId; if(c.AssetId==null && ec.Entitlement.AssetId!=null) c.AssetId=ec.Entitlement.AssetId; break;

}

} else{

List <Entitlement> entls = [Select e.StartDate, e.Id, e.EndDate, e.AccountId, e.AssetId

From Entitlement e

Where e.AccountId in :acctIds And e.EndDate >= Today

And e.StartDate <= Today]; if(entls.isEmpty()==false){ for(Case c : Trigger.new){ if(c.EntitlementId == null && c.AccountId != null){ for(Entitlement e:entls){ if(e.AccountId==c.AccountId){ c.EntitlementId = e.Id; if(c.AssetId==null && e.AssetId!=null) c.AssetId=e.AssetId; break;

}

SEE ALSO:

Before using milestones in your support process, review Milestone Limitations on page 329.

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.

An entitlement process can have up to 10 milestones. You can set up a milestone to occur once in an entitlement process, or to recur until the entitlement process exits.

Here’s how milestones fit into your support process:

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338

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Milestone Statuses

View existing milestones in your org on the Milestones page under Entitlement Management in Setup. The Milestones related list on entitlements and entitlement processes also lists associated milestones.

Tip: There are several ways that you can view a list of records with milestones in your org:

•

To view work orders with milestones, create a work order report using the Object Milestones custom report type

•

To view cases with milestones, create a case report using the Cases with Milestones custom report type

•

Create list views that filter on milestone fields

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 .

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Milestones

Milestone Statuses

Milestone Recurrence Types

Milestone Statuses

Milestones on support records display one of three statuses.

Status

Compliant

What It Means

Milestones on the record are either complete or not in violation.

Important:

New records display as compliant because they're not in violation.

Example

The first response on a case is complete or not in violation.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Milestone Actions

Status

Open Violation

Closed Violation

What It Means Example

One or more milestones on the record have been violated, and steps in the support process are incomplete.

The assigned agent didn’t complete the first response on a case before the milestone expired.

One or more milestones on the record were violated, but the steps in the support process were still completed.

The assigned agent completed the first response on a case after the milestone expired.

SEE ALSO:

Entitlement Processes

How a Record Moves Through an Entitlement Process

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.

For example, you can create a milestone action that:

•

Sends an email alert to certain users an hour before a First Response milestone is near violation

•

Updates certain fields on a case one minute after a First Response milestone successfully completes

You can add three types of actions to milestones:

Action Type

Success Actions

Warning Actions

Violation Actions

Description

The actions to take when a milestone successfully completes.

Success actions still fire on milestones that are closed late.

The actions to take when a milestone is near violation.

The actions to take when a milestone is violated.

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Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

You can automate the following actions for each action type:

Workflow Action

New Task

What It Does

Create a workflow task

New Email

New Field Update

Create an email alert

Define a field update

Example

Create a task for a support agent to call a customer when a First Response milestone is violated.

Notify case owners when a First Response milestone on their case is near violation.

Update the case Priority field to

High when a First Response milestone is near violation.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Milestone Recurrence Types

Workflow Action

New Outbound Message

Select Existing Action

What It Does

Define an outbound message

Select an existing action

Example

Send data about parts or services to an external system after a First Response milestone is completed.

Use an existing email alert to notify a case owner when their case is near violation of a first response.

Entitlement Processes

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.

There are three milestone recurrence types in Salesforce:

Recurrence Type

No Recurrence

Independent

Sequential

What It Means

The milestone only occurs once on the support record*.

The milestone occurs whenever the milestone criteria match the record criteria.

Note: Only one occurrence of an independently recurring milestone can be active at a time.

How the Start Date is Determined

Examples

The Start Date is the time when the milestone criteria are met on the record.

“First Response”

“Resolution Time”

The Start Date is the time when the milestone criteria are met on the record, regardless of when the previous occurrence was completed.

“Response Time”

The milestone occurs on repeat whenever the milestone criteria

For the first occurrence, the Start

Date is the time when the milestone criteria are met on the case.

“Customer Contact

Made”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Recurrence Type

Milestone Recurrence Types

What It Means

match the record criteria.

Note:

Only one occurrence of a sequentially recurring milestone can be active at a time.

How the Start Date is

Determined

For future occurrences:

•

The Start Date is the time when the milestone criteria 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.

Examples

*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:

•

Start Date = 10 a.m. (the current time)

•

Target Date = 2 p.m. (4 hours from the Start Date)

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:

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Milestone Recurrence Types

•

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)

The case now has two “Engineer Solution Proposed” milestones:

•

One completed milestone that started at 10 a.m.

•

One incomplete milestone that started at 1 p.m. and has a Target Date of 5 p.m.

The milestone can recur as many times as necessary until the entitlement process is completed.

Sequential

A milestone named “Customer Contact Made” is set up to track daily contact with a customer as part of an SLA. When this milestone occurs, the support agent has 24 hours to communicate with the customer.

Here’s how this milestone can be used:

1. At 10 a.m. on Monday, a case is created whose entitlement process includes the “Customer Contact Made” milestone. The milestone has these settings:

•

Start Date = 10 a.m. Monday (the current time)

•

Target Date = 10 a.m. Tuesday (24 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

If the support agent communicates with the customer multiple times on Monday, it doesn’t affect the Tuesday milestone.

SEE ALSO:

Entitlement Processes

its milestones—is automatically applied to the record. To learn more, see Set Up Milestones

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Milestones: Supported Objects

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.

What types of records can I add milestones to?

•

Cases

•

Work orders

How do I add milestones to a record?

Here are the general steps you’ll follow:

1. Create “master” milestones in Setup that represent required steps in your support process.

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2. Add the milestones to an entitlement process, which is a customizable timeline of milestones.

3. Apply the entitlement process to a customer entitlement.

When you link a support record, such as a work order, to an entitlement that includes an entitlement process, the process—with

Can I use the same entitlement for work orders and cases?

If the entitlement has an entitlement process associated with it, don’t use the entitlement for multiple types of support records.

Every entitlement process has a type—Case or Work Order—and a process only works on records that match its type. For example, when a Case entitlement process is applied to an entitlement, the process runs only on cases associated with the entitlement. If a work order is also associated with the entitlement, the process doesn’t run on the work order.

When I create a milestone, can I add it to both types of entitlement processes?

Yes. For example, if you create a First Response milestone in Setup, you can add it to both Case and Work Order entitlement processes.

How do I set the type of an entitlement process?

You select the type when you create the entitlement process. Entitlement processes created before Summer ’16 use the Case type.

You can see an entitlement process’s type on its detail page.

Can I change the type of an entitlement process?

No. Once an entitlement process is created, all its versions must use the same type. Want to make the most of a particularly awesome entitlement process? Remember that you can easily create a similar process of a different type using the same milestones.

Are milestones supported in Lightning Experience?

Case milestones aren’t supported in Lightning Experience. Milestones on work orders are available in Lightning Experience with some limitations:

•

The Object Milestones related list and milestone tracker are not available on work orders in Lightning Experience

•

Updates to entitlement processes and milestones must be made in Salesforce Classic

•

Clicking a milestone-related feed item on a work order in Lightning Experience redirects you to Salesforce Classic

Where do I manage milestones in my org?

•

View and create milestones from the Milestones node in Setup under Entitlement Management

•

Manage case milestone page layouts and validations rules from the Case Milestones node in Setup

•

Manage work order milestone page layouts and validation rules from the Object Milestones node in Setup

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Milestones

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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

IN THIS SECTION:

Customize Milestone Page Layouts

Milestones appear in the Case Milestones related list on cases, and the Object Milestones related list on work orders. Customize your page layouts to help support agents and supervisors track support progress.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

Enable Milestone Feed Items

Help support agents monitor support activity by enabling milestone feed items. This option posts a notification to the feed and the record owner’s profile page when a milestone is completed or violated.

Set Up the Milestone Tracker

The milestone tracker gives support agents a complete view of upcoming and closed milestones, and displays countdowns for active and overdue milestones. Add it to the case feed, work order feed, a custom page, or the service console.

Limit User Updates to Milestones

Add validation rules to milestones to prevent users from updating milestones unless certain criteria are met.

Create a Milestone

Milestones represent required steps in your support process, such as case resolution time and first response time. You’ll create

“master” milestones in your org, then add them to entitlement processes to enforce different service levels on support records like cases and work orders.

Auto-Complete Case Milestones

Create an Apex trigger that automatically marks milestones Completed on cases that match unique criteria. In your trigger, define which events and related case criteria must be satisfied for a milestone to be marked Completed. You can implement a similar trigger to auto-complete work order milestones.

SEE ALSO:

Milestones

Milestones: Supported Objects

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Milestones

Customize Milestone Page Layouts

1. Add any of the following fields to case and object milestone detail pages.

•

To edit case milestone detail page layouts, from Setup, enter

Case Milestones

in the Quick Find box, then click Page Layouts under Case Milestones.

•

To edit object milestone detail page layouts (which apply to work order milestones), from

Setup, enter

Object Milestones

in the Quick Find box, then click Page Layouts under Object Milestones.

Field

Actual Elapsed Time

Completed

Completion Date

Elapsed Time

Entitlement Process

Start Date

Stopped Time

Target Date

Description

The amount of time that it took to complete a milestone.

(Elapsed Time) – (Stopped Time) = (Actual

Elapsed Time)

Note: If you want to be able to display this field, Enable stopped time and

actual elapsed time must be selected on the Entitlement Settings page.

Icon ( ) that indicates a milestone completion.

The date and time the milestone was completed.

The time it took to complete a milestone.

Automatically calculated to include any business hours on the support record. Elapsed time is calculated only after the Completion

Date field is populated.

The entitlement process that is being used for the record. Entitlement processes are optional.

The date and time that the milestone tracking started.

How long an agent has been blocked from completing a milestone. For example, an agent might wait for a customer to reply with more information.

Note:

Enable stopped time and

actual elapsed time must be selected on the Entitlement Settings page.

The date and time to complete the milestone.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and edit page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

To create milestones:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

AND

“Customize Application”

To enable the “Stopped

Time” and “Actual Elapsed

Time” fields:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

346

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field

Target Response

Time Remaining

Time Since Target

Violation

Set Up Milestones

Description

The time to complete the milestone. Automatically calculated to include any business hours on the support record.

The time that remains before a milestone violation. Automatically calculated to include any business hours on the support record.

The time that has elapsed since a milestone violation.

Automatically calculated to include any business hours on the support record.

Icon ( ) that indicates a milestone violation.

2. Add milestone elements to case and work order page layouts:

a. Add milestone fields:

Field

Milestone Status

Milestone Status Icon

Entitlement Process Start Time

Entitlement Process End Time

Description

The milestone’s status.

An icon that corresponds to the milestone status:

•

Compliant

Open Violation

Closed Violation

The time the record enters the entitlement process.

The time the record exits the entitlement process.

b. Add the Case Milestones or Object Milestones related list to display the record’s milestones.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Milestones

Enable Milestone Feed Items

Important:

•

Chatter and entitlements must be enabled in your org.

•

Enabling milestone feed items doesn't create feed items for milestones that have already been completed or violated.

•

If you add entitlement management to a community, enabling milestone feed items also makes feed items visible to community users.

1. From Setup, enter

Entitlement Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Entitlement Settings.

2. Select

Enable milestone feed items

. This enables feed items for both cases and work orders.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To enable milestone feed items:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

Set Up the Milestone Tracker

Often, support agents’ performance is measured by how often they meet milestones. The milestone tracker helps agents be prepared for support deadlines by showing them:

•

The time remaining until an active milestone reaches its Target Date

•

The time passed since an overdue milestone’s Target Date

•

A list of upcoming milestones

•

A list of closed milestones

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 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.

EDITIONS

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Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and edit page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

To assign page layouts:

•

“Manage Users”

To set how time displays in the milestone tracker:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

348

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Milestones

If more than 24 hours remain on a milestone, the countdown displays in days (for example, 1d). When fewer than 24 hours remain, the countdown format switches to hours/minutes/seconds.

1. Expose the milestone tracker to support agents.

You can expose the tracker in one of three ways:

•

Add it to the case feed. If you plan to use milestones on work orders, follow the same steps to add the tracker to the work order feed.

a. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.

b. In the Case Page Layouts section, click Edit, and then click Feed View in the page layout editor.

c. In the Other Tools and Components section, select the Milestone Tracker and specify where on the page you want it to appear.

d. Click Save.

•

Add it to a custom Visualforce page using the

<apex:milestoneTracker>

component.

•

Add it as a component to the service console.

2. Set how the milestone tracker displays time remaining or time overdue on milestones.

By default, the tracker uses actual hours. 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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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Milestones

Limit User Updates to Milestones

Add validation rules to milestones to prevent users from updating milestones unless certain criteria are met.

1. From the object management settings for case milestones, go to Validation Rules.

2. Click New.

3. Enter the rule details.

4. Save your changes.

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 orders from the object management settings for Object Milestones in Setup.

Field

Rule Name

Description

Error Condition Formula

Error Message

Error Location

Value

milestone_completion_date

A milestone’s completion date must be later than the case creation date.

CompletionDate <

Case.CreatedDate

Error: The milestone completion date must be later than the case creation date.

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Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To define or change field validation rules:

•

“Customize Application”

To create or edit milestones:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Milestones

Create a Milestone

Milestones represent required steps in your support process, such as case resolution time and first response time. You’ll create “master” milestones in your org, then add them to entitlement processes to enforce different service levels on support records like cases and work orders.

Follow these steps to create a milestone. Walk Through It: Create a Milestone .

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 .

1. From Setup, enter

Milestones

in the Quick Find box, then select Milestones under

Entitlement Management.

2. Click New Milestone.

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 when they see them on cases, work orders, or entitlement processes.

4. Select a recurrence type.

Recurrence Type

No Recurrence

Independent

Sequential

Description

The milestone occurs only once on the record.

Example

“First Response”

“Resolution Time”

The milestone occurs whenever the milestone criteria are met on the record.

“Response Time”

The milestone occurs on

repeat whenever the milestone criteria are met on the record.

“Customer Contact Made”

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To create milestones:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

AND

“Customize Application”

5. Click Save.

You can’t apply milestones to a record by themselves; they 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 milestones so users can only update a milestone if it meets specific standards. For details, see

Limit User Updates to Milestones

SEE ALSO:

Milestone Recurrence Types

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Milestones

Auto-Complete Case Milestones

The following triggers mark specific types of milestones Completed when the case they are on meets unique criteria. We’ve also provided a milestone utility Apex class and accompanying unit tests. Define the milestone utility class before you use any of the triggers.

Milestone Utility Apex Class

Apex classes reduce the size of your triggers and make it easier to reuse and maintain Apex code. To define this Apex class in your org:

1. From Setup, enter

Apex Classes

in the Quick Find box, then click Apex Classes.

2. Click New.

3. Copy the class text and paste it into the text field.

4. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To define Apex triggers and classes:

•

“Author Apex” public class MilestoneUtils { public static void completeMilestone(List<Id> caseIds,

String milestoneName, DateTime complDate) {

List<CaseMilestone> cmsToUpdate = [select Id, completionDate from CaseMilestone cm where caseId in :caseIds and cm.MilestoneType.Name=:milestoneName and completionDate = null limit 1]; if (cmsToUpdate.isEmpty() == false){ for (CaseMilestone cm : cmsToUpdate){ cm.completionDate = complDate;

} update cmsToUpdate;

}

Apex Class Unit Test

You can set up Apex unit tests in the developer console to scan your code for any issues.

/**

* This class contains unit tests for validating the behavior of Apex classes

* and triggers.

* Unit tests are class methods that verify whether a particular piece

* of code is working properly. Unit test methods take no arguments,

* commit no data to the database, and are flagged with the testMethod

* keyword in the method definition.

* All test methods in an organization are executed whenever Apex code is deployed

* to a production organization to confirm correctness, ensure code

* coverage, and prevent regressions. All Apex classes are

* required to have at least 75% code coverage in order to be deployed

* to a production organization. In addition, all triggers must have some code coverage.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Milestones

* The @isTest class annotation indicates this class only contains test

* methods. Classes defined with the @isTest annotation do not count against

* the organization size limit for all Apex scripts.

* See the Apex Language Reference for more information about Testing and Code Coverage.

@isTest private class MilestoneTest { static testMethod void TestCompleteMilestoneCase(){

List<Account> acts = new List<Account>();

Account myAcc = new Account(Name='TestAct', phone='1001231234'); acts.add(myAcc);

Account busAcc = new Account(Name = 'TestForMS', phone='4567890999'); acts.add(busAcc); insert acts;

Contact cont = new Contact(FirstName = 'Test', LastName = 'LastName', phone='4567890999', accountid = busAcc.id); insert(cont);

Id contactId = cont.Id;

Entitlement entl = new Entitlement(Name='TestEntitlement', AccountId=busAcc.Id); insert entl;

String entlId; if (entl != null) entlId = entl.Id;

List<Case> cases = new List<Case>{}; if (entlId != null){

Case c = new Case(Subject = 'Test Case with Entitlement ',

EntitlementId = entlId, ContactId = contactId); cases.add(c);

} if (cases.isEmpty()==false){ insert cases;

List<Id> caseIds = new List<Id>(); for (Case cL : cases){ caseIds.add(cL.Id);

}

} milestoneUtils.completeMilestone(caseIds, 'First Response', System.now()); static testMethod void testCompleteMilestoneViaCase(){

List<Account> acts = new List<Account>();

Account myAcc = new Account(Name='TestAct', phone='1001231234'); acts.add(myAcc);

Account busAcc = new Account(Name = 'TestForMS', phone='4567890999');

353

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Milestones acts.add(busAcc); insert acts;

Contact cont = new Contact(FirstName = 'Test', LastName = 'LastName', phone='4567890999', accountid = busAcc.id); insert(cont);

Id contactId = cont.Id;

Entitlement entl = new Entitlement(Name='TestEntitlement', AccountId=busAcc.Id); insert entl;

String entlId; if (entl != null) entlId = entl.Id;

List<Case> cases = new List<Case>{}; for(Integer i = 0; i < 1; i++){

Case c = new Case(Subject = 'Test Case ' + i); cases.add(c); if (entlId != null){ c = new Case(Subject = 'Test Case with Entitlement ' + i,

EntitlementId = entlId); cases.add(c);

}

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.

To define this trigger in your org:

1. From Setup, enter

Case Triggers

in the Quick Find box, then click Case Triggers.

2. Click New.

3. Copy the trigger text and paste it into the text field.

4. ClickSave.

trigger CompleteResolutionTimeMilestone on Case (after update) { if (UserInfo.getUserType() == 'Standard'){

DateTime completionDate = System.now();

List<Id> updateCases = new List<Id>(); for (Case c : Trigger.new){ if (((c.isClosed == true)||(c.Status == 'Closed'))&&((c.SlaStartDate

<= completionDate)&&(c.SlaExitDate == null))) updateCases.add(c.Id);

} if (updateCases.isEmpty() == false) milestoneUtils.completeMilestone(updateCases, 'Resolution Time', completionDate);

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Milestones

}

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.

To define this trigger in your org:

1. From Setup, enter

Email Triggers

in the Quick Find box, then click Email Triggers.

2. Click New.

3. Copy the trigger text and paste it into the text field.

4. ClickSave.

trigger CompleteFirstResponseEmail on EmailMessage (after insert) { if (UserInfo.getUserType() == 'Standard'){

DateTime completionDate = System.now();

Map<Id, String> emIds = new Map<Id, String>(); for (EmailMessage em : Trigger.new){ if(em.Incoming == false) emIds.put(em.ParentId, em.ToAddress);

} if (emIds.isEmpty() == false){

Set <Id> emCaseIds = new Set<Id>(); emCaseIds = emIds.keySet();

List<Case> caseList = [Select c.Id, c.ContactId, c.Contact.Email, c.OwnerId, c.Status, c.EntitlementId, c.SlaStartDate, c.SlaExitDate

From Case c where c.Id IN :emCaseIds]; if (caseList.isEmpty()==false){

List<Id> updateCases = new List<Id>(); for (Case caseObj:caseList) { if ((emIds.get(caseObj.Id)==caseObj.Contact.Email)&&

(caseObj.Status == 'In Progress')&&

(caseObj.EntitlementId != null)&&

(caseObj.SlaStartDate <= completionDate)&&

(caseObj.SlaStartDate != null)&&

(caseObj.SlaExitDate == null)) updateCases.add(caseObj.Id);

} if(updateCases.isEmpty() == false) milestoneUtils.completeMilestone(updateCases,

'First Response', completionDate);

}

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Milestones

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.

To define this trigger in your org:

1. From Setup, enter

Case Comment Triggers

in the Quick Find box, then click Case Comment Triggers.

2. Click New.

3. Copy the trigger text and paste it into the text field.

4. Click Save.

trigger CompleteFirstResponseCaseComment on CaseComment (after insert) { if (UserInfo.getUserType() == 'Standard'){

DateTime completionDate = System.now();

List<Id> caseIds = new List<Id>(); for (CaseComment cc : Trigger.new){ if(cc.IsPublished == true) caseIds.add(cc.ParentId);

} if (caseIds.isEmpty() == false){

List<Case> caseList = [Select c.Id, c.ContactId, c.Contact.Email, c.OwnerId, c.Status, c.EntitlementId, c.SlaStartDate, c.SlaExitDate

From Case c

Where c.Id IN :caseIds]; if (caseList.isEmpty() == false){

List<Id> updateCases = new List<Id>(); for (Case caseObj:caseList) { if ((caseObj.Status == 'In Progress')&&

(caseObj.EntitlementId != null)&&

(caseObj.SlaStartDate <= completionDate)&&

(caseObj.SlaStartDate != null)&&

(caseObj.SlaExitDate == null)) updateCases.add(caseObj.Id);

} if(updateCases.isEmpty() == false) milestoneUtils.completeMilestone(updateCases,

'First Response', completionDate);

}

356

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Entitlement Processes

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.

Not all entitlements require entitlement processes. For example, an entitlement might just state that a customer is eligible for phone support and business hours define phone support to be 24/7.

If you need to add more to that definition—for example, if certain people must be emailed after a customer's case goes unresolved for two hours—use an entitlement process.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

You can create up to 1,000 entitlement processes total, with up to 10 milestones per process. If your org was created before Summer

’13, its maximum entitlement processes can be lower. Contact Salesforce to increase it.

Note: 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.

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.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up an Entitlement Process

Note: All users, even those without the “View Setup and Configuration” user permission, can view entitlement processes via the

API.

SEE ALSO:

Updating an Entitlement Process

How a Record Moves Through an Entitlement Process

Set Up an Entitlement Process

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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

IN THIS SECTION:

Create an Entitlement Process

Create an entitlement process to give support agents a timeline of required steps to follow when solving support records. Each process includes the logic necessary to determine how to enforce the correct service level for your customers.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

Customize Entitlement Process Fields

If you intend to use entitlement processes in your Salesforce org, customize page layouts to ensure that support agents can see and interact with entitlement processes.

Add a Milestone Action to an Entitlement Process

Add milestones to entitlement processes to define required steps in your support process.

Milestone actions are time-dependent workflow actions that occur at every step (milestone) in an entitlement process. After you create an entitlement process and add milestones to it, add milestone actions to the milestones.

Apply an Entitlement Process to an Entitlement

You’ve created an entitlement process; now it’s time to use it! Apply an entitlement process to a customer’s entitlement so all support records linked to the entitlement use that process.

SEE ALSO:

Target Date for all the milestones on this entitlement process. To learn more, see How Business Hours Work in Entitlement Management

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up an Entitlement Process

Create an Entitlement Process

Note: You must create milestones before you create an entitlement process.

Tip: The Entitlement Management Trailhead module introduces you to common terms and walks you through creating an entitlement process. And, it’s fun! To get started, see Entitlement

Management .

1. From Setup, enter

Entitlement Processes

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Entitlement Processes under Entitlement Management.

2. Click New Entitlement Process.

3. Select an entitlement process type. If you intend to use the process to enforce milestones on cases, select Case. If you intend to use the process to enforce milestones on work orders, select

Work Order. (If work orders aren’t enabled in your org, you only see the Case option.)

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To view entitlements:

•

“Read” on entitlements

To change entitlements:

•

“Edit” on entitlements

To create and update entitlement processes:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

4. Enter a name—for example,

Standard Support Process

—and a description.

5. If you want to enable the process, select Active.

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.

Field Description More Actions to Take?

Record* enters the process

Based on record created date

Select if records should enter the process when they’re created.

Record exits the process

Based on a custom date/time field on the record

Select if you want the value of a custom date/time field on the record to determine when the record enters the process.

Yes, a drop-down list displays for selecting the custom date/time. You can only choose a custom date/time, not a custom date.

Based on when record is closed

Select if records should exit the process when they're closed.

359

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field

Set Up an Entitlement Process

Description

Based on custom criteria

Select if records should exit the process based on criteria you define.

More Actions to Take?

Yes, select one of the following:

•

Choose criteria are met

and select the filter criteria that a record must meet for it to exit the process.

For example, set a case filter to

Priority equals Low

if you want cases with the

Priority

field marked Low to exit the process.

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.”

Records exit the process if the formula returns “True.” For example, the formula

(Case: Priority equals Low) AND(Case:

Case Origin equals

Email, Web)

moves cases out of the process if their

Priority

field is Low and the

Case Origin

field is marked Email or Web.

*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

9. Save your changes.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up an Entitlement Process

Customize Entitlement Process Fields

If you intend to use entitlement processes in your Salesforce org, customize page layouts to ensure that support agents can see and interact with entitlement processes.

1. Add these fields to case and work order page layouts:

Field

Timeline

(available only on case page layouts)

Description

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

•

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To edit page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

Stopped

Stopped Since

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.

Lets you stop an entitlement process on a record, which might be necessary if you’re waiting for a customer’s reponse.

The date and time the entitlement process was stopped on the record.

2. Save your changes.

361

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up an Entitlement Process

Add a Milestone to an Entitlement Process

Add milestones to entitlement processes to define required steps in your support process.

1. From Setup, enter

Entitlement Processes

in the Quick Find box, then select

Entitlement Processes.

2. Click the name of an entitlement process.

3. If you’re using versioning, click the name of the entitlement process again under Entitlement

Process Versions.

4. Click New on the Milestones related list.

5. Choose the milestone.

6. In

Time Trigger (Minutes)

, enter the number of minutes in which users must complete the milestone before it triggers an action.

Or, if you’d like the trigger time for the milestone to be calculated dynamically based on the milestone type and properties of the case or work order, click Enable Apex Class for the Time

Trigger (Minutes).

Note: You must have a custom Apex class that implements the

Support.MilestoneTriggerTimeCalculator

Apex interface to use this option.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To add milestones to entitlement processes:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

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:

Select

Milestone Criteria

Entitlement Process

To Use If

Calculate the milestone

Target Date when the milestone is applied to a support record (matches the record criteria).

A milestone’s

Target Date

is based on when it’s applied to a record. Use if the milestone is recurring.

Note: An entitlement process usually starts when the record is created, but its milestones aren’t always applied right away.

Calculate the milestone

Target Date when the entitlement process starts (by default, when a support record is created).

A milestone's

Target Date

is based on the start of the entitlement process. For 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.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up an Entitlement Process

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.

12. Click Save.

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

Add a Milestone Action to an Entitlement Process

1. From Setup, enter

Entitlement Processes

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Entitlement Processes.

2. Click the name of an entitlement process.

3. Click the name of a milestone on the Milestones related list.

4. If you want to add a warning or violation action, add a time trigger first. After you add a trigger, the option to add a workflow action appears. Success actions use the milestone’s time trigger.

Tip: If you want a violation action to fire immediately after the milestone is violated, set the time trigger to 0 minutes.

5. Click Add Workflow Action and select an option.

Workflow Action

New Task

What It Does

Create a workflow task

Example

Create a task for a support agent to call a customer when a First Response milestone is violated.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To add milestone actions to entitlement processes:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

AND

“Customize Application”

363

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Workflow Action

New Email

New Field Update

What It Does

Create an email alert

Define a field update

New Outbound Message Define an outbound message

Select Existing Action Select an existing action

Set Up an Entitlement Process

Example

Notify case owners when a First Response milestone on their case is near violation.

Update the case Priority field to

High when a First Response milestone is near violation.

Send data about parts or services to an external system after a First Response milestone is completed.

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:

trigger that auto-completes milestones that meet unique criteria, see Auto-Complete Case Milestones .

Apply an Entitlement Process to an Entitlement

You’ve created an entitlement process; now it’s time to use it! Apply an entitlement process to a customer’s entitlement so all support records linked to the entitlement use that process.

1. Go to the entitlement.

2. In the

Entitlement Process

lookup field, select the process you want to apply.

Important: 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.

3. Click Save.

Tip: If you’ve set up entitlement templates, you can associate an entitlement process with a template so all entitlements created using that template automatically use the selected entitlement process.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To edit entitlements:

•

“Edit” on entitlements

364

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools How a Record Moves Through an Entitlement Process

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.

1. A support agent linked a record to an entitlement that has an entitlement process. This can be done in several ways:

•

The support agent creates the record from the Cases or Work Orders related list on the entitlement.

•

The support agent creates the record, then uses the Entitlement lookup field on the record to select the proper entitlement.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

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.

Important: Milestones are not automatically marked Completed when a record exits an entitlement process. To write an Apex

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Entitlements

365

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Report on Entitlements

Report on Entitlements

Use custom report types to define report criteria that users can use to run and create reports on entitlements, service contracts, and contract line items.

After you set up entitlement management, your Salesforce org automatically includes the following custom report types:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Custom Report Type

Accounts with entitlements with contacts

Description

Lists accounts with entitlements that include contacts (named callers).

Report Type Location

Accounts & Contacts

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

Service contracts with contract line items

Lists service contracts with contract line items (products).

Customer Support Reports

USER PERMISSIONS

Service contracts with entitlements

Cases with milestones

Lists service contracts with entitlements.

Lists cases with milestones.

Note: This report type can’t be customized.

Customer Support Reports

To customize entitlement management custom report types:

1. From Setup, enter

Report Types

in the Quick Find box, then select Report Types.

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.

To create or update entitlement management custom report types:

•

“Manage Custom Report

Types”

To create and run reports based on entitlement management custom report types:

•

“Create and Customize

Reports”

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

366

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools How Business Hours Work in Entitlement Management

How Business Hours Work in Entitlement Management

When a support record is linked to an entitlement, the record, its milestones, its entitlement process, and the entitlement itself can each use different business hours. Learn how Salesforce approaches business hours in these situations.

On records that include entitlement processes, business hours are applied according to a hierarchy.

Salesforce uses the business hours specified at the highest level.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

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:

Use a New Version of an Entitlement Process

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Updating an Entitlement Process

Updating an Entitlement Process

Entitlement versioning lets you create multiple versions of an entitlement process, even if it’s assigned to active entitlements and support records.

Watch a Demo (2:20 minutes)

Use entitlement versioning if:

•

You want to make several versions of an entitlement process that have minor differences

•

You want to update an entitlement process to reflect changes in your business processes

You might find that an entitlement process needs to be updated seasonally, or that you need to roll back to a previous version.

Note: To create multiple versions of entitlement processes, entitlement versioning must be enabled in your org. Select Enable Entitlement Versioning on the Entitlement Settings page in Setup.

When you create versions of entitlement processes with the same name, the version number and notes help you differentiate between versions. Salesforce prevents you from disabling entitlement versioning so you always know which version you’re working with.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

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.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Create a New Version of an Entitlement Process

Create a New Version of an Entitlement Process

Entitlement versioning lets you create multiple versions of an entitlement process, even if it’s assigned to active entitlements and support records. You can use multiple versions of an entitlement process at the same time in your Salesforce org.

Watch a Demo (2:20 minutes)

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Note: To create multiple versions of entitlement processes, entitlement versioning must be enabled in your org. Select Enable Entitlement Versioning on the Entitlement Settings page in Setup.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

1. From Setup, enter

Entitlement Processes

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Entitlement Processes.

2. Click the name of the entitlement process for which you want to create a new version.

3. In the Entitlement Process Versions list, click the version of the process from which you want to create a new version.

To create and update entitlement processes:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

4. On the Entitlement Process Detail page, click Create New Version.

5. Add details about the new version. Follow these best practices:

•

Use the

Version Notes

field to explain what makes the version you’re creating different from others. This makes it easier to differentiate between multiple versions of the same entitlement process.

•

Leave the name as is.

•

Click Active to be able to use the new version.

•

Click Default if you want to make the new version the default version of the process. This makes it easier to find in lookup field searches.

6. Click Save.

After saving, you can modify the entitlement process’ milestones if needed.

Important:

•

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

369

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Use a New Version of an Entitlement Process

Use a New Version of an Entitlement Process

After you create a new version of an entitlement process, you can choose to apply it to all entitlements assigned to the previous version, or only to new entitlements. When you apply an entitlement process to an entitlement, it also applies the process to that entitlement’s active support records.

Watch a Demo (2:20 minutes)

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Note: To create multiple versions of entitlement processes, entitlement versioning must be enabled in your org. Select Enable Entitlement Versioning on the Entitlement Settings page in Setup.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

Applying an Entitlement Process to a New Entitlement

Scenario: You’re creating an entitlement and want to apply a particular version of an entitlement process to it.

1. Choose the entitlement process you want in the Entitlement Process lookup field on the entitlement.

To create and update entitlement processes:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

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.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Service Contracts

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.

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.

SEE ALSO:

Updating an Entitlement Process

Create a New Version of an Entitlement Process

Set Up Service Contracts

Service contracts are agreements between you and your customers for a type of customer support.

Service contracts can represent different kinds of customer support, such as warranties, subscriptions, or service level agreements (SLAs).

EDITIONS

Note: Entitlements must be enabled in your org for you to set up service contracts.

From the object management settings for service contracts:

1. Customize service contract fields.

This lets you control what information users add to service contracts. You can create custom service contract fields that are specific to your industry or support process.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

2. Customize service contract page layouts.

This lets you specify which fields and related lists users see on service contracts. Consider making the following customizations:

USER PERMISSIONS

•

Add the

Status Icon expired, or inactive.

field so users can easily see whether the service contract is active,

•

To let users make one service contract the parent of another, add the

Parent Service

Contract

field and Child Service Contracts related list. You can also add the read-only

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.

To set up service contracts:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

AND

“Customize Application”

3. Set field-level security on service contract fields.

This lets you choose which service contract fields users can access.

4. Set field history tracking on service contracts.

This lets you see when field values were changed. Changes are listed in the Service Contract History related list on service contracts.

From the object management settings for service contracts, go to the fields section, and then click Set History Tracking.

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.

371

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Contract Line Items

This lets users create, update, and verify service contracts from accounts and contacts.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Contract Line Items

Set up contract line items to be able to specify which products a service contract covers. Contract line items only display to users on the Contract Line Items related list on service contracts (not on contracts!). You can only use contract line items if your Salesforce org uses products.

Note: Entitlements must be enabled in your org for you to set up contract line items.

From the object management settings for contract line items:

1. Customize contract line item fields.

This lets you control what information users add to contract line items. You can create custom contract line item fields that are specific to your industry or support process.

2. Customize contract line item page layouts.

This lets you specify which fields and related lists users see on contract line items. Consider making the following customizations:

•

Add the

Status Icon

field so users can easily see whether the line item is active, expired, or inactive.

•

To let users make one line item the parent of another, add the

Parent Contract

Line Item

field and Child Contract Line Items related list. You can also add the read-only

Root Contract Line Item

field, which lists the top-level line item in a contract line item hierarchy. A contract line item hierarchy can contain up to 10,000 line items.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up service contracts and contract line items with entitlements:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

AND

“Customize Application”

3. Customize other objects’ page layouts.

This lets you choose how users can associate contract line items with other records. Consider making the following customizations:

•

(Required) Add the Contract Line Items related list to service contract page layouts. This lets users create, edit, and delete contract line items from service contracts.

•

Add the Contract Line Items related list to asset layouts. This lets users view and change associations between assets and contract line items.

•

Add the

Contract Line Item

lookup field to entitlement page layouts. This lets users associate a line item with a particular entitlement.

4. Set field-level security on contract line items.

This lets you choose which contract line item fields users can access.

5. Set field history tracking on contract line items.

This lets you see when field values were changed. Changes are listed in the Contract Line Item History related list on contract line items. From the object management settings for contract line items, go to the fields section, and then click Set History Tracking.

372

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Entitlement Management in Communities

Note: Schedules aren't available for contract line items, and community users can’t access them.

SEE ALSO:

Planning for Field Service Lightning

Set Up Entitlement Management in Communities

Add entitlement management to your communities to let customers or partners view their entitlements and service contracts. Contract line items don’t display in communities.

Follow these steps to expose entitlements and/or service contracts in a community.

1. Update user profiles.

a. Clone the Customer Community User, Customer Community Plus User, or Partner

Community User profiles and enable the “Read” permission on entitlements and/or service contracts.

Note: Remember to click Edit Profiles at the bottom of the detail page to activate the new profiles.

b. Optionally, on the profiles of delegated community moderators, enable the “Create” and

“Delete” permissions on entitlement contacts. This lets moderators update entitlement contacts.

c. Verify that the tab visibility for the Entitlements and/or Service Contracts tabs is Default On.

2. Add the Entitlements and/or Service Contracts tabs to the community.

3. Add the

Entitlement Name

field to case and work order page layouts assigned to community users. This lets users add entitlements to cases and work orders. Work orders are not available in communities built using the self-service community templates.

Note:

To avoid exposing your internal support processes, we recommend not adding the following fields to case and work order page layouts for community users:

•

Entitlement Process Start Time

•

Entitlement Process End Time

•

Stopped

•

Stopped Since

4. Optionally, add the Entitlements related list to account and contact page layouts assigned to community moderators. This lets moderators create cases automatically associated with the right entitlements.

Field Service Lightning Help

Find the information you need to make the most of Field Service Lightning.

Getting Started

•

Field Service Lightning

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Communities are available in: Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

Entitlement Management is available in Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To create, customize, or activate a community:

•

“Create and Set Up

Communities” AND is a member of the community they’re updating

To set up entitlement management:

•

“Manage Entitlements”

To assign user licenses:

•

“Manage Internal Users”

373

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

•

•

Field Service Lightning Limits and Limitations

–

–

Location Tracking in Field Service Lightning

–

How Work Orders Fit Into Your Support Process

•

•

How Pricing Works on Work Orders

•

Apex Code Samples for Work Orders

Setting Up Field Service Lightning

•

Enable Field Service Lightning

–

–

Assign Field Service Lightning Permission Sets

–

Set Up the Field Service Lightning Managed Package

–

Configure Service Territory Settings

•

•

Create Service Territories

–

•

Create Service Resources

–

Configure Work Order Settings

•

•

Create Work Types

•

Create Work Orders

•

Choose Preferred Service Resources on Work Orders

•

Create Service Appointments

–

Set Up Skills for Field Service

•

Configure Skill Settings

•

Create Skills

•

Assign Skills to Service Resources

•

Add Required Skills to Work Orders or Work Types

–

Create Operating Hours

–

Create Field Service Lightning Reports

Guidelines and Reference Information

•

Field Service Lightning Guidelines

–

Guidelines for Using Service Appointments

–

Guidelines for Using Service Territories

–

–

Guidelines for Using Knowledge with Work Orders

374

Field Service Lightning Help

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Field Service Lightning

–

•

Field Service Lightning Object Fields

–

–

–

–

–

–

Work Type Fields

–

Linked Article Fields

–

Operating Hours Fields

–

Planning for Field Service Lightning

Field Service Lightning

Want to manage your field service in one place? Field Service Lightning is a powerful set of features that lets you set up and customize a field service hub in Salesforce.

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning includes the following features, which you can pick and choose from to fit your business needs.

–

Work order management: Work orders represent tasks to be performed for your customers.

You can attach Knowledge articles to work orders, split them into sub-tasks called work

order line items, and track terms in service-level agreements using milestones. Service

appointments can be associated with work orders and work order line items, and include details about the appointment schedule. And, time-saving templates called work types help you standardize your work orders.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

•

The Field Service Lightning standard features are available when Field Service Lightning is enabled in your org. The standard features offer:

Field Service Lightning features and managed package are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud. Work orders are also available in Professional

Edition.

–

Resource management: Service resources are users who can perform field service work.

You can assign service resources to service appointments and specify each resource’s skills, service territory, and hours of operation. Service territories represent regions in which field service work can be performed. You can assign service resources to a territory and create territory hierarchies.

–

Schedule management: Operating hours let you define when your service resources are available to work, and when work can be performed in service territories. You can also track service resource absences.

•

The Field Service Lightning managed package builds on the standard features and include:

–

A scheduling optimizer that allocates resources to appointments in the most efficient way possible by accounting for technician skill level, travel time, location, and other factors

–

A dynamic scheduling console that gives dispatchers and supervisors a bird’s-eye view of all scheduled service appointments

–

A robust toolbox of work rules and scheduling policies that help you define your ideal scheduling model

–

Out-of-the-box triggers that make it easy to customize your scheduling and display preferences

375

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Planning for Field Service Lightning

Field Service Lightning gives you the tools to plan, perform, and track all your field service work, from installations to repairs and maintenance. Let’s get started!

SEE ALSO:

Planning for Field Service Lightning

Field Service Lightning is a powerful set of features which you can customize to meet your own unique field service needs. Before setting up Field Service Lightning, consider these essential planning questions.

What types of field service tasks do you want to track?

If many of your business’s appointments involve similar tasks, it’s a good idea to create work order templates, known as work types. On each work type, you can specify how long each type of appointment takes and which skills are required to complete it. Then, you can quickly create work orders or work order line items that inherit their settings from the work type. Work types save you time and helps you standardize your field service work.

How do you want to track technicians’ skills?

You can assign skills to all service resources in your org to indicate their certifications and areas of expertise. You can also specify each resource’s skill level from 0 to 99.99. For example, you can assign Maria the “Welding” skill, level 50. In addition, you can add required skills to work types, work orders, and work order line items to let dispatchers know which skills are required to complete the job.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Field Service Lightning features and managed package are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud. Work orders are also available in Professional

Edition.

If you intend to use the skills feature, decide which skills you want to track and how skill level is to be determined. For example, you may want the skill level to reflect years of experience, certification levels, or license classes.

How do you want to model territories?

You can create service territories in your org to represent the geographical regions in which your team works. Territories have their own operating hours and child territories, and service resources can be assigned to territories as members. Depending on how your business works, you can create territories based on cities, counties, or other factors.

Service Territories represent where your Service Resources work and operating hours represent when they work. Service Territories typically represent geographical areas since resources are based near the locations they service. However, depending on how your business works, you may decide to create territories based on other factors, such as your business units or departments like field sales vs field service. Further, Service Territories can be organized into hierarchies, to reflect parent and child relationships.

Operating Hours indicate when appointments can take place in the territory. Service Resources assigned to the territory inherit the territory’s operating hours by default. Put simply, this means resources operate the same hours as their Service Territory. If desired, you can define different hours for the territories’ resources.

How do you manage your team’s calendars?

A service resource has operating hours for each service territory they belong to which indicate when they’re available to work in that territory. Similarly, a service territory’s operating hours indicate when appointments can take place in the territory. If a resource’s operating hours aren’t defined for a territory, they inherit their service territory’s operating hours. Resource absences are tracked in the Absences related list on their detail page.

376

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Field Service Lightning

While you can assess a service resource’s schedule by reviewing their scheduled service appointments, absences, and operating hours, a calendar view isn’t available for individual service resources, unless you’re using the Field Service Lightning managed package.

Do you want a customizable dispatcher console and automatic scheduling optimization?

If so, consider using the Field Service Lightning managed package.

Note:

Sharing must be enabled to install the managed package guide.

Do you want to give your customers a way to track their service progress?

If so, you can add standard Field Service Lightning objects like work orders to your communities built using the Salesforce Tabs +

Visualforce template. Only work orders, work order line items, and service appointments are available in communities built on the

Customer Service (Napili) template. Make sure to double-check which fields are visible in your communities so customers only see the information you want them to see.

SEE ALSO:

Planning for Field Service Lightning

Set up Field Service Lightning in a way that fits your business needs.

Important: Before you get started, get informed! We recommend reading:

•

Enable Field Service Lightning

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

IN THIS SECTION:

Enable Field Service Lightning to start using field service features like work orders, service appointments, and more.

Assign Field Service Lightning Permission Sets

To give your team access to Field Service Lightning features, assign the necessary object permissions to users with the help of permission set licenses.

Field Service Lightning features and managed package are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud. Work orders are also available in Professional

Edition.

Set Up the Field Service Lightning Managed Package

The Field Service Lightning managed package builds on Salesforce’s standard field service features to deliver a rich, highly customizable experience for dispatchers and technicians.

A service territory represents a region in which field service can be performed. Learn how to configure service territory settings and create territories that fit your business processes.

Create Operating Hours

Define operating hours and assign them to service territories, service territory members, or accounts to indicate their field service hours.

Set Up Skills for Field Service

A service resource represents a Salesforce user who can perform field service work. Learn how to create service resources and track their skills and availability.

377

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Assign skills to service resources to indicate the type of work that they can perform. You can also add required skills to work orders and work types so only resources with certain skills can be assigned to complete the work.

Set Up Locations for Field Service

A work order represents work to be performed on your customers’ products. Learn how to configure work order settings and create time-saving templates called work types.

For Field Service, your locations can be vans, warehouses, customer sites, or whatever suits your organization. Learn how to create service locations and track their consumption and availability.

10.

Set Up Parts and Van Stock

Parts and van stock represent a list of items necessary to complete work orders. Learn how to create parts and van stock and track their consumption and availability.

11.

Set Up Customer Service Reports

Make your customers happy with fast field service reports delivered to their inboxes. Your technicians and dispatchers can create reports for work orders, work order line items, and service appointments and email them directly to the customer. You can use standard templates or create variations of your own.

12.

Create Field Service Lightning Reports

Create report types to track field service progress in your org.

SEE ALSO:

Field Service Lightning Guidelines

Enable Field Service Lightning

Enable Field Service Lightning to start using field service features like work orders, service appointments, and more.

1. From Setup, enter

Field Service Settings

in the Quick Find box, then select Field

Service Settings.

2. Click Enable Field Service Lightning.

3. If you want, select the option to turn on in-app notifications for Salesforce1 and Lightning

Experience users when any of the following actions occurs on a work order or work order line item that they own or follow:

•

A text or file post is added

•

A tracked field is updated

•

The record owner changes

•

The resource assignments change on a related service appointment

Note: If the option to track all related objects is selected in your feed tracking settings for work orders, users are also notified when child records of work orders—such as service appointments—are created or deleted.

4. When you set up work types, which are templates for work orders, you can opt to automatically add a service appointment to new work orders or work order line items associated with a work type. Optionally, configure the Due Date on auto-created service appointments by indicating how many days past the created date it should fall.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Field Service Lightning features and managed package are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud. Work orders are also available in Professional

Edition.

USER PERMISSIONS

To enable Field Service

Lightning:

•

“Customize Application”

378

Enable Field Service Lightning

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Assign Field Service Lightning Permission Sets

Enabling Field Service Lightning makes the following tabs available in Salesforce:

•

Work Orders: A basic Field Service Lightning feature, available whether or not Field Service Lightning is enabled.

•

Service Appointments: Appointments to perform field service work for customers. You can specify the number of resources needed to complete an appointment, the skills required, and the appointment schedule.

•

Service Resources: Users who can perform field service work. You can assign resources to service appointments and specify each resource’s skills, service territory, and more.

•

Skills: Capabilities needed to perform tasks.

•

Work Types: Templates that help you standardize your work orders.

•

Service Territories: Regions in which field service can be performed. You can assign resources to a territory and create territory hierarchies.

•

Operating Hours: Field service hours that you can define for service territories, service resources, and accounts.

•

Products: A Salesforce feature, available whether or not Field Service Lightning is enabled.

•

Locations: A Salesforce feature, available whether or not Field Service Lightning is enabled.

•

Product Items: A basic Field Service Lightning feature, is available whether or not Field Service Lightning is enabled.

Enabling Field Service Lightning also turns on geocoding (location data) for supported features. To learn more, see Location Tracking in

Field Service Lightning

on page 406.

Note:

•

The Field Service Lightning managed package includes scheduling optimization, an interactive dispatcher console, and more.

Assign Field Service Lightning Permission Sets

To give your team access to Field Service Lightning features, assign the necessary object permissions to users with the help of permission set licenses.

Field Service users must have a Service Cloud license, a Field Service license and a Field Service permission set license.

