Create a case with the right customer context and ownership

A case gives a customer issue an owner, a status, and a shared history. Start it with enough context for the next person to act: the correct company and contact, the business impact, the affected environment, and the next responsibility. This is especially useful when several people at one customer organization are involved in a complex investigation.

Before you create the case  ·  Create the case  ·  Understand Save draft before using it  ·  Check the result  ·  Make the first record useful  ·  Create a first case using a complete customer example  ·  Resolve common creation problems

Before you create the case

Search for an existing case first. Another contact may already have reported the same issue; review the facts before creating a duplicate. You need permission to create/edit cases. Division and activity type are required, while customer, subject, priority, issue, and other requirements also depend on your case policies. A customer-facing reply requires a subject, a recipient, and an available reply address.

Create the case

1. Open New → Case. Select the appropriate Division. Available issues and policy-driven fields may change with that choice.
2. Use Search by company name/contact/email and select the intended company and contact. Check the relationship carefully when similar names exist. Create a company or contact only if needed and permitted.
3. Enter a clear Subject, then choose the appropriate Priority, Issue, and Activity type where shown. Explain the customer impact so a later priority review has evidence.
4. In the editor, write the first reply or note. Check whether the selected activity type is customer-facing. For a reply, review To, Cc, Bcc, and the reply address; keep internal investigation details in an internal activity.
5. Complete the relevant additional case fields. Depending on policy, these can include asset, project/version, due dates, time, tags, task details, and custom fields. Use Add files for useful supporting material and check its audience.
6. Open More create options when you need to review the initial state or assignment. In Finish the case, review Case state, Assign to agent, and Assign to queue. Selecting an agent clears the queue selection, and selecting a queue clears the agent selection.
7. Review Add the assignee as a watcher and any cross-team selector options. Choose Create case when the initial activity is ready, or Save draft using the distinction below.

Understand Save draft before using it

Use a draft when the initial reply needs review, and then inspect the case and draft activity. Do not use it as a way to suppress every automation or notification.

Check the result

• Confirm the case opens and note its case ID.
• Verify the company, contact, division, state, and current owner or queue. Configured workflows may affect routing.
• Read the initial activity and check its audience. If saved as a draft, confirm it remains a draft before treating it as a customer update.
• Verify attachments and relevant asset or project details.
• Check that the intended team can find the case in its working view. An empty view can reflect filters or access, rather than a failed creation.

Make the first record useful

• Capture observed facts separately from a suspected cause. This helps specialists avoid repeating an unverified assumption.
• Choose an individual owner when responsibility is clear, or an appropriate queue when a team must triage. Confirm the final assignment after workflows run.
• Use the customer’s business impact to explain urgency. A requested date and an SLA commitment are different things.
• Record the next action and who should take it. A good description without ownership can still stall.
• For recurring equipment or product issues, associate the relevant asset/version where configured and link reusable knowledge after verification.

Create a first case using a complete customer example

A caller from a fictional customer, Northstar Manufacturing, says its order export failed overnight. Before saving, identify the person, organization, business impact and the immediate response you intend to record. These example values illustrate a good intake; they are not defaults to copy into real cases.

1. Select the verified company/contact and complete the case fields required by the selected division/policy. If the reported product is represented by an asset, choose the actual item and confirm its customer context.
2. Write the first activity for its intended audience. For a customer reply, ask for one useful missing item and state the next update commitment. Review recipients, reply address and attachments.
3. Save using the action that matches your intent. Then open the resulting case and note its assigned ID. Check company, contact, owner/queue, state and first activity.
4. If you used Save draft, inspect the resulting draft first activity in Case View. Complete and send it through the normal activity workflow when ready; do not assume the customer already received it. The case itself exists and lifecycle processing can already have occurred.

If the save outcome is unclear, search for the expected case or inspect the resulting navigation before submitting again. A slow response can still represent a successful creation. Creating a second case can split the history and cause duplicate customer communication.

Resolve common creation problems

Continue learning

• Work a case from first response to resolution
• Configure case forms with case policies
• Manage companies and contacts
• Use assets and categories
• Escalate a case with clear ownership