Entitlements versus entitlement processes versus milestones
Key Takeaway
An entitlement says whether a customer is eligible for support, and it can be used on its own. When you add time-dependent steps, you need an entitlement process. An entitlement process is a timeline whose milestones are the required, time-dependent steps for resolving a case or work order.
Entitlement management is how you define, enforce, and track the support you owe customers. It uses three layered building blocks: entitlements, entitlement processes, and milestones. An entitlement covers whether a customer is eligible for support. An entitlement process and its milestones cover the timing of the work to resolve a case or work order.
Entitlements, entitlement processes, and milestones
- Entitlement: A unit of customer support, such as "phone support" or "web support". Support reps use it to check whether a customer is eligible for support. You can associate entitlements with accounts, assets, contacts, and service contracts.
- Entitlement process: A timeline of all the steps (milestones) that support reps must complete to resolve a support record. It also holds the logic that decides how to enforce the correct service level. There are two types of entitlement process: Case and Work Order.
- Milestone: A required, time-dependent step in an entitlement process, such as First Response or Resolution Time on a case. Milestones are metrics that represent the service levels you provide to customers. You can set a milestone to occur once in an entitlement process, or to recur until the process exits.
For example, imagine an account that has a phone support entitlement. A support rep can quickly confirm that a contact from that account is entitled to phone support.