Phases and phase transitions¶
As the issue is being worked on, it goes through various phases that you need to create appropriately to meet the needs and terminology of the customer.
Activities¶
The phases that you need to create are grouped into built-in (unchangeable) five types of activities. Activities help FrontStage specify the processing status of customized phases. They correspond to the Issue.Activity column in the activity table, where the integer value from the “DB” column is present. Names themselves are stored in the LiteralLookup table, their LiteralGroup value is 60.
Activity |
DB |
Explanation |
|---|---|---|
New |
0 |
The issue has just been created and has not yet been saved (draft). This activity can have no phases! |
Open |
1 |
The issue is being worked on. |
Hold |
2 |
The issue is active, but it is not being worked on for internal reasons (waiting for us). |
Wait |
3 |
The issue is active, but it is not being worked on for external reasons (waiting for the customer). |
Closed |
4 |
A closed issue that will no longer be worked on. |
Phase¶
Phases are related to the topic (not the subtopic), so each topic can have its own set of phases.
You can create one or more phases for each activity (except New). However, for the Closed activity, there must be at least one phase so that an issue with this topic can be closed. For example, to distinguish the reason for a closed issue, you create phases (with the Closed activity) as
canceled by the customer - phase “Canceled by the customer”
canceled by the contact center - phase “Canceled by us”
successfully completed in the normal way - phase “Completed”
You can manage the phases in the administration in the Phase section.
Phase transitions¶
In addition to creating customized phases, you must set one or more rules for transition between phases. FrontStage limits what phase you can transition to according to the current phase. For instance, it would not make sense to be able to return a closed complaint issue in the “Completed” phase to “Awaiting technician’s assessment”. Or you want the issue to go to “Completed” only from the “Approved” phase.
Caution
You must set at least one “Allow all” transition, which will allow any phase to be set for newly created issues: Create a rule where you check only From new (source) and save.
You can manage phase transitions in the administration in the Phase transitions section.