8 best practices for customer escalation management

Customer escalation is when a customer is sent to a more experienced or skilled agent because the current service agent either lacks the knowledge or authorization to solve the problem. The most common reasons for escalating an issue include a need for additional expertise, authorization, or SLA (Service Level Agreement) violations, where issues are automatically escalated after a set period. While they aren’t always a bad thing, transferring a customer again and again can create dissatisfaction and frustration — making it less likely that they’ll be a repeat customer. Forbes reports that 96% of customers with a bad experience will not do business with the same company again.

When a service agent is unable to help the customer to their satisfaction, they can perform one of the four types of customer escalations:

Functional escalation is when the customer is referred to an individual with the exact skill set to address their problem, regardless of where they fall within the hierarchical organization. For example, a junior service agent may be working with a customer with a complex billing issue. Instead of directing that customer to the next service agent in line, they may connect the customer to their billing department instead since they are more equipped to handle this particular issue.

The most common type of escalation is hierarchical escalation, which resolves an issue by directing the customer to a higher-level team member, such as a supervisor or manager. This is often needed when the problem requires additional authorization or experience to be addressed. For example, if a customer’s problem requires access to sensitive information in their account that only someone with seniority can access, it would be handed off to that higher-level team member, like a manager.

Automatic escalation is a standard method used in companies with SLAs. SLAs guarantee their customers an expected quality of service, such as a scheduled wait period between submitting a query and its resolution. Automatic escalation is a standard method used in companies with SLAs. SLAs guarantee their customers an expected quality of service, such as a scheduled wait period between submitting a query and its resolution. A company’s SLA states that they will resolve queries within 6 hours or less. Suppose a customer service agent cannot resolve the query within that 6 hours. This is considered an SLA violation, and it often leaves the customer feeling dissatisfied since they were promised a resolution that wasn’t delivered in the expected timeframe.

Priority escalations are used to send high-priority issues to higher levels of authority depending on their urgency. For example, credit card fraud is considered a high-priority issue that needs to be addressed urgently and should be prioritized over inquiries that aren’t time-sensitive. Another example of a high-priority escalation might include a customer who posted a negative comment about their experience on social media, which should be addressed as soon as possible to prevent additional frustration and negative exposure to the brand in a public space. This type of escalation requires customer service software to promptly identify high-priority issues across multiple channels so they can be sent to the correct team as quickly as possible.

Escalation management is the process of dealing with escalations. It is a well-crafted, problem-solving guide for your escalation team to follow to maintain or improve customer satisfaction.

In customer service, dealing with feelings of dissatisfaction and frustration is common. Customers may be upset with setup difficulties or issues related to their product, and these feelings can be exacerbated if the customer keeps getting routed to different people with no resolution in sight — a result of poor escalation management. The Huffpost reported on a study that showed customers whose problems were handled well were more loyal to the company they purchased from, potentially increasing customer lifetime value.

Effective customer escalation management routes customers to the right person in the shortest amount of time to increase customer satisfaction. By reducing resolution time, support teams can also handle more requests. As a result, investing in escalation management can significantly impact profitability.

If you’re looking for ways to improve your customer escalation management, here are eight best practices to consider:

Your escalation team needs a clear and defined structure to tackle escalation requests. Your agents should understand the appropriate criteria to recognize a need for escalation management and how to follow through successfully. A basic escalation management plan should include the following steps:

• The decision to escalate a request: Be able to identify your customer’s need for escalation by assessing the problem and whether your skills meet the problem’s requirements.

• Create an action plan: Decide which type of customer escalation is appropriate for the request and who the appropriate party is to escalate the issue to.

• Communicate: Inform the individual you’re escalating the issue to and the customer that the escalation has occurred.

• Adjust action plan and resolve: Now that someone with the appropriate skill set is involved, adjust your action plan based on the new information provided. Follow through with your plan and resolve the issue. If the issue is not resolved, change the plan or invite more parties. Continue until the problem has been solved.

• Close: Inform the customer of the resolution and be sure to follow up on whether all issues have been resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

You'll want to define internal SLAs when creating a customer service escalation process. SLAs are rules used to determine when an escalation is necessary. How you define your SLAs will depend on your company. For example, an SLA breach could occur after an issue is not resolved within 24 hours of submission. Or it could be triggered by a low customer satisfaction survey. Your customer service software should automatically initiate an escalation process for each SLA breach. Defining your SLA and setting escalation timeframes will ensure your escalation team solves issues efficiently and consistently to avoid confusion.

It’s important that internally, each person on your escalation team knows who their team members are and their skill sets. This means they can effectively decide who should be involved in the escalation process. For example, if a service agent cannot address a customer’s complex IT issue, they should know who on their team can help. Should it be the junior IT lead or the senior? Specifying your team’s titles and skill sets will improve agent communication and avoid additional escalations.

Set up your escalation team for success by providing thorough training designed to build skills and confidence related to each person’s role. Your team should feel supported by your company when it comes to reliable structure and clearly defined expectations for escalation management. A good training program should include what escalation management is, types of escalation management, and an in-depth explanation of your company’s approach to escalation including your flowchart and SLAs.

Resources can also be developed so your team can easily access tools that could help them solve your customers' problems. An example of some escalation management resources might include a visual flowchart for escalation decision-making or a chart that defines priority issues.

Americans find it essential for companies to show empathetic qualities in their business approach. Ipsos says that 9 in 10 Americans believe brands must be more sympathetic. Training your agents to communicate with empathy can help decrease negative feelings as customers navigate the escalation process. Examples of communicating with empathy include phrases such as “If I understand correctly,” followed by a rephrase of their concerns, or “I would feel confused too in that situation.” Recognizing the customer's emotions during an escalation can help improve the customer experience and build brand loyalty.

It’s important to provide consistent updates to the customer when performing an escalation. If an issue is being escalated, quite some time has likely passed since the customer has submitted their query. Not knowing when your problem will be solved can feel aggravating. Maintain an open and transparent line of communication between you and your customer by informing them of the status of their query, progress made, and expected timeline until resolution. Keeping your customer updated on their query's status helps manage expectations and reduce confusion.

Escalation management requires communication between multiple parties. Proper documentation is vital for avoiding miscommunication and providing thorough updates for those who may be involved. It’s important to record all relevant information about your escalation, including descriptions of the problem, how it has been addressed thus far, and the history of communication with the customer and other team members. 

Doing so prevents the customer from repeating their situation, which can be irritating when required several times. Additionally, your documentation may be used to identify patterns that can help avoid repeating issues in the future. For example, if a manager notices many support tickets coming from a single issue, creating a self-service resource like an FAQ page or video may be worthwhile.

In the rush to find a solution, we often don’t take the time to thoroughly analyze the root cause of an escalation, leading to repeated issues. Your escalation team needs to take time to perform a root cause analysis, especially for recurring problems.

Train your escalation team to think deeply when it comes to analyzing the need for a reoccurring escalation. For example, they should ask questions like “Was something wrong with the product?”, “Did I misinterpret the customer’s request?”, or “Was there an issue with the support channel?”. These insights will improve escalation efficiency and reduce frequency, enhancing the overall customer experience.

Escalation management is the art of helping your customers most efficiently. Investing in your customer escalation management process means you care about providing an excellent customer experience. As an award-winning digital customer engagement company, our customer service software offers many features to help enhance and automate your escalation management, including:

• AI that uses natural language processing (NLP) to analyze customer sentiment, intent, and context — which can flag situations that may need escalating

• Well-designed channel workflows for queues and tagging so that your customers are prioritized appropriately

• Efficient automation routing for faster, more seamless handoffs to agents

• Trainable chatbots to handle common queries, which helps free up human agents so they can focus on more complex customer issues

Request a demo today to learn more about how Khoros can help enhance your escalation management process.