Important: Before you can create a permission set for your Field Service users, verify that your org has Field Service Lightning enabled. From Setup, enter

Field Service

in the

Quick Find box, then select Field Service Settings. Verify that Field Service Lightning is enabled.

Create a permission set for each needed

Field Service Lightning license . Creating a permission set

gives the object permissions to users with the license.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

•

Administrators in the Field Service Standard license.

•

Dispatchers need the Field Service Dispatcher permission set licenses.

Technicians need the Field Service Scheduling and Field Service Mobile permission set licenses.

1. From Setup, enter under

Permission Sets

Manage Users

in the Quick Find box, then select Permission Sets

To assign a permission set license:

•

“Manage Users”

To create a permission set:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

2. Click New.

3. Enter a label, API name, and description for your permission set.

To keep it simple, we suggest using the same name as the

permission set license you plan to associate it with.

4. Under

Select the type of users who will use this permission set

, select the corresponding Field

Service Lightning permission set license.

379

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Assign Field Service Lightning Permission Sets

5. Click Save.

6. On the permission set overview page, under

System

, click System Permissions.

7. Click Edit.

8. Enable the corresponding Field Service Lightning permission set license.

9. Click Save.

10. On the permission set overview page, under

Apps

, click Object Settings and ensure that your permission set license gives access to Field Service objects that they need Create, Read, Edit, and Delete access to.

Typically, users need, at minimum, access to Work Orders, Service Resources, and Service Appointments.

11. On the permission set overview page, click Manage Assignments at the top of the page.

12. Click Add Assignments.

13. Select the users who need the permission set.

Assigning a permission set automatically assigns the associated permission set license to the user.

14. Click Assign.

15. Repeat the previous steps until you have create a permission set for each Field Service Lightning permission set license.

IN THIS SECTION:

Field Service Permission Sets Licenses

These are the available Field Service Lightning permission set licenses.

Field Service Permission Sets Licenses

These are the available Field Service Lightning permission set licenses.

License Name

Field Service Standard

Field Service Dispatcher

Object Permissions Included

“Read,” “Edit,” “Create,” and “Delete” on:

•

Service Appointments

•

Service Resources

•

Service Territories

•

Product Items

•

Operating Hours

•

Work Types

“Read,” “Edit,” “Create,” and “Delete” on:

•

Service Appointments

•

Service Resources

•

Service Territories

•

Product Items

•

Operating Hours

•

Work Types

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

380

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

License Name

Field Service Scheduling

Field Service Mobile

Set Up the Field Service Lightning Managed Package

Object Permissions Included

If the Field Service Lightning managed package is installed, users with this permission set license have access to the dispatcher console.

“Read,” “Edit,” “Create,” and “Delete” on:

•

Service Appointments

•

Service Resources

•

Service Territories

•

Product Items

•

Operating Hours

•

Work Types

If the Field Service Lightning managed package is installed, users with this permission set license are included in scheduling optimization.

“Read,” “Edit,” “Create,” and “Delete” on:

•

Service Appointments

•

Service Resources

•

Service Territories

•

Product Items

•

Operating Hours

•

Work Types

If the Field Service Lightning managed package is installed, users with this permission set license are included in scheduling optimization.

Set Up the Field Service Lightning Managed Package

The Field Service Lightning managed package builds on Salesforce’s standard field service features to deliver a rich, highly customizable experience for dispatchers and technicians.

When you implement Field Service Lightning, you select which features to use. Most features are available when Field Service Lightning is enabled in your org, but you can also install the Field

Service Lightning managed package, see the Field Service Lightning Managed Package Guide that comes with the installation link.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

381

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Service Territories

Set Up Service Territories

A service territory represents a region in which field service can be performed. Learn how to configure service territory settings and create territories that fit your business processes.

IN THIS SECTION:

Configure Service Territory Settings

Control how your users work with service territories.

Create Service Territories

Create service territories to track your field service work and ensure that service resources are assigned to service appointments near their home base.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

Configure Service Territory Settings

Control how your users work with service territories.

Note: Field Service Lightning must be enabled in your org.

1. Assign user permissions.

Users Who Will...

Enable Field Service Lightning

View the Service Territories tab and service territories

Create or clone service territories

Edit service territories

Delete service territories

Create service territory members

Need These Permissions

“Customize Application”

“Read” on service territories

“Create” on service territories

“Edit” on service territories

“Delete” on service territories

“Edit” on service resources

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To edit page layouts and set field history tracking:

•

“Customize Application”

To create and edit users:

•

“Manage Internal Users”

2. Make the Service Territories tab visible to your users.

Users create and manage service territories from the Service Territories tab. You can add the tab to a custom app or instruct users to add the tab in Salesforce.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Service Territories

Create Service Territories

Create service territories to track your field service work and ensure that service resources are assigned to service appointments near their home base.

Tip: If you plan to build out a hierarchy of service territories, create the highest-level territories first.

1. From the Service Territories tab, click New.

2. Select Active if you want to be able to add members to the territory or associate it with work orders, work order line items, or service appointments.

3. Enter a name and description for your territory.

The name you select depends on how your field service business is organized. For example, it might be the name of a particular county or district.

4. Optionally, enter an address.

You may want to enter the address of the territory’s headquarters.

5. If your territory is part of a larger territory, select a parent territory.

Note:

A hierarchy of service territories can have up to 500 territories total.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To create service territories:

•

“Create” on service territories

6. Select operating hours for the territory, which indicate when service appointments within the territory should take place.

To create operating hours, see Guidelines for Using Service Resources

on page 384.

7. Click Save.

8. Optionally, assign service resources to your territory via the Service Territory Members related list.

Service territory members are resources who are available to work within the territory. If you haven’t created service resource yet, know that you can also define a service resource’s territories from the resource’s detail page.

When you add a member, indicate whether this territory is the member’s primary, secondary, or relocation territory. The primary territory is typically the territory where they work most often—for instance, near their home base—while secondary territories are territories where they can be assigned to appointments if needed. Relocation territories represent temporary moves.

Example: You can create a hierarchy of territories to represent the areas where your team works in California. Include a top-level territory named

California

, three child territories named

Northern California

Central California

, and

Southern California

, and a series of third-level territories corresponding to California counties. Assign service resources to each county territory to indicate who is available to work in that county.

Configure Service Resource Settings

383

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Create Operating Hours

Create Operating Hours

Define operating hours and assign them to service territories, service territory members, or accounts to indicate their field service hours.

Note:

•

By default, only System Administrators can view, create, and assign operating hours.

•

Service resource detail pages don’t list operating hours because a service resource’s hours can vary depending on which territory they’re working in. To view a service resource’s operating hours for a particular territory, navigate to their Service Territories related list and click the Member Number for the territory. This takes you to the service territory member detail page, which lists the member’s operating hours and dates during which they belong to the territory.

•

If you’re using the Field Service Lightning managed package, the scheduling optimizer only assigns service resources to service appointments that fall within the operating hours listed on the resource’s territory member record. If you’re not using the managed package, operating hours serve as a suggestion rather than a rule.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

1. Click the Operating Hours tab, then click New.

2. Enter a name, description, and time zone.

3. Click Save.

4. In the Time Slots related list on the operating hours, create time slots for each day. For example, if the operating hours should be 8 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday, create five time slots, one per day. To reflect breaks such as lunch hours, create multiple time slots in a day: for example,

Monday 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM

and

Monday 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

. To establish

24/7 operating hours, create a time slot for each day of the week that starts at 12:00 AM and ends at 11:59 PM.

Tip:

Time slots don’t come with any built-in rules, but you can create Apex triggers that limit time slot settings in your org. For example, you may want to restrict the start and end times on time slots to half-hour increments, or to prohibit end times later than 8 PM.

To create operating hours:

•

“Create” on operating hours

To assign operating hours to service resources:

•

“Edit” on service resources

To assign operating hours to service territories:

•

“Edit” on service territories

To assign operating hours to accounts:

•

“Edit” on accounts

5. Assign the operating hours to one or more service territories.

a. Navigate to the service territory’s detail page.

b. Select the desired hours in the

Operating Hours

lookup field on the territory detail page, and save your changes.

6. If needed, assign different operating hours to one or more service territory members.

Service territory members—which are service resources who can work in the territory—automatically use their service territory’s operating hours. If a resource needs different operating hours than their territory, create separate operating hours for them from the

Operating Hours tab. Then, select the desired hours in the

Operating Hours

lookup field on the service territory member detail page.

Note: If a resource’s operating hours are similar to their territory’s hours, the resource’s operating hours only need time slots for the days that differ from the territory’s hours. For example, suppose a resource’s territory’s hours are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Monday through Friday, but the resource works 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM on Fridays. When you create operating hours for the resource, create only one time slot:

Friday 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM

. The resource automatically uses its territory’s time slots for Monday through Thursday, then uses its own special time slot on Fridays.

384

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Service Resources

7. Optionally, assign operating hours to one or more accounts via the

Operating Hours

lookup field on the account detail page.

An account’s operating hours help dispatchers know when to schedule service appointments for the account. For example, if ABC

Labs only allows technicians to visit their office Monday through Friday from 8 AM to noon, you can create operating hours for them that reflect this preference.

SEE ALSO:

Operating Hours Fields

Set Up Service Resources

A service resource represents a Salesforce user who can perform field service work. Learn how to create service resources and track their skills and availability.

IN THIS SECTION:

Set up service resource settings and user permissions in your org.

Create Service Resources

Service resources are users who can perform field service work. Create service resources so you can assign them to service appointments.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

Configure Service Resource Settings

Set up service resource settings and user permissions in your org.

EDITIONS

Note: Field Service Lightning must be enabled in your org.

1. Customize page layouts.

a. Decide which related lists to include on the service resource detail page layout. The following related lists are specific to field service:

•

Absences: View and manage the service resource’s absences.

•

Capacities: View and manage the service resource’s capacity, or how much they can work in a specified time period.

•

Service Appointments: View and manage the service appointments assigned to the service resource.

•

Service Territories: View and manage the service territories where the service resource is available to work.

Skills: View and manage the service resource’s skills, which represent certifications and areas of expertise.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To edit page layouts and set field history tracking:

•

“Customize Application”

To create and edit users:

•

“Manage Internal Users”

b. Decide which fields to include on service resource page layouts. The following fields can be removed from the layouts if desired:

•

Active

: When selected, this option means that the resource can be assigned to work orders. For service tracking purposes, resources can’t be deleted, so deactivating a resource is the best way to send them into retirement.

•

Capacity-Based

: Capacity-based resources are limited to a certain number of hours or appointments in a specified time period. A resource’s capacity is defined in the Capacities related list.

385

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Service Resources

•

Description

: A description of the resource.

•

Include in Scheduling Optimization

: When selected, this option means that the service scheduling optimizer can assign this resource to work orders during the optimization process. Use only if the Field Service Lightning managed package is installed.

2. Assign user permissions.

Users Who Will...

Enable Field Service Lightning

View the Service Resources tab and service resources

Create service resources

Edit or deactivate service resources

Need These Permissions

“Customize Application”

“Read” on service resources

“Create” on service resources

“Edit” on service resources

3. Make the Service Resources tab visible to your users.

Users create and manage service resources from the Service Resources tab. You can add the tab to a custom app or instruct users to add the tab in Salesforce.

Create Service Resources

Service resources are users who can perform field service work. Create service resources so you can assign them to service appointments.

1. From the Service Resources tab, click New.

2. Enter a name and description.

You may want the name to be the name or title of the associated user.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

3. If you want to assign the resource to service appointments, select Active.

4. Select Capacity-Based if the resource is limited to working a certain number of hours or appointments in a specified time period.

Contractors would likely be capacity-based.

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

5. If you’re using the Field Service Lightning managed package with scheduling optimization, select Include in Scheduling Optimization to allow the scheduling optimizer to assign the resource to service appointments during the optimization process.

Only users with the Field Service Scheduling permission set license can be included in scheduling optimization.

To create service resources:

•

“Create” on service resources

6. Select the user that the resource is associated with.

7. Indicate whether the resource is a technician or dispatcher.

Resources who are dispatchers can’t be capacity-based or included in scheduling optimization. Only users with the Field Service

Dispatcher permission set license can be dispatchers.

Note: If a user is be both a technician and a dispatcher, you can create two service resource records for them.

8. Click Save.

386

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Service Resources

Once a resource is created, add information about their capabilities.

1. In the Service Territories related list, select the territories where the resource is available to work.

Indicate whether each territory is the resource’s primary, secondary, or relocation territory. The primary territory is typically the territory where they work most often—for instance, near their home base—while secondary territories are territories where they can be assigned to appointments if needed. Relocation territories represent temporary moves.

For example, a service resource might have the following territories:

•

Primary territory:

West Chicago

•

Secondary territories:

–

East Chicago

–

South Chicago

•

Relocation territory:

Manhattan

, for a three-month period

2. If the resource is capacity-based, define their capacity.

a. In the Capacity related list, click New Resource Capacity.

b. Enter a start date and an end date to indicate when the capacity is in effect for the resource. For example, if the capacity represents a six-month contract, enter the contract’s start and end dates.

c. Specify how much the resource can work:

•

Select the

Time Period

that the capacity is based on: hours, days, or months. For example, if the resource can work 80 hours per month, select Month.

•

If you want the resource’s capacity to be based on the number of hours worked, fill out

Hours per Time Period

For example, if the resource can work 80 hours per month, enter

•

If you want the resource’s capacity to be based on the number of service appointments they are assigned to, fill out

Work

Items per Time Period

. For example, if the resource can complete 20 appointments per month, enter

Note: If you’re using the Field Service Lightning managed package and would like to measure capacity both in hours and in number of work items, enter a value for both. The resource is considered to reach their capacity based on whichever term is met first—hours or number of work items.

d. Click Save. You can set multiple capacities for a resource as long as their start and end dates do not overlap.

Important: If you aren’t using the Field Service Lightning managed package, capacity serves more as a suggestion than a rule. Resources can still be as scheduled beyond their capacity, and you aren’t notified when a resource exceeds their capacity.

3. In the Skills related list, assign skills to indicate the resource’s areas of expertise. For details, see Assign Skills to Service Resources

SEE ALSO:

Assign Skills to Service Resources

387

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Skills for Field Service

Set Up Skills for Field Service

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

IN THIS SECTION:

Configure Skill Settings

Before you create skills, add skill related lists to field service page layouts and specify who can view and create skills.

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

Create Skills

To get started with skills, create basic skills in your org. When you assign skills to service resources or mark them as required on work orders and work types, you can add details like skill level and duration.

Assign skills to service resources to represent their certifications and areas of expertise.

Add Required Skills to Work Orders or Work Types

Add required skills to work orders, work order line items, or work types to ensure that the assigned service resources possess the right skills.

Configure Skill Settings

Before you create skills, add skill related lists to field service page layouts and specify who can view and create skills.

Note: Field Service Lightning must be enabled in your org.

1. Customize page layouts.

a. To be able to specify required skills on work types, add the Skill Requirements related list to work type page layouts.

b. To be able to specify required skills on work orders, add the Skill Requirements related list to work order page layouts.

c. To be able to specify required skills on work order line items, add the Skill Requirements related list to work order line item page layouts.

d. To be able to assign skills to service resources, add the Skills related list to service resource page layouts.

2. Assign user permissions.

Users Who Will...

Enable Field Service Lightning

Create, update, and delete skills in Setup

Assign skills to service resources

View resources’ skills

Need These Permissions

“Customize Application”

“Edit” on service resources

“Read” on service resources

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To edit page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

To create and edit users:

•

“Manage Internal Users”

388

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Skills for Field Service

Users Who Will...

Need These Permissions

Add required skills to work orders, work order line items, or work types

“Edit” on work orders, work order line items, or work types

View required skills on work orders, work order line items, or work types

“Read” on work orders, work order line items, or work types

3. Decide how skill levels should be determined.

Skills assigned to a service resource or to a work order, work order line item, or work type can have a skill level from 0 to 99.99. For example, you can:

•

Use the

Skill Level

field to indicate years of experience.

•

Create a matrix that corresponds professional license classes to skill level numbers.

Tip:

•

If you’d like to limit potential skill level values, create a validation rule that, for example, only allows multiples of 10.

•

Create field-level help that lets your users know how skill level is determined.

Create Skills

1. From Setup, enter

Skills

in the Quick Find box, then select Skills under Field Service.

2. Enter a name. For example,

Electrician Certification

3. Enter a description.

4. Skip the “Assign Users” and “Assign Profiles” sections, which are specific to Live Agent.

5. Click Save.

You can now assign the skill to service resources or list it as required on work types, work orders, and work order line items.

SEE ALSO:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To create skills:

•

“Customize Application”

389

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Skills for Field Service

Assign Skills to Service Resources

Assign skills to service resources to represent their certifications and areas of expertise.

1. Navigate to the resource that needs a skill assigned.

2. In the Skills related list, click New Service Resource Skill.

3. Select a skill. Skills must be created before they can be assigned to a resource; to learn how, see

Create Skills .

4. Enter a skill level from 0 to 99.99 based on how your business measures skill level.

5. Enter a start date and, if needed, an end date. For example, if a technician must be recertified in a particular skill every six months, you can enter an end date that’s six months later than the start date.

6. Click Save. The resource’s skill now appears in their Skills related list.

Tip: To make it easier to track a resource’s abilities, upload photos of licenses and certifications in the Files section on the resource’s detail page.

SEE ALSO:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To assign skills to resources:

•

“Edit” on service resources

Add Required Skills to Work Orders or Work Types

Add required skills to work orders, work order line items, or work types to ensure that the assigned service resources possess the right skills.

If a work order or work order line item can only be completed by a service resource with a particular set of skills, add required skills to the record. Required skills help dispatchers assign the record to a service resource with the proper expertise. You can still assign a work order, work order line item, or related service appointment to a service resource that does not possess the required skills, so required skills serve more as a suggestion than a rule.

Note:

If you’re using the Field Service Lightning managed package, you can use matching rules to ensure that appointments are only assigned to service resources who possess the required skills listed on the parent work order.

If many of your work orders require the same skills, we recommend adding required skills to work

types to save yourself some time and keep your processes consistent. When you add a required skill to a work type, work orders and work order line items that use that type automatically inherit the required skill. For example, if you know that all annual maintenance visits for your Classic Refrigerator product require a Refrigerator Maintenance skill level of at least 50, you can add that required skill to the Annual Maintenance Visit work type. When it’s time to create a work order for a customer’s annual fridge maintenance, adding that work type to the work order adds the required skill as well.

Note:

•

When you create a work order from a work type, it inherits the work type’s required skills, but you can then add or remove required skills on the work order.

•

Changing the required skills on a work type doesn’t affect the required skills on work orders that were created from that work type.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To add required skills to work orders, work order line items, or work types:

•

“Edit” on work orders, work order line items, or work types

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Work Orders

•

If you add a work type to an existing work order, the work order only inherits the work type’s required skills if the work order didn’t yet have required skills. The same is true for work order line items.

•

Work order line items don’t inherit their parent work order’s required skills.

To add a required skill to a work order, work order line item, or work type:

1. Navigate to the record that needs required skills.

2. In the Skill Requirements related list, click New Skill Requirement.

3. Select a skill. Skills must be created before they can be added as a requirement; to learn how, see

Create Skills .

4. Enter a skill level from

99.99

based on how your business measures skill level.

5. Click Save. The skill now appears in the Skill Requirements related list on the record.

SEE ALSO:

Configure Work Order Settings

Set Up Work Orders

A work order represents work to be performed on your customers’ products. Learn how to configure work order settings and create time-saving templates called work types.

EDITIONS

IN THIS SECTION:

Control how your users work with work orders by customizing page layouts, user permissions, and more.

Create Work Types

Chances are, your business performs the same tasks for multiple customers. Work types are work order templates that save you time and make it easier to standardize your field service work.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

Create Work Orders

Create work orders to track work to be performed for a customer.

Choose Preferred Service Resources on Work Orders

You can designate certain service resources as preferred, required, or excluded on specific accounts or work orders. Work orders inherit their associated account’s resource preferences.

Create Service Appointments

Service appointments help you track field service work to be performed for customers. You can associate them with several types of records.

391

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Work Orders

Configure Work Order Settings

Control how your users work with work orders by customizing page layouts, user permissions, and more.

EDITIONS

1. Customize page layouts.

a. To let users view and create work orders that are related to other records, add the Work

Orders related list to other objects’ page layouts. These objects’ page layouts can include the related list:

•

Account

•

Asset

•

Case

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

•

Contact

•

Entitlement

USER PERMISSIONS

•

Service Contract

•

Custom objects

To edit page layouts and set field history tracking:

•

“Customize Application”

b. To let users view work order line items that are associated with a particular asset, add the

Work Order Line Items related list to Asset page layouts.

To create and edit users:

•

“Manage Internal Users”

c. To let users make one work order the parent of another, add the

Parent Work Order field and Child Work Orders related list to work order page layouts. To let users see the top-level work order in a work order hierarchy, you can also add the read-only

Root Work Order

field.

d. To let users make one work order line item the parent of another line item, add the

Parent Work Order Line Item field and Child Work Order Line Items related list to work order line item page layouts. To let users see the top-level line item in a work order line item hierarchy, you can also add the read-only

Root Work Order Line Item

field.

e. If you want to be able to designate certain service resources as preferred, required, or excluded on a work order, add the Resource

Preferences related list to work order page layouts. You can also establish resource preferences on accounts so every work order associated with the account inherits its resource preferences. To do so, add the Resource Preferences related list to account page layouts as well.

2. Assign user permissions.

Users Who Will...

Enable Field Service Lightning

View the Work Orders tab, work orders, and work order line items

“Customize Application”

“Read” on work orders

Create or clone work orders

Edit work orders

Delete work orders

Need These Permissions

“Create” on work orders

“Edit” on work orders

“Delete” on work orders

Permissions Are Auto-Enabled on

These Standard Profiles

System Administrator

Read Only, Standard User, Solution

Manager, Contract Manager, Marketing

User, and System Administrator

Standard User, Solution Manager, Contract

Manager, Marketing User, and System

Administrator

Standard User, Solution Manager, Contract

Manager, Marketing User, and System

Administrator

System Administrator

392

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Users Who Will...

Need These Permissions

Create, clone, edit, or delete work order line items

“Edit” on work orders

Set Up Work Orders

Permissions Are Auto-Enabled on

These Standard Profiles

Standard User, Solution Manager, Contract

Manager, Marketing User, and System

Administrator

3. Make the Work Orders tab visible to your users.

Users create and manage work orders from the Work Orders tab. You can add the tab to a custom app or instruct users to add the tab in Salesforce.

Note: The Work Orders tab is default ON for the following user profiles: Read Only, Standard User, Solution Manager, Contract

Manager, Marketing User, and System Administrator.

4. Optionally, add work orders as a navigation tab item in the service console.

5. If your org was created before Summer ’16 and you want to use milestones on work orders, set field-level security on the following work order fields to expose them to specific user profiles:

•

Business Hours

•

Entitlement Process End Time

•

Entitlement Process Start Time

•

Is Closed

•

Milestone Status

•

Milestone Status Icon

•

Stopped

•

Stopped Since

Tip: To set field-level security, from Setup, enter

Field Accessibility

in the Quick Find box, then click Field

Accessibility. Click Work Order, then click View by Fields and select a field. Click Hidden next to a profile to view and update the field visibility settings.

6. Optionally, add your own custom values to the

Status

picklist field on work orders or work order line items.

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

Waiting for Response

value, you may decide that it belongs in the

On Hold category.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Work Orders

The

Status Category

field can be useful to reference in custom apps, triggers, and validation rules. Status categories let you extend and customize the work life cycle while still maintaining a consistent work classification for tracking, reporting, and business process management.

7. If you want your team to be able to attach Knowledge articles to work orders or work order line items, add the Articles related list and the Knowledge One console component to your layouts.

Note: Knowledge must already be set up in your org.

a. To let users view and modify linked articles from the console, navigate to work order page layouts in Setup. In the layout editor, select Custom Console Components and add the Knowledge One widget to the console sidebar (recommended).

b. To let users view and modify linked articles from a work order’s detail page, add the Articles related list to the work order detail page layout (recommended).

c. To let users attach Knowledge articles to work order line items, follow the previous two steps for work order line items layouts.

Create Work Types

Chances are, your business performs the same tasks for multiple customers. Work types are work order templates that save you time and make it easier to standardize your field service work.

1. From the Work Types tab, click New.

2. Enter a name and description. Try to use a name that helps users quickly understand the type of work orders that can be created from the work type. For example,

Annual

Refrigerator Maintenance

Valve Replacement

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

3. Add an

Estimated Duration

, which is how long the work is estimated to take, and a

Duration Type

of Minutes or Hours.

4. If you’d like a service appointment to be automatically created on work orders and work order line items that use the work type, select Auto-Create Service Appointment.

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

Note:

By default, the Due Date on auto-created service appointments is seven days after the created date. Admins can adjust this offset from the Field Service Settings page in

Setup.

5. Click Save.

6. If the task represented by the work type requires certain skills or certifications, define them in the Skill Requirements related list.

To create work types:

•

“Create” on work types

To apply work types to work orders or work order line items:

•

“Edit” on work orders

a. In the related list, click New Skill Requirement.

b. Select a skill. Skills must be created before they can be added as a required skill; to learn how, see Create Skills

c. Enter a skill level from 0 to 99.99 based on how your business measures skill level.

d. Click Save. Now, any work orders or work order line items linked to the work type inherits these required skills.

7. To apply a work type to a work order or work order line item, select the work type in the

Work Type

lookup field on the record.

When you add a work type, the work order or work order line item inherits the work type’s duration values and required skills.

Note:

•

If needed, you can update the duration values and required skills on a work order or work order line item after they’re inherited from the work type.

394

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Work Orders

•

If a work order or work order line item already has required skills, associating it with a work type doesn’t cause it to inherit the work type’s required skills.

•

Customizations to required skills, such as validation rules or Apex triggers, are not carried over from work types to work orders and work order line items.

Example: Suppose you own a window company that often installs windows. Your window installations typically last 90 minutes.

You can create a work type with the following settings:

•

Name:

Window Installation

•

Description:

Standard installation of single- or double-paned windows

•

Estimated Duration:

•

Duration Type:

Minutes

•

Skill Requirements:

–

“Window Installation” with a skill level of 50

–

“Window Cleaning” with a skill level of 10

•

The option to auto-create a service appointment is selected

When a customer needs a window installed, create a work order for them and select the

Window Installation

work type in the

Work Type

lookup field. This auto-populates the work order’s duration and skill values and automatically creates a service appointment on the work order. High-five for efficiency!

SEE ALSO:

Skills to Work Orders or Work Types .

Work Type Fields

Create Work Orders

Create work orders to track work to be performed for a customer.

You can create and edit work orders from the Work Orders tab or the Work Orders related list on supported objects. Some of the following settings may not be available to you depending on your page layouts and field-level security settings.

1. From the Work Orders tab or the Work Orders related list on a record, click New.

2. Optionally, select a work type. Work types are templates that auto-populate the work order’s

Duration

and

Duration Type

fields and Skill Requirements related list.

3. Enter the address where the work order is taking place. Work orders inherit their address from the associated account. The work order’s service appointments and line items inherit its address, though the address on line items can be updated.

4. Select an associated account and contact.

5. If applicable, select a parent work order.

6. If applicable, select an associated case.

7. Optionally, select a price book. This lets you select a corresponding price book entry (product) for each work order line item.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or clone work orders:

•

“Create” on work orders

To create work order line items:

•

“Edit” on work orders

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Work Orders

8. If you’re tracking pricing on work orders, enter the tax amount. For example, in a work order whose total price is $200, enter

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.

9. Select a priority level.

10. Select the service territory where the work order is taking place.

11. Enter a duration and select a duration type. A duration of

and a duration type of

Hours

means the work order is expected to be completed in 3 hours.

12. If the work order involves a customer’s asset, add it in the

Asset

field.

13. Add a subject and description. Try to describe the nature and purpose of the work to be completed.

14. Click Save.

15. Optionally, add further details in the work order’s related lists.

a. Create line items via the Work Order Line Items related list. Work order line items represent specific tasks that a technician must perform to complete the work order. They can be marked as completed one by one, and can each have their own active service appointment. Pricing details like discounts and unit price are set at the line item level on work orders.

b. Specify which skills are required to complete the work order via the Skill Requirements related list. For details, see

Add Required

c. Create a service appointment via the Service Appointments related list. Service appointments are where you assign service resources and add scheduling details. Work orders and work order line items can have multiple service appointments.

Note:

If Auto-Complete Service Appointment is selected on the associated work type, a service appointment is automatically created when you create the work order.

Choose Preferred Service Resources on Work Orders

You can designate certain service resources as preferred, required, or excluded on specific accounts or work orders. Work orders inherit their associated account’s resource preferences.

Add preferences to an account or work order via the Resource Preferences related list. Simply select the service resource, select a preference level, and save your changes.

Note: You can’t add preferences for service resources who are inactive or dispatchers.

Resource preferences serve more as a suggestion than a requirement. You can still assign a service appointment to any resource regardless of the related work order’s resource preferences.

If you don’t want to establish resource preferences at the account level, you can also create them on individual work orders if needed.

Example:

•

If your customer, ABC Labs, has had positive experiences with Alicia, a service resource, you can create a resource preference on the ABC Labs account that designates Alicia as

“Preferred”

•

If ABC Labs had a bad experience with Nigel, a service resource, you can create a resource preference on the ABC Labs account that designates Nigel as “Excluded”

•

If ABC Labs purchased a challenging piece of equipment which was installed by Evan, a service resource, you can create a resource preference on the ABC Labs account that designates Evan as “Required”

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To create resource preferences on accounts:

•

“Edit” on accounts

To create resource preferences on work orders:

•

“Edit” on work orders

396

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Work Orders

When a work order is created for ABC Labs, it automatically lists those three preferences. When the time comes to schedule the work order, the dispatcher knows to assign the corresponding service appointment to Evan and, if a second technician is needed, to Alicia if she is available. The dispatcher also knows never to assign the account’s service appointments to Nigel.

Create Service Appointments

Service appointments help you track field service work to be performed for customers. You can associate them with several types of records.

Service appointments can be added to work orders, work order line items, opportunities, accounts, or assets. To create a service appointment:

1. Navigate to the record that the appointment is associated with.

2. In the Service Appointments related list, click New Service Appointment.

3. Fill out the General Information section:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

a. Add an appointment subject and description.

b. If needed, update the duration. If the parent record is work order or work order line item, the appointment inherits its duration from its parent.

USER PERMISSIONS

c. Fill out the

Earliest Start Permitted

and

Due Date

fields, which together represent the window during which the appointment must be completed. These fields typically represent terms in the customer’s service-level agreement.

To create service appointments:

•

“Create” on service appointments

4. Fill out the Scheduled Times section:

a. Add scheduled start and end times. If you’re using the Field Service Lightning managed package with the scheduling optimizer, these fields are populated when the appointment is scheduled.

b. Define an arrival window, which is the window of time when the technician is expected to arrive at the site. This window is typically larger than the scheduled start and end window to allow time for delays and scheduling changes. You may choose to share the arrival window start and end with the customer, but keep the scheduled start and end internal-only.

5. Assign service resources to the appointment in the Assigned Resources related list. If the parent record is a work order, work order line item, or account, check the parent for any resource preferences.

Note: Service resource who are dispatchers can’t be assigned to service appointments.

6. When the technician 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 number of minutes it took to travel to the appointment in the

Actual Travel

Time

field on their assigned resource record.

Note: You can also create service appointments from the Service Appointments tab.

Configure Field Service Location Settings

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Locations for Field Service

Set Up Locations for Field Service

For Field Service, your locations can be vans, warehouses, customer sites, or whatever suits your organization. Learn how to create service locations and track their consumption and availability.

IN THIS SECTION:

Control how your users work with Field Service locations.

Create Field Service Locations

Create inventory locations so you can track the parts stored there and restock when necessary.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

Configure Field Service Location Settings

Control how your users work with Field Service locations.

Note: Field Service Lightning must be enabled in your org.

Your service locations can be as large as a warehouse or as small as a tool box. They can be your client sites or your service vans. They vary in size, location, and what they contain, and they are unique to your company. Salesforce Field Service lets you create locations to fit your needs.

1. Assign user permissions.

Users Who Will...

Enable Field Service Lightning

View the Locations tab

Create or clone locations

Edit service locations

Delete service locations

Need These Permissions

“Customize Application”

“Read” on Locations

“Create” on Locations

“Edit” on Locations

“Delete” on Locations

USER PERMISSIONS

To edit page layouts and set field history tracking:

•

“Customize Application”

To create and edit users:

•

“Manage Internal Users”

2. Customize the Addresses page layout.

Addresses allow you to set up multiple addresses and address types. For example, a customer’s shipping address may be different from the physical address.

a. From Setup enter

Addresses

in the Quick Find box, then select Page Layouts under Addresses.

b. Click Edit next to a layout you want to change or click New to create one.

c. Select and arrange the fields on page 439 on the addresses related list.

d. Click Save.

3. Customize the

Associated Locations

page layout.

Associated locations allow you to set up associate multiple accounts with one location. For example, a shopping center location may have multiple customer accounts.

a. From Setup enter

Associated Locations

in the Quick Find box, then select Page Layouts under Associated Locations.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Parts and Van Stock

b. Click Edit next to a layout you want to change or click New to create one.

c. Select and arrange the fields on page 439 on the associated locations related list.

d. Click Save.

4. Customize the Locations page layout.

a. From Setup enter

Locations

in the Quick Find box, then select Page Layouts under Locations.

b. Click Edit next to a layout you want to change or click New to create one.

c. Select and arrange the fields on the Locations page layout.

d. Add the

Product Items

Addresses

, and

Associated Locations

related lists to the Locations page layout.

e. Click Save.

5. Make the Locations tab visible to your users.

Users create and manage service locations from the Locations tab. You can add the tabs to a custom app or instruct users to add them in Salesforce.

Create Field Service Locations

Create inventory locations so you can track the parts stored there and restock when necessary.

Note: Field Service Lightning must be enabled in your org.

1. From the Locations tab, click New or to change an existing location, click its name.

2. Enter a location name.

3. Select a

Location type

4. To use this product item with Field Service, check

Inventory Location

5. If this location is a mobile, like a van or tool box, check

Mobile Location

6. Complete any other fields as appropriate.

Depending on the page layout, there might be other fields that are not required for Field Service but are helpful.

7. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To create locations:

•

“Create” on Locations

Set Up Parts and Van Stock

Parts and van stock represent a list of items necessary to complete work orders. Learn how to create parts and van stock and track their consumption and availability.

IN THIS SECTION:

Configure Parts and Van Stock Settings

Control how your users work with parts and van stock.

Create Parts and Van Stock

Product items are products at a specific location. Create product items so you can track their usage and restock when necessary.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

399

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Parts and Van Stock

Configure Parts and Van Stock Settings

Control how your users work with parts and van stock.

Note: Field Service Lightning must be enabled in your org.

Parts and Van Stock consists of the Product Item object and three related lists: Required Products,

Consumed Products, and Product Item Transactions.

•

The Product Item object associates a product with a location.

•

The Required Products related list is added to the work order or work order line item to track parts needed of a job type.

•

The Consumed Products related list is added to the work order or work order line item to track the parts used to complete the work.

•

The Product Item Transactions related list is added to the Product Item object to track the use and restock of the product at its location.

1. Assign user permissions.

Users Who Will...

Enable Field Service Lightning

View the Products tab

View the Product Items tab

Create or clone products

Edit service products

Delete service products

Need These Permissions

“Customize Application”

“Read” on Products

“Read” on Product Items

“Create” on Product Items

“Edit” on Product Items

“Delete” on Product Items

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To edit page layouts and set field history tracking:

•

“Customize Application”

To create and edit users:

•

“Manage Internal Users”

2. Customize the Product Item page layout.

a. From Setup enter

Product Items

in the Quick Find box, then select Page Layouts under Product Items.

b. Click Edit next to a layout you want to change or click New to create one.

c. Select and arrange the fields on the Product Item page layout.

d. Add

Product Item Transactions

related list to the Product Item page layout.

e. Click Save.

3. Make the Products and Product Items tabs visible to your users.

Users create and manage product items from the Product Items tab. You can add the tabs to a custom app or instruct users to add them in Salesforce.

4. Customize the Products Required page layout.

a. From Setup enter

Products Required

in the Quick Find box, then select Page Layouts under Products Required.

b. Click Edit next to a layout you want to change or click New to create one.

c. Select and arrange the fields on the Products Required page layout.

d. Click Save.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Parts and Van Stock

5. Customize the Products Consumed page layout.

a. From Setup enter

Products Required

in the Quick Find box, then select Page Layouts under Products Consumed.

b. Click Edit next to a layout you want to change or click New to create one.

c. Select and arrange the fields on the Products Consumed page layout.

d. Click Save.

6. Add

Products Consumed

and

Products Required

related lists to the Work Order and Work Order Line Item page layouts.

For work order user permissions, see

Configure Work Order Settings

7. Customize the Product Item Transactions page layout.

a. From Setup enter

Product Items

in the Quick Find box, then select Page Layouts under Product Item Transactions.

b. Click Edit next to a layout you want to change or click New to create one.

c. Select and arrange the fields on the Product Item Transactions page layout.

d. Click Save.

Create Parts and Van Stock

Product items are products at a specific location. Create product items so you can track their usage and restock when necessary.

EDITIONS

Note: Field Service Lightning must be enabled in your org.

1. From the Product Items tab, click New.

2. Use the look up field to enter a product name within your org.

To add products to your org, see .

3. Use the look up field to enter a location within your org.

To add products to your org, see

Create Field Service Locations .

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

4. Enter the amount at this location in

Quantity on Hand

USER PERMISSIONS

Note: To add a serial number this value must be 1.

5. If needed, add a unit of measure, for example, grams, liters, or units.

Set

Quantity Unit of Measure

picklist values from the product standard fields list.

a. From Setup, enter

Products

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Fields under Products.

b. Click

Quantity Unit of Measure

To create product items:

•

“Create” on product items

c. In the

Quantity Unit of Measure Picklist Values

related list, click Edit to change the default or New to add values.

d. Make changes or enter new values.

e. Click Save.

6. If the quantity on hand is 1, enter its serial number.

7. Click Save.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Customer Service Reports

Set Up Customer Service Reports

IN THIS SECTION:

Configure Customer Service Report Settings

Control what information your customer service reports contain.

Create a Customer Service Report

Create customer service reports and provide detailed information on each work order, work order line item, and service appointment.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

Configure Customer Service Report Settings

Control what information your customer service reports contain.

Note: Field Service Lightning must be enabled in your org.

1. From Setup enter

Service Report

in the Quick Find box, then click Service Report

Templates under Field Service.

2. Click New or Edit next to a report template you’d like to adjust.

3. If you are creating a template, select an existing template as its base and give it a name.

4. On the Service Report Template create page, add the fields on page 445 to the appropriate

sections.

You can change templates and their related objects. However, when you change templates without saving, you lose your changes.

Note: Related Templates are

•

Service Appointment for Work Order

•

Service Appointment for Work Order Line Item

•

Work Order

•

Work Order Line Item

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To edit page layouts and set field history tracking:

•

“Customize Application”

To create and edit users:

•

“Manage Internal Users”

5. Click Save.

Note: When you preview the report template, it shows the system administrator profile view. Depending on field-level security settings, other profiles may not see all fields. The data shown is simulated, except for images and rich text.

6. On the page layouts of Work Orders, Work Order Line Items, and Service Appointments, add the button Create Service Report.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Create Field Service Lightning Reports

Create a Customer Service Report

Create customer service reports and provide detailed information on each work order, work order line item, and service appointment.

Note: Field Service Lightning must be enabled in your org.

1. From a work order, work order line item, or service appointment, click Create Service Report.

2. Use the lookup to find the template you’d like to use.

3. Click Create Service Report.

The service report preview displays.

4. To save the service report to the object, click Create Service Report. To save the report to the object and send a copy to the customer, click Create and Send Service Report.

The service report is saved in the Service Reports related list on its object (work order, work order line item, or service appointment).

5. To send the service report to the customer, fill out the Send Email information as appropriate.

and click Send.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To create service reports:

•

“Create” on Service

Report

Create Field Service Lightning Reports

Create report types to track field service progress in your org.

You can create a variety of custom report types to stay informed about field service records.

1. From Setup, enter

Report Types

in the Quick Find box, then select Report Types and click New Custom Report Type.

2. In the Primary Object drop-down menu, select the field service object you want to report on:

Primary Object

Operating Hours

Service Appointments

Service Resources

Description

View the operating hours of service territories and their members.

Available Secondary

Objects

Service Territories

Time Slots

Compare the differences between scheduled and actual appointment times, and analyze trends in resource assignment on appointments.

Assigned Resources

Compare service resources’ capacities, absences, and skills, and view the territories they belong to and service appointments they are assigned to. And, see which accounts or work orders list resources as preferred.

Assigned Resources

Resource Absences

Resource Capacities

Resource Preferences

Service Resource Skills

Service Territory Members

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Field Service Lightning features and managed package are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud. Work orders are also available in Professional

Edition.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or update custom report types:

•

“Manage Custom Report

Types”

To create a public reports folder:

•

“Manage Public Reports”

403

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Primary Object

Service Territories

Work Orders

Work Order Line Items

Work Types

Accounts

Assets

Cases

Contacts

Entitlements

Service Contracts

Create Field Service Lightning Reports

Description Available Secondary Objects

Compare the number and types of service appointments, work orders, and work order line items across service territories, and view the service resources who belong to each territory.

Service Appointments

Service Territory Members

Work Orders Work Order

Line Items

Compare information such as the number of appointments or line items per work order, or work order service territories. And, analyze how resource preferences and skill

Resource Preferences

Service Appointments

Skill Requirements requirements vary between work orders.

Work Order Line Items

Compare information such as work order line items’ owners, duration, and subject, and view service appointments and skill requirements associated with work order line items.

Service Appointments

Skill Requirements

Compare information such as work type duration and skill requirements.

Skill Requirements

Compare accounts’ resource preferences and work orders.

Field service objects:

Resource Preferences

Work Orders

Compare the number and characteristics of work orders associated with assets.

Field service objects:

Work Orders

Compare the number and characteristics of work orders associated with cases.

Field service objects:

Work Orders

Analyze the service appointments and work orders associated with contacts.

Field service objects:

Service Appointments

Work Orders

Compare the number and characteristics of work orders associated with entitlements.

Field service objects:

Work Orders

Compare the number and characteristics of work orders associated with service contracts.

Field service objects:

Work Orders

3. Complete the required fields and click Next.

404

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Field Service Lightning Considerations

Tip: In the

Store in Category

drop-down 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.

Field Service Lightning Considerations

Before you set up Field Service Lightning, review these important considerations about its features.

IN THIS SECTION:

Field Service Lightning Limits and Limitations

Learn about the limits and limitations that exist for Field Service Lightning.

Location Tracking in Field Service Lightning

When you add a street address to certain types of field service records, Salesforce calculates the address’s latitude, longitude, and location accuracy. You can reference this data, which is visible only in the API, in any custom field service applications.

Gain insight into the ways you can and should use work orders to make your business run smoothly.

Field Service Lightning Limits and Limitations

Learn about the limits and limitations that exist for Field Service Lightning.

Linked Articles

Linked articles are Knowledge articles attached to work orders or work order line items. They include the following limitations.

•

The Article widget and Feed Articles Tool aren’t available in the feed view.

•

Quick actions and global actions aren’t supported for linked articles.

•

The Article Toolbar on the Knowledge home page doesn’t include the option to attach articles to work orders or work order line items.

•

The Linked Work Orders and Linked Work Order Line Items related lists on articles aren’t available in Lightning Experience or Salesforce1.

•

Linked articles are view-only in Lightning Experience and Salesforce1.

•

In Lightning Experience, clicking an article link in a feed item redirects you to the article page in Salesforce Classic. In Salesforce1, linked articles can’t be accessed from feed items.

Operating Hours

You can’t create custom fields on operating hours or time slots.

Service Territories

•

A service territory hierarchy can contain up to 500 territories.

Work Orders

•

A work order hierarchy can have up to 10,000 work orders.

•

A work order line item hierarchy can have up to 10,000 work order line items.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Field Service Lightning features and managed package are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud. Work orders are also available in Professional

Edition.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Location Tracking in Field Service Lightning

Salesforce1

The Field Service Lightning standard features and managed package are available in all versions of the Salesforce1 mobile app. They include the following limitations:

•

In the Salesforce1 downloadable app for iOS:

–

You can’t create service appointments, and the Recent related list isn’t available.

–

You can’t create new 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 Salesforce1. 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. Once the record is created, the parent record field lists the parent work order as expected.

•

The dispatcher console, which is part of the managed package, isn’t available in Salesforce1.

Location Tracking in Field Service Lightning

This location data feature, known as “geocoding”, is enabled for all supported field service objects when you enable Field Service Lightning. In the API, you’ll notice values in the following three fields on work orders, work order line items, service appointments, service territories, resource absences, and service territory members:

Field Name

Latitude

Longitude

GeocodeAccuracy

Description

The latitude of the street address.

The longitude of the street address.

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)

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Location Tracking in Field Service Lightning

Keeping Geocoding Data Current

Salesforce periodically refreshes these three geocoding fields to ensure their accuracy. The refreshes are managed by a feature known as “clean rules” (because they keep your data clean and current!). A record’s geocoding fields are refreshed when:

•

The record is created or updated

•

The record type’s clean rule is deactivated and reactivated

Note:

•

Allow some time for the geocoding fields to refresh. The amount of processing time varies based on how many records are being updated at once.

•

If bulk geocoding is turned off for a clean rule, deactivating or reactivating the rule does not refresh the geocoding fields.

Bulk geocoding is enabled by default.

You can keep an eye on the status of a record’s geocoding data in several ways.

•

If you’re using Salesforce Classic:

Add the Clean This Record with Data.com 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 Data.com Clean Statuses . The

In Sync

status means that your geocoding data is current.

–

A Clean link which lets you manually run an instant refresh.

•

If you’re using Lightning Experience

On the record, select Check Clean Status in the action drop-down menu to view its geocoding status.

Turn Off GPS Tracking for Individual Users

If your org has tracking turned on at the org level, but a few technicians need it off, add the

Exclude Technician from

Geolocation Tracking

permission on their user profile.

How to Opt Out

If you’re already using another geocoding service and prefer not to use this feature, you can opt out of Field Service Lightning geocoding.

1. From Setup, enter

Data.com

in the Quick Find box, then select Clean Rules under Data.com Administration.

2. Find the entries for Field Service Lightning and click Deactivate next to each rule:

•

Geocodes for Work Order Address

•

Geocodes for Work Order Line Item Address

•

Geocodes for Service Appointment Address

•

Geocodes for Service Territory Address

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Considerations for Using Work Orders

•

Geocodes for Service Territory Member Address

•

Geocodes for Resource Absence Address

Note:

•

If you’re using the Field Service Lightning managed package, opting out of geocoding means that latitude, longitude, and geocode accuracy are no longer calculated for field service records. Without this geocoding data, the scheduling optimizer doesn’t function properly.

•

If you were using work orders before Winter ’17, enabling Field Service Lightning automatically turns on geocoding for all existing work orders in your org and populates their geocoding fields. If you don’t enable Field Service Lightning, the geocoding feature isn’t available for work orders.

SEE ALSO:

Field Service Lightning Guidelines

Considerations for Using Work Orders

Gain insight into the ways you can and should use work orders to make your business run smoothly.

IN THIS SECTION:

How Work Orders Fit Into Your Support Process

Work orders are a handy support tool, particularly if you offer field service. You can incorporate work orders into your support process in several ways.

How Pricing Works on Work Orders

Work orders and work order line items have several price-related fields. Find out how they interact and how to use them.

Apex Code Samples for Work Orders

Use these Apex samples to customize and automate the role of work orders in your support process.

How Work Orders Fit Into Your Support Process

Work orders are a handy support tool, particularly if you offer field service. You can incorporate work orders into your support process in several ways.

Here are some recommended approaches:

Situation How to Use Work Orders to Address the

Situation

Fixing a broken asset: A customer purchases an asset (like a car) from you. They experience a problem with the asset, so they call you to report the problem. An agent creates a case from the call, and determines that a technician must be sent to the customer to repair the asset.

