Cases and Email Overview

In addition to calls and chats, you may be assigned to process customer requests made via email. Depending on your contact center practices, customer emails can either be delivered directly to your desktop (i.e., the Push method) or appear in the team queue from which you will be expected to retrieve them manually (i.e., the Pull method).

Emails can also be assigned to you by a supervisor. In this case, they will appear in your personal queue from which you will also be expected to retrieve them manually. Finally, emails can be transferred to you by other agents. Once you have accepted an incoming email or retrieved one from a queue, all subsequent steps of its processing will be the same.

In the simplest email processing scenario, a single reply to the customer’s inquiry will be sufficient to finish the interaction. More complex scenarios may involve some follow-up messages from your contact center to the customer and/or additional communications from the customer.

To support these scenarios, each email is associated with a case and a thread. See the Cases, Email, and Threads section for more information about these entities.

Depending on your contact center configuration, you may be expected to handle multiple emails simultaneously. Your system administrator will advise you about the maximum number of emails that you may have active on your desktop at any given time.

Regardless of how many active emails you have, only one of them will be in focus at any given moment. The in-focus email is the one that is currently selected in the Active Communications List. The email working area will be entirely dedicated to the in-focus email and all of its controls will take effect for that email only. You can place another email in focus by selecting it from the Active Communications List. You can switch between your various active emails in this manner at any time.

Articles

The following is a list of articles in this section:

• Cases, Email, and Threads
• My Cases Interface
• Case State

Tutorials

For a list of tutorials for cases and email, see Cases and Email Tutorials.

Cases, Email, and Threads

In Agent Desktop, interactions can be associated with a case, be an email, and be associated with a thread. But what are the differences between these things? In this article, we explain the differences between cases, email, and threads.

Cases and Email

A case is an instance of customer service that is created to track all communications related to a specific customer request. Cases can be created manually in your contact center or automatically if they arrive there as email. By contrast, email is a specific type of channel customers use to interact with your contact center. In short, all emails are cases but not all cases are emails.

When cases are created or emails arrive, the system automatically assigns a number to the case/email that is unique within your contact center (e.g., 14355); it is maintained as an active entity while the request is being worked on, and closed when the request is fulfilled. When email arrives at your contact center, it is directed to section My Cases; cases, on the other hand, can be created and found in various sections of Agent Desktop.

Cases and emails can be assigned a case state, which indicates what the state of completion the interaction is in. Additionally, cases and emails can be assigned dispositions. Dispositions are interaction results defined by your contact center management are used to indicate how the interaction was completed; your system administrator will explain how to use dispositions.

For more information, see How to Create New Cases, My Cases Interface, and Search & Preview Records Interface.

Threads

A group of emails related to the same case is called an email thread. When you reply to a customer’s request for the first time, the system will generate a unique thread identifier. Depending on your system configuration, this identifier may be either attached to the email subject or hidden in an email header. Unlike the case number, the email thread identifier may contain both numbers and letters (e.g., JXA6PDRNQ2SO) and is intended primarily for automatic processing.

For example, when a new email comes in, the system will look for a thread ID and check if it matches any of the existing cases. If a thread ID is found and recognized, the system will automatically assign that email to the corresponding case. Depending on your service configuration, the system also may attempt to deliver that email to you if you have previously worked on this case.

Threads primarily contain the text of all email messages exchanged within the case. Additionally, threads contain the following email header information:

• From - The display name, if available, and the raw email address of the sender
• When - The date and time when the email was sent or received
• To - The display names, if available, and the raw email addresses of the recipients in the TO section
• Cc - The display names, if available, and the raw email addresses of the recipients in the CC section
• Subject - The subject that that message was sent/received with

My Cases Interface

In order for you to better understand all the things you can do in My Cases, you will need to get familiar with all the working parts and pieces, how cases are displayed, and so forth. The following describes what you will see in this section of Agent Desktop.

Header

Disposition Buttons

The optional disposition buttons can be found at the top of your team queue and personal queue toolbars. These buttons allow you to quickly disposition emails and remove them from the queue without having to open them. The View button, likewise, allows an agent or supervisor to review a case without opening or assigning the case. Note that the dispositions these buttons correspond with, as well as the icons displayed, are set by your system administrator (i.e., these buttons will look different for every contact center).

To use disposition buttons, click the checkbox to the left of the selected email(s); the available buttons will appear in the toolbar and can be selected. Buttons corresponding to either a Final disposition or Spam disposition apply the Resolved state to all selected emails. Buttons mapped to the Nonfinal disposition type do not apply a different state to the selected emails (i.e., all selected emails will retain the New state).

SLA Icons

If a particular queue contains emails with SLA over 90%, a half-grey dot is displayed on the queue tab; if a queue has contains emails with SLA breached, a filled orange dot is displayed on the queue tab.

