Escalation

This page controls what happens automatically when a support ticket stays unanswered for too long, and defines when your team is actually available. It has two sections: Escalation Policies (who gets notified or has the ticket reassigned to them when too much time passes) and Business Hours (your working hours, including holidays).

What can I do here?

• Create multi-level escalation policies (e.g. "notify after 60 minutes, reassign after 240 minutes")
• Define which agent group or which email addresses get notified on an escalation
• Define which group a ticket automatically gets reassigned to on an escalation
• Activate/deactivate policies
• Define business hours per weekday (including time zone)
• Add holidays to a business hours configuration
• Mark a business hours configuration as the default

Step by step

1. Create a new escalation policy: Switch to the "Policies" tab and click "New Escalation Policy". Enter a name and add at least one level: time to escalation (in minutes), action (Notify / Reassign / Both), and the group or email addresses to notify/reassign to.
2. Add more levels: Click "Add Level" to define, for example, a stricter second level after a longer wait. Reorder levels with the arrow buttons.
3. Create business hours: Switch to the "Business Hours" tab and click "New Business Hours". Choose a time zone and enter start/end times for each weekday, or mark the day as closed.
4. Add a holiday: Open a business hours configuration and enter a name and date in the "Add Holiday" section. Enable "Recurring" for holidays that repeat on the same date every year.

Fields explained

Escalation Policies

Business Hours

Values & Status

Action (Escalation Level)

Weekday (Business Hours)

Status (Policy / Business Hours)

How automatic escalation works

The system periodically checks all open tickets in the background and compares their age against the levels of the active escalation policy. As soon as a ticket crosses a level's threshold and has not yet been escalated, the configured action is executed and recorded in the ticket's history.

Important prerequisite: the automatic check only considers tickets that already have an SLA policy assigned. Tickets without an SLA policy are not picked up by automatic escalation, no matter how old they are or how many active escalation policies exist.

flowchart TD
    A[Ticket is created] --> B{Ticket has an SLA policy,<br/>is still open,<br/>and not yet escalated?}
    B -- No --> Z[No escalation]
    B -- Yes --> C{Ticket age ≥<br/>escalation level reached?}
    C -- No --> W[Wait, re-check on<br/>the next run]
    C -- Yes --> D{Level's action}
    D -- Notify --> E[Email to group/<br/>configured addresses]
    D -- Reassign --> F[Random active group<br/>member takes the ticket]
    D -- Both --> G[Send email<br/>AND reassign]
    E --> H[Recorded in ticket history<br/>+ marked as escalated]
    F --> H
    G --> H

Frequently asked questions

How often are due escalations checked?
Automatically every few minutes in the background — you don't need to trigger anything manually.

What happens if I create multiple escalation policies?
The automatic check uses the longest-existing active policy. It's therefore recommended to generally maintain only one active policy to avoid confusion.

Can a ticket be escalated more than once?
During an automatic run, a ticket is escalated only once, to the highest level reached that hasn't been executed yet. After that, it's marked as escalated and won't be touched again by the automatic check.

What are business hours actually used for?
They define when your team is regularly available — for instance as a reference for customers and response-time expectations. Holidays can also be stored here.

What if I delete an agent group used in an escalation level?
That level then points to nothing. Before deleting a group, check whether it's used in an escalation policy and adjust the policy if needed.

Can I create an escalation level without a group or email address?
Technically yes, but the action then has no effect (e.g. no notification is sent because no recipient is configured).

Why isn't this ticket escalating even though an active escalation policy exists?
First check whether the ticket has an SLA policy assigned at all — without an SLA policy, a ticket is never picked up by automatic escalation, no matter its age. Other possible reasons: the ticket has already been escalated (the automatic run won't touch it again), or it's already resolved/closed.

Related topics

• Agent Groups
• Agent Performance