Admin role
- Set up queues and exclusions for units of work
-
Admin role
Or a custom role with Queue configuration set to Can configure queues on the Configure tab
The case lifecycle model is available for Salesforce Service Cloud and Amazon Connect. Amazon Connect phone contacts use it once you connect Amazon Connect. For Salesforce Service Cloud and other channels, contact our team to turn it on.
Admins set roles and permissions in Manage team > Roles and permissions.
Use the case lifecycle model to forecast, staff, and report on every piece of work in a case, not just the case as a whole. Assembled splits each Salesforce case into units of work: one for each time the case is routed or handed to a team member, such as its first assignment, a transfer, or a reopen. This article explains how units of work are created from your Salesforce data, and how their queues, exclusions, and channels are set.
This article applies to Salesforce Service Cloud only. For Amazon Connect, see Case lifecycle model (Amazon Connect).
To set up queues for units of work, go to Configure > Queues and exclusions. For connecting Salesforce, see Salesforce Service Cloud integration.
How the case lifecycle model works
- Forecasts account for every unit of work your team does, so cases that are transferred or escalated are staffed more accurately.
- You can see how cases break down, such as how many are reopened or transferred, and staff to meet your SLA for each unit of work. See Case lifecycle metrics.
- A case’s queue, channel, status, and exclusion come from its last unit of work.
- A case with no units of work is excluded, with the exclusion No ticket segments.
Units of work for Omni-Channel and manually routed cases
Salesforce routes cases in two ways, and many teams use both: automatically with Omni-Channel, or manually. Assembled creates units of work differently for each.
Omni-Channel cases
When Omni-Channel routes a work item, such as a case or a chat, to a team member, Salesforce creates an AgentWork record. Salesforce does this when:
- The work item enters a queue that uses Omni-Channel routing and is assigned to a team member.
- The work item is transferred or reassigned to another team member.
- The work item goes from a completed status back to an open one, for example when a case is reopened or re-engaged.
Each AgentWork becomes one unit of work in Assembled. The unit of work starts when the AgentWork is requested or created. AgentWork records with a Failed status are skipped.
Manually routed cases
Cases routed without Omni-Channel have no AgentWork records, so Assembled infers units of work from the case history. A new unit of work starts when one of these happens:
| Event | When it happens |
|---|---|
| Transfer | The case’s Owner or Status changes, and the case now matches a different Assembled queue. |
| Reassign | The case’s Owner changes from one team member to another. Assigning a case from a queue to its first team member doesn’t start a new unit of work. |
| Reopen | The case’s Status goes from solved or closed to an open status. |
| Re-engage | The case’s Status goes from paused to an open status. |
Which of your Salesforce statuses count as solved, closed, or paused is set up for your company by our team. If a manually routed period falls entirely within an AgentWork, it isn’t counted again.
Queues and exclusions
Each unit of work gets its own queue, and its own exclusion if it matches an exclusion rule. Set up rules in Configure > Queues and exclusions using the fields below. For the steps, see Queues and exclusions.
Omni-Channel cases
| Routing | Field to use | What it matches |
|---|---|---|
| Queue-based | Queue ID | The queue on the AgentWork that the work was originally routed from. |
| Skill-based | Skill ID | Any skill on the AgentWork. Available if your company uses skill-based routing. |
Note: Queues for Omni-Channel cases can also use custom fields on the case. To set this up, contact our team.
Manually routed cases
| Field to use | What it matches |
|---|---|
| Owner ID (Inferred) | The case’s owner at the time of each unit of work, worked out from the case history. |
| Last Skill ID (Inferred) | The skills on the most recent AgentWork before the manually routed period. Available if your company uses skill-based routing. |
| A custom field, such as Region (Inferred) | The value of a custom field on the case at the time of each unit of work, worked out from the case history. Our team sets up which custom fields are available. |
Channels
Each unit of work also gets a channel, whatever its routing. Our team sets up how channels are assigned for your company, using one of these methods:
| Method | How the channel is chosen |
|---|---|
| Custom field (default) | From the history of a custom field on the case that tracks its channel. If the field has no value, the case’s Origin is used. |
| Case Origin | From the case’s Origin: Email and Web become email, Phone becomes phone, and Chat becomes chat, for every unit of work in the case. Recommended for cases that rarely switch between async and live channels. |
| Queue-channel mappings | From the unit of work’s queue, when that queue is mapped to one channel, such as Queue A to chat and Queue B to email. Otherwise, the case’s Origin is used. |
| Default channel | Every case’s units of work are email. |
Units of work from Salesforce chats and messaging sessions are always chat, and units of work from voice calls are phone.
To change how channels are assigned, contact our team.