Introduction to Dynamics 365 Customer Service
Dynamics 365 Sales isn't the only CRM application available within Dynamics 365. Dynamics 365 Customer Service provides a robust set of capabilities designed specifically to help organizations manage customer support. The application can help your organization streamline customer requests, manage them through timely and standardized processes, easily view service metrics, and keep commitments to customers through functionality such as service level agreements and entitlements.
Supporting Different Customer Service Experiences
Customers can have very different expectations when they need help. Some prefer to find information and resolve issues themselves, while others want a more interactive support experience. Dynamics 365 Customer Service can support both approaches. Customers who prefer self-service can manage account information and submit support incidents through a customer portal created with Microsoft Power Pages, Microsoft's platform for creating and hosting external-facing business websites. For customers who prefer direct interaction, Omnichannel for Customer Service can help organizations connect with customers through communication channels such as:
These are just a few of the options available for communicating with customers through Dynamics 365 Customer Service.
Managing Requests with Queues
Dynamics 365 provides several ways to receive and manage customer requests. Queues can act as a central place for support teams to receive and triage incoming requests. For example, a customer request received by phone could be entered and added to a queue so the support team can determine what should happen next. A customer request can then be converted into a Case.
Understanding Cases
A Case represents a single incident or request for service. Your organization may use another term for the same concept, such as:
- Incident
- Ticket
- Service request
- Support request
Cases create a structured record in Dynamics 365 where your team can manage information and interactions related to a particular customer issue. Requests can also be routed to specific support queues when additional triaging is needed.
Guide Agents with Business Process Flows
Business process flows can help standardize the way customer requests are handled. They act as guides that lead employees through processes your organization has defined. Different business process flows can be created for different types of customer requests, allowing you to establish the specific steps an agent should follow to achieve the desired outcome. This can be particularly valuable when training new employees. Instead of expecting a new agent to immediately remember every step, the business process flow can guide them through the process and help reduce mistakes that could negatively affect the customer experience.
Review Important Case Information
The Summary tab of a Case provides important information about the customer and their request. Depending on how your Dynamics 365 environment is configured, this can include information such as:
- Contact information
- Case title
- Customer
- Related product
- Entitlements
- A description of the customer's request
This gives agents a central place to understand why the Case exists and gather the information needed to begin working with the customer.
Track Customer Interactions with the Timeline
The Timeline provides a visual history of activities associated with the Case. It can contain information such as:
- Emails
- Notes
- Phone calls
- Tasks
The Timeline helps document customer interactions and makes that history available to other users who have access to the Case. Instead of keeping important information with only the individual agent who communicated with the customer, the Timeline creates a shared record of the interactions surrounding the request.
Review Recent Cases
Agents can also see recent Cases associated with a customer. This can be particularly helpful when customers submit duplicate requests. Reviewing existing Cases can help an agent determine whether someone else is already working on the same issue before duplicate work takes place. It also gives the agent additional context about the customer's recent support history.
Track Customer Entitlements
Entitlements can define the support a particular customer is eligible to receive. For example, an entitlement could allow a customer to submit a specific number of support requests. When a Case covered by that entitlement is resolved, Dynamics 365 can track its use and reduce the remaining entitlement accordingly. This gives your organization a systematic way to track the services you've committed to providing your customers.
Monitor Service Level Agreements
Service level agreements, or SLAs, can help your organization monitor whether it's meeting defined customer service commitments. For example, an SLA could define how quickly your support team is expected to respond to a customer request. Information such as whether the first response has been sent can be used as part of those rules. Dynamics 365 can provide KPI information showing whether your organization successfully met the service level agreement or whether there's an opportunity for improvement. This data can help your organization better understand how effectively it's servicing customers and provide useful metrics for evaluating customer service processes.
Customize Cases for Your Organization
Dynamics 365 is highly customizable. If a section or field on the standard Case form doesn't apply to the way your organization works, it can be customized. Information that's important to your business can be added while less relevant information can be replaced or removed. This allows the Customer Service application to reflect your organization's actual support processes instead of forcing every organization to use exactly the same Case structure.
Manage Duplicate and Related Cases
Dynamics 365 also provides tools for managing relationships between Cases. If customers submit duplicate Cases, those Cases can be merged. Dynamics 365 maintains information about the relationship so agents can identify the master Case and review information associated with the merged Case. This is useful when separate agents begin working on the same request before realizing it's a duplicate. Rather than losing the work performed on one Case, agents can still access that information.
Use Parent and Child Cases
One customer request can sometimes lead to additional support issues. Dynamics 365 can represent this relationship using parent and child Cases. The original Case can act as the parent, while additional requests that result from it can be maintained as child Cases. Keeping these relationships visible makes it easier for agents to understand how different support requests are connected and quickly navigate between them.
Resolving a Case
When work on a Case is complete, the agent can use the Resolve Case command. Dynamics 365 prompts the agent to provide information such as the resolution type and a brief description of how the Case was resolved. That resolution information is added to the Timeline, providing additional history that can be useful when reviewing customer service activity and metrics later.
Continue Tracking Activities After Resolution
Once a Case has been resolved, most of its information becomes read-only. However, activities can still be added to the Timeline. This is useful because the customer interaction doesn't necessarily end the moment a Case is resolved. Your organization might want to:
- Send a message letting the customer know the Case has been resolved
- Provide instructions for next steps
- Add a follow-up note
- Conduct a customer survey
These interactions can continue to be documented in the Timeline, giving your team visibility into what happened both while the Case was active and after it was resolved.
Building a Better Customer Service Process
Dynamics 365 Customer Service brings together the tools needed to manage a customer request throughout its lifecycle. Queues can help your team receive and triage incoming work. Cases provide a central record for managing individual service requests. Business process flows guide agents through standardized processes, while Timelines keep customer interactions organized and visible. Entitlements and service level agreements provide additional tools for managing and measuring the customer service commitments your organization has made. By keeping these processes and interactions connected within Dynamics 365 Customer Service, your team can create a more structured support experience while gaining greater visibility into how effectively you're serving your customers.
