Creating Questions for Customers to Submit

Campaigns and forms are used to create questions that customers can ask in the Contact Us section. The campaign and form create the structure of what a customer must include when sending a question to a utility. Refer to your Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing documentation for additional information on creating campaigns and forms.

Note: This documentation provides steps to complete these configuration tasks using Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. However, many of these tasks can be completed with other applicable products such as Oracle Utilities Customer to Meter or Oracle Utilities Customer Cloud Service. Refer to your applicable product documentation for steps to complete the configuration using your Oracle Utilities product. Additionally, this documentation assumes that you know how to create the various objects listed below as well as modify or create master configurations. For additional details on these tasks, refer to the applicable Oracle Utilities Documentation.

To create a campaign for a customer question:

Each question displayed to a customer in the Ask a Question drop-down list must have an applicable campaign. Use the steps below to create a question, and all applicable customer inputs for that question, and repeat these steps to create each required question.

  1. Log in to Customer Care and Billing.
  2. From Menu, select Sales and Marketing, select Campaign, and then select Add. The options to create a campaign are displayed.
  3. From the Main tab, complete the following information for the question. All fields not mentioned below are not utilized for question topics and can use default values.
    • Campaign: An internal name for the campaign, for example, Report a Gas Leak.
    • Description: An internal description to provide additional explanation to internal audiences of the purpose of the campaign.
    • Campaign Status: Set to Active. This status does not affect the functionality of the questions used for the campaign, but defining as Active can help clarify to internal users that the campaign is being actively used.
  4. From the Questions & Misc. Fields tab, complete the following information for the first customer input for a question. All fields not mentioned below are not utilized for customer input and can use default values.
    • Prompt on Order: The informational text displayed to customers for the customer input. For example, the first customer input for reporting a gas leak could be: The closest intersection of the leak, if the leak is not at your home.
    • Sequence: The relative order in which the customer input is displayed for the question. The lower values are shown higher towards the top of the question. You can use increments of 10 to allow for inserting additional customer inputs at a later time.
    • Applicability: Defines if the customer must provide an input. Select Required if a customer must provide an input, and select Optional if the input can be skipped.
    • Type of Response: Select Characteristic to define how the customer input is captured.
      • Characteristic Entity: Characteristic type response can be related to the Account, Order, Person, or Premise characteristics.
      • Characteristic Type: Click the search icon to view a list of available characteristic types to choose from. When selecting a characteristic, be aware of the Type of Char Value: 
        • Predefined Value: A drop-down list with the available values is presented to the customer to select from.
        • Adhoc Value: A free form text field is presented to the customer.
      • Default Char: This is not utilized and can keep the default value.
  5. From the Questions & Misc. Fields tab, click the plus icon to add another customer input for the question. Complete all information for the customer input as described in the previous step. Repeat this process until all inputs for a question are created.
  6. From the Algorithms tab, in the System Event drop-down list, select Campaign Eligibility. Within the Algorithm field, select C1-ELIGIBLE.

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To create a form for a customer question:

After a campaign is created for a question, it must be mapped to a form, which must be created as a self-service task type. Use the steps below to create a form for a customer question, and repeat these steps to create a form for each question.

  1. Log in to Customer Care and Billing.
  2. From Menu, select Self-Service, select Self-Service Task Type, and then select Add. The Select Business Object dialog box opens.
  3. From the drop-down list select Form Task Type and click OK. The Form Task Type dialog box opens.
  4. From the Main area, complete the following information:
    • Service Task Type: The internal name for the form.
    • Description: The name of the question displayed to customers in the Ask a Question drop-down list. It must be short and descriptive.
    • Related Transaction Object: Select Form Task.
    • Service Task Type Status: Select Active. This status does not affect the functionality of the question, but defining as active can help clarify to internal users that the form is being actively used.
    • Service Task Class: Select Self Service.
  5. From the Form Task Type Details area, complete the following information:
    • Form Type: Select Forms - Issues.
    • Allow Update Criteria Script: Keep the default, which includes no criteria script.
    • Campaign: Select the campaign that you created for a question.
  6. From the Notification Information area, complete the following information:
    • Update Notification and Close Notification: Define how notifications are delivered to customers when there is an update to their question, or the question has been closed, respectively. This includes selecting a delivery type such as email or SMS, and selecting messages that provide the notification subject and text. The script C1-BillDueMg provides an example script that is intended to be used for bill due notifications, and can be reviewed here for the general structure and technique to create this type of notification script.
    • Retry Information: If you have defined a notification delivery configuration that identifies unsuccessful notifications, you can also define the retry frequency and maximum number of retries. You can keep the default, which does not attempt any retries for update or close notifications.
  7. From the Customer Close Reasons area, keep the default. Only Customer Service Representatives are capable of closing customer questions.
  8. From the Alert Information area, keep the default.
  9. Click Save to create the new form.

To include customer questions in Digital Self Service - Transactions

After the campaign and form objects are created for questions, the applicable forms can be included in your self-service master configuration to include the questions as part of Digital Self Service - Transactions.

  1. Log in to Customer Care and Billing as a user with edit access for the CC&B Self-Service Integration master configuration.
  2. From the Admin menu, select General, and select Master Configuration. From the Master Configuration zone, select the Edit option for the CC&B Self-Service Integration master configuration. The master configuration is displayed.
  3. From the Forms zone, ensure that Forms - Issue is included as a Form Type. If it is not included, click the plus icon and add this form type.
  4. Click the plus icon in the Service Task Type area, and select the form used for a customer question. Repeat this step to include all forms that are mapped to customer questions.
  5. Click Save to save the master configuration changes.

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