Municipal governments often manage a wide range of cases, from constituent service requests to permit applications and emergencies. With limited resources and personnel, governments need to prioritize these cases efficiently, ensuring that the most urgent and impactful issues are addressed promptly. Salesforce, a powerful customer relationship management (CRM) platform, provides municipalities with the tools to prioritize cases based on urgency and impact, helping to streamline processes, improve response times, and ensure better outcomes for residents.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how municipal governments can use Salesforce to effectively prioritize cases and allocate resources to the most critical issues.

Centralized Case Management

Salesforce acts as a centralized hub for all case-related information. Municipal governments can track service requests, complaints, or permit applications in one place, ensuring that every department has access to the same data. This makes it easier to view and categorize cases based on urgency and impact.

• How to Use: Set up custom case fields in Salesforce that track key data such as the type of case, level of urgency, and the potential impact on the community. With all case information in one place, departments can prioritize issues more systematically, rather than handling requests on a first-come, first-served basis.

Automatically Categorizing Cases by Urgency

Salesforce allows municipal governments to automatically categorize cases based on urgency. For example, an emergency water main break would take precedence over a non-urgent noise complaint. By setting up workflows and rules within Salesforce, governments can ensure that high-urgency cases are flagged and routed to the appropriate teams immediately.

• How to Use: Use Salesforce Flow or Process Builder to automate the classification of cases. For example, create a workflow that automatically categorizes cases as “high priority” if they involve public safety concerns, and set triggers to escalate these cases to the relevant teams for immediate action.

Prioritizing Based on Community Impact

In addition to urgency, municipal governments also need to consider the potential impact of a case on the community. For instance, a broken traffic light near a school zone may not seem like an urgent issue initially, but it could have a significant impact on public safety. Salesforce enables governments to analyze cases not only by urgency but also by their potential effect on community wellbeing.

• How to Use: Create custom impact metrics in Salesforce that allow caseworkers to assess the potential community impact of each case. This could include factors like the number of residents affected, the potential risks to public safety, or the financial cost of the issue. Use **case scoring** to assign a numerical value to each case’s impact, making it easier to prioritize high-impact cases.

Using Dashboards for Real-Time Monitoring

Salesforce dashboards provide real-time insights into open cases, allowing government teams to monitor which cases require immediate attention. Your municipal government can customize dashboards to display high-priority or high-impact cases, helping teams stay focused on the most critical issues.

• How to Use: Set up real-time dashboards in Salesforce that show key metrics such as the number of open high-urgency cases, average resolution time, and the current status of each high-priority case. By visualizing this data, teams can quickly assess which issues need to be addressed first and allocate resources accordingly.

Workflow Automation for Faster Resolution

Salesforce’s automation tools streamline the entire case management process, from intake to resolution. By automating routine tasks such as case assignments, notifications, and escalations, governments can ensure that urgent cases are addressed as quickly as possible without delays.

• How to Use: Implement workflow automation to automatically route high-priority cases to the appropriate departments or individuals based on predefined criteria. For example, you can automatically escalate emergency cases to senior staff for immediate action, while lower-priority cases can follow a more standard review process.

Enabling Cross-Department Collaboration

Many cases involve multiple departments working together to find a resolution. Salesforce facilitates cross-departmental collaboration by providing a shared platform where case updates, notes, and actions are logged in real-time. This ensures that all teams are aware of the case’s urgency and can contribute to its resolution.

• How to Use: Use Chatter, Salesforce’s internal communication tool, to enable team members from different departments to collaborate on high-priority cases. By keeping all communication within the Salesforce platform, municipal governments ensure transparency and prevent delays caused by poor communication.

Orchid Connect is a woman-owned Salesforce implementation firm with 30 years of experience serving associations, non-profits and small/medium businesses. We specialize in strategic and implementation services, go-to-market support, and ongoing support. To learn more, reach us at reachout@orchidconnect.com.