The Customer Requests module allows to capture, log, approve, process and resolve Customer Specific Requests. In case of similar requests, a Customer Request can be cloned.
Definition & use cases
Definition
There are 2 types of customer requests:
Standard customer requests
A customer request represents one or more demand(s) from a customer related to one or several areas (e.g. logistics, packaging, documentation, training, technical support, regulatory compliance)
Customer Specific Requirements
A Customer Specific Requirement process deals with managing requests coming from the customer that deviate from Solvay GBU standard offering (e.g. product specifications, way of handling quality system , shipping)
Scope:
In Scope : Customer Specific Requirements
Not in Scope: Standard Customer Request, Sample Requests
A Customer Specific Requirement has 6 main phases which are as follows:
Registration
Prompt logging of a Customer Specific Request after reception and Submitting it for pre-Approval
Pending Pre-Approval
Rules for the Approval process have been implemented by each GBU where a CSR can be automatically approved, be assigned to a User to approve or rejected, or be assigned to a group of Users.
Assessment
After the CSR is pre-approved, it is assigned to a User or a group of Users to be assessed. Depending on the type of Requirement, different assessments may need to be performed (Analytical, Industrial, Supply-Chain).
Once the assessment is complete the user must provide a Global Feasibility Conclusion.
Approval Pending
Rules for the Approval process have been implemented by each GBU where a CSR can be automatically approved, be assigned to a User to approve or rejected, or be assigned to a group of Users.
Under Implementation
Ater (final) Approval, the Customer Specific Requirement implementation is tracked.
Active
Once the implementation is complete, a Customer Specific Requirement becomes (and stays) Active, until it is no longer relevant and can be deactivated.
The Customer Specific Requirement process is divided into 6 different Phases and 8 different Status.
Phase
Status
Definition
Record Type
Registration
New
As soon as the Customer Specific Requirement is created
Customer Specific Requirement
Pending Pre-Approval
Pending Pre-Approval
When the Customer Specific Requirement is submitted for pre-approval
Assessment
Under Assessment
Once the Approver has pre-approved the Customer Specific Requirement
Approval Pending
Approval Pending
Once the Assessment has been completed
Implementation
Under Implementation
Once the Approver has approved the Customer Specific Requirement
Active
Active
Once the Implementation has been completed
Inactive
When the Customer Specific Requirement has been 'Active' but is no longuer relevant
Rejected
When the Customer Specific Requirement has been rejected in one of the two approval processes.
Use Cases
The scope of this workstream is a Customer Specifc Requirement flow managed end-to-end in Salesforce which is used to:
2. Data Model & security
Main objects
Case: Standard Salesforce Object to store and manage all general information regarding a Customer Request
Accounts: Standard Salesforce Object to manage the information about the Customer related with the Customer Request
Files: Standard Salesforce Object to manage the contact person from the Customer
Case Team: Standard Salesforce Object to manage all the actors related to the Customer Request Process and to manage accessibility to the Case
Products: Standard Salesforce Object to manage the Product Level 3 that is related to the Customer Request
Customer Request Security Model
Who can create?
Due to differences within GBUs, roles and responsibilities are to be executed by different entities.
Who can see?
Any user can see all the customer requests, except the Customer Requests flagged as “confidential”
Who can update?
Only users in Case Team or above role hierarchy of a user in the Case Team.
Who can delete?
A Customer Request cannot be deleted. Only the System Administrator (SBS) can delete a Customer Request.
3. Customer Specific Requirements Features
Features
Customer Request Assignments
Assigning a Customer Request to a User or a Group of User is to pass the responsibility to act on the Customer Request on a particular phase of the process. On Salesforce, the Customer Request Assignment is based on the field Case Owner.
A Case Owner can be a User (Solvay employee with a Salesforce license) or a Queue (a group of Users that should be part of a team to handle Customer Requests with the same criteria).
