---
sourceDocument: Australia Customer Service Management
sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/customer-service-management
Release :
- australia
ft:locale :
- en-US
ft:publication_title :
- Australia Customer Service Management
ft:clusterId :
- csm
bundleId :
- csm
workflow :
- Customer and Industry
---
# Channel Management
# Channel Management in Workforce Optimization for Customer Service {#ariaid-title1}
Release version: Australia
Updated March 12, 2026
 3 minutes to read
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## Summary of Channel Management in Workforce Optimization for Customer Service
Channel Management in Workforce Optimization (WFO) for Customer Service enables ServiceNow customers to monitor and manage real-time work across multiple service channels and queues.
It provides supervisors and managers with tools to track team performance, manage workloads, and collaborate directly with agents to resolve complex customer issues efficiently.
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## Key Features
* **Real-time Monitoring:** View live data on waiting customers, agent availability, and ongoing work within channels and queues.
* **Performance Tracking:** Access key performance indicator (KPI) reports for teams working on service channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook, LINE, Amazon Connect, and SMS.
* **Workload Management:** Monitor pending work items, manually assign tasks to agents, and adjust agent presence to optimize work routing.
* **Collaborative Support:** Drill down into specific work items and join chat conversations or provide assistance through chat whisper or work notes.
* **Administrator Controls:** Create and configure service channels and queues, associate assignment rules, set KPIs, and customize the Channel Management interface using UI Builder.
* **Help Request Integration:** Supervisors can manage agent requests raised via chat or voice interactions from a unified interface, enabling live call monitoring, private coaching, and barging in when necessary. This feature requires CCaaS integration and appropriate permissions.
## Practical Application
ServiceNow customers can use Channel Management to ensure effective routing and handling of customer service tasks across multiple teams. For example, after setting up Advanced Work Assignment (AWA), managers can configure KPIs to monitor team performance in real time, manually assign pending work items, and actively assist agents by joining conversations. This approach leads to faster issue resolution and improved operational efficiency.
## Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
* Enhanced visibility into the live status of customer service channels and queues.
* Improved agent productivity through real-time workload balancing and support.
* Streamlined collaboration between supervisors and agents to resolve complex customer issues.
* Customizable monitoring and management tools tailored to organizational needs.
* Unified handling of agent support requests across voice and chat channels for consistent, timely assistance.
Channel management lets you monitor important metrics across different channels and queues, manage the work being done by your team members, and collaborate with them to solve complex issues for your end-customers.
Monitor the real-time health of your channels and queues by reviewing waiting customers, available agents, the work being done by your team members (or agents in your teams) and collaborate with them to solve complex issues
faster.
The following channel management snapshots provide you with a quick overview of the real-time performance monitoring and drill-down capabilities.
As a channel management user, you can:
* Track real-time performance of your teams using key performance indicator reports in service channels and queues.
* Review real-time performance as the team is actively working on tasks across channels and queues.
* Drill down on work items and jump in to provide timely help to team members via chat whisper or by adding work notes to a task.
* View agents' availability and their workload.
* Monitor pending work items in the queue and act when required.
* Assign work items manually to agents.
* Filter the applicable channels, KPIs, work items, queued work, and agents using the Assignment Group filter functionality.
* Track real-time performance of customer service on consumer messaging channels including WhatsApp, Facebook, LINE, Amazon Connect, and SMS.
* Track and change real-time presence of agents so that work items are routed more efficiently.
* Drill down the channel specific KPIs for further analysis.
{#explore-channels-configurable-wfo-cs__ul_up5_1h4_4lb}
As a channel management administrator, you can:
* Create service channels and queues.
* Associate assignment rules to queues.
* Configure KPIs for service channels and queues.
* Configure the supervisor lists.
* Customize the channel management page according to your requirements using the UI Builder.
{#explore-channels-configurable-wfo-cs__ul_tp5_1h4_4lb}
## Help Request on the Channel Overview page {#explore-channels-configurable-wfo-cs__section_ey1_y4f_g3c}
Help Request on the Channel Overview page helps the agents to raise requests both via chat and voice interactions directly. Display voice‑based escalations from the NVC Active Call Component alongside
chat requests to give supervisors a unified, real‑time view of agent needs.
Supervisors can open any active voice request to review context and take action, including:
* Monitoring the live call
* Coaching the agent privately
* Barging in to speak with both the agent and customer
{#explore-channels-configurable-wfo-cs__ul_xhm_wnf_g3c}
Each help request includes metadata such as agent name, interaction type, and duration, and updates automatically as new requests are raised. This capability requires CCaaS integration, appropriate supervisor permissions, and
access to real‑time interaction data, enabling faster response times, consistent support across channels, and an improved agent experience.
## Example {#explore-channels-configurable-wfo-cs__explore-channels-configurable-wfo-cs-example}
Understand how you can monitor important metrics (or key process indicators) across different channels and queues. Manage the work being done by your team members (or agents in your teams) and collaborate with them to solve
complex issues for your end-customers.
The example employee manages Customer Service operations for a large organization and has 12 teams. Each team has anywhere from 8 through 15 agents. The employee must ensure that incoming work gets effectively routed to the
right groups across all channels. This can be done by setting up [Advanced Work Assignment](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=awa-overview&version=australia&pubname=australia-conversational-interfaces&ft:locale=en-US) as per the business requirement.
Once the employee has configured Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) appropriately, they can add key performance indicators (KPIs) to the channels and queues, and monitor the operational performance of the teams in real time.
The employee in this example can then keep a track the teams' ongoing work, assign pending work items manually to agents, and join chat conversations to assist agents.
Get an overview on how you can monitor teams by looking at the real-time data in service channels and queues.
Get an overview on how you can manually assign work items, monitor ongoing cases, and join the chat conversations.
Get an overview on how managers can add service channels, queues, and configure KPIs.
* **[Using Channel Management in Workforce Optimization for Customer Service](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/~c4gIlj_0P38zzfSAaXq0g)**
Use Channel Management to keep a track of the real-time performance of work done by your team members through channels and queues views. You can also drill down into specific cases and chats and collaborate with your team members to achieve better results.
**Related concepts**
* [Setting up service channels and queues](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/mysuBQ9CADDC9y4qmORKWQ#setup-channels-queues-configurable-wfo-cs "You can set up service channels, queues, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to route work items automatically to agents based on an agent's availability, capacity, and skills.")
* [Using Channel Management in WFO](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/hHECfDDgD7VaPWqQDXMtcQ#use-channels-configurable-wfo-cs "Route work items to assigned groups using channels. Use skill-based routing to ensure that the right work goes to the right agent. Review real-time performance as your team is actively working on tasks across channels. When you see escalations, you can help your agents resolve issues without the requester being aware of it.")