Using intelligent triage to identify and act on ticket escalations

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Ticket escalations can take many forms. A customer interaction might need to be raised to a manager, or perhaps a ticket needs to be sent to an agent with special expertise.</p>
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<p class="p">Ticket escalations can take many forms. A customer interaction might need to be raised to
a manager, or perhaps a ticket needs to be sent to an agent with special expertise. </p>
<p class="p">Using intelligent triage, you can design workflows to help identify potential escalation
situations and act accordingly. This article provides some examples of how to put this
into practice. </p>
<p class="p">A well-designed escalation process can improve resolution times, get customers the help
they need faster, or just get the right eyes on an emergent situation. This improves the
customer experience, enhances their loyalty, and potentially increases the value of
their relationship. </p>
<p class="p">This article contains the following topics:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="zug_automated_triage_escalations__ul_i4v_q4g_jzb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_hr2_n4g_jzb">Step 1: Turn on intelligent triage and wait for data</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_ftg_44g_jzb">Step 2: Consider known escalation paths and indicators</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_fh3_p4g_jzb">Step 3: Build a report</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_ng1_q4g_jzb">Step 4: Take action</a></li>
</ul>
<div class="p">
<div class="note note" id="zug_automated_triage_escalations__note_yq1_ynv_lbc">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> When creating reports in Explore, intelligent triage values
are available only in English. However, intelligent triage is capable of classifying
content in the languages listed <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821324826#h_01GYJ1PBVKD26QN3E8JNS3X3TX" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_hr2_n4g_jzb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Step 1: Turn on intelligent triage and wait for data</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">The first step in this process is <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4550640560538#topic_gpp_p4g_htb" target="_blank">turning on intelligent triage</a>. After it’s
turned on, it will start classifying tickets by customer topic, language, and
sentiment on your selected channels. These classifications are the foundation for
identifying potential escalations. </p>
<p class="p">It's important to allow enough time to gather sufficient data before moving on to the
next step. Depending on the frequency of escalations in your account, this time can
vary. Typically, two weeks is a sufficient amount of time. </p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_ftg_44g_jzb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Step 2: Consider known escalation paths and indicators</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">The next step is to consider known escalation paths or indicators. These are patterns
or attributes that suggest a ticket might need to be escalated. </p>
<p class="p">Two common indicators include: </p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_ftg_44g_jzb__ul_hrd_x4g_jzb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Group transfers</strong>: This is when a ticket is transferred from one group to
another. Frequent transfers of a specific subset of tickets could indicate a
pattern where there is a complex issue that requires escalation. These could be
tickets that are transferred from a frontline group to a specialist group, or
from a support group to a group of team leads or managers. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Tags and fields</strong>: Certain tags or fields in a ticket could signify an
escalation. Perhaps you have a specific macro that applies a tag or tracks
escalations in a designated ticket field.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_fh3_p4g_jzb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Step 3: Build a report</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">After identifying potential escalation indicators, the next step is to build a
report. This report should include: </p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_fh3_p4g_jzb__ul_bjh_z4g_jzb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Metrics or attributes specific to the escalation(s)</strong>: These could be the
old and new groups for transferred tickets, tickets with the applicable tag or
field value identified in step 2 above, or something else. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Topic/language/sentiment</strong>: Including these attributes in your report helps
you to see whether intelligent triage insights can help you proactively identify
potential escalations. Example insights you might find include: <ul class="ul" id="topic_fh3_p4g_jzb__ul_vdz_z4g_jzb">
<li class="li">Tickets with a specific topic are frequently escalated if there has been
more than a certain number of agent replies. </li>
<li class="li">Negative sentiment tickets assigned to a collections group are likely to
be escalated.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="p">Using reports in these situations can help you anticipate future escalations and take
proactive measures.</p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested2" id="topic_hlv_bpg_jzb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title5">Create a metric to track the escalation</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">After observing escalations from frontline support agents to team leads or
managers, you can configure a metric in Explore to track tickets taking this
path. </p>
<div class="p">For example, you can <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824243738#topic_g2g_hdb_hv" target="_blank">create a standard calculated metric</a>
called <strong class="ph b">Manager escalations</strong> with a formula like the one provided below.
Replace the placeholder values with each group’s ID. For help, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408837673114" target="_blank">How can I retrieve the group ID in
Support?</a><pre class="pre" id="topic_hlv_bpg_jzb__pre_epc_gpg_jzb">If([Changes - Field name]="group_id"
AND IN([Changes - Previous value],
ARRAY(
/* Tier 1 Group */ "XXXXXXX",
/* Tier 2 Group */ "YYYYYYY"))

AND IN([Changes - New value],
ARRAY(
/* Manager Group */
"AAAAAAA",
/*Team Lead Group */
"BBBBBBB",)))

