Escalation is a process by which an issue is moved from the current staff person to someone with more expertise. The first line of operators should be able to handle 80 percent to 90 percent of all calls and escalate the remaining calls to a second tier of support. The people at this second tier may have more experience, more training, and, possibly, other responsibilities. Larger organizations may have up to four or more tiers; the higher tiers may include the people who built or currently maintain the service in question.
It is common to have a policy that the first tier of support should escalate all calls that get to the 15-minute mark. This has a carryover effect in that the second-tier people, who may be responsible for project-oriented work, now have less time for projects. This situation can be alleviated by designating one second-tier person to sit with the first-tier people each week, that is, to make the helpdesk his or her project for the week. Although upper-tier staff people usually dislike this policy, a sizable organization will require this of people only once every 6 weeks or so. A side benefit to this strategy is that the first-tier staff will learn from the second-tier person. The second-tier person will also get a better understanding of the kinds of issues coming in to the helpdesk, which will help determine which new projects will be the most help to the first tier and the customers.
The escalation process is also what customers use when they are dissatisfied with the support they are receiving. One hopes that this happens as little as possible, but inevitably, someone will want to talk to a manager. The helpdesk should be prepared for this. Large numbers of calls being escalated to the second tier is a warning sign of a larger, systemic problem. Usually, this indicates that the first-tier staff people need more training or do not have the tools to do ther job properly. If large numbers of calls are escalated to management, there may be systemic problems with the support the helpdesk is providing.