The service team was busy answering customers. Too much effort also went into creating cases, checking ownership and moving work between teams.
Mason Pete's work connected the customer care process with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service and omnichannel working. The result reported by Peter: 60% less time spent on case work over three months.
Start with how customers get help
Customers contacted the organisation by phone and email. Some questions could be answered straight away. Others needed investigation or help from a specialist.
The existing way of working made that distinction difficult. Employees could spend time creating and closing a case for a simple interaction, or checking when another team would follow up. Recurring backlogs put pressure on the people handling the work.
The business question was practical: which questions can the first person finish, and which need a case with a clear owner?
Give simple questions a simpler path
The operating model separated first-line interactions from more complex case work and specialist administration. A question that could be answered immediately could stay an email or phone interaction. A question needing another team would become a case.
That changed what the Microsoft Dynamics design needed to support. The focus moved to a clear decision about the next step, rather than treating every contact in the same way.
The design also put the ongoing customer communication with the team responsible for solving the issue. That gave the handover a clear purpose: pass on the question, the relevant context and ownership of the next action.
Connect the process to the Microsoft Dynamics setup
The functional design translated those responsibilities into queues, workstreams, case conversion and routing. It covered how incoming emails and voice interactions should be handled, and when a case should move to a specialist.
Skills and capacity profiles were part of the proposed assignment model. They gave the team a way to consider both the knowledge needed for a question and the work an employee could take on.
Routing reviews also examined repeated routing triggers, duplicate queue items and automatic replies entering the work queue. The redesign set out clearer responsibilities for email and case routing, with fallback handling for work that did not match the normal rules.
These documents cover different stages of the work. Later routing proposals and wider automation remain distinct from the reported three-month result.
60% less time spent on case work
Peter reports that, over three months, this customer reduced the time spent on case work by 60% using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service and omnichannel working. This is a result from one engagement; the outcome for another team will depend on its starting point and the changes made.
The measure is the effort spent on case work. The practical focus was the employee's day: how much time goes into handling the question, and how much goes into organising the work around it?
For Mason Pete, that is the link between business understanding and technical delivery. Start with the process people need, work through the Microsoft Dynamics details and check what improves in daily use.
Start with one customer question
Follow a recent question from arrival to answer. Ask why a case was needed, who owned the next step and which information had to be entered or checked again.
That gives us something concrete to improve with your team. Read our practical workload guide for a starting point.