How can you use escalation management data to identify patterns?

1 Escalation reasons

To identify patterns using escalation management data, it is important to understand why customers escalate their issues. Escalation reasons are the categories or labels that describe the root cause or nature of the problem that requires escalation. Common examples include technical issues, billing disputes, complaints, and feature requests. By collecting and analyzing escalation reasons, you can uncover patterns such as which types of issues are most likely to be escalated and why, which products, services, or segments are more prone to escalations and why, how well your support agents are trained and equipped to handle different types of issues, and how you can prevent or reduce escalations by improving self-service options, documentation, or communication.

2 Escalation levels

By monitoring how many levels of escalation your customer issues go through, you can use escalation management data to identify patterns. Escalation levels represent the complexity or urgency of the issue and the authority or skill of the agent who handles it. For instance, a typical escalation level structure may include frontline support agents, senior support agents, managers, supervisors, directors, and executives. By tracking and analyzing escalation levels, you can gain insights into how often and how quickly your issues are escalated and resolved, as well as assess how well your escalation process is defined and followed. Additionally, you can evaluate how well support agents collaborate and communicate across levels and optimize your escalation workflow and resources.

3 Escalation resolution

Evaluating how effectively and efficiently customer issues are resolved is a third step to use escalation management data to identify patterns. Escalation resolution is the outcome of the escalation process that indicates if the customer's problem was solved and how satisfied they were with the solution. Common metrics for this include escalation rate, escalation time, first contact resolution, and customer satisfaction. By measuring and analyzing these metrics, you can identify patterns such as how well your support team meets or exceeds customer expectations, follows best practices and standards, learns and improves from feedback and errors, and how you can enhance your support quality and performance.

4 Escalation feedback

Collecting and reviewing customer feedback after an escalation is a fourth step to use escalation management data to identify patterns. This feedback provides information about customers' experience and satisfaction with the escalation process and resolution. Surveys, reviews, and interviews are all common ways to collect escalation feedback. Analyzing this feedback can help you identify what customers value, dislike, and suggest for improvement in your escalation process and resolution, as well as how you can increase customer loyalty and advocacy.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?