Ticket Escalation Process: The Ultimate Guide to Efficient Issue Resolution

‍By the end of this article, you’ll know what ticket escalation is, why it is crucial, and more. Let’s get started. ‍

Salesforce found that 79% of customers want consistency in their interactions with customer service teams. However, 55% stated that it usually feels like they’re communicating with separate departments, instead of a single team aiming to resolve their ticket with as little friction as possible. 

This is why your ticket escalation process needs to be as smooth, streamlined, and effective as possible. There should be a clear and defined process to move the ticket to someone better equipped to provide a resolution. 

For internal tickets, for example, any delay in finding the solution to the user’s issue damages productivity. If you can escalate the ticket efficiently, this person will be able to get back to work sooner.

This article explores the different types of ticket escalation, the reasons to escalate a ticket, and the steps you can take to produce an effective process for your stakeholders. 

What exactly is ticket escalation?

Ticket escalation is a process in customer support and IT service management, where an issue is passed to a team or individual better equipped to handle it. This often happens when frontline support agents are unable to provide the necessary help.

The escalation process ensures that concerns, queries, and problems are handled as efficiently and comprehensively as possible. 

There are categories of ticket escalation. They include:

When should a ticket be escalated?

A ticket should be escalated when:

• The Tier 1 agent lacks the expertise or resources: If the agent does not possess the necessary knowledge or access to resources to resolve the issue, they will pass the query to another team or individual with the authority and decision-making power to handle it. This often involves escalating to someone who can offer discounts on subscription fees or a developer familiar with the error the customer is encountering.
• Time constraints and workload management: When an issue cannot be resolved quickly, it's essential to free up the Tier 1 agent to manage other incoming tickets. Many companies set time limits on how long an agent should spend on a ticket before escalating it to ensure frontline agents focus on new queries. This ensures that customer service remains efficient without agents spending excessive time on complex issues.
• Critical or widespread impact: If the problem is complex and could affect multiple customers, it needs to be escalated to a specialized team urgently. For example, if a bank's customers are reporting incorrect balances in their banking app, Tier 1 agents should immediately escalate to the app development team to prevent widespread disruption.
• Escalation due to priority level: Some tickets may need to be escalated based on priority level rather than complexity. Issues that affect key clients, involve compliance risks, or could result in significant revenue loss should be escalated faster, even if they could technically be solved at a lower level.
• When the client requests escalation: Sometimes, even if the Tier 1 agent has the ability to resolve the issue, the customer may request that their concern be handled by a higher-level representative. This often happens when the customer feels their issue is urgent or requires special attention.
• Unresponsive third-party involvement: When an issue involves third-party vendors or integrations and the vendor becomes unresponsive, escalating to a senior team or manager who has more authority to push for a response can expedite resolution.
• When the ticket exceeds SLA limits: Many service agreements have specified timelines for ticket resolution (Service Level Agreements - SLAs). If the issue is approaching or exceeding the agreed-upon SLA time, it should be escalated to ensure compliance and avoid customer dissatisfaction.
• Security concerns or data breaches: Any issue related to security, such as potential data breaches, unauthorized access, or suspicious activities, must be escalated immediately to ensure swift action by the security or IT team. The frontline agent should never attempt to handle such issues alone.
• When resolution requires specific permissions: In cases where resolving the issue requires permissions or actions that the Tier 1 agent does not have, such as modifying account settings, accessing confidential information, or processing financial transactions, the ticket should be escalated to someone with the necessary permissions.
• When the resolution requires cross-department collaboration: Some issues may span multiple departments (e.g., finance, technical support, and sales). If the Tier 1 agent cannot coordinate effectively across departments, escalation to a manager or a designated point person may be necessary to ensure the issue is addressed holistically.

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Steps to an effective ticket escalation process

1. Define your escalation triggers

This will automate the process of escalation, providing consistency in the way you deal with tickets. For example, it could be that all tickets relating to one particular area of the company are always escalated. But it might also be that tickets trigger escalation when they are unresolved for a set amount of time, or when they meet thresholds for importance or complexity. 

2. Categorize your ticket priorities

To help understand which customer issues require additional input, designate them with a priority level (e.g. low, medium, high). This makes it easier to understand which should be escalated and when. 

3. Designate escalation tiers

Understanding where the ticket goes next is key to a smooth and effective process. Create multiple support tiers so that each issue can be sent to the appropriate place rather than simply passing up the chain and out of the previous agent’s hands. Tier 1 is generally basic level support. Tier 2 might be technical specialists, Tier 3 could be management, and so on. 

