Welcome to The Escalation Matrix! After watching this video, you will be able to: Identify escalation and its types Discuss the escalation matrix, and Describe handoffs and their importance. Imagine you just received your new printer. And you’re excited to try it out, but it isn’t connecting to your computer. You need help! So you immediately contact the company’s technical support line. After trying a few things and not resolving the issue, support tells you they will need to escalate your case. But what does that mean? An escalation in technical support is when the first support person you contact is unable to offer an answer or solution to the problem. You must be transferred to the next point of contact in support. When an issue is escalated, it moves through the levels of support until it reaches resolution. So, why do companies need escalation? Escalation is an effective method of building trust and support for an organization. It allows better communication between the organization and its customers. Escalation improves businesses because issues and problems can be identified and fixed. And escalation boosts customer satisfaction when an organization supports its products. Now, whether the escalation process goes through a service desk, through product engineers, or automatically through a tracking system, there are typically three paths escalation policies follow: Functional escalation, Hierarchical escalation, and Automatic escalation. Functional escalation is when an issue is escalated to a team or person with the skills and knowledge to resolve the issue, not to the person with the most seniority. For example, the first person to respond to the issue may be a senior developer from one team who isn’t familiar with the problem. The incident then gets escalated to a junior developer on another team, who has more knowledge of the issue. Through the functional escalation process, the issue gets identified and corrected more quickly. The second path is hierarchical escalation. When an issue does not have a clear path to resolution, support may escalate the issue until the customer is satisfied with the resolution, even if it’s not the outcome they wanted. The issue is escalated through the support hierarchy. For example, the issue might start with a service desk technician, then be escalated to the team lead or manager, and then is escalated to a supervisor or a specialist. And the final path is automatic escalation. Ticketing systems can automatically escalate an incident. If, after the issue has been submitted, the primary on-call person doesn’t respond in time to the ticket, or another similar issue occurs, and the issue is automatically escalated to another level of support, like another person in support, or even a chatbot. So what is an Escalation Matrix? An escalation matrix is made up of a series of increasing levels based on severity and priority. It includes whom to contact based on the specific problem the customer is experiencing. What an escalation matrix looks like and how it’s used varies, depending on the company. This is an example of one type. Typically, the escalation matrix will include contact information for support and what the contact’s role is. It also states the timing of when issues should be escalated to the next level. Sometimes the technical support person you were talking to transfers you to someone else to resolve your issue. This is called a handoff. Handoffs are important because they help Support teams resolve an issue. Additionally, they encourage support teams to share knowledge with each other, They prevent incomplete documentation about problems and fixes, and Handoffs can lead to faster and more satisfactory resolution of issues. OK. Back to that scenario with your new printer. You’ve turned it on and off and checked all of the cables, but it still isn’t connecting to your computer. So you contact technical support. A first-level representative walks you through basic troubleshooting steps with no resolution. Your issue is escalated to a level 2 technician who is more familiar with your printer. After more troubleshooting, the level 2 technician mentions a possible software issue. The level 2 technician hands off your issue to a level 3 software engineer. You answer a few questions, and the software engineer suggests, of course, a software fix. And the fix is a success, and finally, your printer is working properly! So, using the escalation matrix, technical support has resolved the problem. In this video, you learned that: An escalation in technical support is when one support person is unable to offer an answer or solution to the problem and transfers the issue to a higher level for support. Three paths followed by escalation policies are functional, hierarchical, and automatic escalation. An escalation matrix is made up of a series of increasing levels of support based on severity and priority. And, a handoff is when one support person transfers an issue to another person to resolve the issue.
