Escalation
Moving a case to a higher tier, specialist, or manager when the current owner can't resolve it.
A decision, consequence, or required authority exceeds the current owner's boundary.
A sensitive account action moves with verified context, an explicit requested decision, and accepted ownership.
Forwarding a case into another queue and assuming movement equals ownership.
Escalation rate % = escalated contacts / total contacts x 100Escalation is the act of passing a case onward — to more expertise, more authority, or a different team — when it exceeds what the current agent can do. Some escalation is healthy and correct; a high or rising rate usually signals gaps in training, tooling, or where the tier lines are drawn.
Teams track escalation rate: escalated contacts over total contacts.
What it hides: escalation rate says nothing about whether the escalation was necessary or clean. Premature escalations offload work that front-line could have handled; messy ones lose context and make the customer re-explain. And each escalation resets the customer's clock, so it quietly inflates resolution time even when everyone acted reasonably.