escalation-policies

TeamFlow Escalation Policies & Procedures

Escalation Overview

The escalation process ensures that complex, sensitive, or high-priority customer issues receive appropriate attention from senior staff and management. This document outlines when to escalate, escalation paths, and procedures for different types of issues.

Escalation Criteria

Immediate Escalation (Within 15 minutes)

Security & Data Incidents

• Suspected data breach or unauthorized access
• Customer reports potential security vulnerability
• Malicious activity detected on customer accounts
• Data loss or corruption affecting customer data
• Compliance violations (GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2)

Service Outages

• Platform-wide service disruption
• API downtime affecting multiple customers
• Critical infrastructure failures
• Database connectivity issues
• CDN or hosting provider problems

Legal & Compliance Issues

• Legal threats or litigation mentions
• Regulatory compliance inquiries
• Subpoenas or legal document requests
• Data deletion requests under GDPR "Right to be Forgotten"
• Intellectual property disputes

Priority Escalation (Within 1 hour)

Enterprise Customer Issues

• Any issue affecting Enterprise customers
• SLA violations for Enterprise accounts
• Dedicated success manager requests
• Custom integration problems
• White-label deployment issues

Financial Impact

• Billing system errors affecting multiple customers
• Payment processor failures
• Refund requests over $1,000
• Revenue recognition issues
• Contract modification requests

High-Value Accounts

• Customers with >$50k annual contract value
• Fortune 500 company issues
• Potential churn indicators for major accounts
• Competitive pressures from large customers
• Expansion opportunity discussions

Standard Escalation (Within 4 hours)

Technical Issues

• Unresolved technical problems after 24 hours
• Multiple failed resolution attempts
• Customer-reported bugs affecting core functionality
• Integration partner API issues
• Performance degradation reports

Customer Satisfaction

• Formal complaints about service quality
• Requests to speak with management
• Negative feedback about support experience
• Social media mentions requiring response
• Product feature requests from Pro customers

Escalation Paths

Level 1: First-Line Support

• **Technical Support Agent**: Technical issues, bugs, troubleshooting
• **Billing Agent**: Payment, subscription, pricing questions
• **Product Info Agent**: Features, plans, general information
• **Response Time**: 24 hours (Basic), 8 hours (Pro), 4 hours (Enterprise)

Level 2: Senior Support

• **Senior Technical Specialist**: Complex technical issues, integration problems
• **Billing Manager**: Billing disputes, refund approvals, contract changes
• **Product Manager**: Feature requests, product feedback, roadmap questions
• **Response Time**: 4 hours (all plans)

Level 3: Management

• **Support Manager**: Service quality issues, team performance, process improvements
• **Engineering Manager**: System outages, security incidents, technical escalations
• **Finance Director**: Large refunds, contract negotiations, revenue issues
• **Response Time**: 2 hours

Level 4: Executive

• **VP of Customer Success**: Enterprise customer issues, major account management
• **CTO**: Security breaches, major technical failures, architecture decisions
• **CEO**: Legal issues, major customer relationships, crisis management
• **Response Time**: 1 hour

Contact Information

Internal Emergency Contacts

24/7 On-Call Rotation

• **Primary**: +1-415-555-0199 (Support Manager)
• **Secondary**: +1-415-555-0188 (Engineering Manager)
• **Escalation**: +1-415-555-0177 (VP Customer Success)

Email Escalation Lists

• **Security Incidents**: security-incident@teamflow.com
• **Service Outages**: outage-response@teamflow.com
• **Legal Issues**: legal-emergency@teamflow.com
• **Executive Escalation**: executive-escalation@teamflow.com

Slack Channels

• **#support-escalation**: Real-time escalation coordination
• **#security-alerts**: Security incident response
• **#outage-response**: Service disruption coordination
• **#customer-success**: Enterprise customer issues

External Emergency Contacts

Legal Counsel

• **Primary**: Johnson & Associates, +1-415-555-0166
• **After Hours**: Emergency legal hotline, +1-415-555-0155
• **International**: Global Legal Partners, +44-20-1234-5678

Public Relations

• **Crisis Communications**: PR Partners Inc., +1-415-555-0144
• **Social Media Monitoring**: SocialWatch, +1-415-555-0133

Escalation Procedures

1. Security Incident Escalation

Immediate Actions (0-15 minutes)

1. **Secure the Environment**: Isolate affected systems if possible 2. **Notify Security Team**: Email security-incident@teamflow.com 3. **Document Everything**: Start incident log with timeline 4. **Customer Communication**: Acknowledge receipt, avoid details 5. **Activate Incident Response**: Follow security incident playbook

Follow-up Actions (15-60 minutes)

1. **Executive Notification**: Inform CTO and CEO 2. **Legal Review**: Consult with legal counsel if needed 3. **Customer Updates**: Provide status updates every 30 minutes 4. **External Notifications**: Regulatory bodies if required 5. **Media Monitoring**: Watch for public mentions

2. Service Outage Escalation

Immediate Actions (0-15 minutes)

1. **Status Page Update**: Update status.teamflow.com 2. **Engineering Notification**: Page on-call engineer 3. **Customer Communication**: Send service disruption notice 4. **Management Alert**: Notify Support and Engineering Managers 5. **Monitor Social Media**: Watch Twitter and community forums

Follow-up Actions (15-60 minutes)

1. **Root Cause Analysis**: Begin investigating cause 2. **Vendor Communication**: Contact AWS, CloudFlare if needed 3. **Customer Success**: Notify Enterprise customer success managers 4. **Regul