🎯 What Is Case Management?
Case Management is the core of Customer Service in Dynamics 365 CE. It helps businesses manage customer issues, requests, or incidents from start to resolution efficiently using automation, routing, SLAs, and knowledge.
🧱 Key Concepts in Case Management
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Case (Incident) | A customer issue, complaint, or request to be resolved |
| Customer | Contact or Account that raised the case |
| Subject Tree | Categorization of the issue (like Product > Issue Type) |
| Owner | User or Team handling the case |
| Status | Open / In Progress / Resolved / Canceled |
| Activities | Emails, tasks, phone calls, notes, etc., logged against the case |
| Knowledge Base | Articles linked to help solve cases faster |
| SLA (Service Level Agreement) | Timelines and KPIs for resolving cases (e.g., resolve in 2 days) |
| Queue | Logical grouping of cases for team assignment and routing |
🔁 Typical Case Lifecycle (Business Process Flow)
Here's a standard flow from case creation to resolution:
1. Case Creation
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Auto-created from: email, portal, chat, phone, social
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Or manually by agents
2. Case Routing
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Assigned to appropriate queue or agent based on rules
3. Case Triage
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Agent reviews the issue
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Links related records (contacts, activities, articles)
4. Case Resolution
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Resolve or escalate
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Use Knowledge Articles if needed
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Update resolution reason
5. Close Case
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Change status to “Resolved” or “Canceled”
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Record the outcome and time taken
🤖 Automation Features
| Feature | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Automatic Case Creation Rules | Create cases from email or social automatically |
| Routing Rules | Route to queues or agents based on subject, type, or priority |
| SLAs | Track First Response and Resolution time, escalate if breached |
| Workflows / Power Automate | Automate notifications, escalations, assignments |
| Business Rules | Enforce form-level logic like auto-fill priority or required fields |
📊 Monitoring & Insights
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Case dashboards: Open cases, average resolution time, SLA breaches
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Queue views: Assigned, unassigned, high priority cases
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Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Post-resolution surveys
🔌 Channels & Omnichannel Integration (Advanced)
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Use Omnichannel for Customer Service for:
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Live chat
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SMS
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Facebook/Messenger
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WhatsApp
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Integrate Voice, Bot Framework, and Virtual Agents for automation
💡 Real-World Example
Scenario: Customer sends an email saying "I can't access my account."
🔹 System auto-creates a Case
🔹 Routing rule sends it to “Support Queue”
🔹 Agent picks it up and reviews past interactions
🔹 SLA starts ticking
🔹 Agent uses a Knowledge Article to reset account
🔹 Responds and resolves the case
🔹 SLA is met → Case closed