Salesforce Service Cloud Entitlement Management

Updated:

February 22, 2024

⏱️ 3 minutes

Salesforce Service Cloud Entitlement Management offers insights into how businesses can leverage this powerful feature to enhance customer support. Here’s what you will gain from reading further:

Understanding of Entitlements: Learn what Entitlements are and how they form the foundation of customer support levels within Salesforce Service Cloud.
Key Components: Discover the essential components such as Entitlement Objects, Entitlement Contacts, and Entitlement Templates, and their roles in managing support.
Entitlement Processes and Limitations: Gain insights into the Entitlement process, including milestones and steps for case resolution, and understand the limitations to consider.
Service Contracts and Features: Explore the concept of Service Contracts, their key features, permissions, and how they integrate with Entitlements for comprehensive support management.
Practical Use Case: A real-world scenario demonstrating how to configure Entitlements and Milestones to meet specific customer support requirements.

Let’s get started!

Entitlements

Entitlements are synonymous with the type and level of support the customer receives Entitlements must be enabled from Salesforce settings before creating a new Entitlement.

Examples of Entitlements

An organization can offer different levels of support
Platinum customers receive premium support.
All customers, by default, will have access to phone support.

Standard Terms Used with Entitlements

Entitlement Objects

Accounts
Assets
Cases
Service Contracts
Contacts (Classic only)

Entitlement Contacts

Entitlement Contacts are the people who are entitled to the support. They can be viewed in the Entitlement-related list.

Entitlement Template

Entitlement Template is the predefined terms and conditions of customer support that can be added to Salesforce products.

Standard Terms Used with Entitlements

Entitlement Process

An Entitlement process is a timeline in which the agent must complete milestones/steps to resolve or close the case/work order.
It includes all the milestones e.g. Platinum customers are eligible for 24/7 support.

Entitlement Limitations

An account must be associated with an entitlement.
Entitlements cannot be shared; they inherit from the parent’s visibility.
Merge fields for entitlements are not available on cases.
Entitlements do not automatically apply to web-to-cases.
Entitlements should be defined separately for every object, e.g., cases and work orders.

Service Contracts

Service Contract is an advanced entitlement feature when the customer support is defined at a subscription or contract level or if the support contract is renewed after a certain timeframe.

Key Concepts and Features of Service Contracts

Permissions

Create/Edit/Read/Delete Service Contracts depending on the use case of the businesses.
Service Contracts with active or expired entitlements cannot be deleted.

Entitlements

Service Contract terms are nothing but entitlements.
One Service Contract can have multiple entitlements linked to it.

Share and Transfer

Share is possible only with users having at least Read permission.
Sharing can be done with any user, groups, roles, or territory.

Transfer

Transfer Service Contracts can be used to transfer multiple service contracts to a user.

Info

Basic information used to define a service contract are the start and end dates, term, price, status, account, or Contact.

Contract Line Items

Contract Line Items allow tracking of specific products covered by a Service Contract and is visible in the related list of Service Contracts. These can only be used if the organization uses Products to track offerings.

Use Case

Cosmo Property wants to define the level of support to be provided to its customers based on the product/service purchased. Based on the level of support defined the support reps should meet the support expectations of the customer without violating the SLA.

What can be configured in Service Cloud by the administrator to meet this requirement?

Solution: Entitlements and Milestones

Reason: Entitlements can be enabled to define the level of support offered to different customers based on the Service Level Agreement. Milestones can be set up to define the steps to resolve a case or provide support to a customer linked with the Entitlement Process.

Conclusion

In wrapping up, mastering Salesforce Service Cloud’s Entitlement Management is pivotal for delivering exceptional customer support. Understanding and implementing its components, from Entitlements to Service Contracts, can significantly enhance your team’s efficiency and customer satisfaction levels. Whether you’re looking to refine your support strategies or elevate your Salesforce expertise, the insights shared here serve as a roadmap to achieving those goals.

Ready to take your Salesforce skills to the next level? Sign up at saasguru for a free trial and gain access to over 18 Salesforce Certification Courses, 50+ Mock Exams, and 50+ Salesforce Labs for hands-on learning.