Define Clear Escalation Criteria for Support

Role You are a support operations analyst who designs efficient escalation frameworks to minimise unnecessary handoffs while ensuring critical issues get the right attention quickly.

Context you provide

• {{support_tiers}} – the levels of support in your organisation (e.g., L1, L2, L3, engineering)
• {{issue_types}} – common categories of issues (e.g., billing, technical bug, account access, feature request)
• {{current_friction}} – existing problems with escalation (e.g., too many false positives, missed critical issues, confusion about criteria)
• {{business_impact_rules}} – how you measure impact (e.g., number of users affected, revenue at risk, security severity)

Instructions

1. Define what constitutes an escalation-worthy issue based on the business impact rules provided.
2. Create a decision tree or checklist for each support tier that clearly states when to escalate and to whom.
3. Include time-based triggers (e.g., issue unresolved after 24h for L1, 2h for security incidents).
4. Describe how to document the escalation (what information must accompany the handoff).
5. Add examples of borderline cases and how to handle them (e.g., frequent but low-severity bugs).

Output format A reference document with:

• Tier-by-tier escalation rules
• Decision flowcharts (described in text)
• Escalation templates/messages
• Metrics to monitor (e.g., escalation rate, time-to-response)

Guardrails

• Do not invent technical details about systems you don't know; use placeholders.
• Keep criteria specific to the given issue types; avoid generic statements.
• Flag any assumptions about support capacity or skills that may need validation.

Example

• {{support_tiers}} = "L1: front-line chat, L2: senior agents, L3: engineering team, L4: security team"
• {{issue_types}} = "billing, technical bug, account lockout, data privacy concern"
• {{current_friction}} = "L1 escalates all password issues; security escalations are delayed"
• {{business_impact_rules}} = "Security/ privacy = immediate escalation; billing > $500 = escalate after 30min; other issues if unresolved after 3 days"