Best Practice Ideas - Customer Response Delays

[Blue]

Hello all,

I am looking for anyone willing to share any great ideas on how to address delays to Incident resolution or Request fulfillment due to no response from customers. When an incident/request is submitted and it does not contain enough information the Service Desk contacts the customer for the additional info. The issue is many staff are shift based so they may not respond for several days or just plain ignore the email asking for more info. what did you do to eliminate or reduce that delay?

[wojasso]

Hi @Blue

When customers don't respond promptly, it's often because we're asking for information too late or via a channel they don't monitor. Here are a few ideas that have worked for me:

• Design your intake forms or record producers to collect the required details up front so agents aren't forced to chase the caller for basics later. Use UI policies to show additional fields when certain categories are selected.
• If you still need clarification, change the task's state to Awaiting customer or use the built‑in On Hold Reason "Awaiting Caller Info" so your SLA timers pause. Configure automatic reminders (email or SMS) to go out after 24/48 hours requesting the information again.
• Offer other channels besides email—many users respond faster to an SMS, a Teams/Slack chat or a Virtual Agent conversation. ServiceNow's Engage messenger and Virtual Agent can ask the user follow‑up questions and write the answers back to the incident.
• Establish an auto‑close policy for tickets that are pending on the customer beyond a certain time. After the final reminder goes unanswered, move the ticket to a resolved/cancelled state with a note.
• Finally, educate requesters on what constitutes a complete ticket through knowledge articles and pre‑submission checklists, and ensure the service catalog descriptions clearly state the required information.

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[Bhimashankar H]

Hey @Blue ,

When customer response is needed to proceed with incident resolution or request fulfillment, handling slow or missing replies—especially among shift-based staff—requires both process and technology solutions.

Here are things we are adopted to follow for the user and analysts:

1. Attempt contact via multiple methods (email, phone, SMS, chat, portal notifications). Avoid relying solely on email, as users may miss or ignore messages.

2. Stagger contact attempts across different times and days to accommodate shifts. Send automated reminder notifications after the initial request at specific intervals (e.g., 24, 48, 72 hours).

3. Use escalation: bump importance in subsequent reminders and/or include the user's manager or team lead after repeated inaction.

4. Place the incident/request into an “Awaiting Customer Response” status that pauses SLAs.

5. If no response after defined attempts/time (e.g., 3 contacts in 5 business days), auto-resolve or auto-close the ticket with a standard message: “We have not received your input. The request is being closed. Please reopen or create a new one if still required.”

6. Use AI-based virtual agents to gather missing info interactively or guide the user in real time. Integrate chat or real-time collaboration tools to prompt quicker responses.
7. Try to get the user's availability scheduled, update it regularly. It will help when contact that user right time.

Thanks,
Bhimashankar H

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[Bhimashankar H]

Hi @Blue ,

Can you mark my answer as correct, helpful and directed you in right direction. This helps in removing this question from unanswered list and helps users to learn from your thread. Future readers with similar kind of question will easily find out. Thanks in advance!

Regards,
Bhimashankar H