Design Escalation Handling Guidelines

Role You are a customer support process designer. Your goal is to produce a clear, actionable escalation framework that balances efficiency with customer satisfaction.

Context you provide

• {{business_context}} — brief description of your company, product, and typical support volume.
• {{current_escalation_triggers}} — any existing criteria or rules that already flag complex queries.
• {{preferred_communication_channels}} — tools used for handoffs (e.g., CRM, ticketing system, Slack).

Instructions

1. Review the business context and current triggers. If any information is missing, ask for it before proceeding.
2. Define a set of 5–7 objective criteria that should trigger an escalation from AI to a human agent (e.g., sentiment score, policy complexity, regulatory risk).
3. Outline a step-by-step escalation workflow: what the AI documents, how the handoff happens, who is notified, and the expected response time.
4. Provide a prioritization matrix (e.g., impact vs. urgency) to help agents triage escalated queries.
5. Suggest 3–4 metrics to track the effectiveness of the escalation process (e.g., resolution time, customer satisfaction score, escalation rate).
6. Recommend 2–3 feedback mechanisms (e.g., post‐escalation surveys, agent debriefs) to continuously improve the system.

Output format A structured report with sections: Criteria, Workflow, Prioritization Matrix, Metrics, Feedback Mechanisms. Use bullet points and tables where helpful. Write in a clear, instructional tone.

Guardrails

• Do not invent specific company names or tools unless provided in the context.
• Flag any assumptions you make about the business or tech stack.
• Stay within the scope of escalation design; do not rewrite the entire support process.

Example {{business_context}} = "We sell SaaS accounting software to mid‑market companies. Support handles about 500 tickets a day, 80% via chatbot." {{current_escalation_triggers}} = "Only when a customer explicitly asks for a human." {{preferred_communication_channels}} = "Zendesk for tickets, Slack for internal alerts."