1. The agent creates a “Repair Asset” work order for the asset with a brief description of the problem.

2. The agent creates a service appointment on the work order and assigns it to an available service resource.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Considerations for Using Work Orders

Situation How to Use Work Orders to Address the Situation

3. The service resource is dispatched to repair the asset.

4. The service resource learns that a crucial replacement part is missing. She changes the status of the service appointment to

Completed

and creates a second service appointment on the work order to install the replacement part.

5. When the part is installed and the second appointment is completed, the assigned service resource changes the status on both the service appointment and its parent work order to

Completed

6. The agent closes the case.

Performing preventive maintenance: A customer purchases an asset from you and covers it with a five-year preventive maintenance contract. The contract entitles the customer to one preventive maintenance checkup each year. The annual maintenance checkup is represented in Salesforce by an entitlement that’s linked to the asset record.

1. A service agent creates an “Annual Maintenance Checkup” work order on the asset.

2. The agent adds line items to the work order which represent the maintenance tasks that the technician must complete.

3. The agent creates a service appointment on the work order and assigns it to a service resource.

4. The service resource is dispatched to complete the maintenance check.

5. As each line item on the work order is completed, the resource changes the line item status to

Completed

. When all line items are complete, the resource changes the status of both the service appointment and its parent work order to

Completed

6. For the following annual maintenance on the asset, the agent can quickly create a clone of this work order.

While these approaches reflect typical uses of work orders, there are many ways to customize the way you use work orders. Here are some examples.

•

Create a “New Work Order” quick action on assets, cases, and accounts.

Note:

Entitlements and service contracts don’t support quick actions.

•

Set up a quick action on work orders that automatically updates new work orders’ account, asset, and contact fields to match their parent record.

•

If your org uses hierarchical assets, track specific subtasks more accurately by associating work order line items with different assets.

For example, a work order linked to the “automobile” asset can have a line item linked to the child “headlight” asset. You can add the Work Order Line Items related list to asset page layouts to let users view all line items associated with an asset.

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For Apex code samples that you can use to customize work orders in your org, see

Apex Code Samples for Work Orders .

SEE ALSO:

How Pricing Works on Work Orders

Work orders and work order line items have several price-related fields. Find out how they interact and how to use them.

Work orders contain the following price-related fields. If you intend to use these fields, add them to work order page layouts.

Work Order Field

Discount

Subtotal

Total Price

Grand Total

Price Book

Tax

What It Represents

(Read only) The weighted average of the discounts on all line items on the work order. It can be any positive number up to 100.

(Read only) The total of the work order line items before discounts and taxes are applied.

(Read only) The total of the work order line items’ price after discounts but before tax is added.

(Read only) The total price of the work order with tax added.

The price book associated with the work order.

Adding a price book to the work order lets you link each work order line item to a product included in the price book.

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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

And work order line items contain these price-related fields. If you intend to use these fields, add them to work order line item page layouts.

Work Order Line Item Field

Discount

What It Represents

The percent discount to be applied to the line item’s subtotal. You can enter a number with or without the percent symbol and you can use up to two decimal places.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Considerations for Using Work Orders

Work Order Line Item Field

Subtotal

Total Price

List Price

Product

Unit Price

What It Represents

(Read only) The line item’s unit price multiplied by the quantity.

(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.

(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.

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.

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.

When filling out price fields on work orders and their line items, keep these guidelines in mind:

•

To apply a discount to a work order, apply the discount at the line item level. If your work order doesn’t have line items, its discount is zero.

•

When filling out price fields on a work order, just fill out the

Price Book

and

Tax

fields. The

Discount

Subtotal

Total

Price

, and

Grand Total

fields are all automatically calculated based on line item fields.

•

When filling out price fields on a work order line item, just fill out the

Product

and

Discount

fields. The

Subtotal

Total

Price

List Price

, and

Unit Price

fields are all automatically calculated based on other line item fields.

•

Work order line items don’t have to be linked to a product. For example, you might prefer to use work order line items 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.

Note:

•

You can’t delete a price book that’s linked to a work order.

•

You can’t delete a product that’s linked to a work order line item.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Considerations for Using Work Orders

•

You can’t delete a price book entry that’s linked to a work order line item. Price book entries are linked to work order line items via the

Product

lookup field.

•

You can’t remove a price book from a work order if its line items are linked to products from that price book.

•

Products cannot be added to work order line items in Lightning Experience. Use Salesforce Classic or the API. If a work order line item was created in Salesforce Classic and includes a product, the quantity and unit price can be updated in Lightning

Experience, but the product can’t be updated.

SEE ALSO:

Apex Code Samples for Work Orders

Use these Apex samples to customize and automate the role of work orders in your support process.

Tip:

New to Apex? Check out the Force.com Apex Code Developer’s Guide .

EDITIONS

Sample Trigger 1

This trigger prevents users from closing a work order unless all its line items have been closed.

It’s a good way to ensure that all scheduled tasks are completed.

To define a work order trigger in your org:

1. From Setup, enter

Work Orders

in the Quick Find box, then click Triggers under Work

Orders.

2. Click New.

3. Copy the trigger text and paste it into the text field.

4. Click Save.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud trigger ValidateWorkOrderLineItem on WorkOrder (before update) { for(WorkOrder w : Trigger.New) { if(w.Status =='Closed'){

List<WorkOrderLineItem> woLineItemList = [Select wo.Status

From WorkOrderLineItem wo where wo.WorkOrderId=:w.Id]; if(woLineItemList.isEmpty()==false){ for(WorkOrderLineItem woLineItem : woLineItemList){ if(woLineItem.Status != 'Closed'){ w.addError('You cannot close a work order until all of its line items are closed.');

}

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Considerations for Using Work Orders

Sample Trigger 2

This trigger automatically closes a case when a work order on the case is marked Closed. If a case has multiple work orders, the trigger fires when the first work order is marked Closed. That way, the support agent doesn’t have to manually close the case after the related work is complete.

trigger CloseCaseWhenWoId on WorkOrder (after update) { for (WorkOrder wo: Trigger.new) { try { if (wo.Status == 'closed') {

Case ca = [SELECT Status from case where id = :wo.CaseId]; ca.Status ='closed'; update ca;

}

} catch (Exception e) {

}

Trigger 2 Unit Test

You can set up Apex unit tests in the developer console to scan your code for any issues. To keep things running smoothly, Salesforce requires at least three-quarters of your Apex code lines to be covered by tests. This unit test applies to Sample Trigger 2.

@isTest private class WOTriggerTest { static testMethod void validateWO() {

Case ca = new Case(); ca.Origin ='Phone'; ca.Status ='new'; insert(ca);

WorkOrder wo = new WorkOrder(); wo.Subject = 'test'; wo.Status ='closed'; wo.CaseId = ca.Id; insert(wo); update(wo);

Case ca1 = [SELECT Status from Case where id= :ca.Id];

System.assertEquals('Closed', ca1.Status);

}

Work Order Apex Class

Apex classes reduce the size of your triggers and make it easier to reuse and maintain Apex code. This class, which you can reference in triggers, creates a work order with one line item.

public class CreateWorkOrderLineItem{ public WorkOrderLineItem createWorkOrderLineItem(){

WorkOrder wo = new WorkOrder(); wo.subject ='title'; insert wo;

WorkOrderLineItem woli = new WorkOrderLineItem(); woli.workOrderId = wo.Id; woli.description = 'abcd'; return woli;

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Field Service Lightning Guidelines

}

Work Order Apex Class Unit Test

This unit test applies to the Work Order Apex Class.

@isTest public class TestWorkOrderLineItem { static testMethod void testCreateWorkOrderLineItem()

{

CreateWorkOrderLineItem cwoLi = new CreateWorkOrderLineItem(); cwoLi.createWorkOrderLineItem();

}

SEE ALSO:

Guidelines for Using Service Territories

Field Service Lightning Guidelines

Learn how and when to use Field Service Lightning features.

IN THIS SECTION:

Service territories represent regions in which your team performs field service work. Learn how to create and manage service territories.

Service resources are users who can perform field service work. Learn how to create and manage service resources.

Guidelines for Using Service Appointments

Work orders help you track tasks to be performed on a product. Learn how to create and manage work orders.

A service appointment is an appointment for a field service technician to perform work for a customer. Learn how to create and manage service appointments.

Guidelines for Using Knowledge with Work Orders

You can attach Knowledge articles to work orders and work order line items to help technicians in the field access important procedural info, guidelines, specs, and more.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Guidelines for Using Service Territories

Guidelines for Using Service Territories

Service territories represent regions in which your team performs field service work. Learn how to create and manage service territories.

Viewing Service Territories

View service territories on the Service Territories tab. You can also view a service resource’s territories on the Service Territories related list on the resource detail page.

Creating Service Territories

If you want to use service territories, determine which territories you need to create. Depending on how your business works, you may decide to create territories based on cities, counties, or other factors. If you plan to build out a hierarchy of service territories, create the highest-level territories first. Service territory hierarchies can contain up to 500 territories.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

Create service territories from the Service Territories tab in Salesforce. After you create a territory, you can add members to it via the Service Territory Members related list. Service territory members are resources who work within the territory, and associating them with a territory ensures that they’re assigned to appointments near their home base.

Assigning Service Territories to Service Resources

You can link a service resource to multiple territories to indicate where they are available to work. Assign territories to a resource via the Service Territories related list on the resource detail page, or via the Service Territory Members related list on the territory detail page.

USER PERMISSIONS

To view service territories:

•

“Read” on service territories

To create service territories:

•

“Create” on service territories

When you assign a territory to a resource, use the

Type

field to indicate whether the territory is a primary, secondary, or relocation territory for the resource.

To delete service territories:

•

“Delete” on service territories

•

The primary territory is typically the territory where the resource works most often—for instance, near their home base. Resources can have only one primary territory.

•

Secondary territories are territories where the resource can be assigned to appointments if needed. A resource can have more than one secondary territory.

To assign service resources to service territories:

•

“Edit” on service territories

•

Relocation territories represent temporary moves. If you’re using the Field Service Lightning managed package with the scheduling optimizer, resources with relocation territories are always assigned to services within their relocation territories during the specified relocation dates. If they don’t have a relocation territory, the primary territories are favored over the secondary.

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 resources who were members no longer have any connection to the territory.

SEE ALSO:

Guidelines for Using Service Resources on page 416.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Guidelines for Using Service Resources

Guidelines for Using Service Resources

Service resources are users who can perform field service work. Learn how to create and manage service resources.

Viewing Service Resources

View service resources on the Service Resources tab. In addition:

•

Resources that are assigned to a service appointment appear in the Assigned Resources related list on the appointment detail page

•

Resources that belong to a service territory appear in the Service Territory Members related list on the territory detail page

Creating Service Resources

Create service resources from the Service Resources tab. A user can have up to two associated service resource records if each record is a different Resource Type (Technician or Dispatcher)/

Assigning Service Resources to Service Appointments

Assign a resource to a service appointment via the Assigned Resources related list on the appointment detail page. If needed, you can modify the related list layout from the Assigned

Resources node in Setup. You can assign multiple resources to an appointment.

Deactivating Service Resources

For tracking purposes, resources can only be deactivated, not deleted. To deactivate a user, deselect Active on their detail page.

Deactivating a user deactivates the related service resource. You can’t create a service resource that is linked to an inactive user.

Viewing Service Resource Schedules

The Service Appointments related list shows all appointments that a resource is assigned to, while the Absences related list on a resource lets you define periods of time when a resource is unavailable to work. Unless you’re using the Field Service Lightning managed package with the scheduling optimizer, resources can still be assigned appointments that conflict with their absences.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

To view service resources:

•

“Read” on service resources

To create service resources:

•

“Create” on service resources

To assign service resources to service appointments:

•

“Edit” on service appointments AND

“View” on service resources

To deactivate service resources:

•

“Edit” on service resources

Tip:

Create a trigger that sends an approval request to a supervisor when a resource creates an absence.

If you’re not using the Field Service Lightning managed package, a calendar view isn’t available for individual service resources.

Adding Preferred Service Resources to Accounts

See

SEE ALSO:

Create Field Service Lightning Reports

416

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Guidelines for Using Work Orders

USER PERMISSIONS

To view the Work Orders tab, work orders, and work order line items:

To create or clone work orders:

To edit work orders:

To delete work orders:

To create, edit, and delete work order line items:

“Read” on work orders

“Create” on work orders

“Edit” on work orders

“Delete” on work orders

“Edit” on work orders

Guidelines for Using Work Orders

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

Work orders help you track tasks to be performed on a product. Learn how to create and manage work orders.

Viewing Work Orders

Work orders can be associated with accounts, assets, cases, contacts, entitlements, service appointments, service contracts, and other work orders. View work orders on the Work Orders tab. The Work Orders related list on the following record detail pages also lists the work orders associated with a record:

•

Accounts

•

Assets

•

Cases

•

Contacts

•

Entitlements

•

Service contracts

Tip: If your Salesforce admin has set up the console to include work orders, click the Console tab to view and edit work orders and their associated records in one place.

Creating Work Orders

You can create and edit work orders from the Work Orders tab or the Work Orders related list on supported objects. Depending on how work orders are set up in your organization, this related list may not be available on some records.

Tip: When you create a work order, add line items to the work order via the Work Order Line Items related list. Work order line items represent specific tasks that a technician must perform to complete the work order. They can be marked as completed one by one, and make it easier to track and improve field service processes. Pricing details like discounts and unit price are set at the line item level on work orders.

Deleting Work Orders

Delete work orders on the work order’s detail page or the Work Orders related list. Deleting a work order moves it to the Recycle Bin.

Any notes, attachments, activities, line items, and service appointments associated with the work order are also deleted. If you undelete the work order, the associated items are undeleted.

Work Order and Work Order Line Item Status

Work orders and their line items have a status to track progress towards completing the tasks or activities.

Picklist Status

None

Status Category

None

Description

Default value

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Guidelines for Using Work Orders

Picklist Status

New

Canceled

In Progress

On Hold

Completed

Cannot Complete

Closed

Status Category

New

Canceled

In Progress

On Hold

Completed

Cannot Complete

Closed

Description

New work order, no activity has started

Work is canceled, typically before any work is started

Work has started

Temporary pause in work

Work completed successfully

Work couldn’t be completed successfully

All work and associated activity is finished

Customizing Work Order Status Values

In orgs created during or after Winter ’17, the default status values on both work orders and work order line items are automatically assigned to their corresponding status category. For example, the

New

status has a status category of

New

. However, if work orders were enabled in your org before Winter ’17, existing status values have a status category of

None

which can’t be updated. If you want to change the status category from

None

for an existing status value, a little housekeeping in Setup is necessary. These steps apply to status values on both work orders and work order line items.

Step

Step 1. Ensure you have all original seven status categories

Example

If you have deleted or changed the original status values, recreate status until you have all seven:

•

New

—Work order was created, but there hasn’t yet been any activity.

•

In Progress

—Work has begun.

•

On Hold

—Work is paused.

•

Completed

—Work is complete.

•

Cannot Complete

—Work could not be completed.

•

Closed

—All work and associated activity is complete.

•

Canceled

—Work is canceled, typically before any work began.

Note: Your default setup may have hidden status categories. You must also create new status values for those status categories.

Step 2. For each status value, create a new “dummy” status value with a modified name and an appropriate status category.

If you have a status value of

Completed

, create an additional status value with these settings:

•

Name:

Completed_1

•

Status Category:

Completed

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Guidelines for Using Work Orders

Step Example

Note: Your default setup may have hidden status categories. You must also create new status values for those status categories.

Step 3. Edit the status category of the original status value that your dummy value was based on.

Edit the

Completed

status value so its status category is

Completed

Step 4. To keep things tidy, delete the dummy value.

Delete the

Completed_1

value that you created.

Parent and Child Work Orders

Child work orders are complete work orders. They are simply related to each other in hierarchy of parent and related child records.

Use child work orders when you want to manage each one of them as individual entities. Child Work Orders can be scheduled, given statuses, and assigned. They can each have their own set of work order line items to describe the tasks required to perform the work.

Cancellations are a common reason to use parent and child work orders. When work is canceled, you can use the work order status to indicate it’s been canceled and create a new related child work order. This allows your company to track first-time rates and analyze cancellations reasons.

Sharing Work Orders

You may be able to grant extra access to work orders beyond what your org’s default sharing model allows. However, you can't make the sharing model more restrictive than the default.

To see who has access to a work order, click Sharing on the work order’s detail page. Work order line items inherit their parent work order’s sharing settings.

To learn how to set up sharing rules to control work order sharing, see Create Work Order Sharing Rules.

How Work Orders and Service Appointments Work Together

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 the details about the site visits and work performed.

Service appointments have a parent record. Field Service Lightning is optimized to use work orders and work order line items as the parent records of Service Appointments. Work orders and work order line items provide important capabilities such as relationships to pricebooks and Salesforce Knowledge. The technician experience in the Field Service Lightning mobile app is also optimized for service appointments with work orders or work order line items as the parent record.

How Work Orders and Assets Work Together

Linking work orders to assets helps you track the work that is performed on the asset, whether it’s installation, repair, or preventive maintenance. You can link a work order to an asset via the Work Orders related list on the asset detail page or the Asset lookup field on the work order. When you’re linking work orders to assets, follow these guidelines:

•

If a work order is related to a particular asset, link the work order to the asset in Salesforce so you can easily track the work.

•

If a case is opened because a customer experiences a problem with an asset, you may need to create a work order to inspect or repair the asset. Link the work order to the case so the case owner can track its progress.

•

If you need to track periodic standard maintenance on assets, link the related work order to the entitlement or service contract that accounts for the maintenance.

Reporting on Work Orders

Create custom report types to keep track of work orders in your org. For details, see

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Guidelines for Using Service Appointments

Note: You can also use the Object Milestones custom report type to view work orders with milestones in your org. The

Milestone Status

and

Milestone Status Icon

fields are not available in work order reports.

Attaching Knowledge Articles to Work Orders

You can attach Knowledge articles to work orders and work order line items so field technicians can quickly access product specs,

instructions, and more. To learn more, see Guidelines for Using Knowledge with Work Orders

SEE ALSO:

Guidelines for Using Service Appointments

A service appointment is an appointment for a field service technician to perform work for a customer. Learn how to create and manage service appointments.

Viewing Service Appointments

View service appointments on the Service Appointments tab. Service appointments also appear on several record detail pages:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

•

A service resource’s assigned appointments appear in the Service Appointments related list on the resource detail page.

•

A record’s related service appointments appear in the Service Appointments related list on the record detail page. Accounts, assets, opportunities, work orders, and work order line items can have service appointments.

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

Creating Service Appointments

Create service appointments via the Service Appointments tab or from the Service Appointments related list on a supported record. You can’t create service appointments from the Service

Appointments related list on a service resource, but you can assign the resource to existing service appointments.

Deleting Service Appointments

You can delete a service appointment to indicate that it has been canceled. Deleting a record deletes its child service appointments.

Associating Service Appointments with Other Records

Service appointments always have a parent record, which can be a work order, work order line item, opportunity, account, or asset. The type of parent record tells you about the nature of the service appointment:

•

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 are where you add the details about scheduling and ownership.

•

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.

USER PERMISSIONS

To view service appointments:

•

“Read” on service appointments

To create service appointments:

•

“Create” on service appointments

To delete service appointments:

•

“Delete” on service appointments

To assign service resources to service appointments:

•

“Edit” on service appointment AND

“View” on service resources

For example, suppose you create a work order to track a customer’s annual refrigerator maintenance. In the Service Appointments related list on the work order, you create an Annual Maintenance appointment.

420

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Guidelines for Using Knowledge with Work Orders

During the appointment, the technician completes most of the maintenance but determines that a replacement part must be ordered and installed. The technician changes the appointment status to

Cannot Complete

, and a second service appointment is created on the work order to track the installation. When the second appointment is completed and it is determined that the fridge is fully repaired, the second appointment and the work order can then be closed. Easy as pie!

SEE ALSO:

Guidelines for Using Knowledge with Work Orders

You can attach Knowledge articles to work orders and work order line items to help technicians in the field access important procedural info, guidelines, specs, and more.

Suggesting an Article

From the Field Service Settings page, you can set which fields on work orders and work order line items are used to suggest relevant articles.

1. From Setup enter

Field Service

in the Quick Find box, then select Field Service

Settings under Field Service.

2. In the work order and work order line item field lists, select which fields you want the search engine to use when suggesting relevant articles from your knowledge base.

3. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

USER PERMISSIONS

Attaching an Article

You can attach an article to a work order or work order line item in two ways:

•

Navigate to the record to which you want to attach the article. In the Knowledge One widget in the console, search for an article. In the article’s action menu, click Attach to

Work Order or Attach to Work Order Line Item.

•

Navigate to the record to which you want to attach the article. In the Articles related list, click Find Articles. Use the search to locate your article, then click Attach to Work Order or Attach to Work Order Line Item in the article’s action menu.

Viewing an Attached Article

Articles attached to a work order or work order line item appear in the Knowledge One widget and the Articles related list on the record. View an article by clicking its title. You can also navigate to attached articles from the feed of a work order or work order line item if feed tracking for related lists is enabled.

To attach or detach an article on a work order or work order line item:

•

“Read” on work orders

AND “Read” on the article type AND

Knowledge enabled

To edit page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

To edit console layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

AND “Service Cloud

User”

On article detail pages, the Linked Work Orders and Linked Work Order Line Items related lists show which records an article is attached to.

Detaching an Article

You can detach an article from a work order or work order line item in two ways:

•

Navigate to the record that the article is attached to. In the Knowledge One widget in the console, click Detach from Work

Order or Detach from Work Order Line Item in the article’s action menu.

•

Navigate to the record that the article is attached to. In the Articles related list, click Detach next to the article.

Updating an Attached Article

If an article is out of date, you can publish a new version by navigating to the article and clicking Edit.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Guidelines for Using Knowledge with Work Orders

When you attach an article to a record, that version of the article stays associated with the record even if later versions are published.

If needed, you can detach and reattach an article to a record to ensure that the record is linked to the latest version of the article.

The

Linked Article Version

field on the linked article detail page leads to the attached version.

Managing Linked Articles

Customize linked articles’ page layouts, fields, validation rules, and more from the Linked Articles node in Setup under Knowledge.

To learn how to configure your console and page layouts so articles can be attached to work orders and work order line items, see

(1) View and change the articles attached to a record from the Articles related list.

(2) View an article’s properties by clicking View, or view the article itself by clicking its title. Click Detach to remove the article from the record.

(3) The Knowledge One widget in the console sidebar lets you manage attached articles, view suggested articles, and search the

Knowledge base.

(4) Each article’s action menu contains the option to attach or detach it.

Warning:

•

The Article widget and Feed Articles Tool aren’t available in the feed view.

•

Quick actions and global actions aren’t supported for linked articles.

•

In the Article Toolbar on the Knowledge home page, you can’t attach an article to a work order or work order line item.

•

The Linked Work Orders and Linked Work Order Line Items related lists on articles aren’t available in Lightning Experience or

Salesforce1.

•

Linked articles are view-only in Lightning Experience and Salesforce1.

•

In Lightning Experience, clicking an article link in a feed item redirects you to the article page in Salesforce Classic. In Salesforce1, linked articles can’t be accessed from feed items.

SEE ALSO:

Linked Article Fields

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Field Service Lightning Object Fields

Field Service Lightning Object Fields

Learn about the fields available on Field Service Lightning standard objects.

IN THIS SECTION:

Service territories and service territory members have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Operating Hours Fields

Operating hours and time slots have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Service resources and their related objects have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Skills represent certifications and areas of expertise in your field service workforce. Skills and their related objects have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Work orders have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Parts and Van Stock Fields

Work order line items have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Work Type Fields

Work types have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Location Fields

Locations, Addresses, and Associated Locations have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Product Items, Products Required, Products Consumed, and Product Item Transactions have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Customer Service Report Fields

Service appointments have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Service Reports can have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Linked Article Fields

A linked article is a Knowledge article that is attached to a work order or work order line item. Linked articles have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Service Territory Fields

Service Territory Fields

Service territories and service territory members have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Service territories represent regions in which field service work can be performed. They have the following fields.

Field Name

Active

Address

Description

Name

Operating Hours

Parent Territory

Top-Level Territory

Description

Indicates whether the service territory is meant to be used. If a territory is inactive, you can’t add members to it or link it to work orders, work order line items, or service appointments.

An address to associate with the territory. You may want to list the address of the territory’s headquarters.

The description of the territory.

The name of the territory.

The territory’s operating hours, which indicate when service appointments within the territory should occur. Service resources who are members of a territory automatically inherit the territory’s operating hours unless different hours are specified on the service territory member record.

The territory’s parent service territory, if it has one. For example, a

Northern

California

territory can have a

State of California

territory as its parent.

(Read only) The top-level territory in a hierarchy of service territories. Depending on where a territory lies in the hierarchy, its top-level territory might be the same as its parent.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

Service territory members are service resources who are available to work in the service territory. They have the following fields.

Field Name

Address

End Date

Description

The member’s address. You may want to list the related service resource’s address in this field.

The date when the service resource is no longer a member of the territory. If the resource will be working in the territory for the foreseeable future, leave this field blank. This field is mainly useful for indicating when a temporary relocation ends.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field Name

Member Number

Operating Hours

Service Resource

Service Territory

Start Date

Territory Type

Service Territory Fields

Description

(Read only) An auto-generated number identifying the service territory member.

The member’s operating hours, which are inherited from the service territory.

The service resource assigned to the service territory.

The service territory that the service resource is assigned to.

The date when the service resource becomes a member of the service territory.

Primary, Secondary, or Relocation.

•

The primary territory is typically the territory where the resource works most often—for example, near their home base. Service resources can only have one primary territory.

•

Secondary territories are territories where the resource can be assigned to appointments if needed. Service resources can have multiple secondary territories.

•

Relocation territories represent temporary moves for service resources. If you’re using the Field Service Lightning managed package with the scheduling optimizer, resources with relocation territories are always assigned to services within their relocation territories during the specified relocation dates; if they don’t have a relocation territory, the primary territories are favored over the secondary.

For example, a service resource might have the following territories:

•

Primary territory:

West Chicago

•

Secondary territories:

–

East Chicago

–

South Chicago

•

Relocation territory:

Manhattan

, for a three-month period

SEE ALSO:

Guidelines for Using Service Territories

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Operating Hours Fields

Operating Hours Fields

Operating hours and time slots have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Operating hours can be assigned to service territories, service territory members, and accounts to indicate when they are available for field service work. Create operating hours via the Operating

Hours tab in Salesforce. Operating hours have the following fields.

Field Name

Description

Name

Time Zone

Description

The description of the operating hours. Add any details that aren’t included in the name.

The name of the operating hours. For example:

Summer Hours

Winter Hours

Peak

Season Hours

The time zone that the operating hours fall within.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

Time slots represent a time period within a day when field service work can be completed. After you create operating hours, create time slots for each day via the Time Slots related list. Time slots have the following fields.

Field Name

Day of Week

End Time

Name

Operating Hours

Start Time

Type

Description

The day of the week when the time slot takes place.

The time when the time slot ends.

The name of the time slot. The name is auto-populated to a day and time format—for example,

Monday 9:00 AM - 10:00

—but you can manually update it if you wish.

The operating hours that the time slot belongs to. An operating hours’ time slots appear in the Operating Hours related list.

The time when the time slot starts.

The type of time slot. Possible values are

Normal

and

Extended

. You may choose to use

Extended

to represent overtime shifts.

Note: You can’t create custom fields on operating hours or time slots.

SEE ALSO:

Create Operating Hours

426

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Service Resource Fields

Service Resource Fields

Service resources and their related objects have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Service resources are users who can complete field service work. They have the following fields.

Field Name

Active

Capacity-Based

Description

Include in Scheduling

Optimization

Name

Resource Type

User

Description

When selected, this option means that the resource can be assigned to work orders. For service tracking purposes, resources can’t be deleted, so deactivating a resource is the best way to send them into retirement.

Capacity-based resources are limited to a certain number of hours or appointments in a specified time period.

Tip:

The Capacities related list shows a resource’s capacity.

The description of the resource.

When selected, this option means that the service scheduling optimizer can assign this resource to work orders during the optimization process. Use only if the Field Service Lightning managed package is installed. Only users with the “Field Service Scheduling” permission set license can be included in scheduling optimization.

The resource’s name. You’ll likely want this to be the name or title of the associated user.

Indicates whether a resource is a technician or a dispatcher. Resources who are dispatchers can’t be capacity-based or included in scheduling optimization. Only users with the

“Field Service Dispatcher” permission set license can be dispatchers.

Note: You can’t add additional resource types.

The associated user.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

Resource absences are periods of time in which a service resource isn’t available to work. They have the following fields.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Service Resource Fields

Field Name

Absence ID

Absence Type

Address

Description

End Time

Resource Name

Start Time

Description

(Read only) An auto-generated number identifying the absence.

The type of absence:

Meeting

Training

Medical

, or

Vacation

. You can add custom values if needed.

The address associated with the absence.

The description of the absence.

The date and time when the absence ends.

The absent service resource.

The date and time when the absence begins.

A service resource’s capacity indicates how much work the resource can perform in a specified time period. Capacity records have the following fields.

Field Name

End Date

Name

Hours per Time Period

Service Resource

Start Date

Time Period

Work Items per Time Period

Description

The date the capacity ends; for example, the end date of a contract.

(Read only) An auto-generated number identifying the capacity record.

The number of hours that the resource can work per time period.

The associated resource.

The date the capacity goes into effect.

Days, Hours, or Months. For example, if a resource can work 80 hours per month, the capacity’s

Time Period

would be

Month

and

Hours per Time Period

would be

The total number of service appointments that the resource can complete per time period.

SEE ALSO:

For tips on how to define skill level, see Configure Skill Settings on

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Skill Fields for Field Service

Skill Fields for Field Service

Skills represent a certification or area of expertise. They are created in Setup, and have the following fields.

Field Name

Name

Description

Developer Name

Description

The name of the skill.

The description of the skill.

The unique name of the skill in the API.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

Note: When you create a skill, leave the “Assign Users” and “Assign Profiles” sections blank. They are specific to Live Agent, which also uses skills.

Service resource skills are a skill that is assigned to a service resource. They appear in the Skills related list on service resource detail pages, and have the following fields.

Field Name

End Date

Service Resource

Skill

Skill Level

Start Date

Description

The date when the skill expires. For example, if a resource must be re-certified after six months, the end date would be the date their certification expires.

The resource who possesses the skill.

The skill the resource possesses.

The resource’s skill level. Skill level can range from zero to 99.99.

page 388.

The date when the resource gains the skill. For example, if the skill represents a certification, the start date would be the date of certification.

Skill requirements are skills that a resource needs to complete a task. They appear in the Skill Requirements related list on work type, work order, and work order line item detail pages, and have the following fields.

Field Name

Related Record

Skill

Description

The work order, work order line item, or work type that the skill is required on.

The required skill.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Work Order Fields

Field Name

Skill Level

Description

The required skill level. Skill level can range from zero to 99.99.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Skills for Field Service

Work Order Fields

Work orders have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Field

Account

Address

Asset

Business Hours

Case

City

Contact

Country

Currency ISO Code

Description

Discount

Duration

Description

The account associated with the work order.

The compound form of the address where the work order is completed. The work order inherits its address from the associated account. The work order’s service appointments and line items inherit its address, though the address on line items can be updated.

The asset associated with the work order.

The business hours associated with the work order.

The case associated with the work order.

The city where the work order is completed.

Maximum length is 40 characters.

The contact associated with the work order.

The country where the work order is completed.

Maximum length is 80 characters.

The ISO code for any currency allowed by the organization. Available only for orgs with the multicurrency feature enabled.

The description of the work order. We recommend describing the steps a user must complete to mark the work order

Completed

(Read Only) The weighted average of the discounts on all line items on the work order. It can be any positive number up to 100.

The estimated time required to complete the work order. Specify the duration unit in the

Duration Type

field.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field

Duration Type

End Date

Entitlement

Entitlement Process End Time

Entitlement Process Start Time

Geocode Accuracy

Grand Total

Is Closed

Last Modified Date

Last Viewed Date

Latitude

Line Items

Longitude

Milestone Status

Milestone Status Icon

Owner

431

Work Order Fields

Description

The unit of the duration: Minutes or Hours.

The date when the work order is completed. This field is blank unless you set up automation to configure it. For a sample workflow rule that configures the

Start Date

field (a similar field), see below.

The entitlement associated with the work order.

The time the work order exits an entitlement process. If an entitlement process applies to a work order, this field appears.

The time the work order entered an entitlement process. If an entitlement process applies to a work order, this field appears.

The level of accuracy of a location’s geographical coordinates compared with its physical address. A geocoding service typically provides this value based on the address’s latitude and longitude coordinates.

(Read Only) The total price of the work order with tax added.

Indicates whether the work order is closed.

Tip: Use this field to report on closed versus open work orders.

The date when the work order was last modified.

The date when the work order was last viewed.

Used with

Longitude

to specify the precise geolocation of the address where the work order is completed. Acceptable values are numbers between –90 and 90 with up to 15 decimal places.

(Read Only) The number of work order line items on the work order.

Used with

Latitude

to specify the precise geolocation of the address where the work order is completed. Acceptable values are numbers between –180 and 180 with up to 15 decimal places.

A milestone is a step in an entitlement process. It can have one of three statuses: Compliant, Open Violation, and Closed Violation. If an entitlement process applies to a work order, this field appears.

To learn more, see Milestone Statuses .

An icon that corresponds to the milestone status.

•

Compliant

Open Violation

Closed Violation

The work order’s assigned owner.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field

Parent Work Order

Postal Code

Price Book

Priority

Root Work Order

Service Contract

Service Territory

Start Date

State

Status

Work Order Fields

Description

The work order’s parent work order, if it has one.

Tip:

View, create, and delete a work order’s child work orders in the Child Work Orders related list.

The postal code where the work order is completed. Maximum length is 20 characters.

The price book associated with the work order. Adding a price book to the work order lets you assign different price book entries

(products) to the work order’s line items. This field is only available if products are enabled.

The priority of the work order. The picklist includes the following values, which can be customized:

•

Low

•

Medium

•

High

•

Critical

(Read Only) The top-level work order in a work order hierarchy.

Depending on where a work order lies in the hierarchy, its root might be the same as its parent.

The service contract associated with the work order.

The service territory where the work order is taking place.

The date when the work order goes into effect. This field is blank unless you set up automation to populate it. For a sample workflow rule that configures this field, see below.

The state where the work order is completed. Maximum length is

80 characters.

The status of the work order. The picklist includes the following

values, which can be customized :

•

New

—Work order was created, but there hasn’t yet been any activity.

•

In Progress

—Work has begun.

•

On Hold

—Work is paused.

•

Completed

—Work is complete.

•

Cannot Complete

—Work could not be completed.

•

Closed

—All work and associated activity is complete.

•

Canceled

—Work is canceled, typically before any work began.

Changing a work order’s status does not affect the status of its work order line items or associated service appointments.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field

Status Category

Street

Subject

Subtotal

Tax

Total Price

Work Order Number

Work Type

Work Order Fields

Description

The category that each status value falls into. The Status Category field has eight default values: seven values which are identical to the default

Status

values, and a

None

value for statuses without a status category.

If you create custom

Status

values, you must indicate which category it belongs to. For example, if you create a

Waiting for Response

value, you may decide that it belongs in the

On Hold

category.

The

Status Category

The street number and name where the work order is completed.

The subject of the work order. Try to describe the nature and purpose of the job to be completed. For example, “Annual on-site well maintenance.” The maximum length is 255 characters.

(Read Only) The total of the work order line items’ subtotals before discounts and taxes are applied.

The total tax on the work order. 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.

(Read Only) The total of the work order line items’ price after discounts but before tax is added.

An auto-generated number that identifies the work order.

The work type associated with the work order. When a work type is selected, the work order automatically inherits the work type’s

Duration

Duration Type

, and required skills.

Example: The

Start Date

and

End Date

fields are blank by default, but you can set up workflow rules to configure them.

The following rule populates the

Start Date

field with the current date and time when the

Status

field is changed to

Progress

1. Create a workflow rule on the Work Order object:

•

Under Evaluation criteria, select Created.

•

Under Rule Criteria, enter

Work Order: Status EQUALS In Progress

2. Add a New Field Update workflow action:

•

Under Field to Update, select Start Date.

•

Under Date Options, select the option to use a formula and enter the formula

NOW()

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Work Order Line Item Fields

3. Save and activate your rule.

SEE ALSO:

which can be customized :

Work order line items have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Field

Address

Asset

Currency ISO Code

Description

Discount

Duration

Duration Type

End Date

Geocode Accuracy

Description

The address of the line item. The line item inherits its address from its parent work order, but it can also be updated manually.

The asset associated with the line item.

If your org uses hierarchical assets (available after Spring ’16), you may want to link a work order’s line items with different assets. For this reason, line items do not automatically inherit their parent work order’s asset value.

The ISO code for any currency allowed by the organization. Available only for orgs with the multicurrency feature enabled.

The description of the line item. We recommend describing the steps a user must follow to mark the line item

Completed

The percent discount to be applied to the line item. You can enter a number with or without the percent symbol and you can use up to two decimal places.

The estimated time required to complete the line item. Specify the duration unit in the

Duration Type

field.

The unit of the duration: Minutes or Hours.

The date when the line item is completed.

The level of accuracy of a location’s geographical coordinates compared with its physical address.

A geocoding service typically provides this value

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field

Is Closed

Latitude

Line Item Number

List Price

Longitude

Order

Parent Work Order Line Item

Priority

Product

Quantity

Root Work Order Line Item

Service Territory

Start Date

Work Order Line Item Fields

Description

based on the address’s latitude and longitude coordinates.

Indicates whether the line item has been closed. Changing the line item’s status to

Closed

causes this checkbox to be selected in the user interface.

Used with

Longitude

to specify the precise geolocation of the address where the work order is completed. Acceptable values are numbers between –90 and 90 with up to 15 decimal places.

An auto-generated number that identifies the line item.

The price of the line item (product) as listed in its corresponding price book entry. If a product isn’t specified, the list price defaults to zero. (Read only)

Used with

Latitude

to specify the precise geolocation of the address where the work order is completed. Acceptable values are numbers between –180 and 180 with up to 15 decimal places.

The order associated with the line item. For example, you may need to order replacement parts before you can complete the line item.

The line item’s parent line item, if it has one.

Tip: View, create, and delete a line item’s child line items in the Child Work Order Line Items related list.

The priority of the work order. The picklist includes the following values, which can be customized:

•

Low

•

Medium

•

High

•

Critical

The product (price book entry) associated with the line item. This field’s lookup search only returns products that are included in the work order’s price book.

The line item’s quantity.

The top-level line item in a line item hierarchy. Depending on where a line item lies in the hierarchy, its root might be the same as its parent. (Read only)

The service territory where the line item work is taking place.

The date when the line item goes into effect.

435

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field

Status

Status Category

Subject

Subtotal

Total Price

Unit Price

Work Order

Work Order Line Item Number

Work Order Line Item Fields

Description

The status of the line item. The picklist includes the following values,

•

New

—Line item was created, but there hasn’t yet been any activity.

•

In Progress

—Work has begun.

•

On Hold

—Work is paused.

•

Completed

—Work is complete.

•

Cannot Complete

—Work could not be completed.

•

Closed

—All work and associated activity is complete.

•

Canceled

—Work is canceled, typically before any work began.

The category that each status value falls into. The Status Category field has eight default values: seven values which are identical to the default

Status

values, and a

None

value for statuses without a status category.

If you create custom

Status

values, you must indicate which category it belongs to. For example, if you create a

Waiting for Response

value, you may decide that it belongs in the

On Hold

category.

The

Status Category

The line item’s subject. For example, “Tire Check.”

The line item’s unit price multiplied by the quantity. (Read only)

The line item’s subtotal with discounts applied. (Read only)

By default, the unit price for a line item is the product’s list price from the price book, but you can change it.

The parent work order of the line item. Because work order line items must be associated with a work order, this field is required.

An auto-generated number that identifies the work order line item.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Work Type Fields

Field

Work Type

Description

The work type associated with the line item. When a work type is selected, the work order line item automatically inherits the work type’s

Duration

Duration Type

, and required skills.

SEE ALSO:

Work Type Fields

Work types have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Field Name

Description

Duration Type

Estimated Duration

Name

Description

The description of the work type. Try to add details about the task or tasks that this work type represents.

The unit of the

Estimated Duration

Minutes or Hours.

The estimated length of the work. The estimated duration is in minutes or hours based on the value selected in the

Duration Type

field.

The name of the work type. Try to use a name that helps users quickly understand the type of work orders that can be created from the work type. For example, “Annual Refrigerator

Maintenance” or “Valve Replacement.”

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

SEE ALSO:

Work Order Customer Report Fields

437

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Location Fields

Location Fields

Locations, Addresses, and Associated Locations have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Locations

Field Service Locations can be associated with Products Items to track quantities at the location.

They have the following fields.

Field Name

Close Date

Construction End Date

Construction Start Date

Description

Driving Directions

Inventory Location

Location

Location Type

Mobile Location

Name

Open Date

Owner Name

Parent Location

Owner Name

Possession Date

Remodel End Date

Description

Date the location closed, went out of service

Date construction ended at the location

Date construction began at the location

A brief description of the location

Directions to the location

Identifies if the location stores parts

Note: This field must be present and checked to associate the location with product items.

The

geographic

location

Picklist of location types, the values are:

•

Warehouse default

•

Site

•

Van

•

Plant

Identifies if the location moves, for example a truck or tool box.

Location name

Date the location opened, came into service

The location’s owner or driver

The location’s parent location, for example if vans are stored at a warehouse when not in service, the warehouse is the parent location

The location’s owner or driver

The date the location was purchased

Date construction ended at the location

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Location Fields

Field Name

Remodel Start Date

Time Zone

Vistor Address

Description

Date construction ended at the location

Picklist of available time zones

Lookup to an account’s or client’s address

Addresses

Addresses allow you to set up multiple addresses and address types. They have the following fields.

Field Name

Address

Address Type

Description

Driving Directions

Location Type

Parent

Time Zone

Description

Name for the address

Picklist of address types, the values are:

•

Mailing

•

Shipping

•

Billing

•

Home

A brief description of the address

Directions to the address

Picklist of location types, the values are:

•

Warehouse default

•

Site

•

Van

•

Plant

A lookup field to the parent address, for example if the billing address might be the parent warehouse addresses

Picklist of available time zones

Associated Locations

Associated locations allow you to set up associate multiple accounts with one location. They have the following fields.

Field Name

Active From

Active To

Created By

Created Date

Description

Date and time the associated location is active

Date and time the associated location is inactive

(Read Only) User who created the associated location

(Read Only) Date the associated location was created

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Field Name

Last Modified By

Last Modified Date

Location

Name

Parent Record

Type

Parts and Van Stock Fields

Description

(Read Only) User who modified the associated location last

(Read Only) Date the associated location was last modified

A lookup field to a the associated location

Auto-generated number for the association

A lookup field to the parent account.

Picklist of address types, the values are:

•

Bill To

•

Ship To

Parts and Van Stock Fields

Product Items

Product Items are products associated with a location. They have the following fields.

Field Name

Created By

Created Date

Last Modified By

Last Modified Date

Location

Owner

Product Item Number

Product Name

Quantity On Hand

Quantity Unit of Measure

Description

(Read Only) User who created the product item

(Read Only) Date the product item was created

(Read Only) User who modified the product item last

(Read Only) Date the product item was last modified

Location associated with the product item

The product item’s owner

(Read Only) Auto-generated number identifying the product item.

Product associated with the product item

The amount at the location

Note: To add a serial number this value must be 1.

Units of the product item, for example, grams, liters, or units.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field Name

Serial Number

Parts and Van Stock Fields

Description

A unique number for identification purposes.

Note:

To enter a serial number, quantity on hand must be

Products Required

Products Required is a related list of products required for a work order or work order line item. It has the following fields.

Field Name

Created By

Created Date

Last Modified By

Last Modified Date

Parent Record

Parent Record Type

Product Required

Quantity Required

Quantity Unit of Measure

Description

(Read Only) User who created the required product

(Read Only) Date the required product was created

(Read Only) User who modified the required product last

(Read Only) Date the required product was last modified

Associated work order or work order line item.

Identifies if the parent record is a work order or a work order line item.

Name of the required product

Amount required of the product

Units of the required product, for example, grams, liters, or units.

Products Consumed

Products Consumed is a related list of products consumed for a work order or work order line item. It has the following fields.

Field Name

Created By

Created Date

Description

Last Modified By

Last Modified Date

Price Book Entry

Product

Product Consumed Number

Description

(Read Only) User who created the consumed product

(Read Only) Date the consumed product was created

A description of the consumed product

(Read Only) User who modified the consumed product last

(Read Only) Date the consumed product was last modified

Price book associated with the consumed product

Product associated with the consumed product

(Read Only) Auto-generated number identifying the consumed product.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Parts and Van Stock Fields

Field Name

Product Item

Quantity Consumed

Quantity Unit of Measure

Unit Price

Work Order

Work Order Line Item

Description

Product item associated with the consumed product

The amount of consumed product

Units of the consumed item, for example, grams, liters, or units.

The price per unit of the consumed product

Work order associated with the consumed product

Work order line item associated with the consumed product

Product Item Transactions

Product Item Transactions is a related list of actions taken on the product item. It has the following fields.

Field Name

Created By

Created Date

Description

Last Modified By

Last Modified Date

Product Item

Product Item Transaction Number

Description

(Read Only) User who created the product item transaction

(Read Only) Date the product item transaction was created

A description of the transaction

(Read Only) User who modified the product item transaction last

(Read Only) Date the product item transaction was last modified

Quantity

Related Record

Transaction Type

(Read Only) Auto-generated number identifying the product item transaction.

Amount consumed

Work order or work order line item associate with the consumed product

•

Replenished: When the quantity of the part is stocked at its location.

•

Consumed: When parts are consumed to complete a work order or work order line item. The technician updates the products consumed related list on the work order or work order line item.

•

Adjusted: When there is a discrepancy. Adjustments are made by editing the product item quantity on hand.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Service Appointment Fields

Service Appointment Fields

Service appointments have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

Field Name

Account

Actual Duration (Minutes)

Actual End

Actual Start

Address

Appointment Number

Arrival Window End

Arrival Window Start

Description

(Read only) The account associated with the appointment. If the parent record is a work order or work order line item, this field’s value is inherited from the parent. Otherwise, it remains blank.

The number of minutes that it took the resource to complete the appointment after arriving at the address. When values are first added to the

Actual Start

and

Actual End

fields, the

Actual Duration

is automatically populated to list the difference between the

Actual Start

and

Actual End

. If the

Actual Start

and

Actual End

fields are subsequently updated, the

Actual

Duration

field doesn’t re-update, but you can manually update it.

The actual date and time the appointment ended.

The actual date and time the appointment started.

The address where the appointment is taking place. The address is inherited from the parent record if the parent record lists an address.

An auto-assigned number that identifies the appointment.

The end of the window of time in which the technician is scheduled to arrive at the site. This window is typically larger than the Scheduled

Start and End window to allow time for delays and scheduling changes. You may choose to share the Arrival Window Start and End with the customer, but keep the Scheduled Start and End internal-only.

The beginning of the window of time in which the technician is scheduled to arrive at the site.

This window is typically larger than the

Scheduled Start and End window to allow time for delays and scheduling changes. You may choose to share the Arrival Window Start and

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field Name

Contact

Description

Due Date

Duration

Duration Type

Earliest Start Permitted

Parent Record

Parent Record Status Category

Parent Record Type

Scheduled End

Scheduled Start

Service Territory

Status

Service Appointment Fields

Description

End with the customer, but keep the Scheduled Start and End internal-only.

The contact associated with the appointment. If the parent record is a work order or work order line item, this field’s value is inherited from the parent.

The description of the appointment.

The date by which the appointment must be completed.

Earliest Start Permitted

and

Due Date

typically reflect terms in the customer’s service-level agreement.

The estimated length of the appointment. If the parent record is work order or work order line item, the appointment inherits its parent’s duration, but it can be manually updated. The duration is in minutes or hours based on the value selected in the

Duration

Type

field.

The unit of the duration: Minutes or Hours.

The date after which the appointment must be completed.

Earliest Start Permitted

and

Due Date

typically reflect terms in the customer’s service-level agreement.

The parent record associated with the appointment.

(Read only) The Status Category of the parent record. If the parent record is a work order or work order line item, this field is populated; otherwise, it remains blank.

