Virtual Agent Chat - Implementation Experiences

[koliva]

Can anyone share their experiences with using Virtual Agent Chat?  I work for an organization that supports k-12 school districts.  Our busiest time of the year is September when staff and students are back.  We are moving from service portal to employee center the end of this month but aren't sure when to implement the chat...for September or after September.  We don't know what impact the chat will have on our service desk.  Will it increase the number of tickets the service desk will get between phone calls, self-service tickets and now chat?  We just don't know what to expect when we turn it on.  Our goal with chat is to allow customers to look up their tickets and/or knowledge articles, open a ticket or talk to a live agent.  Any insights into others' experiences with initial implementation would be helpful.  Thank you!

[Albert Horvath]

Hello,

Don't forget that you need ITSM pro . In the standard ITSM package you have only VA light with  limited functionality. Suggested to upgrade to the latest release as there are significant differences between the versions. 

Virtual agent works perfectly  in the scenarios you described. Users can check the status of their tickets easily. Suggesting KB articles also works out of the box. Configuration is rather simple using the guided setup. Basically you can do it in a couple of hours.  If you want to go deeper, like creating new conversational topics, things might take more time.  For the moment we don't use live chat so I don't have real life experience with that. It's highly recommended that your agents use the Service Operations Workspace.

If you are using MS Teams it's a good idea to install the connectors. User then can check their tickets or communicate with VA directly from the Teams interface (other connectors like Slack also exists) .  In my opinion user adoption is a key.

Check the Nowlearning Portal  . There are many useful courses, and don't forget the youtube community channel .  VA academy has been renamed to conversational interfaces academy recently.

Go step by step. Don't try to implement everything at the same time.

And yes,  you should  expect less calls to your service desk  after introducing VA. You can monitor your results through the Virtual Agent  Analytics dashboard.

Regards, Albert

[johndoh]

Since you mentioned Teams @Albert Horvath I just want to note that you no longer need to have Integration Hub to get this working. Most people did not adopt this integration for this reason. One other thing, I doubt it being a school @koliva but if you are a regulated customer of ServiceNow then the Virtual Agent Dashboard does not work. There is a plugin that is not currently regulated called AppSee.

[johndoh]

I can agree with the comment above, it all depends on your license. If you are only able to get the Lite version, you are limited to read-only topics and cannot create anything new or modify what is there by creating a clone. In my opinion makes it almost worthless as none of us doing things completely out of box (if you are I applaude you and want to know how) and will run into issues almost guaranteed. I just recently implemented this within our production environment 2 weeks ago so have a fresh prospective on things including the issues presented to include the Utah upgrade/updates/hotfixes issues. I will say I got a little fancy with this and took me about 3 months to complete the process and get it in Production. Since this will help both students and teachers, I assume, I have no problem helping you in anyway I can 🙂 The children are our future! The main thing you are talking about wanting is part of OOB but not sure if Lite or not but think so. 

[Amit Gujarathi]

Hi @koliva ,
I trust you are doing great.

1. Evaluate Chat Implementation Timing: Before deciding when to implement the chat functionality, it would be beneficial to assess the readiness of your organization and the potential impact on your service desk. Consider factors such as the availability of resources, training requirements, and any ongoing projects during that period. You may also want to review your historical data to identify patterns in ticket volumes during the September period.

2. Plan a Phased Approach: Instead of deploying the chat functionality all at once, consider a phased approach. Start with a limited rollout to a specific group of users or departments, allowing you to gauge the impact and collect feedback. Based on the initial results, you can make necessary adjustments before expanding the chat service to the wider user base.

3. Promote Self-Service Options: Encourage users to utilize self-service options, such as knowledge articles and ticket look-up, before engaging in a chat session. Highlight the benefits of self-service to users, emphasizing the convenience and speed it offers. This can help reduce the volume of unnecessary tickets and allow your service desk to focus on more critical issues.

4. Training and Communication: Ensure that your service desk staff is adequately trained on how to handle chat interactions and the tools available to them. Provide clear guidelines on when to escalate chats to phone calls or live agents, as well as instructions on how to assist customers in locating their tickets or knowledge articles. Additionally, communicate the introduction of chat to your users through various channels, emphasizing its benefits and explaining how to use it effectively.

5. Monitor and Analyze Performance: Keep a close eye on the performance of the chat system after implementation. Monitor ticket volumes, response times, customer satisfaction, and any emerging trends or issues. Leverage ServiceNow reporting and analytics capabilities to gather insights and make data-driven decisions for continuous improvement.