Getting work from chats

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Getting Work from Chats

    The agent inbox enables ServiceNow users to manage incoming work items, including chats, cases, and incidents. By selecting the Inbox icon, agents can monitor and respond to work items efficiently. When a chat is accepted, an interaction record is automatically created to document the session's activities.

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    Key Features

    • Monitor Inbox: Use designated service channels to receive and route work items to available agents.
    • Active Chat Management: During a chat, agents can attach files, transfer chats, add other agents, and perform support tasks like creating incidents or cases.
    • Agent Inbox Display: Shows assigned queues, number of active chats, and average wait times.
    • Interaction Record: Initiated from chats or calls, this record captures customer information and communication history for reference or future actions.
    • Ongoing Messages: Displays messaging conversations with unread messages, helping agents stay updated on ongoing communications.

    Key Outcomes

    By effectively using the agent inbox, ServiceNow customers can enhance their responsiveness to customer inquiries, maintain comprehensive records of interactions, and ultimately improve customer satisfaction through timely support and effective communication management.

    Use the agent inbox to manage your incoming work items, such as chats, cases, incidents, and more.

    To open the agent inbox, select the Inbox Inbox icon in the Navigation panel icon in the navigation bar. When you accept a chat, an interaction record is automatically created and captures the work done in that session.
    Table 1. Inbox responsibilities
    Agent responsibilities Description
    Monitor your inbox Use designated service channels to route work items to available agents, such as incoming chat requests, case assignments, and incidents.
    Start a chat session Accept a chat from your inbox. You have a time limit to accept a chat before it reroutes to another agent. The chat associates to an interaction record that captures the conversation and work done during the session.
    During a chat session, you can:
    • Add attachments using the Action toolbar.
    • Transfer the chat to another agent.
    • Add another agent to the chat.
    • Perform other support tasks, such as create an incident or case.
    • Use workspace tools, such as the ribbon to glance at information or the activity stream to review related work.

    Agent inbox features


    Inbox screenshot with callouts for inbox, toolbar, active chat panel, interaction record, attachments, and buttons.
    Feature Description
    (A) Agent inbox Display the queues that are assigned to you, the number of active chats in each queue, and the average wait time for chats in the queue.
    (B) Active chat panel
    Display your active chat session. Chat actions appear beneath the chat and allow your agents to attach a file, add an agent, transfer the chat, and more. Depending on your configuration, these may display:
    • Conversation history: messages from previous conversations appear. Only previous conversations between you and the requester appear.
    • Cross-channel conversation history: messages from all channels (including Facebook Messenger, LINE, Slack, Twilio SMS, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, and Voice) will appear.
    • Customer sentiments: feelings of the customer (positive, neutral, negative, null (no value assessed)). Customer sentiments let you identify if a user's sentiment is moving from neutral/positive to negative so you can take action to move them back to a more positive sentiment.
    • Start and end messages that include icons indicating the channel used for the conversation (chat, phone, or messaging):
      Types of channels.
    (C) Toolbar Display buttons for available actions:
    • Quick actions Quick action icon - select to display the quick action menu.
    • Transfer to queue Transfer to queue icon - select to transfer the conversation to the queue.
    • Transfer to agent Transfer to agent icon - select to transfer the conversation to an agent.
    • Attach Attachment icon - select to add an attachment to the conversation.
    • Dynamic Translation for Agent Chat enabled Globe icon for dynamic translation - displays if DTAC is enabled.
    • Overflow Overflow button - select to display any additional actions.
    Note:
    Not all buttons may be available.
    (D) Interaction record Display the interaction record (IMS). The IMS initiates from a chat or phone call and lists the initial information about the customer and the communication. You can archive this interaction as a log of communication, or you can create an incident or a case that is based on the customer needs.
    (E) Buttons Perform an action by selecting a button:
    • Create Incident
    • End Conversation
    • Save
    • End Chat
    • Assign to Me
    Note:
    Not all buttons may be available.
    (F) Attachments panel Add attachments to the interaction. For example, you can add supporting information to a customer issue. If templates are available, they appear in the template section of this panel.

    Ongoing messages

    The Ongoing messages tab displays when you have access to at least one presence state which includes a messaging-based service channel.
    Screen shot with ongoing messages.

    Select the clock Clock icon icon to display cards for ongoing messages. If the clock icon has a number in the upper right-hand corner Clock icon, this number indicates the number of messaging conversations with unread messages. If a card has a green dot, there is a new message for that messaging conversation. The card also displays the interaction number and when the last update was made on the conversation.