(Read only) The type of parent record: Account, Asset, Opportunity,

Work Order, or Work Order Line Item.

The time at which the appointment is scheduled to end. If you are using the Field Service Lightning managed package with the scheduling optimizer, this field is populated once the appointment is assigned to a resource.

Scheduled End

–

Scheduled

Start

Estimated Duration

The time at which the appointment is scheduled to start. If you are using the Field Service Lightning managed package with the scheduling optimizer, this field is populated once the appointment is assigned to a resource.

The service territory associated with the appointment. If the parent record is a work order or work order line item, the appointment inherits its parent’s service territory.

The status of the appointment. The picklist includes the following values, which can be customized:

•

None

—Default value.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Customer Service Report Fields

Field Name

Status Category

Subject

Description

•

Not Scheduled

—The service appointment isn’t scheduled.

•

Scheduled

—The service appointment is scheduled.

•

Dispatched

—The service resource is in route..

•

In Progress

—The service resource started work.

•

Completed

—The service resource completed work.

•

Canceled

—The service appointment has been canceled.

•

Missed

—The service resource didn’t make it to the location.

•

Running Long

—The service resource started the job but didn’t complete it by the scheduled end time.

•

Late

The service resource didn’t start the job by the scheduled start time.

The category that each

Status

value falls into. The

Status

Category

field has seven values which are identical to the default

Status

values.

If you create custom

Status

values, you must indicate which category it belongs to. For example, if you create a

Customer

Absent

value, you may decide that it belongs in the

Missed

category.

The

Status Category

A short phrase describing the appointment.

Customer Service Report Fields

Service Reports can have the following fields. Some fields may not be visible or editable depending on your page layout and field-level security settings.

•

•

Work Order Line Item Customer Report Fields

•

Service Appointment Customer Report Fields

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Work Order Customer Report Fields

Field

Account

Address

Asset

Business Hours

Case

Contact

Created By

Created Date

Description

Discount

Duration

Duration Type

End Date

Grand Total

Is Closed

Last Modified By

Last Modified Date

Line Items

Location

Owner

Customer Service Report Fields

Description

The account associated with the work order.

The asset associated with the work order.

The business hours associated with the work order.

The case associated with the work order.

The contact associated with the work order.

User who created the work order.

Date the work order was created.

The description of the work order. We recommend describing the steps a user must complete to mark the work order

Completed

The weighted average of the discounts on all line items on the work order. It can be any positive number up to 100.

The estimated time required to complete the work order. Specify the duration unit in the

Duration Type

field.

The unit of the duration: Minutes or Hours.

The date when the work order is completed. This field is blank unless you set up automation to configure it. For a sample workflow rule that configures the

Start Date

field (a similar field), see below.

The total price of the work order with tax added.

Indicates whether the work order is closed.

Tip:

Use this field to report on closed versus open work orders.

The user who modified the work order last.

The date when the work order was last modified.

The number of work order line items on the work order.

Location associated with the work order.

The work order’s assigned owner.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field

Parent Work Order

Price Book

Priority

Root Work Order

Service Appointment Count

Service Appointment (Create Date)

Service Territory

Start Date

Status

Status Category

Customer Service Report Fields

Description

The work order’s parent work order, if it has one.

Tip:

View, create, and delete a work order’s child work orders in the Child Work Orders related list.

The price book associated with the work order. Adding a price book to the work order lets you assign different price book entries

(products) to the work order’s line items. This field is only available if products are enabled.

The priority of the work order. The picklist includes the following values, which can be customized:

•

Low

•

Medium

•

High

•

Critical

The top-level work order in a work order hierarchy. Depending on where a work order lies in the hierarchy, its root might be the same as its parent.

The number for service appointments to date for this work order.

The date the service appointment was created or scheduled.

The service territory where the work order is taking place.

The date when the work order goes into effect. This field is blank unless you set up automation to populate it. For a sample workflow rule that configures this field, see below.

The status of the work order. The picklist includes the following

values, which can be customized :

•

New

—Work order was created, but there hasn’t yet been any activity.

•

In Progress

—Work has begun.

•

On Hold

—Work is paused.

•

Completed

—Work is complete.

•

Cannot Complete

—Work could not be completed.

•

Closed

—All work and associated activity is complete.

•

Canceled

—Work is canceled, typically before any work began.

Changing a work order’s status does not affect the status of its work order line items or associated service appointments.

The category that each status value falls into. The Status Category field has eight default values: seven values which are identical to

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Customer Service Report Fields

Field

Subject

Subtotal

Tax

Total Price

Work Order Number

Work Type

Description

the default

Status

values, and a

None

value for statuses without a status category.

If you create custom

Status

values, you must indicate which category it belongs to. For example, if you create a

Waiting for Response

value, you may decide that it belongs in the

On Hold

category.

The

Status Category

The subject of the work order. Try to describe the nature and purpose of the job to be completed. For example, “Annual on-site well maintenance.” The maximum length is 255 characters.

The total of the work order line items’ subtotals before discounts and taxes are applied.

The total of the work order line items’ price after discounts but before tax is added.

An auto-generated number that identifies the work order.

The work type associated with the work order. When a work type is selected, the work order automatically inherits the work type’s

Duration

Duration Type

, and required skills.

Work Order Line Item Customer Report Fields

Field

Address

Asset

Created By

Description

The address of the line item. The line item inherits its address from its parent work order, but it can also be updated manually.

The asset associated with the line item.

User who created the work order line item.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field

Created Date

Description

Discount

Duration

Duration Type

End Date

Is Closed

Last Modified By

Last Modified Date

List Price

Location

Order

Parent Work Order Line Item

Priority

Product

Quantity

Customer Service Report Fields

Description

Date the work order line item was created.

The description of the line item. We recommend describing the steps a user must follow to mark the line item

Completed

The percent discount to be applied to the line item. You can enter a number with or without the percent symbol and you can use up to two decimal places.

The estimated time required to complete the line item. Specify the duration unit in the

Duration Type

field.

The unit of the duration: Minutes or Hours.

The date when the line item is completed.

Indicates whether the line item has been closed. Changing the line item’s status to

Closed

causes this checkbox to be selected in the user interface.

The user who modified the work order line item last.

The date when the work order line item was last modified.

The price of the line item (product) as listed in its corresponding price book entry. If a product isn’t specified, the list price defaults to zero.

Location associated with the work order line item.

The order associated with the line item. For example, you may need to order replacement parts before you can complete the line item.

The line item’s parent line item, if it has one.

Tip: View, create, and delete a line item’s child line items in the Child Work Order Line Items related list.

The priority of the work order. The picklist includes the following values, which can be customized:

•

Low

•

Medium

•

High

•

Critical

The product (price book entry) associated with the line item. This field’s lookup search only returns products that are included in the work order’s price book.

The line item’s quantity.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field

Root Work Order Line Item

Service Appointment Count

Service Report (Create Date)

Service Territory

Start Date

Status

Status Category

Subject

Subtotal

Total Price

Unit Price

Work Order

Customer Service Report Fields

Description

The top-level line item in a line item hierarchy. Depending on where a line item lies in the hierarchy, its root might be the same as its parent.

The number for service appointments to date for this work order.

The date the service appointment was created or scheduled.

The service territory where the line item work is taking place.

The date when the line item goes into effect.

The status of the line item. The picklist includes the following values,

which can be customized :

•

New

—Line item was created, but there hasn’t yet been any activity.

•

In Progress

—Work has begun.

•

On Hold

—Work is paused.

•

Completed

—Work is complete.

•

Cannot Complete

—Work could not be completed.

•

Closed

—All work and associated activity is complete.

•

Canceled

—Work is canceled, typically before any work began.

The category that each status value falls into. The Status Category field has eight default values: seven values which are identical to the default

Status

values, and a

None

value for statuses without a status category.

If you create custom

Status

values, you must indicate which category it belongs to. For example, if you create a

Waiting for Response

value, you may decide that it belongs in the

On Hold

category.

The

Status Category

The line item’s subject. For example, “Tire Check.”

The line item’s unit price multiplied by the quantity.

The line item’s subtotal with discounts applied.

By default, the unit price for a line item is the product’s list price from the price book, but you can change it.

The parent work order of the line item.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Customer Service Report Fields

Field

Work Order Line Item Number

Work Type

Description

An auto-generated number that identifies the work order line item.

The work type associated with the line item. When a work type is selected, the work order line item automatically inherits the work type’s

Duration

Duration Type

, and required skills.

Service Appointment Customer Report Fields

These fields are for service appointment customer reports for both work orders and work order line items.

Field Name

Account

Actual Duration (Minutes)

Actual End

Actual Start

Address

Appointment Number

Arrival Window End

Arrival Window Start

Description

The account associated with the appointment. If the parent record is a work order or work order line item, this field’s value is inherited from the parent. Otherwise, it remains blank.

The number of minutes that it took the resource to complete the appointment after arriving at the address. When values are first added to the

Actual Start

and

Actual End

fields, the

Actual Duration

is automatically populated to list the difference between the

Actual Start

and

Actual End

If the

Actual Start

and

Actual End

fields are subsequently updated, the

Actual Duration

field doesn’t re-update, but you can manually update it.

The actual date and time the appointment ended.

The actual date and time the appointment started.

The address where the appointment is taking place. The address is inherited from the parent record if the parent record lists an address.

An auto-assigned number that identifies the appointment.

The end of the window of time in which the technician is scheduled to arrive at the site. This window is typically larger than the

Scheduled Start and End window to allow time for delays and scheduling changes. You may choose to share the Arrival Window

Start and End with the customer, but keep the Scheduled Start and End internal-only.This window is typically larger than the

Scheduled Start and End window to allow time for delays and scheduling changes. You may choose to share the Arrival Window

Start and End with the customer, but keep the Scheduled Start and End internal-only.

The beginning of the window of time in which the technician is scheduled to arrive at the site. This window is typically larger than the Scheduled Start and End window to allow time for delays and scheduling changes. You may choose to share the Arrival Window

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field Name

Contact

Created By

Created Date

Description

Due Date

Duration

Duration Type

Earliest Start Permitted

Last Modified By

Last Modified Date

Owner

Parent Record

Parent Record Status Category

Parent Record Type

Scheduled End

Scheduled Start

Customer Service Report Fields

Description

Start and End with the customer, but keep the Scheduled Start and End internal-only.

The contact associated with the appointment. If the parent record is a work order or work order line item, this field’s value is inherited from the parent.

User who created the service appointment.

Date the service appointment was created.

The description of the appointment.

The date by which the appointment must be completed.

Earliest Start Permitted

and

Due Date

typically reflect terms in the customer’s service-level agreement.

Duration

Type

field.

The unit of the duration: Minutes or Hours.

The date after which the appointment must be completed.

Earliest Start Permitted

and

Due Date

typically reflect terms in the customer’s service-level agreement.

The user who modified the service appointment last.

The date when the work order was last modified.

The service appointment’s assigned owner.

The parent record associated with the appointment.

(Read only) The Status Category of the parent record. If the parent record is a work order or work order line item, this field is populated; otherwise, it remains blank.

(Read only) The type of parent record: Account, Asset, Opportunity,

Work Order, or Work Order Line Item.

Scheduled End

–

Scheduled

Start

Estimated Duration

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field Name

Service Note

Service Report (Create Date)

Service Territory

Status

Status Category

Subject

Customer Service Report Fields

Description

Any notes about the service.

The date the service appointment was created or scheduled.

The service territory associated with the appointment. If the parent record is a work order or work order line item, the appointment inherits its parent’s service territory.

The status of the appointment. The picklist includes the following values, which can be customized:

•

None

—Default value.

•

Not Scheduled

—The service appointment isn’t scheduled.

•

Scheduled

—The service appointment is scheduled.

•

Dispatched

—The service resource is in route..

•

In Progress

—The service resource started work.

•

Completed

—The service resource completed work.

•

Canceled

—The service appointment has been canceled.

•

Missed

—The service resource didn’t make it to the location.

•

Running Long

—The service resource started the job but didn’t complete it by the scheduled end time.

•

Late

The service resource didn’t start the job by the scheduled start time.

The category that each

Status

value falls into. The

Status

Category

field has seven values which are identical to the default

Status

values.

If you create custom

Status

values, you must indicate which category it belongs to. For example, if you create a

Customer

Absent

value, you may decide that it belongs in the

Missed

category.

The

Status Category

A short phrase describing the appointment.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Linked Article Fields

Linked Article Fields

Field

Article ID

Article Title

Article Version

Knowledge Article ID

Last Viewed

Linked Object Type

Linked Record ID

Record Type ID

Description

The ID of the linked article record, which is created when an article is attached to a record.

The title of the attached article.

The version of the article that is attached to the record. This field displays the title of the attached version, and links to the version.

When you attach an article to a work order, that version of the article stays associated with the work order, even if later versions are published.

If needed, you can detach and reattach an article to a work order to link the latest version.

For example, if an article was entitled “How to

Replace a Filter” when it was attached to the record, this field displays that title and links to the attached version.

The ID of the article that is attached to the record.

The date the article was last viewed.

(Read only) The type of record that the article is attached to. For example, if the article is attached to a work order, this field displays

“Work Order.”

The ID of the record that the article is attached to. For example, if the article is attached to a work order, this field displays the ID of the work order.

The record type of the linked article. This field is populated only if record types are used.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools The Field Service Lightning Mobile App

The Field Service Lightning Mobile App

The Field Service Lightning mobile app is an all-in-one tool for field service technicians on the go.

This enterprise-class mobile experience leverages Salesforce in a lightweight design optimized for a modern mobile workforce. Offline capability means that users can keep working without internet connectivity and know that all their changes are saved. And the app is highly customizable, letting you tailor the Field Service Lightning mobile app to meet your business’ unique needs!

Important: Before you get started, get informed! If you do not have an existing field service operation on your org, we recommend reading the Field Service Lightning documentation:

•

Planning for Field Service Lightning

•

Field Service Lightning Consideration

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

Feature

Offline Capable

Table 4: Main Features of The Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Description

The app works offline, so technicians can always complete their work, even with limited or no network connectivity.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools The Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Feature

Configurable Quick Actions, Workflows, and Field Service App

Extensions

Salesforce Knowledge

Signature Capture

Chatter

Geolocation Tracking

Custom Branding

Configurable Layouts

Description

The Field Service Lightning mobile app lets you create actions to meet the unique needs of your mobile work force.

1. Quick Actions let users take actions such as creating or updating a record.

2. Visual Workflow lets you easily build and manage workflows which can guide users through screens that collect and display information, create and update Salesforce records, and execute logic based on user input. Administrators design and build flows using the Flow Designer’s simple drag-and-drop user interface, then activate, manage, and maintain them.

3. Field Service App Extensions let you pass record data from the

Field Service Lightning mobile app and connect it to other apps such as Salesforce1.

Integration with Salesforce Knowledge lets admins provide useful information to your mobile work force. Create Knowledge Articles with vital information like product manuals and step-by-step instructions.

Capture signatures from customers for completed work.

Communicate with dispatchers, partners and customers using

Chatter.

Keep tabs on service resources with resource geolocation tracking.

Brand the app to give it your company’s look and feel!

Flexible layouts let you choose what record information to display to your users. Prioritize information so users can easily find what they need.

IN THIS SECTION:

Requirements for the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Learn about the device, edition, license, and connectivity requirements for using the Field Service Lightning mobile app.

Prepare for the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Install the managed package and prepare your org for the Field Service Lightning mobile app. Create permission set licenses for your Field Service Lightning mobile app users.

Get the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Download and install the Field Service Lightning mobile app on your mobile device from the App Store.

Customize the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Learn how to customize the Field Service Lightning mobile app to meet your technicians’ unique field service needs.

Push Notifications for the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Push notifications for Field Service Lightning are a useful way of informing technicians when there are changes to his or her schedule and work.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Requirements for the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Field Service Lightning Mobile App Limits and Limitations

Learn about the limits and limitations of the Field Service Lightning mobile app.

Working Offline With the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Learn about the offline capabilities, limitations and data caching rules for the Field Service Lightning mobile app.

Requirements for the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Learn about the device, edition, license, and connectivity requirements for using the Field Service

Lightning mobile app.

EDITIONS

Supported Devices

App Name

Field Service Lightning iOS

Mobile App

Supported Devices Supported Mobile OS

iOS 9.3 or later

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

•

iPhone 5c/5s or later models

•

iPad 4 or later models

(including iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro)

For optimal performance, keep your mobile devices’ operating systems updated and upgrade to the latest model of devices as allowed by your mobile plan. Future versions of the Field Service mobile app may require removing support for older operating systems, and sometimes newer operating systems don’t perform well on older devices.

Salesforce Editions and Licenses

These Salesforce editions and user license types allow the use of the Field Service Lightning mobile app.

Salesforce Editions

Field Service Lightning features are available in Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Service Cloud.

User License Types

These user license types can access the Field Service Lightning mobile app:

•

Field Service Mobile

Wireless Connection

The Mobile Field Service app is optimized for offline performance, but a Wi-Fi

or cellular network connection is needed for the app to communicate with Salesforce. For cellular connections, a 3G network or faster is required. For the best performance, we recommend using Wi-Fi or LTE.

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Prepare for the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Install the managed package and prepare your org for the Field Service Lightning mobile app. Create permission set licenses for your

Field Service Lightning mobile app users.

Download the Managed Package

You must first install the managed package for the Field Service Lightning mobile app. To install the package, open the following link in your browser:

•

https://sfdc.co/MobileFieldServicePackage

Verify Licenses and Permissions

Ensure that your users have a permission set with the necessary Field Service Mobile license and the required system permissions, object permissions, and field permissions.

1. From Setup, type

Permission Sets

into the Quick Find box, then select Manage Users > Permission Sets.

2. Create a New permission set license.

3. Select the Field Service Mobile license from the picklist.

4. Click Save.

5. Ensure that your permission set includes the system permissions Field Service Standard and Field Service Mobile. Click

System Permissions and then click Edit.

6. Check the boxes for the Field Service Standard and Field Service Mobile system permissions, then Save.

Important:

Field Service Lightning mobile app users must have the system permissions

View Setup and

Configuration

and

API Enabled

. An admin can assign these permissions either through a permission set or user profile.

7. The object settings you choose for this permission set license can vary. However, Field Service Lightning mobile app users need access to the objects and fields in the following table:

Object Names

Contact

Resource Absence

Table 5: Object Permissions

Object Permission Needed

Read

Read, Create, Edit

Field Permission Needed

Email, Name, Phone, Title

Absence Number, End Time, Start Time,

Resource, Type

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Object Names

Service Appointment

Object Permission Needed

Read, Edit

Field Permission Needed

Address, Appointment Number, Contact,

Created By, Created Date, Owner, Parent

Record, Parent Record Type, Parent

Record Status, Category, Scheduled Start,

Scheduled End, Status

Active, User Service Resource

Work Order

Read, Edit

Read, Create, Edit

Ensure that your users have access to these objects by clicking Object Settings and consulting the object settings for each object.

Also check the box for field permissions you would like your users to have access to with this permission set. For each object’s settings, click Save after you have finished assigning the object and field permissions.

Tip:

The Field Service Lightning mobile app can present information about asset service history, contacts that are associated with appointments, and products consumed. Depending on your use cases, it may make sense for your users to have additional object permissions. Consider giving Technicians access to objects such as Product Item, Account and Asset as well.

8. Assign this permission set to your Field Service Lightning mobile app users by clicking Manage Assignments, then Add

Assigniments.

9. Check the box next to each user you wish to have access to the app with this permission set, and then click Assign.

Associate an Active Service Resource With Your User

You must have an active service resource associated with your account to be able to access the mobile app.

1. Go to the Service Resources tab.

2. Create a New service resource.

3. Associate the service resource with the appropriate user.

4. Make the service resource Active.

5. Click Save.

Add Service Report to Service Appointment Page Layout

1. From Setup, type

Service Appointment

into the Quick Find box, then select Service Appointments > Page Layouts.

2. Edit the service appointment layout.

3. From the layout editor, select Related Lists.

4. Drag and drop the Service Reports related list onto the page layout.

5. Click Save.

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Get the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Download and install the Field Service Lightning mobile app on your mobile device from the App

Store.

EDITIONS

Note:

The Field Service Lightning mobile app is only available for supported iOS devices to users with the Field Service Mobile user license. For more information on the requirements, read Field Service Lightning Mobile App Requirements .

Download the App From the App Store

1. From your iOS mobile device, tap on the App Store icon.

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

2. Search for

Field Service Lightning

from the search tab.

3. Tap on

Field Service Lightning

by Salesforce.

4. Tap +GET, then tap INSTALL. Depending on the speed of your network connection, the app may take a few moments to download and install.

Launch the App for the First Time

When launching the Field Service Lightning mobile app for the first time, you are prompted to give the app various device permissions, including location services, notifications, and the device’s microphone and camera.

1. Tap on the Field Service Lightning mobile app to launch it.

2. Tap Get Started.

3. Scroll through the onboarding screens to see demonstrations of the app’s key features.

4. Tap Log In. Depending on how your Salesforce org is configured, you may need to tap Use Custom Domain and enter your org’s URL. Alternatively, click on the gear widget in the top right of the login screen to specify production or sandbox org, or press + to enter a custom domain. Otherwise, simply enter your user name and password and tap Log In.

5. When prompted to give the app access to basic information, tap Allow.

6. If prompted, create a passcode for an added level of security then click Next. Confirm your password then press Done.

7. Tap Turn on Location Services.

8. Tap Turn on Notifications.

9. Tap Enable Camera Access.

10. You will see three prompts to confirm these decisions. Click Allow for all three prompts.

Tip:

You can change the device permissions that your device gives the Field Service Lightning mobile app at any time. To do so, click on your device’s Settings, then locate the Field Service Lightning mobile app and tap on it. From this page, you can change any of the device permissions given to the app.

The app is now ready to launch!

Customize the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Learn how to customize the Field Service Lightning mobile app to meet your technicians’ unique field service needs.

IN THIS SECTION:

Control the Service Appointment Schedule Screen

Learn how to control which service appointments show up on the schedule screen for your technicians.

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Set Up Field Service App Extensions for the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Learn about connecting to other apps from Field Service Lightning mobile app. The Field Service Lightning Mobile App currently supports app extensions of the following types: iOS, Android, Workflow, Lightning Apps (S1), and web apps.

Empower Technicians with Custom Tailored Workflows

Learn how to use Visual Workflow with the Field Service Lightning mobile app. Visual Workflow lets you easily build and manage flows which can guide users through screens that collect and display information, create and update Salesforce records, and execute logic based on user input. Admins design and build flows using the Flow Designer’s simple drag-and-drop user interface, then activate, manage, and maintain them. After setting up a flow, admins can connect flows to the Field Service Lightning mobile app for their technicians to use.

Provide Knowledge Articles to Technicians

Learn how to attach Salesforce Knowledge articles to work orders to provide useful information like product manuals and step-by-step instructions to your technicians.

Brand the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Learn how to give the Field Service Lightning mobile app your company’s look and feel by coloring the user interface. Apply your company colors to the interface, or, alternatively, optimize the color scheme to compensate for the relative brightness or darkness of your technicians’ work environments.

Set the Company Image on the Profile Screen

Upload a company image, such as a logo, to display as the background of the user profile page of the Field Service Lightning mobile app.

Track Work with the Chatter Feed

Integrate Chatter into the Field Service mobile app. The Chatter feed gives field service workers, dispatchers, and customers a place for text and content posts.

Geolocation and Other Field Service Lightning Mobile App Settings

Learn about the various Field Service Lightning mobile app setting that you can modify in your org. Track your assigned resources with geolocation bread crumbs or, alternatively, learn how to exclude a service resource from geolocation tracking. Control how frequently record data and metadata automatically refreshes.

Prominently Display Key Information with Layouts

Use layouts to control how information is displayed in the Field Service Lightning mobile app. Set compact and search layouts to preview and prominently anchor key fields. Use page layouts to control which cards are found on the appointment overview screen.

Inventory Management with the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Learn about the inventory management system for the Field Service Lightning mobile app. Create locations for tracking products and associate them with service resources. Add products required to work orders to represent the products your technicians need to complete jobs. Track the products consumed by your technicians.

Empower Users with Quick Actions

Add quick actions to an object’s page layouts so technicians can create and edit records on the go, quickly send messages to contacts, and more.

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Control the Service Appointment Schedule Screen

Learn how to control which service appointments show up on the schedule screen for your technicians.

The Field Service Lightning mobile app loads service appointments that are assigned to the current user. These appointments are first surfaced in the app from the main schedule screen. Depending on what your technicians’ needs are, you can use a listview to control which of their assigned appointments are loaded into the schedule screen. If you choose not to set up a service appointment listview, theField Service Lightning mobile app by default loads the users schedule of service appointments for a 15 day range. This range includes 7 days into the past, the present day, and 7 days into the future.

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

1. Navigate to the Service Appointments tab. If you do not see this tab on the top navigation bar, click the + button at the far right of the top bar, and then select Service Appointments.

2. Next to the View dropdown list, click Create New View.

3. Enter a name for your new listview, like

FieldServiceMobile

. Note the View Unique Name because you need to use this name to connect this listview with the Field Service Lightning mobile app.

4. Configure the criteria for your service appointment listview under Specify Filter Criteria. For Filter By Owner, select Assigned to

me.

5. Under Filter By Additional Fields (Optional) you can use filter logic to control which records show up on your listview. Consider using the fields

Scheduled Start

and

Schedule End

in your filter criteria.

6. Under Restrict Visibility, select Visibile to all users.

7. Click Save.

8. From Setup enter

Field Service Mobile

into the Quick Find box.

9. Click Edit.

10. Locate the setting Default ListView Developer Name. Enter the View Unique Name of your recently created list view.

11. Click Save.

If the Scheduled Start Date field is not part of your filter criteria, users cannot use the date-picker from the schedule screen in the Field

Service Lightning mobile app. Instead, users see a single schedule screen which is populated and ordered with service appointments based off of your filter criteria. If your filter criteria does contain Scheduled Start Date as part of the filter criteria, the date picker will have a range from 45 days into the past to 45 days into the future.

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Set Up Field Service App Extensions for the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Learn about connecting to other apps from Field Service Lightning mobile app. The Field Service

Lightning Mobile App currently supports app extensions of the following types: iOS, Android,

Workflow, Lightning Apps (S1), and web apps.

You can create app extensions to allow users to pass data from the Field Service Lightning mobile app to another program. App extensions can be created and configured in Setup by selecting the connected app that you wish to make the extension for. App Extensions have the following fields:

•

Name: The name of the extension.

•

Label: The label as it appears to users in the app.

•

Type: A picklist of types of app extensions: iOS, Android, Workflow, and Lightning Apps.

•

Scoped To Object Types: This field determines from which records a user can activate an app extension. Scoping an app extension to an object allows users to activate that app extension from records of the specified type. The object names are entered as comma separated values and must have no spaces. For example, to scope an extension to the Work Order object and the Service Appointment object, you would enter

WorkOrder,ServiceAppointment

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create and modify App

Extensions:

•

“Customize Application”

Note: To create a global app extension, leave the Scoped To Object Types field blank. This allows users to activate it from anywhere.

•

Launch Value: This is a free text field which has similar format to a URL with the option to specify place holder tokens that the Field

Service Lightning mobile app inserts. This field directs the app to the appropriate app extension. Read the proceeding section for more information on properly using this field.

Passing Tokens Into the Launch Value

The launch value supports static URLs for web addresses as well as dynamic values that you can represent with certain tokens. These tokens can pass field information from the record that the user is currently viewing. For example, if the user is viewing a service appointment, the tokens can be used to pass the data from any field on that service appointment to the app extension. The basic format for these tokens is based on the names of the field, like so: {!$Name}.

Tip: The following example uses a token to dynamically pass the name of the user to a Google search. The token is written in bold for clarity: https://www.google.com/#q={!$User.userName}

Dynamic Value Tokens

{!$Organization.Id}

{!$User.userId}

{!$User.orgId}

{!$User.userName}

{!$User.nickName}

{!$User.displayName}

{!$User.email}

{!$User.firstName}

{!$User.lastName}

Table 6: Dynamic Value Tokens for App Extension Launch Value

Description

The org id.

The object id for the user.

The org id of the user.

The username of the user.

The nick name of the user.

The display name of the user.

The email address of the user.

The first name of the user.

The last name of the user.

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Dynamic Value Tokens

{!$User.language}

{!$User.locale}

Description

The localization of the user.

The geographic area of the user.

Configuring Lightning App Extensions

You can find all the lightning apps that are configured in your org from inside Setup. Once you have found the name of the lightning app that you wish to connect to Field Service Lightning mobile app, you can create your app extension by using the name of a lightning app on this list as the launch value of your lightning app extension.

1. From Setup, type

Salesforce1

into the Quick Find box, and select Salesforce1 Navigation.

2. Note the exact name of the Lightning App from the list of Available and Selected apps. You will need to use this name as the

Launch Value when creating your lightning app extension for the Field Service Lightning mobile app.

Empower Technicians with Custom Tailored Workflows

Admins design and build flows using the Flow Designer’s simple drag-and-drop user interface, then activate, manage, and maintain them. After setting up a flow, admins can connect flows to the Field

Service Lightning mobile app for their technicians to use.

Important: The Field Service Lightning mobile app supports only flows that have the type

Field Service Mobile. Additionally, the following flow features are not supported by the Field

Service Lightning mobile app:

•

Resources of the type Text Formula

•

Screens with prespecified validation rules

•

Actions cannot rely on the output parameters of any action

•

Returning to a previous screen is not allowed during a flow when a loop or subflow is used in the flow

•

Dynamic hide/show fields are not supported for field rules on flow screens

•

The

wasSelected

operator cannot be used in decisions

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create workflows:

•

“Customize Application”

Tip:

To learn more about creating flows refer to the help article Workflow .

Connect A Flow As An App Extension

1. From Setup, type

Field Service Mobile

into the Quick Find box, and click Field Service Mobile Settings.

2. Add a new App Extension.

3. Enter a label for your app extension. This label field corresponds to the label that your technicians see in the app’s user interface.

4. From the Type picklist, select

Flow

5. Enter a Name that expresses the purpose of the flow.

Important:

As an admin, you can specify a special type of workflow for wrapping up an appointment. This special Workflow appends a final step to capture a customer’s signature. To specify this special Workflow, set the Name field to be

Service_Report_Flow

; this flow must be scoped to the Service Appointment object to trigger service closure.

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6. The field Scoped to Object Types controls where users can find and activate the workflow. For example, setting the Scoped to Object Types to Contacts means users can activate that flow from the detail page of a contact record. To create an unscoped workflow action, simply leave the field blank. Unscoped actions allow users to activate the flow from various pages, and not simply when viewing a record to which the flow is scoped to.

Tip: To scope a flow to multiple objects, enter the API names of the scoped to objects separated by commas.

7. Set the Launch Value to equal the unique name of your workflow.

8. Click Save.

Flow Considerations

•

When the Field Service Lightning mobile app loads a user’s schedule data, it will also download global flows and any flows that are scoped to records in their schedule data. Pulling down on the screen to sync with Salesforce also causes the app to reload flow metadata.

•

When the Field Service Lightning mobile app launches into a flow, it passes the following input parameters:

–

Id: The record ID of the record that the workflow is launched from.

–

ParentId: The record ID of the parent record that the workflow is launched from. For example, if a workflow is launched from a service appointment, this will be the ID of the parent work order or work order line item.

–

UserId: The ID of the current user.

Flow Best Practices

In order to make your flow actions easy and useful for your technicians, consider the following best practices when creating a new flow:

•

Supply help text on each screen to guide your users and to make clear what is expected of them on each screen.

•

Avoid asking more than a single question per screen in your flows, especially if your screens involve picklists.

Provide Knowledge Articles to Technicians

Learn how to attach Salesforce Knowledge articles to work orders to provide useful information like product manuals and step-by-step instructions to your technicians.

Salesforce Knowledge lets you create articles to address questions your users may run into.

Integration with the Field Service Lightning mobile app enables admins to serve custom created content to your technicians based on the unique needs of your field service operation. Salesforce

Knowledge must be set up before Knowledge articles can be added as a related list to work order and work order line item page layouts. To learn more about implementing Salesforce Knowledge refer to the Salesforce Knowledge Implementation Guide .

Tip:

The Field Service Lightning mobile app does not support inline images in Knowledge

Articles. As an alternative we recommend using an image link instead for your users to open themselves.

Add Articles to the Work Order Page Layout

1. From Setup, enter

Work Orders

in the Quick Find box and click Work Orders > Page

Layouts.

2. Edit the Work Order Layout.

3. On the layout editor, select Related Lists.

4. Drag and drop Articles to the page layout.

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

USER PERMISSIONS

To customize page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

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5. Click Save on the layout editor.

Brand the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

The Field Service Lightning mobile app lets you change the color of various parts of the app’s user interface. Consult the branding table to learn which settings control which UI elements within the app.

1. From Setup, type

Field Service Mobile Settings

into the Quick Find box, then select Field Service Mobile Settings.

2. Edit the Field Service Mobile Settings Detail.

3. Enter color hex-codes into the Brand Colors settings to replace the default values. consult the branding table below for more details.

Important: Enter color hex-code values with the format of the default values in the table below, including the # symbol before hex-code.

Note:

Users that enable the Dark Theme from the Field Service Lightning mobile app settings will override custom colors settings for most UI elements. This setting only effects devices that enable Dark Theme and has no impact on other users.

Token Name

Navbar Background Color

Brand Inverted Color

Feedback Primary Color

Feedback Secondary Color

Primary Brand Color

Secondary Brand Color

Contrast Primary Color

Contrast Secondary Color

Contrast Tertiary Color

Contrast Quaternary Color

Contrast Quinary Color

Table 7: Branding Table

Description

The color of the top bar in the app.

Default Value

#FCFCFC

#FFFFFF The color of toasts and the contrast color for the floating action button.

The color of error messages.

The color of action buttons.

The color of primary text.

#C23934

The color of success messages.

#007FAA

The main branding color used throughout the UI.

#803ABE

#2F81B7

#000000

The color of secondary text.

#444444

The color of the icons on the settings screen and of primary lines that delineate different areas of the UI.

#9FAAB5

The color of secondary lines that delineate different areas of the UI.

#E6E6EB

The color of primary backgrounds in the UI.

#F8F8F8

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

USER PERMISSIONS

To customize branding colors:

•

“Customize Application”

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Token Name

Contrast Inverted Color

Description Default Value

The color of secondary backgrounds in the

UI.

#FFFFFF

Customize your app’s branding tokens in Setup using hex-code colors.

1. From Setup, enter

Field Service Mobile

in the Quick Find box, and select Field Service Mobile Settings.

2. Edit the Field Service Mobile Settings Detail.

3. For each branding token, enter the desired color in the form of a hex-code preceded with a #.

4. When you have entered values for every token you wish to modify, click Save.

Example: To set a branding token to the color black, enter the value

#FFFFFF

Set the Company Image on the Profile Screen

Upload a company image, such as a logo, to display as the background of the user profile page of the Field Service Lightning mobile app.

Upload an image to use as the profile background.

1. From Setup, enter

Static Resources

into the Quick Find box and click Static Resources.

2. Create a New static resource.

3. Give the static resource a name. Remember the name you give your static resource. You need to use it in a later step.

4. Select an image file for upload. We recommend using an image sized at 3072x819 for best results on large displays such as iPads in landscape mode. Alternatively, consider using a smaller image size to make the image easier to download for users with slower mobile networks.

5. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

USER PERMISSIONS

To set the company profile image:

•

“Customize Application”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Customize the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Create a custom attribute to use the static resource as your company image on the user profile screen.

1. From Setup, enter

Connected Apps

into the Quick Find box, and select Connected Apps.

2. Select Salesforce Field Service for iOS.

3. Scroll down to the list Custom Attributes and click New.

4. For the attribute key, enter

COMPANY_PROFILE_IMAGE_RESOURCE_NAME

5. For the attribute value, enter the name of the static resource you created in the previous section, except you must wrap the name with quotation marks.

Tip: If you named your static resource

Example_static_resource

then your attribute value should be

“Example_static_resource”

6. Click Save.

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Track Work with the Chatter Feed

Integrate Chatter into the Field Service mobile app. The Chatter feed gives field service workers, dispatchers, and customers a place for text and content posts.

Enable feed tracking on work orders.

1. From Setup, enter

Chatter

into the Quick Find box and select Feed Tracking.

2. Select Work Order from the object list.

3. Check Enable Feed Tracking.

4. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

USER PERMISSIONS

To customize fields tracked in feeds:

•

“Customize Application”

To view the field tracking setup page:

•

“View Setup and

Configuration”

Chatter Limitations

The Field Service Lightning mobile app supports only limited Chatter functionality. Users are able to make and receive text posts and content posts. However, the app does not yet support @mentioning people, or displaying the feed-tracked changes for records.

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Geolocation and Other Field Service Lightning Mobile App Settings

Learn about the various Field Service Lightning mobile app setting that you can modify in your org.

Track your assigned resources with geolocation bread crumbs or, alternatively, learn how to exclude a service resource from geolocation tracking. Control how frequently record data and metadata automatically refreshes.

Configure service resource tracking to have the Field Service Lightning mobile app upload the geolocation of your technicians at regular intervals.

1. From Setup, enter

Field Service

in the Quick Find box, and select Field Service Mobile

Settings.

2. Click Edit.

3. Click Send Location History to enable geolocation tracking for service resources.

4. Enter the Minimum Update Frequency of Geo Location in Minutes to control how often geolocation is polled.

5. Enter the Record Data Cache Time in Minutes. We highly recommend setting this to

240

minutes or more to limit the frequency of server queries the Field Service Lightning app makes automatically.

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

USER PERMISSIONS

To configure resource tracking:

•

“Customize Application”

6. Enter the Update Schedule Time in Minutes. This controls how frequently the Field Service Lightning mobile app checks for updates to users’ schedule of assigned service appointments.

7. Set the Geo Location Accuracy to control how accurate the geolocation data is. Higher precision required additional battery power on mobile devices.

8. Set the Time Interval Setup in Minutes. This controls the interval when selecting time values from a picklist in the app.

9. Enter the Metadata Cache Time in Days. This controls how long metadata, such as page layouts, is stored in memory for Field Service

Lightning mobile app users.

10. Enable Show Edit Full Record. This gives users the ability to use the full edit action on records that they have access to.

11. Click Save.

Excluding Individuals From Geolocation Tracking

You can exclude individuals from geolocation tracking even if geolocation tracking is enabled in your org.

1. From Setup, enter

Permission Sets

into the Quick Find box and select Manage Users > Permission Sets.

2. Create a separate permission set for users that you wish to exclude from geolocation tracking. You can do this by cloning your Field

Service Standard permission set and giving it a new name.

3. Click your newly created permission set to edit it.

4. Click System Permissions

5. Click Edit and enable the permission called Exclude Technician from Geolocation Tracking.

6. Click Save.

7. Click Manage Assignments, then apply this permission set to the users you wish to exclude from geolocation tracking by checking the box next to the names of each user. Then click Add Assignment.

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Prominently Display Key Information with Layouts

IN THIS SECTION:

Control Record Highlights with Compact Layouts

Use compact layout settings to control record highlights in the Field Service Lightning mobile app.

Control the Appointment Overview Screen with Page Layouts

Use page layout settings for Work Orders and Work Order Line Items to control which “cards” are presented to the user on the appointment overview screen. The cards are discrete sections in the user interface for different types of records.

Control the Schedule Screen with Search Layouts

Control the main schedule screen of the Field Service Lightning mobile app by changing the search layout settings of the service appointment object.

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

USER PERMISSIONS

To modify page layouts, search layouts, and compact layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

Control Record Highlights with Compact Layouts

Use compact layout settings to control record highlights in the Field Service Lightning mobile app.

When a record is presented as a record highlight (showing a preview of the record) the display is driven by the compact layout settings of that record. The top-most field in a record’s compact layout is displayed prominently, while the remainings fields are displayed underneath it. Consider what fields your users will want to be displayed most prominently before modifying an object’s compact layout.

1. From Setup, enter the object name that you wish to modify in the Quick Find box and select

Compact Layouts.

2. Edit the compact layout.

3. Select the field you wish to add from either the Available Fields list or Selected Fields list.

4. Add the field you wish to prominently display to the Selected Fields list if it isn’t already.

5. Use the Up and Down buttons to order the Selected Fields so that the desired field is at the top of the Selected Fields list.

6. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

USER PERMISSIONS

To modify compact layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

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Control the Appointment Overview Screen with Page Layouts

When a user selects a service appointment from the schedule screen, they are taken to the appointment overview screen. On this screen, the Field Service Lightning mobile app displays information in spaces called cards. These cards are discrete spaces for different kinds of records or other information like chatter posts. Adding or removing a field will add or remove the corresponding card. Refer to the table below for details on all the possible cards that can be added to the appointment overview screen. Think carefully about which cards your users will want to access from the appointment overview screen.

Cards

Address Card

Table 8: Possible Cards on the Appointment Overview Screen

Description

Shows a map and the option to navigate to the address of the appointment. If the address is not set, the card instead presents the user with the option to set the address, and then activate navigation.

Contact Card Shows the contact’s name and photo and gives the option to call, SMS or email the contact.

Asset Card

Work Order Line Item Card

Knowledge Card

Provides context about the maintenance history of an asset. It shows the asset that is associated with the current work order and a list of work orders associated with that asset.

Shows the progress of a parent work order or work order line item record and its children work order line item records. Can be configured to let users create new child line items as discussed in Empower Users to Create Child Work Order

Line Items.

Presents the user with knowledge articles that are associated with the work order or work order line item.

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

USER PERMISSIONS

To modify page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

1. From Setup, type

Work Orders

into the Quick Find box and select Work Orders > Page Layouts.

2. Use the page layout editor at the top of your screen to add or remove fields from the Work Order page layout.

3. Click Save on the layout editor.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Customize the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Control the Schedule Screen with Search Layouts

Control the main schedule screen of the Field Service Lightning mobile app by changing the search layout settings of the service appointment object.

The Field Service Lightning mobile app displays a list of service appointments that are assigned to the user on the schedule screen. The app prominently displays the top two fields of the service appointment search layout. Consider which fields your technicians want to see from this screen.

For example, in the screenshot, the service appointment’s ID and status are set to the first and second fields respectively. Many technicians, for example, may be more interested in seeing the subject field instead of the record ID.

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

Note:

The app displays the scheduled start time and the address in the same location regardless of the Service Appointment search layout settings.

1. From Setup, enter

Service Appointments

in the Quick Find box and select Search

Layouts.

2. Edit the Search Results search layout.

USER PERMISSIONS

To modify search layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

3. Select the field you wish to add from either the Available Fields list or Selected Fields list.

4. Add the field to the Selected Fields list if it isn’t already.

5. Use the Up and Down buttons to order the Selected Fields so that the desired two fields are at the top of the Selected Fields list.

6. Click Save.

Inventory Management with the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

IN THIS SECTION:

Configure Locations to Track Your Technicians’ Inventory

Learn about tracking products with van locations.

Use Products Required So Technicians Know What They Need to Complete Work

Learn how to add products required to work orders so technicians know what they need to bring with them to complete their work in the field.

Track the Products Your Technicians Consume While on the Job

Learn how to record the products consumed by your technicians from completing work orders.

473

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Customize the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Configure Locations to Track Your Technicians’ Inventory

Learn about tracking products with van locations.

EDITIONS

Locations are used to represent physical areas where products are stored. Because field service technicians typically bring products with them in their vehicle, you can create a special type of location to represent the van stock of your technicians.

Create a Location To Represent the Van Stock Of a Technician

As an admin, you can represent your technicians’ van stock by creating a location of the location type Van. You can then associate this location with the Service Resource of the technician who drives the van.

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

1. From Salesforce select the Locations tab. If you do not have Locations added on your navigation bar, instead click the + and then select Locations.

2. Create New location.

USER PERMISSIONS

To configure locations:

•

“Customize Application”

3. If you are creating a location record to represent van stock for your technicians, be sure to select the Mobile Location and Inventory Location options.

4. Associate the van location with the service resource who uses the vehicle for field service. Select the Service Resource tab or press the + in the navigation bar and then select Service Resource.

5. Select the service resource associated with your technician, then use the location field to associate the newly created van location with the service resource.

Add Product Items To Represent Van Stock

Once you have created a van location, you are ready to track individual product items. Product items are actual quantities of products that are represented by a product record. Establishing the exact quantity of parts in a van stock allows your technicians to decrement their van stock when they consume parts, as well as to keep track of the parts that are required to complete future work.

1. In Salesforce Classic, click the + button to show a list of all available tabs, then click Product Items.

2. Create a New product item.

3. Use the product name lookup field to select the product that this product item is an instance of.

4. Use the location lookup field to select the van location of your service resource.

5. Enter the quantity that the user has in their van stock in the quantity on hand field.

6. From the quantity unit of measure picklist, select

Each

if the product comes in discrete units. Or, if the product item is used in non-discrete units, such as lengths of tape, select the value

None

from the picklist.

With mobile van locations associated with your service resources, your technicians can now keep track of their van stock from the

Inventory tab in the Field Service Lightning mobile app.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Customize the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Using Pricebooks To Track Products

It may make sense to add a price book to certain work orders, especially if your field service operation employs contractors as technicians. The pricebook gives users the ability to search through the pricebook for products and log the use or sale of products throughout completing a work order.

1. From Setup, enter

Work Orders

in the Quick Find box, and select Work Orders > Page Layouts.

2. From the layout editor at the top, drag the Price Book field into the Work Order detail section.

3. Click Save.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Customize the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Use Products Required So Technicians Know What They Need to Complete Work

Learn how to add products required to work orders so technicians know what they need to bring with them to complete their work in the field.

Products required can be added as a related list to work order and work order line items. The products required represent the product items that a technician needs to have in stock to finish a particular job. The user sees a visual indicator on the work order if a technician has insufficient product items to complete the service appointment they are viewing.

1. From Setup, type

Work Order

into the Quick Find box, and then select Work Orders >

Page Layouts.

2. From the layout editor, add the Products Required related list to the work order page layout.

3. Click Save.

When creating work orders for your technicians, you can add Products Required from the related list. Setting up van locations for your technicians, as discussed in Configure Locations to Track Your

Technicians’ Inventory, allows your technicians to check their van stock against the products required to complete the work order. The Field Service Lightning mobile app displays a visual indicator when your technicians’ van stock has insufficient products to complete the appointment.

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

USER PERMISSIONS

To configure products required:

•

“Customize Application”

Track the Products Your Technicians Consume While on the Job

Learn how to record the products consumed by your technicians from completing work orders.

Before you can track products consumed by your technicians, you must first associate your service resources with a location. Locations are areas where products can be stored. Mobile locations can be configured to represent the vehicle that technicians use to store and transport the tools and supplies they need to finish their work. To learn more about setting up van locations, refer to

Configure Locations to Track Your Technicians’ Inventory.

Add Products Consumed To Work Orders

1. From Setup, type

Work Orders

into the Quick Find box, then select Work Orders >

Page Layout.

2. From the layout editor, add the Products Consumed to the related lists on the work order page layout.

3. Click Save.

With products consumed added to the work order page layout, your technicians can use the Field

Service Lightning mobile app to log products consumed and have it decrement those products from their van stock.

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

USER PERMISSIONS

To configure products consumed:

•

“Customize Application”

476

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Customize the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Empower Users with Quick Actions

Add quick actions to an object’s page layouts so technicians can create and edit records on the go, quickly send messages to contacts, and more.

EDITIONS

When a user is viewing a record, they can use the quick actions on that record’s page layout by pressing the action button.The action button lets users take actions that are assigned to the page layout of whatever record is currently opened. For example, adding a Create Opportunity action to the page layout of contacts will let the user create a new opportunity from any contact record detail page in the app. Think carefully about which object-specific quick actions to create for your users.

Unlike other records which only let you take quick actions that are on the page layout of that record, the service appointment overview screen has a consolidated action list for service appointments, work orders, and work order line items. This means that when a user clicks the action button from the service appointment overview screen, they will see a list of actions that include the following:

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

USER PERMISSIONS

•

Create Service Report, a hardcoded action that triggers the job wrap-up process. This action is only available if the work order is assigned to user, and an alternate service closure flow is not configured

•

Field Service App Extensions for Service Appointments

•

Field Service App Extensions for Work Orders

To create quick actions and add them to page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

•

Quick Actions for Service Appointments

•

Quick Actions for Work Orders or Work Order Line Items (depending on if the parent record is a work order or a work order line item)

•

Edit Work Order / Work Order Line Item (depending on if the parent record is a work order or a work order line item)

•

Open in Salesforce1 (This option only appears if Salesforce1 is installed on the mobile device)

Important:

The supports quick actions of the types Create Record and Update Record. VisualForce, Lightning Component, and

Custom Override actions are not supported.

