Many think that customer relationship management solution is to improve the sales. However, an important aspect is to retain them. Find out how companies like Buffer, Canva and CVS are able to maintain repeat customers. It is a no brainer that efficient customer services (by implementing cases in SuiteCRM ) goes a long way in getting customers to stick around with you. This is one of the most important metric specially if you provide customers with subscription based services.
Having understood why after sales support is so important, let us look at SuiteCRM ensures effective customer service. A SuiteCRM developer can greatly enhance your application using solutions like comprehensive HelpDesk management, in this case article we will only discuss the functionality available in SuiteCRM by default.
Customers may raise their issues and concerns in the form of support tickets for the product or services that they purchased. Managing and assigning such tickets to the respective department and person is a challenging part for any business organization. Let’s deep dive into the article which explains how the tickets/cases are managed in SuiteCRM.
Deep – Dive – Cases in SuiteCRM
Cases in SuiteCRM are used to capture the customer’s requests/issues and to maintain the interactions with the customer on the issue. A case can be created, updated, and can be assigned to another teammate to resolve the issue. The case can be closed when it is resolved and proper mail updates can be sent to the assigned person and the customer whenever the status of the case is updated. This ensures that the communication with customers is fast and up to date.
Users can track and update the incoming and outgoing conversations in CRM to maintain what has happened and for future use purposes.
How do cases help in business organization?
Cases play an important role in business which identifies all the possible options to address issues and allows decision-makers to decide which course of action will be best for the resolution.
- All the customer support interactions can be tracked in one place.
- It can be integrated with the existing Knowledge base module and help users or the support team to close the tickets more quickly by finding the relevant information.
- Complex workflow automation helps to escalate the ticket with the right support team.
- Reports and Dashboards can be built to help users by showing the cases assigned to them based on priority levels and due dates on the home page.
Default Fields in Cases Module
SuiteCRM comes with some default fields listed below. The module can be customized according to the business needs.
| Field | Description |
| Number | It is a serial number of the case which is autogenerated. |
| Priority | It is a drop-down list where it shows the priority of the case
High, Medium, Low. (The dropdown list can be customized) |
| State | It is a drop-down list where it shows the state of the case
Open, closed |
| Status | It is a drop-down list where it shows the status of the case
New, Assigned, Pending Input. |
| Type | It is a drop-down list where it shows the Type of the case
Administration, Product, User |
| Account Name | The name of the account has to be given |
| Subject | The name of the case should be as informative as possible. |
| Suggestions | It indicates the suggestion |
| Description | Enter a detailed description of the case. When entering the topic, matches are found for the topic or text of the Case and it shows the text formatting in the body. |
| Resolution | It indicates a brief solution. |
| Assigned to | Select the user of the case |
Working with Cases in SuiteCRM
To create a new case in SuiteCRM, you can click on All -> Case. You can enter the required details like subject, details and priority. Also you can assign the case to the respective person. Usually a Case can be created from the following sources.
- Emails – You can configure inbound emails within SuiteCRM. Using configuration you can also make it to create new case every-time an email comes. You can watch how to configure a new inbound email in SuiteCRM out here.
- Website / Customer Portal – You can integrate a form on your website. When the form is submitted, it can create a new case within SuiteCRM. This may need some additional integration.
- Phone – The customer can call the help desk and ask a ticket to be created. The user manually selects the right Account / Contact to associate with the Case.
- Mobile APP / Third party applications – Many times SuiteCRM needs to be integrated with third party applications to have a seamless flow of Case and subsequent updates to the customer.
Updating a Case record in SuiteCRM
Once a case is created and assigned to a support person, he/she may want to update the case with the observations and interactions with customers for future use. Below are some examples of updates to Cases.
- Status Changes – The help desk can update the status to reflect the progress.
- Updates-Text: The user can mention the information or findings of the case.
- Internal Update: Users can provide the update as internally(to the team) or externally to the customer.
- Updates-Attachment Form: Users can attach the documents related to the case.
All the updates can be tracked as shown in the below screenshot.
Advantages of Cases in SuiteCRM
Following are some of the important advantages of using case module within SuiteCRM.
- Increases productivity and efficiency.
- Automated case creation from email reduces manual effort, helps to focus on the actual issue.
- Appropriate information can be found quickly.
Cases in CRM is an effective way to manage the customer’s issues for the opted services and helps to close the tickets quickly. It also helps to streamline the business by focusing on the type of issues customers are facing frequently.
Evaluating SuiteCRM for your business – We can help
Reach out to us so that we can assess and plan a road-map for your CRM implementation. Let’s build a system, which you will use for years to come.
