If you’ve been working in frontline support for a while, you’ve probably seen that service desk analysts are handling more complex issues. According to Zendesk, escalation rates are rising, with 20-30% of tickets now getting pushed to Tier 2 or higher, and first-contact resolution rates around 70-80% (see also data from Fullview).

An escalation has a measurable impact and often costs two to three times more to resolve. This is due to longer handle times and the need to involve staff with specialized knowledge. Customers are affected by longer waits, staff may feel discouraged and it can affect your budget (SQM).

However, there are practical ways to reverse this trend and reclaim ownership at Level 1.

Understand why there are more escalations

To fix a problem, you must understand it. Look at why tickets are being escalated. Some common reasons are:

• Knowledge gaps or ineffective tools that leave analysts unsure of how to proceed.
• Policies that don’t allow the analyst to make simple decisions and force an escalation.
• Routing complex issues to inexperienced staff.
• Lack of change management, causing unfamiliar issues.
• Poor communication of defects.

A mid-sized SaaS company analyzed a month’s worth of ticket escalations and found that 45% of the issues stemmed from just three knowledge gaps. Simply addressing those issues cut their escalation rate by 18%.

So, pull a sample of recent escalations and categorize them by root cause (knowledge gap, policies, tools, routing, etc.). When you identify a trend, address it with your team.

Empower your team with better tools and training

Escalations happen when your staff doesn’t know what to do. They lack confidence or are unfamiliar with the necessary resources. Effective teams address this:

• Provide training on everyday issues, focusing on avoiding escalations if possible.
• Embed decision trees within the associated knowledge, guiding the analyst to the right outcome.
• Build a robust knowledge base and use real-time knowledge suggestions based on keywords in the ticket. Some AI-based systems “listen in” on a call and display knowledge based on what it hears.

A global technology firm identified the top 10 drivers of escalations with its frontline team and created short, scenario-based videos that addressed them. Within six months, resolution rates at Level 1 improved by 12%, and the staff reported feeling more empowered.

You can take a similar action. Build a Pareto chart identifying the top five escalation issues and update the knowledge article for each. Test with a small group and then roll it out across the team.

Loosen up policies without creating risk

Often, escalations happen because the team doesn’t have the appropriate rights to make a simple decision. Find ways to empower staff:

• eCommerce companies can allow for “goodwill” gestures, where the analyst can give a monetary refund or increase the time limits on demo products.
• For common scenarios, add a list of pre-approved solutions to the knowledge base.
• Provide checklists that encourage ownership, directing the analyst to escalate only if certain criteria apply.

An eCommerce support team raised the refund authority of their support staff by $100 for verified issues. As a result, billing disputes dropped 28%, and customer satisfaction improved.

Identify a common scenario and give half of the team the ability to remediate it. Measure the escalation rates and costs before expanding across the team.

Improve routing

Improving how tickets route means getting issues to the right person the first time. Effective approaches include:

• Use skill-based routing to match a complex issue to the team with the expertise to resolve it.
• Communicate changes and identify known issues and how to avoid them or create a workaround.
• Institute self-service processes that handle routine inquiries before they become tickets.

Teams that use intelligent or skills-based routing often see up to 25% less unnecessary escalations.

Your action: review your routing rules. Identify areas where skill-based routing might be effective and implement it for a single issue. Measure the deflection and resolution rates for 30 days, and if successful, identify additional opportunities.

Conclusion

The payoff for all this work should be a reduction in overall escalations. Even a 10% reduction has a measurable impact on handle time, resolution time and costs. Customers are happier, and the staff feel empowered.

Start today by conducting root-cause analysis and fix the most significant issues first. As you progress, you’ll watch the results — and ownership — grow.