Set Up Salesforce Web-to-Case From Scratch

Web-to-Case lets customers submit support requests from your website that automatically become Case records in Salesforce. Here’s how to turn it on:

1. Go to Setup in Salesforce (gear icon → Setup).
2. In the Quick Find box, type "Web-to-Case".
3. Click Web-to-Case under Service.
4. Check Enable Web-to-Case.
5. Optionally set a Default Case Origin (e.g., "Web") so you can filter web-submitted cases in reports.
6. Set the Response Template — this is the auto-reply email sent to the customer confirming their case was received.
7. Check Hide Record Information if you don’t want the confirmation page to display case details.
8. Click Save.

The daily limit is 5,000 cases for most orgs. Cases beyond the limit are queued and processed the next day.

Decide what information you want to collect from customers. The right fields reduce back-and-forth and help your support team resolve issues faster.

Recommended fields:

• Contact Name + Email — who’s reporting the issue
• Subject — one-line summary of the problem
• Description — detailed explanation
• Priority — let customers indicate urgency (Low / Medium / High)
• Type — categorize the request (Question / Problem / Feature Request)

Optional but useful:

• File Attachment — screenshots, error logs, documents
• Product — if you support multiple products
• Case Origin — set as a hidden field to track that the case came from the web form

Assignment rules automatically route cases to the right agent or queue based on criteria you define.

1. Go to Setup → Case Assignment Rules.
2. Click New Rule and name it (e.g., "Web Case Routing").
3. Set it as the active rule.
4. Add Rule Entries with criteria and assign to a user or queue:

Example rule entries:

• Priority = High → assign to Senior Support Queue
• Type = "Feature Request" → assign to Product Team Queue
• All others → assign to General Support Queue

Rules are evaluated in order — the first matching entry wins. Put your most specific rules at the top.

Important: For web cases to use assignment rules, your form must include:

Escalation rules ensure no case falls through the cracks. If a case isn’t resolved within your SLA, Salesforce can automatically reassign it, notify a manager, or change its priority.

1. Go to Setup → Escalation Rules.
2. Click New Rule and name it (e.g., "SLA Escalation").
3. Set it as the active rule.
4. Add Rule Entries with time-based criteria:

Example escalation:

• If a High priority case is open for more than 2 hours → reassign to Support Manager + send email alert
• If any case is open for more than 24 hours → escalate to Team Lead

Escalation time is based on business hours defined in your org, not clock time. Make sure your business hours are configured correctly under Setup → Business Hours.

Both features create Cases, but they serve different use cases:

Our recommendation: Use both. Web-to-Case for your website support page (structured data) and Email-to-Case for your [email protected] inbox (unstructured).

Before going live, test the full flow:

1. Submit a test case from your form using a personal email. Verify the Case appears in Salesforce.
2. Check field mapping — ensure Subject, Description, Priority, etc. populated correctly.
3. Verify assignment — confirm the case was routed to the correct queue or agent.
4. Test auto-response — check that the customer received a confirmation email.
5. Test escalation — create a test case and wait (or adjust the timer) to confirm escalation fires.
6. Test the return URL — after form submission, you should land on your thank-you page.

Common issues:

• Case not appearing: Verify your Org ID. Web-to-Case uses orgid (not oid like Web-to-Lead).
• Assignment rules not firing: Make sure the hidden external=1 field is in your form.
• No auto-response: Check that the response template is set in Web-to-Case settings and the customer’s email field is mapped correctly.