Get to Pro: 4 Best Practices for the Management of ServiceNow ITSM Pro’s Virtual Agent

Did you know that 69 percent of internal support tickets are solved in just one communication? However, it takes service teams an average of 24 hours to respond, indicating that teams are too busy or short-staffed to respond as quickly as needed. By providing options for self-service and automation, organizations can achieve two goals at once: providing timely support to their end users and reducing their IT team’s workload. As a result, companies can become more efficient, improve the employee experience, and boost customer satisfaction.

ITSM Pro's Virtual Agent

As we’ve explored in the first three installments of our Get to Pro series, ServiceNow ITSM Pro is an excellent investment for organizations looking to automate their workflows. One of the most powerful features of ITSM Pro is Virtual Agent, an AI-powered chatbot that provides an intuitive support experience for employees and customers, helping to resolve common requests. The messaging interface comes with built-in conversation flows; however, to get full value out of the tool, it’s essential to know the best practices for scaling with your organization. 

Let’s dive into four best practices to help your team implement and manage ServiceNow ITSM Pro’s Virtual Agent for long-term, agile success.

Start Small, but Think Big Picture

The best approach you can take to implement Virtual Agent is to start with the details while keeping your sight set on long-term goals and growth. This will allow you to make adjustments and avoid mistakes before going full scale. 

First, set the foundation of your implementation: decide on an owner, identify your scope, create a timeline, and define metrics and KPIs. Then, once you have a solid structure, start with a manageable number of topics, focusing on out-of-box (OOB) topics first. By leveraging them as much as possible in the initial phase, you can use them to determine which subjects will provide the most value to your organization. Don’t overload your first topic set; having too many topics can make it difficult to incorporate recommendedchanges from the feedback you gather. 

Remember: It’s not about getting it perfect from the beginning. It’s about using Virtual Agent in the ways that will most benefit your organization.

Use Keywords, Then Scale to Natural Language Understanding (NLU)

If you’re just starting to implement Virtual Agent, you’ve likely asked, “Do I start with Natural Language Understanding (NLU) or keywords? Which will serve my organization best?” 

Like starting small, implementing keywords first allows you to reevaluate quality before scaling. With a small number of topics, NLU will be unnecessary, as the user will have few options to choose from. However, as you scale and add more topics, NLU will become essential to providing an intuitive experience for every user. 

Natural Language Understanding improves UX by allowing users to engage with the Virtual Agent naturally, intuitively understanding what needs to be answered. Best of all, migrating from keywords to natural language understanding isn’t technically convoluted, providing low-code tools and one-click training. That way, you can focus your attention on what matters most when it comes to Virtual Agent: making sure the conversation flows naturally.

Design Excellent Conversation Flows

The key to developing and maintaining an excellent Virtual Agent interface is to facilitate the most natural, succinct conversationflows possible. Your users want questions answered quickly, so don’t try to create flows that resolve requests outside of their topics. The last thing you want is for users to get stuck in loops of seemingly unrelated questions that don’t address their needs. This is why it’s essential to not only understand the root of your users’ desires but provide them with a workflow that allows for self-service or other options for support in the case that their needs are not addressed. 

Consistency is also necessary for a successful Virtual Agent experience. ServiceNow ITSM Pro’s Virtual Agent comes prepackaged with topic conversations ready to help with common IT tasks, including resetting a password or creating an incident. On top of using these, it is essential to identify the perfect time in the experience to provide the option to leave the topic and ask for live agent support, search for knowledge, or create a form request. That way, your end users can either find the answers they need or access more comprehensive support in just a few easy steps.

Prioritize Creativity and Analysis for Long-Term Success

Once you’ve established the foundation of Virtual Agent and an initial list of topics and conversation flows, you’ll want to get the word out there. Create awareness campaigns to educate users on how to use and access Virtual Agent. Be sure to implement change management from the beginning to ensure widespread and comprehensive Agent use. Most importantly, prioritize continuous improvement by harvesting data so you’ll always know which topics make the most sense for your Virtual Agent to handle.

Creativity and analysis are key here, as you’ll need them to ensure that you’re providing resourceful, reliable support to all users 24/7. Check in with your users using analytics, surveys, and brainstorm sessions as you scale, and be sure to implement their ideas. As you continue to grow your solutions, you’ll access greater insight into what your end users need, allowing you to make changes as necessary and adapt, guaranteeing long-term seamless support.

Are You Ready to Innovate with ServiceNow ITSM Pro?

If you’re searching for a ServiceNow Partner to help you implement and/or manage ServiceNow ITSM Pro, Crossfuze offers the best of both worlds. As an enterprise ServiceNow Elite Partner, Crossfuze has the deep industry experience you need, making it a top 1 percent partner for delivering long-term, consistent success globally. Crossfuze is also small enough to give your business the careful attention it deserves. We can even help you integrate the entire ITSM Pro suite in as little as six weeks. 

Don’t sacrifice any aspect of comprehensive ServiceNow support: Reach out to us at LetsTalk@crossfuze.com to learn more.