Staying up to date on new features in ServiceNow's Customer Workflows space is essential for businesses that rely on these platforms to provide exceptional customer service and support. By keeping on top of the latest updates and enhancements, businesses can leverage new tools and capabilities to optimize their workflows, increase efficiency, and improve the customer experience. For example, new features may allow for more streamlined communication channels, automated processes, and improved data analysis, which can lead to faster response times, more personalized service, and better issue resolution.  

Additionally, staying up to date on new features can help businesses stay ahead of the competition by being able to offer cutting-edge solutions to their customers. Overall, investing time and resources into understanding and utilizing new features in ServiceNow's Customer Service and Field Service Management modules is crucial for businesses that wish to maintain a competitive edge and provide top-notch customer service.  

Here are some new features that stick out that can be utilized within the Customer Service space:  

CSM

Omnichannel Callback

‍Enable your customers to request a callback from an agent as soon as possible or to schedule a callback for a later date and time. Omnichannel Callback offers enhanced user experience by providing an option for agents to call users back rather than waiting in the queue for an available agent.  

For example, you can use the callback functionality to call users back when the agent wait time is long or when there are no agents available.  

Proactive Triggers

‍Proactive Triggers supports end users by providing helpful platform actions, using real-time data. Admin users can customize rules and actions to present rich text pop-up messages to specific users.  

Proactive Triggers can increase adoption of Virtual Agent by proactively sending context-specific messages to end users.

Conversational IVR with Amazon Connect

‍ServiceNow's Conversational IVR with Amazon Connect enables Conversational Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to be conducted by your instance. Users will be able to conduct conversations with a bot via the phone channel, powered by ServiceNow Virtual Agent

Common Attributes

‍Enhance the industry data model for service organizations by capturing the common attributes to create a unified reference architecture and data model so that industries and customers can create vertical solutions.  

Utilize use cases from industries like Financial Services Operations, Healthcare and Life Sciences, and Public Sector Digital Services, to capture common attributes for your architecture and data model.  

For example, a service organization may want to capture attributes for bank branches, hospitals, and agencies.  

By capturing these common attributes across industries, you can create a unified reference architecture and data model that avoids implementing the same attribute across different industries. 

Quick Start Tests

‍Validate that the Customer Service Management application still works after you make any configuration change such as apply an upgrade or develop an application. Copy and customize these quick start tests to pass when using your instance-specific data.

FSM

Schedule optimization​

Schedule Optimization enables you to auto-assign tasks, adapt task schedules to changing conditions, and focus only on exception cases. Applying policies enables you to formulate the best possible schedule to maximize task assignment and minimize travel time.  

This enables service providers: to coordinate and direct a large number of agents at once.

This enables the dispatcher: to focus on solving exceptions. The dispatcher can focus on tasks that come after the batch run starts, tasks that are left unassigned by the optimization, or tasks that should be assigned differently based on additional information available only to the dispatcher.

This enables agents: to quickly move from one assignment to another, increasing agent productivity.

Workforce optimization

Managers can plan and manage shifts, team schedule, skills, and find coaching opportunities. Process Optimization looks at operational information within instances and uncovers hidden delays and bottlenecks. Customers can apply root cause analyses to process inefficiencies and reduce costs by implementing corrective actions and connect KPI trends to underlying processes.  

Manage and maintain the productivity of your workforce from a single location using Workforce Optimization for Field Service.

This feature also enables you to coach your teams so that they gain the skills that let you address the demands from your customers.  

Workforce Optimization for Field Service introduces Manager Workspace, which provides a real-time overview of the ongoing workload and the team performance. It also help managers to manage the schedules and shifts of their agents.

Territory Planning console

Field Service Territory Planning enables you to create, view, analyze, and manage territories for better scheduling of work orders and work order tasks.

A territory is a geographical location, account type, customer, or the like. The Field Service Territory Planning feature filters the best matched territories for a work order task based on the defined matching rules and conditions.  

The filtered territory further helps determine the agent or group best positioned to execute the work order task based on the geographical location.

Mobile enhancements

For improved online and offline transitions and automated location tracking, Field Service agents and contractors can use the Now Mobile Agent application.

When not connected to the Internet, you can still execute assigned tasks, manage assets, access your schedule, track the time stamp of updated tasks, and close work orders and work order tasks. The data for tasks performed offline is stored on your device and synchronized when the device goes online.

Task Bundling

‍The ServiceNow Utah release will include the new Task Bundling feature, which is available to users with a FSM Professional or Enterprise license. The Task Bundler enables users to consolidate multiple Work Order Tasks into a single trip.  Dispatchers create bundled tasks in Dispatcher Workspace.  

You can combine any number of work order tasks into a bundle. You can group tasks by various criteria, such as a territory or an agent’s route.

When a bundle is created, a work order task and work order number are assigned. Bundles must be assigned to an agent after they are created. Auto assignment isn't supported with work order task bundling.

About the Author

Kirsten Brandenburg is the Strategist for the Customer Practice at NewRocket. Kirsten has been in the ServiceNow ecosystem for 10 years and leads go to market strategy and solutions for CSM, FSM, and Domain Separation from NYC. She loves traveling, science fiction, and showing anyone pictures of her dog. She also loves attending Knowledge conferences and hopes to meet you in Las Vegas!