Requesting approval for service requests


Freshservice lets the user request approval for a service item by manually adding the email address of the approver. You can also automate a service request approval by creating a Workflow Automator.


I) Adding the email address of the approver manually 


  • Open a service request and click on the Approval tab.



  • Click on Request for Approval and enter the email address of the person you want to get approval from.
  • If you require a committee of people to approve the request, you could choose the following options that would appear on the right.
  1. Everyone: This will require approval from everyone for the service request to be approved.
  2. Majority: This only requires the majority of the committee to approve the service request.
  3. Any: This will only require approval from any member of the committee but will wait till the entire committee is done casting their vote.
  4. First Responder: The first responder will immediately approve/reject based on the first person's vote. It will not wait for all members to vote.

  • Once that's set, make changes to the email copy if deemed necessary and click Submit.
  • You could send a reminder or cancel the approval request by clicking on the desired link in the service request ticket.


II) Automate Service Request Approval using Workflow Automator


You can automate service request approvals by creating a workflow using the Workflow Automator. Let’s assume a scenario where whenever you get a service request for an Apple Macbook, you will have to send it to the requester’s approval manager and the department head. The service request will be sent to the fulfillment team only after approval from both the managers. 




Setting Approval Reminders


You can set approval reminders to be sent out to approvers every x number of hours. You can define the interval at which the reminder emails have to be sent. This can be achieved by going to the Email Notification > Tickets > Service Request Approval.


Important enhancement: 


Now change, and service request approvers can respond to the requests directly from their inboxes. Freshservice will send an email to approval recipients where they can just reply with certain keywords in order to approve/reject the request.


This will remove additional steps for approvers to navigate across multiple screens to log into the product for approval/rejection of the requests.

More details here.


Faq:


1. How can I trigger a Service Request to change the status of the ticket upon being Approved / Rejected?


Navigate to Admin / respective workspace > Workflow Automator > Create new automation with the below event and have the condition and action node set based on your usecase.