Escalation button
A Manager review field on tickets that, when flipped, briefs the right manager with the full history and tells the customer help is on the way.
Trigger
An agent sets Manager review to Yes or moves the Priority field to Urgent.
Built from
Why teams set this up
Escalations travel by shoulder tap and chat message. The manager gets half the story, the customer hears nothing while they wait, and nobody can say later when the handoff actually happened.
Managers get full context, never half a story
Customers hear something while they wait
Stalled escalations re-fire on their own
How the automation runs
A billing dispute goes sideways and the agent flips Manager review. The manager’s phone buzzes with a summary and a transcript link, the customer gets a text saying who is on it, and when nothing moves for two hours the backup manager gets the same brief.
- 1Ticket field
An agent flags the ticket for manager review
- 2Team notification
The on-duty manager gets a text and email with the ticket summary and transcript link
- 3Outbound SMS
The customer is told a manager has the case and when to expect contact
- 4Wait step
The sequence waits two hours
- 5Conditional branch
If the ticket is still untouched, the same brief goes to the backup manager
The same workflow in different businesses
Property management
Resident complaints reach the regional manager with the full call history, never a forwarded email chain.
Agencies
Client escalations page the account director with the thread attached, while the client gets an acknowledgment.
Built from standard Frontdesk blocks
No custom development. Each step is a building block you can rearrange, retime, or extend, so this workflow can grow into the next one.
Retention journeys that include this workflow
This workflow is one step inside larger retention journeys that run the full customer lifecycle.
Customer retention
Combine behavior, sentiment, service history, and conversation data into proactive retention workflows.
See the journey →Churn risk intervention
Route each at-risk customer into a playbook based on value, issue, urgency, and preferred channel.
See the journey →Renewal journey automation
Coordinate education, value review, objections, approvals, offers, and signatures before the deadline.
See the journey →Common questions
How does the escalation button workflow start?
An agent sets Manager review to Yes or moves the Priority field to Urgent.
Which channels does this use?
This workflow runs over sms. Each step can use the channel that fits the customer and the urgency.
Can my team stay in control of when it fires?
Yes. The trigger can be a field a person flips on a ticket or contact, so a human makes the decision and Frontdesk does the follow-through. Any step can also route to a teammate with the transcript and collected data.
Does it keep our records up to date?
Every call, text, and email in the workflow is logged against the contact and ticket, with transcripts attached. Frontdesk can also sync contacts and fields to your CRM.
What happens when a customer needs a human?
The workflow hands off with context: the right teammate gets the full history, the transcript, and the collected answers, so the customer never repeats themselves.
Thinking bigger than one workflow?
The customer journey library maps full lifecycle automations across activation, onboarding, retention, and growth.
Explore customer journeys →More from ticket buttons and field automations
Add a field to any ticket and let flipping it run the work. Your team makes the decision, Frontdesk does the follow-through.
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