ServiceNow never disappoints when it comes to pushing new releases. Much like its predecessors, the new Rome release brings a host of innovations to the table and also makes significant improvements to many of the most cherished CSM offerings.
Holistically speaking, it’s yet another significant step towards a more modern and unified experience for businesses and end-users.
Rome Bolsters the Customer Service Management (CSM) Operations
As hinted above, the Rome release has brought about notable advancements in the way Now Platform® functions. CSM, in particular, seems to be driving quite swiftly, setting the pace for an enthralling forthcoming period for businesses.
Here’s how the Rome release benefits the CSM endeavors:
Conversation Autopilot
To free up the agents and delegate the tasks more effectively, Rome allows agents to switch on the Virtual Agent topics during a chat with the requester. In other words, an agent can temporarily leverage the virtual agent to engage the user while he or she multitasks.
It is, however, essential that the virtual agent caters to the needs of the requester precisely why the use of Autopilot topic is constrained to the channel through which the agent chat is being progressed. Here are some go-to features of Conversation Autopilot:
- Agent is informed about the status of the virtual agent (i.e., when it has initiated and when it’ll stop) via a workspace notification
- Agent can communicate with the supervisors even when the Autopilot is on
- Agent can seamlessly monitor the conversations of the requester with the virtual agent and jump in whenever needed
Dynamic Language Translation
The customer service domain is often plagued by language barriers, but the Rome release ensures that such restrictions no longer stand a chance in the delivery of a high-grade customer experience (CX). For that, Now Platform® now comes equipped with the dynamic translation of languages regardless of the language that the requester has initiated the conversation in.
This means that if a customer converses in German and the agent in English, both the parties would have their language translated in real-time before reaching the receiver, thus warding off the need for a shared language. Rome makes this possible through integration with Google Cloud, IBM, and Microsoft Azure Translator Services.
Profanity Filter
Frictions between customers and agents have been widely discussed in the customer support fraternity. However, a concrete solution has always seemed well-nigh impossible UNTIL NOW.
The new Profanity Filter for agent chat works to obstruct the delivery of any offensive message from the agent’s desk. Here’s how this filter operates:
- Whenever an agent writes a prohibited term, this message appears on their screen – “This message contains inappropriate language and therefore was not delivered.”
- The managers are instantly notified about the use of a prohibited term in their workspace. They can then choose to message the agent privately, or themselves jump into the conversation.
Playbooks
One of the major improvements has been in the area of playbooks, which are now more focused on rendering contextual information and helping agents more profoundly with complaint and product support-related customer support cases.
The Now Platform® facilitates accessing different playbook applications for improved agent productivity.
For instance,
- Businesses can now use the “Playbooks for Customer Service Management plugin” to configure and customize the playbooks according to the needs of their consumers.
- Applications like Case Playbook for On-boarding, Complaints, and Product Support can come in handy for explicitly laying emphasis on each of the processes and helping agents through the same.
A host of other capabilities, too, surface as one explores the features on a granular level. These include:
- Agents are at liberty to develop records using playbooks and subsequently get a holistic view into the end-to-end lifecycle of a case
- Additional information such as SLAs, customer-specific details, activity stream, etc., is visible via the contextual panel
Guided Decisions
The Rome release takes the decision guidance through decision trees to the next level. The core idea behind guided decisions is to help speed up issue resolution, lower the decision complexity, and improve the overall productivity of an agent. This is accomplished through decision trees that engage the agent with follow-up questions and related guidance. These decision trees are customarily authored by subject matter experts, something that further allows their custom addition into playbooks.
These guided decisions can be further enhanced by leveraging the “Next Best Action” feature that elucidates the best possible actions that an agent can take during issue resolution. Rome release accomplishes the same by allowing the activation of plugins like com.snc.cs_next_best_action, com.snc.guided_decisions, etc.
Omnichannel Customer Service
The viability and necessity of omnichannel support need no introduction, especially when every business caters to users on disparate channels. Favorably, ServiceNow has made omnichannel support integral to the success of the Rome release by optimizing the chat, email, and phone channels.
The chat channel integrates options like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and LINE. It further expedites the ability to connect tools like Zoom to enhance service delivery. Likewise, the phone channel finds itself in coalition with the Now Platform® for both inbound and outbound calls.
Summing Up
The Rome release has been touted as a game-changer, even among ServiceNow’s list of impressive agents- and customer-centric offerings. The overhaul in the core features, their applications, and a host of other components provide a ray of hope for businesses that have been struggling with the effectiveness of CSM.
Certainly, the Now Platform® provides the highest levels of visibility, governance, and control over the end-to-end customer service experience. From creating a service strategy and addressing service transformation needs to crafting the best-in-class customer experience, the Rome release presents itself as a viable platform to embark on the CX journey. At Xceltrait, we are passionate about bringing together initiatives that are carefully aligned with your business objectives. On the same lines, we have been exploring the countless possibilities that Now Platform® offers and would love to have them defined as a pillar of growth for your business. Get in touch now.
