CRM task maintenance overview

A CRM task is a specific activity that must be undertaken as an outcome of a customer interaction from which a case has been generated. Each case generated in this way relates to a specific subject which in turn comprises one or more related tasks, and it is these tasks that define how the case will be progressed. Any number of discrete tasks can be linked to a CRM case although an individual task can only appear once within the same case. Where multiple tasks are required, identical in nature, separate task definitions must be created for each instance. In structuring all the activities that are relevant to a case, tasks can be added manually at the point of customer interaction, or they can be created automatically by virtue of their existence within the subject workflow path. Dictated by the nature of the assigned tasks, dependencies can be configured between them to restrict the point at which related tasks are commenced. These task attributes and restrictions are all configured within the task definition, with each linked to a category - a module within Civica Cx Housing - which determines the entities - module areas - that are relevant to the task.

All CRM tasks activated as a consequence of raising a case can be service level driven and form an integral part of a wider service level agreement (SLA). Within each CRM task, there are three key components of SLA compliance tracking: amber warning period, follow-on escalation and target completion exceeded. SLA targets that are defined at task level must fall within the overall SLA relevant to the case subject, with robust system validation rules ensuring that proposed target completion dates are synchronised. Once an SLA indicator is reached, the system can be configured to dispatch an automatic alert to individual user accounts that are associated through the task definition, notifying them of the situation. User accounts can be linked directly to the SLA notification process or by association through their membership of an allocated role.

At the point of raising a CRM case, the ownership of the associated tasks can be automatically set within the definition, whether that be to an individual user or a group of users via membership of an allocated role. Where ownership is assigned to a specific role, all members have the opportunity to pick up the task for onward progression, supported by the script to which it is linked. Alternatively, the ownership for a task can be defaulted to the user account by whom it was created.  

Separate help articles have been created for each key aspect of CRM task maintenance, including:

• To create a new CRM task definition
• To add an information field to a CRM task definition
• To assign custom lookup values to a CRM task information field
• To allocate a role to a CRM task definition
• To allocate a user to a CRM task definition
• To add an SLA target to a CRM task definition