Escalation Rate
What it is
Escalation rate is the number of tickets escalated to a higher tier or another team divided by total tickets. Technical companies usually track the engineering escalationEngineering EscalationA ticket support hands to engineering because it needs code-level investigation. rate on its own.
Why it matters
It's the best single measure of how much support depends on engineering. A rising rate after a launch can also flag a quality problem before it shows up anywhere else.
Best practices
- Track by product area – A spike in one area points to a bug or a docs gap.
- Audit escalations monthly – Count how many needed an engineer versus better tooling or access.
- Set a target – Lower escalation rate is a shared goal for support and engineering.
How Decimal helps
Decimal lowers escalation rate by giving support the investigation an engineer would have done, so more tickets close without leaving the support queueQueueA list of tickets waiting to be picked up by a team or agent..