Escalation rate is the number of tickets escalated in a period divided by the total tickets in that period, as a percentage. For technical products, also track engineering escalation rate on its own: tickets sent to engineering divided by total tickets.
Getting the number right
- Count a ticket once, even if it's escalated twice
- Exclude spam and duplicates from the total
- Use the date the ticket was created, not escalated, so periods compare cleanly
- Segment by product area and customer tier
Reading it
- A spike after a release often signals a regression
- A steady rise usually means product complexity is outgrowing support tooling
- Pair it with resolution time on escalated tickets to see the full cost
Decimal lowers escalation rate by doing the investigation inside support. See escalation rate.