Standard Operating Procedure Template

Customer Support Department

SOP ID: CS-002

Customer Support
Escalation
Procedure

Standard Operating Procedure

Applies to all customer support staff handling inbound tickets, chat, and email. Non-compliance with escalation SLAs is a performance issue and must be flagged to team leads.

Version 2.1

Effective Date April 1, 2026

Next Review July 1, 2026

Approved by Jenna Park, VP Customer Success

Scope All CS Staff

Review Cadence Quarterly

Purpose & Scope

This procedure defines how Customer Support staff identify, classify, and escalate customer issues that cannot be resolved at Tier 1. The goal is to ensure every customer receives a timely, appropriately-resourced response — and that no issue falls through the cracks between team levels.

Scope

Applies to all inbound support channels: Zendesk tickets, live chat, and email. Applies to all customer segments including free, Starter, Growth, and Enterprise. This SOP does NOT cover outbound proactive support (see SOP CS-004).

Tier Definitions

Tier 1

Standard Support

Issues resolvable with the standard playbook in under 15 minutes. Includes password resets, billing questions, basic how-tos, and configuration questions with documented answers.

Tier 2

Technical / Complex

Technical issues, account-specific edge cases, or issues requiring investigation beyond 15 minutes. Bugs, integration failures, and advanced configuration support.

Tier 3

Critical / P0

Data loss, security incidents, critical service outages, or any issue affecting a VIP or enterprise account. All Tier 3 issues are treated as P0 incidents.

SLA Requirements by Tier

Tier	First Response	Resolution Target	Escalation Trigger	Who Owns
Tier 1	Within 2 hours	Within 8 hours	15 min without resolution → escalate to Tier 2	Support Agent (L1)
Tier 2	Within 30 min of escalation	Within 24 hours	2 hours without progress → CS Lead notification	Senior Support (L2)
Tier 3	Immediate — within 15 min	Best effort — no fixed target	Immediate page — do not wait	On-Call Engineer + CS Lead

SLA Compliance Warning

SLA misses must be logged in the Weekly Review doc with root cause. Three SLA misses in one month triggers a mandatory 1:1 with team lead. Consistent misses are escalated to VP Customer Success.

Step-by-Step Escalation Process

1. 1

Receive and Log Ticket Zendesk

All inbound issues must be logged in Zendesk before any action is taken. Required fields: customer tier, account plan, issue description, initial classification (Tier 1/2/3 guess). Set ticket status to "Open." 2. 2

Attempt Tier 1 Resolution (15-Minute Rule)

Check the knowledge base and internal playbook first. If the answer is there, resolve and close. Maximum 15 minutes on Tier 1 attempts. Do not exceed this — escalate rather than research endlessly. 3. 3

Diagnose and Classify Zendesk

If unresolved after 15 minutes, update the Zendesk ticket with your diagnosis, steps attempted, and your Tier 2 or Tier 3 classification. This is required before escalating — the next owner needs your context. 4. 4a

Tier 2 Escalation Zendesk Email CS-E2

Tag ticket with "escalate-tier2" in Zendesk — this auto-assigns to the Senior Support queue. Send escalation acknowledgment email to customer using template CS-E2. Notify customer within 30 minutes of escalation decision. 5. 4b

Tier 3 Escalation PagerDuty Slack #p0-incidents

Page on-call engineer immediately via PagerDuty. Post to Slack #p0-incidents with: issue description, customer name, account tier, Zendesk ticket link. Notify CS Lead by direct message. Do not wait to gather more info — page first, diagnose together. 6. 5

Update Every 2 Hours

For all open Tier 2 and Tier 3 tickets: add a Zendesk internal note every 2 hours with current status, actions taken, and estimated resolution time. This keeps the customer-facing timeline accurate and enables CS Lead oversight. 7. 6

Close, Survey, Log CSAT Survey

Once resolved: close the Zendesk ticket, send the CSAT survey using the resolution follow-up template, and log the incident summary in the Weekly Review doc. Tier 3 incidents also require a post-mortem entry within 48 hours.

Decision Flowchart

Ticket Received

→

Log in Zendesk

→

In KB? Resolved <15 min?

→

YES

→

Resolve + Close + CSAT

NO ↓

Diagnose + Classify

→

Security / Outage / VIP?

→

YES

→

TIER 3 — Page Engineer + Slack #p0

NO ↓

TIER 2 — Assign Senior + Email CS-E2

→

Update Every 2 Hours

→

Resolve + Close + CSAT + Log

Email Templates

Escalation Acknowledgment

CS-E2

Subject: Update on your support request [Ticket #[ID]]

Hi [Customer Name],

Thank you for your patience. I've escalated your ticket to our specialist team who are best equipped to help with this issue. You can expect to hear back within [SLA — e.g., "4 business hours"].

Your ticket reference is #[ID] . You can reply to this email at any time with additional information.

— [Your Name], Customer Support

Resolution Follow-Up

CS-E5

Subject: Your support issue has been resolved [Ticket #[ID]]

Hi [Customer Name],

Great news — we've resolved the issue you reported. Here's a quick summary of what happened and what we did: [Brief explanation — 2-3 sentences]

If the issue returns or you have questions, reply to this email and we'll pick it back up immediately. We'd also appreciate your feedback — it takes 30 seconds: [CSAT survey link]

— [Your Name], Customer Support

Common Scenarios

Scenario	Tier	Who Owns	Template to Use
Customer can't log in — password reset needed	Tier 1	Support Agent (L1)	Playbook Step 4 — no email template needed
Integration not syncing — requires backend investigation	Tier 2	Senior Support (L2)	CS-E2 (escalation acknowledgment)
Enterprise customer reports data missing from their account	Tier 3	CS Lead + On-Call Engineer	CS-E2 immediately, post-mortem within 48h

Version History

Version	Date	Author	Changes
1.0	Jan 15, 2025	Jenna Park	Initial document — created Tier 1/2 escalation process
2.0	Oct 1, 2025	Jenna Park	Added Tier 3 / P0 protocol. Added PagerDuty integration step. Revised SLA targets.
2.1	April 1, 2026	Jenna Park	Added email template CS-E5. Clarified Tier 2 2-hour update requirement. Added Common Scenarios table.

Approval Block

Approved by

Jenna Park, VP Customer Success

Signature April 1, 2026

Next Review Owner

[ CS Team Lead ]

Acknowledge July 1, 2026