ServiceNow's Customer Service Management (CSM) application excels at providing service agents with comprehensive customer information to deliver better service. The platform can display relationships between customers, their companies or households, case histories, assets, and contracts—all valuable context that improves agent efficiency and customer satisfaction. But what happens when customer anonymity is a requirement?

Understanding the Problem

Several years ago, I implemented a solution for a Contact Centre supporting citizens on sensitive issues that required caller anonymity. This presented a unique challenge:

  • We needed to maintain complete anonymity for callers
  • Support workers still needed access to case history and trusted contact information
  • Identity verification was essential before revealing any previous interaction history
  • No personally identifiable information (PII) could be stored in the system
Solving The Problem

I leveraged ServiceNow's Consumer record functionality within the CSM B2C model to create a workable solution:

  1. Anonymous Identity Creation: Each caller was assigned a Consumer record with a unique code stored in the Name field instead of personal information.
  2. Contact Relationships: A reference to the Contact table was added to indicate each caller's nominated trusted contact.
  3. Custom Verification Process: The Lookup & Verify feature in ServiceNow's Workspace UI was customised to validate callers through:
  • Automatic phone number capture from the telephony system (or manual entry if hidden)
  • One-time code generation sent via SMS to the caller's mobile phone
  • Code verification by the service agent before revealing any information
  1. Access Control: Only after successful verification would the Consumer record be linked to the Interaction or Case, allowing agents to view past cases in the Now Assist panel
Outcomes That Matter

This implementation successfully:

  • Eliminated PII data storage in ServiceNow (except for the mobile number)
  • Prevented agents from searching for individuals by mobile number, protecting service user privacy
  • Provided a secure method to validate returning users while maintaining anonymity
  • Enabled full traceability of interactions and lookups, meeting strict audit requirements
Evolving The Solution

Leveraging recent ServiceNow enhancements, I would now consider:

  • Implementing column-level encryption and data anonymisation (now available in ServiceNow) to address PII storage security concerns
  • Using the improved UI Builder for low-code construction of custom dialogs rather than building them with UIB Components that required off-platform compilation and plugin installation

This solution demonstrates how ServiceNow can be adapted to balance effective customer service with strict privacy requirements in sensitive environments.