Escalations, especially Political Escalations, need to be know in all layers of the organization. When several customers have been escalated by Management the priority between customers need to be defined. This priority has to be used to determine which reported support issue need to be picked up first. The set priorities can be used by all Management layers as well as by all Support Analysts and Maintenance Engineers to keep focus on what is mostly important for the company.

Have a list available, on the intranet for example, that can be reached easily. Make sure the list is always up to date. Provide next to priority an overview of the issues that need to be solved at the customer site. The better the information that is provided, the easier it becomes for the organization to respond quickly to the reported Support Issues of these customers.

On the escalation list the following data is required to handle escalations better:

  • Customer name
  • Escalation date (How old is the escalation?)
  • Escalation manager (Who is the contact person for the customer?)
  • Priority (Top, High, Medium, Low)
  • Situation at customer site (Short Description)
  • Overview of issues to be solved (Headlines only)
  • Executed Actions (Headlines only)
  • Status of Escalation (New, On Hand, Closed)
  • Last updated date

Such a list should be updated at least on a weekly basis. Escalation Managers are responsible for the content.