Assigning preferred agents to work on tasks

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Assigning preferred agents to work on tasks

    Preferred agents are technicians who are best suited to handle specific customer tasks due to their familiarity with the customer's context, such as working on-site or having contractual associations. Assigning these preferred agents ensures higher service quality and customer satisfaction by leveraging their expertise and relationship with the customer.

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    ServiceNow enables assignment of preferred agents dynamically during task scheduling through methods like auto-assignment using agent recommendations and appointment booking.

    Assigning Preferred Agents

    To effectively assign preferred agents, ensure that:

    • The preferred technicians are linked to the respective customer accounts.
    • The preferred technician matching criteria are configured in dynamic scheduling settings.

    Practical Scenarios

    • Scenario 1: Auto-assign using agent recommendation
      Dispatchers can drag and drop tasks into a preferred agent’s calendar slot. For example, a dispatcher assigns a high-priority task to Mona Lisa, a preferred technician for Acme Corporation. When another high-priority task arrives for the same customer, it can be assigned to Mona Lisa at the same scheduled time, automatically rescheduling any conflicting tasks to the next available slot.
    • Scenario 2: Book an appointment using Appointment Booking
      Customers can book appointments via the customer service portal, selecting preferred time slots. These appointments are automatically assigned to the preferred agent (e.g., Mona Lisa). Dispatchers can verify these assignments in the Dispatcher Workspace.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Streamlined task assignment improves scheduling efficiency and resource utilization.
    • Ensures customers interact with agents most familiar with their needs, enhancing service quality.
    • Dynamic scheduling accommodates changing priorities and availability, maintaining optimal workload balance.

    Preferred agents are agents who are most familiar with the context of tasks they've been assigned and are preferred by customers. For example, they could be agents who work on-site at a customer premise or are associated with the customer contracts or entitlements.

    You can assign preferred agents to tasks using dynamic scheduling when you assign tasks using any of the following methods:
    • Auto-assign using agent recommendation
    • Book an appointment using Appointment Booking
    Here are a few scenarios on how tasks can get assigned to preferred agents.
    Note:
    The preferred technicians must be added to the respective customer accounts and the preferred technician matching criteria must be added to the dynamic scheduling configuration.
    In this example, let's define the roles as follows:
    Table 1. Preferred users and their roles
    Role Name
    Customer of Acme Corporation George Warren
    Dispatcher Lisa Ray
    • Mona Lisa
    • Alex Ray
    • Lynda Caraway
    		 Preferred technicians for Acme Corporation account

    Scenario 1: Auto-assign using agent recommendation

    This example shows how tasks that are high priority can get assigned to preferred agents.

    Note:
    Lisa Ray is logged in as a dispatcher.
    1. Navigate to Field Service > Dispatching > Dispatcher Workspace
    2. Locate a task for Acme Corporation that must be assigned to a preferred technician. Let's say Mona Lisa is the preferred technician available to work on this task.
    3. Drag the task and drop it to Mona Lisa's schedule in the calendar. The task has now been scheduled.
    4. Now, a high-priority task from Acme Corporation enters the task queue. This task must be assigned to the same preferred agent Mona Lisa and has to be scheduled at the same time when the previous task was scheduled.
    5. Drag the task to Mona Lisa's schedule in the calendar. This task automatically takes the time slot of the previously scheduled task and that task moves to the next available schedule that is available for Mona Lisa.

    Scenario 2: Book an appointment using Appointment Booking

    This example shows how when a customer books an appointment, it’s automatically assigned to the preferred agent.

    Note:
    George Warren is logged in as a customer of Acme Corporation.
    1. Navigate to the customer service portal.
    2. Select a service that requires an appointment.
    3. Select the desired time slot and select Select.
    4. Select Submit.

      Navigate to Field Service > Dispatching > Dispatcher Workspace and see that the task has been assigned to the preferred agent Mona Lisa.

    For more information on adding a preferred agent to a work order task see, Assign preferred agents to tasks.