Create a Quick Action for the Appointment Overview Screen

The appointment overview screen shows technicians information from the work order or work order line item associated with their current service appointment.

1. From Setup, enter

Work Orders

in the Quick Find box and select Work Orders > Buttons, Links, and Actions.

2. Click New Action.

3. Configure the action to either create a record or edit a record. Lightning Component, VisualForce, and custom override actions are not supported.

4. From Setup, enter

Work Orders

in the Quick Find box and select Work Orders > Page Layouts.

5. Edit the Work Order Layout.

6. From the layout editor, select Quick Actions then drag and drop your newly created action into the Quick Actions in the Salesforce

Classic Publisher.

7. Click Saveon the layout editor.

IN THIS SECTION:

Configure the Work Order Line Item Card to Manage Complex Jobs

Learn how to configure the work order line item card. If children work order line items are added to a work order or work order line item, technicians can see the work order line item card on the appointment overview screen. The work order line item card displays the progress of a parent work order or line item as well as its child work order line item from the appointment overview screen. This can be useful for tracking complex jobs that are broken up into multiple work order line items.

477

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Customize the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Configure the Work Order Line Item Card to Manage Complex Jobs

This can be useful for tracking complex jobs that are broken up into multiple work order line items.

Empower Users to Create Child Work Order Line Items From the Work Order Line Item Card

1. From Setup, enter Work Orders into the Quick Find box and select Work Order > Buttons,

Links, and Actions.

2. Click New Action.

3. Select the action type Create a Record.

4. Select the target object Work Order Line Item.

5. Select the standard label type New Child [Record].

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create quick actions and add them to work order line item page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

6. Input a label. This also automatically generates the API name.

7. Enter the action description.

8. Select whether or not to create a Chatter feed post with the action.

9. Click Save.

10. From Setup, enter

Work Orders

into the Quick Find box and select Work Orders > Page Layouts. Edit the Work Order Layout.

11. From the layout editor select Quick Actions.

12. Drag and drop your newly created action into the Quick Actions in the Salesforce Classic Publisher.

13. Click Save.

Control Which Fields Are Previewed in the Work Order Line Item Card

The work order line item card displays two fields for each line item. You can control these fields through the page layout settings of

Work Orders by modifying the Work Order Line Item related list properties.

1. From Setup, enter Work Orders in the Quick Find box and select Work Orders > Page Layouts.

2. If the work order line item related list is not added to the page layout, do so now by clicking Related Lists in the layout editor and dragging Work Order Line Items onto the page layout.

3. Edit the Work Order Line Items related list by clicking the wrench icon.

478

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Push Notifications for the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

4. Add your desired field to be one of the top two fields in the Selected Fields column. You will see a list of available fields and select fields. Move fields into the select fields column with the Add arrow, or out with the Remove arrow. Sort the order of the selected fields with the Up and Down arrows.

5. Click Save.

Push Notifications for the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Push notifications for Field Service Lightning are a useful way of informing technicians when there are changes to his or her schedule and work.

You need Field Service notifications enabled and the Field Service Lightning iOS Mobile App connected app installed for mobile app users to receive push notifications. You can download the connected app by pasting the following link into your browser:

•

https://sfdc.co/MobileFieldServicePackage

Notification Triggers

Field Service Lightning mobile app users receive notifications when one of the following triggers occur:

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

479

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Field Service Lightning Mobile App Limits and Limitations

•

There is a Chatter text or file post to a Work Order you follow

•

A feed-tracked change is posted to a Work Order or Service Appointment you follow

•

There is an assignment change that affects you, either because a service appointment is assigned to you or assigned away from you.

Known Limitations

Field Service Lightning does not currently have out-of-the-box functionality to automatically make your technicians followers on work order and service appointment records. You may want to create your own Apex triggers on service resource object to make this happen when a technician is assigned to and away from a service appointment.

IN THIS SECTION:

Enable Notifications for the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Learn how to enable notifications in your org so technicians always work with the latest information.

Enable Notifications for the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Learn how to enable notifications in your org so technicians always work with the latest information.

EDITIONS

You can enable notifications in your org settings so Salesforce sends notifications to relevant users in the Field Service Lightning mobile app, Salesforce1, and Lightning Experience. In the Field Service

Lightning mobile app notifications are sent as push notifications while the app is running in the background. When the app is in the foreground notifications are tracked on their own tab with a badge showing the number of notifications.

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

Enable Field Service Notifications

1. From Setup, enter

Field Service Settings

in the Quick Find box, then select Field

Service Settings.

2. Select Notify relevant users in Salesforce1 and Lightning Experience about updates to work orders and service

appointments.

Note: Selecting this option also enables notifications for relevant users in Salesforce1 and Lightning Experience.

3. Click Save.

Field Service Lightning Mobile App Limits and Limitations

Learn about the limits and limitations of the Field Service Lightning mobile app.

The Field Service Lightning mobile app has the following limits and limitations:

•

Flow has the following limitations:

–

Resources of the type Text Formula

–

Screens with prespecified validation rules

–

Actions cannot rely on the output parameters of any action

–

Returning to a previous screen is not allowed during a flow when a loop or subflow is used in the flow

–

Dynamic hide/show fields are not supported for field rules on flow screens

–

The

wasSelected

operator cannot be used in decisions

EDITIONS

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

480

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Working Offline With the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

•

Quick Actions have the following limitations:

–

Custom override on actions is unsupported, including custom override on lookup logic

–

Only plain text is supported for rich text fields

–

Default values are not available in offline mode

•

Dependent Picklists are not supported.

•

The barcode scanner is compatible with 1D serial barcodes and 2D QR codes only.

•

Users are able to make and receive text posts as well as content posts. However, the app does not yet support @mentioning people, or displaying the feed-tracked changes for records.

•

Knowledge Articles viewed in the app do not support inline images. As an alternative we recommend using an image link instead for your users to open themselves.

Working Offline With the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Learn about the offline capabilities, limitations and data caching rules for the Field Service Lightning mobile app.

EDITIONS

IN THIS SECTION:

Offline-Mode Considerations and Limitations

Learn about the offline capabilities of the Field Service Lightning mobile app and considerations for working in offline mode.

Offline Data Limitations For The Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Learn about the data priming rules for working without network connectivity in the Field Service

Lightning mobile app.

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

Offline-Mode Considerations and Limitations

Learn about the offline capabilities of the Field Service Lightning mobile app and considerations for working in offline mode.

EDITIONS

As an admin, you can control which records appear on your users’ schedules by creating a default service appointment listview and linking it to the Field Service Lightning mobile app.Otherwise the app instead loads the user’s schedule of work orders for a 15 day range. This range includes seven days into the past, the present day, and seven days into the future.

Offline-Mode Limitations

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

•

You cannot sync data with Salesforce while offline. This means you cannot receive updates to records or page layouts.

•

Updating records and creating new records adds these changes to a queue. This queue uploads the changes to Salesforce when internet access is restored. You can review and even cancel all pending uploads from the pending upload queue in the app’s settings.

•

Navigation services are disabled while offline.

•

Service resource geolocation tracking is disabled while offline.

•

The default values for lookup fields are not populated while offline.

•

Record data and metadata is deleted after 60 days of not being read or edited.

481

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Working Offline With the Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Offline-Mode Considerations

If your technicians sometimes work without internet access for a prolonged period, here are some useful tips to consider.

•

Set the calendar range for your users to include the entire schedule of work that your technicians need while offline.

•

When working offline, sometimes a data conflict can occur. Manual conflict resolution is required if Salesforce rejects data uploads for any reason. You can resolve conflicts from the pending upload queue by fixing the conflict then syncing with Salesforce.

Offline Data Limitations For The Field Service Lightning Mobile App

Learn about the data priming rules for working without network connectivity in the Field Service

Lightning mobile app.

EDITIONS

Data Accessibility From Offline Mode

The Field Service Lightning mobile app can be used without network connectivity with almost complete functionality. However, the app first needs to load record data to cache for the user to work from while they are in offline-mode. The process of caching this data for use from offline-mode is called data priming, and is done automatically when a user logs in to the app with a network connection.

Field Service Lightning features are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud.

The data that is primed to a user’s device is determined by the records that are on their schedule. A user’s schedule is defined either by a listview or the calendar range of the user’s schedule, as determined by your admin. Since Field Service Lightning is built around the

Work Order object, these records have the most robust offline functionality, while other records have certain limitations while working from offline mode.

482

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding a Knowledge Base

Objects

Work Order &

Work Order Line

Item

Service

Appointment

Yes

Case

Any Other Record

The Field Data of the Record

Table 9: Offline Data Priming By Object (Record Type)

The Field Data of Associated

Records

Quick Actions Related Lists Related Files

Yes Yes Yes Yes Only Metadata

Yes

Chatter Feed

Yes

While data refers to the information stored in the fields of a record, metadata contains data about the record itself such as its page layout, search layout, relevant workflow rules.

The data for other records isn’t primed unless the records are associated with a Work Order, Work Order Line Item, or Service Appointment, or case that is also primed.

Adding a Knowledge Base

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Build your knowledge base and give your website visitors, clients, partners, and service agents the ultimate in support. Salesforce Knowledge lets you create and manage your company information and securely share it when and where it is needed.

Your Salesforce Knowledge base is built from knowledge articles, which are documents of information. Articles can include information on process, like how to reset your product to its defaults, or frequently asked questions, like how much storage your product supports.

Experienced service agents and internal writers write the articles. The articles are then published to a range of channels: Internal App, customer and partner communities, or public websites. Where and what information is published is based on the article layout profile and the field level security.

As of Spring '17, Knowledge is available in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience. Currently,

Lightning Knowledge (Beta) is recommended for orgs new to Knowledge, or for existing orgs that can easily consolidate to one article type, have few data categories, and use single-language mode.

Note: This release contains a beta version of Ligthning Knowledge, which means it’s a high-quality feature with

known limitations on page 567. Lightning Knowledge isn’t generally

available unless or until Salesforce announces its general availability in documentation or in press releases or public statements. We can’t guarantee general availability within any particular

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

483

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge time frame or at all. Make your purchase decisions only on the basis of generally available products and features.

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Salesforce Knowledge Documentation Overview

Use these lists to find Salesforce Knowledge information in the Salesforce documentation set.

EDITIONS

Overview of Salesforce Knowledge

•

•

Salesforce Knowledge Limits

•

•

Work with Articles and Translations

•

Salesforce Knowledge Guide

Classic Knowledge

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

Set up Classic Knowledge

•

•

Import Existing Information into Salesforce Knowledge

•

•

Workflow and Approvals for Articles

•

Use Your Salesforce Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic

•

Search Articles and External Sources on the Knowledge Tab

–

Find Knowledge Articles in a Salesforce Console 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 Salesforce1 for Android (Beta) and Salesforce1 Differences from the Full Salesforce Site

•

Create and Edit Articles

•

Publish Articles and Translations

•

Report on Salesforce Knowledge Articles

Translate Salesforce Knowledge Articles

•

•

Translate Articles Within Salesforce Knowledge

•

•

Create Lightning Knowledge Record Types

484

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Lightning Knowledge

Set up Lightning Knowledge

•

•

Create Lightning Knowledge Home on page 571

•

Set Access for Lightning Knowledge on page 572

Use Your Salesforce Knowledge Base in Lightning Experience

•

Authoring Actions in Lightning Knowledge

on page 579

•

Search Articles in the Main Search Box and the Knowledge Sidebar on page 578

•

Use the Knowledge Sidebar in the Lightning Service Console

on page 580

Define Data Categories for Your Salesforce Knowledge Articles

•

Create and Modify Category Groups

•

•

Add Data Categories to Category Groups

Share Your Salesforce Knowledge Base

•

Find, Attach, and Email Articles with the Case Feed Articles Tool (Classic)

•

Enable Salesforce Knowledge in Your Community (Classic)

•

Use Knowledge with Live Agent (Classic)

•

If you want visitors to your public website to view Salesforce Knowledge articles, install the Public Knowledge Base app from the

AppExchange. To install, configure, and customize your public knowledge base with this package, see the Public Knowledge Base

AppExchange App Guide available on the AppExchange .

Knowledge and Salesforce1

•

What’s Available in Each Version of Salesforce1

•

Customer Service Features: What’s Not Available in Salesforce1

Develop with Salesforce Knowledge

•

The Salesforce Knowledge Developers Guide has Salesforce Knowledge specific development information along with tutorials and examples.

•

The Force.com REST API Developer Guide has information on supporting articles with the REST API.

•

The SOAP API Developer Guide has information on theSalesforce Knowledge API:

–

Guidelines

–

Objects

–

Calls

•

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 Force.com Apex Code Developers Guide has information on the Apex KnowledgeArticleVersionStandardController Class.

485

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Plan Your Knowledge Base

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 problems themselves.

Setting up Salesforce Knowledge is a “choose your own adventure” procedure. There are many features and options and it’s up to you to decide which ones are right for your enterprise.

Consideration

What information do you need to publish?

Who can provide the information?

Knowledge User License ,

User Setup

Who can approve and manage the information?

Knowledge Management ,

Validation Rules

Do you need workflow or approval processes to manage article creation and publication?

Do you have an existing Knowledge base or documentation that you need to import?

Further Information

Article Types

Workflow and Approvals for Articles

Import Existing Information into Salesforce

Knowledge

Who needs to read what information and where?

Knowledge Article Access ,

Create Public Groups for Knowledge ,

Assign Article Actions to Public

Groups

Do you need to categorize your information?

Who has access to which categories?

Are you supporting more than one language?

Data Category Visibility

Do you need agents to search for articles while working on a case?

Attach PDF versions of articles to case emails.View a list of suggested articles based on case information.,

Set Up the Knowledge One

Widget

Do you need agents to follow articles in Chatter?

Feed Tracking

Do you need to share your knowledge base externally?

Do you need to enhance searchability?

Public Knowledge for Mobile, Web, and Facebook

Create synonym groups in Salesforce Knowledge. Synonyms are words or phrases that are treated as equivalent in article searches,

Do you need guidelines, resources, and current discussions on the evolving world of knowledge base orientated service?

Salesforce Knowledge is "KCS Verified" by the

Consortium for 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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

Consider the following tips when planning and using Salesforce Knowledge:

486

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

•

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.

•

Know the maximum limits for articles , article types, and data categories.

•

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

Knowledge Article Access on page 530.

•

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.

SEE ALSO:

Salesforce Knowledge Limits

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Salesforce Knowledge Limits

Limits for Salesforce Knowledge per edition.

Salesforce Knowledge is a knowledge base for creating and managing content. If Salesforce Knowledge is enabled in Communities

(Classic Knowledge only), customers and partners can access articles.

Note: The following limits are default limits. Some limits can be expanded. Contact Salesforce to request limit increases.

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Salesforce Knowledge Limits

Maximum number of articles

Maximum number of article types

Maximum number of custom fields per article type

Details for Classic Knowledge

50,000 articles

Details for Lightning Knowledge

50,000 articles

100 article types N/A

Enterprise, Developer, and Unlimited editions: 500 custom fields per article type

Performance editions: 800 custom fields per article type

N/A

Maximum file fields

Maximum file size

5 file fields N/A

File fields are counted as attachments and can be up to 25 MB.

Files can be up to 25 MB.

Maximum rich text area size 131072 characters

Maximum size of all rich text area fields on an article

1638400 characters

Maximum unique article references (links) in a rich text area field

You can have up to 100 links to different

Salesforce Knowledge articles in one rich text field.

131072 characters

1638400 characters

You can have up to 100 links to different

Salesforce Knowledge articles in one rich text field.

Article history tracking Article events are tracked for up to 18 months.

Maximum number of supported languages 16 supported languages

Article import

Article events are tracked up to 18 months.

N/A

The import .zip file must meet the following requirements:

N/A

•

There can only be one .csv file and one

.properties file.

•

The .csv file and the .properties file must be in the root directory.

•

The compression process must preserve the folder and subfolder structure.

•

The .zip file name can’t contain special characters.

•

The .zip file can’t exceed 20 MB and the individual, uncompressed, files within the zip file can’t exceed 10 MB.

•

.csv files can’t have more than 10,000 rows, including the header row.

Therefore, you can have a maximum of

9,999 articles and translations.

•

.csv file rows can’t exceed 400,000 characters.

•

.csv file cells can’t exceed 32 KB.

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Salesforce Knowledge Limits Details for Classic Knowledge

•

Each article in the .csv file can’t have more than 49 translations.

Details for Lightning Knowledge

Maximum number of data category groups and active data category groups

5 category groups, with 3 groups active at a time

Maximum number of categories per data category group

100 categories in a data category group 100 categories in a data category group

Maximum number of levels in data category group hierarchy

5 levels in a data category group hierarchy 5 levels in a data category group hierarchy

Maximum number of data categories from a data category group assigned to an article

8 data categories from a data category group assigned to an article

Maximum number of promoted search terms

Your organization can create a maximum of 2,000 promoted terms.

8 data categories from a data category group assigned to an article

N/A

SEE ALSO:

Enable Salesforce Knowledge

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Build Your Knowledge Base

If your organization has Knowledge User licenses and one is assigned to you, you are ready to build your knowledge base.

To ensure that your organization has Knowledge User licenses, from Setup, enter

Company

in the Quick Find box, then select Company Information. Knowledge User licenses are listed near the bottom of the page, in the Feature Licenses related list.

To ensure that you are a Salesforce Knowledge user, from your personal settings, enter

Personal

in the Quick Find box, then select Personal Information. The Knowledge User checkbox is in the second column of the User Detail section.

To enable Salesforce Knowledge, from Setup, enter

Knowledge

in the Quick Find box, then select Knowledge Settings. Confirm that you want to enable Salesforce Knowledge and click

Enable Knowledge. If your org doesn’t have an article type, a default article type is created.

Note: If you enabled Knowledge before Spring ’16 you must create an article type first. After the Spring ‘16 release, you no longer need to create an article type first.

SEE ALSO:

Enable Knowledge One with Profiles

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To enable Salesforce

Knowledge:

•

“Customize Application”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Enable Salesforce Knowledge

From the Knowledge Settings page, you can create a Knowledge Base experience for your support agents, partners, and customers.

To set up or edit your knowledge Base, from Setup, enter

Knowledge Settings

in the

Quick

Find

box, select Knowledge Settings, then click Edit.

Feature or Option

General Settings

Enable Lightning Knowledge (Beta)

Description

Allow agents to create and edit articles from the

Article or Knowledge tab

Enables agents to edit articles without going to the Article Management tab. Agents can click

Edit to open the article edit page. If a published version of the article exists, they can view the published version or edit the current version. If a draft version exists, they can continue with editing the existing draft, but must carefully review the draft so that they don’t overwrite unpublished changes.

Activate Validation Status field Adds a

Validation Status

on page 577 field to all

Salesforce Knowledge articles. Agents can select values to show whether the content of the article has been validated or not.

Allow agents to add external multimedia content to HTML in the standard editor

Allows <iframe> elements in the standard editor to embed multimedia content from the

Dailymotion, Vimeo, and YouTube websites.

Agents can simply cut and paste <iframe>

HTML into the editor.

Enables Lightning Knowledge (Beta). 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 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

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

490

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Feature or Option

Highlight relevant article text within search results

Auto-complete keyword search

Auto-complete title search

Language Settings

Default Knowledge Base Language

Single or Multiple Language

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Description

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 may result in different articles.

Note: By default, the Subject field is selected. Choose up to five of the available short text fields that include a description of the issue, the affected product, or the case topic. We recommend choosing short text fields to return more relevant results. Only the first 100 characters of the content from all admin-selected fields are searched. The

Description field is always taken into account when suggesting articles for cases and does not count toward the character limit.

Search on the Knowledge tab generates a snippet of the relevant

article text with the search terms bolded. See Search Highlights and Snippets .

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.

Note: Keyword search history is refreshed once a day.

Search on the Knowledge tab suggests up to 3 articles with matching titles.

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.

If you support more than one language, select Multiple Languages and choose the translation settings. For instructions, see

Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base .

Important:

If you enable Multiple Languages, you can’t revert to a single language knowledge base. You also can’t enable and use Lightning Knowledge (Beta).

Case Settings

491

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Feature or Option

Allow agents to create an article from a case

Use a profile to create article PDFs

Enable list of cases linked to an article

Share Article via URL Settings

Allow agents to share articles via public URLs

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Description

If this checkbox 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 drop-down 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 any of the fields on the draft. By default, the Title field in all draft articles contains the case subject.

Note: If you enable this option, also click Layout

Properties on each case-close page layout and select “Enable submissions during case close and

Submit Articles.”

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 the profile that determines field visibility.

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 communities users or on Salesforce1.

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

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Feature or Option Description

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 If this checkbox is selected, members of an answers community or Chatter Answers community 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.

Chatter Questions Settings

Display relevant articles as users ask questions in Chatter (also applies to communities with Chatter)

Knowledge Statistics Settings

Enable thumbs up or down voting for article

Shows similar questions and relevant Salesforce Knowledge articles when a user enters a question in the Search field.

With this option, the article VoteStat report (which by default only contains totals for star ratings) includes totals for the thumbs up or down ratings.

SEE ALSO:

Enable Knowledge One with Profiles

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

493

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

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.

To add the

Knowledge One

permission to a permission set:

1. From Setup, enter

Permission Sets

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Permission

Sets.

2. Click the permission set you want to add the Knowledge One permission to.

3. In the

Find Settings... box, enter

Knowledge

4. Select Knowledge One from the list of suggestions.

5. Click Edit.

6. Under

Knowledge Management

, check the Enabled check box for

Knowledge One

7. Click Save.

8. Ensure each user has at least a Read permission on at least one article type.

Once Knowledge One is available for your users, define your external data sources. Your external data sources appear under your articles both in the search results and the left-side panel.

SEE ALSO:

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or edit permission sets:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

To create and edit external data sources:

•

“Customize Application”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Enable Knowledge One with Profiles

To switch users from the Articles tab to the Knowledge tab, add the

Knowledge One

permission to their profiles.

To add the

Knowledge One

permission to a profile:

1. From Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles.

2. Click the profile you want to add the Knowledge One permission to.

3. In the

Find Settings... box, enter

Knowledge

4. Select Knowledge One from the list of suggestions.

5. Click Edit.

6. Under

Knowledge Management

, check

Knowledge One

7. Click Save.

8. Ensure each user has at least a Read permission on at least one article type.

Once Knowledge One is available for your users, define your external data sources. Your external data sources appear under your articles both in the search results and the left-side panel.

Create a text custom field called

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or edit profiles:

•

“Manage Profiles and

Permission Sets”

To create and edit external data sources:

•

“Customize Application”

495

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Example Apex for Submitting Articles from Cases

If your organization allows customer-support agents to create Salesforce Knowledge articles while closing a case, you can use Apex to pre-populate fields on draft articles. To do so, create an Apex class and assign it to the case article type using the example below as a guide.

For more information on the syntax and use of Apex, see the

Force.com Apex Code Developer's Guide

Set up the example by creating the following article type, field, and data categories. Do not change the default

API Name

assigned to each new object.

Create an article type

called

FAQ

Details

Geography

and assign it a category

called

USA

assign it a category called

Topics

and

Maintenance

Now, create and assign the Apex class.

5. From Setup, enter

Apex Classes

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Apex Classes and click New.

6. To specify the version of Apex and the API used with this class, click Version Settings.

If your organization has installed managed packages from the AppExchange, you can also specify which version of each managed package to use with this class. Use the default values for all versions. This associates the class with the most recent version of Apex and the API, as well as each managed package. You can specify an older version of a managed package if you want to access components or functionality that differs from the most recent package version.

You can specify an older version of Apex and the API to maintain specific behavior.

7. In the

Apex Class

text box enter the following script and click Save:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To edit Salesforce

Knowledge settings:

•

“Customize Application”

To create an Apex class:

•

“Author Apex” 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.

//It can optionally be cast to the proper article type, e.g. FAQ__kav article = (FAQ__kav) ctl.getRecord(); closed.

String sourceId = ctl.getSourceId(); //this returns the id of the case that was

Case c = [select subject, description from Case where id=:sourceId]; article.put('title', 'From Case: '+c.subject); //this overrides the default behavior of pre-filling the title of the article with the subject of the closed case.

article.put('Details__c',c.description); ctl.selectDataCategory('Geography','USA'); //Only one category per category group can be specified.

ctl.selectDataCategory('Topics','Maintenance');

}

8. From Setup, enter

Knowledge Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Knowledge Settings and click Edit.

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Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

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:

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Use Videos from Any Provider with a Custom Visualforce Page

Using a custom Visualforce page and the HTML editor, you can insert videos from any provider into your Salesforce Knowledge articles.

For example, create a Visualforce page:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create a Visualforce page

•

“Customize Application”

To create articles:

•

“Manage Articles”

AND

“Read” and “Create” on the article type

To edit draft articles:

•

“Manage Articles”

AND

“Read” and “Edit” on the article type

To edit published or archived articles:

•

“Manage Articles”

AND

“Create,” “Read,” and

“Edit” on the article type

<apex:page showHeader="false" showChat="false" sidebar="false">

</iframe>

</apex:page>

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Then, with the HTML editor, authors can reference videos using this code:

<salesforce_instance>

/apex/Video?videoID=12345" width="560">

</iframe>

SEE ALSO:

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Knowledge Article Types

Article types, such as FAQs and Tutorials, provide the format and structure to control how an article displays for each audience, known as a channel. For each article type you can create custom fields, customize the layout by adding or removing sections and fields, and choose a template for each channel. You can also create workflow rules and approval processes to help your organization track and manage article creation and publication.

SEE ALSO:

Create Article Types

Select this option to track the full history of an article and its

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

499

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Create Article Types

An article type controls how an article displays and what type of information of fields are included.

Note:

Before agents can access article types, you must set object permissions for article types.

1. From Setup, enter

Knowledge Article Types

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Knowledge Article Types.

2. Click New Article Type or edit an existing article type.

3. Enter the article types details

Field

Label

Plural Label

Gender

Starts with a vowel sound

Object Name

Description

Description

A name used to refer to the article type in any user interface pages.

The plural name of the object. If you create a tab for this object, this name is used for the tab.

If it is appropriate for your organization’s default language, specify the gender of the label. This field appears if the organization-wide default language expects gender. Your personal language preference setting does not affect whether the field appears. For example, if the organization’s default language is English and your personal language is French, you are not prompted for gender when creating an article type.

If it is appropriate for your organization’s default language, check if your label should be preceded by "an" instead of "a".

(Read only) A unique name used to refer to the article type when using the Force.com 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.

An optional description of the article type. A meaningful description helps you remember the differences between your article types when you are viewing them in a list.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create, edit, or delete article types:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

500

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field

Track Field History

Deployment Status

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Description

versions. The system records and displays field updates, publishing workflow events, and language versions for the master article and any translations.

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

Before you begin, determine the type of custom field you want to create.

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

501

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Add Custom Fields to Article Types

Create custom fields to store information that is important to your articles. The only standard fields provided on article types are: Article Number, Summary, Title, and URL Name. At minimum, you want to create a field where authors can write the body of the article.

Note:

Authors can view the

URL Name

when they create or edit an article. The

URL

Name

does not appear to end users viewing published articles.

1. From Setup, enter

Knowledge Article Types

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Knowledge Article Types.

2. Select an article type.

3. Click New in the Fields related list.

4. Choose the type of field to create, and click Next.

5. Enter a field label. The field name is automatically populated based on the field label you enter.

This name can contain only underscores and alphanumeric characters, and must be unique in your org. It must begin with a letter, not include spaces, not end with an underscore, and not contain two consecutive underscores.

6. Enter any field attributes, such as

Description

, and click Next to continue.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

Note:

You cannot enter a default value for any custom field.

7. Set the field-level security to determine whether the field is visible and editable or read only

for specific profiles, and click Next. Field-level security allows you to control which fields are visible in different channels.

8. If you do not want the field to be added automatically to the article-type layout, uncheck

Yes, 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.

To create or change custom fields:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

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:

Custom Fields on Articles

Create Article Types

Add Custom Fields to Article Types

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

502

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Custom Fields on Articles

The first step in creating a custom field for articles is choosing the field type. This table describes all available custom field types.

Field Type

Article Currency

Currency

Description

In a multiple currency organization, an article can have an article currency field to set the article’s currency ISO code.

Allows agents to enter a currency amount. The system automatically formats the field as a currency amount. This can be useful if you export data to a spreadsheet application. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.

Note: Salesforce uses the round-half-to-even tie-breaking rule for currency fields. For example, 23.5

becomes 24, 22.5 becomes 22, −22.5

becomes −22, and −23.5 becomes −24.

Values lose precision after 15 decimal places.

Date

Date/Time

Allows agents to enter a date or pick a date from a popup calendar. In reports, you can limit the data by specific dates using any custom date field. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.

Allows agents to enter a date or pick a date from a popup calendar, and enter a time of day. They can also add the current date and time by clicking the date and time link next to the field.

The time of day includes AM or PM notation. In reports, you can limit the data by specific dates and times using any custom date field. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.

Allows agents to enter an email address, which is validated to ensure proper format. Character limit is 80. If this field is specified for contacts or leads, agents can choose the address when clicking Send an Email. You can't use custom email addresses for mass emails. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

503

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field Type

File

Formula

Lookup Relationship

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Description

Allows agents to upload and attach a file to an article. You can make this field required so an agent must enter 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.

Allows agents to automatically calculate values based on other values or fields such as merge fields.

Note: Salesforce uses the round half up tie-breaking rule for numbers in formula fields. For example, 12.345 becomes

12.35 and −12.345 becomes −12.34.

In Database.com, the Formula editor does not provide a

Check Syntax button. Syntax checking occurs when the agent attempts to save the formula.

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 create lookup relationship fields that link to users, standard objects, or custom objects. If a lookup field references a record that has been deleted, Salesforce clears the value of the lookup field by default. Alternatively, you can choose to prevent records from being deleted if they’re in a lookup relationship. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.

Lookup relationship fields are not available in Personal Edition.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field Type

Number

Percent

Phone

Picklist

Picklist (Dependent)

Picklist (Multi-select)

Text

Text Area

Text Area (Long)

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Description

Lookup relationship fields to campaign members are not available; however, lookup relationship fields from campaign members to other objects are available.

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 so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.

Note: Salesforce uses the round half up tie-breaking rule for number fields. For example, 12.345 becomes 12.35 and

−12.345 becomes −12.34. Salesforce rounds numbers referenced in merge fields according to the user’s locale, not the number of decimal spaces specified in the number field configuration.

Allows agents to enter a percentage number, for example, '10'.

The system automatically adds the percent sign to the number.

You can make this field required so an agent must enter 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.

Allows agents to enter any phone number. Character limit is 40.

You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.

Salesforce automatically formats it as a phone number.

Allows agents to select a value from a list you define.

Allows agents to select a value from a list dependent on the value of another field.

Allows agents to select more than one picklist value from a list you define. These fields display each value separated by a semicolon.

Allows agents to enter any combination of letters, numbers, or symbols. You can set a maximum length, up to 255 characters. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.

Allows agents to enter up to 255 characters that display on separate lines similar to a

Description

field. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.

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

505

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Field Type

Text Area (Rich)

URL

SEE ALSO:

modify the article-type layouts to organize the fields on detail and edit pages.

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Description

256 to 131,072 characters is allowed. The default is 32,768 characters. Every time a agents presses

Enter

within a long text area field, a line break and a return character are added, 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. Those articles can’t be edited until the limit is reset higher than their character counts.

Allows agents to enter up to 131,072 characters of HTML-supported text including code samples (

Salesforce Knowledge articles.

) and smart links between

There are two ways to create smart links:

•

Search for the article.

•

Enter the article URL.

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.

Allows agents to enter up to 255 characters of any valid website address. When agents click the field, the URL opens in a separate browser window. Only the first 50 characters are displayed on the record detail pages. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Field-Level Security on Articles

Field-level security lets administrators restrict readers’ access to specific fields on detail and edit pages. For example, you can make a “Comment” field in an article visible for Internal App profiles but not for public Community profiles.

EDITIONS

If using both

article-type layout

and field-level security to define field visibility, the most restrictive field access setting always applies. For example, if a field is hidden in the article-type layout, but visible in the field-level security settings, the layout overrides security settings and the field aren’t visible. Some user permissions override both page layouts and field-level security settings. For example, users with the “Edit Read Only Fields” permission can always edit read-only fields regardless of any other settings.

Important: Field-level security doesn’t prevent searching on the values in a field. When search terms match on field values protected by field-level security, the associated records are returned in the search results without the protected fields and their values.

You can define security via a permission set, profile, or field.

Define field-level security via permission sets or profiles

1. For permission sets or profiles, from Setup, either:

•

Enter

Permission Sets

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Permission Sets, or

•

Enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

2. Select a permission set or profile.

3. Depending on which interface you're using, do one of the following:

•

Permission sets or enhanced profile user interface—In the Find Settings... box, enter the name of the object you want and select it from the list. Click Edit, then scroll to the Field Permissions section.

•

Original profile user interface—In the Field-Level Security section, click View next to the object you want to modify, and then click Edit.

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.

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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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

After setting field-level security, you can

SEE ALSO:

Add Custom Fields to Article Types

If an article type page layout doesn’t include a field with a validation rule

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Article Type Page Layouts

Article-type layouts determine which fields agents can view and edit when entering data for an article. They also determine which sections appear when users view articles. The article-type template defines the format of the article, for example whether layout sections display as subtabs or as a single page with links. You can apply a layout per profile per article type. Therefore, you can display more sensitive fields of the same article to only those agents with the correct profile.

Tip:

You can also use

field-level security

to hide fields on article types. For example, if you publish the same article in the internal app and in a community, you can to use field-level security to hide a custom field such as

Internal Comments

from external community users.

1. From Setup, enter

Knowledge Article Types

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Knowledge Article Types.

2. Click the article type.

3. Scroll down to the Page Layouts related list or click the Page Layouts link at the top of the page.

4. To create a page layout, click New and follow the prompts. To edit an existing layout, click Edit and make your changes.

Make your changes. The layout editor consists of two parts: a palette on the upper portion of the screen and the layout on the lower portion of the screen. The palette contains the available fields and a section element. The layout contains an Information section and space for you to add sections. By default, all custom fields are included in the Information section.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To customize the article-type layout:

•

“Customize Application”

Important: If you navigate away from your article-type layout before clicking save, your changes are lost.

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

Add a section

Description

Drag and drop the section element into the palette.

Change the name of a section

Remove a field from a section

Remove a section from the article-type layout

Click its title. You cannot rename the Information section.

Drag it to the right side of the palette or click the icon next to the field.

Click the icon next to the section name.

Save your changes and continue editing the article type layout Click Quick Save.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Tip:

•

Use the undo and redo buttons to step backwards and forwards, respectively.

•

Use the following keyboard shortcuts:

–

Undo = CTRL+Z

–

Redo = CTRL+Y

–

Quick Save = CTRL+S

•

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 drop-down.

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.

•

, 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.

•

Salesforce Mobile Classic actions and related lists are not available on article page layouts in the desktop Salesforce user interface, with the exception of actions on the article feed.

SEE ALSO:

Create Article Types

Article Type Page Layouts

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

509

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Send Article Content in Email (Beta)

When using Knowledge One, agents can send an email with an article’s contents embedded in the body of the email.

EDITIONS

Note: Sending article content via email is available through a beta program for articles published on external channels (public knowledge bases, portals, or communities) and is not supported on Internet Explorer 7. For new organizations, the user permission off on all standard profiles but on for the System Administrator profile. For existing organizations, contact your

Salesforce representative to enable the permission on the standard System Administrator profile.

Agents can send article content within an email rather than just sending a URL. Your customers can access the information without going to a website. Your agents send articles that are not published publicly without rewriting or copy and pasting an internal article. Administrators can assign permission to only those agents with a good knowledge of what is acceptable for an external audience.

To enable and setup which article fields go into emails for each article type.

1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.

2. 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 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.)

If you’ve already opted to use the advanced page layout editor to configure the publisher for a layout, choose

Edit detail view

to add, change, or remove actions.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To administer Salesforce

Knowledge and create, edit, and delete page layouts:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

3. Under

Articles Tool Settings

, check Enable attaching articles inline.

4. Click Save.

5. From Setup, enter

Knowledge Article Types

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Knowledge Article Types.

6. Click the label or name of the article type you’d like to share via email.

7. Under Communication Channel Mappings, click New or Edit.

8. Enter a Label and Name.

9. Select and add

to the Selected Channels list.

10. Select and add the fields you’d like included in the body of an email.

Note: Smart links can’t be included in the email and the following fields are not supported:

•

ArticleType

•

isDeleted

•

Language

•

MultiPicklist

•

Picklist

•

Publish Status

•

Source

510

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

•

Validation Status

11. Click Save.

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 drop-down. 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

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Post Site and Community Article URLs

In the Service Console, agents can insert Site or Community URLs for articles into the case feed via the email, community, or social publishers.

To post Site or Community URLs for articles into the case feed , you must have the Knowledge sidebar enabled in the Service Console and either a Force.com Site or Community setup.

1. From Setup, enter

Knowledge

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Knowledge Settings.

2. Click Edit.

3. In the

Share Article via URL Settings

section, enable Allow users to share

articles via public URLs.

4. In the

Available Sites

list, select from which sites or communities you want agents to share article URLs and add them to the

Selected Sites

list.

5. Click Save.

Your agents can now select Attach and share article link from selected sites in the Knowledge sidebar of the console. Email is the default action but agents can change to the Social or Community action in the case feed before they insert the URL.

Important:

•

Articles must be published. Draft articles don’t show the insert URL option.

•

Articles must be shared publicly, meaning their Channel must be Public Knowledge Base,

Customer, or Partner.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To administer Salesforce

Knowledge:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

511

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

•

All enabled URLs show Attach and share article link, even if the article is not visible in that site or community. The agent must confirm that the article is available in the site or community before sharing it with the customer.

SEE ALSO:

sure all page layouts assigned to the article type by profile

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Control Data Integrity with Validation Rules

Ensure that your article content is compliant with your company standards. Create validation rules for each article type to check whether required fields have the appropriate values based on the article’s status.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter

Article Types

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Knowledge

Article Types.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

2. Click the article type.

3. Scroll down to the Validation Rules related list or click the Validation Rules link at the top of the page.

4. To create a validation rule, click New. To edit an existing rule, click Edit.

5. Name the rule.

6. Make the rule active.

7. Optionally, describe what you want to control on articles of this type.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

8. Specify an error condition formula and a corresponding error message.

The error condition is written as a Boolean formula expression that returns true or false. When true, the article is not saved, and an error message displays. The author can correct the error and try again. For information on validation rules, seeDefine Validation Rules.

USER PERMISSIONS

Note:

Knowledge article errors always display at the top of the page, not next to the field. Write your errors descriptively so that authors know how to satisfy the validation rule. For example, identify which field is causing the error.

To create or edit validation rules for article types:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

9. Click Save.

When creating validation rules on article types, consider the following limitations and functionality changes.

•

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

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.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

•

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:

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Article History Tracking

You can track the history of certain fields in articles. If you have history tracking enabled, open an article of that type and click Version to see a version history list. You can also set tracking for the article type and track the full history of an article and its versions. Article events are tracked for up to 18 months.

The system records and displays field updates, publishing workflow events, and language versions for the master article and any translations. When you track old and new values, the system records both values as well as the date, time, nature of the change, and the user who made the change.

When you track only the changed values, the system marks the changed field as having been edited; it doesn’t record the old and new field values. This information is available in the Version History list and the fields are available in the Article Version History report.

Article history respects field, entity, and record-level security. You must have at least “Read” permission on the article type or the field to access its history. For data category security, Salesforce determines access based on the categorization of the online version of an article. If there is no online version, then security is applied based on the archived version, followed by the security of the draft version.

1. From Setup, enter

Knowledge

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Knowledge Article

Types.

2. Create an article type or edit one from the Article Types list.

3. Click Set History Tracking.

4. Choose the fields you want to track.

Salesforce begins tracking history from that date and time. Changes made before that date and time are not tracked.

5. Click Save.

SEE ALSO:

8. If your article type has a File field , you can allow users to download the field's content.

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create, edit, or delete article types:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

513

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Article Type Templates

Article types in Salesforce Knowledge require a template for each channel. The standard article-type templates—Tab and Table of Contents—specify how the sections in the article-type layout appear in the published article. For example, if you choose the Tab template, the sections defined in the layout appear as tabs when users view an article. With the Table of Contents template, sections appear on a single page with hyperlinks to each section. You can also create a custom template using Visualforce. Custom templates are not associated with the article-type layout.

1. From Setup, enter

Knowledge Article Types

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Knowledge Article Types

2. Click an article type name.

•

If you are using a default template, continue with Step 12.

•

If you are creating a custom template, make note of the article type's

API Name

. You need this value when you create the Visualforce page.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

3. From Setup, enter

Visualforce Pages

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Visualforce Pages.

4. Click New.

USER PERMISSIONS

5. In the

Name

text box, enter the text that appears in the URL as the page name.

To create, edit, or delete article-type templates:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

6. In the

Label

text box, enter the text that users see when choosing this template from the

Channel Displays related list on the article type detail page.

7. Add your Visualforce markup.

The only requirement for custom article-type templates is that the standard controller is equal to the

API Name

of the article type. For example, if the

API Name

of the article type is

Offer__kav

, your markup would be:

<apex:page standardController="Offer__kav">

... page content here ...

</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.

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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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

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 drop-down menu.

13. Click Save.

Example: If you choose the Tab template, the sections you defined in the layout appear as tabs when users view an article.

Published Article Using the Tab Article-Type Template

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.

515

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Published Article Using the Table of Contents Article-Type Template

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

SEE ALSO:

Create a text custom field called

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Example Apex for Submitting Articles from Cases

For more information on the syntax and use of Apex, see the

Force.com Apex Code Developer's Guide

Set up the example by creating the following article type, field, and data categories. Do not change the default

API Name

assigned to each new object.

Create an article type

called

FAQ

Details

Geography

and assign it a category

called

USA

assign it a category called

Topics

and

Maintenance

Now, create and assign the Apex class.

5. From Setup, enter

Apex Classes

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Apex Classes and click New.

6. To specify the version of Apex and the API used with this class, click Version Settings.

You can specify an older version of Apex and the API to maintain specific behavior.

7. In the

Apex Class

text box enter the following script and click Save:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To edit Salesforce

Knowledge settings:

•

“Customize Application”

To create an Apex class:

•

“Author Apex” public class AgentContributionArticleController {

// The constructor must take a ApexPages.KnowledgeArticleVersionStandardController

as an argument

516

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge public

AgentContributionArticleController(ApexPages.KnowledgeArticleVersionStandardController

ctl) {

SObject article = ctl.getRecord(); //this is the SObject for the new article.

//It can optionally be cast to the proper article type, e.g. FAQ__kav article = (FAQ__kav) ctl.getRecord(); closed.

String sourceId = ctl.getSourceId(); //this returns the id of the case that was

article.put('Details__c',c.description); ctl.selectDataCategory('Geography','USA'); //Only one category per category group can be specified.

ctl.selectDataCategory('Topics','Maintenance');

}

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:

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

517

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Delete an Article Type

Deleting article types can result in errors and lost data. Read this entire topic carefully before deleting article types.

1. From Setup, enter

Knowledge Article Types

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Knowledge Article Types.

2. Next to the article type, click Del.

3. Confirm that you want to delete the article type.

Notes on Deleting Article Types

•

If your organization has only article type, you cannot delete it. Every Salesforce Knowledge org requires at least one deployed article type. Create an article type and then delete the old one.

•

Any articles associated with a deleted article type are automatically removed from all channels, including draft, published, and archived articles.

•

Salesforce does not display deleted article types in the Recycle Bin with other deleted records. Instead, deleted article types appear in the Deleted Article Types list on the article list view page for 15 days. During this time, you can restore the article type and its articles, or permanently erase the article type and its articles. After 15 days, the article type and its articles are permanently erased.

•

If a reader clicks a bookmark to a deleted article's URL, an Insufficient Privileges message displays.

SEE ALSO:

a localization vendor, see Import Translated Articles on page 549.

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To delete article types:

•

“Customize Application”

Import Existing Information into Salesforce Knowledge

You can import your existing articles or information database into Salesforce Knowledge. This importer is for articles and translations you currently have outside Salesforce Knowledge

Note: If you are looking for instructions on importing translated articles that you've sent to

IN THIS SECTION:

Prepare Articles for Import to Salesforce Knowledge

Each import file must have articles of the same type and columns corresponding to the fields in the article.

Create a .csv File for Article Import

Each .csv file imports articles into one article type and maps the imported articles' content with the article type's fields. For example, a .csv file might map articles' titles with the standard field

Title

in an article type, meaning that each article's title is imported into the

Title

field.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

518

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

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 to be used for the import.

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 into

Salesforce Knowledge.

Article and Translation Import and Export Status

Find the status of your article imports and exports on the Article Imports page in Setup.

2. Ensure that each information type has a corresponding Salesforce Knowledge article type that

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

519

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Prepare Articles for Import to Salesforce Knowledge

Each import file must have articles of the same type and columns corresponding to the fields in the article.

Tip: Test your import using a small set of articles.

1. Sort your existing articles by information type.

For example: FAQ, product information, or offer.

matches its structure and content.

For example, if you are importing FAQs, ensure that Salesforce Knowledge has an FAQ article type with enough question and answer fields to accommodate the largest FAQ article.

If your articles contain .html files, use an article type that contains a rich text area field and ensure that the HTML is compliant with the tags and attributes supported in the rich text area field.

Note: The article importer does not support subfields. If you have fields within fields, adjust your structure and content before importing into Salesforce Knowledge.

3. Verify that the article's field-level security settings allow you to edit the fields.

For each article type, create a cvs file

to import.

SEE ALSO:

Create a .csv File for Article Import

Import Existing Information into Salesforce Knowledge

file custom fields to import any file

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To import articles:

•

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge ”

AND

“Manage Articles”

AND

“Manage Knowledge

Article Import/Export”

AND

“Read,” “Create,” “Edit,” and “Delete” on the article type

520

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Create a .csv File for Article Import

Title in an article type, meaning that each article's title is imported into the

Title

field.

1. Create one .csv file per article type.

•

There can only be one .csv file and one .properties file.

•

The .csv file and the .properties file must be in the root directory.

•

The compression process must preserve the folder and subfolder structure.

•

The .zip file name can’t contain special characters.

•

The .zip file can’t exceed 20 MB and the individual, uncompressed, files within the zip file can’t exceed 10 MB.

•

.csv files can’t have more than 10,000 rows, including the header row. Therefore, you can have a maximum of 9,999 articles and translations.

•

.csv file rows can’t exceed 400,000 characters.

•

.csv file cells can’t exceed 32 KB.

•

Each article in the .csv file can’t have more than 49 translations.

2. In the first row, specify the article type's fields and metadata, such as language

data categories

or channels.

Enter one item in each column. You can use the following fields and metadata to import content.

Field or data

isMasterLanguage

Title

Standard and custom fields

Rich text area field

File field

Description

Identifies the article as a master (1) or translation (0). Required to import articles with translations, however, it can’t be in a .csv file to import articles without translations.

Translations must follow their master articles so that they are associated with the master article preceding it

The article or translation’s title. Required for all imports.

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.

Use the rich text area

custom fields to import

.html files or images. Refer to an article type's rich text area field using its API name.

Use the

type (.doc, .pdf, .txt, etc.). Refer to an article type's file field using its API name.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To import articles:

•

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge ”

AND

“Manage Articles”

AND

“Manage Knowledge

Article Import/Export”

AND

“Read,” “Create,” “Edit,” and “Delete” on the article type

521

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Field or data

Data category groups

Channel

Language

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Description

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.

To specify where the imported articles are available, use the keyword

Channels

Specify the articles' language. Required to import articles with translations. Optional to import articles without translations. If you don't include this column, the articles automatically belong to the

default knowledge base language and you can’t import

translations along with the master articles.

3. In subsequent rows, specify the articles you want to import.

Use one row per article and enter the appropriate information in each field or metadata column.

Important: All file names are case sensitive and must match what is in the .csv file exactly.

Consideration

Standard or custom fields

Rich text area field

Notes

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.

