Interaction Channels and Digital Engagement
Choosing and configuring the front door
Each channel has a distinct configuration surface and a distinct failure mode.
- Email-to-Case turns inbound email into cases. On-Demand Email-to-Case routes through Salesforce servers, so you don't need to open your firewall or run an email agent on-premises; the non-on-demand version requires allowlisting Salesforce IP ranges and running an email agent.
- Web-to-Case publishes an unauthenticated form that creates cases - watch the daily generation cap and spam/duplicate risk. Web-to-Lead is its sales counterpart.
- Messaging for In-App and Web is asynchronous: conversations persist across sessions, support rich messages and multiple channels (SMS, WhatsApp), and deploy through an embedded messaging component.
- Service Cloud Voice brings telephony into the console with transcription and AI; it can be partner telephony (e.g., Amazon Connect) or bring-your-own-telephony.
- CTI integrates an existing phone system without the full voice platform.
- Experience Cloud sites deliver self-service, case creation, and Knowledge.
- Einstein Bots / Agentforce agents provide containment before a human is involved.
Traps: treating messaging as synchronous chat; assuming Web-to-Case can authenticate users; forgetting that bot-to-human handoff needs a queue and Omni-Channel; conflating Service Cloud Voice with CTI.
Rule of thumb: choose the channel by the customer's urgency and context, not by what is easiest to build - and add a channel only when you can route, measure, and staff it.
Worked example: A retailer wants WhatsApp support. The answer isn't a new case object; it's a messaging channel, a routing queue, and a staffing model behind it.