Experimenting with ServiceDesk

Here,you'll experiment with a variety of ServiceDesk capabilities.

Using the Email Channel

To experiment with the email channel:

1. If your system is configured to allow cases to be created by email:
   • Send a message to the support email address, as determined by the Email to Case configuration.

   (Don't worry if you don't have a record in the Contacts object. As a system User, you are automatically a "known contact".)

2. In the Agent Console, create a case:
   • Create a Subject
   • Click Contact:
     • If you do not already exist as a contact in the system, click [Create Contact] to create a contact that has your email address.
     • Choose that Contact as the person for whom the case was created.
   • Click [Save]'.
     The Case is created and is displayed.

You can now work with the case a bit. Start by changing the Priority and Status in the Case Banner:

1. First, change the status to Open.
   The color of the banner changes to reflect the status. (Red for P1, blue for all else.)
2. Now change the status to Pending
   • Note that the color disappears from the left half of the banner
   • Later, you'll see that the same color arrangements are displayed in the list of cases you can get to by clicking Return to List, just under the tabs

Next, you can add a note to the case:

1. Click Reply or Add a note
   • The note window opens.
   • Notice that the Email option is preselected.
   • You can also add a Private Note, but the default setting is to send the note as an email.
2. Use the buttons at the top of the Note window to
3. Take a look at the Quick Text options:
   • Clicking one of those inserts the text into the note
   • You can also create new Quick Text entries and manage the existing ones.

     Learn more: Quick Text Responses

4. You can attach a file, if you need to, and you can clicking [Add Recipient] to copy others on the Case note.
   • When you click that button, you can specify an arbitrary email address.
   • The recipients you automatically become "followers" of the case.
   • They are copied on all important developments, unless they choose to "unfollow" it.
5. Click [Submit] to save the note and send the email
6. Check your email for the note.
7. Respond to the note.
8. Go back to the case to see that your response has been added to the Case history.

Using the Support Portal

To experiment with the support channel:

1. In the Contacts object, create a fake contact with your email address.
2. Invite the contact to the support portal.
3. Open the invitation email to get the portal login URL.
4. In a different browser, go to that address
   For example, if you are using FireFox to access the portal as a case agent, then use Chrome or some other browser to access the portal as a "Customer contact". (Each browser maintains a cookie with your identity. You can't access the system from the same browser with two different identities, unless you log out of one and then log into another.)
5. Create a case in the support portal.
   (This is the experience your customers will have.)
6. Go back to your original browser to work with the case.
7. Use email and the support portal to experiment with the customer experience.