Note: The article importer does not support subfields. If you have fields within fields, adjust your structure and content before importing into Salesforce Knowledge.

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 separate folders for the .html

files (for example,

/data

) and the 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.

•

Images must be

.png

.gif

, or

.jpeg

files.

•

Each image file can’t exceed 1 MB.

•

.html files can’t exceed the maximum size for their field.

•

If a date doesn't match the date format specified in the property file, the related article isn't imported.

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Consideration

File field

Category groups

Channels

523

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Notes

•

If an .html file references a file that isn't allowed, the related article isn't imported.

•

If an .html file references an image that's missing, the related article is imported without the image.

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.

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.

Specify articles' channels using the keywords.

•

application

for Internal App. If you don't specify a channel, application

is the default.

•

sites

for Public Knowledge Base.

•

csp

for Customer.

•

prm

for Partner.

Use the plus (

) symbol to specify more than one channel (for example, application+sites+csp

to make an article available in all channels).

Note: When importing articles with translations and associated channels, only the master article retains the channels. The article translations have no associated channels upon import.

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Example: The following example .csv files import articles in a Product Offer article type. The first example is for imports of articles without translations. The second is for imports 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 “Best Desktop Computer Deals” article has no summary; the cell is left blank because the summary__c

field is not mandatory.

Title summary__c description__c

data/freecam.html

datacategorygroup

.Products

Channels

Consumer_ Electronics application+csp Free Digital Camera

Offer

Best Desktop Computer

Deals

Free Shipping on Laptop and Desktops

Get the new Digital

Camera.

data/bestdeals.html

data/freeship.html

Desktop

Laptop+Desktops application+csp application+csp

Example articlesimport.csv

file:

Title,summary__c,description__c,datacategorygroup.Products,Channels

Free Digital Camera Offer, Get the new Digital

Camera.,data/freecam.html,Consumer_Electronics,application+csp

Best Desktop Computer Deals,,data/bestdeals.html,Desktop,application+csp

Free Shipping on Laptop and Desktops,,data/freeship.html,Laptop+Desktops,application+csp

isMaster

Language

Title

1 Free Digital Camera Offer

summary__c

Libérer l'Offre d'Appareil photo digital

Liberte Oferta Digital de

Cámara

Get the new Digital

Camera.

data/freecam.html

Obtenir le nouvel Appareil photo digital.

data/freecam/fr.html

Consiga la nueva Cámara

Digital.

description__c

data/freecam/es.html

1 data/bestdeals.html

Best Desktop Computer

Deals

Meilleures Affaires d'ordinateurs de bureau data/bestdeals/fr.html

Mejores Tratos de ordenadores

Free Shipping on Laptops and Desktops

Libérer Affranchissement sur Portables et Ordinateurs data/bestdeals/es.html

data/freeship.html

data/freeship/fr.html

datacategorygroup

.Products

Consumer_ Electronics

Desktops

Laptops+ Desktops

Channels Language

application

+csp en_US fr application

+csp application

+csp es en_US fr es en_US fr

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

isMaster

Language

Title

0 Liberte Franqueo en

Laptops y Ordenadores

summary__c description__c

data/freeship/es.html

datacategorygroup

.Products

Channels Language

Example articlestranslationsimport.csv

file: isMasterLanguage,Title,summary__c,description__c,datacategorygroup.Products,Channels,Language

1,Free Digital Camera Offer,Get the new Digital

Camera,data/freecam.html,Consumer_Electronics,application+csp,en

0,Libérer l'Offre d'Appareil photo digital,Obtenir le nouvel Appareil photo digital.,data/freecam/fr.html,,,fr

0,Liberte Oferta Digital de Cámara,Consiga la nueva Cámara

Digital.,data/freecam/es.html,,,es

1,Best Desktop Computer Deals,,data/bestdeals.html,Desktops,application+csp,en

0,Meilleures Affaires d'ordinateurs de bureau,,data/bestdeals/fr.html,,,fr

0,Mejores Tratos de ordenadores,,data/bestdeals/es.html,,,es

1,Free Shipping on Laptop and

Desktops,,data/freeship.html,Laptops+Desktops,application+csp,en

0,Libérer Affranchissement sur Portables et Ordinateurs,,data/freeship/fr.html,,,fr

0,Liberte Franqueo en Laptops y Ordenadores,,data/freeship/es.html,,,es

Specify your import parameters in a property file using key names and corresponding values.

SEE ALSO:

Set Article Import Parameters

Import Existing Information into Salesforce Knowledge

Create a .zip file and import into Salesforce Knowledge.

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

525

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

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 to be used for the import.

1. Create a file with required parameters, as described in this table.

Key

DateFormat

DateTimeFormat

CSVEncoding

CSVSeparator

RTAEncoding

Description Default Value

Format of the date to read in the .csv file yyyy-MM-dd

Format of the date and time to read in the .csv file yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss

Character encoding used to read the .csv file

.csv file separator ,

ISO8859_15_FDIS

Default encoding used for the

HTML files (if not specified in the charset

attribute from the HTML meta

tag).

ISO8859_15_FDIS

Note:

Salesforce does not support UTF-32 character encoding.

We recommend using

UTF-8. If you use specify UTF-16 character encoding, ensure that your HTML files specify the right byte-order mark.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To import articles:

•

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge ”

AND

“Manage Articles”

AND

“Manage Knowledge

Article Import/Export”

AND

“Read,” “Create,” “Edit,” and “Delete” on the article type

Note: Specify only Java date formats. Make sure 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.

2. Save the file with the

.properties

Example: Example offerarticlesimport.properties

property file:

DateFormat=yyyy-MM-dd

DateTimeFormat=yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss

CSVEncoding=ISO8859_15_FDIS

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

CSVSeparator=,

RTAEncoding=UTF-8

SEE ALSO:

Create an Article .zip File for Import

Import Existing Information into Salesforce Knowledge

Check on the status of your import , on the Article Imports page.

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

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 into Salesforce Knowledge.

1. Create a .zip file containing:

•

The .csv file.

•

The folder containing the .html files to import.

•

The folder containing the image files referenced in the .html files.

•

The .properties file.

Important: The import .zip file must meet the following requirements:

•

There can only be one .csv file and one .properties file.

•

The .csv file and the .properties file must be in the root directory.

•

The compression process must preserve the folder and subfolder structure.

•

The .zip file name can’t contain special characters.

•

The .zip file can’t exceed 20 MB and the individual, uncompressed, files within the zip file can’t exceed 10 MB.

•

.csv files can’t have more than 10,000 rows, including the header row. Therefore, you can have a maximum of 9,999 articles and translations.

•

.csv file rows can’t exceed 400,000 characters.

•

.csv file cells can’t exceed 32 KB.

•

Each article in the .csv file can’t have more than 49 translations.

2. From Setup, enter

Import Articles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Import

Articles.

3. 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 the

Contains translations?

checkbox.

Note:

If this checkbox is selected, your .csv file must contain the isMasterLanguage, Title, and Language columns. If this checkbox is not selected, your csv file can’t contain the

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To import articles:

•

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge ”

AND

“Manage Articles”

AND

“Manage Knowledge

Article Import/Export”

AND

“Read,” “Create,” “Edit,” and “Delete” on the article type

527

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge isMasterLanguage column but must contain the Title column. The Language column is optional for imports of articles without translations.

6. Click Import Now.

When the import is complete, you receive an email with an attached log that provides details about the import.

Import Existing Information into Salesforce Knowledge

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Article and Translation Import and Export Status

Find the status of your article imports and exports on the Article Imports page in Setup.

To check the status of your imports and exports, from Setup, enter

Article Imports

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Article Imports. If you've enabled multiple languages for Salesforce

Knowledge, you see two tables: one for article and translation imports and another for exports for translation.

Import information includes:

•

Possible actions

•

.Zip file names

•

Who submitted it and when

•

Status

•

Started and completed dates

•

Article types

Export information includes:

•

Possible actions

•

Zip file names

•

Who submitted it and when

•

Status

•

Started and completed dates

Status descriptions are as follows:

Status

Pending

Processing

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

Description

The import or export will start as soon as the previous pending import or export completes.

The import or export is processing.

Possible Action

You can click Cancel to cancel the import or export.

If you want to stop the process, or if the process has been stopped, call Salesforce

Support. Salesforce may stop an import or

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Status

Stopping/Stopped

Aborted

Completed

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Description Possible Action

export if a maintenance task has to be performed or the import or export exceeds one hour.

Salesforce Support is stopping or has already stopped the import or export.

The import or export has been canceled.

The articles that already imported or exported successfully are available in

Salesforce.

Contact Salesforce Support to restart the import or export, or click Cancel to cancel an entry.

You can restart an import or export, click Del to delete an entry, or click Email Log to receive the completion email and check the details of your import or export.

The import or export is complete.

Successfully imported articles are visible on the Article Management tab on the

Articles

subtab. Successfully imported translations are visible on the Article

Management tab on the

Translations

subtab.

This status doesn't mean the import or export is successful. Click Email Log to see the log file attached to the completion email and check the details of your import or export.

Click the exported .zip file name to save or open the file on your system.

SEE ALSO:

Import Existing Information into Salesforce Knowledge

Article Actions Setup page .

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

529

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Knowledge Article Access

Give your knowledge agents access to articles. Specify which agents in your company are Salesforce

Knowledge users, those who can create, edit, archive, and delete articles. Create user profiles with the appropriate user permissions, and then assign users to these profiles.

By default all internal users can read articles. However some licenses like the Knowledge Only User licenses, require the “AllowViewKnowledge” permission on the user’s profile. To give a user the

“AllowViewKnowledge” permission on their profile, activate the permission on a cloned profile and assign the cloned profile to the user.

Note: To do more than read articles, agents need the Knowledge User license.

1. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

2. Click Edit next to the user's name or click New to create a user.

3. If you are creating a user, complete all the required fields.

4. Select the

Knowledge User

checkbox.

5. Click Save.

See

User permissions control access to different tasks Salesforce Knowledge. We recommend using permission sets or custom profiles to grant users the permissions they need. For example, you can create a permission set called “Article Manager” that includes the permissions to create, edit, publish, and assign articles.

Refer to this table for details on permissions associated with Salesforce Knowledge tasks.

Salesforce Knowledge Task

To create article types:

To manage article actions:

User Permissions Needed

“Manage Salesforce Knowledge” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

“Manage Salesforce Knowledge”

This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.

To create articles from cases using the simple editor:

“Read” and “Create” on the article type

To create articles from cases using the standard editor:

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read” and “Create” on the article type

To search articles from cases and attach articles to cases:

“Read” on the article type

To create articles from answers:

“Read” and “Create” on the article type

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or edit users:

•

“Manage Internal Users”

To create article types and article actions:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

530

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Salesforce Knowledge Task User Permissions Needed

To search for and read articles from the Article or Knowledge tab:

“Read” on the article type

To create or edit articles from the Article Management tab:

To edit draft articles from the Article Management tab:

To delete articles from the Article Management tab:

To publish 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

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read” and “Edit” on the article type

“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

“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

A publish or archive article action, set on the Article Actions Setup page

To assign articles for the Article Management tab:

To edit published or archived articles:

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read” and “Edit” on the article type

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read”, “Create”, and “Edit” on the article type

AND

531

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Salesforce Knowledge Task

To archive articles from the Article Management tab:

To submit articles for translation:

To delete translated articles:

To publish translated articles:

To edit translated articles:

To import articles:

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

User Permissions Needed

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read”, “Create”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on the article type

AND

An archive article action, set on the

A translate article action, set on the Article Actions Setup page

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read”, “Create”, and “Edit” on the article type

AND

“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

“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

A translate article action, set on the Article Actions Setup page

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read”, “Create”, and “Edit” on the article type

AND

“Manage Salesforce Knowledge” (This permission is on by default in the System Administrator profile.)

AND

“Manage Articles”

AND

532

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Salesforce Knowledge Task

To import and export translated articles:

To create data categories

User Permissions Needed

“Manage Knowledge Article Import/Export”

AND

“Read”, “Create”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on the article type

“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

“Manage Data Categories” permission. This permission is on by default in the System Administrator profile.

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.

Scott Permission

Salesforce Knowledge Functionality Manage Articles

Search articles from and attach articles to cases

Search for and read articles from the Articles tab

Read

Article Type-Specific Permissions

Create Edit Delete

Amber: The Candidate

Amber Delaney is a candidate-level agent and can create and publish articles with statuses of either

Work in Progress or

Not Validated

. If Amber works on an article with a different validation status, she must send it to a queue for approval before it’s published.

533

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

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.

Amber

Search articles from and attach articles to cases

Search for and read articles from the Articles tab

Create or edit article from the Article

Management tab

Edit draft articles from the Article

Management tab

Edit published or archived articles

Permission

Salesforce Knowledge Functionality Manage Articles Read

Article Type-Specific Permissions

Create Edit Delete

Anne: The Contributor

As a contributor, Anne Murphy is a more advanced Knowledge user. She understands the standards for articles in the organization and can create articles and publish articles with

Validated Internal

status. She can also work on articles authored by other users if they have either

Work in Progress

Not Validated

statuses, and can change them to

Validated Internal

. Since she doesn’t have permission to publish articles to an external audience, she must submit those customer-facing articles to the Publishing External queue.

Note: Article approvers require the “Manage Articles” permission and at least the “Read” permission on the article type associated with articles they review. These permissions let them access the article in a draft state. Without these permissions, approvers can reassign but not approve articles.

Anne is a member of the Contributor public group and she needs the following permissions to perform her job duties.

Salesforce Knowledge Functionality

Permission

Manage

Articles

Read

Article Type-Specific Permissions

Create Edit Delete

Create articles from cases using the simple editor

Create articles from cases using the standard editor

Search articles from and attach articles to cases

Create articles from answers

Search for and read articles from the Articles tab

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Salesforce Knowledge Functionality

Permission

Manage

Articles

Create or edit article from the Article

Management tab

Edit draft articles from the Article

Management tab

Delete articles (version or entire) from Article

Management tab

Assign articles from Article Management tab

Edit published or archived articles

Archive articles from the Article Management tab

Read

Article Type-Specific Permissions

Create Edit Delete

Pat: The Publisher

Pat Brown is Knowledge domain expert and is responsible for reviewing and publishing articles to an external audience. He is a member of the Publisher public group. Pat also belongs to the Publishing External queue. He needs the following permissions to perform his job duties.

Salesforce Knowledge Functionality

Permission

Manage

Articles

Read

Article Type-Specific Permissions

Create Edit Delete

Create articles from cases using the simple editor

Create articles from cases using the standard editor

Search articles from and attach articles to cases

Create articles from answers

Search for and read articles from the Articles tab

Create or edit article from the Article

Management tab

Edit draft articles from the Article

Management tab

Delete articles (version or entire) from Article

Management tab

Publish article from Article Management tab

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Salesforce Knowledge Functionality

Permission

Manage

Articles

Assign articles from Article Management tab

Edit published or archived articles

Archive articles from the Article Management tab

Read

Article Type-Specific Permissions

Create Edit Delete

How they all work together

Each user profile defines an agent's permission to perform different job duties and functions. To enable agents to perform these functions, you create

public groups

for each role and assign only the necessary article actions

to that group. The criteria you create in the

approval process

defines which validation status can be automatically approved and published and which

article must be approved and published by a domain expert.

For example, Anne, the Contributor, can create a

Validated External

article, but based on the article actions assigned to her public group, the approval process sends her article to Pat, the Publisher, to be published. Pat, as a Publisher, can publish his own articles without submitting them to a queue.

The following table lists the job functions that each role needs to perform on articles in the organization

Job Function

Create and publish

Work in

Progress

Create and publish

Not

Validated

Create and publish

Validated

Internal

Create and publish

Validated

External

Update and publish

Work in

Progress

Update and publish

Not

Validated

Update and publish

Validated

Internal

Reader

Candidate

Automatically approved and published

Needs approval

Contributor

Automatically approved and published

Needs approval

Automatically approved and published

Publisher

Yes

536

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Job Function

Update and publish

Validated

External

Reader

Candidate

Contributor

Needs approval

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Publisher

Yes

SEE ALSO:

Create Public Groups for Knowledge

Create Knowledge Actions

Assign Article Actions to Public Groups

Candidate public group submits an article with the status

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

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.

For example, when a member of the

Work in Progress

for approval, it is automatically approved and published. If the same agent submits an article with

Validated Internal

status, it moves to the Publishing External queue to be reviewed before being published.

1. From Setup, enter

Public Groups

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Public Groups.

2. Click New, or click Edit next to the group you want to edit.

3. Enter the following information:

Field

Label

Description

The name used to refer to the group in any user interface pages.

Group Name

(public groups only) The unique name used by the API and managed packages.

Grant Access Using

Hierarchies

(public groups only)

Select Grant Access Using Hierarchies to allow automatic access to records using your role hierarchies.

When selected, any records shared with users in this group are also shared with users higher in the hierarchy.

Deselect Grant Access Using Hierarchies if you’re creating a public group with All Internal Users as members, which optimizes performance for sharing records with groups.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or edit a public group:

•

“Manage Users”

To create or edit another user’s personal group:

•

“Manage Users”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Selected Members

Selected Delegated Groups

Note: If Grant Access Using Hierarchies is deselected, users that are higher in the role hierarchy don’t receive automatic access.

However, some users—such as those with the “View All” and “Modify

All” object permissions and the “View All Data” and “Modify All Data” system permissions—can still access records they don’t own.

From the

drop-down list, select the type of member to add. If you don’t see the member you want to add, enter keywords in the search box and click Find.

Note: For account owners to see child records owned by high-volume portal users, they must be members of any portal share groups with access to the portal users' data.

Select members from the Available Members box, and click Add to add them to the group.

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 Knowledge Actions

Assign Article Actions to Public Groups

Assign Article Actions to Public Groups

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Create Knowledge Actions

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 to have each FAQ published as a new version each time it completes the approval process, you can create a knowledge action that links the FAQ article type to the

Publish as New

action. Then, when you create an approval process for FAQs, select the new Knowledge Action.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Important: When you create the approval process, make sure to change the final approval action to

Unlock the record for editing

to let users publish the article.

1. From Setup, enter

Knowledge Action

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Knowledge

Action.

2. Click New Knowledge Action.

3. Select the article type for the action. The workflow rules and approval process that you associate with the action must belong to the same article type.

4. Enter a unique name for the knowledge action.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

5. Select the type of action you want to apply to the article type. For example,

Publish as

New

publishes the article as a new version.

USER PERMISSIONS

6. Enter a description.

7. Click Save.

The Knowledge Action detail page appears showing you the rules and approval processes that use the knowledge action.

To enable Salesforce

Knowledge Actions:

•

“Customize Application”

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:

Create Public Groups for Knowledge

Create Public Groups for Knowledge

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

539

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

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.

Note: Although you can add any user to a public group, only agents with the “Manage

Articles” user permission and the appropriate object permissions can perform article actions.

This table summarizes the article type permissions that are required for each article action.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

Article Action

Publish Articles

Create Read Edit Delete

Archive Articles

USER PERMISSIONS

Delete Articles

Edit Published and Archived Articles

Submit Articles for Translation

Publish Translation

Edit Translation

To create public groups and assign them to article actions:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Users”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

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.

4. Click OK and then click Save.

SEE ALSO:

Create Knowledge Actions

Articles” permission. For more information, see Assign Article Actions to Public Groups on page 540. You still need to make sure that

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

540

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Define Validation Status Picklist Values

When the

Validation Status

field is enabled on the Knowledge Settings page, you can create picklist values that show the state of the article. For example, values could be

Validated

Not Validated

, or

Needs Review

Note: In Salesforce Classic, validation status picklist values aren’t retained when you export articles for translation. Articles with picklist values can be imported, however, and their values are retained as long as the values exist in your organization.

1. From Salesforce Classic Setup, enter

Validation Statuses

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Validation Statuses.

2. On the picklist edit page, click New to add new values to the validation status field. You can also edit, delete, reorder, and replace picklist values.

When you replace a picklist value, the system replaces it in all versions of the article, including any archived versions.

3. Add one or more picklist values (one per line) in the text area.

4. To set the value as the default for the picklist, be sure to select the

Default

checkbox.

5. Click Save.

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or change validation status picklist values:

•

“Customize Application”

541

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Workflow and Approvals for Articles

Ensuring that the content in your articles is accurate and helpful is foundational to getting accurate information to those who need it most. Creating processes where Knowledge experts review, validate, and approve articles for publication is critical to creating a trustworthy knowledge base.

Implementing approval processes with Salesforce Knowledge gives you additional control over the content and publication of your articles.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Creating workflow rules and approval processes lets your organization automate many of the tasks involved with managing its knowledge base. When implementing Salesforce Knowledge, you can create workflow rules and approval processes for some or all the article types used by your organization.

Workflow rules let you create email alerts, update fields, or send outbound API messages when an article meets certain criteria. For example, you could create a workflow rule that sends an email alert to the article owner when a new article is created from a case. Tasks are not supported by article type workflow.

Approval processes automate the approval of articles. When implemented with Salesforce

Knowledge, approval processes give you additional control over the content of your articles and the process used to approve them. For example, you can create a process that requires legal and management teams to approve articles containing sensitive information.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

Note:

Tasks aren't available for article type workflow rules. For more information about creating workflow rules, see Set the Criteria for Your Workflow Rule. For more information about creating an approval process, see Create an Approval Process with the Standard Wizard.

1. From Setup, enter

Workflow Rules

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Workflow

Rules to access the workflow rules list page.

2. On the workflow rules list page, click New Rule.

3. Select the article type from the

Select object

drop-down list.

To view workflow rules and approval processes:

•

“View Setup and

Configuration”

To create or change workflow rules and approval processes:

•

“Customize Application”

4. Click Next.

5. Enter a rule name. Optionally, enter a description for the rule.

6. Select the evaluation criteria and choose how criteria are met.

7. Enter criteria for the rule.

8. Click Save & Next.

9. Click Add Workflow Action, select the type of action for the rule, and enter the information required by the action.

10. Click Save.

11. Optionally, add a time-dependent workflow action by clicking Add Time Trigger. Provide time trigger information and then click

Save.

12. Click Done.

13. From Setup, enter

Approval Processes

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Approval Processes.

14. Choose the Approval Process Wizard.

Two wizards are available to help you through the approval setup process. Choose the one that better meets your requirements.

See Choose the Right Wizard to Create an Approval Process.

15. Provide a name, unique name, and description for the process.

16. Specify criteria for entering the process.

542

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

For example, you could specify that if the article is published on a public site it requires approval:

Visible on public site equals True

17. Specify approvers for the process.

Let the submitter choose the approver manually. (default)

Prompts the user to select the next approver.

Automatically assign an approver using a standard or custom hierarchy field.

Assigns the approval request to the user in the field displayed next to this option. You select this field when you configure the approval process.

Automatically assign to a queue.

Available only for objects that support queues. Assigns approval requests to a queue.

Automatically assign to approver(s).

Assigns the approval request to one or more specific users, specific queues, or users related to the submitted record. You can add up to 25 per step.

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.

19. Configure the approval request page layout.

The approver approves or rejects the article from this page. You can add as many fields to this page as you think your agents need to reasonably assess an article's content. For example, you might choose to include information such as a summary of the article's content, the product discussed, and the author's name.

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.

21. Activate the approval process.

Example: When an approval process is associated with an article type, agents with the “Manage Articles” permission might see both the Publish... and Submit for Approval buttons from an article's detail page. Which buttons they see is determined by both permissions and article actions. These agents can publish an article without submitting it for approval. To limit this ability to certain users, assign the “Publish Articles” article action to a select group of users instead of giving it to all users with the “Manage

Articles” permission. The ability to publish articles without prior approval is governed by an approval process that is specific to each user’s public group.

Keep the following in mind when creating approval processes for article types.

•

Adding an approval process to an article type lets your organization ensure that the required reviewers approve the article before it's published. When an approval process is enabled for an article's article type, the Approval History related list displays on the article details page.

•

When creating an approval process, change the final approval action to “Unlock the record for editing” to allow agents to publish the article.

•

Articles aren't published automatically at the end of an approval process. Agents must click Publish... to make the article available in the publishing channels.

•

When an approval process is associated with an article type, agents with the “Manage Articles” permission might see both the

Publish... and the Submit for Approval buttons on an article's detail page. (Which buttons they see is determined by both permissions and article actions). These agents can publish an article without submitting it for approval. To prevent this from affecting many users, assign the “Publish Articles” article action to a limited group of users instead of giving it to all users with the “Manage

543

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

the users with direct publishing capability know which articles need approval before publication.

•

Article approvers require the “Manage Articles” permission and at least the “Read” permission on the article type associated with articles they review. These permissions let them access the article in a draft state. Without these permissions, approvers can reassign but not approve articles.

•

Workflow rules and approval processes apply to the “Draft to Publication” portion of the article publishing cycle. Workflow rules aren’t available for archiving. Approval processes aren’t available for translation or archiving.

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 (all the approvers have approved) but the article has not been published.

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Modify Default Category Group Assignments for Articles

Salesforce Knowledge uses data categories to classify articles. Data categories are organized in category group. After creating category groups, admins decide which groups to use for Salesforce

Knowledge articles. For example, if your org uses both the Answers and Salesforce Knowledge, you might want one category group to be used by the answers community and two other category groups for articles. Answers and articles can use the same category group. Authors can assign up to eight data categories from one category group to an article so that users searching for articles can find and filter by category. By default, all the category groups you create are assigned to

Salesforce Knowledge

1. From Setup, enter

Data Category Assignments

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Data Category Assignments under Knowledge.

A list of all category groups appears.

2. Click Edit and move any category groups that you don't want available for articles from the

Selected Category Groups list to the Available Category Groups list.

Later, you can choose to make a hidden category group visible.

Note: The order of category groups is not preserved from the edit page to the data category assignment page.

3. Click Save.

You receive an email after the save process completes. Authors can now assign categories in the selected groups to articles on the Article Management tab. Authors can only access categories if the category group is active and the author's

data category visibility settings

provide access to the category.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To modify category groups assignments in Salesforce

Knowledge:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

544

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Filter Articles with Data Category Mapping

Make suggested articles more relevant when solving cases. Map case fields to data categories to filter for articles assigned to those data categories. For example, cases with a field for which product they are about can be mapped to the data category of that product. Articles assigned that category or product, are filtered to the top of the suggested article list.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Important:

•

Filtering articles based on case information is only supported in text and picklist fields.

•

Filters are applied to Knowledge results after the case has been saved.

•

Filters are applied after a Knowledge search and only to the articles returned in the search.

•

Using Filters does not return a list of all articles that match the filter criteria. Instead, the filters are applied to the initial pool of article results returned.

•

Results may be filtered after a search.

•

A category group can only be used once in a data category mapping.

•

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

545

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Support Articles in Multiple Languages

With multiple languages for Salesforce Knowledge, you can lower support costs by translating articles into the languages your audience prefers. After selecting your language settings, two translation methods are available: translating articles in-house using the editing tool in the knowledge base, or sending articles to a localization vendor. Different languages can use different methods.

For example, you may want to export articles to a vendor for French translations, but assign articles to an internal Knowledge user for Spanish translations.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

•

Before you add languages to your knowledge base, decide for each language whether you want to translate articles directly in Salesforce or export articles to a translation vendor.

Communicate your decision to the people involved in the translation process (authors, reviewers, translation managers, publishers).

•

When adding a language to your knowledge base, keep in mind that it can't be deleted; however, you can hide a language by making it inactive. Deactivating a language means it no longer appears as a choice in the New Article dialog or the Submit for Translation dialog. Also, if articles are already published in the language, those articles are no longer visible to readers when the language is deactivated.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

•

You can only add languages supported by Salesforce to your knowledge base.

•

To hide translated articles for a specific language, deactivate the language by unchecking

Active

on the Settings page.

SEE ALSO:

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

546

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base

Reach a global audience by offering your knowledge base in multiple languages.

1. In Setup, enter

Knowledge Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Knowledge

Settings.

2. Click Edit.

3. Select

Multiple Languages

and add the languages you want to include in your knowledge base.

Important:

You can add the languages that your instance of Salesforce supports. But you can't remove any languages that have been added to your knowledge base.

4. Choose which settings you want to apply to language.

Setting

Active

Default Assignee

Default Reviewer

Description

Active languages appear in the New Article and Submit for

Translation dialog boxes.

The active/inactive status determines whether a published article is visible. For example, if Spanish articles are published to your partner portal and then you make Spanish an inactive language, the articles no longer appear.

The default assignee is automatically assigned articles submitted for translation. The default assignee can be either an individual person or a queue.

The default reviewer is automatically assigned finished translations that are ready to be reviewed or published. The default reviewer can be either an individual person or a queue.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up multiple languages for Salesforce

Knowledge:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

5. Save your changes.

6. If you want, create queues to distribute and assign articles to groups of people who can either translate them or review the finished translations. When setting up queues, use the Knowledge Article Version object.

SEE ALSO:

Support Articles in Multiple Languages

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

547

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

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.

Place the articles to be translated in a translation queue. To enable the article export feature, create one or more queues; authors and reviewers select the queue when they submit an article for translation. Make sure that they know which queue to choose for which language.

Note: You can have up to 50 exports in 24 hours and a maximum of 15 pending exports

(exports that have not entered a final state such as Completed, Failed, or Canceled).

1. Create a

translation queue

with articles for translation.

2. On the Article Management tab, select the articles you want to translate, and click Submit for

Translation.

3. In the dialog box, indicate which languages to translate the articles into and assign the translations to their corresponding language translation queue.

4. From Setup, enter

Export Articles for Translation

in the

Quick Find box, then select Export Articles for Translation.

5. Select the queue that contains the articles you're exporting.

6. Select either:

•

All articles to export every article in the queue.

•

Updated articles to only export articles that have been modified or added.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

7. Click Continue.

8. Select the source and target language pairs you want to export.

Important:

Salesforce creates a separate .zip file for every article type in each language pair. You must retain the .zip file structure for a successful import. For more information, see

on page 549.

9. To have the files reviewed or published after being translated, select a user or a queue.

10. Select the file character encoding.

•

ISO-8859-1 (General US & Western European, ISO-LATIN-1)

•

Unicode

•

Unicode (UTF-8) default

•

Japanese (Windows)

•

Japanese (Shift_JIIS)

•

Chinese National Standard (GB18030)

•

Chinese Simplified (GB2312)

•

Chinese Traditional (Big5)

•

Korean

•

Unicode (UTF-16, Big Endian)

To export articles:

•

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

AND

“Manage Articles”

AND

“Manage Knowledge

Article Import/Export”

To view articles:

•

“Read” on the article type

To create articles:

•

“Read” and “Create” on the article type

11. Select the delimiter for the .csv files.

The delimiter is the separator for columns when the file is converted to table form. Your options are tab (default) or comma.

12. Click Export Now.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

You’re notified by email when your export is complete. You can also check the status of your export by viewing the Article Import and

Export Queue. From Setup, enter

Article Imports and Exports

in the

Quick Find box, then select Article Imports

and Exports.

Unzip the exported files, but retain the file structure for a successful import.

SEE ALSO:

Support Articles in Multiple Languages

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

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.

1. From Setup, enter

Import Article Translations

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Import Article Translations.

2. Choose how Salesforce handles translations after they're imported.

Option Description

Review imported translations on the Article Management tab before publishing

Add imported translations to a queue from which agents can review them.

Publish translations immediately on import

Publish imported translations without reviews.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

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.

5. Click Browse, choose the translation .zip file to upload, and click Open.

You must place all the translation files (meaning, those exported from Salesforce and translated by your vendor) in a folder whose name is the same as the language code. For example, put

French articles in an

folder. Zip up this folder to create your import file.

USER PERMISSIONS

To export articles:

•

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

AND

“Manage Articles”

AND

“Manage Knowledge

Article Import/Export”

To view articles:

•

“Read” on the article type

To create articles:

•

“Read” and “Create” on the article type

549

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Salesforce Knowledge

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 Knowledge for translation. For example, if the target language is French, the file structure begins as follows: import.properties

-fr

--articletypearticlename_kav

---articlename.csv

---[Article collateral, html, images, etc.]

6. Click Import Now.

If you have more translated articles to upload, repeat steps four through six.

7. Click Finish.

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.

Support Articles in Multiple Languages

Search Highlights and Snippets

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Improve the Article Search Experience

Enable search highlights and snippets, synonyms, promoted terms, topics, and keywords from cases to improve your article search.

EDITIONS

IN THIS SECTION:

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Quickly identify the best article and see how articles match your search terms with relevant text and highlighted search terms in the search results.

Search Synonyms for Articles

Create synonyms so words or phrases are treated as equivalents in searches. When searching

Salesforce Knowledge articles, users can enter search terms that don’t match any terms in those items but are synonymous with the terms.

Manage Promoted Search Terms

View, edit, and delete—from a single page—all the promoted search terms that are associated with Salesforce Knowledge articles.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

Enable Topics for Articles

With topics on articles, you can classify and search articles by assigning topics. Topics can be added from the article view and detail pages. Suggested topics, which are only supported in English, are terms extracted from the article, so that they are more concrete and precise than a data category assignment. When searching, topics can be used to index the article, so the matched articles are more relevant to keyword searches.

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Use More Case Keywords to Find Articles

When searching articles from a case, by default, only the case title is used in the search. Often, you want to use information from the case for more accurate search results, or create a custom search button.

SEE ALSO:

Search Highlights and Snippets

Search Synonyms for Articles

Manage Promoted Search Terms

Enable Topics for Articles

Use More Case Keywords to Find Articles

Salesforce Knowledge Settings page

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Search Highlights and Snippets

Quickly identify the best article and see how articles match your search terms with relevant text and highlighted search terms in the search results.

Search highlights and snippets give your agents and users context as to why the particular result matched their search query. The relevant text appears below the title with the search terms in bold.

You can enable search highlights and snippets on the

on page

491.

Note:

Search highlights and snippets are not generated for searches with wildcards.

Search highlights and snippets are generated from the following fields:

•

Long text area

•

Rich text area

•

Text area

Search highlights and snippets aren’t generated from the following fields:

•

Checkbox

•

Currency

•

Date

•

Date Time

•

File

•

Formula

•

Lookup

•

Multi-picklist

•

Number

•

Percent

•

Phone

•

Picklist

•

URL

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

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Note: If a snippet is not generated, the article’s summary field is shown instead.

SEE ALSO:

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Search Synonyms for Articles

Create synonyms so words or phrases are treated as equivalents in searches. When searching

Salesforce Knowledge articles, users can enter search terms that don’t match any terms in those items but are synonymous with the terms.

To create synonyms and synonym groups, from Setup, enter

Synonyms

in the

Quick Find box, then select Synonyms under Customize > Search. An org can create up to 10,000 synonym groups

A search for one term in synonym group returns results for all terms in the group. For example, if you define a synonym group with these synonyms:

CRM, customer relationship management, Salesforce then a search for

customer relationship management

matches articles that contain

customer relationship management and articles that contain CRM or Salesforce.

Synonyms affect search behavior in the following ways:

Priority

If a search term is part of a synonym group, the search results list items that contain the search term, followed by items that contain other terms in the synonym group.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

For example, if this synonym group is defined:

fruit, oranges

Then a search for

oranges

matches a list of items containing oranges, followed by items containing fruit.

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

AND NOT

), synonym matches are returned only if the entire search phrase is a defined synonym.

For example, if these synonym groups are defined:

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fruit, oranges and apples

vegetables, carrots

Then a search for

oranges and apples

returns matches for all items that contain the literal string oranges and apples and items that contain the term fruit.

However, if the search phrase is

fruit and vegetables

, which is not a defined synonym, the search matches only those items that contain both the terms, fruit and vegetables.

In this case,

AND

functions as an operator and synonym matches are not returned in the search results. In terms of this example, items that contain a synonym of either fruit or vegetables (items that contain the term carrots or the phrase oranges and apples) are not returned.

Exact phrase matches

If a defined synonym is only a part of a longer exact phrase search, the search doesn't treat it as a synonym.

For example, if this synonym group is defined:

oranges apples, fruit

Then an exact phrase search for

“raspberries oranges apples”

doesn't match items that contain the word fruit.

Lemmatization

Synonyms do not under go lemmatization in search results; rather, they are matched as an exact phrase. However, the search term does under go lemmatization.

For example, if this synonym group is defined:

quench, drink orange juice

Then a search for

quench

matches items that contain quench, quenched, quenching, and drink orange juice, but doesn't match items that contain drinking orange juice.

Ignored words

Words that are normally ignored in searches, such as the, to, and for, are matched if the word is part of a defined synonym.

For example, if this synonym group is defined:

peel the orange, cut the apple

Then a search for

peel the orange

matches items that contain the exact string peel the orange.

Overlapping synonyms

If a search term consists of overlapping synonyms from different groups, the search matches synonyms in all the overlapping synonym groups.

For example, if these synonym groups are defined:

•

orange marmalade, citrus

•

marmalade recipe, sugar

Then a search for

orange marmalade recipe

matches items that contain orange marmalade, citrus, marmalade recipe, and

sugar.

Subsets

If one synonym group includes a synonym that is a subset of a synonym in another group, a search for the subset term doesn't match items that contain synonyms from the subset synonym group.

For example, if these synonym groups are defined:

•

orange, apple

•

orange marmalade, citrus

•

marmalade, jam

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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:

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Manage Promoted Search Terms

View, edit, and delete—from a single page—all the promoted search terms that are associated with Salesforce Knowledge articles.

You can add promoted search terms to articles on the article’s detail page in the Promoted Search

Terms related list.

1. From Setup, enter

Promoted Search Terms

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Promoted Search Terms under CustomizeSearch.

2. To view which terms are assigned to an article, sort by the Article column.

3. To edit a term, click Edit in its row.

You can only change the term from this page, not the article it is assigned to.

4. To delete a term, click Delete in its row.

The term is only deleted from the article associated with this row, not from other articles.

5. Remember to save your changes.

SEE ALSO:

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create, edit, and delete promoted search terms:

•

“Manage Promoted

Search Terms”

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Enable Topics for Articles

Note:

Contrary to data categories, topics added to an article are not transferred to the same article in another language.

Topics for articles are enabled for each article type.

1. From Setup, enter

Topics for Objects

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Topics

for Objects.

2. Click the article type name where you want to enable topics.

3. Check Enable topics.

4. Select which fields you want to use for suggestions.

5. Click Save.

6. Via profile or permission set, under System Permissions, define which agents can assign, create, delete, and edit topics.

SEE ALSO:

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To enable topics:

•

“Customize Application”

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Use More Case Keywords to Find Articles

Luckily, Salesforce Knowledge search pages accept other parameters:

•

id=<case id>: The ID of the current case.

•

search=<keywords>: The keywords to be searched.

•

articleType_<article type dev name>=on: multiple parameters possible, article types to select (if no article type is selected, then all article types are selected)

•

ct_<data category group internal name>=<data category internal name>: multiple parameters possible, filter pre-selection

To take advantage of those parameters, add a custom button to the case detail page containing a few lines of javascript that extract keywords from the case and hide the default article search button.

Note: You can also create a custom article widget with support:caseArticle

1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Buttons, Links, and Actions.

2. Click New Button or Link.

3. Enter a unique

Label

Name

, and

Description

4. Select Detail Page Button for

Display Type

5. Select Execute JavaScript in the

Behavior

drop-down.

6. Select OnClick JaveScript in the

Content Source

drop-down.

7. Enter code for extracting case data and setting up parameters for the article search page.

For example:

// article search page URL var url = '/knowledge/knowledgeHome.apexp';

// ID of the current case url += '?id={!Case.Id}';

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or change custom buttons or links and create a Visualforce page:

•

“Customize Application”

// use the case subject as the search keywords url += '&search={!Case.Subject}';

// read case attributes var caseType = '{!Case.Type}'; var caseProduct = '{!Case.Product__c}';

// 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';

}

// preselect a data category for search results based on the category

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// once the logic is executed, we go to the article search page window.location = url;

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>

<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:

Of all the Salesforce Knowledge article widgets , the Knowledge One widget lets you:

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

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Set Up the Knowledge One Widget

Knowledge One is available as a widget you can plug in to the Salesforce Console for Service or

Salesforce Console for Sales. If you are using the Knowledge tab, you get the same easy-to-use interface for articles and external sources on cases and within the Salesforce Console for Service.

You can search, send, and create articles, all without leaving the case.

•

Attach a published Salesforce Knowledge article to the case in one click.

•

Share an article as a URL, if it is shared on a public channel.

•

Email an article as a PDF, if it is shared on a public channel.

•

Create and manage articles.

•

Make adjustments based on your window width. In the console, in windows smaller than 600 pixels, the searchable objects are displayed in a drop-down menu.

Note: The article widget in a case feed search doesn’t necessarily use the agent’s language.

If the agent’s language isn’t a Salesforce Knowledge supported language but their locale language is, the locale language is the search language. If neither the agent’s language nor local language are supported, the search language is the default Salesforce Knowledge language, which you can find and set on the Knowledge Settings page.

1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts and open your case page layout for edit.

2. Ensure the Email quick action is in the case page layout.

Without the Email quick action, you can’t send articles via email.

a. Select Quick Actions in the left-hand menu.

b. Drag Email to the

Quick Actions in the Salesforce Classic

Publisher

line.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To administer Salesforce

Knowledge and Salesforce

Console for Service:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

3. Disable previous article sidebar components.

•

To disable the Knowledge sidebar, click Layout Properties and ensure

Knowledge Sidebar

is unchecked.

•

To disable the case feed article tool, click Feed View and ensure

Use Case Feed Article Tool in the Console is unchecked.

4. In the page layout editor, click Custom Console Components.

5. In the sidebar where you want the Knowledge One widget, select

Knowledge One

in the Type drop down and set the sidebar parameters.

Email quick action to be added to the Case page layout in order to show up

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.

Set Up the Knowledge One Widget

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

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Compare Article Widgets for Cases at a Glance

Decide which Salesforce Knowledge article widget is best for your organization.

Does the widget...

Filter on data category

Create an article

Search an external object

Access your draft articles

Attach an article to a case

Send an article as a PDF

Share an article’s public URL

Adjust with the window size

Have more than one way to suggest articles

Yes

Article Widget

Yes

Article Case

Feed Widget

Yes

Knowledge One

Widget

Yes

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Article Widget

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

Article Case Feed Widget

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Knowledge One Widget

Adding Salesforce Knowledge

SEE ALSO:

known limitations on page 567. Lightning Knowledge isn’t generally

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

561

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

As of Spring '17, Knowledge is available in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience. Currently,

Lightning Knowledge (Beta) is recommended for orgs new to Knowledge, or for existing orgs that can easily consolidate to one article type, have few data categories, and use single-language mode.

Note: This release contains a beta version of Ligthning Knowledge, which means it’s a high-quality feature with

available unless or until Salesforce announces its general availability in documentation or in press releases or public statements. We can’t guarantee general availability within any particular time frame or at all. Make your purchase decisions only on the basis of generally available products and features.

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge Documentation Overview

Use these lists to find Salesforce Knowledge information in the Salesforce documentation set.

Overview of Salesforce Knowledge

•

•

Salesforce Knowledge Limits

•

•

Work with Articles and Translations

•

Salesforce Knowledge Guide

Classic Knowledge

Set up Classic Knowledge

•

•

Import Existing Information into Salesforce Knowledge

•

•

Workflow and Approvals for Articles

•

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Use Your Salesforce Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic

•

Search Articles and External Sources on the Knowledge Tab

–

Find Knowledge Articles in a Salesforce Console in Salesforce Classic

–

How Does Search Work?

–

Articles or Knowledge Tab

–

•

Create and Edit Articles

•

Publish Articles and Translations

•

Report on Salesforce Knowledge Articles

Translate Salesforce Knowledge Articles

•

•

Translate Articles Within Salesforce Knowledge

•

•

Create Lightning Knowledge Record Types

Lightning Knowledge

Set up Lightning Knowledge

•

•

Create Lightning Knowledge Home on page 571

•

Set Access for Lightning Knowledge on page 572

Use Your Salesforce Knowledge Base in Lightning Experience

•

Authoring Actions in Lightning Knowledge

on page 579

•

Search Articles in the Main Search Box and the Knowledge Sidebar on page 578

•

Use the Knowledge Sidebar in the Lightning Service Console

on page 580

Define Data Categories for Your Salesforce Knowledge Articles

•

Create and Modify Category Groups

•

•

Add Data Categories to Category Groups

Share Your Salesforce Knowledge Base

•

Find, Attach, and Email Articles with the Case Feed Articles Tool (Classic)

•

Enable Salesforce Knowledge in Your Community (Classic)

•

Use Knowledge with Live Agent (Classic)

•

If you want visitors to your public website to view Salesforce Knowledge articles, install the Public Knowledge Base app from the

AppExchange. To install, configure, and customize your public knowledge base with this package, see the Public Knowledge Base

AppExchange App Guide available on the AppExchange .

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Knowledge and Salesforce1

•

What’s Available in Each Version of Salesforce1

•

Customer Service Features: What’s Not Available in Salesforce1

Develop with Salesforce Knowledge

•

The Salesforce Knowledge Developers Guide has Salesforce Knowledge specific development information along with tutorials and examples.

•

The Force.com REST API Developer Guide has information on supporting articles with the REST API.

•

The SOAP API Developer Guide has information on theSalesforce Knowledge API:

–

Guidelines

–

Objects

–

Calls

•

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 Force.com Apex Code Developers Guide has information on the Apex KnowledgeArticleVersionStandardController Class.

Salesforce Knowledge Limits

Limits for Salesforce Knowledge per edition.

Salesforce Knowledge is a knowledge base for creating and managing content. If Salesforce Knowledge is enabled in Communities

(Classic Knowledge only), customers and partners can access articles.

Note:

The following limits are default limits. Some limits can be expanded. Contact Salesforce to request limit increases.

Salesforce Knowledge Limits

Maximum number of articles

Maximum number of article types

Maximum number of custom fields per article type

Details for Classic Knowledge

50,000 articles

100 article types

Enterprise, Developer, and Unlimited editions: 500 custom fields per article type

Performance editions: 800 custom fields per article type

N/A

Details for Lightning Knowledge

50,000 articles

N/A

Maximum file fields

Maximum file size

5 file fields N/A

File fields are counted as attachments and can be up to 25 MB.

Files can be up to 25 MB.

Maximum rich text area size 131072 characters

Maximum size of all rich text area fields on an article

1638400 characters

131072 characters

1638400 characters

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Salesforce Knowledge Limits

Maximum unique article references (links) in a rich text area field

Details for Classic Knowledge

You can have up to 100 links to different

Salesforce Knowledge articles in one rich text field.

Details for Lightning Knowledge

You can have up to 100 links to different

Salesforce Knowledge articles in one rich text field.

Article history tracking Article events are tracked for up to 18 months.

Article events are tracked up to 18 months.

Maximum number of supported languages 16 supported languages

Article import

The import .zip file must meet the following requirements:

•

There can only be one .csv file and one

.properties file.

•

The .csv file and the .properties file must be in the root directory.

•

The compression process must preserve the folder and subfolder structure.

•

The .zip file name can’t contain special characters.

•

The .zip file can’t exceed 20 MB and the individual, uncompressed, files within the zip file can’t exceed 10 MB.

•

.csv files can’t have more than 10,000 rows, including the header row.

Therefore, you can have a maximum of

9,999 articles and translations.

•

.csv file rows can’t exceed 400,000 characters.

•

.csv file cells can’t exceed 32 KB.

•

Each article in the .csv file can’t have more than 49 translations.

N/A

Maximum number of data category groups and active data category groups

5 category groups, with 3 groups active at a time

Maximum number of categories per data category group

100 categories in a data category group 100 categories in a data category group

Maximum number of levels in data category group hierarchy

5 levels in a data category group hierarchy 5 levels in a data category group hierarchy

Maximum number of data categories from a data category group assigned to an article

8 data categories from a data category group assigned to an article

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Salesforce Knowledge Limits

Maximum number of promoted search terms

Details for Classic Knowledge

Your organization can create a maximum of 2,000 promoted terms.

Details for Lightning Knowledge

N/A

SEE ALSO:

To learn which fields are available on each primary object, see Fields Available on Salesforce Knowledge Reports

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

Compare Salesforce Knowledge in Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience

As of Spring '17, Knowledge is available in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience. Compare

Lightning Knowledge with Classic Knowledge and decide if you’re ready to enable Lightning

Knowledge in your org.