4. Request agents to replicate issues

Have your agents reproduce the problem reported by a user in a controlled environment. They should mimic the exact steps or conditions that led to the customer’s issue, which will help them designate the correct tier of support to which they should direct their ticket. 

5. Set response time SLAs

By setting out the time limits for each tier of support to resolve a ticket in an SLA, you give the customer a clear idea of when their problem will be addressed and help to manage the time of your internal stakeholders more effectively. They understand how long they should spend before escalating. 

6. Automate escalation workflow

Use a customer ticketing system to take the manual process out of escalation based on time limits, category, tag, or other criteria. By setting parameters, you can ensure the ticket makes its way as soon as you hit the SLA time limit for its current tier, for example. 

7. Train support teams

Make sure that all agents understand the process for escalating tickets and the reasoning behind it. This will help them decide on the best course of action to take during their working day. Document the process and make it available to them through a shared workspace so they can consult it when they need. 

Tips to improve your ticket escalation process

• Help other team members understand the context of the ticket by using a conversational platform to capture your tickets. When users start tickets in Slack, Discord, or other such programs, they tend to provide more contextual detail about the issue, which can help the team to which the ticket is escalated. 
• Build a solid knowledge base for your agents to refer to when they receive a support query. This allows them to resolve more issues independently and reduce the need to escalate tickets. 
• Review your escalation history to identify patterns and recurring customer issues. This will help you hone your process and reduce the amount of time spent on customer queries and instances of escalation. 
• Ensure that your escalation process is the same for all communication channels. You need a consistent approach that provides the same level of service no matter how users access support. 
• Train your team in soft skills to enable them to handle interactions with empathy and professionalism. This will improve the customer experience and help them feel informed and valued as the issue lands in the right place for resolution. 
• Encourage better cross-department collaboration to address complex tickets more effectively. By working together using internal communication channels like Slack, rather than in siloes, you ensure the consistency that customers crave is delivered.
• Empower Tier 1 support with more authority and additional tools that allow them to resolve more issues quickly and without the need to escalate them to another level.
• Use AI and automation to speed up the process of support, handling recurring problems, and answering common questions with features such as ticket deflection. This means your human customer support team is better able to work on more complex problems. 

Common challenges in the ticket escalation process

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FAQ

When does escalation happen in the workflow?

The escalation might happen initially during ticket triage, if the person in charge decides that the issue requires a higher level of seniority or specialist knowledge to resolve. Otherwise, an agent may try to resolve it, before escalating if they cannot help or run out of time. At this later stage of escalation, using a platform like Slack might help. The conversational nature of the platform allows the new agent to find out more about the problem and the previous attempts to sort it out.  

What steps should an agent take before escalating a ticket?

An agent should thoroughly understand the customer’s issue, attempt to replicate it if possible, consult internal knowledge bases for solutions, and document all relevant information before escalating the ticket.

Is there a maximum number of times a ticket can be escalated?

Typically, there’s no strict maximum number of escalations, but organizations aim to minimize escalations by resolving issues at the appropriate level to maintain efficiency and customer satisfaction. An efficient resolution should take place with as few escalations as possible or risk ending in customer frustration. 

What should an agent do if an escalation does not resolve the issue?

If an escalation doesn’t resolve the issue, the agent should coordinate with higher-level support or management to explore alternative solutions and keep the customer informed throughout the process.

Conclusion

Your ticket escalation process is essential to the smooth customer experience you should strive to create. By seamlessly passing on problems to those better equipped to resolve them, Tier 1 agents can help make customers happy. But this requires a thorough workflow to be in place. By arming agents with greater knowledge and authority, you can reduce escalations, reduce resolution times, and, with a clear priority system in place, you can work through more complex issues in a more streamlined manner. 

Speed up ticket escalation

Wrangle is a modern ticketing system built into Slack for convenient and intelligent escalation. With it, you can easily:

• Automate ticketing: Instantly convert Slack messages into actionable tickets, complete with critical information.
• Escalate efficiently: Automate ticket routing based on urgency, skill requirements, or SLA deadlines to the right agents.
• Organize with tags: Use tags for quick categorization and seamless ticket handoffs.
• Set automated reminders: Keep tickets on track with deadline alerts.
• Integrate seamlessly into Slack: Manage escalations entirely within Slack, where your team already operates.

Request a demo or add it to your workspace today. 

References and further reading

• A complete guide to ticket statuses
• 6 ticket categories you need to know
• How to design a ticketing system process flow
• Complete guide to internal ticketing
• Essential features of a good ticketing system

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