Importance Indicators

If an email was sent with either high importance or low importance, the following indicators will be displayed:

• - high importance (red exclamation point)
• - low importance (blue arrow pointing down)

Normal emails do not display any importance indicators. For more information about importance, see the Contact Center Administrator Guide, section Configuring High-Importance Email Routing.

Team Queue

The Team Queue is your team's email inbox. Note that if your contact center distributes email through the push method, emails will route directly to your Personal Queue.

You may see some cases in the queue highlighted with bold text. This means one of the following: A case has been transferred to this queue by another agent or the customer sent another email with respect to an existing case in your queue and you have not read it yet. Such cases will remain highlighted until you open them, pin them, disposition them, or change their state.

View button

The view button allows users to view an email or case without taking ownership of the email or case.

The View button allows a user to open a case note without opening an email or case and is available from:

• The email team queue
• The email personal queue
• Pinned cases / follow-ups
  • This tab may be enabled in Agent Desktop > Preferences.
• Search and Preview Records list of cases
  • The preview tab should open while remaining in the same pane.

Note: When assigning a case (depending on your contact center settings), some users may be able to add an additional case note to cases without opening the case or changing their current state. This is done as if it were added within an already opened case.

Assign button

The assign button allows supervisors to assign an email to an agent on their team.

Note: When assigning a case When assigning a case you can add an accompanying note directly in the assignment dialog.

Grab button

If pull queue is enabled, the Grab button allows you to take a case from the team queue; when grabbed, the case will appear in your Personal Queue.

Spam button

The spam button removes selected cases from your Team Queue. Note that this button does not function as a spam filter; spam filters are managed by your contact center's administrators.

Trash button

The trash button deletes cases from your Team Queue.

Case Filters

Case filters allow you to quickly organize and sort through your Team Queue's emails. The following filters are available.

Service

If you have access to more than one service, the service filter allows you to sort emails per service. Additionally, supervisors have the ability to filter per email distribution type (i.e., push or pull). The number beside the service is the number of emails for the currently selected service. Multiple services can be selected at once.

Languages

The languages filter allows you to sort your emails by the languages recognized by your contact center.

Case details

The case details filter allows you to sort emails by pertinent details; this filter includes a further option to organize by ascending/descending order by clicking the grey triangle . Case details filters include the following:

Create time

Create time is the time the case first arrived in your contact center or was created.

Update time

Update time is the time the case was last updated.

Last customer update

Last customer update is the time a customer last interacted with your contact center through a given case.

SLA Age %

The SLA Age % filter displays cases by age according to your contact center's SLA percentage. SLA, which stands for "service level agreement", is the percentage of emails associated with a service that must be replied to within the specified amount of time (i.e., hours or days); this percentage is relative to all replied emails.

From

From displays cases in alphabetical order based on the name field.

Subject

Subject displays cases in alphabetical order based on the subject line.

Flag

The Flag filter allows those cases that have been flagged to be displayed at the top of the queue.

Target time

The target time bar is located to the right side of all cases and is a visual indicator of SLA. It comprises five squares, which are empty when a case arrives at your contact center; as time progresses, the squares gradually fill until the target time is exceeded and all are eventually greyed out.

Personal Queue

The Personal Queue is the destination for emails you have grabbed, have had assigned to you by a supervisor, or not immediately accepted (i.e., if your contact center uses push method of distribution). Like in Team Queue, you can use the case details filter to sort your cases, as well as see the target time. Additionally, if you are a supervisor, your Personal Queue will contain an assign button, allowing you to assign cases to agents on your team.

You may see some cases in your queue highlighted with bold text. This means one of the following: (1) a case has been recently assigned to you by a supervisor, (2) a case has been transferred to you by another agent, or (3) the customer sent another email with respect to an existing case in your queue and you have not read it yet. Such cases will remain highlighted until you open them, or pin them, or disposition them, or change their state.

You can see the number of unopened cases at the top of your personal queue tab or in the My Cases badge icon.

Move to TQ button

The Move to TQ button allows you to move a selected case from your Personal Queue back to the Team Queue.

Compose email button

The Compose email button allows you to create a new case. For more information, see How to Create New Cases.

Contact Has Other Cases with Updates

The orange circle in the lower right corner of a contact is a badge that shows if a customer has other cases beyond the current case awaiting dispositions, allowing agents to see if a customer has sent multiple separate emails that have resulted in separate cases. The number of other cases with updates is marked within the badge circle. These cases can be located in various agents’ queues, both team and personal.

Pinned Cases

Pinned cases are the cases you want quick access to for any number of reasons (e.g., historical reference, examples, etc.). When you pin a case, it acts as a shortcut. All cases that you pin will be kept in your personal Pinned Cases section. Additionally, you can sort these cases with the following filters:

• Create time
• Update time
• Last customer update
• From
• Subject.

Case View Panel

Case Header

The case header area displays information related directly related to the case. The following is a list of the type of information you can see.