Lightning Knowledge has changed the way Knowledge works in Salesforce. For example, standard record types replace article types, and the Knowledge sidebar for Lightning Service Console replaces

Knowledge One for the Service Console in Salesforce Classic.

Lightning Knowledge works differently than Classic Knowledge, but currently has limitations. Let’s compare Knowledge in Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience.

Feature

Setup

Types of articles

Classic Knowledge

Salesforce Classic Setup

Article Types

Lightning Knowledge

Switch to Salesforce Classic

Setup

Standard Record Types

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

Languages Multiple Languages mode and translation available

Single Language mode only

Use Knowledge in the console

Page layouts

Add Knowledge One to the

Service Console

Add the Knowledge Sidebar to the Lightning Service Console

(can be used with cases only)

Fields only, per article type and user profile

Fields, actions, and related lists, per record type and user profile

Record home (articles)

Object home

Access and permissions

Custom record home

Knowledge One and Article

Management tab

Standard record home

Knowledge home page with list views

CRUD, profile permissions, page layouts, and custom article actions per public group

CRUD, profile permissions, and page layouts

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Lightning Knowledge Limitations

There are some limitations to keep in mind when making the switch to Lightning Knowledge.

EDITIONS

Consider the following when using Lightning Knowledge.

Important considerations before enabling Lightning Knowledge

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

•

After you enable Lightning Knowledge, you can’t disable it. We recommend testing Lightning

Knowledge in your Sandbox org first.

•

You can have only one article type when enabling Lightning Knowledge. Currently, there are no migration tools to assist in merging your article types. To enable Lightning Knowledge, migrate your articles to one article type and disable or delete your other article types.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

•

Lightning Knowledge currently doesn’t support multiple language mode or translation.

•

We recommend using Lightning Knowledge only if you have fewer than 300 data categories.

If you have more than 300 data categories, you may experience slower performance.

•

For articles with more than 30 versions, the versions above 30 will show in Salesforce Classic, but not in Lightning Experience.

•

Setup for Lightning Knowledge remains in Salesforce Classic. After Lightning Knowledge is enabled, a new setup node Knowledge Object Setup appears to manage Knowledge record types, fields, page layouts, and validation rules.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

•

After you enable Lightning Knowledge, the 'ArticleType' field is no longer accessible via SOQL (or the API). This can impact custom code that quieries for the 'ArticleType' field.

General usage limitations for Lightning Knowledge

•

You currently can’t import or export with record types.

•

You can’t currently assign articles or delete archived articles in Lightning Knowledge.

•

You can’t use article actions with public groups when Lightning Knowledge is enabled. This is replaced by new user profile permissions.

•

You currently 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’t use mass actions (such as mass archiving and mass publishing) with Lightning Knowledge.

•

For list views, you must specify one language and one publishing status on all Knowledge list views, otherwise you won’t see any records in your list view. We don’t support multiple-selection on PublishStatus or Language, or the “IN” and “OR” operators in list view filters.

•

Data categories can’t be shown in Knowledge list views.

•

The customized record home flexipage isn’t supported with Lightning Knowledge.

•

We don’t support external data sources in Knowledge search in Lightning Knowledge.

•

You can't see vote information in the new ratings component unless there’s an online version for the article. This affects article drafts and archived articles, because all online versions are removed when an article is archived.

•

Most Knowledge actions aren’t available in the Lightning Process Builder.

Console limitations for Lightning Knowledge

•

The Knowledge footer is not in the Lightning Service Console.

•

The following actions aren’t available in the Knowledge Sidebar for the Lightning Service Console: attach as a PDF, attach as a

PDF to case email, insert article contents to case email, insert Article Community URL, and insert article URL to case publishers.

Standard article actions including editing, publishing, and archiving, are also not available.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Limitations in Salesforce Classic after enabling Lightning Knowledge

•

Multiple Languages mode can’t be enabled after Lightning Knowledge is enabled.

•

Page Layouts selections for Actions and Related lists don’t reflect in Salesforce Classic.

•

Page Layouts don’t display in 2 columns in Salesforce Classic.

•

Some actions, such as Change Record Type, aren’t available in Salesforce Classic.

•

Knowledge list views aren’t available in Salesforce Classic.

•

You can’t perform a search by Knowledge record type in Salesforce Classic.

•

You can’t perform a search by archived articles in Salesforce Classic, except in Article Management.

•

Files in Lightning Experience don’t display in Salesforce Classic, and files in Salesforce Classic don’t display in Lightning Experience.

Limitations for using Lightning Knowledge with other Salesforce products

•

File attachments in your Classic Knowledge implementation don't transfer to Lightning Knowledge. After migrating your articles to Lightning Knowledge, add the Files related list to your page layout and use the Files related list on each article to migrate your files.

•

You can't detach or remove a file from the Files component after is has been associated with an Article. When the file is shared with a record via the record feed, the workaround is to delete the feed post. Read Delete Files and Links from Feeds to learn more about removing files.

•

Currently, the only way to remove an attached file from an article is to delete the file from File home.

•

Reporting with record types is not currently supported in Lightning Knowledge.

•

All rich text editors are currently disabled when LockerService is enabled. If you’re using Lightning Knowledge in Sandbox or a

Developer Edition org, we recommend turning off LockerService in Lightning Experience. If you’re using Lightning Knowledge in your production org, we recommend that you don’t enable LockerService in Lightning Experience.

•

The rich text editor is limited for Lightning Knowledge. The following rich text editor features aren’t currently supported in

Lightning Knowledge: smart links, tables, show source, anchors, videos, and fonts are limited.

•

Lightning Knowledge isn’t currently supported with Communities.

•

Lightning Knowledge isn’t currently supported with Salesforce1.

Set up 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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Enable Lightning Knowledge

Enable Lightning Knowledge to use your Knowledge base in Lightning Experience. After you enable

Lightning Knowledge, you can’t disable it.

1. From Salesforce Classic Setup, enter

Knowledge

in the

Quick Find

box and click

Knowledge Settings.

2. If you’re new to Knowledge, enable Knowledge in Salesforce Classic by selecting Yes and clicking

Enable Salesforce Knowledge.

3. On the Knowledge Settings page, click Edit.

4. Select Enable Lightning Knowledge.

5. Click Save.

After Lightning Knowledge is enabled, the node Knowledge Object Setup appears. This is where you control your Lightning Knowledge settings and page layouts. All setup for Lightning Knowledge remains in Salesforce Classic.

Whenever you change the name and API name of your Knowledge Base in Knowledge Object

Setup, we recommend you do a hard refresh of your browser to avoid server errors.

Create Lightning Knowledge Record Types

Create record types to distinguish types of Knowledge articles. In Lightning Knowledge, standard record types replace custom article types.

Different content has different needs. For example, your FAQ pages are different from your tutorials, which are different from your policy statements. Record types let you control the content and layout for each type of article.

1. From Salesforce Classic Setup, go to Build > Knowledge > Knowledge Object Setup.

2. Under Record Types, click New.

3. Select an existing record type to use as a template. The new record type includes all picklist values from the existing record type that you select.

4. Enter a label for your record type.

5. If desired, enter a description.

6. Select Active if you want this record type to be usable immediately.

7. Select the profile access for this record type.

8. Click Next.

9. Select the page layout that users with this profile see for record with this record type.

10. Click Save.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

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Customize Your Lightning Knowledge Record Type Page Layouts

For each record type you create, you can customize the page layout. You can control the form and structure for each type of article you have in your Lightning Knowledge base.

Record type layouts determine which fields agents can view and edit when entering data for an article. They also determine which sections appear when users view articles. You can customize the fields, actions, and related lists for each record type and user profile.

For example, you might customize page layouts by user profile when sensitive data is involved. By assigning a page layout by user profiles, you can display more sensitive fields of the same article to only the agents who need to access them.

1. From Salesforce Classic Setup, enter

Knowledge

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Knowledge Object Setup.

2. Scroll down to the Page Layouts related list or click the Page Layouts link at the top of the page.

3. To create a page layout, click New and follow the prompts. To edit an existing layout, click Edit and make your changes.

Important: If you navigate away from your record-type layout before clicking save, your changes are lost.

Note: The

Title

and

URL Name

standard fields are required.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To customize the record-type layout:

•

“Customize Application”

Task

Add a section

Change the name of a section

Specify 1 or 2 columns

Description

Drag and drop the section element into the palette.

Click its title. You cannot rename the Information section.

Select 1 or 2 columns for this layout. For 2-column layouts, you can set the navigation flow direction (up-down or left-right).

Remove a field from a section

Remove a section from the article-type layout

Drag it to the right side of the palette or click the icon next to the field.

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

–

Quick Save = CTRL+S

•

To select multiple elements individually, use CTRL+click. To select multiple elements as a group, use SHIFT+click.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

•

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.

4. To assign various layouts to the article type based on a user profile, click Page Layout Assignments.

5. Click Edit Assignment.

6. Select the profile, or profiles (using SHIFT), you want to change and select the layout from the Page Layout To Use drop-down.

Create Lightning Knowledge Home

Create the Lightning Knowledge home page to access Knowledge in Lightning Experience. For orgs created in Spring '17 or later, the Lightning Knowledge home page is created for you.

Everything you need, all in one place. Search, view, author, and manage articles on a single

Knowledge home page in Lightning Experience. Plus, you can do a number of authoring actions without leaving Knowledge home.

For published articles, you can:

•

Create a new article

•

Archive a published article

•

Edit a published article as a new draft

For article drafts, you can:

•

Create a new article

•

Publish a draft article

•

Delete a draft article

•

Edit a draft article

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

For archived articles, you can:

•

Create a new article

•

Restore an archived article

Allow other users to access these actions using standard user permissions. You can also make these actions available on the record home with page layouts.

Lightning Knowledge home uses the same list views you enjoy elsewhere in Salesforce. By default, you have list views for drafts, published articles, and archived articles. Don’t forget to customize your list views to select which fields you want to display and sort with. For custom list views, keep in mind that you can’t choose fields that aren’t on the article record. This means that data categories, ratings, view count, and cases aren’t available fields for your list views.

Important: You must specify one language and one publishing status on all Knowledge list views, otherwise you won’t see any records in your list view. We don’t support multiple-selection on PublishStatus or Language, or the “IN” and “OR” operators in list view filters.

1. From Salesforce Classic Setup, go to Build > Create > Tabs.

2. Under Custom Object Tabs, click New.

3. Select Knowledge as the object.

4. Choose a tab style.

5. If desired, choose a splash page custom link and enter a description.

6. Click Next.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

7. Choose the custom user profiles for which this tab will be available.

8. Click Next.

9. Choose the custom apps for which this tab will be available.

10. Click Save.

When you switch to Lightning Experience, the Knowledge home page is now available.

Set Access for Lightning Knowledge

Give your knowledge agents access to articles in Lightning Knowledge. Specify which agents in your company are Salesforce Knowledge users, those who can create, edit, archive, and delete articles. Create user profiles with the appropriate user permissions, and then assign users to these profiles.

Lightning Knowledge uses new user profile permissions instead of public groups to give agents access to article actions. By default, all internal users can read articles. However, you need to assign permissions to agents who are publishing, archiving, deleting, and managing articles.

Note:

To do more than read articles, agents need the Knowledge User license.

1. From Setup, enter

Users

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Users.

2. Click Edit next to the user's name or click New to create a user.

3. If you are creating a user, complete all the required fields.

4. Select the

Knowledge User

checkbox.

5. Click Save.

User permissions control access to different tasks. We recommend using permission sets or custom profiles to grant users the permissions they need. For example, you can create a permission set called “Article Manager” that includes the permissions to create, edit, publish, assign, delete, and archive articles.

Refer to this table for details on permissions associated with Salesforce Knowledge tasks.

Lightning Knowledge Task

To manage record types:

To manage article actions:

To search for and read articles:

User Permissions Needed

“Manage Salesforce Knowledge” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Create”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on Knowledge

“Manage Salesforce Knowledge” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

“Read” on Knowledge

To search articles on cases and attach articles to cases:

“Read” on Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or edit users:

•

“Manage Internal Users”

To create article types and article actions (Classic

Knowledge only):

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

To create record types and article actions (Lightning

Knowledge only)

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Salesforce

Knowledge”

AND

Create, Edit, and Delete on Knowledge

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Lightning Knowledge Task

To create articles:

To edit draft articles:

To delete draft articles:

To publish articles:

To change the record type of a draft article:

To archive published articles:

To create a new draft of a published article:

Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

User Permissions Needed

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read” and “Create” on Knowledge

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read” and “Edit” on Knowledge

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on Knowledge

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read”, “Create”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on Knowledge

AND

“Publish Articles” (New in Lightning Knowledge)

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read” and “Edit” on Knowledge

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on Knowledge

AND

“Archive Articles” (New in Lightning Knowledge)

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read”, “Create”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on Knowledge

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Lightning Knowledge Task

To restore an archived article as a new draft:

To create data categories

User Permissions Needed

“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System

Administrator profile.)

AND

“Read”, “Create”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on Knowledge

AND

“Archive Articles” (New in Lightning Knowledge)

“Manage Data Categories” permission. (This permission is on by default in the System Administrator profile.)

To enable agents to perform their specific tasks, create public groups for each role and assign only the necessary article actions to those groups.

Scott: The Reader

Scott Permission

Salesforce Knowledge Functionality Manage Articles

Search articles from and attach articles to cases

Search for and read articles

Read

Knowledge Permissions

Create Edit Delete

Amber: The Candidate

Amber Delaney is a candidate-level agent and can create and publish articles with statuses of either

Work in Progress or

Not Validated

. If Amber works on an article with a different validation status, she must send it to a queue for approval before it’s published.

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.

Amber Permission

Salesforce Knowledge Functionality Manage Articles

Search articles from and attach articles to cases

Search for and read articles

Read

Knowledge Permissions

Create Edit Delete

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Amber Permission

Salesforce Knowledge Functionality Manage Articles

Create or edit article

Edit draft articles

Edit a published article as a new draft or restore an archived article as a new draft

Read

Knowledge Permissions

Create Edit Delete

Anne: The Contributor

As a contributor, Anne Murphy is a more advanced Knowledge user. She understands the standards for articles in the organization and can create articles and publish articles with

Validated Internal

status. She can also work on articles authored by other users if they have either

Work in Progress

Not Validated

statuses, and can change them to

Validated Internal

. Since she doesn’t have permission to publish articles to an external audience, she must submit those customer-facing articles to the Publishing External queue.

Anne is a member of the Contributor public group and she needs the following permissions to perform her job duties.

Salesforce Knowledge Functionality

Permission

Manage

Articles

Read

Knowledge Permissions

Create Edit Delete

Create articles

Search articles from and attach articles to cases

Search for and read articles

Edit draft articles

Delete articles (version or entire)

Archive articles

Pat: The Publisher

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Salesforce Knowledge Functionality

Permission

Manage

Articles

Search articles from and attach articles to cases

Create and edit articles

Edit draft articles

Delete articles (version or entire)

Publish articles

Edit a published article as a new draft or restore an archived article as a new draft

Archive articles

Read

Article Type-Specific Permissions

Create Edit Delete

How they all work together

Each user profile defines an agent's permission to perform different job duties and functions. To enable agents to perform these functions, you create a user profile for each role and assign only the necessary permissions to that group.

The following table lists the job functions that each role needs to perform on articles in the organization

Job Function

Create and publish

Work in

Progress

Create and publish

Not

Validated

Create and publish

Validated

Internal

Create and publish

Validated

External

Update and publish

Work in

Progress

Update and publish

Not

Validated

Reader

Candidate

Automatically approved and published

Needs approval

Contributor

Automatically approved and published

Needs approval

Automatically approved and published

Publisher

Yes

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Job Function

Update and publish

Validated

Internal

Update and publish

Validated

External

Reader

Candidate

Contributor

Automatically approved and published

Needs approval

Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Publisher

Yes

Define Validation Status Picklist Values

When the

Validation Status

field is enabled on the Knowledge Settings page, you can create picklist values that show the state of the article. For example, values could be

Validated

Not Validated

, or

Needs Review

1. From Salesforce Classic Setup, enter

Validation Statuses

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Validation Statuses.

2. On the picklist edit page, click New to add new values to the validation status field. You can also edit, delete, reorder, and replace picklist values.

When you replace a picklist value, the system replaces it in all versions of the article, including any archived versions.

3. Add one or more picklist values (one per line) in the text area.

4. To set the value as the default for the picklist, be sure to select the

Default

checkbox.

5. Click Save.

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or change validation status picklist values:

•

“Customize Application”

577

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Use Your Lightning Knowledge Base

Search articles, author and manage articles, use the Knowledge sidebar in the Lightning Service

Console, and create Knowledge reports.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

Search Articles in the Main Search Box and the Knowledge Sidebar

Perform a Knowledge search in the main search box at the top of every page, and in the Knowledge sidebar for the Lightning Service Console.

In Lightning Experience, Knowledge search is available in both the main search box and the

Knowledge sidebar. The advanced search option lets you pre-filter your results by language, publishing status, validation status, record type, or data category group.

1. In the main search box, begin typing

knowledge

. Search starts recommending content and options for scoping search to specific objects.

2. Select Limit search to Knowledge.

3. Optionally, click Advanced Search to pre-filter your results by language, publishing status, validation status, record type, or data category group. Filters you’ve selected appear in the search box.

4. Enter your search terms.

Note: You can enter up to 100 characters. If you enter more than 100 characters, only the first 100 characters are used when you run the search.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

5. Press

Enter

to run the search.

Note: You can also search Knowledge using the Knowledge sidebar for the Lightning Service Console. Use Advanced Search to add pre-filters, enter your search terms, and run the search.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Authoring Actions in Lightning Knowledge

Manage Knowledge articles from Knowledge home and the article record home in Lightning

Experience.

Quickly access authoring actions in Knowledge home and the article record home using the drop-down next to each article. Administrators, agents, and internal employees with the correct profile permissions can perform these actions.

On the published articles list view in Knowledge Home, you can:

•

Create an article

•

Archive an article

•

Edit an article as a new draft

On the article drafts list view in Knowledge Home, you can:

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

•

Create an article

•

Publish a draft

•

Delete an article

•

Edit an article

On the archived articles list view in Knowledge Home, you can:

•

Create an article

•

Restore an archived article

For the article record home, you can control the available authoring actions with record type page layouts. Additionally, you can add the following components to your record home:

•

Ratings: Automatically enabled.

•

Files: Add the Files related list in your record type page layout.

•

Versions: Select Track Field History and Set History Tracking in Knowledge Object Setup. These options make the article version history and field changes available for Knowledge users to view in the versions component.

•

Data Category Viewer and Chooser: Give the correct Knowledge users “Edit” access on Knowledge, and they can view and change an article’s data categories.

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Use the Knowledge Sidebar in the Lightning Service Console

The Knowledge sidebar keeps agents connected to your Knowledge base while they’re working in the console. Agents can see suggested articles for the case they’re viewing, or perform a search to find more articles. They can use the sidebar to attach an article to (or remove an article from) a case, follow and unfollow articles, and search within Knowledge.

The Knowledge sidebar helps agents quickly find relevant Knowledge articles for their cases and perform some basic actions, such as attaching an article to a case.

Suggested Articles

Suggested articles are delivered right to the Knowledge sidebar, so agents can find relevant articles without running a search. Suggested articles are automatically enabled when Lightning

Knowledge is enabled.

Search and Sort Your Results

Use the search box in the sidebar to perform a Knowledge search. If you’d like, 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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

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 Sidebar

Agents can attach Knowledge articles to cases and remove articles from cases using the drop-down next to any article.

Follow and Unfollow with the Sidebar

Agents can follow and unfollow an article from the sidebar using the drop-down 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.

The Knowledge sidebar is automatically added to your sample Lightning Service Console. To add the Knowledge sidebar to a custom

Lightning Service Console, add Knowledge to your selected items in the Lightning App Builder.

Tip: The Knowledge Sidebar isn’t limited to the console. You can add it to the Lightning Case record home using the Lightning

App Builder.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Report on Salesforce Knowledge Articles

Use Salesforce Knowledge custom reports to track how articles are created, maintained, and delivered.

As an administrator, you can create custom report types so agents can create reports on Salesforce

Knowledge articles. Custom report types are the only way to make reports about articles available for your readers. Salesforce does not provide sample article reports or a standard report folder for articles.

Tip:

The Knowledge Base Dashboards and Reports AppExchange package provides over two dozen reports that help you monitor the knowledge base and analyze usage metrics.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or update custom report types:

•

“Manage Custom Report

Types”

To create a public reports folder:

•

“Manage Public Reports”

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Create a Folder for Article Reports

Create a public folder where you can store article reports for your users.

1. In the Report Folder section of the Reports tab, click Create New Folder.

2. Enter

Article Reports

in the

Folder Label

field.

3. Optionally, modify the

Group Unique Name

4. Choose a

Public Folder Access

option.

Select read/write if you want users to be able to add and remove reports.

5. Choose a folder visibility option.

6. Click Save.

Reports you store in this folder are available on the Reports tab.

Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or update custom report types:

•

“Manage Custom Report

Types”

To create a public reports folder:

•

“Manage Public Reports”

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Article Reports

Create a custom report type to report on Salesforce Knowledge article data.

To create a custom report:

1. From Setup, enter

Report Types

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Report Types and click New Custom Report Type.

See Create a Custom Report Type

2. In the Primary Object drop-down menu, select the article-related object you want to report on:

Primary Object

Article types (Classic

Knowledge only)

Knowledge Articles

Knowledge Article Searches

Knowledge Article Version

Article Version History

Knowledge Article Views

Knowledge Article Votes

Knowledge Keyword Search

Description

Compare information such as creation dates, published channels, and number of associated cases for your custom article type, such as an FAQ. To access any history and custom fields for the custom article type, add the article type’s version as a secondary object.

Compare information about individual articles, such as their creation dates, published channels, and number of associated cases. If you choose this custom report type, you can also include article view and vote statistics. In reports using the

Knowledge Articles primary object, each article has five records

(rows): one for each channel (All Channels, Internal App,

Customer, Partner, and Public Knowledge Base).

Analyze the number of searches per day, month, or year for each channel and role.

Compare information about individual translations, such as their creation dates, published channels, and number of associated cases. If you choose this custom report type, you can also include article view and vote statistics.

Compare information about individual article versions, such as their creation dates, published channels, and number of associated cases.

Analyze the number of views per day, month, or year for each channel and role.

Analyze the number of votes per day, month, or year for each channel and role.

See which keywords users are looking for in your knowledge base.

Knowledge Search Activity

•

Analyze the number of searches per day, month, or year for each channel and language.

•

For each search, see the:

–

Date

–

ID and title of the article that was clicked

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or update custom report types:

•

“Manage Custom Report

Types”

To create a public reports folder:

•

“Manage Public Reports”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

•

See which keywords users are looking for in your knowledge base.

•

For each keyword, see the average number of:

–

Results

–

Articles that appear in the search results

•

For each article, see the average number of:

–

Clicks

–

Unique users who clicked it

3. Complete the required fields and click Save.

In the Store in Category drop-down 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.

4. Make your choices on the Define Report Records Set page.

Primary Object

Article types (Classic Knowledge only)

Knowledge Articles

Knowledge Article Searches

Knowledge Article Version

Article Version History

Knowledge Article Views

Knowledge Article Votes

Knowledge Keyword Search

Knowledge Search Activity

Available Secondary Objects

Article type Versions

Article View Statistics, Article Vote Statistics, Case Article

None

Article View Statistics, Article Vote Statistics

None

5. Click Save.

6. As needed, remove and rearrange fields from your report layout.

on page 586.

Note:

An article’s score is calculated slightly differently in the API than it is in a custom report. We recommend standardizing on one or the other and not attempting to use both.

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Create an Article Report

Run your custom report on your Salesforce Knowledge articles and save them to your article reports folder.

Using your custom report types

, create article reports and save them to your article reports folder .

1. On the Reports tab, click New Report.

2. Choose the category where your custom report types are stored; for example, Customer

Support Reports or Other Reports.

The Cases with Articles report is available by default in the Customer Support Reports folder.

3. Find your report type and click Create.

4. When viewing your report, click Save As and save it in the new Article Reports folder to make the report available to other users.

Note:

•

In reports using the Knowledge Article custom report type, there are at least five rows per article (one for each channel, including “All Channels”).

•

Daily values are reported independently for the last 90 days and monthly values for the last 18 months. After those time periods, use the monthly aggregate and yearly aggregate values, respectively.

•

In reports using the Knowledge Article Votes, Knowledge Article Views, or Knowledge

Article Searches custom report types, each row represents a day, channel, and role combination. For example, if a user with the Kingmaker role views articles in the internal app and the next day the same reader views more articles in the internal app, the Article

Views report has two rows: one for each unique date.

•

In reports using Knowledge Article Version (KAV), except Knowledge Article Version

History, you can filter by data category. You can add up to four filters and set their logic to AT, ABOVE, BELOW, or ABOVE OR BELOW. The logic between filters is OR. You can use the same category group multiple times, however, you must use the same operator each time.

•

To report on Approval Processes for Knowledge Articles, use Process Instance and

Process Instance Node when creating a custom report type. Then filter the report on object type, which is the article type.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or update custom report types:

•

“Manage Custom Report

Types”

To create a public reports folder:

•

“Manage Public Reports”

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Fields Available on Salesforce Knowledge Reports

The fields you can use in a knowledge report depend on the type of information you are reporting on.

The following tables list the available fields by primary object for Salesforce Knowledge reports.

Fields Available on Article types (Classic Knowledge only) Reports

The Article Type primary object allows you to add a secondary object of the article type version.

Field

Archived By

Archived Date

Table 10: Article Type Report Primary Object Fields

Description

User who archived the article.

Date the article was archived.

Article Number

Article Type ID

Unique number automatically assigned to the article.

The ID associated with the article type.

Case Association

Count

Number of cases attached to the article.

Created By

Created Date

Custom fields

User who created the article.

Date the current article version was created. If the article has been published more than once, this is the latest draft date. To create reports that use the original article creation date, first create a Custom

Report Type that joins the Knowledge Article (__ka) and Knowledge

Article Version (__kav) objects for a given article type to allow for use of the created date on the record in the Knowledge Article object, rather than the one for the Knowledge Article Version record.

Any custom fields created on the article types. Add the article type’s version as a secondary object to access any custom fields for the article type.

Date the article was originally published.

First Published

Date

Knowledge Article

Version

The article’s version number.

Last Modified By

User who changed the article most recently.

Last Modified

Date

Last Published

Date

Date the article was last changed. The last modified date of a draft article is the time the draft was saved. The last modified date of a published article is time the article was most recently published.

Date the article was last published.

Master Language

The original language of the article.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or update custom report types:

•

“Manage Custom Report

Types”

To create a public reports folder:

•

“Manage Public Reports”

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Field

Note: Currently you can’t use

Knowledge Article Version

and

Last Modified Date

in the same report.

Archived By

Article Type

Created By

Created Date

Custom fields

Is Latest Version

Is Master Language

Knowledge Article

Version ID

Language

Last Modified By

Last Modified Date

Out of Date

Publication Status

Summary

Title

Translation Completed

Date

Translation Exported

Date

Translation Imported

Date

URL Name

Validation Status

Version Number

Table 11: Article Type Report Secondary Object Fields

Description

User who archived the article.

The article type associated with the article.

User who created the article.

(__kav) objects for a given article type to allow for use of the created date on the record in the

Knowledge Article object, rather than the one for the Knowledge Article Version record.

Any custom fields created on the article types. Add the article type’s version as a secondary object to access any custom fields for the article type.

Indicates if the article is the most recent version.

Indicates that the article is not a translation, but the original article.

Unique ID automatically assigned to the article translation.

The article's language.

User who changed the article most recently.

Indicates that the master article has been updated since this translation was published.

Indicates whether the article or translation is in progress (draft), published, or archived.

Description of the article provided by the author.

The article’s title.

Date the translation was completed.

Date the article was exported for translation.

Date the translation was imported.

Text used as hyperlink for the article.

Indicates if the article is valid or not.

The version number of the article.

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Field

Visible in Customer

Description

Indicates that the article is published in the Customer Portal.

Visible in Internal App

Indicates that the article is published in the internal app (Articles tab).

Visible in Partner

Visible in Public

Knowledge Base

Indicates that the article is published in the partner portal.

Indicates that the article is published in the public knowledge base.

Fields Available on Knowledge Articles Reports

Field

Article Number

Article Type

Case Association Count

Created By

Created Date

First Published Date

Is Latest Version

Description

Unique number automatically assigned to the article.

The article type associated with the article.

Number of cases attached to the article.

User who created the article.

(__kav) objects for a given article type to allow for use of the created date on the record in the

Knowledge Article object, rather than the one for the Knowledge Article Version record.

Date the article was originally published.

Indicates if the article is the most recent version.

Unique ID automatically assigned to the article translation.

Knowledge Article

Version ID

Last Modified By

Last Modified Date

Last Published Date

Summary

Title

URL Name

Validation Status

User who changed the article most recently.

Date the article was last published.

Description of the article provided by the author.

The article’s title.

Text used as hyperlink for the article.

Indicates if the article is valid or not.

Version Number

Visible in Customer

The version number of the article.

Indicates that the article is published in the Customer Portal.

Visible in Internal App

Indicates that the article is published in the internal app (Articles tab).

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Field

Visible in Partner

Visible in Public

Knowledge Base

Welcome to Salesforce Knowledge

Description

Indicates that the article is published in the partner portal.

Indicates that the article is published in the public knowledge base.

Fields Available on Knowledge Article Searches Reports

Field

Channel

Count

Cumulative Count

Date

Duration

Related Role

Description

The channel that’s applicable to the article. Possible values are

All Channels

Internal

App

Customer

Partner

, and

Public Knowledge Base

The number of article searches applicable to the duration shown (day, month, or year).

The total number of article searches for the history of the record.

Last date on which an article search took place for the record. All rows represent a date, channel, and role combination.

The time period the search count is applied to. Possible values are

Daily

Monthly

, and

Yearly

. For example, a record where the Count is 70 and the Duration is Monthly indicates that 70 searches took place over the past month. Totals are aggregated daily for the current month, monthly from the past full month through the past full year, and yearly beyond that.

Name of the role that applies to the record. Each row in the report represents searches per channel per role.

Fields Available on Knowledge Article Version Reports

Field

Archived By

Archived Date

Article Number

Article Type

Case Association Count

Created By

Created Date

First Published Date

Is Latest Version

Description

User who archived the article.

Date the article was archived.

Unique number automatically assigned to the article.

The article type associated with the article.

Number of cases attached to the article.

User who created the article.

(__kav) objects for a given article type to allow for use of the created date on the record in the

Knowledge Article object, rather than the one for the Knowledge Article Version record.

Date the article was originally published.

Indicates if the article is the most recent version.

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Field

Is Master Language

Description

Indicates that the article is not a translation, but the original article.

Unique ID automatically assigned to the article translation.

Knowledge Article

Version ID

Language

Last Modified By

Last Modified Date

Date the article was last published.

Master Language

Out of Date

Publication Status

Summary

Title

The article's language.

User who changed the article most recently.

Date the article was last published.

The original language of the article.

Indicates that the master article has been updated since this translation was published.

Indicates whether the article or translation is in progress (draft), published, or archived.

Description of the article provided by the author.

The article’s title.

Date the translation was completed.

Translation Completed

Date

Translation Exported

Date

Date the article was exported for translation.

Translation Imported

Date

Date the translation was imported.

URL Name

Validation Status

Version Number

Visible in Customer

Text used as hyperlink for the article.

Indicates if the article is valid or not.

The version number of the article.

Indicates that the article is published in the Customer Portal.

Visible in Internal App

Indicates that the article is published in the internal app (Articles tab).

Visible in Partner

Indicates that the article is published in the partner portal.

Visible in Public

Knowledge Base

Indicates that the article is published in the public knowledge base.

Fields Available on Knowledge Article Views Reports

You can add up to 6of the 8fields below.

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Field

Channel

Count

Cumulative Count

Date

Duration

Related Role

Score

Total Views

Description

The channel that’s applicable to the article. Possible values are

All Channels

Internal

App

Customer

Partner

, and

Public Knowledge Base

The number of article views applicable to the duration shown (day, month, year).

The total number of article views for the history of the record.

Last date on which an article view took place for the record. All rows represent a date, channel, and role combination.

The time period the search count is applied to. Possible values are

Daily

Monthly

, and

Yearly

Name of the role that applies to the record.

Article's average view rating. Scoresake into account a half-life calculation. Every 15 days, if an article has not been viewed its average rating moves up or down. This calculation ensures that over time, older or outdated articles don't maintain artificially high or low ratings compared to newer, more frequently viewed articles.

Number of times a published article has been viewed.

Fields Available on Knowledge Article Votes Reports

Field

Channel

Count

Cumulative Count

Date

Duration

Related Role

Description

The channel that’s applicable to the article. Possible values are

All Channels

Internal

App

Customer

Partner

, and

Public Knowledge Base

The number of article votes applicable to the duration shown (day, month, year).

The total number of article votes for the history of the record.

Last date on which an article vote took place for the record. All rows represent a date, channel, and role combination.

The time period the search count is applied to. Possible values are

Daily

Monthly

, and

Yearly

Name of the role that applies to the record.

Fields Available on Knowledge Keyword Search Reports

Field

Channel

Description

The channel that’s applicable to the article. Possible values are

All Channels

Internal

App

Customer

Partner

, and

Public Knowledge Base

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Field

Count

Date

Duration

Found

Keyword

Description

The number of keyword searches applicable to the duration shown (day, month, year).

Last date on which a keyword search took place for the record. All rows represent a date, channel, and role combination.

The time period the search count is applied to. Possible values are

Daily

Monthly

, and

Yearly

Indicates whether the keyword shown was found during a search of the knowledge base.

Search term used to search published articles in the knowledge base.

Fields Available on Knowledge Search Activity Reports

Field

Average Click Rank

Channel

Clicked Article Title

Duration

Description

The order in which the article appeared in search results when results are sorted by relevance and when readers clicked it from the list of results.

The channel that’s applicable to the article. Possible values are

All Channels

Internal

App

Customer

Partner

, and

Public Knowledge Base

The title of the clicked article taken when the search results are sorted by relevance by the reader.

The time period the search count is applied to. Possible values are

Daily

Monthly

, and

Yearly

Note: Activity totals are collected nightly and aren’t in real time.

Language

Number of Results

Number of Searches

Number of Users

Search Date

Search Term

The language filter that’s applied to the reader’s search.

The number of search results that were returned for the search term. If Duration is also included, this value is aggregated based on the time period specified.

The number of searches for the duration that’s shown (day, month, or year).

The number of individual users who clicked the article.

The date of the search.

The first 100 characters of the search term that was used to search published articles in the knowledge base.

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Define Data Categories for Your Lightning Knowledge Articles

Create data categories and data category groups to help Knowledge users and customers find what they need. Some data category information doesn’t apply to Lightning Knowledge.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

Data Categories in Salesforce.com

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.

Salesforce Knowledge uses data categories to classify articles and make them easier to find. For example, to classify articles by sales regions and products, create two category groups: Sales Regions and Products. The Sales Regions category group could consist of a geographical hierarchy, such as

All Sales Regions as the top level and North America, Europe, and Asia at the second level. The

Products group could have All Products as the top level and Phones, Computers, and Printers at the second.

Data Category Limits

Maximum number of data category groups and active data category groups

Details

5 category groups, with 3 groups active at a time

Maximum number of categories per data category group

Maximum number of levels in data category group hierarchy

100 categories in a data category group

5 levels in a data category group hierarchy

100 categories in a data category group

5 levels in a data category group hierarchy

Maximum number of data categories from a data category group assigned to an article

8 data categories from a data category group assigned to an article

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

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

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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.

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.

An Article About Laptop Deals on the Article Management Tab

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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.

An Article About Laptop Deals on the Articles Tab

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 Categories in Answers Zones

An answers zone supports one category group, and members can assign one category to each question. Even though you can create up to five hierarchy levels of categories in a category group, only the first level of categories is supported in your answers community. Child categories below the first level are not displayed in the community, and community members can't assign these child categories to questions. The categories within the group display on the Answers tab below the zone name.

Answers tab displaying categories

By default, all zone members have access to all categories; however, you can

specify category visibility .

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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.

•

Even though you can create up to five hierarchy levels of categories in a category group, only the first level of categories is supported in your answers community. Child categories below the first level are not displayed in the community, and community members can't assign these child categories to questions. Salesforce Knowledge supports a hierarchy of data categories.

•

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.

•

Deleting a category group:

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–

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.

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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 might contain Fixed Price, Cost Reimbursement, and Indefinite Delivery categories.

1. From Setup, enter

Data Category

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Data Category

Setup.

2. To create a category group, click New in the Category Groups section.

By default, you can create a maximum of five category groups and three active category groups.

To edit an existing category group, hover your cursor over the category group name and then click the Edit Category Group icon ( ).

3. Specify the

Group Name up to a maximum of 80 characters. This name appears as the title of the category drop-down menu on the Article Management and Articles tabs, and, if applicable, in the public knowledge base. The

Group Name

does not appear on the Answers tab.

4. Optionally, modify the

Group Unique Name

(the unique name used to identify the category group in the SOAP API).

5. Optionally, enter a description of the category group.

6. Click Save.

You receive an email after the save process completes.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

Activating Category Groups

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 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. In addition to activating the category group, for answers communities you must assign the category group to a zone before the categories are visible on the Answers tab.

To activate a category group so it is available to users, move the mouse pointer over the name

USER PERMISSIONS

To view the Data Categories page:

•

“View Data Categories”

To create, edit, or delete data categories:

•

“Manage Data

Categories” of the category group and click the

Activate Category Group

icon ( ).

You can now add categories to your category group. When you create a category group, Salesforce

automatically creates a top-level category in the group named

All

. Optionally, double-click

All

to rename it.

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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.

Administrators can create data categories for Salesforce Knowledge articles, questions in a zone, or ideas to classify and find articles, questions, or ideas. You can also use data categories to control access to articles, questions, and ideas.

By default, you can create up to 100 categories in a data category group and have up to 5 levels in a data category group hierarchy. To request more categories or hierarchy levels, contact Salesforce.

Note: On the Answers tab, only first-level data categories display. Therefore, when creating data categories for a portal or community, ensure that the categories you want visible have a sibling relationship and not a parent-child relationship.

1. From Setup, enter

Data Category

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Data Category

Setup.

2. Click the category group name.

3. Click a category that is directly above where you want to add a category (a parent), or at the same level (a sibling).

4. Click Actions, then select an action: Add Child Category or Add Sibling Category.

5. Enter a category name up to a maximum of 40 characters.

If possible, Salesforce automatically reuses the name you entered as the

Category Unique

Name

, a system field which the SOAP API requires.

6. Click Add. Alternatively, press Enter.

7. Click Save.

Save your changes frequently. The more actions you perform before clicking Save, the longer it takes to save.

Tip: By default, all Salesforce Knowledge users and zone members can see all categories within an active category group. You can

restrict category visibility

after you have set up your data categories to ensure that users only access articles and questions that you want them to see.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To view the Data Categories page:

•

“View Data Categories”

To create, edit, or delete data categories:

•

“Manage Data

Categories”

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Filter Articles with Data Category Mapping

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic, Lightning Experience

Important:

•

Filtering articles based on case information is only supported in text and picklist fields.

•

Filters are applied to Knowledge results after the case has been saved.

•

Filters are applied after a Knowledge search and only to the articles returned in the search.

•

Using Filters does not return a list of all articles that match the filter criteria. Instead, the filters are applied to the initial pool of article results returned.

•

Results may be filtered after a search.

•

A category group can only be used once in a data category mapping.

•

Complete Guide to Salesforce Knowledge

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Adding Solutions

HTML Solutions Overview

HTML solutions provide a more flexible way to create solutions, by allowing you to easily format paragraphs, and insert images and links. Using HTML solutions, you create solutions with an HTML editor and display those solutions to users in Salesforce, the Self-Service portal, the Customer Portal, and as public solutions.

Using the HTML editor, you can:

•

Change fonts

•

Increase or decrease font sizes

•

Insert images from the Documents tab

•

Set text color

•

Set the background color of text

•

Insert hyperlinks

•

Change paragraph alignment

•

Create bulleted and numbered lists

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create solutions:

•

“Create” on solutions

Note: By default, solutions are created and displayed in text format. Your administrator must enable HTML solutions.

Before you begin creating HTML solutions for your organization, review the following implementation tips and best practices.

Implementation Tips

•

Once you enable HTML solutions, you cannot disable it.

•

If you open a text solution with the HTML editor and save it, the solution becomes an HTML solution.

•

HTML solutions are presented as such to Self-Service portal, public solutions, Customer Portal, and Salesforce users.

•

Any HTML tags entered into the HTML editor will display to users as text when the solution is saved.

•

When the HTML solution detail is displayed in list views and search results, only the first 255 characters are displayed. This number includes HTML tags and images that are removed.

•

Each HTML solution can contain up to 32000 characters, including HTML tags.

•

HTML formatting is preserved in the printable view of a solution.

•

Hyperlinks in HTML solutions open in a new browser window when users click on them.

•

All images that you want to include in your HTML solutions must be uploaded to the Documents tab. Images in HTML solution details don’t show up in list views and reports.

•

HTML solutions can be created in any of the languages supported by Salesforce.

Best Practices

The following HTML tags are allowed in HTML solutions imported into Salesforce:

<a>

<abbr>

<dt>

<em>

<font>

<q>

<samp>

<small>

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<b>

<bdo>

<big>

<br>

<cite>

<code>

<col>

<dd>

<del>

<dfn>

<div>

<dl>

<h1>

<h2>

<h3>

<h4>

<h5>

<h6>

<hr>

<i>

<img>

<ins>

<kbd>

<li>

<ol>

<p>

<pre>

Within the above tags, you can include the following attributes: alt background border class colspan face height href name rowspan

The above attributes that can include a URL are limited to URLs that begin with the following:

•

http:

•

https:

•

file:

•

ftp:

•

mailto:

•

for relative links size src style target width

<span>

<sub>

<sup>

<table>

<tbody>

<td>

<tfoot>

<th>

<thead>

<tr>

<tt>

<ul>

<var>

602

Adding Solutions

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Solutions

Multilingual Solutions Overview

The multilingual solutions feature helps you translate solutions and solution categories into the languages supported by Salesforce so that customers and support reps can find answers to inquiries in the language with which they are most comfortable.

Multilingual solutions can lower support costs by:

•

Improving customer satisfaction by answering inquiries in the languages preferred by customers

•

Deflecting unnecessary incoming calls by providing solutions in languages that are the most useful for customers

•

Managing inquiries in multiple languages from one location, anytime and anywhere

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

Review the following key terms for multilingual solutions:

Master Solution

A solution created in any language supported by Salesforce. A master solution can have zero or more translations associated with it; it cannot be linked to another master solution.

Translated Solution

A solution translated into another language supported by Salesforce and associated with exactly one master solution. A translated solution cannot have the same language as its master solution or any other translated solutions associated with that master solution.

A translated solution cannot have other translated solutions associated with it. Translated solutions are represented by the icon on solution detail pages, solution edit pages, solution list views, and solution search results.

You can work with multilingual solutions from the following:

Solutions Tab

When creating a new solution, users can choose a language in which to write the solution from the

Language

picklist field. Once the solution is saved, it becomes a master solution. Users can then create a translated solution by clicking New on the Translated

Solutions related list of the master solution detail page. When a master solution is modified, users can adjust the statuses of its translated solutions to indicate that they may need translating.

Cases Tab

When users search for relevant solutions on a case by entering keywords in the Solutions related list and clicking Find Solution, search results include solutions in all languages that have matching keywords. Alternatively, if suggested solutions is enabled for cases, users can click View Suggested Solutions to find relevant solutions in multiple languages if they share common words with the case.

Self-Service Portal

If multilingual solution search is enabled for your Self-Service portal, customers automatically view solution search results in their preferred language as specified in their Self-Service user information settings. Customers can also choose to view solution search results in a specific language or all supported languages via a language drop-down list. By default, the Login Page of your Self-Service portal displays in your organization's language.

Public Solutions

If multilingual solution search is enabled for your public solutions, customers can choose to view solution search results in a specific language or all supported languages via a language drop-down list. By default, public solutions display in your organization's language.

Solution Categories

Users with the “Manage Translation” permission can use the translation workbench to translate solution categories so that they display in the language of each user on the Solutions tab and in the preferred language of each customer on the Self-Service portal as specified in the customer's user settings. Solution categories are not translated for public solutions.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Solutions

Reports

You can track translated solutions marked

Out of Date

by choosing the Translated Solutions report. Running this report also lists the title and details of translated solutions. You can also create a custom report for multilingual solutions using the Master and

Translated Solutions report type.

List Views

You can see which translated solutions are marked

Out of Date

and may need translating by creating a custom list view on the Solutions tab and entering the following search criteria: “Out of Date equals True”.

Import

The Data Import Wizard includes options to import master and translated solutions and associate them with each other.

To learn more about enabling multilingual solutions, see Enable Multilingual Solutions on page 609.

SEE ALSO:

Enable Multilingual Solutions

Customizing Solution Settings

To customize solution settings:

1. From Setup, enter

Solution Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Solution

Settings.

2. Click Edit.

3. Select

Enable Solution Browsing

to turn on the ability to browse for and find solutions by category.

This setting enables solution browsing on the Solutions tab, Customer Portal, and when solving a case.

4. Select

Enable Multilingual Solutions

to turn on the ability for users to

translate solutions

into multiple languages.

You can deselect the

Enable Multilingual Solutions

checkbox at any time, but deselecting it removes all associations between master and translated solutions and automatically disables the

Enable Multilingual Solution Search in Self

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To change solution settings:

•

“Customize Application”

605

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Solutions

Service Portal

and

Enable Multilingual Solution Search for Public Solutions

settings. If you select the

Enable Multilingual Solutions

checkbox again, the associations between master and translated solutions are restored.

5. Select

Enable Multilingual Solution Search in Self-Service Portal

to add a language drop-down list to the Self-Service portal that automatically restricts search results to solutions that match the Self-Service portal user’s language.

From the language drop-down list, Self-Service portal users can choose whether to search for solutions in a specific language or any language supported by Salesforce.

Deselecting this checkbox removes the language drop-down list from the Self-Service portal, and search results include solutions in all languages, regardless of the Self-Service portal user's language.

6. Select

Enable Multilingual Solution Search for Public Solutions

to add a language drop-down list to public solutions so that public solutions users can choose which language to search for solutions. From the language drop-down list, public solutions users can choose whether to search for solutions in a specific language or any language supported by Salesforce.

Deselecting this checkbox removes the language drop-down list from public solutions, and search results include solutions in all languages.

7. Select

Enable HTML Solutions

to create and display solutions in HTML. When enabled, solutions appear in HTML in

Salesforce, public solutions, Self-Service portal, and Salesforce Customer Portal. Using HTML Solutions

allows users to easily format solution details by changing fonts and colors, and adding images and hyperlinks.

Warning: Once you select

Enable HTML Solutions

, you cannot disable it.

8. Select

Solution Summary

to display up to 150 characters of the solution details in the solution search results. Deselecting this checkbox removes the solution summary from the results.

9. Select

Inline Category Breadcrumbs

to display up to 150 characters of the breadcrumb trail of categories to which the solution belongs in the search results. Deselecting this checkbox removes the breadcrumbs from the results.

10. Click Save.

11. To enable solution browsing by customers in public solutions or your Self-Service portal, see

Enabling Public Solutions

on page 610

and Enable Self-Service Features and Settings

on page 75.

In addition, you can customize the top-level category accessible by public solutions and Self-Service users. You do not need to modify this setting if you want customers to view all categories and all solutions that are visible in the Self-Service portal or visible in public solutions.

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the

Self-Service portal.

SEE ALSO:

Managing Solution Categories

Enable Multilingual Solutions

606

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Solutions

Getting Started with Categories

Follow these steps to ensure a successful rollout of solutions:

EDITIONS

1. Plan which categories your support team needs.

Keep in mind that you can also allow customers to find solutions by category in public solutions and your Self-Service portal. You can specify that customers can view only solutions in a particular category and all of its subcategories.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

2. Define your categories; see Defining Solution Categories

on page 607.

3. Categorize your solutions; see Categorizing Solutions. Administrators, and users with the “Manage

Categories” permission, can categorize solutions prior to enabling solution categories for the entire organization.

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or change solution categories:

4. Create a custom report of type Solution Categories to verify that all solutions are categorized appropriately. To find any uncategorized solutions, use the advanced report filters; choose the

Category Name

field and the “equals” operator, and leave the third field blank.

