Sentiment Analysis

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Sentiment Analysis

    Sentiment Analysis, included with Task Intelligence for Customer Service in the Yokohama release, enables ServiceNow customers to assess customer emotions within case management. It evaluates the sentiment of email and case text to help agents and managers deliver more empathetic and effective support. This feature currently supports sentiment prediction for cases created in English.

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    Key Features

    • Sentiment Evaluation: Automatically predicts sentiment (Positive, Neutral, Negative) with confidence scores for new and updated cases based on email subject, body, case descriptions, reply emails, and customer comments.
    • Real-Time Sentiment Tracking: Updates current sentiment on case updates and tracks sentiment changes over time, indicating whether sentiment is Improving, Declining, or Neutral.
    • Sentiment Fields: Stores sentiment data in fields such as Original sentiment, Current sentiment, and Sentiment over time, allowing clear visibility of emotional trends for each case.
    • Agent and Manager Use: Agents can prioritize work based on sentiment, while managers can route cases to agents with appropriate empathy skills, monitor case sentiment trends, reassign cases to avoid escalations, and identify coaching opportunities from cases ending in negative sentiment.
    • Machine Learning Model: Utilizes a pre-trained sentiment analysis machine learning model to perform predictions when cases are created or updated.
    • Prediction Feedback and Monitoring: Stores prediction data in the Predictor Results table accessible by users with the mladmin role, supporting transparency and monitoring of prediction accuracy. However, sentiment analysis predictions do not collect agent feedback.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Improve customer experience by understanding the emotional context of cases and responding with empathy.
    • Enhance case prioritization and routing based on sentiment data, leading to more efficient workload management.
    • Monitor sentiment trends over time to proactively address deteriorating cases and reduce escalations.
    • Identify coaching opportunities for agents through sentiment trend analysis, improving service quality.

    Sentiment Analysis can help you gauge customer emotions, enabling you to provide more empathetic and compassionate customer experiences.

    Use the sentiment analysis feature included with Task Intelligence for Customer Service to:
    • Evaluate email and case text.
    • Identify the current sentiment of new cases.
    • Identify the ongoing sentiment of updated cases.
    • Display this information to agents and managers.
    Figure 1. Case list with sentiment fields
    My Cases list view in CSM Configurable Workspace showing positive, negative, and neutral case sentiment fields.

    Agents can use current case sentiment to prioritize their work and ongoing sentiment as it trends over time to see if cases are moving in the right direction.

    Managers can use sentiment to route cases to agents with the right empathy skills, monitor cases and reassign as needed, and avoid escalations. Manager can also identify coaching opportunities by looking at cases that ended on a negative sentiment.
    Note:
    In the Yokohama release, the sentiment analysis feature can predict sentiment for cases created in English.

    Sentiment analysis machine learning models

    Sentiment analysis uses a pre-trained machine learning model to evaluate email and case text and predict sentiment. This analysis takes place when a case is created and when it is updated by the customer.
    Table 1. Sentiment analysis for cases
    Cases scenario Description
    When a case is created
    The sentiment analysis model evaluates the following text to make a prediction:
    • Text in the subject line and body of emails.
    • Text in the short description and description of cases.
    If the model can make a prediction, it returns the following information:
    • A sentiment label and corresponding sentiment level.
      • Positive (1.0)
      • Neutral (0.5)
      • Negative (0.0)
    • A confidence level for the prediction.

    If the model can make a prediction, the sentiment is added to the Original sentiment field.

    If the model can't make a prediction, the Original sentiment is not set.

    This system stores the sentiment prediction information in the Predictor Results for Task table.

    When a case is updated
    The sentiment analysis model evaluates the following text to make a prediction:
    • The text from the body of a reply email.
    • Comments that a customer adds to the case.
    If the model can make a prediction, it returns the following information:
    • An updated sentiment label and corresponding sentiment level.
    • A confidence level for the prediction.
    The system:
    • Updates the Current sentiment field with the current sentiment.
    • Compares the updated current sentiment to the original current sentiment, calculates the change in sentiment, and updates the Sentiment over time field.
      • If there is an increase in the score, the Sentiment over time field shows Improving.
      • If there is a decrease in the score, the Sentiment over time field shows Declining.
      • If there is no change in the score, the Sentiment over time field continues to display the previous value.
      Note:
      If the Original sentiment is Neutral and the Current sentiment is Neutral, then the Sentiment over time is Neutral.

    If the model can't make a prediction, no information gets recorded and the value in the Current sentiment field remains the same.

    For more information about the pre-trained machine learning model, see Create a model to predict case sentiment.

    Prediction feedback

    The system stores feedback on prediction results in the Predictor Result [ml_predictor_results] table. Users with the ml_admin role can access the table and view the results. For sentiment analysis:
    • The default value in the Predicted correctly field for each sentiment prediction is set to true.
    • The Final input value and Final output value fields remain empty because sentiment analysis predictions do not collect feedback from agents.

    The Predictor Result table also stores information about skipped and failed predictions. For more information about this table, see Components installed with Task Intelligence for Customer Service.