Connect conversations with customers and cases
A connected service experience depends on more than routing an interaction to an available representative. The representative also needs to understand who the customer is, why they contacted the organization, and what work has already occurred. Dynamics 365 Customer Service uses related records and channel context to make that information available without treating every service object as the same thing.
Distinguish service records and workspace containers
Several related terms describe different parts of the service experience:
- An interaction is a general instance of contact between a customer and an organization. It might be a call, message, email, or self-service escalation.
- A work item is a conversation or record that enters the routing and assignment process.
- A conversation stores a channel interaction such as chat, SMS, social messaging, Teams, or voice. It can include participants, channel details, routing information, and a transcript.
- A session is the workspace container that keeps the applications and records for one item of work together. A session isn't the customer interaction or the case record itself.
- A case is the business record used to track and resolve a customer issue. It can continue after a live conversation ends and can relate to activities from several channels.
These objects work together. For example, an incoming chat produces a conversation that enters unified routing as a work item. When a representative accepts it, Copilot Service workspace opens a session. The representative can link that conversation to an existing case or create a case for the issue.
Identify the customer
Customer identification connects an interaction with a contact or account record. The available identification depends on the channel and what the customer provides.
An authenticated chat can carry verified identity information from the sign-in process. An unauthenticated visitor might provide a name, email address, or phone number that helps a representative search for a matching record. Other channels can supply identifiers such as an email address, phone number, or messaging account.
Authentication and record linking solve related but different problems. Authentication establishes confidence in the identity presented through the channel. Linking associates the conversation with a Dynamics 365 contact or account. A channel can provide identifying information without automatically producing one reliable record match, so representatives might still need to confirm the customer before linking sensitive service information.
A conversation can link to one contact or account in its customer section. If the correct customer record doesn't exist, a representative can create it and link it to the conversation. The link makes customer details and related service history available in the conversation context.
Connect a conversation with a case
A conversation and a case have different lifecycles. A conversation tracks a channel interaction, while a case tracks the issue and the work required to resolve it. Closing a linked conversation doesn't automatically close the case.
The representative can link one case to a conversation. The case might already exist because the customer is following up on an earlier issue, or the representative can create a case for a new issue. The linked case provides structured information such as its title, priority, status, product, and owner.
One case can provide continuity across multiple interactions. For example, a customer might report an issue by email, discuss it later through chat, and receive a follow-up call. Linking the resulting activities and conversations to the same customer and case gives representatives a common issue history.
This relationship doesn't combine separate interactions into one transcript. Each conversation or activity retains its own channel history. The customer and case links let representatives find those histories together and understand how they relate to the same service issue.
Use the Active Conversation context
When a representative accepts an incoming conversation, the Active Conversation form presents the available customer, conversation, and case context. This form was previously named Customer Summary. Its exact layout can vary by organization, but it can include:
- The linked contact or account and relevant customer details.
- Conversation information such as the channel, queue, waiting time, start time, and routing skills.
- Pre-chat responses, self-service activity, visitor details, and configured context variables.
- The linked case and recent cases for the customer.
- A timeline of customer-related and case-related activities.
Context collected before representative assignment can reduce repeated questions. For example, self-service activity can show pages visited, phrases searched, or knowledge articles viewed before the customer started the conversation. A pre-chat survey can capture the reason for contact, and channel context variables can provide information from the website or application where the interaction began.
Preserve the interaction history
Conversation transcripts store exchanges between customers, representatives, and other participants. They provide a record of what was discussed and can help representatives or authorized users review previous interactions. Cases, emails, notes, phone calls, and other activities contribute additional history through the related records and timeline.
Organizations should decide what context to collect and retain based on a clear service purpose. Authentication data, transcripts, attachments, sentiment, and AI-generated summaries can contain personal or sensitive information. Security roles, retention policies, auditing, consent, and regional requirements should limit access and use appropriately.
Preserving context doesn't mean exposing every available detail. The aim is to make relevant, authorized information available to the people and systems that need it to continue the service process.
For more information, see View customer information on the Active Conversation form, Search, link, and unlink a record, and Search for transcripts.