Manually changing the Owner – at any time, a User with Access to a Customer Request can click the button Change next to the current owner and select a new User/Queue to be the new Owner
Manually choosing the actors – on the creation (from the fields Originator, Investigator* and Commercial Assignee*) or at any time (from the Case Team section) Users are able to select the future actors. The Owner will be changed then automatically based the change of the Status
Automatically selecting the actors – the GBU has provided the rules, based on Customer Request criteria, to allow the System to automatically change the Ownership of a Customer Request to a specific User or a Queue when the Status changes
The Customer Request Actors are managed on the Case Team section on the Customer Request Layout page. The Users are added to the Case Team i) manually by a User or ii) automatically by the System when they are the new Owners of a Customer Request. When the Users are added automatically to the Case Team, they are added with the correct Role based on the current Customer Request Management Phase.
Customer Request Approval Process
After the registration phase is completed by the User and all the information related to the Customer Request is provided (General Information, Description, Accounts and Contacts, and Attachments), the Customer Request must be manually submitted by the User to be approved by clicking on the ‘Submit for Approval’ button. Based on System Rules and GBU Rules, a Customer Request can be:
automatically approved - the Status will be automatically changed to Approved and the Customer Request will be assigned to the User or Group of Users responsible for the Processing
assigned to be approved - the Status is changed to PendingApproved and the User or Group of Users responsible for approving the Customer Request will be notified.
During the approval process, the customer request will be frozen until it is “Approved” or “Rejected”.
If additional information is needed before the approval of the customer request, it can be recalled with a comment “Additional Information Required". Once the information has been delivered, the request can be submitted for approval again.
Customer Request Notifications
On each step of the Customer Request Management Process, a set of Solvay personalities (Salesforce or not Salesforce Users) needs to be notify that a new Customer Request has now moved to a specific Status in order to act (Customer Request Owners) or to be informed.
On each Status change, an email is sent from Salesforce to a group of users, based on System Rules and GBU Rules that should be stored and displayed in the Activity History Section of a Customer Request. There are four types of Addresses on the Customer Request Notification Email when the Status is changed:
The new Owner – if your GBU has implemented assignment rules and the owner is changed automatically to a specific User or to a Queue, the new Owners will receive the Notification Email.
The previous Owner (if not a Queue) – normally the previous owner is the User that changed the Status and triggered the notification. He/she will be also notified to ensure that the correct Owner has been assigned
The Case Team – all Case Team Members, independent of their Role will receive the Notification Email
Solvay Contacts on Notification Rules – group of contacts (not necessary Salesforce Users) that are selected to be notified when the Status is changed based on each GBU Rules.
4. Specific Rules & Automation
Customer Request Registration
In order to create a new customer request, on the Case tab, the user needs to click on the “New” button, select the customer request record type and click on “Continue”. Additionally, customer requests can be found in a related list on the Account page from which the user can see all existing customer requests for this Account as well as creating a new one. When creating a customer request from this related list on the Account page, the record type is by default “Customer Request” and the Account is automatically populated in the Account Name field.
When the user creates a Customer Request, he/she has the ability to register the following information:
Case Information
Field
Definition
Customer Request Number
Customer Request reference automatically assigned by the System
Account Name
Main Customer related to the Customer Request
Partner Type
Customer Partner Type automatically calculated by the System
GBU Customer Classification
GBU Customer Classification automatically calculated by the System
Subject
GBU
GBU related to the Customer Request
BU
BU related to the Customer Request
Product
Product Level 3 related to the Customer Request
Type
Type of Customer Request defined by GBU
Sub-Type
Sub-Type of Customer Request defined by GBU related to the Type selected
Originator
Solvay Agent that initiate the Customer Request
Case Owner
User or a Group of User that is responsible to act on the Customer Request on a particular phase of the process
Notified
Specific User that needs to be notified on the Processing phase.
Status
Indicates in which status the Customer Request currently is
Final communication Sent
Flag that indicates that the Final Customer Communication has been sent. Automatically populated by the System when the email is sent by the User
Received Date
Date that the Customer Request has been received
Estimated Resolution Date
Date estimated that the Customer Request will be completed
Note: this field may be automatically calculated for GBUs that provided the calculation rules
Requested Resolution Date
Date that the Customer has requested that the Customer Request should be completed
Priority
Customer Request priority defined by the Agent (High, Medium, Low)
Case Origin
Original Channel of the Customer Request (Inbound email, Inbound Call, Mail shot, Teleconference, Face to Face, Website)
Case Record Type
Case Record Type.
