Escalation Matrix –

OK, great, we’ve got an SLA, we have the appropriate staff in place to take the call when they make it … now, what happens if they are not able to fix the problem?  Easy!  You get the problem to the right people that can fix it in a timely manner.  This is where the escalation matrix comes into play.

Assuming that its 2am and you’ve got a Tier 1 customer (remember, your definition of Customers was made before this) that has no telephone service (hard down etc…).  This is impacting them and potentially costing them $$$/hr.  Your engineer has taken the call and started working on the issue.

Now as this company is paying you lots of money for the service (that IS why they are Tier 1 after all), you need to ensure that you’ve got ALL the right people available and working on their problem as quickly as possible.  A sample 2 Stage Internal Escalation Matrix that I’ve used with great success in the past is presented below.    You will need to have a separate matrix that is provided to Customers which I shall provide you with in a later post.

Provided below is a table detailing the different groups & times that they need to be notified at based on the problem & its impact.

Please note – its fairly easy to remove the additional Escalation Group step mentioned below, if your escalation is to only one group! This type of structure only applies to larger companies where the problem and responsible party could be in a variety of different locations. The groups mentioned below also vary based on the type of organization – for example, Ops/NOC is applicable to a telco environment but not necessarily a manufacturing one.

ESCALATION GROUPS