Proactive Rule form

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Proactive Rule form

    The Proactive Rule form in ServiceNow Yokohama release enables you to configure rules that trigger proactive conversations with end users via Virtual Agent or Live Agent. These rules help engage users based on specific criteria such as page visits, search events, or URL conditions, improving user experience by delivering timely and relevant assistance.

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    Key Features

    • Name, Description, and Order: Define the rule’s name, description, and the priority order for applying multiple proactive rules.
    • Type: Choose the conversation context—either Virtual Agent (triggered when VA is available) or Live Agent only (triggered when configured for live agent chat in the Service Portal).
    • Frequency and Delay Time: Set how often the rule triggers—every visit, once per visit, or once per user—and specify a delay before the trigger activates (from none to 3 minutes).
    • Trigger Type: Select from system API events (e.g., Search Event with no results) or web browsing URL types (Catalog item, Knowledge article, Portal home, or custom URLs). This lets you tailor triggers to specific user actions or pages.
    • Conditions and Advanced Conditions: Define precise criteria that must be met for the rule to activate, using condition builders or scripts. Conditions are case-sensitive and must be carefully configured to avoid conflicts.
    • Find Available Agent: Optionally check for available live agents before triggering the rule, ensuring user requests are handled effectively.

    Key Outcomes

    • Enables proactive engagement with users through chat based on specific behaviors or system events, enhancing user support and satisfaction.
    • Supports both Virtual Agent and Live Agent scenarios to fit different interaction models and portal configurations.
    • Flexible trigger configuration with frequency, delay, and condition options allows precise control over when and how users are engaged.
    • Custom trigger types and advanced scripting provide extensibility to meet unique business requirements.
    • Proper activation and ordering ensure rules execute efficiently and in the intended sequence, avoiding conflicts and ensuring relevant responses.

    When creating a Proactive Triggers rule, the Proactive Rule form includes the following fields.

    Table 1. Proactive Rule form
    Field Description
    Name Name of the new rule that you want to create.
    Type Proactive Triggers conversation type for end users. Choices are:
    • Virtual Agent

      Rules are triggered when the Virtual Agent is available.

    • Live Agent only

      Rules are triggered when the web client is configured to live agent only. You can configure the web client to live agent only from the Service Portal. For instructions, see Configure Agent Chat in a portal.
    Description Rule description.
    Order Order of when a Proactive Triggers rule is to be applied. If there’s more than one rule, the rules with lower numbers for a particular delay time are applied first.
    Active Option to activate the rule.
    When to run the trigger
    Frequency How often the rule should be applied. Choices are:
    • Every time: Every time an end user visits the page.
    • Once per visit: Every time an end user visits a page per user log in.
    • Once per user: Applies the rule only the first time that an end user visits the page. With this frequency setting, you must clear the rule's history if you want to run this rule again for a user. For more information about clearing the rule history, see Multiple Proactive Triggers rules and actions.
    Delay time Time to wait before the rule is applied. Choices are:
    • None
    • 10 seconds
    • 20 seconds
    • 30 seconds
    • 1 minute
    • 3 minutes
    What initiates the trigger
    Trigger type

    System API or web browsing URL for the type of trigger. Select the lookup list icon (Lookup using list icon.) to view your default choices.

    If enabled, your default system API choice is Search Event. This trigger type triggers an action when no search results are found on the Service Portal or Employee Service Center.
    Tip:
    Ensure that your Proactive Trigger business rule (Proactive Trigger on Search), trigger type (Search Event), rule (Search - No Search Result), and action (No Search Result Message) have the Active option turned on so that this rule runs effectively. These parameters default to inactive.

    Your default web browsing URL choices are:

    • Catalog item: Triggers an action based on the catalog item's reference fields.
    • Knowledge: Triggers an action based on the knowledge article's reference fields.
    • Portal home: Triggers an action based on the portal home page's reference fields.
    • URL: Triggers an action based on the defined URL.
      Define the URL components as shown in this example.
      URL trigger type format example.
      Important:
      • If you're using the Virtual Agent web client outside of the ServiceNow instance (for example, as part of a third-party website), use the URL trigger type. Don't use any of the other trigger types.
      • The URL trigger type applies only if no other available trigger types match the URL.

    If you don’t see the trigger type that you need using the lookup list icon (Lookup using list icon.), you can create your own custom trigger type. For more information about custom trigger types, see Create custom trigger types.
    Conditions Conditions that must be met for the trigger type to run as defined by the admin. Conditions vary by trigger type. Specify the Proactive Triggers conditions that you want to use.

    For more information about using conditions, see Condition builder.

    Note:
    Rule conditions are case-sensitive and must match. For example, if you want to use the name of a catalog item, such as the iPhone condition, entering "iphone" doesn't give you the results that you want.

    Proactive Triggers conditions.
    Note:
    When specifying the conditions that must be met for a trigger type, be careful not to specify conflicting trigger types and conditions. Conflicting URL trigger types and conditions can cause errors. For more information, see Manage Proactive Triggers.
    Advanced conditions Option for using scripts to define the condition.
    Specify advanced conditions.
    Find available agent Option to check for any available live agents.