•

“Manage Categories”

Administrators, and users with the “Manage Categories” permission, can create solution category reports prior to enabling solution categories for the entire organization.

5. Enable solution category browsing for the Solutions tab; see

Customizing Solution Settings on page 605.

6. Enable solution category browsing for customers using public solutions and your Self-Service portal. See Enabling Public Solutions

on page 610 and Enable Self-Service Features and Settings

on page 75.

7. Specify the top-level category accessible by customers using public solutions and your Self-Service portal. This is useful if you want to have certain categories available only to internal staff.

Leave this blank if you want customers to view all categories and all solutions that are visible in Self-Service portal or visible in public solutions.

SEE ALSO:

Managing Solution Categories

Defining Solution Categories

Begin by creating your solution categories. The All Solutions category is automatically created for you as the top of your solution hierarchy.

Users cannot add solutions to this category or translate it.

1. From Setup, enter

Solution Categories

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Solution Categories.

2. Click Add Category to create a subcategory below a specific category.

3. Enter the category name. Category names cannot include the backslash “\” character.

4. Select a different parent category, if desired. The parent category is the category directly above this category in the hierarchy.

5. Select a sort order for any subcategories you create under this category.

•

Choose Alphabetical Order to sort subcategories alphabetically.

•

Choose Custom Order to sort subcategories in the order you specify; see

Adding and Sorting Subcategories on page 608.

6. Click Save.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Solutions

7. After creating categories, categorize your solutions. See Categorizing Solutions. Administrators, and users with the “Manage Categories” permission, can categorize solutions prior to enabling solution categories for the entire organization.

8. Then, after categorizing solutions, turn on solution category browsing on the Solutions tab. See Customizing Solution Settings

on page 605.

9. To enable solution category browsing for the public knowledge base or your Self-Service portal, see Enabling Public Solutions on

page 610.

Editing and Deleting Categories

From the list of solution categories, you can:

•

Click Edit to modify the category name, parent category, or sort order.

•

Click Del to delete the category. The solutions associated with the category are not deleted.

Note: You cannot delete a category in use by a Salesforce Customer Portal. For more information, see

Enable Customer Portal

on page 23.

•

Click the category name to view the category details.

Adding and Sorting Subcategories

From a category detail page, you can:

•

Click New to add a subcategory below the category.

•

Enter a custom sort order for the subcategories.

1. Edit the category to set the

Subcategory Sort Order

to Custom Order.

2. Enter numbers in the Order column to specify the order of the subcategories.

3. Click Reorder.

Managing Solution Categories

Create solution categories so that users can group similar solutions together. Once your solutions are categorized, users can browse for and find solutions by category from the Solutions tab or when solving a case. Customers can also browse solutions by category in public solutions, the Self-Service portal, and the Customer Portal.

Note:

Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

SEE ALSO:

Getting Started with Categories

Defining Solution Categories

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or change solution categories:

•

“Manage Categories”

608

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Solutions

Enable Multilingual Solutions

You can turn on multilingual solutions so users have the ability to translate solutions into multiple languages.

EDITIONS

Preparing for Multilingual Solutions

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Before you enable multilingual solutions:

•

Run solution reports to locate any existing solutions that are already translated and will need to be converted to translated solutions after you enable multilingual solutions.

Available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions

When multilingual solutions is enabled for the first time, all existing solutions automatically become master solutions. You can create translated solutions from master solutions by associating a master solution without any translated solutions with a master solution of a different language via the

Master Solution

lookup field.

USER PERMISSIONS

To enable multilingual solutions:

•

Translate any existing solution categories.

•

“Customize Application”

Translated solutions inherit the solution categories of their master solution. We recommend that you translate your solution categories before enabling multilingual solutions and then associate solutions with each other. This will help you associate solutions with the correct categories.

Enabling Multilingual Solutions

To enable multilingual solutions:

1. From Setup, enter

Solution Settings

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Solution Settings.

2. Click Edit.

3. Select

Enable Multilingual Solutions

Optionally, select

Enable Multilingual Solution Search in Self-Service Portal

and

Enable

Multilingual Solution Search for Public Knowledge Base

to allow customers to view solution search results in a specific language or all supported languages via a language drop-down list.

4. Click Save.

5. Customize solution page layouts to include the

Master Solution Title

field,

Master Solution Details

field,

Out-of-Date

field, and the Translated Solutions related list. The

Language

picklist and

Master Solution

lookup fields are automatically added to solution page layouts when you enable multilingual solutions.

Tip: You can make solution edit pages easier for users to translate multilingual solutions by setting the Detail Information section to two columns and placing the

Master Solution Title

and

Master Solution Details

fields alongside each other. Underneath those fields, place the

Solution Title

and

Solution Details

fields alongside each other so that users can effortlessly compare the master and translated solutions. Note that the

Master Solution

Title

and

Master Solution Details

fields display only on the translated solution edit page.

6. Set the field-level security settings of the

Master Solution

lookup field to editable for profiles or permission sets with the

“Create” and “Edit” permissions on solutions.

When the

Master Solution

lookup field is editable, users can associate translated solutions with master solutions.

Field-level security is available in Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance, and Developer Editions.

7. Set the field-level security settings of the

Out of Date

checkbox field to visible for all profiles or permission sets with the “Read” permission on solutions.

609

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Solutions

Field-level security is available in Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance, and Developer Editions.

8. As a best practice, add a long text area custom field to solutions called

Translation Comments

and include it on solution page layouts so that users can add any comments regarding the translation of the solution. Users should include a date with their comments so that other users can see when each comment was added.

Note:

You can deselect the

Enable Multilingual Solutions

checkbox at any time, but deselecting it removes all associations between master and translated solutions and automatically disables the

Enable Multilingual Solution

Search in Self Service Portal

and

Enable Multilingual Solution Search for Public

Solutions

settings. If you select the

Enable Multilingual Solutions

checkbox again, the associations between master and translated solutions are restored.

Rolling Out Multilingual Solutions

After enabling multilingual solutions:

•

Associate any existing translated solutions with the appropriate master solutions.

You can do this manually using the

Master Solution

lookup field, or you can export a report of existing translated solutions and then import those solutions to associate them with a master solution. For each translated solution you import, include the 15 to 18 character

Solution ID

field of its master solution in a master solution column on your import file. To view the

Solution

field for master solutions, run the Translated Solution report. If you import solutions by mistake, you can use mass delete to remove them from your organization.

SEE ALSO:

Multilingual Solutions Overview

information about the Self-Service and Customer Portal, see Setting Up Self-Service

Enabling Public Solutions

Note: Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

Using the Solutions tab, your customer support team can create solutions that people outside of your organization may find helpful. Using HTML code supplied by Salesforce, and with the help of your website administrator, you can add a search box and button to your website that allows your customers to search for solutions. This functionality is known as Public Solutions.

With public solutions, your customers can find answers to frequently asked questions without having to call your customer support center. All solutions with a

Status

of Reviewed and the

Visible in Public Knowledge Base

field checked will be available as public solutions, including any solution attachments.

Public solutions are different from the Self-Service portal and Salesforce Customer Portal because users are not required to log in, and they can only search for solutions, not submit cases. For more

on page 74

and Setting Up Your Customer Portal on page 15.

Note:

•

The search box and button are displayed in a frame; your website must support frames in order for the solution search feature to work.

•

Organizing Articles, Answers, and Ideas into Categories

Data Categories in Salesforce.com

All Sales Regions as the top level and North America, Europe, and Asia at the second level. The

Products group could have All Products as the top level and Phones, Computers, and Printers at the second.

Data Category Limits

Maximum number of data category groups and active data category groups

Details

5 category groups, with 3 groups active at a time

Maximum number of categories per data category group

Maximum number of levels in data category group hierarchy

100 categories in a data category group

5 levels in a data category group hierarchy

100 categories in a data category group

5 levels in a data category group hierarchy

Maximum number of data categories from a data category group assigned to an article

8 data categories from a data category group assigned to an article

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

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

Control of Article and Question Visibility

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Categories in Salesforce.com

Article Filtering

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

Data Category

in the

Quick

Find

Geography category group.

An Article About Laptop Deals on the Article Management Tab

An Article About Laptop Deals on the Articles Tab

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Categories in Salesforce.com

By default, all Salesforce Knowledge users have access to all categories; however, you can

restrict category visibility by role, permission set, or profile .

Data Categories in Answers Zones

Answers tab displaying categories

By default, all zone members have access to all categories; however, you can

specify category visibility .

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.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Categories in Salesforce.com

•

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.

•

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.

•

Deleting a category group:

–

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.

615

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Data Category Shortcuts

Use keyboard shortcuts to work quickly with data categories.

Task

Adding a category

Action

Add a sibling to the selected category

Add a child to the selected category

Close the Add Category field

Save changes in the Add Category field

Modifying a category

Open the Edit Category field for the selected category

Keyboard Shortcut

ENTER

ENTER+TAB

ESC

ENTER

SPACEBAR

Close the Edit Category field

Save changes in the Edit Category field

ESC

ENTER

Demoting or promoting a category

Demote a category down one level, as a child of the sibling currently above it

TAB

SHIFT+TAB

Deleting a category

Promote a category up one level, as a sibling to its current parent

Delete the selected category and its children

DELETE

Navigating in the category hierarchy

UP ARROW

Canceling or repeating an action

Saving the changes

Move the focus up in the category hierarchy

Move the focus down in the category hierarchy

Collapse children in a parent category

Expand children in a parent category

Undo the last action

Redo the last action

Save the last changes in the category hierarchy

DOWN ARROW

LEFT ARROW

RIGHT ARROW

CTRL+Z

CTRL+Y

CTRL+S

Data Categories in Salesforce.com

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

616

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Categories in Salesforce.com

Create and Modify Category Groups

1. From Setup, enter

Data Category

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Data Category

Setup.

2. To create a category group, click New in the Category Groups section.

By default, you can create a maximum of five category groups and three active category groups.

To edit an existing category group, hover your cursor over the category group name and then click the Edit Category Group icon ( ).

3. Specify the

Group Name

does not appear on the Answers tab.

4. Optionally, modify the

Group Unique Name

(the unique name used to identify the category group in the SOAP API).

5. Optionally, enter a description of the category group.

6. Click Save.

You receive an email after the save process completes.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

Activating Category Groups

To activate a category group so it is available to users, move the mouse pointer over the name

USER PERMISSIONS

To view the Data Categories page:

•

“View Data Categories”

To create, edit, or delete data categories:

•

“Manage Data

Categories” of the category group and click the

Activate Category Group

icon ( ).

You can now add categories to your category group. When you create a category group, Salesforce

automatically creates a top-level category in the group named

All

. Optionally, double-click

All

to rename it.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Categories in Salesforce.com

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.

1. From Setup, enter

Data Category

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Data Category

Setup.

2. Hover your cursor over the category group name.

Click the

Delete Category Group

icon ( ).

4. Select the checkbox in the confirmation dialog, then click OK.

The data category group is deleted. Continue to step 5 if you wish to restore the data category group.

5. In the Removed Category Groups section, hover your cursor over the category group name.

Click the

Undelete Category Group

icon ( ).

The category group moves to the Category Groups section as an inactive category group, and associations with articles, questions, and visibility are restored.

Example:

Deleting a category group:

•

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.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To view the Data Categories page:

•

“View Data Categories”

To create, edit, or delete data categories:

•

“Manage Data

Categories”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Categories in Salesforce.com

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.

1. From Setup, enter

Data Category

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Data Category

Setup.

2. Click the category group name.

3. Click a category that is directly above where you want to add a category (a parent), or at the same level (a sibling).

4. Click Actions, then select an action: Add Child Category or Add Sibling Category.

5. Enter a category name up to a maximum of 40 characters.

If possible, Salesforce automatically reuses the name you entered as the

Category Unique

Name

, a system field which the SOAP API requires.

6. Click Add. Alternatively, press Enter.

7. Click Save.

Save your changes frequently. The more actions you perform before clicking Save, the longer it takes to save.

Tip: By default, all Salesforce Knowledge users and zone members can see all categories within an active category group. You can

restrict category visibility

after you have set up your data categories to ensure that users only access articles and questions that you want them to see.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To view the Data Categories page:

•

“View Data Categories”

To create, edit, or delete data categories:

•

“Manage Data

Categories”

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Categories in Salesforce.com

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.

EDITIONS

Important: Modify the category hierarchy when user activity is low. Because the save process involves potentially large and complex recalculations, it might take a long time to complete.

During processing, agents might experience performance issues when searching for articles or questions or using category drop-down lists.

1. From Setup, enter

Data Category

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Data Category

Setup.

2. Click a category group name.

3. Optionally, click Expand All to display the full category hierarchy, or Collapse All to display only the top-level categories.

4. To edit a category’s name or its unique API name, double-click it.

5. Use drag-and-drop editing to reposition a category in the hierarchy. As you drag, a red icon indicates an invalid destination, while a green icon indicates a valid destination.

•

Drag a category on top of another category to reposition it as a child of the destination category. For example, drag USA on top of North America to make USA one level below

North America. After dragging, the category displays below the other child categories at that level.

•

Drag a category to a line that borders another category to reposition it as a sibling of that category. For example, to position USA between Canada and Mexico, drag it to the line between Canada and Mexico.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

6. To reorder a category's children in alphabetical order, hover your cursor over its name, then choose

Order Child Categories Alphabetically

from the Actions drop-down list. This reorder only affects the first-level children, not grandchildren or deeper levels.

7. As you modify the category hierarchy, click Undo to cancel your last actions. Similarly, click

Redo to step forward through your flow of performed actions.

8. Click Save. You receive an email when the save process completes.

The save process recalculates the following:

•

The contents of the category drop-down menu.

•

The articles and questions visible to each user.

•

The articles and questions associated with categories.

To view the Data Categories page:

•

“View Data Categories”

To create, edit, or delete data categories:

•

“Manage Data

Categories”

Note: Save your changes frequently. The more actions you perform before clicking Save, the longer it takes to save.

620

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Categories in Salesforce.com

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.

Move the Category “PDAs”

To understand how this change affects which readers can see articles classified with the PDAs category, see the following table.

When my role, permission set, or profile is mapped to:

Could I see

PDA articles in their old location under

Computers?

All products Yes Yes

Can I see PDA articles in their new location under

Consumer

Electronics?

Why?

Computers Yes No

When your role, permission set, or profile is mapped to the top-level

“All products” category, you can see everything in the category hierarchy.

You don't have access to the branch of the category hierarchy where

PDAs is now located.

621

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Categories in Salesforce.com

When my role, permission set, or profile is mapped to:

Could I see

PDA articles in their old location under

Computers?

Consumer

Electronics

No Yes

Can I see PDA articles in their new location under

Consumer

Electronics?

Why?

PDAs has moved to the branch of the category hierarchy where you have been granted access.

How Changing the Hierarchy Affects Article Classification

Classifying an article with a parent category implicitly grants access to that category's children. You cannot explicitly apply both a parent category and one of its children to an article. From the article edit page, selecting a parent category grays out its child categories—you cannot select them in addition to the parent category. Salesforce respects this fact when you move a category to a new parent. It prevents explicitly adding a child category to an article when the new parent category is already present.

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, articles' classifications might or might not 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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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Categories in Salesforce.com

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.

EDITIONS

Important: Modify the category hierarchy when user activity is low. Because the save process involves potentially large and complex recalculations, it might take a long time to complete.

During processing, agents might experience performance issues when searching for articles or questions or using category drop-down lists.

1. From Setup, enter

Data Category

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Data Category

Setup.

2. Click a category group name.

3. Click a category name. If necessary, click Expand All to display all categories in the category group.

4. Press DELETE, or choose Delete Category from the Actions drop-down list.

5. Click OK in the confirmation dialog box.

6. Choose how you want to reclassify articles associated with the deleted category or the deleted category's children. In all cases, the articles retain their categories from other category groups.

•

Assign the deleted category's parent category.

•

Assign a different category. You can select any other category in this category group.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

Note: The category you select cannot be deleted itself before you save your work.

USER PERMISSIONS

•

Do not assign the articles a new category in this category group.

To view the Data Categories page:

•

“View Data Categories”

Deleting a category:

•

Permanently removes it. It cannot be restored. It never appears in the Recycle Bin.

Permanently deletes its child categories.

To create, edit, or delete data categories:

•

“Manage Data

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.

623

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Category Visibility

Data Category Visibility

Data category visibility can be set with roles, permission sets, or profiles. Data category visibility determines the individual data categories, categorized articles, and categorized questions that you can see.

There are three types of visibility:

•

All Categories: All categories are visible

•

None: No categories are visible

•

Custom: Selected categories are visible

With custom data category visibility, you can only see the data categories permitted by their role, permission sets, or profile.

Visibility Setting Enforcement

To ensure a wide range of relevant information, category group visibility is broadly interpreted.

Setting a category as visible makes that category and its entire directly related family line—ancestors, immediate parent, primary children, other descendants—visible to users. For example, consider a Geography category group with continents such as Asia and Europe at the top level, various countries at the second level, and cities at the third level. If France is the only visible category selected, then you can see articles classified with Europe, France, and all French cities. In other words, you can see categories that have a direct vertical relationship to France but you cannot see articles classified at or below Asia and the other continents.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

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

between the definitions to create a visibility rule for each user.

Role-Based Visibility Setting Inheritance

Child roles inherit their parent role's settings and are kept in sync with changes to the parent role. You can customize and reduce the child role's visibility, but you cannot increase it to be greater than that of the parent role. By default, Customer Portal users and partner portal users inherit the category group visibility settings assigned to their account managers. You can change the category

624

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Category Visibility group visibility settings for each portal role. Because high-volume portal users don't have roles, you must designate visibility settings by permission set or profile before these users can view categorized articles and questions.

Categorized Article Visibility

User’s can see an article if they can see at least one category per category group on the article. For example, consider an article that is classified with

California

and

Ohio

in the Geography category group and

Desktop

in the Products category group:

•

If you have visibility on Ohio and Desktop (but not California), you can see the article.

•

If you don't have visibility on either California or Ohio but do have visibility on Desktop, you do not see the article.

•

If you have visibility on California but not Desktop, you do not see the article.

Revoked Visibility

Data category visibility can be revoked (set to None) for a particular category group. Users in the target role, permission set, or profile can only see articles and questions that aren't classified with a category in that category group. For example, if a user's role has revoked visibility in the Geography category group but visibility to the Products category group, he or she can only see articles that have no categories in Geography and are classified with a category in Products. Because an answers zone can only be assigned to one category group, if the Geography category group was assigned to the zone and a member's role visibility was revoked for that group, the member could only see uncategorized questions.

For a detailed example, see Category Group Article Visibility Settings Examples

on page 629

How Category Visibility Differs from Other Salesforce Models

These settings are unique to articles and questions and differ from other Salesforce models

These settings are unique to articles and questions and differ from other Salesforce models:

Exclusive to articles and questions

Category group visibility settings

determine who can access articles and questions. Although they are standard objects, articles and questions do not have organization-wide defaults, sharing rules, or manual record sharing.

Access

Category group visibility settings are based on the user’s role, permission set, or profile. Child roles cannot see more categories than their parent role. To change a user's visibility to categories

and therefore categorized articles and questions, you must change the visibility settings for the user's role, permission set, or profile , or, if custom data category visibility is not assigned,

make certain categories visible to all users .

Broad interpretation of visibility settings

To ensure a wide range of relevant information, category group visibility is broadly interpreted.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

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.

625

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Category Visibility

Category Group Visibility on Roles

USER PERMISSIONS EDITIONS

To view role details: “View Setup and Configuration” Available in: Salesforce

Classic

To edit and delete roles: “Manage Roles”

To edit and delete permission sets and profiles:

To view users:

“Manage Profiles and Permission Sets”

“View Setup and Configuration”

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

To edit users: “Manage Internal Users”

To view categories:

To manage data categories:

“View Data Categories”

“Manage Data Categories”

AND

“View Data Categories”

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

The Category Group Visibility Settings related list summarizes which categories users in the role can see, according to category group.

To view a role's category visibility setting, from Setup, enter

Roles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Roles, and select a role. To view the category visibility settings for a Customer Portal or partner 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

All Categories

None

Custom

Description

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

Users cannot see any categories in the category group.

Users can view a selection of categories in the category group.

In the Category Group Visibility Settings, you can:

•

To view a category group’s setting details, click its name.

•

modify a category group’s visibility settings

, click Edit next to it.

626

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Category Visibility

Modify Default Data Category Visibility

You can edit the default data category visibility.

1. From Setup, enter

Default Data Category Visibility

in the

Quick Find box, then select Default Data Category Visibility.

All active and inactive category groups are listed.

2. Pick a category group and click Edit.

3. To make all the categories in the category group visible by default, select All Categories. To make none of the categories visible by default, select None. To make some of the categories visible by default, select Custom.

4. If you chose Custom, move categories from the Available Categories area to the Selected

Categories area as needed. Selecting a category implicitly includes its child and parent categories as well. Move categories from the Selected Categories area back to the Available Categories area to remove default visibility.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To view categories:

•

“View Data Categories”

To manage data categories:

•

“Manage Data

Categories”

AND

“View Data Categories”

To assign default category groups:

•

“Manage Data

Categories”

To modify category group visibility for users:

•

“Manage Users”

627

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Category Visibility

Edit Category Group Visibility

You can edit your data category visibility.

1. Go to the data category visibility settings page in Setup.

•

For roles: enter

Roles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Roles.

•

For a role on the Customer Portal or partner portal: enter

Users

in the

Quick Find box, then select Users.

•

For permission sets: enter

Permission Sets

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Permission Sets.

•

For profiles: enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles.

2. Open a data category group for edit.

•

For roles, in the Category Group Visibility Settings related list, click Edit next to the category group you want to modify.

•

For permission sets and profiles:

a. Click a permission set or profile name.

b. Click Data Category Visibility.

c. Click Edit next to the data category group you want to assign.

3. Select a visibility setting.

Visibility

Setting

None

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

Users cannot see any categories in the category group.

Custom

Users see your custom selection of categories. For roles, you can choose from the categories that are visible to the parent role. If the parent role's visibility changes to be less than its child's visibility, the child role's category visibility is reset to its parent's category visibility.

To select categories, double-click the category in the

Available

Categories

box. Alternatively, select a category and then click Add.

Selecting a category implicitly includes its child and parent categories as well. Categories that are grayed out are not available for selection because their parent has already been selected.

Note: When you customize a role, permission set, or profile set to

All Categories, first remove All from the

Selected Categories box before you select specific categories.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To view categories:

•

“View Data Categories”

To manage data categories:

•

“Manage Data

Categories”

AND

“View Data Categories”

To assign default category groups:

•

“Manage Data

Categories”

To modify category group visibility for users:

•

“Manage Users”

4. Click Save.

628

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Data Category Visibility

Data Category Visibility Best Practices

•

When you create a category group, its visibility is defaulted to

All Categories

•

When you grant visibility to a category, you also grant visibility to its child and parent categories. If you want to give access to all categories in a branch of the category hierarchy, select the top-level category

All Categories

•

Users who are not assigned to a category’s visibility by role, permission set, or profile can only see uncategorized articles and questions unless:

–

The user has the “View all Data” permission.

–

A category group has been made visible to all users on the Default Data Category Visibility page in Setup.

•

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.

Category Group Article Visibility Settings Examples

Review examples of category group settings for article visibility permissions.

There are three types of visibility:

•

All Categories: All categories are visible

•

None: No categories are visible

•

Custom: Selected categories are visible

With custom data category visibility, you can only see the data categories permitted by their role, permission sets, or profile.

These examples are based on two sample category groups, Products and Geography:

Note: Although category group visibility settings are available with answers communities

(questions) and Salesforce Knowledge (articles), the examples below apply to articles only.

Answers communities support one category group and one data category per question.

Products Category Group

•

All Products

–

Consumer Electronics

•

Cameras

•

Audio

•

Printers

–

Enterprise Electronics

•

Routers

•

Switches

•

PEX

–

Computers

•

Laptops

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Data categories and answers are available in

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions.

Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the

Service Cloud.

Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,

Enterprise, and Unlimited

Editions.

629

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

•

Desktops

•

PDAs

Geography Category Group

•

All Countries

–

Americas

•

USA

•

Canada

•

Brazil

–

Asia

•

China

•

Japan

•

India

–

Europe

•

France

•

United Kingdom

•

Poland

Data Category Visibility

Example 1: A Role Hierarchy

In this example, the Acme Electronics organization manufactures hardware and provides customer support for both consumers and enterprises. The Engineering department is organized by products. The Support department is organized geographically. Europe and the Americas are managed by corporate teams, but Asia is outsourced. Within the corporate and outsourced teams, there are subteams dedicated either to consumer or enterprise support.

The table below shows the categories visible to each role in the Acme Electronics organization, and states whether the visibility settings

are inherited from the parent role or if they are custom visibility settings .

Acme Electronics Role Hierarchy Visible Geographic Categories

CEO

VP of Engineering

All Countries

Inherit from CEO

Consumer Engineering Team All Countries

Inherit from VP of Engineering

Enterprise Engineering Team All Countries

Inherit from VP of Engineering

Computers Engineering Team All Countries

Inherit from VP of Engineering

Visible Product Categories

All Products

Inherit from CEO

Consumer Electronics

Custom

Enterprise Electronics

Custom

Computers

Custom

630

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

Acme Electronics Role Hierarchy Visible Geographic Categories

VP of Support All Countries

Inherit from CEO

VP of Corporate Support Europe, America

Custom

Director of Corporate

Consumer Support

Director of Corporate

Enterprise Support

Europe, America

Inherit from VP of Corporate Support

Europe, America

Inherit from VP of Corporate Support

Outsourced Support Asia

Custom

Consumer Support Team Asia

Inherit from Outsourced Support

Enterprise Support Team Asia

Inherit from Outsourced Support

Data Category Visibility

Visible Product Categories

All Products

Inherit from CEO

All Products

Inherit from VP of Support

Consumer Electronics, Computers

Custom

Enterprise Electronics, Computers

Custom

All Products

Inherit from VP of Support

Consumer Electronics, Computers

Custom

Enterprise Electronics, Computers

Custom

Example 2: Article Visibility

The table below is an in-depth example of how

category visibility settings restrict what users see. This example has three sample users

whose category settings are noted in parentheses.

Categories

All countries/Laptop

Canada/Computers

USA/All products

Europe/Switches

Europe/No Categories

Table 12: Example: How Category Visibility Settings Restrict What Users See

When User 1's visibility is

All countries/Computers, the category is:

When User 2's visibility is

America/All products, the category is:

When User 3's visibility is

France/None, the category is:

VISIBLE

NOT VISIBLE

VISIBLE

NOT VISIBLE

VISIBLE

NOT VISIBLE

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.

631

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Case Teams and Queues

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.

Case Teams and Queues

Create teams of people who work together to resolve cases faster, and create queues to share workloads among teams.

EDITIONS

IN THIS SECTION:

Case teams help groups of people work together to solve a case, such as a support agent, support manager, and a product manager.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

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, leads, orders, custom objects, service contracts, and knowledge article versions.

Prioritize, distribute, and assign records to teams who share workloads. There’s no limit to the number of queues you can create, and you can choose when queue members receive email notifications.

Case Teams

Case teams help groups of people work together to solve a case, such as a support agent, support manager, and a product manager.

If your admin has set up case teams, you can add people to the Case Team related list on cases.

When adding a team member, choose one of the predefined roles that the person plays on the case. Roles determine the level of access to a case, such as read-only or read and write access.

You can add contacts to case teams, but they can only access cases when they’re enabled as customer portal users assigned to case page layouts. Customer portal users can’t update case teams or view case team roles. Case teams aren’t available for the partner portal.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Note: Admins can predefine case teams so that you can quickly add people who you frequently work with. Admins can create assignment rules that add predefined teams to cases that match specific criteria. Admins can also create email alerts that notify team members when an action happens on a case.

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.

632

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Case Teams

IN THIS SECTION:

Create case teams to help groups of people work together to solve cases. Before you create case teams, define team roles.

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.

SEE ALSO:

Queues

Set Up Case Teams

Create case teams to help groups of people work together to solve cases. Before you create case teams, define team roles.

To let people create and work on case teams, add the Case Team related list to case page layouts.

Optionally, create email alerts that notify team members when actions happen on a case, such as when a comment is added. Also, if you’ve predefined case teams, create assignment rules that add teams to cases that match specific criteria, such as when cases originate from emails.

Note:

Case teams count toward your org’s overall storage limit. Each team member on a case counts as 2 KB of storage space.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Email Alerts for Case Teams

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up case teams:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Users”

To add team members:

•

“Edit” on cases

633

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Case Teams

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.

You can create an unlimited number of case team roles, but we recommend no more than 20 so as not to overwhelm team members.

1. From Setup, enter

Case Team Roles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Case Team

Roles.

2. Click New, and enter the role’s name.

3. From Case Access, choose the role’s level of access to cases.

Read/Write

Members can view and edit cases and add related records, notes, and attachments to them.

Read Only

Members can view cases and add related records to them.

Private

Members can’t access cases.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up case teams:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Users”

4. If you want members in the role visible to customer portal users viewing cases, choose Visible

in Customer Portal. Even if Visible in Customer Portal isn’t chosen, customer portal users added to case teams can view themselves on Case Team related lists.

5. Click Save.

To add team members:

•

“Edit” on cases

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.

Tip: Roles don’t change a case owner’s access to cases, which is Read/Write by default.

IN THIS SECTION:

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.

Create email alerts for case teams so that each time a case is created or updated, team members are notified.

SEE ALSO:

634

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Case Teams

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.

1. From Setup, enter

Predefined Case Teams

in the

Quick Find

box, then select

Predefined Case Teams.

2. Click New, and enter the team’s name.

3. Add team members.

a. Choose a team member type: User, Contact, or Customer Portal User. Contacts can access cases only when they’re enabled as customer portal users and assigned to case page layouts.

b. Click Lookup (

) and select a member.

c. Choose a role for the member.

4. Click Save.

Note:

To delete a predefined case team, remove it from assignment rules first. If you delete a predefined case team, it’s removed from all cases it’s on, and you can’t retrieve it from the

Recycle Bin. When you remove members from a predefined case team, they’re removed from all cases in which they were members of the team.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up case teams:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Users”

To add team members:

•

“Edit” on cases

SEE ALSO:

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.

1. Create email templates for notifications.

2. Set up workflow rules that specify which actions on a case send email alerts to team members.

a. From Setup, enter

Workflow Rules

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Workflow

Rules.

b. Click New Rule.

c. From Select object, choose Case and click Next.

d. Enter a rule name.

e. Choose the evaluation criteria. To ensure that every case is evaluated for an email alert, we recommend that you set the evaluation criteria to Evaluate the rule when a record is:

created, and every time it’s edited.

f. Enter your rule criteria. We recommend that you choose criteria are met and select the criteria that a case must match to send email alerts. For example, if you want team members to receive an email alert each time a case’s status is set to New, set the criteria to

Case:

Status equals New

g. Click Save & Next.

3. Add email alerts to your workflow rule’s criteria.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Available in: Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

To set up case teams:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Users”

To create or change workflow rules:

•

“Customize Application”

To create or change email alerts:

•

“Customize Application”

635

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools

a. Click Add Workflow Action and choose New Email Alert.

b. Enter a description and unique name for the email alert. Because you chose Case as the object for the workflow rule, object appears as read only.

c. Choose an email template.

d. Select who receives email alerts from the workflow rule. To select all members of a case team, choose Case Team from Recipient

Type, and add the team as selected recipients. You can enter up to five more email addresses.

e. Click Save.

4. Activate the workflow rule and its email alert.

a. From Setup, enter

Workflow Rules

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Workflow Rules

b. Click Activate next to the name of the rule.

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:

Queues

You can manually add a record to a queue by changing the record’s owner to the queue. Or, an assignment rule can add cases or leads to a queue based on specific record criteria. Records remain in a queue until they’re assigned an owner. Any queue members or users higher in a role hierarchy can take ownership of records in a queue.

Example:

•

Create a lead queue with members who are salespeople assigned to a specific sales territory.

•

Create a case queue with members who are support agents assigned to different service levels.

•

Create a knowledge article version queue members who are users that can translate new versions of articles into a specific language.

SEE ALSO:

EDITIONS

Available in: both Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Contact

Manager, Group,

Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited,

Developer, and

Database.com Editions

Service contract queues available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

Lead queues and case queues are not available in

Database.com

Queues

636

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Create Queues

Create Queues

Prioritize, distribute, and assign records to teams who share workloads. There’s no limit to the number of queues you can create, and you can choose when queue members receive email notifications.

1. From Setup, enter

Queues

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Queues.

2. Click New.

3. Enter a label and queue name. The label is the name of the list view that users work from.

4. Choose whom to notify when new records are added to the queue.

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 global division.

6. Add which objects to include in the queue.

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.

8. Save the queue.

9. If you want, set up assignment rules for your lead or case queues so that records that meet certain criteria are automatically added to a queue.

SEE ALSO:

Queues

Knowledge Article: How to stop email notification to Queue members?

EDITIONS

Available in: both Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Available in: Contact

Manager, Group,

Professional, Enterprise,

Performance, Unlimited,

Developer, and

Database.com Editions

Service contract queues available in: Professional,

Enterprise, Performance,

Unlimited, and Developer

Editions with the Service

Cloud

Lead queues and case queues are not available in

Database.com

USER PERMISSIONS

To create or change queues:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Public List

Views”

To change queues created by other users:

•

“Customize Application”

AND

“Manage Public List

Views” and “Manage

Users”

637

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Adding Social Customer Service

Adding Social Customer Service

Welcome to Social Customer Service

Social Customer Service lets you create cases or leads out of social media posts and send personalized responses on the same social media channels.

Note: The Social Customer Service setup pages, the moderation and authorization pages, and the Reply action in the case feed are only available in Salesforce Classic.

Important:

If you have two or fewer social accounts to track, you can use the free starter pack. Otherwise, you must have sufficient Social Studio accounts.

Watch the following video for a brief overview on getting started with Social Customer Service:

Support Your Customers on Their Social Networks (Salesforce Classic) (2:58).

Social Customer Service integrates with Radian6 and Social Studio so service agents and sales representatives can engage customers by responding to cases and leads created from Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram, and other social networks.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic and Lightning

Experience

Social Customer Service is available in API enabled

Professional editions,

Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

Social Network

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Release State

Generally Available

To administer Social

Customer Service:

•

“Manage Users”

AND

“Customize Application”

Google+

Sina Weibo

Pilot Program

The social publisher action on the case or lead feed is the primary interface for replying to consumers or prospects. Inbound and outbound social posts appear as items in the feed, making it easy to follow the thread of the conversation. Permission sets allow you to grant access to your managed social accounts to different sets of users. Out of the box, default settings control how inbound social posts are processed. Optionally, you can modify an Apex class to apply your own custom business logic.

To create case feed items:

•

Feed Tracking for All

Related Objects on the

Case object

To send and receive social media posts or messages:

•

Case Feed enabled

AND

Access to a social account

Note: When a lead is converted to an account or contact, the social items in the feed are removed.

In Salesforce1, agents can see and reply to social content from mobile devices.

For Twitter accounts, agents can use case and lead feeds to see the content that they are responding to, retweet, mark as Like and follow tweets, send replies to tweets and direct messages, and delete tweets managed by your social accounts.

For Facebook accounts, cases and leads are created from your managed Facebook page and agents can use the feeds to see the content that they are replying to, like posts and comments, send posts, comments, replies, and private messages, and delete posts managed by your social accounts.

For both Facebook and Twitter, you can click the View Source link to open an item in its native social media Web site. This allows you to gain context so you can provide a more informed response.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Implementing Social Customer Service

You can sync your Instagram #hashtag to Social Customer Service to receive Social posts when your brand’s #hashtag is mentioned on

Instagram. To activate Instagram #hashtag listening, create a rule in your Social Hub account to receive posts when your brand’s #hashtag is mentioned.

Social Customer Service Limits

Maximum number of active managed social accounts

Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions.

2000 accounts. Social Customer Service Settings shows up to 500 managed social accounts per page.

Maximum number of post tags 200 post tags

Maximum number of errors before inbound posts are paused

100 errors. When errors reach 100, inbound posts are stopped until the errors are cleared. This allows administrators to ensure that posts are processed correctly.

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Social Customer Service

Complete Guide to Social Customer Service

Implementing Social Customer Service

Enable social customer service in your organization and customize your support agents’ experience.

•

•

Create the Social Action Interface

•

Enable Moderation for Social Customer Service

•

Modify the Default Apex Class

SEE ALSO:

Set Up Social Customer Service

Enable Social Post Approvals

Enable Moderation for Social Customer Service

Create the Social Action Interface

Modify the Default Apex Class

Complete Guide to Social Customer Service

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Social Customer Service is available in API enabled

Professional editions,

Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To administer Social

Customer Service:

•

“Manage Users”

AND

“Customize Application”

To create case feed items:

•

Feed Tracking for All

Related Objects on the

Case object

639

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Social Customer Service

Set Up Social Customer Service

Enable Social Customer Service, install the SocialCustomerService package, sync your social accounts, and assign social handles.

EDITIONS

Important:

If you have two or fewer social accounts to track, you can use the free starter pack. Otherwise, you must have sufficient Social Studio accounts.

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Radian6, part of Marketing Cloud's Social Studio, provides social media monitoring. With the free starter pack, you don't need an explicit Radian6 login. Simply connect up to two social accounts and Salesforce handles the rest of the details. If you are a Social Studio customer, set up data sources in Social Studio that can be synced with Service Cloud.

Social Customer Service is available in API enabled

Professional editions,

Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions.

Important: Case Feed Tracking for All Related Objects must be enabled for case feed items to be created. See

Set Up Cases for Salesforce Classic on page 268. For Leads, from Setup,

enter

Feed Tracking

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Feed Tracking and ensure

Enable Feed Tracking

and

All Related Objects

are checked. When a lead is converted to an account or contact, the social items in the feed are removed.

USER PERMISSIONS

To administer Social

Customer Service:

•

“Manage Users”

1. From Setup, enter

Social Media

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Social Customer

Service.

AND

Tip:

Enter

med

as a shortcut to bring up the Social Media section more quickly.

“Customize Application”

2. On the Settings tab, check

Enable Social Customer Service

3. If you want posts approved before they send, check

Enable approvals for social posts

To create case feed items:

•

Feed Tracking for All

Related Objects on the

Case object

As part of a job training or quality review process, you may require some agents to have their posts approved rather than allowing them to post freely. With approval processes and user permissions, selected agents can submit social posts for approval, recall the posts, and retry or resubmit them. Approvers can approve and reject posts for publication. See

Enable Social Post Approvals on page 644.

4. If you want to map new posts to parent posts, which are the first posts that generated a case, select Enable retrieval of parent

posts for added context.

5. Under

Radian6 Credentials

, either create a Social Studio account with the starter pack by clicking Create Account, or click

Login and enter your Social Studio credentials.

Note: With the Social Customer Service Starter Pack, you can enable Social Customer Service and up to two social accounts from any social network. For example, if you add one Twitter account, you can only add one Facebook account. You can’t downgrade from a Social Studio account to the starter pack. The starter pack doesn’t support the moderation feature (all posts become cases) and the default Apex code can’t be customized.

6. On the Social Accounts tab, click Add Account and select your social network, for example Twitter or Facebook.

The social network opens and asks you to authenticate the account. Once your account is authenticated, Salesforce returns you to the Social Accounts tab.

Note: If you receive an error “We're sorry, but we currently do not support Facebook business accounts registration.” or “Your

Facebook account can't be added due to unsupported features.”, you might need to set a user name on your Facebook page.

7. Click the refresh icon next to Add Account.

Warning: Deleting a Social Account deletes it everywhere, including in Social Studio. This action cannot be undone.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Social Customer Service

8. If you are using the Starter Pack, check the

Case Creation

box to indicate that you want cases created automatically when posts come from the social account.

For example, if you have two Twitter handles, one for support and one for marketing or brand-focused information, you can have cases created automatically only from the support handle. The tweets from the marketing handle go in a social post queue for review.

See Manage Social Posts.

Note: If you are using the full Social Customer Service version, you can set up case moderation through Social Studio. See

Enable Moderation for Social Customer Service on page 645.

9. If you have a portfolio of managed social accounts, set the

Default Responses From

for each Twitter, Instagram (pilot), and Sina Weibo (pilot) account. This lets 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 value in the account drop-down in the social publisher. The default response handle doesn’t apply for Twitter direct messages and doesn’t affect Facebook, Google Plus, or LinkedIn, as they are restricted to the page handle itself.

10. On the

Inbound Settings

tab, you can see which Apex class controls how the inbound content is processed in your organization and which user it’s set to run under. If you are using the default Apex class, you can select inbound business rules to determine how incoming social data is handled.

Enable Case Reopen

If a new post, from the same social persona, is associated to a closed case, the case is reopened within the designated number of days. The number must be greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to 3000.

Use Person Accounts

Assign a person account of the selected type for the social persona parent record.

Create Case for Post Tags

Override the social hub’s case creation rules and create a case when selected post tags are present on a social post. Post Tags are used to answer the question "What is the topic of this one post?". Post tags, set in Social Hub, help to provide further context to what the individual post is about.

Note:

Social Customer Service only shows 200 post tags. If you have more post tags in Social Studio, you can view them in that program.

The default Apex class creates a social post, social persona, case, contact, and supports common use cases. For information on modifying the default Apex class, see

Modify the Default Apex Class

Note: If you are using the starter pack, the Apex class can’t be changed but you can change the user it is run under.

11. To assign social handles to a profile or permission set, still within Setup:

•

Enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Profiles.

•

Enter

Permission Sets

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Permission Sets.

12. Click an existing profile or permission set or create a new one.

13. In the Apps section, click Assigned Social Accounts.

14. Click Edit.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Set Up Social Customer Service

15. Assign the social accounts you need to make 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 8.

16. Save your changes.

17. Ensure that the profile or permission set has the correct field visibility.

•

For profiles, from Setup, enter

Profiles

in the

Quick Find

box, select Profiles, then select the profile you chose or created earlier. Next, in the Field Level Security section, select Social Post.

•

For permission sets, from Setup, enter

Permission Sets

in the

Quick Find

box, select Permission Sets, then select the permission set you chose or created earlier. Next, click Object Settings, and then select Social Post.

18. Click Edit. Under Field Permissions, ensure all fields available are set to Visible (not Read-Only) for profiles or Edit for permission sets.

Click Save.

19. Optionally, set up Quick Text so agents can create ready-to-send responses to social networks. See

Enable Quick Text .

20. Optionally, give social post read access to external community and portal users.

There are three requirements to make social posts available in communities and portals.

•

Ensure that the user has access to cases in the community.

•

Give users read permission to social posts on their profiles.

•

On your organization’s Social Post object, enable visibility to individual fields through the field level security settings.

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 feed are visible. There is no way to limit visibility at the social post object level.

Turning on history tracking on for the Social Persona and Social Post objects is recommended for the first few months of using Social

Customer Service. History tracking helps identify who made what changes when and for differentiating between automatic and manual changes.

You can synchronize up to 2,000 managed social accounts from Social Studio. However, the Social Customer Service Settings page in

Setup only shows up to 500 managed social accounts. Agents can respond from all synced accounts from the social publisher on the case feed. If you are syncing more than 500 social accounts, allow at least a minute for the settings page to load.

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools How to Reconnect a Social Account

If you use Process Builder to automate business processes note that it isn’t currently supported for the social post and persona objects.

You’ll need to use a workflow.

SEE ALSO:

How to Reconnect a Social Account

Set Up Social Customer Service

Complete Guide to Social Customer Service

How to Reconnect a Social Account

Reconnect your social account for Social Customer Service.

Your social account can be disconnected from Social Customer Service if your social media network provider’s connect, or token, has expired. Many providers have expiration policies of 60 to 90 days.

1. From Setup, enter

Social Media

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Settings.

2. On the

Social Accounts

tab, click Reauthorize in the

Action

column.

The social network opens and asks you to authenticate the account. Once your account is reauthenticated, you are returned to the Social Accounts tab.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Social Customer Service is available in API enabled

Professional editions,

Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions.

SEE ALSO:

Welcome to Social Customer Service

Complete Guide to Social Customer Service

USER PERMISSIONS

To administer Social

Customer Service:

•

“Manage Users”

AND

“Customize Application”

To create case feed items:

•

Feed Tracking for All

Related Objects on the

Case object

To send and receive social media posts or messages:

•

Case Feed enabled

AND

Access to a social account

643

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Enable Social Post Approvals

Enable Social Post Approvals

Social care agents are both problem solvers for your consumers and the voice of your brand on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. You can have guidelines so your agents write with a consistent tone and syntax that's in line with your organization's social media strategy. For example, you require social agents to sign their tweets in a standard manner, such as “~John.”

Salesforce Admins can create approval processes and assign agents and approvers permissions accordingly.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

1. From Setup, enter

Social Media

in the

Quick Find

box, then select Settings.

2. Select

Enable approvals for social posts

Social Customer Service is available in API enabled

Professional editions,

Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions.

3. Build and activate approval processes for social posts using either the Jump Start Wizard or the

Standard Setup Wizard.

USER PERMISSIONS

Important: The Jump Start Wizard is a streamlined way to create approval processes in

Salesforce. However, the manually

Let the submitter choose the approver

option is not supported in the Jump Start Wizard. Choosing that option results in an error later when an agent submits a post for approval.

To administer Social

Customer Service:

•

“Manage Users”

AND

“Customize Application”

4. From Setup, go to Administer > Manage Users > Permission sets.

5. Enable the new

Require Social Post Approvals

user permission.

6. Assign the

Require Social Post Approvals

user permission with a permission set to agents that need their posts reviewed before they are sent.

When assigning user permissions, remember these two points.

To create case feed items:

•

Feed Tracking for All

Related Objects on the

Case object

•

Because approving a post automatically submits it for publishing, approvers must have the 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 .

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 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:

Customer Service on page 641.

Complete Guide to Social Customer Service

644

Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Enable Moderation for Social Customer Service

Enable Moderation for Social Customer Service

Use moderation to triage incoming posts and only create cases for posts that are actionable requests for help. Moderation helps your organization focus on real customer issues and avoid opening unnecessary cases.

Not all posts require a case, for example, a complimentary tweet or post does not need agent assistance. However, when the default social customer service is configured, cases are automatically created from each social post. Using moderation, agents can manage which posts get cases and which are ignored. Moderation is enabled with a Social Hub rule in your Social Studio account to turn off automatic case creation.

Note:

With the Starter Pack, you can decide if you want cases created automatically when posts come from a particular social account on the Social Accounts tab. See

Set Up Social

1. From your Social Hub account, click the Rules tab.

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.

a. Action: send to Salesforce.

Create Case

checkbox unchecked.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Social Customer Service is available in API enabled

Professional editions,

Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

To administer Social

Customer Service:

•

“Manage Users”

AND

“Customize Application”

3. Save and enable your rule.

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) post.reviewedStatus = 'Needed';

}

In the default Apex, see lines 50 and 61-65.

2. Update your moderation social post list filter from:

Parent EQUAL TO "" AND ReviewStatus NOT EQUAL TO "ignore"

To:

Parent EQUAL TO "" AND ReviewStatus EQUAL TO "Needed"

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Set Up and Maintain Customer Support Tools Create the Social Action Interface

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:

Complete Guide to Social Customer Service

Create the Social Action Interface

The social action is created when you install Social Customer Service. You can add, remove, and organize fields to suit your organization.

The social action is created when Social Customer Service is enabled.

1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Button, Links, and Actions.

2. Click Layout next to the social action.

3. Edit the desired fields.

Note: Changing field values could invalidate incoming posts against the Social Customer

Service Apex class .

To send social content, the social action must have the following fields:

•

In Reply To

Important: The In Reply To field can’t be read only.

EDITIONS

Available in: Salesforce

Classic

Social Customer Service is available in API enabled

Professional editions,

Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions.

USER PERMISSIONS

•

Managed Social Account

Message Type

Content

Headline and Name are required fields. To remove them, create a predefined value for each field and remove them from the action. See Set Predefined Field Values for Quick

Action Fields.

To administer Social

Customer Service:

•

“Manage Users”

AND

“Customize Application”

To create case feed items:

•

Feed Tracking for All

Related Objects on the

Case object

4. Click Save.

5. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.

6. In Case Page Layouts, click Edit next to Feed-Based Layout.

7. In the palette, click Quick Actions.

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: