Escalation Policies

Escalation policies

Escalation policies define what happens when a ticket goes unacknowledged. Each policy is a chain of levels – if the responsible party at level 1 does not respond within the configured timeout, the ticket automatically escalates to level 2, and so on.

You manage escalation policies from the Escalation Policies tab on the On-Call page.

How escalation works

Ticket created
  |
  v
Level 1: Assigned agent (15 min timeout)
  |  -- no acknowledgment -->
  v
Level 2: Team lead (30 min timeout)
  |  -- no acknowledgment -->
  v
Level 3: Engineering department (notifies all agents)

Each level specifies:

• A target – either a specific agent or an entire department.
• A timeout – how many minutes to wait before escalating to the next level.

When a level targets a department, all agents in that department are notified. When it targets an individual agent, only that agent receives the escalation.

Navigating the Escalation Policies tab

Go to Team > On-Call and select the Escalation Policies tab. The table displays expandable rows with these columns:

Click any row to expand it and view the Escalation Levels subtable.

Escalation levels subtable

The expanded view shows each level in the chain:

Creating an escalation policy

1. Click the Add Escalation Policy button above the table. The Create Escalation Policy dialog opens.
2. Fill in the top-level fields:
   • Name – a descriptive name for the policy (e.g. “Billing Urgent Escalation”).
   • Department – select the department this policy belongs to from the dropdown.
3. Add escalation levels. The dialog contains a dynamic list where you can add, remove, and reorder levels. For each level, configure:
   • Order – the position in the escalation chain (1, 2, 3, etc.).
   • Target Type – choose Department or Agent from the dropdown.
   • Target – based on the target type, select the specific department or agent from a second dropdown.
   • Timeout Minutes – the number of minutes to wait before escalating to the next level.
4. Click Create to save the policy.

The new policy appears in the table immediately with all its levels.

Editing an escalation policy

1. Click the Edit action on a policy row. The Edit Policy dialog opens.
2. You can update:
   • Name – change the policy name.
   • Active toggle – flip this to enable or disable the policy. Disabled policies remain in the system but do not trigger escalations.
3. Click Save to apply changes.

Enabling and disabling policies

Use the Active toggle in the edit dialog to control whether a policy is evaluated. When a policy is inactive, its chip in the table changes to indicate the disabled state and no escalations fire for it.

This is useful when you need to temporarily pause escalations – for example, during a planned maintenance window.

Example: three-tier support escalation

A typical support organization uses a three-tier escalation that progresses from the assigned agent to a team lead to the entire department.

To set this up:

1. Click Add Escalation Policy.
2. Name the policy (e.g. “Engineering Critical Path”) and select the Engineering department.
3. Add three levels using the dynamic list, configuring each with the target type, target, and timeout shown above.
4. Click Create.

Adjust timeouts based on your SLA targets. Tighter SLAs warrant shorter escalation windows.