THEN [Ticket ID]
ENDIF</pre>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested2" id="topic_psh_hpg_jzb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title6">Create a report to track tickets following this escalation path</h3>
<div class="body">
<ol class="ol" id="topic_psh_hpg_jzb__ol_pqj_jpg_jzb">
<li class="li">In Explore, click the reports (<img class="image" id="topic_psh_hpg_jzb__image_vtb_mpg_jzb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_query_icon.png">) icon. </li>
<li class="li">In the Reports library, click <strong class="ph b">New report</strong>. </li>
<li class="li">On the <strong class="ph b">Select a dataset</strong> page, click <strong class="ph b">Support</strong> &gt; <strong class="ph b">Updates
History</strong>, then click <strong class="ph b">Start report</strong>. The report builder opens. </li>
<li class="li">In the <strong class="ph b">Metrics</strong> panel, click <strong class="ph b">Add</strong>. </li>
<li class="li">From the list, select the metric you created above (in the example, this was
<strong class="ph b">Manager escalations</strong>) and click <strong class="ph b">Apply</strong>. </li>
<li class="li">In the <strong class="ph b">Rows</strong> panel, click <strong class="ph b">Add</strong>. </li>
<li class="li">From the list, select the following attributes and click <strong class="ph b">Apply</strong>. These
are just example attributes. You could use at least one of these values and
their associated confidence levels, along with other known attributes in
your account. <ul class="ul" id="topic_psh_hpg_jzb__ol_ds5_4pg_jzb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Topic</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Language</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Sentiment</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">(Optional) <strong class="ph b">About</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Issue type</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Reason code</strong> (Or
any common custom ticket field you might use to have your customers
or agents track what the request is about. This value paired with
the intelligent triage values can amplify the effectiveness of your
report. See also <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5429030095258" target="_blank">Explore recipe: Comparing
intelligent triage topic classifications with a custom About
field</a>.) </li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">To filter your report to show only tickets where the Topic, Language, or
Sentiment field was populated by intelligent triage:<ol class="ol" id="topic_psh_hpg_jzb__ol_s45_bn3_jzb" type="a">
<li class="li">Click the <strong class="ph b">Topic</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Language</strong>, or <strong class="ph b">Sentiment</strong>
attribute on the left. </li>
<li class="li">Click the <strong class="ph b">Excluded</strong> tab. </li>
<li class="li">Select <strong class="ph b">NULL</strong>. </li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Apply</strong>. <div class="note tip" id="topic_psh_hpg_jzb__note_vcr_tpg_jzb">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> As an
alternative to this step, you can create a standard calculated
attribute that acts as a filter to identify tickets enriched by
intelligent triage. The benefit to the calculated attribute is
that you can quickly reuse it in other reports, and it can find
tickets where a topic, language, or sentiment classification has
been made. For instructions, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4550620559258#h_01GNWSPEKSVQATW95TMP58DYHH" target="_blank">Creating an optional
filter</a>.</div>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li class="li">Click the default <strong class="ph b">Update - Date</strong> and select the time frame that’s most
helpful to you. This could be the period of time since you enabled
intelligent triage, made a specific workflow update, or an arbitrary time
frame like the past 30 days.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title7" class="topic nested1" id="topic_ng1_q4g_jzb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title7">Step 4: Take action</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">The final step in the intelligent triage escalation process is taking action based on
your findings. There are several possible paths to take, and multiple paths can be
applied depending on the situation: </p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_ng1_q4g_jzb__ul_nxl_5qg_jzb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Automatically escalate the ticket</strong>: If you find a high percentage of
tickets with a certain topic or subject matter, it might make sense to route the
ticket to the appropriate agents right away. You can update your business rules
or routing to incorporate the applicable values and add an internal note to
indicate the reason for escalation. For more information about routing tickets
using intelligent triage, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4973607684506" target="_blank">Choosing a routing method for automatically
triaged tickets</a>. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Add an internal note</strong>: Using the Internal note trigger action, you can
warn agents about special handling requirements. You might decide to trigger
this after a certain number of agent replies, and you could provide helpful
agent resources, such as instructions, knowledge base articles, or other
external links). See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6191477770906#topic_kvx_rwg_xyb" target="_blank">Adding an internal note to a ticket using a
trigger</a>. For example, you could create a trigger with the following
conditions and actions: <ul class="ul" id="topic_ng1_q4g_jzb__ul_fmw_xqg_jzb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Meet ALL of the following conditions</strong>: <ul class="ul" id="topic_ng1_q4g_jzb__ul_fjs_yqg_jzb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Topic</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Is</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Software error</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Agent replies</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Is</strong> | <strong class="ph b">5</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Status</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Is</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Open</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket tags</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Contains none of the following</strong> |
<strong class="ph b">agent_esc_notified</strong>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Actions</strong>: <ul class="ul" id="topic_ng1_q4g_jzb__ul_o35_zqg_jzb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Add tags</strong> | <strong class="ph b">agent_esc_notified</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Internal note</strong> | Add a message to encourage your agent to
ask for help, suggest documentation that might help them, or
advise them they may need to escalate. This is a good time for
them to be retrospective and decide whether they’re stuck on the
current issue or have a plan of action that can continue until
the matter is resolved. </li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Add a Service Level Agreement (SLA)</strong>: If the issue is often urgent, a
trigger can update the ticket’s priority to meet SLA requirements to be
prioritized by the team. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829459866" target="_blank">Defining SLA policies</a>. </li>
</ul>
<p class="p">The automated and consistent categorization of tickets allows you to build
predictable workflows without having to manually handle and assign every ticket,
saving your agents time and improving customer satisfaction. </p>
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