Note: If you have signed up for your account after 24 April 2023, please visit the following article: Setting up smart escalations

What is Smart Escalation?

Smart escalation refers to routing the call to another call queue when the usual phone team is unavailable to take calls. The smart escalation option (send to another call queue) is available within a call queue as one of the fallback actions. When you set this option, the call is redirected to another queue that has call routing set to another team, an external number, or a specific agent.


When do you require smart escalations? 

Smart escalations can come in handy in any of the following scenarios or call rules:

  1. There are too many missed calls or voicemails.

  2. Callers find themselves waiting for an agent for long periods.

  3. The wait queue is full.

  4. There is no one available to pick up the call.

Who can configure it? 

Only an Account admin or admin can setup smart escalations.


How to configure smart escalations? 

  1. Before setting up smart escalations, you need to set up a call queue. 

  2. Once you set up a call queue, go to Admin Settings > Channels > Phone > Call Workflows. You can see the list of call queues available in your account.

  3. Hover over the call queue for which you wish to set up smart escalations and select the edit button.

  4. You can configure smart escalations for the following scenarios to ensure you don’t miss any calls:

    • Escalation when your team is online but missing calls:
      Sometimes your agents may forget to change their availability status before leaving their desk for any unplanned meetings or breaks. This results in missed calls despite your agents being online. In such a situation, you can route calls to another call queue.

    • Escalations when your entire team is busy with their current conversations:
      If your team is handling a growing customer base, some calls may go unanswered while your agents are talking to other customers. In such cases, you can send the callers to another call queue.

    • Escalations when your callers are waiting for a long time in the queue or if the queue is full:
      This happens when you select place callers in wait queue as the fallback action for any rule in the call queue. This enables the wait queue setting, which allows your callers to opt for waiting in the queue. Even in this case, sometimes, either the wait queue can become full, or the callers may end up waiting in the queue for a long time. To avoid this, you can enable smart escalation by sending the callers to another queue.

    • Escalation when your team is offline:
      In case your team is offline owing to business hours or due to local outages, you can choose to send the callers to another call queue.

  5. Save the call queue.