How to configure escalation rules

You will learn

What escalation rules are, what they can and can’t do, and how to write triggers that hand off to a human at the right moments — without escalating too much or too little.

Before you begin

You’ll need:

• An Owner, Admin, or Manager role
• Handoff settings configured — see Managing Customer Agent settings. When an escalation rule fires, the handoff follows whatever you’ve configured (helpdesk ticket, email forward, etc.).

What escalation rules are

Escalation rules are triggers for situations that need a human. When Customer Agent identifies a match in a shopper’s messages, it starts your configured handoff.

Escalation rules are evaluated before Customer Agent answers the shopper’s question. When a rule triggers an escalation, Customer Agent starts the handoff instead of answering the question. The shopper can still receive your configured handoff message.

You can create up to 20 escalation rules.

What they’re not for

This is the most common confusion. Escalation rules can only trigger a handoff. They cannot:

• Teach Customer Agent how to behave. That’s a skill. Use a skill to tell Customer Agent how to respond to a topic.
• Prevent an escalation. Rules only add escalations; they don’t suppress them. If you want Customer Agent to handle something a skill is currently escalating, edit the skill’s behavior or add content.
• Route to different humans based on topic. Escalation rules do not select a destination by topic. They use the handoff settings for the conversation’s channel.

Set it up

1. Navigate to Customer Agent. Under Build, select Guidance, then scroll to Escalation rules.
2. Click Add rule.
3. Write a Title of up to 100 characters. Keep it short and descriptive (e.g., “Defective product report”).
4. In Describe the rule, enter a natural-language description of when the rule should fire, using up to 500 characters. Be specific.
5. Turn on the rule’s toggle so its status is Enabled. New rules start disabled. Saving an enabled rule applies it to live conversations as well as tests.
6. Click Save.
7. Open the Preview sidebar and select its Preview tab. Send sample messages that should and should not trigger the rule, then check the event log for the matched rule. See How to test your Customer Agent.

Writing good escalation rules

Good rules are:

• Topic- or situation-based — describe what the shopper is talking about, not the words they use
• Specific — broad triggers (“anything urgent”) fire too often and erode trust
• Mutually exclusive — avoid 2 rules that overlap; consolidate where possible

A rule fires when Customer Agent recognizes the shopper’s intent matches the trigger description. You don’t need to list every possible phrasing — describe the situation, not the keywords. Customer Agent evaluates the 5 most recent messages in the conversation, including messages from both the shopper and the agent.

Examples

The examples below show the Title in bold, the text for Describe the rule as you’d enter it, and why each one earns a human handoff. Together they cover product problems, money, safety, legal exposure, and requests for human help.

• Defective product report — Customer reports an item arrived broken, malfunctioned, caused damage, or stopped working. Why escalate: defective product claims often need warranty, replacement, or refund decisions a human should make.
• Legal threat or compliance issue — Customer mentions lawyers, lawsuits, complaints to the FTC or BBB, or threatens legal action. Why escalate: legal language needs a human, immediately.
• Profanity or abusive language — Customer uses profanity directed at the brand or staff, or escalates to threats. Why escalate: a human can de-escalate or end the conversation appropriately.
• Explicit request for a human — Customer directly asks to speak with a person, agent, representative, or manager. Why escalate: forcing someone who asked for a human to keep talking to an agent erodes trust faster than almost anything else.
• Chargeback or payment dispute — Customer mentions disputing a charge, filing a chargeback, contacting their bank, or being double-charged. Why escalate: payment disputes are time-sensitive and carry financial consequences; a human should own the resolution.
• Allergic reaction or safety concern — Customer reports a physical reaction, injury, or safety issue related to a product. Why escalate: anything touching health or safety needs human judgment and a documented response, immediately.
• Wholesale, press, or partnership inquiry — The message is a business request — wholesale or bulk ordering, press, influencer collaboration, or partnership — rather than a shopper support question. Why escalate: these requests need follow-up from the appropriate team.
• Repeated frustration — Customer expresses frustration more than once in recent messages, or the agent has already failed to resolve the same question 2 times in those messages. Why escalate: a human can review what has already been tried and help the shopper move forward.

You don’t need all 8. Start with the 3 or 4 that match your actual support volume, then add rules as you review conversations to see where escalations happened or were needed.

What happens when a rule fires

Customer Agent:

1. Starts the handoff instead of answering the shopper’s question
2. Uses the handoff settings for the conversation’s channel
3. Records the escalation and matched rule in the conversation details

The handoff destination and shopper-facing message are set in Managing Customer Agent settings. If you select Do not hand off, Customer Agent shows your custom message instead of sending the conversation to a helpdesk.

Troubleshooting

Symptom: A rule isn’t firing when it should.
Possible causes: The rule is disabled, changes haven’t been saved, or the trigger description is too narrow or too specific to particular keywords.
Fix: Confirm that the rule is enabled and saved. Rewrite the trigger to describe the situation in plain language, then test with multiple phrasings in Preview.

Symptom: A rule is firing too often.
Likely cause: Trigger description is too broad or overlaps with another rule.
Fix: Narrow the description. Add explicit carve-outs (“does not include…”). Check for overlap with other escalation rules.

FAQ

How many escalation rules can I have?
Up to 20.

What if a shopper’s message matches 2 rules?
Customer Agent evaluates the enabled rules together and identifies 1 matched rule when it escalates. Avoid overlapping rules rather than relying on their order to determine which rule is reported.

Can I disable a rule without deleting it?
Yes. Toggle the rule off, then click Save. You can re-enable it any time by turning the toggle on and saving again.

Next steps

• Configure handoff settings so escalations go where you want them
• Test in Preview to see how rules respond to sample shopper messages
• Review conversations to check whether escalations happened at the right moments. Use Analytics to monitor conversation trends; it does not show a ranking of which escalation rules fire most.