Milestones are a fundamental feature within Salesforce Service Cloud that help organizations track and manage time-sensitive service level agreements (SLAs) for customer support cases. They represent required steps or deadlines that must be completed within a specified timeframe during the case res…Milestones are a fundamental feature within Salesforce Service Cloud that help organizations track and manage time-sensitive service level agreements (SLAs) for customer support cases. They represent required steps or deadlines that must be completed within a specified timeframe during the case resolution process.
Milestones work within the Entitlement Management framework, which determines what level of support a customer is entitled to receive. When a case is created, Salesforce automatically applies relevant milestones based on the entitlement associated with that customer or case.
Key components of Milestones include:
**Milestone Types**: These define the specific service benchmarks you want to track, such as First Response Time, Resolution Time, or Follow-up Response Time. Organizations can create custom milestone types to match their unique business processes.
**Entitlement Processes**: These act as timelines containing one or more milestones. They define the sequence and timing of milestones that apply to cases. An entitlement process can include multiple milestones with different time limits and actions.
**Milestone Actions**: Salesforce allows you to configure automated actions that trigger at various points - when a milestone is approaching its deadline, when it is completed, or when it becomes violated. These actions can include sending email alerts, creating tasks, or updating field values.
**Business Hours**: Milestones respect business hours settings, ensuring that time calculations only count active working hours rather than total elapsed time.
**Tracking and Reporting**: The Case Milestone related list displays all milestones associated with a case, showing their status, target dates, and completion times. Administrators can create reports and dashboards to monitor milestone compliance across the organization.
Milestones help support teams prioritize their workload, ensure consistent service delivery, and maintain accountability for meeting customer expectations. They provide visibility into case progress and help identify potential SLA breaches before they occur.
Milestones in Salesforce Service Cloud
What Are Milestones?
Milestones are required steps in your support process that represent key checkpoints or deadlines that must be completed within a specified timeframe. They are part of Salesforce's Entitlement Management feature and help service teams track whether they are meeting their service level agreements (SLAs) with customers.
Why Are Milestones Important?
Milestones are critical for several reasons:
• SLA Compliance: They ensure your team meets contractual obligations to customers • Performance Tracking: They provide visibility into how well your support team performs against targets • Customer Satisfaction: Meeting milestones leads to better customer experiences and retention • Accountability: They create clear expectations for support agents • Reporting: They enable management to analyze service performance trends
How Milestones Work
Milestones operate within a hierarchy of objects:
1. Entitlement Process: The parent container that defines the timeline and contains milestones 2. Milestones: Individual steps with target completion times (e.g., First Response, Resolution) 3. Milestone Actions: Automated actions that trigger based on milestone status (Success, Warning, Violation)
Key Components:
• Milestone Types: Reusable templates that define milestone names and recurrence types • Time Triggers: Define when actions fire relative to the milestone target date • Business Hours: Calculate milestone deadlines based on working hours • Recurrence Type: Determines if a milestone occurs once per case or multiple times (No Recurrence, Independent, Sequential)
Milestone Status Values:
• Open: Milestone is active and not yet completed • Completed: Milestone was achieved on time • Violation: Target time was exceeded before completion
Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Milestones
1. Understand the Object Hierarchy: Remember that Entitlement Processes contain Milestones, and Milestones have Milestone Actions. Questions often test this relationship.
2. Know the Three Action Types: • Success Actions - trigger when milestone is completed on time • Warning Actions - trigger before the violation occurs • Violation Actions - trigger when the target time is exceeded
3. Recurrence Type Scenarios: • No Recurrence: Milestone happens once (e.g., First Response) • Independent: Can occur multiple times, each instance tracked separately • Sequential: Must complete current instance before next one starts
4. Business Hours Consideration: Exam questions frequently ask about how business hours affect milestone calculations. Remember that milestone target times can be calculated using business hours assigned to the entitlement or case.
5. Common Exam Scenarios: • Setting up first response time milestones • Configuring escalation actions when milestones are violated • Determining which recurrence type fits a specific business requirement • Understanding when milestones start counting (usually when case is created or entitlement is applied)
6. Remember Prerequisites: To use milestones, you need: Entitlements enabled, at least one Milestone Type created, an Entitlement Process, and entitlements assigned to accounts or assets.
7. Watch for Trick Questions: Pay attention to whether questions ask about Milestone Types (reusable definitions) versus Milestones within an Entitlement Process (specific instances with time triggers).
8. Case Page Layout: Remember that the Case Milestones related list and Milestone Tracker component must be added to case page layouts for agents to view milestone status.