Clone Customer Request
Indicates if the Customer Request has been created based on an existing Customer Request. Automatically populated by the System
Confidential
Indicates if the Customer Request visibility should be confidential, meaning that only the Current Owner, the Case Team Members and the Users above on the Role Hierarchy are able to see the Record
Manufacturing Plant
Plant that should be responsible for the processing of the Customer Request
Customer Contact Information
Multiple contacts can be maintained on the Customer Request. The main Contact can be maintained under the Customer Contact Information section and additional Contacts can be maintained in the Case Customer Contacts related list.
Field
Definition
Contact Name
Main Contact related to the Customer Request
The main Contact on the customer request is by default recipient of the communication to the customer. The recipients can nevertheless be changed by the user.
Description
In this section the initial description of the Customer Request is captured
Field
Definition
End Customer
The Final Customer if known.
Note: For legal reasons, sometimes this field should not be populated
Initial Description
Customer Description of the Customer Request
Amount
Estimated Cost for Processing the Customer Request
Opportunity
Link to the Opportunity from where the Customer Request was created. Automatically populated when the Customer Request is created from the related list of an Opportunity
Material Description
Material Description of the Product selected
Customer Request Products
List of Product Level 4 and Level 5 that were added to the Customer Request. Automatically populated when a new Product is added from the related list on the Customer Request
The sections above are available on the Edit Mode of the Customer Request and should be populated by the Originator when registering a Customer Request. In order to register the Customer Request, the User should click on the 'Save' button. The Mandatory fields for registering a Customer Request are:
Account Name
Subject
GBU
BU
Originator
Status
Received Date
Estimated Resolution Date (if not automatically calculated by the System)
Priority
Contact Name
Initial Desctiption
On this Registration Phase, the Users are able to provide more information from the different related list available on the Customer Request page:
Case Customer Contacts
Additional Contacts are maintained in this related list.
Case Account Associations
On the Customer Request, a primary Customer is maintained on the page layout with the ability to maintain multiple Customers on the related list. This will allow a Customer Request to be processed for more than one Customer at the same time.
Customer Request Products
On the Customer Request is possible, but not mandatory, to detail one Product Family (Level 3) related to the Customer Request. On the Customer Request Products list is possible to add several Product Materials (Level 4 or 5) related to the Product Family selected.
All products/material are maintained in the products related list, where it’s also possible to select an Application End Use for the Products for information purpose (This information if mandatory if the GBU is “Aroma Performance”).
Case Team
Users can be assigned to a Case Team. This allows the appropriate users to have read/write access to the Customer Request as well as receive the appropriate notification emails. When a Customer requests is flagged as confidential, only the users in the case team will have read/write access to the customer request.
Google Docs & Attachment related list
On this related list, both Google Docs and files from the computer can be attached.
Approval Process
As detailed on the the Approval Process section above, users must at all times submit manually a Customer Request for approval after all the relevant information is provided regarding the Customer Request. When an approval is requested by the GBU the status is changed to Pending Approval and the User or Group of Users responsibel for the approval are notified. When the Customer Request is approved, the status is changed to Approved.
Process the Customer Request
Once the Customer Request is approved, the Users or group of Users responsible for processing it are notified to act on the Case. The Users will provide a description of what was done and processed on this Customer Request that should then be comunicated to the Customer.
Customer Response
Detailing the Response that should be sent to the Customer.
Field
Definition
Customer Response Proposal
Definition of the actions that were taken regarding the Customer Request that should be communicated to the Customer
Customer Response Proposal Details
More detailed information of the actions that were taken regarding the Customer Request hat were taken regarding the Customer Request
Completed Date
Date that the Customer Request was completed
Time Spent
Time spent processing the Customer Request
Customer Request Closure
Any User assigned to the case team can close the customer request by clicking on the “Close” button. This redirects the User to the closure page where a “Comments” fields can be populated prior to closing the Customer Request. When closing a Customer Request, the status will be default Close/Answered, meaning that the Customer Request was completed and the Customer received a communication. If the customer request was Rejected or has not completed the process, the Status can be changed to Closed/Stopped.
Close Case
This section groups all the fields related to the Closure phase
