Helpdesk · Daily operations · 9 min read

Escalate, de-escalate and send a ticket to a vendor

Raise a ticket's level with the right help, lower it again, and track a vendor escalation with its own deadline.

Before you begin

Escalation needs helpdesk.escalate, and the ticket must be open. The owning team and its collaborating teams can escalate. Levels are L1, L2, L3, Manager, Vendor and Executive. Escalation only climbs.

Escalate

1. Open the ticket and press Escalate.
2. Choose the Escalation type: SLA risk, High severity, Special expertise, Management attention, Customer escalation, Repeated reopen, VIP customer or High financial impact.
3. Choose the Escalation level, or leave it blank to take the next rung of the chain (or one level up if there is no chain).
4. Leave Target team and Target manager blank to take them from the chain.
5. Choose Collaborate or transfer: as the chain says, collaborate, transfer, or notify only.
6. Choose a Priority change if the ticket should become more urgent.
7. Write the Reason: 'Say why it is being escalated.'
8. Press Escalate.

What happens next

• Collaborate: the target team is added as a collaborator. You keep ownership.
• Transfer: ownership moves at once. An escalation transfer never waits for acceptance.
• Notify: the target is told and nothing else changes.
• The ticket's level chip shows the new level. The History records "Escalated". The target team's leaders get a notice, for example "HD-000012 escalated to L2".

Escalating to Manager or Executive needs helpdesk.escalate.manager; without a team the mode becomes notify only. Without the right: 'You do not have permission for this action.'

Messages: 'The ticket is already at L2; escalation moves it up, not sideways.' means pick a higher level. 'Choose the team this goes to.' means the chain gave no team, so choose one. The Vendor level cannot be picked here: 'A vendor escalation records the vendor and its SLA - use Escalate to vendor.'

Automatic escalation

At 100% of the resolution window the SLA check escalates a ticket by itself, with the type SLA risk. A second reopen also escalates automatically. See The SLA clock.

De-escalate

1. Open More > De-escalate.
2. Choose Down to a lower level (blank means one level down).
3. Write the Reason: 'Say why it is being de-escalated.'
4. Press De-escalate.

Open escalations above the new level are closed. At L1 you see 'The ticket is already at L1.'

Escalate to a vendor

1. Open More > Escalate to vendor.
2. Enter the Vendor name: 'Say which vendor it is going to.'
3. Enter the Vendor reference if the vendor gave one.
4. Enter the Vendor SLA (hours). The default is 48. It counts around the clock.
5. Describe What they are asked to do.
6. Press Escalate.

The level becomes Vendor and the status Waiting Vendor. If the policy pauses on vendor waiting, the SLA clock stops. The Related Records tab lists the vendor escalation with its due time, in red if overdue. For a 24-hour vendor SLA raised at 10:00 the vendor is due at 10:00 the next day.

To bring the ticket back, De-escalate. The vendor escalation is cancelled, the status returns to In Progress and the clock resumes. The level goes one below Vendor, which is Manager. Check that this is what you want.

Good to know

• 'The vendor SLA is a number of hours.' means the value must be a number above zero.
• Escalation does not change the owner unless the mode is transfer.
• Escalated tickets are listed under Helpdesk > Queues > Escalated.