FAQs: Case Escalation Rules
What is a Case Escalation Rule and why do I need it?
A case is a trouble ticket that is submitted by your customer to capture their feedback on various types of issues that arise after purchasing a product or service from your company.
Sometimes those cases may have some valuable product improvement and process improvement ideas, suggestions, and good feature requests that may be useful in product development and service improvements.
A case escalation rule is a set of criteria and actions that determine when and how a case should be escalated to a higher level of management or support. It is a way for businesses to ensure that their support team is responding to customer issues or cases in a timely and effective manner.
The rule can be based on a variety of factors, such as the severity of the issue, the amount of time that has passed without resolution, or the customer's level of dissatisfaction. When the criteria are met, the case is automatically escalated to the next level of support or management, typically with a notification or alert to ensure prompt attention.
The purpose of a case escalation rule is to ensure that high-priority issues are addressed quickly and effectively, and that no customer issue goes unresolved or ignored. By having clear guidelines in place for when cases should be escalated, organizations can improve their customer satisfaction, reduce the number of unresolved issues, and ensure that their support team is operating efficiently.
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For example: "Last Name contains Dom, Hearth " will be treated as "Last Name contains Dom" OR "Last Name contains Hearth".
View criteria pattern below. Execute rules based on business hours to escalate cases when your colleagues are in office. If not, cases will be escalated regardless of your operational hours. Set the escalation time to determine when cases will be passed to the next level for resolution.
How to setup a case escalation rule?
Users having the permission for Case Escalation Rule under Automation can set it up.
To set up a case escalation rule:
- Navigate to Setup (
)> Automation> Case Escalation Rules.
- Click Add Case Escalation Rule on the case escalation rule setup page.
- Add the name for this rule and check the box next to Active, if you want to activate this rule.
- Click Save.
Hover on the three dots next to your rule name and select edit, on the case escalation rule setup page.
Click Create Rule Entry.
In Specify Criteria, choose the available fields from the list and add the required conditions for the rule to execute.
Click + to add more criteria and click the AND or OR arguments to change them.
In Rule Entry Details, choose the escalation criteria from Case Created Time or Case Modified Time.
Click Save.
Click on Add Another Rule to add more rules and repeat the above mentioned steps.
Why isn't my newly-created case escalation rule working for existing cases?
There are a variety of reasons why an escalation rule might not work for some cases. Here are the three most common one
- There might be another escalation rule already active. There can only be one escalation rule active at a time, which means if you have more than one rule, only one can be enabled at any given time. Additionally, every time a new rule is created and activated, it automatically disables any existing active escalation rule—which is another reason that your escalation rule may not be working.
- It could be that the rule entry has not been configured correctly. If you check and the case escalation rule still isn't working, please cross-check the case status and the criteria inside the rule.
- Verify that the Escalation Scheduler is enabled, as disabling it also disables the active escalation rules.
Please note that after creating a case escalation rule, you need to create the rule entry and then escalation action to trigger the rule.
After checking the above possible scenarios, you can send an email to support@zohocrm.com if the rules still aren't working.
See Also>> Setting Case Escalation Rule
How many escalations rules can I enable at a time?
You can only enable one case escalation rule at a time. If a newly created rule is set as active, the existing active rule will be deactivated automatically.
Which editions support the case escalation rules?
As of now, Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Zoho CRM support case escalation rules. Users with permission to configure case escalations in their profile can access this feature.
Is it possible to execute the escalation rule based on our business hours?
Yes. Select your organisation's business hours while creating the rule entry.
Note that you should have already defined the business hours in CRM under your company details.
Take an example where the users have their weekend on "Sat, Sun." The escalation will happen on any other days except Saturdays and Sundays. Unless they have their lunch hours configured or it is a holiday, the escalation will automatically check for the availability of users in their active business hours (when enabled), and then will assign it to users.
Can I set up multiple escalation actions for one rule entry?
You can set up multiple actions for one rule entry and escalate to different users, or for the same users at every level.
In the screenshots below, you can see that for this rule entry there are already two active escalation actions. New escalation actions can be added via the New Escalation Action button. You may set up as many escalation actions as you need in your rule entry.
Consider an example where a case has been assigned to one user according to the business hours. It remains there and that user is not able to resolve it in the given time of, say, 24 hours. You can simply add a new escalation action, and after 24 hours the case will be assigned to some other users, and the owners of the escalated cases can be changed as well.
Consider an example where a case has been assigned to one user according to the business hours. It remains there and that user is not able to resolve it in the given time of, say, 24 hours. You can simply add a new escalation action, and after 24 hours the case will be assigned to some other users, and the owners of the escalated cases can be changed as well.
Can I edit the escalation order of a rule?
Yes; once the rule entries are created, you can click Reorder and specify the escalation order of the rules.
What modules are supported for case escalation rules? Can I create case escalation rules for a custom module?
Cases modules are available for case escalation rule. You can not create a case escalation rule for any custom modules.
We hope that this list of frequently asked questions about case escalation rules in Zoho CRM is informative. If you still have questions that haven't been addressed, please let us know. We will be happy to discuss them with our subject matter experts and add them in the future.
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