Service Portal - How to handle End user comments to Requests

[JohannesGP]

This is two part question

1. Scenario

On Service Portal, end user request something
End user adds a (additional) Comment to the Request

OOB this information ends nowhere. The additional field is not shown on the the Request form. No one is notified. The Request does not appear in any lists / dashboards.

I'm seeing the process implemented by ServiceNow as broke. Our supplier, local ServiceNow or HI support could only refer me how to fix (customize) the OOB solution to fix this.

Comments welcome!

2. How to solve  

That brings me to: How have you solved this?

Easy it would be to remove the possibility from the end user comment on Requests on the Service Portal.

The solution I'm thinking of is marked the Request (task record) as "End user updated".
"End user updated" task appear in a list, the Service Desk is responsible for.
Making it possible for ITIL users to un-mark "End users updated" by pushing a button.

Comments, different solution, improving above solution and experience is most welcome!

[ChrisBurks]

Technically the OOB Request form in Service Portal isn't broken, meaning it works as designed. However, it isn't built to follow the same process flow as a request within ServiceNow's native interface where all the transactions happen at the Requested Item (RITM) level.

The additional comments are actually being added to the Request form. If you go to the Request form in the native UI and configure the layout and add the Activities (filtered) field, you'll see the comments. OOB there are not notifications for comments that go out from the request table. Instead they go out from the requested item.

There are several things that can be done to change this behavior without changing the OOB widgets. I think the easiest solution would be to configure the widget instance of the sc_cat_item page to redirect to a custom built page that displays the Request information along with a list of the requested item(s) that can be clicked on individually and redirected to the ticket page of the RITM where the end user can interact through comments.

[JohannesGP]

Hi ChrisB, thanks for your reply.

You write: ...within ServiceNow's native interface where all the transactions happen at the Requested Item (RITM) level

When a Request is created, the Notification "Request Opened on Behalf" is triggered on the Request level. If the user reply's, the reply ends up in the Requests Additional comments, which is not shown and the Request is not assigned for anyone. How is this reply to be noticed?

The second part of your answer about communication on Request item: If end user comments on a Request item (this is also possible OOB from the SP). How and by who will this comment be processed?

A comment on Request item triggers the event "sc_req_item.commented.itil" which again triggers Notification "Request Item commented (all assignees)". But this Notification has nothing filled in "Who will receive" and no scripts that adds receivers.

Are you saying to turn off the possibility for end users to comment on Requests? Require the user to know which Request Item to comment, even if they have a general question to the hole Request?

[ChrisBurks]

Hi Johannes,

What I meant by "All transactions" is all transactions between the fullfiller (the one assigned to perform the tasks) and the end user. 

I also mean OOB with no configuration done to the platform. 

When a Request is created, the Notification "Request Opened on Behalf" is triggered on the Request level. If the user reply's, the reply ends up in the Requests Additional comments, which is not shown and the Request is not assigned for anyone. How is this reply to be noticed?

Yes, everything you wrote is correct. Out-of-box, that's how it's set up. However, the OOB setup is simply filled with demo data to give examples of how the catalog could be used, not how it should be used. This setup might work for some companies and it might not.

The second part of your answer about communication on Request item: If end user comments on a Request item (this is also possible OOB from the SP). How and by who will this comment be processed?

In my opinion, I don't think that ServiceNow intended on customers using the exact catalog items and setup straight out-of-box. I believe they expected at least some configurations being done before implementing to a production ready state. The "how and who will the comment be processed" would depend on the custom configuration.  The "Request" may not be getting assigned but the Requested Item might. Usually there is a workflow associated that determines the assigned person. But again the workflow is configurable too. The same would go for Notifications. From my experience, most notifications are customized before being used in a production environment. If the company is using the out-of-box workflow for certain Catalog items, I have sometimes seen that a "Don't reply" be added to request notification.

When I answered your post, I was simply trying to show you that technically the Service Portal is working properly but functioning based on ServiceNow's out-of-box demo data and configurations. I was trying to give you some examples of where some configurations for Service Portal could be made. And I defaulted back to the native view (or backend as some call it) because Service Portal is just a portal. It's intended to be an easier or nicer interface for an end user. In the end, Service Portal has nothing to do with how notifications are sent, how requests or requested items get assigned, nor how workflows of a catalog item gets processed. All that is configured through the native interface.

I'm not saying to turn off the possibility for end users to comment on Requests. I was showing where the comments are being sent and how to see them because you stated that they weren't going anywhere when entered in the Service Portal Request form. 

I'm not saying that the end user should be expected to know where to send a general comment for their request. I would expect some configurations be done to the workflow of the catalog item and it's notifications to help facilitate that so that it is easier for the end user to know how to send a comment back for questions about their request.

I apologize for the lengthy response. But I hope it helps in some way.

[JohannesGP]

Thanks ChrisB for spending time on this. I'm happy that you are.

I guess I'm just disappointed that something as simple as handling response from end users is not handled OOB (in my eyes). And that all customers of ServiceNow needs to invent a way to handle this.

Unless anything else comes up, I'll keep the simpel way for End users to communicate through Requests and Request item from the SP and reply on Notifications. And then mark these tasks, showing them in a list for the service Desk to handled.