Microsoft Dynamic CRM 2011 : Working with Contracts and Queues - Working with Service Queues

In addition to using contracts to manage the number of cases or service hours billed to customers, customer service teams can use service queues to improve the routing of cases and ensure that each request is handled efficiently. In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, a queue is a public listing of records, such as cases and activities. Queues are typically set up based on team assignments or subject matter expertise on a product or service.

When a case is added to a service queue, it is shared by the group of users that have access to the queue until it is accepted by or assigned to a customer service representative. When a record is added to a queue, Microsoft Dynamics CRM creates a queue item, associates the record to that queue item, and then displays queue items in the Workplace area. Customer service managers can create queues in the Business Management section in the Settings area.

Users can work on items from queues they have access to by assigning themselves to the queue items. After a record (such as a case) is assigned to a user, it is moved to the user’s Items I Am Working On view and cannot be worked on by other team members until it is released.

Users can perform the following actions on items in a queue.

Action	Description
Routing	Moves a queue item from one queue to another. Each item can only be associated to one queue at a time. This action also allows a user to reassign the target records from the queue item during this process.
Work On	Assigns a queue item to a particular user or team. When a user works on an item, the queue item will be displayed in a special view for the user. Only one user or team can be assigned to work on a queue item at a time.
Release	Removes the user associated with the queue item.
Remove	Removes the queue item from the queue.
Queue Item Details	Displays additional information associated with the queue item.

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, most records—such as accounts and contacts—can be owned by users or teams. Although queues cannot own a record, Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows you to add a record to a queue. When you add a record to a queue, the owner of the record stays the same and will display in the queue, but other users can now choose to work on the record. When a user selects the record to work on it, Microsoft Dynamics CRM associates the queue item to that user, and the queue item then appears in the user’s unique Items I Am Working On queue.

Important

Adding a record to a queue does not change the ownership of the record. A queue item can only belong to one queue at a time. Furthermore, a queue item can only be assigned to one user or team at a time.

If you enter an email address when you create a queue, you can have service requests received by that email address delivered directly to the queue. All inbound email messages to that address will then be created as email activity records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and will be displayed in the queue so customer service representatives can accept each email message and follow up accordingly. When configuring email messages to automatically display in a queue, you can select options that determine which messages will be displayed. For example, you can display the following:

• All email messages sent to the specified address.

• Only those email messages that are sent to the specified address in response to messages sent from Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

• Only those email messages that are sent to the specified address from a lead, contact, or account in your Microsoft Dynamics CRM database.

• Only those email messages that match an address from a Microsoft Dynamics CRM record that is email enabled.

You do not need to supply an email address when setting up a queue, but this feature is helpful for customer service teams that receive a lot of service requests via email.

Note

See Also With Microsoft Dynamics CRM workflow, you can set up routing rules to automatically assign cases to the appropriate queue. Furthermore, you can configure workflow rules for the queue items, allowing for escalation within the queue itself. 

In this exercise, you’ll create a service queue and route a case to it, then accept the case into your Items I Am Working On queue.

1. In the Settings area, click Business Management, and then click Queues to view the available queues.

   

2. Click the New button to launch the New Queue form.

3. In the New Queue form, enter the following information:

   Queue Name	Catalog Request
   E-mail	someone@example.com
   Owner	This will vary among individual systems, so select your user account.
   Description	Catalog fulfillment requests
   Convert to e-mail activities	All e-mail messages
   E-mail access type - Incoming	None
   E-mail access type - Outgoing	None

   

4. Click Save and Close to create the queue.

5. In the Service area, click Cases to view the case manager.

   

6. Locate the Product Catalog Request case, and then select the record in the grid (without opening it).

7. On the ribbon, in the Collaborate group on the Cases tab, click the Add to Queue button to associate the case to a queue.

   The Add To Queue dialog box appears.

   

8. In the dialog box, click the Lookup button.

   The Look Up Record dialog box appears.

9. In the View selector, change the view to Queues: Primary E-mail (Pending Approval), select the Catalog Requests queue, and then click OK.

10. Click OK in the Add to Queue dialog box.

11. In the Workplace area, click Queues, and then select Items available to work on from the view selector. Then select the Catalog Requests queue to verify that the case you assigned appears.

    

12. Make sure that the case is selected. Then, on the Queue Items tab of the ribbon, click the Work On button to assign the case into your personal queue.

    The Assign Queued Items dialog box opens.

    

13. Click OK to verify that you are accepting the case.

14. In the view selector, click the Items I am working on queue, and verify that the case now appears.