Routing and assigning customer service cases

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Routing and assigning customer service cases

    The case routing feature in ServiceNow enables automatic identification and routing of customer service cases to the most appropriate agents. This is achieved by creating matching rules that define specific case conditions and using assignment rules to allocate these cases to agents based on their expertise and availability. The MatchingRuleProcessor API can be used to programmatically execute matching rules and retrieve suitable agents.

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    Matching Rules

    Matching rules consist of two condition sets: one to identify case attributes and another to identify the best agent resources for those cases. These rules are configured using the Matching Rule form:

    • Case Attributes: Select the relevant task table (e.g., Case table) and define conditions such as account, product, or priority level that cases must meet to be routed.
    • Agent Resources: Select an agent matching method:
      • Simple: Choose a specific user from a list.
      • Advanced: Use conditions based on roles, groups, skills, workload, or availability to filter agents.
      • Scripted: Write custom scripts to identify agents.
    • Selection Criteria: An additional method to create matching rules for use with the assignment workbench.

    Assignment Rules

    Assignment rules automate task assignments to users or groups based on matching rule conditions. Key points include:

    • Create assignment rules directly from a matching rule via the related link on the Matching Rule form.
    • Assignment rules apply only if the task is not already assigned.
    • Assignment rules specify the task table, conditions for assignment, and the user or group to assign.
    • Custom scripts can be used to further tailor assignment logic.
    • Note that matching and assignment rules are independent; changes in one do not automatically update the other.

    MatchingRuleProcessor API

    This API allows you to run matching rules programmatically to retrieve a list of suitable agents (by sysid) for a given case, facilitating integration and automation in routing processes.

    Reverse Matching

    Reverse matching applies the same matching rules to find tasks suitable for a given resource, enabling flexible task-to-agent or agent-to-task matching.

    The case routing feature uses matching rules and assignment rules to identify customer service cases that meet certain conditions and then route those cases to customer service agents.

    Overview

    Create one or more matching rules that establish specific conditions that a case must meet before it can be routed to an agent. Then use an assignment rule to route those cases to agents based on product knowledge and availability. You can also invoke the MatchingRuleProcessor API to execute the matching rules and return a list of users (sys_ids).

    Matching Rules

    Matching rules are based on two defined sets of conditions, one that identifies specific case attributes and another that identifies the agent resources best suited to handle cases with these attributes. Matching rules are created using the Matching Rule form.

    To identify case attributes, select a table that stores the task type (for example, the Case table) and then use a condition builder to create one or more conditions that a case must meet before being routed. For example, you can build conditions for a specific account and product or for a specific product and priority level.

    To identify an agent resource, use one of the following resource matching methods:
    • Simple: Select the resource name from a list of users.
    • Advanced: Build conditions that filter the available agent resources. These conditions can be based on user role, agent group, specific skills, work load, or agent availability.
    • Scripted: Create a customized script to identify agent resources.
    Another resource matching method, Selection Criteria, can be used to create a matching rule with selected matching criteria for use with the assignment workbench.

    Assignment Rules

    Use assignment rules to automatically assign task to users and groups. Create an assignment rule for a matching rule by selecting the Create assignment rule related link on the Matching Rule form. When the matching rule conditions are met, a case can be routed to a user or a group using the assignment rule. The assignment rule is applied only if the task isn’t already assigned to another user or group.
    Note:
    Matching rules and assignment rules are independent records with no synchronization. If you change the Applies to component of the matching rule, it isn’t reflected in the assignment rule.
    When you create an assignment rule, you select the following:
    • The table for the task type and the conditions that must be met before the task is assigned.
    • The user or the group to which the task is assigned.
    Alternately, you can create a script to further customize the assignment rule.