Email interaction sections

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated March 20, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
  • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Email interaction sections

    The Email interaction sections in ServiceNow's Yokohama release provide a comprehensive interface for managing customer email interactions efficiently. These sections enable agents to access, update, and track critical customer contact information, communicate via email, and handle related tasks directly within the interaction record.

    Show full answer Show less

    Contact Management

    • Contact Form: Captures essential contact details such as name, phone numbers, email, address, and associated account, ensuring accurate customer identification.
    • Contact Lookup: Allows agents to search for contacts by name, phone, or email, with dynamic results shown as record cards for quick selection. Agents can also add guest users as contacts.

    Interaction Details

    • Interaction records include an automatically generated number, type (Email), account and contact information, consumer details, guest email, verification status, state, assignee, and descriptive fields like short description and work notes.
    • Work notes provide internal documentation visible only to agents, supporting efficient issue resolution.

    Email Communication and Activity Tracking

    • Agents can compose and send emails directly within the interaction, with the first sent email marking the start of the first response time measurement.
    • Filters enable viewing specific emails, work notes, and field changes, while the Activity stream displays ongoing email conversations between agents and customers.

    Contextual Side Panel Applications

    • Attachments: Access files related to the current interaction.
    • Recommended Actions: Suggests relevant next steps based on interaction context.
    • Consumer and Contact Verify: Tools to confirm identity and details of consumers and contacts.
    • Response Template: Provides templates for email and work note responses to streamline communication.
    • Related Lists: Displays linked emails, tasks, knowledge articles, and open cases, facilitating holistic interaction management.
    • Customer History: Offers searchable history of customer, consumer, or account interactions to provide context.

    UI Actions for Interaction Management

    • Create Case: Quickly generate a new case from the interaction.
    • Close: Close the current email interaction once resolved.
    • Save: Store updates made to the interaction.
    • Associate Record: Link existing cases to the current interaction for continuity.
    • Assign to me: Assign the interaction to the current agent; visible only if the interaction is new and unassigned.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging these Email interaction sections, agents can streamline customer communication, maintain accurate contact records, and efficiently track and resolve email-based customer issues within a single interface. This integration enhances agent productivity, improves response times, and ensures comprehensive documentation of customer interactions.

    The Email interaction sections enable you to manage information within the interaction record.

    Table 1. Contact form
    Field Description
    Name Name of the customer contact.
    Mobile phone Mobile phone number of the customer contact.
    Business phone Business phone number of the customer contact.
    Email Email address of the customer contact.
    Street Name of the street.
    City Name of the city.
    State/Province Name of the state or province.
    Account Account with which the customer contact is associated.
    Table 2. Contact lookup
    Field Description
    Lookup by name, phone, or email The contact lookup component enables agents to do the following:
    • Look up a contact by name, phone number, or email address. As the agent types characters in the search box, matching information appears in record cards below the search box.
    • Select a contact after searching by selecting the record card. The selected record card replaces the lookup component.

    You can also create a record to add a guest user as a contact. For more information, see Create a customer contact.

    Table 3. Interaction form
    Field Description
    Number Automatically created interaction number.
    Type Type of customer interaction, which is Email.
    Account Name of the customer contact's company. This field is filled in automatically if the information is available in the contact record.
    Contact Name of the customer contact.
    Consumer Name of the consumer.
    Guest Email Email ID of the guest user.
    Verified Option to mark the record as verified or validated.
    State Current state of the interaction. For more information, see Interaction states.
    Assigned to Name of the assigned user.
    Consumer Profile Information about the consumer.
    Short description Brief description of the customer issue.
    Work notes Information about the interaction and the work being done to resolve the customer issue.
    Table 4. Compose and Activity stream
    Application Description
    Work notes Internal notes documented for agent’s reference. These notes are visible only to agents and not to the customer. When a work note is created, it appears in the Activity stream. For more information on work notes, see Compose a work note for internal use.
    Email Compose and send emails without leaving the record. For more information, see Compose an email response.
    Note:
    The first email response that the agent sends is used to calculate the first response time duration, which is then populated in the First response wait time field.
    Filters Enables you to filter emails, work notes, and field changes on the interaction.

    Activity

    Enables agents to view the email conversations between the agent and customer. For more information, see Using Activity stream in an email interaction.
    Table 5. Apps on contextual side panel
    Application Description
    Attachments Displays files and documents associated with the current record or interaction.
    Recommended Actions Displays the most relevant next steps based on the current context. For more information, see Using the Recommended Actions application.
    Consumer Verify Confirms the identity or details of the consumer involved in the interaction. For more information, see Lookup and verify.
    Contact Verify Confirms the identity or details of the contact involved in the interaction. For more information, see Lookup and verify.
    Response Template Displays the response template required to respond to the customer. For more information, see Use a response template to compose an email or a work note.
    Related Lists Displays associated items such as emails, tasks, knowledge articles, and open cases linked to the current interaction.
    • Related Email Interactions: Lists the email interactions linked to the current interaction.
    • Emails: Displays all the emails associated with the interaction.
    • Draft Emails: Find emails that are currently being drafted and not yet sent.
    • Related Tasks: Lists all cases created out of an interaction.
    • Related Knowledge Articles: Displays relevant knowledge articles that can provide further information related to the interaction.
    • Open Cases: Shows any open cases that are related to the consumer or contact.
    Customer History Displays customer, consumer, or account history information, depending on the customer information provided on the interaction record. This tab includes a search field, filter, and date range selector that agents can use to find specific information in the history. For more information on the customer history, see Customer History component features.
    Table 6. UI Actions
    Application Description
    Create Case Enables the creation of a new case from the interaction.
    Close Closes the email interaction.
    Save Saves the updates made in the email interaction.
    Associate Record Enables associating the existing cases with the current interaction.
    Assign to me Assigns the interaction to the current agent.
    Note:
    Assign to me is visible only in interactions in the New state and with the Assigned to field as empty.