--- name: ticket-management-escalation description: Manage support ticket lifecycle including triage, prioritization, routing, escalation procedures, SLA management, and resolution workflows. Use when creating support workflows, setting up ticket routing, managing escalations, tracking SLAs, or optimizing support operations. Triggers on phrases like "ticket management", "ticket triage", "ticket routing", "escalation", "SLA management", "support workflow", "ticket prioritization", "ticket categorization", "first response time", "resolution time", "ticket SLA", "support queue", "auto-routing", "ticket assignment", "escalation matrix", "support tiers", "tier 1", "tier 2", "tier 3". --- # Ticket Management & Escalation Manage support ticket lifecycle including triage, prioritization, routing, escalation procedures, SLA management, and resolution workflows. ## Workflow ### 1. Ticket Triage & Prioritization ``` TICKET TRIAGE PROCESS ═══════════════════════════════════════ Auto-Triage Rules: ═══════════════════════════════════════ 1. Receive ticket (email, web form, chat, phone, API) 2. Auto-classify (AI/NLP): Category, subcategory 3. Auto-prioritize: Based on rules + customer tier 4. Auto-route: Based on category + team availability 5. Apply SLA: Based on priority + customer tier 6. Notify: Assignee + customer (acknowledgment) TICKET PRIORITY MATRIX: ═══════════════════════════════════════ Priority Urgency × Impact Examples SLA Response SLA Resolution ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── P1 HIGH × HIGH System down, data loss, 15 minutes 4 hours (Critical) security breach, P0 bug P2 HIGH × MEDIUM Major feature broken, 1 hour 8 hours (High) performance degradation, payment processing issue P3 MEDIUM × MEDIUM Minor bug, feature request, 4 hours 2 business days (Medium) how-to question, integration issue P4 LOW × LOW Cosmetic issue, 1 business 5 business days (Low) documentation request, day (or next release) enhancement suggestion AUTO-CLASSIFICATION RULES: ═══════════════════════════════════════ Category Keywords/Patterns Routing SLA ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Billing charge, invoice, payment, refund Billing team P3 Technical error, broken, crash, bug Engineering P2/P3 Account login, password, access, account Account team P3 Feature how to, feature, can I, request Product team P3/P4 Integration API, webhook, connect, integrate DevRel team P3 Security security, breach, hack, expose Security team P1/P2 Billing refund, cancel, upgrade, downgrade Billing team P3 ``` ### 2. Support Tiers & Routing ``` SUPPORT TIER STRUCTURE ═══════════════════════════════════════ Tier Team Skills Ticket Types SLA ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Tier 1 Support Agents General troubleshooting P3, P4, common P2 4h/2d (5 agents) FAQ, password reset, billing questions Tier 2 Senior Support Advanced troubleshooting P2, complex P3 2h/1d (3 agents) API issues, integrations, data problems Tier 3 Engineering Bug fixes, code issues P1, P2 bugs, 1h/4h (on-call rotation) Root cause analysis architecture issues Specialist Teams: ═══════════════════════════════════════ → Billing Specialist: Refunds, disputes, invoicing → Security Specialist: Security incidents, vulnerability reports → Account Manager: Enterprise accounts, relationship issues → DevRel: API issues, developer support, SDK problems AUTO-ROUTING RULES: ═══════════════════════════════════════ → By category: Routing to appropriate team → By customer tier: Enterprise → Account Manager → By language: Spanish → Spanish-speaking agent → By expertise: AI-based matching (skill-based routing) → Round-robin: Even distribution within team → Load balancing: Least tickets assigned Routing Logic: ═══════════════════════════════════════ IF category == "billing" AND customer_tier == "enterprise" → Route to: Account Manager ELIF category == "billing" → Route to: Billing Team (round-robin) ELIF category == "security" → Route to: Security Team (immediate) ELIF category == "technical" AND customer_tier == "enterprise" → Route to: Tier 2 (senior agent) ELIF category == "technical" → Route to: Tier 1 (round-robin) ELSE → Route to: Tier 1 (load balancing) ``` ### 3. SLA Management ``` SLA FRAMEWORK ═══════════════════════════════════════ Customer Tiers & SLAs: ═══════════════════════════════════════ Tier Price/Seat Response (P1) Response (P2) Resolution Support Hours ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Enterprise $50+ 15 min 1 hour 4h (P1) 24/7 Professional $20-$50 30 min 2 hours 8h (P2) 24/5 Starter $10-$20 1 hour 4 hours 2d (P3) Business hrs Free $0 4 hours 1 business day 5d (P4) Business hrs SLA TRACKING: ═══════════════════════════════════════ Metric Target Current Status Breach Rate ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── First response (P1) ≤ 15 min 12 min ✓ Good 2% First response (P2) ≤ 1 hour 45 min ✓ Good 5% First response (P3) ≤ 4 hours 3.2 hours ✓ Good 8% Resolution (P1) ≤ 4 hours 3.5 hours ✓ Good 3% Resolution (P2) ≤ 8 hours 7.2 hours ✓ Good 6% Resolution (P3) ≤ 2 days 1.8 days ✓ Good 7% SLA ESCALATION: ═══════════════════════════════════════ → 50% of SLA elapsed: Warning (assignee notified) → 75% of SLA elapsed: Escalate to team lead → 100% of SLA (breach): Escalate to manager + customer notification → 125% of SLA: Escalate to director + executive outreach → SLA credits: Automatic (if breached, per contract) SLA PAUSE CONDITIONS: → Awaiting customer response (auto-pause) → Awaiting third-party (documented) → Scheduled maintenance (communicated) → Customer requested pause ``` ### 4. Escalation Procedures ``` ESCALATION MATRIX ═══════════════════════════════════════ Trigger Escalation To Timeline Action ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── P1 ticket created On-call engineer Immediate Investigate + update SLA breach (P1/P2) Team lead Within 1 hour Resolve + document Customer complaint (executive) Account manager Within 30 min Personal outreach Recurring issue (3+ tickets) Engineering Within 24 hours Root cause analysis Security incident Security team + CISO Immediate Contain + investigate Data breach CISO + Legal Immediate Breach protocol System outage (all customers) Engineering + CTO Immediate Incident response Enterprise churn risk CS Director + VP Within 2 hours Retention plan Negative review (public) Marketing + CS Lead Within 1 hour Respond + resolve ESCALATION COMMUNICATION: ═══════════════════════════════════════ Internal: → Slack: #support-escalations channel → Email: Escalation template (context, urgency, customer info) → Phone: Immediate (P1, security, executive) → Ticket: Escalation note (reason, timeline, action) External (Customer): → P1: Phone call + email (within 30 minutes) → P2: Email + Slack (within 1 hour) → P3: Email (within 4 hours) → Update frequency: Every 2 hours (P1), daily (P2/P3) → Resolution confirmation: Phone call + email ``` ### 5. Ticket Analytics & Reporting ``` TICKET ANALYTICS DASHBOARD ═══════════════════════════════════════ Volume Metrics (Monthly): ═══════════════════════════════════════ Metric This Month Last Month YoY Status ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Total tickets 1,245 1,180 -15% ✓ Down (good) New tickets 890 850 -12% ✓ Down Reopened tickets 45 52 -25% ✓ Down (good) Escalated tickets 67 72 -18% ✓ Down Self-resolved 312 280 +12% ✓ Up (good) By Channel: → Email: 520 (42%) → Web form: 345 (28%) → Chat: 240 (19%) → Phone: 80 (6%) → API: 60 (5%) Resolution Metrics: ═══════════════════════════════════════ Metric Target Current Status ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── First contact resolution ≥ 40% 45% ✓ Good Average resolution time ≤ 24h 18h ✓ Good Customer satisfaction ≥ 4.5/5 4.7/5 ✓ Good Reopen rate ≤ 5% 3.6% ✓ Good SLA compliance ≥ 95% 96.2% ✓ Good Escalation rate ≤ 8% 5.4% ✓ Good TOP ISSUES (Monthly): ═══════════════════════════════════════ Rank Issue Tickets % of Total Category Status ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1 Login issues 145 11.6% Account Known bug (fix in v3.2) 2 API rate limiting 98 7.9% Integration Doc update in progress 3 Payment processing error 87 7.0% Billing Fixed (v3.1.2) 4 Export not working 76 6.1% Technical In investigation 5 Dashboard slow 65 5.2% Technical Performance fix planned ``` ## Edge Cases - **Volume spike**: Incident response, surge staffing - **Complex issues**: Multi-team collaboration, war room - **Enterprise**: Dedicated support, executive escalation - **Global**: Multi-language, timezone coverage - **Compliance**: Audit trail, data retention ## Integration Points - **Help desk**: Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom, HubSpot - **Communication**: Slack, Teams, email, phone - **Knowledge base**: Zendesk Guide, Confluence, Notion - **Monitoring**: PagerDuty, Opsgenie, Statuspage - **CRM**: Salesforce, HubSpot - **Analytics**: Tableau, Power BI, native dashboards ## Output ### Ticket Management Status ``` TICKET MANAGEMENT — Q4 2024 ═══════════════════════════════════════ Monthly tickets: 1,245 (↓ 15% YoY) First contact resolution: 45% (target: ≥40%) ✓ Average resolution: 18h (target: ≤24h) ✓ CSAT: 4.7/5.0 (target: ≥4.5) ✓ SLA compliance: 96.2% (target: ≥95%) ✓ Escalation rate: 5.4% (target: ≤8%) ✓ Self-service deflection: 312/month (↑ 12%) Top issue: Login issues (11.6%, fix in v3.2) Next priority: Fix export issue (76 tickets), reduce P1 volume ```