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Business Rule: Notifications on customer activities

I’ve posted in the past about how to notify the case owner when someone else logs a note to their case. 

I find this especially useful when a customer does something in SelfService, or responds to an email that is processed by Dovetail Carrier.

For example, if a customer logs a note to a case in SelfService, I want to know. If a customer responds to an email, and is automatically logged to a case (via Dovatail Carrier), I want to know.

This post recaps information in the previous post, and adds some additional niceties to the notification message.

Notification Email

Here’s an example of a notification received via email:

email

 

The business rule

Object Type: Case
Rule Name/Description: Notify the owner when someone else logs a note to their case
Start Events: Log Note, Close Task, Phone Log, Log Email, Email In
Cancel Events: None
Conditions: Logger != [Current Owner]
Action Title: Notify  Owner
Who to Notify: [Current Owner]
Start Action: 0 minutes
From: Event Creation
Using: Elapsed Time
Repeat : Never
Message:

RE: [Object Type] [Object ID] has been updated

[Object Type] [Object ID] has been updated by [Logger].
Activity: [Activity Name]
Details:
[Email Log Notes][Phone Notes][Notes Text][Close Case Notes]

———————————————————————————–

View this [Object Type] in Dovetail Agent:
https://company.com/agent/support/cases/[Object ID]

View this [Object Type] in Dovetail Mobile:
http://company.com/mobile/Cases/Summary/[Object ID]

 

There’s a few interesting things I want to point out about that rule.

1. The rule condition

Look at the condition:

Logger != [Current Owner]

Notice that each side of the condition is actually a rule property that gets evaluated at runtime.

This condition says only notify me if someone else does an activity on my case.

2. The Activity Name within the message

This is a rule property that will evaluate to the type of Activity that occurred, i.e. Log Note, Log Email, etc.

So it’s clear to me exactly what happened.

This is especially nice when a customer closes a case in SelfService. The Activity name will be Close Case, so I know the case is closed, so there’s not even a need for me to login to my Agent app. My workflow is complete.

3. The Details within the message

Notice that there are 4 different notes properties in use within the message:

[Email Log Notes][Phone Notes][Notes Text][Close Case Notes]

Each one of those is a custom rule property.

So, regardless if the activity was a Log Note, Log Phone, Log Email (In or Out), or a Close Case – I’ll get the correct notes shown to me.

As I’m sure you can guess, only one of those will have a value at any point in time. The others just evaluate to an empty string, which is fine.

Here’s what my rule properties look like:

Name Path Object Type SubType Value Type Max Length
Email Log Notes focus_obj2act_entry:act_entry2email_log:message Case Property Standard Property 50000
Phone Notes focus_obj2act_entry:act_entry2phone_log:notes Case Property Standard Property 50000
Notes Text focus_obj2act_entry:act_entry2notes_log:description Case Property Standard Property 50000
Close Case Notes focus_obj2act_entry:act_entry2close_case:summary Case Property Standard Property 50000

 

4. Hyperlinks in the message

Notice that I’ve included a hyperlink to my web-based Agent application. Actually, I’ve included two hyperlinks – one to the full Dovetail Agent application, and one to the Dovetail Mobile application. So, depending on where you’re reading the email form, you can quickly click to get to the particular app that you want – one that will be optimized for your current device.

Each of those hyperlinks is a direct link to the case that this notification is for.

 

What else might be valuable?

We could also easily add additional data to that message, if so desired, such as:

  • Case Title
  • Contact Name
  • Site Name
  • Custom fields
  • etc.

All done by configuration – no coding necessary.

Summary

  • We’ve created a business rule that notifies the case owner when someone else does an activity on their case
  • Our business rule condition uses variables on both sides of the condition operator
  • We’ve created and used custom business rule properties that allows us to include the notes from the activity
  • We’ve included links to our web-based app – for both Mobile and Desktop users

Overall, a pretty sweet little rule that keeps me informed of what’s happening with the cases that I’m working.

Can you tell how much I love business rules? I think they’re one of the best (and often under-utilized) features of a Clarify/Dovetail system.

Rock on.