What is the difference between incidents and service requests

Suddenly "I got a sync warning message when I saved my file" becomes a service request because the system was working fine and the user just had to be trained to click "Keep the appropriate copy" when saving.

Or "My mail is in the wrong folder when clutter got activated" becomes a service request because the person just needed to be trained on how to use Clutter. You may argue that both of these should be incidents as we're restoring the person back to the status quo, but using that logic wouldn't "Fields missing from pivot table" from a first-time pivot user be an incident? Then work backward to "How do I use a pivot table" - again now we're back to all training being an incident again.

Best I can come up with is an over-complex flow-chart to determine what's an incident vs. When I was in charge of our Help Desk, I would review the logged calls to the Help Desk, by category and by resolution.

If the resolution to the ticket was "training", I would review the ticket and determine patterns. Eventually this rolled in the New Hire process and training on some of the unique requirements for each department were handled up front and not after the new employee had started. We also created documentation that we posted on our Help Desk intranet page, and directed users to the documentation instead of sending a technician.

We used the theory the user can read quicker than we can free up a tech to visit them and that was how it was explained to the user from the Help Desk. To continue this discussion, please ask a new question. Which of the following retains the information it's storing when the system power is turned off?

Submit ». Get answers from your peers along with millions of IT pros who visit Spiceworks. On the surface this looks easy. Some examples of incidents in my book: Server is down Personal computer breaks User picks up a virus Print quality is sketchy Some examples of service requests in my book: User needs to move location Printer needs to move location Password reset Change toner Deploy PC Request for training Here's where it gets fuzzy.

Scenario 1: User submits a ticket "The network drive is down! Scenario 2: User submits a ticket "Can you show me how to find my H drive? Edit: Adding in more: Scenario 1: User submits a ticket "Can you train me how to use this scanner?

Scenario 2: User submits a ticket "Can you train me how to use this scanner? Scenario 3: User submits a ticket "Can't scan" Scanner is working fine. How does your org differentiate between these? Do you have examples? Edited Sep 9, at UTC. Thai Pepper. KirkCG This person is a verified professional. Verify your account to enable IT peers to see that you are a professional. With the help of features such as Labels and internal notes, agents can easily organize tickets and separate incidents from service requests.

Support agents and managers can view all tickets in their internal ticketing system and decide to prioritize them based on their possible impact on the business. For instance, an incident of a server failure can have a larger impact on business operations compared to a simple password reset request.

Whether you are producing reports due to compliance or for business improvement, separating service requests from incidents will keep your reports tidy and easy-to-understand. You will be able to compare the number of incidents to the number of service requests, calculate support costs, and allocate resources accordingly. To drive your IT support operations to excellence, you need to create a well-defined system.

For the start, you must look to differentiate your standard service requests from break-fix incidents and track them separately using IT help desk software. While on one hand, incidents can be defined as unplanned interruptions in the delivery of IT services.

On the other hand, service requests refer to additional requests made by users that are often pre-approved by the organization. Separating both these terms will make it easier for agents to track support issues, reduce the impact of IT risks, simply reporting, and deliver delightful support experiences. Since incidents result from a disruption of IT service, they must be dealt with as a high priority in comparison to service requests.

So, if your IT support team receives one incident and one service request, they must look to resolve the prior first. Incidents can potentially impact many users and eventually the business. Many organizations make the mistake of handling both incidents and service requests in the same manner.

This can have severe consequences as your IT support team will be left confused and have no idea which activities they should focus on first. Jared is a customer support expert. The purpose of the service request is to support quality to the user in a user-friendly way.

Scenario 1 — One of the most common examples of the incident is the internet is not working. For this user cannot do anything only try to troubleshoot those problems which are system-specific but if it is not system-specific then agents need to take action and their field workers inform that what is the issue or how much time will be consumed to resolve issues. This is an example of the incident. When the user generates a ticket for the same then technicians reply to them informing them about issues.

Some other examples that fall under the category of incidents are down a server, slow network. Scenario 2 — When a user a new and wants to set up a SaaS account so this type of service will fall under the service request category.

This type of scenario has low risk and the agent can take time to resolve the issue. Scenario 3 — Upgrading to the higher version of the software falls under the category of service request category.

Incident and service request is important to understand to save time and resolve risky scenarios more quickly. When you know the difference between these two terms then only you can do better. Categorization of the ticket can help you identify the nature of the ticket. This will also help you in reducing your service desk agents stress! Freshservice Blog.

Authors Jyotsna Hariharan November 6, November 6, Incident vs Service request: How are they different?