ServiceNow has an automated system for reminding users they have been asked for further information regarding tickets they have raised.

This article explains the sequence of events within the automated reminder process.

The Prompt After date should be set to the date on which the update is being made, unless you know the customer is away (for example on annual leave, or with known non-working days that may delay a response).

When responding to a question from the customer, the State should be set to Awaiting User Info for an Incident.

For a Request the State should be set to On Hold and the On Hold Reason is Awaiting User Info.

A Prompt After date is then required.

Once the Prompt After date has been set, there should be no need to return to the ticket unless the user responds or you have a further update to add yourself. ServiceNow will monitor the ticket for communication from the customer, reminding them a response is required. If there is no response within a given time, the ticket will be closed, advising the customer that the action has been taken further to no response from them.

Each ServiceNow Tenancy can use the Prompt Engine. The timing of reminders for HR, for example, may differ to that of iSolutions.

When are messages sent?

ServiceNow runs a scheduled job at 10:30:00 every working day, calculating which tickets need to move into the Auto Prompt queue, and which message to send when a ticket is being managed by the Auto Prompt Engine.

If you put the ticket on hold prior to 10:30:00 on any given day, the system will check the Prompt After date at 10:30:00 on the same day. If the time in the Prompt After field has passed (for example, 08:00:00), then that ticket goes into the Auto Prompt queue. At this point, NO message is sent reminding the user that a response is required.

If, however, the ticket has 12:00:00 as its Auto Prompt time, the system sees that the time has not passed, so it will take no action - the date and time will be in the past when the system checks the day afterwards. At that point, the Auto Prompt Engine comes into effect.

If you know that a user is away for a week, set the Auto Prompt for when they are due to return - only once the Prompt After date has passed will ServiceNow send further messages to the user.

If at any time the caller responds to the ticket, it is removed from the Prompt queue and goes back to In Progress.

Once in the Auto Prompt Queue, reminders for IT Incidents and Requests are timed as follows:

• Reminder 1 - 2 working days after the Prompt date has passed
• Reminder 2 - 5 working days later (7 working days in total)
• Auto-Close - 5 working days later (12 working days in total)

Example:

• A ticket is updated and set to Awaiting User Info, with the Prompt After date set at 09:00:00 on Monday 1st
• At 10:30:00 on Monday 1st, the Auto Prompt Engine sees that the date has passed and the ticket is moved, in the background, to the Prompt Queue - no message is sent
• At 10:30:00 on Wednesday 3rd, when no response has been received, Reminder 1 is sent to the user, prompting a response from them
• A week later, at 10:30:00 on Wednesday 10th, again after there has been nothing received from the customer, Reminder 2 is sent
• Finally, with still no response, on Wednesday 17th at 10:30:00, the Auto Close email is sent, and the ticket is resolved stating there was no response.

A Bank Holiday or University Closure Day will delay the running of the Engine, so that delay does not need to be considered when selecting the Prompt After date - usually, set Prompt After to the time that you're updating the ticket - there is no need to put the Prompt After date any later, unless you know the customer is away at the time (for example on annual leave for two weeks).