Two features that come standard with the Salesforce Service Cloud are Web to Case and Email to Case.  We frequently get asked what the the differences between these features are,  so we thought why not break it down here for you.

Web to Case

The Web to Case feature allows you to capture case information in a form on your company’s website and have those details come over to Salesforce as a Case record. It’s quite easy to set up.  You simply create fields in Salesforce on the Case object that align with the information you are collecting on your website form. The Web to Case HTML generator tool in Salesforce generates the HTML that your webmaster will need. Once your webmaster implements the code, it will connect your form to Salesforce.

Once connected, when the form is submitted on your website, a Case is automatically created in Salesforce with all of the corresponding fields populated. These cases enter your automated assignment rule process (should you have one in place). This ensures the entry is routed to the correct owner or queue based on the details of the Case record. An easy and effective way to kick off the customer support process….we’ll take it!  Click here for a full Web to Case overview from Salesforce.

Email to Case

The Email to Case feature allows to you set up a dedicated email address for customers to email when they have a support question or issue.  The email is routed to Salesforce and the subject and body of the email become the Case subject and description.  If a match to an existing Contact is found based on email address, the case contact will be populated as well.  These details, however, are all that you get with email to Case.  You don’t have the ability to collect additional information (such as severity level or product category) via custom fields as you do with a web form. Still , it’s a nice feature and easy to set up.  And certainly more efficient than having a staff member sort through and assign emails manually. There are two versions of Email to Case, which you can read about here.

Both of these features provide an added customer support benefit, are easy to implement, and are available in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience.  If you are currently using Cases and not taking advantage of these features, we say get on it!

Contact us if you’d like help in setting up a custom Web to Case feature complete with assigning process rules on your website or platform.