Retail Products Welcome Guide

[Anita Chiang]

 Welcome to ServiceNow® Retail Products 

Are you ready to start your retail product implementation journey? This guide gives you valuable information you can share with your team, including proven guidance and links to key resources—all designed to set you on the path to success. While this guide is primarily designed for ServiceNow platform owners, it also contains useful information if you have a different role in your organization. 

Let’s get started! 

Guide overview 

Here’s an overview of the topics we will cover in the guide: 

• Start by familiarizing yourself with Retail Service Management (RSM) and Retail Operations (RO). 

• Help organizations align strategic investments to achieve business outcomes 

• Learn how to work successfully with ServiceNow experts 

• Chart a path to successful self-implementation 

• Prepare for organizational change 

• Bookmark the ServiceNow Customer Success Center (CSC) 

 

Start by familiarizing yourself with Retail Service Management and Retail Operations 

Retail Service Management (RSM) and Retail Operations (RO) come with many applications that let you transform how you deliver great service for both customers and your retail locations. RSM includes Customer Service Management capabilities to support agents who serve both internal and external customers, and RO provides self-service and task management tools to frontline teams at locations like stores or restaurants. Here's what to focus on first: 

• Retail Operations Core: Included in both Retail Service Management and the Retail Operations add-on, this application includes the retail data model and retail case that enable organizations to model out their location hierarchies and more. (product documentation) 

• CSM Data Management: Organize and manage data for customers, including account and contact information, products, assets, contracts, and entitlements. (product documentation) 

• CSM Configurable Workspace: Provide customer service and store support agents with the tools they need to help answer questions and resolve issues. (product documentation) 

We also have an Introduction to Retail Operations course, in addition to Customer Service Management Fundamentals. If you are new to ServiceNow, we also strongly recommend that you take this very short Get Started with the Now Platform course to learn platform basics. If you want a deeper dive into using the Now Platform, a longer ServiceNow Fundamentals course is also available. 

Identify your desired business outcomes  

Before you start your implementation, it’s critical to have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish. RSM and RO allows you to deliver many positive business outcomes, and you can achieve all of this over time. However, by deciding which outcomes are most important for your organization and agreeing on them with your stakeholders, you can set clear expectations and tailor your initial implementation to realize these goals. 

Here are a few examples of business outcomes that ServiceNow RSM and RO can help you achieve: 

• Increased customer retention
• Reduced truck rolls and repair costs
• Increased operational efficiency

If you want guidance on maximizing the value of your RSM/RO investment, success maps show you how to envision, create, validate, and champion value using Now Value, our proven methodology to realize success with ServiceNow. This success map focuses on modernizing customer service management, which is one aspect of Retail Service Management. 

Chart a path to implementation 

Work with ServiceNow experts 

If you have chosen to work with a ServiceNow partner or ServiceNow Expert Services for your implementation, it’s important to clearly communicate the business outcomes you want to achieve and agree on a well-structured roadmap to attain these goals. If you need guidance on successfully engaging with an implementation partner, this workbook is an excellent starting point. 

To accelerate time to value and reduce risk, make sure that your partner uses Now Create, ServiceNow’s library of more than 700 leading implementation practices. We also recommend you use Now Create if you are self-implementing, as it provides a wealth of assets designed to guide you to success. 

If you want to work with a partner but haven’t selected one yet, check out our Partner Finder or talk to your ServiceNow account representative about ServiceNow Expert Services.  We can also work with your chosen partner to infuse our expertise into your implementation through our ServiceNow Assure service offering. 

For those of you who have purchased ServiceNow Impact services you will have ServiceNow experts and resources at your fingertips to help you through your implementation of our retail products and achieving your goals.  If you do not have a ServiceNow Impact package, consider how having dedicated resources, discounted training, and jumpstart services can help you get the most out of your ServiceNow investment. Read more here. 

Choose self-implementation 

Build your team’s skills 

If you are planning to self-implement, you need to give your platform team the skills they need to succeed. The best way of doing this is to become a certified ServiceNow professional. We offer several certification paths for different roles on your team. Check out the links below: 

• Customer Service Management Implementer certification 

• ServiceNow Administrator certification 

Make your implementation smooth and easy 

For a comprehensive implementation process framework that is proven to scale to the largest, most complex global deployments, take a look at our Success Packs on Now Create. Success Packs tailor our core Now Create methodology of more than 700 leading practices to deliver business outcomes aligned with specific product sets. 

Join the Retail & Hospitality community! 

Visit the Retail & Hospitality community page. You’ll find best practices and other useful resources for implementation, and it’s also the forum to talk to ServiceNow experts, get your questions answered, and connect with other community members. 

Understand ServiceNow releases and upgrades  

If you’re not already on the latest ServiceNow release, we strongly recommend that you upgrade before you go live. By upgrading, you get new ServiceNow innovations into the hands of your users faster, get access to the latest performance and security enhancements, and ensure that support is there when you need it. To make your upgrade smooth and successful, look at these upgrade resources. 

Prepare for organizational change 

To successfully deploy RSM and RO, you need your business to understand and use them, and to recognize their benefits. With many different stakeholder groups, it is essential to ensure everyone understands the benefits for them, and how to get the most value out of the system. 

This webpage provides detailed guidance on how to plan for organizational change. If you need help creating a winning communications plan, this communications plan template also provides useful advice. 

The following courses are a great starting point for training your agents and other users: 

• Get Started with the Now Platform 

• Introduction to Retail Operations 

Bookmark these resources! 

ServiceNow Customer Success Center -- The CSC is a one-stop shop that gives you instant access to proven methodologies, leading practices, and expert insights and advice.  

NowSupport -- You can get technical issues resolved quickly by contacting our team comprised of ServiceNow employees with deep product knowledge and real-world experience.  Read more here on how to use support.