ServiceNow: Resolve an Incident Ticket

This article defines when to resolve an incident and the steps to resolving an incident ticket within ServiceNow.

In this article:

• When Should You Resolve an Incident Ticket?
  • Resolve tickets when
  • Do NOT resolve tickets when
• Resolving an Incident
  • Tracking the knowledge you used to resolve the Incident
  • Resolving the Incident

When Should You Resolve an Incident Ticket?

Resolve tickets when:

• You have confirmed with the customer the incident is resolved:
  • If you assisted the customer via phone/chat/in-person and you know the issue has been resolved.
  • The customer responded to a ticket asking for it to be closed.
  • If you believe there is a high chance that a solution provided via email should resolve the problem. For example, a customer was receiving a particular error and you found a KB article or another document that provides the fix.
• The customer asked how to do something:
  • Example: "How do I setup email on my Android Device?" and you send them the KB article that goes through how to setup email on an Android device.
• The customer has been contacted 3 times at least every other day, during business hours, with at least 24 hours in between contacts and has not responded.
  • If a phone number is available, this should include calling the customer as well as emailing (could be up to 6 contacts, 3 via phone and 3 via email).
  • See Resolve an Abandoned Incident.
• The ticket is a duplicate:
  • Example language: "I have resolved INC#### as it appears to be a duplicate of INC####. We are aware that your issue has still not been resolved but will use INC#### to ensure we do not duplicate efforts and are able to provide you the best service possible."

Do NOT resolve tickets when:

• The issue has not been resolved:
  • If you asked a customer to come into a walk-in location, do not close the ticket out until after they come in and the issue is resolved. Provide the INC# to the customer and ask them to reference the ticket # or to let the technician they speak with know that they have an open ticket.
  • A proposed solution was emailed to the customer that may be confusing or there may be multiple solutions.
• You are not certain that the solution you sent will fix the problem.
• The issue appeared to be resolved while working with the customer but a follow-up should be completed in a few days to ensure that the issue has not come back.

Resolving an Incident

Before you start, here are a few tips:

• Track the knowledge you used to resolve the Incident.
• Be sure to select Resolve Incident BEFORE typing your resolution notes.

If you do accidentally type the resolution notes in the Additional Comments box and then select Resolve Incident, it will appear as if you lost everything you just typed. You can get them back instead of retyping your message (note: sometimes this fails in Chrome, but it's worth trying).

1. Once you realize your resolution notes are gone, go to the Incident State box.
2. Change the state to Active. The ticket reverts to its previous state with all your notes in the Additional Comments box.
3. Copy all the text to paste in the Resolution Notes box when you select Resolve Incident again.

Tracking the knowledge you used to resolve the Incident

For ALL Incidents that are also Type: Incident, you need to identify the knowledge you used to resolve the Incident. This allows us to track which articles are most useful and identify where we have a knowledge gap.

1. Rate and give feedback for the article you used to resolve the incident.
2. Go to the Linked KB Article field in the Incident.
3. Enter the KB# of the primary article you used to resolve the incident.
   • If there was no article, Create a Draft Article from a Resolved Incident.
   • If you used more than one article to resolve the incident, enter all other KB#s used in the Work Notes.
     

Resolving the Incident

1. Click Resolve Incident on the top right side of the header. The form reloads with two new fields under the Short Description field.
   
   
2. Scroll down and select a Resolution Code.
   • Choose the resolution code that best describes the incident being worked on.
   • See Resolution Code Definitions for more information.
3. Write Resolution Notes for the customer (must be logged into ServiceNow to see the Write Resolution Notes article linked here).
   • Send an Article Link to Customer when you need give them article information.
4. Check your Work Notes for clarity. See Write Complete Work Notes.
   • Include numbers of any additional articles used to resolve the incident.
5. Re-Write the Short Description if necessary.
6. Click Resolve Incident again.