Some tips before escalating
In the case portal, you have the ability to set/change the "Customer Priority" field between low, normal and high. When issues are urgent but not necessarily world ending, changing the priority to "high" will push it up the list of issues based on your support level, which is a good way to get support's attention to an issue.
One thing to avoid if possible is creating a case and escalating it that same day without a strong reason. Same day escalations are generally pushed back on to allow them to go through the standard support triage process and gather all necessary information before bringing in other experts or teams, but short-cutting tends to be disruptive to that process and introduces further delays.
While it is important to stay in close contact with your CSM or account rep, we strongly recommend bypassing them for escalations and instead escalating directly via the case portal. Ad-hoc escalations create back channels and can duplicate efforts, which has resulted in delays or confusion around escalations. CSM's are also informed around escalations automatically, so they will be aware.
When should I escalate?
You should escalate when there is urgency involved in a support ticket. This would include issues such as, but not limited to:
Time constraints (SSL cert expiring, deadlines, events, etc.)
A major impaired function that does not qualify as an severity 1 issue
SLA missed for first response
Unresponsive or lack of updates in a case
While we'll do our best to keep it to a minimum, there will be times when escalated issues will not be accepted as an escalation. If/when that happens, an automated reply will be sent to inform the user who originally escalated the case. Decisions around escalations are entirely at the discretion of the team responsible for escalations.
Additionally, the escalation feature is not designed to replace the outage alias. Any issue which qualifies as being of outage severity should continue to go through the standard outage process of emailing outage@lithium.com or setting the case severity to "1".
When can I escalate?
All Severity 1 cases (outages) are automatically escalated to our Mission Critical Support team and thus do not require further escalation.
Cases that were submitted with a lower severity rating can be escalated four (4) hours after the original submission.
Can I escalate outages?
All severity 1 issues are considered outage level and it's not necessary to escalate since an on-call team is available 24/7/365 for issues that qualify. S1 cases are already at the highest and most visible level possible.
How do I escalate a support case?
After a case has been created, the option to escalate it will be available. Simply open the desired support ticket within the Case Portal and click Escalate Case located in the escalation information section.
A new form displays along with some details and instructions. On that form, provide a summary of why the case needs to be escalated to an Escalation Manager for review within 4 business hours.
After you've filled out the escalation summary and submitted the request, an alert is sent to an Escalation Manager for review. An Escalation Manager will review the request and reply directly in the case you escalated with a decision or plan of action.
What if I'm not satisfied with the current escalation decision or progress?
Should you be unsatisfied with the results of your case escalation, you have the option to go up a higher level by clicking the "Escalate Case" button again. When the "Escalate Case" button is used again, you'll be presented with a different form acknowledging the next-level escalation and again requesting you provide an explanation around the reason for escalating again / higher. Once submitted, an Escalation Manager will review the request and respond directly within the escalated case.
You can perform this process multiple times. The higher the escalation, the more members of Leadership or Management will be involved. Here's a breakdown of the various levels and what occurs:
Level 1: The case is escalated to our senior support engineers, team leads and managers.
Level 2: All of the previous team is alerted, but the escalation is extended to senior managers, directors and your account's Customer Success Manager (CSM).
Level 3: All of the previous manager groups from Level 2 are alerted, but in addition, the Senior Director of Global Technical Support will be included. A full analysis will be completed to understand why this case needed an escalation to this level.
Level 4: All of the managers from Level 3 are alerted, but our VP of Support is also alerted and will take personal responsibility to drive through to completion.
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