No matter what kind of products you sell, it's important to have a process in place for dealing with any customer issues which may arise, either during or after a sale.
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By setting up Problem Pipelines, customer-facing teams can record client issues as a CRM ticket and pass it in real-time to your Customer Service, Warehousing or Accounts team quickly and easily. This not only ensures everyone follows a predefined process when dealing with a customer issue, but it enables you to identify which issues occur more frequently than others. Using detailed accounts and sales data, issues can then be resolved at the source, so your teams can turn every problem into an amazing customer experience.

Depending on the nature of your business, you may find there are common issues which arise more often than others. Some may be to do with a specific product or range of products you sell, and others could even be linked to the courier you use.

Below are just a few examples of some Problems. Make a list of the types of issues your customers experience, as this will help you in the set up process later on:

These represent the key stages that happen (or could happen) when dealing with a typical customer query. For example, your first Status may be 'Acknowledgement Sent' and the next could be 'In Hand', then finally having either 'Confirmed Successful' or 'Unable to Progress' as your closing Status.

Problem Statuses need to be set up first, before we can slot these into your Pipelines.

Problem Pipelines are essentially funnels or journeys which should depict your typical process for dealing with customer queries/issues. When you set these up, you can choose the order in which your Statuses should appear for each Pipeline, so that your teams take the right actions in the right order.
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​Note: lots of CRM customers have more than 1 Problem Pipeline, especially if they have different types of customer queries/after-sales processes which require a different approach. So, it's important to think about the types of Statuses you want, and the types of Pipelines you'll need.

To add a new Problem Status, click on the settings icon in the bottom left-hand corner.
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Once within the Settings Centre, navigate to the Service section and scroll down until you reach the Problem Status configure option.

By clicking on the 'Click to Configure' link, the Configure Problem Status window will open. To add in a new Problem Status, click on the plus icon along the top of the screen.

You'll then be asked to give the new Problem Status a Description. Please make sure this is relevant to the customer service stage that this Status will be used for. Click 'Create'.

Now you've created the Problem Status, you'll need to choose some additional preferences for this Status by clicking the Pencil Icon next to the newly added Status. Then, the below side panel will appear with some additional drop-down lists for you to configure.

Once happy with your amendments, click out of the side panel and your changes will be saved.

You'll need to follow this process to create every single Status.

Now, we need to add your Problem Statuses to a new Problem Pipeline!

Click on the settings icon in the bottom left-hand corner.

Next, navigate to the Service page and scroll down until you reach the Problem Pipelines configure option.

By selecting the 'Click here to Configure' link, the Configure Problem Pipeline window will open. Here, you'll see all of your existing Problem Pipelines. To add a new one, simply click on the plus icon in the top right-hand corner.

You'll then be asked to give the new Problem Pipeline a Description. Make sure this is relevant to the after-sales process that the pipeline will be used for. Then, click 'Create'.

Now you've created the Problem Pipeline, you'll need to add in the required statuses by clicking on the pencil icon.

This will then open the below side bar, where you can make various edits to your new Problem Pipeline.

To add in Statuses, click on the plus icon next to the 'Status' heading.

You'll then be presented with a list of all the active Statuses that you currently have configured within the CRM. Here, you can select the Statuses you wish to add to the Problem Pipeline. Once happy with your choices click 'Update'.

Once added, you can then drag and drop the Statuses into the desired sequence to ensure users follow them in the most appropriate order.

Finally, you'll need to set up your closing Statuses by clicking the plus icon next to the 'Closing Status' section.

You'll then be presented with a list of all the closing Statuses configured within the CRM, including 'Unable to Progress' and 'Confirmed Successful'. Click 'Update' once happy with the selection.

You're all set! You've now created Problem Statuses and added these into a new Problem Pipeline! Customer-facing teams can now use these when dealing with a customer query!

It can be useful to set up Problem Sources too in the CRM if you want to gather extra insights in the ticket logging process.

These help you record where the customer's query came from. For example, did the customer call in about the issue, or did they send an email in? By collecting this information, it can help you distribute the right amount of resource in the right places, or even help identify new initiatives you could put in place to alleviate pressures from elsewhere. For example, if 80% of your queries come through via the telephone, you could consider adding a chat feature to your website to encourage customers to get a more instant response, rather than waiting on-hold in a queue.

You can configure your Problem Sources by following the steps in this guide.