Case State

Agent Desktop allows you to assign state to cases, which may be used to organize and classify your case workload. 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.

The New case state

Open

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

The Open case state

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.

The Pending state with pending reason

Resolved

This state is for cases that are completed. Note that 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.

The Resolved case state

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.

The Closed state

How to Compose a Reply

If you are qualified to handle an incoming email, then after reviewing it, your next step will be to reply to the customer. This section explains how to compose an email reply from scratch. For using articles from the Knowledge Base in your email communications, see section Knowledge Base.

Note that for cases with a Closed state, it is not possible to send a reply; you will need to create a Follow-up case. For more information, see How to Send a Follow-up Outbound Email.

Step 1: Begin writing your draft

1. To compose a reply, select the Reply and Forward buttons located at the top (on cursor hover) and bottom of the message.
2. An email draft will open with the original subject preceded by Re: and the To field showing the customer’s email address.
3. If necessary, add cc and/or bcc recipients.
4. Type your reply directly in the text field of the Reply Editor. The editor has some text editing tools that allow you to enhance the appearance of your email. These include various font styles and sizes, font and background colors, bulleted and numbered lists, and paragraph alignment.
5. You can remove any previously applied formatting by clicking the Remove formatting icon.
6. If you would like to include links in your draft, enter or paste the URL into the body, highlight the text, then select the insert link button. The highlighted text will turn blue and will be shown underlined to indicate it is a link.

Note: Depending on the amount of information in your reply, you may consider enlarging the editor window by dragging its splitters down and/or left.

Reply editor with text editing tools, Add attachment and Send email buttons

Step 2: Attach files if needed

You can attach files to your email.

1. To attach a file, click the Add attachment button and select the desired file. Repeat this step to attach more files. Names of the attached files will be displayed below the address field of the message that you compose.
2. To remove a previously attached file, click the X icon next to it.
3. Starting from version 5.3.0, note the following email attachment limits:
   1. Single email attachment size: 10MB
   2. Single email with attachments size: 25 MB

Message header with attached file

Depending on your contact center configuration, you may see some standard messages pre-inserted into the text field for each reply you are composing. These messages may appear above (the header) and/or below (the footer) the area of the main text of your reply. Some examples of such messages are references to case numbers, legal disclaimers, and company’s contact information. These messages are editable.

Step 3: Review and send

1. When the reply is ready to be sent, click the Send email button . The email will be sent to the customer. You will no longer be able to edit the email, and, depending on your service configuration, you may be placed in the After Call Work state. You can use this mode to complete the interaction processing. For example, you may be expected to select a disposition for this interaction.
2. Click the disposition selector and choose an appropriate disposition.
3. If necessary, enter free-form text comments in the Notes Editor.

Step 4: Complete the interaction

Click the Complete button. The interaction processing will be finished. You are likely to receive a new interaction for processing shortly.

Note: You can also select disposition and/or enter notes before sending the email.