Case Management: Operations

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Case operations represent the daily flow of work that keeps customer service running: creating cases, assigning them to the right agents or teams, collaborating on resolutions, and many more. These are often powered by a mix of core case management capabilities, platform features, and functionalities on the CSM Configurable Workspace.

Case Creation: How is a case created, and by whom?

A case can be created automatically or manually through various entry points, for example:

Method	Trigger	Example
Self-service or portal form	Customer submits a request or issue via the portal.	A consumer reports a defective product or requests service.
Virtual Agent or chatbot	Conversation captures key information and creates a case automatically.	A customer chats about a billing issue; the chatbot or virtual agent opens a case for follow-up.
Agent assisted channels	Agents create cases from calls, emails, or walk-ups.	An agent logs a case during a support call.
Integration or automation	External systems or workflows create cases through API or integration	A system detects an outage and generates a case automatically.

Learn more about case creation and creating a case of a specific type

Case Assignment: 

Once created, cases must reach the right agent or queue quickly. CSM supports several assignment methods with varying complexity such as:

Manual assignment: Agents or agent managers can directly assign a case to themselves or other agents. Assigning a customer service case through a UI action(docs)

Rules-based assignment: Pre-defined matching rules (e.g., product line, region, customer tier) route cases that meet the conditions automatically. To know more, visit the documentation for matching rules

Assignment work bench: Uses skills, capacity, or availability criteria to evaluate, match, and route cases to the most appropriate agents. To know more, visit the documentation for assignment workbench

Advanced Work Assignment (AWA): Automatic, real-time assignment of work items (including chats, interactions, tasks, cases) based on agent skills, capacity, geography, or predefined rules to ensure the right agent gets the right case at the right time. To know more, visit case routing and assignment(docs) and Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) for CSM(docs)

Good assignment configuration ensures balanced workloads and faster resolution, helping teams meet SLAs and improve CSAT.

Note: In addition to these common assignment methods, organizations may also use escalation logic, on-call routing, or custom scripts/flows to serve specific scenarios

Collaboration and Handoff

Customer issues often require input from multiple teams. Case collaboration tools in CSM make that easier. Some of these include:

Case Tasks: Complex cases broken into smaller tasks or sub-tasks that can be worked in parallel. Each task can be assigned to a specific user or group, tracked separately, and rolled up to the parent case for full visibility. Know more about case related activities and tasks

Collaboration Tools on the Workspace: The CSM Configurable Workspace offers many features to enable collaboration between agents while working on cases.

For example, agents can:

* tag colleagues, share knowledge articles, or use workspace components like dynamic related records to access linked tasks, interactions, or records without leaving the case. Know more about related records.

* initiate a chat from the sidebar to work towards case resolution. Know more about sidebar discussions

* get alerted to the presence of other users viewing the same case record. Record presence feature on the CSM default record page

* have a conversation with other agents or chat managers without the requester knowing. Agent whisper feature for conversational interfaces.

Work Notes and Comments: Agents can use work notes for internal updates and comments for customer-facing communication. Keeping these distinct ensures that sensitive details stay internal while customers remain informed.

Assignment and Updates: Cases can be transferred to another agent or group manually or automatically (through routing rules) when ownership or expertise needs change, and automatic notifications alert teams to these changes. Know more about creating rules for case routing (docs)

Escalations and Major Cases

Escalations: When a case or an account meets specific criteria (e.g., breaching an SLA) the escalation process highlights and raises awareness of important customer issues. Escalations can automatically notify stakeholders, change priority, or reassign the case to a higher-tier group. Learn more about case and account escalation (docs).

Major Case Management: When multiple customer issues stem from the same root cause (e.g., a regional internet service outage), a “major case” serves as the parent, aggregating related cases for coordinated management. Know more about major issue management(docs) as a broader concept, and creating a major case(docs)

Communication Management: Escalated or major cases can trigger notifications or broadcast updates to affected customers, ensuring transparency without requiring manual outreach.

These features help service teams respond quickly to critical issues, maintain consistent communication, and prevent duplicate effort.

Closing the Case

Once resolution steps are complete and verified, the case is closed.
During closure:

Agents can capture resolution notes (docs) or link knowledge articles used.

Customers receive automated notifications or surveys for feedback.

Metrics like resolution time, reopen rate, and CSAT can be tracked (docs) for continuous improvement.

What’s next

Explore additional CSM Case Management capabilities on our community:

• Getting started with Case Management
• Revisit core case features: Review the data structures and workspace elements that make up each case
• Case workflows and automation: Learn how playbooks and agentic workflows help guide and automate routine actions

Bookmarks: Join the ServiceNow CSM Community. Explore best practices, how-to guides, and upcoming events. Sign up for our CSM Live on ServiceNow webinars.