Create cases as a proxy contact

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Create cases as a proxy contact

    The proxy contact role (sncustomerservice.proxycontact) in ServiceNow Customer Service Management (CSM) allows employees to create and manage cases on behalf of customers. This role is designed for employees who are not fulfillers or assigned other CSM-specific roles and requires appropriate licensing for CSM access.

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    Key Features

    • Employees with the proxy contact role can create cases via email, phone, chat, Virtual Agent, and the Customer Service Portal, selecting customer or partner contacts as case contacts while being added as internal contacts.
    • From the Customer Service Portal, proxy contacts can view, comment on, and add attachments to cases where they are internal contacts, accept or reject resolutions, view related work orders, and check case status through Virtual Agent.
    • Customer service agents can assign proxy contacts as internal contacts when creating cases from interaction records or connect chat sessions.
    • The feature is enabled by activating the CSM Extension for Proxy Contacts plugin, which adds necessary roles, script includes, and fields (Internal contact on Case form and Opened for on Interaction form).
    • Workspace administrators can configure the Customer 360 ribbon component to display internal contact information when primary contact fields are empty.
    • The Internal contact field on the Case form identifies the employee who created or is responsible for the case, controlling case visibility in the portal and Agent Workspace.

    How to Use

    • Employees with the proxy contact role create cases by selecting accounts, contacts, assets, and providing case details via the Customer Service Portal.
    • Agents can create cases for proxy contact employees from interaction records, automatically setting the internal contact field when appropriate.
    • Email cases are created when proxy contacts send emails to the inbound address; the employee is set as internal contact and email content is logged.
    • Proxy contacts can initiate chats from the Customer Service Portal or Virtual Agent, enabling agents to create cases linked to them as internal contacts.
    • Employees can check case statuses and view related work orders, including adding attachments, through the portal.

    Employee Notifications

    Employees set as internal contacts receive email notifications when a case is opened, closed, or updated with comments, ensuring they stay informed about case progress.

    The proxy contact role enables employees to create cases for customer accounts and contacts. Employees can also be proxy case contacts on behalf of customers.

    Assign the proxy contact role (sn_customerservice.proxy_contact) to employees in your company who are not fulfillers or do not have other CSM-specific roles.
    Note:
    This role requires licensing for access to CSM applications. The proxy contact cannot co-exist with the contributor roles.
    Employees with the proxy contact role can do the following:
    • Create cases on behalf of customers by email, phone, chat, Virtual Agent, and from the Customer Service Portal.
    • Create requests on behalf of customers from the Customer Service Portal.

    When creating a case, the employee can select a customer contact or a partner contact as the case contact. The employee is also added to the case as the internal contact.

    From the Customer Service Portal, employees can do the following for the cases where they are the internal contact:
    • View a list of cases.
    • View case details.
    • Add comments or attachments to a case.
    • Accept or reject a case resolution.
    • View a list of related work orders.
    • Check the status of a case using Virtual Agent.
    Customer service agents can create cases and designate an employee with the proxy contact role as the internal contact.
    • From Agent Workspace, agents can create cases for employees from interaction records.
    • From connect chat sessions with employees, agents can create cases that add the employee to the Internal contact field on the Case form.

    Plugin information

    Activate the CSM Extension for Proxy Contacts (com.snc.csm_proxy_contacts) plugin to enable this feature. This plugin adds the following to Customer Service Management:
    • The sn_customerservice.proxy_contact role.
    • The ProxyContactHelper script include.
    • The Internal contact field on the Case form.
    • The Opened for field on the Interaction form.
    Note:
    You need to configure the Interaction form to display the Opened for field and the Case form to display the Internal contact field.

    Configure the Customer 360 ribbon component in Agent Workspace

    With the workspace administrator role (workspace_admin), you can configure the Customer 360 ribbon component to display the internal contact for a case.

    • If the Contact field (the primary field) is populated on the Case form, the Customer 360 component displays the contact information.
    • If the Consumer field (the secondary field) is populated on the Case form, the Customer 360 component displays the consumer information.
    • If the Internal contact field (the tertiary field) is populated on the Case form, and the Contact and Consumer fields do not contain any data, the Customer 360 component displays the internal contact (employee) information.

    Internal contact field on Case form

    When an employee with the sn_customerservice.proxy_contact role creates a case for a customer account, the Internal contact field on the Case form is populated with the employee's name. This field determines case visibility for the employee. From the Customer Service Portal, employees can see cases that they have created and are identified as the internal contact.
    Note:
    This field appears on the Case form in both the platform interface and Agent Workspace.

    When an agent creates a case, they can select an employee with the sn_customerservice.proxy_contact role in the Internal contact field.

    Creating a case from the Customer Service Portal

    An employee with the proxy contact role can create a case for a customer from the Customer Service Portal. As part of creating a case, the employee:

    • Selects an account.
    • Selects a contact from the available contacts for the account.
    • Selects an asset or product for the account.
    • Enters a subject and description for the case.

    When the case is created, the employee is added to the Internal contact on the Case form.

    Creating a case from an interaction record

    An agent can create a case for an employee by clicking Create Case on the Interaction form. On the resulting Case form, the Internal contact field:
    • Is set to the value from the Opened for field if the employee has the proxy contact role.
    • Remains blank if the user in the Opened for field does not have the proxy contact role.

    Creating a case via email

    Employees can create a case by sending an email to the inbound email address. When the email is received, the system checks to see if the user has the proxy contact role.
    • If yes, the case is created and the employee is added to the Internal contact field. The content of the email is logged in the case activity stream.
    • If no, the case is not created.

    Initiating a chat from the Customer Service Portal

    Employees with the proxy contact role can initiate a chat with an agent directly from the Customer Service Portal or using Virtual Agent. This creates a chat request card with the employee's name in the agent's inbox.
    • Agent Workspace: when the agent accepts the chat, the interaction record displays the employee name in the Opened for field.
    • Platform: when the agent accepts the chat and creates a case a case from the chat session, the employee name is added to the Case form in the Internal contact field.

    Check the status of a case using Virtual Agent

    Employees with the proxy contact role can use Virtual Agent to check the status of a case where they are the internal contact.

    After logging in to the Customer Service Portal and initiating Virtual Agent, use the options available with the Check Case Status topic.

    Viewing work orders

    From the Customer Service Portal, employees with the sn_customerservice.proxy_contact role can see work orders for the cases where they are the internal contact. Employees can also add attachments to the work orders.

    In the portal header, click Support > Work Orders.

    Employee notifications

    The system sends an email notification to the employee in the Internal contact field on the Case form when:
    • The case is opened or closed.
    • Comments are added to the case.