Understanding Customer Service Request Questions

One or more questions can be asked during the flow of a self-service New Service / Add Service / Stop Service / Transfer Service request. The questions can vary across customer service request types. For instance, the questions asked during a self-service New Service / Add Service request differ from the questions asked during a Stop Service request. Transfer Service requests ask questions for both stopping service and starting service.

The base product provides a Customer Service Request Type Question business object (C1-CSRTQuestion) for configuring questions. Refer to the business object in the application for more information

The following describes the functionality that this business object supports:

Question Structure and Valid Answers

A Customer Service Request Type Question references a Customer Question that defines the structure of the question - i.e., question text, answer style (i.e., data type), and valid answers (if applicable).

Refer to Defining Customer Questions for more details.

Question Applicability

The questions to ask during the flow of a customer service request can be determined using any of the following applicability criteria:
  • The customer starting/stopping service is a Person or Business
  • Account's Customer Class
  • Start / Stop Premise's Premise Type
  • SP Type(s) on the Premise(s) being started / stopped

Applicability criteria is optional. General questions can be configured to be always applicable.

Questions are marked as either Required or Optional. When marked as Optional on the CS Request Type Questions, it can be overridden as Required for certain SP Type(s) or Premise Type(s) or any other custom applicability critiera.

Your implementation can extend applicability criteria by:
  • Adding elements to the CS Request Type Question - Main (C1-CSRTQuestionMain) data area, and / or
  • Adding lookup values for Question Related Object Type (QSTN_​REL_​OBJ_​TYPE_​FLG)

Note that if you choose to extend the Question Related Object Types, you will also need to customize the Read Questions algorithm plugged in on the Customer Service Request Type BOs, to handle your additional applicability criteria.

Answer-Based Question Relationships (Conditional Questions)

A question can have one or more valid answers. Each valid answer, in turn, can determine the next question to ask.

A Customer Service Request Type Question can reference a related question for each Valid Answer. The related question must be one that is already configured on the Customer Service Request Type. Therefore, questions configuration should be a two-step process:
  • Add all questions to the Customer Service Request Type.
  • For each question, set up the related question(s) based on its valid answer(s).
The system has validation in place to ensure that question relationships do not result in recursion.

Question Placement Groups

A customer service request type can logically group questions based on where they are shown on the user interface. For instance, with a Transfer Service Request, the questions for stopping service are shown separately from the questions for starting service.

A Customer Service Request Type Question can be designated with a Question Placement Group, which is an extendable lookup (C1-QuestionPlacementGrpLookup) field. Base-owned lookup values are provided for Self-Service Start Service and Self-Service Stop Service. Each lookup value defines the customer service request type business objects that can use the Question Placement Group. Your implementation can define additional lookup values, if the groupings need to be more specific / granular.

Retrieving Applicable Questions

The Read Questions plug-in on the Customer Service Request Type BO is responsible for retrieving the questions that are applicable to a customer service request rype. Given the inputs (Customer Service Request Type, Person ID, Account ID and Premise ID), the questions are read based on applicability criteria: Person / Business, Customer Class, Premise Type, SP Type(s) and/or any implementation-specific question applicability criteria (configured in Question Related Objects).

The Read CS Request Type Questions By Applicability (C1RDCSRTQSTN) base algorithm will apply Person / Business, Customer Class, Premise Type and SP Type criteria. Additional applicability criteria will require a custom algorithm type.

The Read Questions plug-in spot is invoked using a common service script, Read CS Request Type Questions By Applicability (C1RDCSRTQSTN). The Service Questions operation of the Start Stop Transfer Tasks IWS calls this script to read the applicable questions to show on the self-service user interface. Refer to this IWS' specifications for more details.