Case number

Case number is the number assigned to an interaction in chronological order. All emails to your contact center are automatically assigned case numbers; manually created cases receive these numbers, too. To manually create cases from other types of interactions, see How to Create New Cases.

Subject

This is the subject line of the email/case.

Link button

The link button copies a shareable link of the case to the clipboard, allowing you to paste the link elsewhere; this makes it possible for you to share the case with other agents or supervisors in your contact center. Note that links may be pasted into your web browser's search bar or into the search bar to access the case.

When a case link is pasted, it will be presented in the format <domain>/agentdesktop/case/id/<actual id number> (e.g., http[s]://YourCompany.brightpattern.com/agentdesktop/case/id/5ca2f3eed04fd756afcca6c6). Note that it is possible manually enter a link to access the same case with the following formats:

• <domain>/agentdesktop/case/number/<case number> (e.g., http[s]://YourCompany.brightpattern.com/agentdesktop/case/number/1099)
• <domain>/agentdesktop/case/<case number> (e.g., http[s]://YourCompany.brightpattern.com/agentdesktop/case/1099)

If case links are pasted in internal chats, they may be displayed in the following formats for the most compact view:

• case/id/<id> (e.g., case/id/5ca2f3eed04fd756afcca6c6)
• case/number/<case number> (e.g., case/number/1099)
• case/<case number> (e.g., case/1099)

Current assignments

Current assignments are basic historical details related to the case. The following is a list of the types of information you can see in the case header.

Reporter

The reporter is the identified customer who contacted your contact center.

On copy

On copy is an unidentified customer who contacted your contact center.

State

State displays the current case state. Note that if the state is Pending, the pending reason will be displayed, also.

Assigned to

Assigned to displays the name of the agent the case is assigned to.

Pinned by

Pinned by displays the name of the agent or supervisor who pinned the case.

Content filter

The Content filter allows agents to filter the content of a case’s activity history. There are two content-filtering options: Conversations and Events

If Conversations is selected, the following is displayed:

• Content and metadata (e.g. timestamps, names, etc.) of customer interactions
• Internal case notes
• Internal case dispositions

If Events is selected, the following is displayed:

• Content and metadata (e.g. timestamps, names, etc.) of customer interactions
• Internal case notes
• Internal case dispositions
• All case routing
• All case assignments
• All case transfer history
• All case state transitions

Note that interaction content includes recordings, transcripts, and email bodies and attachments.

Case History

Case history is displayed in each case as records showing completed actions; the date and time the action was completed is displayed. The following is a list of what is considered a completed action:

• Agent Desktop pushing an email to an agent
• Transferring a case from one agent to another agent or to a different queue or service
• Agents pulling emails from the Team Queue
• Agents opening emails
• Supervisors assigning emails from a Team Queue
• Saving notes to a case

If your contact center uses email, a variety of information is included in the history in per email, specifically:

• Reporter
• Date
• Time
• Email subject line
• To: recipient(s)
• Cc: recipient(s)
• Bcc: recipient(s)
• Email body

Load Content buttons

If the case or email you are viewing in the case view panel has many case history actions, you can browse through by selecting the load content buttons.

You may select either the load older content button or the load newer content button to view more case history actions.

If a case or email has many associated history actions, you may see the load content indicator until the desired content has loaded.

Case Footer

The case footer displays several of the same buttons seen at the top of the Team Queue (e.g., Grab, Spam, etc.). Additionally, the footer contains the Open button, which opens the case, and the case state button, which will display the current case state.

Case State

Agent Desktop allows you to assign state to cases, which may be used to organize and classify your case workload. The activity history for changes in the case state can be searched, that is, if a case changes from New to Open or from Open to Pending, that is tracked as well.

For more information about cases, see My Cases Interface and Search & Preview Records Interface.

The following states can be applied to cases.

New

This state is for new, unopened cases.

Open

This state is for cases that have been opened but are not yet processed.

Pending

This state is for cases that require further action. When a case is marked as Pending, you must select a corresponding Case Pending Reason. Case Pending Reasons are defined by your system administrator and allow you to provide additional information as to why a case is pending.

Resolved

This state is for cases that are completed. Note that cases marked as Resolved will automatically switch to the Open state if a new email is received or if the agent uses the case on any interaction. Cases marked as Resolved can have changes made to them and will stay in the Resolved state for a period of time as configured by your administrator; after this point, the case will be Closed. Additionally, when marking a case as Resolved, you will have the opportunity to disposition it.

Closed

This state is for cases that have exceeded the period of Resolved days (as configured by your administrator). Changes cannot be made to closed cases; however, it is possible to create a follow-up case from a closed case.

Case Activity

The change in case state activity can be tracked on the Details Tab page. Clicking the link beside the Case Status will allow you to sort between cases currently in the various states: All, New, Open, Pending, Resolved, and Closed.