(2024.1) Tracking Service Features within PCR-360

Overview

With all of the various Service Features that augment the details of an individual Service, tracking these features can prove a challenge for many organizations. PCR does not recommend tracking these features as Services themselves within PCR-360 because this potentially complicates the appearance of the Services when on a Bill, and it is not intuitive to associate two different Services together. Due to the flexibility of PCR-360, your organization has a variety of possible options. Which option is selected will be dependent on Organizational needs.

For information on tracking other types of non-traditional Services, please review our article on Tracking non-traditional Services.

Here are some items to consider:

• Will the Service Features be Billable?

• Will the Service Features appear on the Bill?

Depending on Organizational needs, there are three recommended practices for tracking Service Features within PCR-360.

To help illustrate the usage of tracking these Service Features, we will be using the example of Voicemail.

Understanding the available tools

Charges

No matter what method your Organization does for tracking Service Features, if there are plans to Bill, some form of Charge Catalogs will be needed to manage the Charges. 

It is strongly encouraged to create new Charge Catalogs to represent the Service Feature fees so that they can be changed and updated independently from other Services to ensure clean billing. 

Note: To show an item on a Bill, it must be Active and Assigned to an Owner. Services will not appear on a Bill until they have been activated and assigned to an Owner, and as such, any Service Features on the Service will also not appear.

UDFs

Through User-Defined Fields, your Organization can set up any number of fields desired for the Service Features.

Example Service Features:

1. Automatic Callback

2. Automatic Redial

3. Call Forwarding

4. Caller ID

5. Call Waiting

6. Three-Way Calling

7. Voicemail

When creating these UDFs to represent a feature, PCR recommends using the Checkbox field type to indicate if the feature is present on the Service.  These UDFs can be associated with one or more different Services Catalogs, so Users do not need to create separate UDFs for Voicemail for a Business Line and a Cellular Phone.

Examples

Using Charges

Tracking Service Features may seem like the ideal solution for tracking the Billing of Service Features. They are easy to apply to a Service, will display on the Bill so the Users are aware of everything they are paying for, and can be seen on a Service's Charges Tab to see what is presently active on the Service.

It takes additional lookups to see what types of Service Features might be available for any given Service Catalog or if specific Locations might restrict the use of a Service Feature. This requires Customer Service Representatives and Customers who might desire these features to have access to an alternate way to identify what is available.  This also makes it less intuitive to identify what might feature might be currently on a Service since a User might not consider looking at the list of Charges on a Service to look for the presence of a feature.  If multiple different Charges are already on a Service, it could make locating a specific item difficult from within PCR-360.

Additionally, if your Organization is not Billing for a Service Feature, these features would be tracked as a Charge on the Service for $0.00 for each Billing Cycle, which may seem strange to a Customer when reviewing their Bill.

PCR recommends this process for when your Organization begins exploring the option of Billing for Service Features, as this is not an ideal solution for tracking these features.

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Service Feature - Charge Example

Using UDFs

When using UDFs to track a Service Feature, the feature can be directly requested within (2024.1) CustomerCenter and makes identifying the presence of the feature quickly accessible from internal application records.  However, this will not cause the feature to appear on the Bill, which may make the User of the Service confused when they review their Bill. When not Billing for a Service Feature, using UDFs is the recommended method for tracking Service Features. UDFs make it very clear internally what is available and what is presently active for the Service via the UDF Tab.

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Service Feature - UDF Example

Using  Charges and UDFs

When using both Charges and UDFs to track Service Features, your Organization can get the best of both other methods, with only adding a little extra complexity to ensure the status of the Charges is synchronized with the UDF fields. Through a combination of Custom Events and Escalations, your Organization can set up an internal process that when a Service Feature is added or removed from a Service, the Charge will be directly added or stopped on the Service.  Unfortunately, this method does not allow using the Charge on a Service Order where the tech performed the work.  Whether a User is Billed for a Service Feature or not, this is the recommended method to track Service Features; it clearly lays out the Charges to the User.  

Sample Custom Event: Scheduled Maintenance

This example illustrates how your organization can have a custom event that uses custom User-Defined Fields to meet your organizational needs.

How to Create an Escalation

Packages for applying Service Features

Your Organization can set up a Package to apply specific Service/Equipment options for Users to request from within CustomerCenter. Packages use Service Desk Classifications (SDCs) to automatically add Services, Equipment, and Charges when the User submits a request for the Package. Packages can be used to easily make User requests for specific setups, such as a New Phone Line, Voice Mail, and Call Forwarding into a singular Item from within CustomerCenter for them to request.