Playbook capabilities

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

    Playbook capabilities in the Yokohama release provide customer service agents with tools to efficiently resolve customer issues by guiding them through structured workflows. These capabilities enhance the agent experience by integrating key information and activities within an intuitive interface.

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    Key Features

    • Create a record using a playbook: Agents can initiate records directly through a playbook, starting with the first activity that captures necessary customer and issue details. This replaces traditional record forms and streamlines data collection.
    • End-to-end workflow visualization: The stage picker and activity picker display the full workflow, current stages, activities, and progress indicators, helping agents track their progress and focus on the current task.
    • Contextual side panel: This panel shows activity streams, ribbon information (including case overview, customer details, timeline, and SLAs), and dynamic related records based on the current context. It provides quick access to relevant information without leaving the playbook.
    • Dynamic related records: Related records in the side panel automatically update based on the active record or playbook activity, ensuring agents have contextual data at their fingertips.
    • Compact mode: Playbooks can be displayed within the contextual side panel, allowing agents to complete activities while simultaneously viewing other record information to improve multitasking.
    • SLA widget on activity cards: Activities with SLAs show a color-coded widget on their cards indicating time remaining—green (0–50%), yellow (50–75%), orange (75–99%), or red (breached or 100%)—allowing agents to prioritize work effectively across stages such as Triage, Research, and Respond.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging these capabilities, ServiceNow customers can expect faster and more guided case resolution. Agents gain a clear view of workflows, relevant customer information, and SLA statuses—all within a unified interface. This leads to improved efficiency, better customer interactions, and adherence to service level commitments.

    The capabilities provided by playbooks enable agents to quickly resolve customer issues. These capabilities work together to provide agents with a better overall experience when using playbooks to resolve customer issues.

    Table 1. Playbook capabilities
    Capability Description
    Create a record using a playbook

    Customer service agents can create a record using a playbook instead of a record form. Creating a record using a playbook opens the playbook and initiates the first activity. The agent completes this activity as part of the record creation.

    For example, an agent can create a case and gather the necessary information about the customer and the issue as the first activity in the playbook.

    For more information about configuring this feature, see Playbook record generator in the Workspace Playbook setup documentation.
    See the entire end-to-end workflow using the stage picker and activity picker
    The stage picker and activity picker enable agents to see the following information:
    • The end-to-end workflow.
    • The stages in the playbook.
    • The activities in the current stage.
    • Stage and activity progress indicators.
    • Details of the current activity displayed in the activity viewer.
    Use the contextual side panel to view additional information
    Playbooks can display the following information in the contextual side panel:
    • Activity stream
    • Ribbon information such as the case overview, customer details, timeline, and SLAs
    • Dynamic related records (see below for more information)
    • Related Items tab
    For more information, see:
    Use the contextual side panel to display dynamic related records

    Display records in the contextual side panel that dynamically change based on the context of the current record or playbook activity.

    For more information, see Dynamic related records.

    Use a playbook in compact mode

    Compact mode displays the playbook in the contextual side panel. Agents can complete playbook activities in the contextual side panel while viewing other information on the record page.

    For more information about configuring this feature, see Integrate Playbook with Workspace.
    View the SLA widget on playbook activity cards
    Activity cards in the playbook activity viewer can display an SLA widget in the upper right corner. The widget appears on the activity card when the playbook activity has an SLA. This includes activities in the following stages:
    • Triage
    • Research
    • Respond
    The color of the widget indicates the time remaining for the SLA:
    • Green: 0–50%
    • Yellow: 50–75%
    • Orange: 75–99%
    • Red: 100% or breached