Lead routing and case routing break the same way. A rep leaves and the user is deactivated, but the open cases stay with them. A case assignment rule or a flow points at a queue. The queue has no members, or members who never look. Nothing errors. The case sits open, the customer waits, and the first sign is a complaint.
Owned by someone who has left
Deactivating a user in Salesforce does not reassign their records. Open cases keep the deactivated owner until someone moves them. Case assignment rules only run when a case is created. Or when a user ticks the assignment box on edit. A rule written later never touches the backlog. Routing that still names the leaver, in a rule, flow or round robin, keeps sending them new cases. See round robin assigning to inactive users.
Find them:
SELECT COUNT() FROM Case WHERE IsClosed = false AND Owner.Type = 'User' AND Owner.IsActive = false
Sitting in a queue
A queue is a fine place for a case to wait for a few hours. It is not a fine place for a case to wait for a week. Cases stay queued when the queue has no members. Or when its members are not told of new cases. The queue email is off, or points at a list nobody reads. Or when the rule that should pull them out never matches. See leads stuck in a Salesforce queue for the same problem one object over.
Find the ones older than two days:
SELECT COUNT() FROM Case WHERE IsClosed = false AND Owner.Type = 'Queue' AND CreatedDate < LAST_N_DAYS:2
Replace COUNT() with Id, Subject, Owner.Name to list them.
What to change
- Reassign the leaver's open cases. Then search every case assignment rule entry, flow and routing tool for their name or Id. See reassigning records from a departed rep.
- Give every case queue an active member and a queue email that reaches a person.
- Set a limit, two days say, after which a queued case escalates to a named owner. Run the second query against it.
These two checks run nightly in Routing Forensics on the Monitor Plus plan, read-only. The query is shown in every finding.
The free scan cannot count cases. It checks the setup behind it.
Have it checked every night instead.
Routing Forensics connects as a read-only user and checks this, and the rest of your routing, against your real leads. Three design partners get a free health report on their own CRM, free for 90 days: what is leaking, where, and what it is worth. Apply for a place.
The free scan cannot count cases. It reads your routing setup in your browser. Scan your Salesforce or HubSpot routing. The nightly check, open to design partners, counts it.