All hands on deck - building consensus across lines of business

Building a successful customer success risk and account escalation management function isn’t just one team’s job—it’s a company-wide mission. Sales, Support, Product, Engineering, Customer Success, Renewals, and even the C-suite all need to be on board. Without alignment, escalation management becomes a frantic game of hot potato instead of a strategic advantage.

In this article, we’ll break down why buy-in is critical, how to engage different teams effectively, and how to create a governance model that ensures long-term success.

Why Escalation Management Needs Everyone’s Buy-In

1. Escalations Are a Business Risk, Not Just a Support Issue
   Escalations have traditionally been seen as a support team problem. But in reality, major escalations often stem from bigger business challenges—product gaps, mismatched expectations, implementation struggles, or weak sales qualification. These are cross-functional issues that require cross-functional solutions.
2. Speed and Efficiency Require Alignment
   The faster your company can tackle a high-risk account issue, the better the outcome. When teams work in silos, delays pile up as problems get passed around like a game of telephone. A well-integrated escalation process ensures that the right people jump in immediately and decisions happen fast.
3. Escalations Offer Valuable Insights
   Handled well, escalations become learning opportunities. Digging into the root causes helps organizations refine sales processes, improve onboarding, strengthen support, and guide product improvements. But these insights only emerge when all teams engage with escalation data.

Engaging Key Stakeholders

Sales and Renewals

Why They Care: Escalations impact customer retention and growth. A poorly handled escalation can lead to churn, while a well-managed one can actually strengthen relationships and open doors for upsell opportunities.

How to Engage Them:

• Involve sales in post-escalation reviews to understand what went wrong.
• Establish clear escalation paths so account teams can mobilize the right resources quickly.
• Train sales on early risk indicators to improve qualification and expectation-setting with customers.
  

Support

Why They Care: Support teams are on the front lines of customer escalations, but they shouldn’t have to handle high-risk situations alone.

How to Engage Them:

Define clear thresholds for when an issue escalates beyond standard support.
Ensure support leaders have a seat at the escalation governance table.
Create a feedback loop where recurring issues help shape broader risk mitigation strategies.

Product and Engineering

Why They Care: Many escalations stem from product limitations, bugs, or misaligned roadmaps. Bringing product and engineering into the process ensures that technical debt doesn’t spiral into widespread frustration.

How to Engage Them:

• Make escalation trends a key input in roadmap planning.
• Identify common customer pain points and prioritize fixes that reduce escalation volume.
• Encourage direct engagement between engineering leaders and critical customers when appropriate.
  

Customer Success

Why They Care: Customer Success Managers (CSMs) help prevent escalations by driving adoption, setting expectations, and advocating for customers.

How to Engage Them:

• Equip CSMs with playbooks to spot and escalate risks early.
• Create an escalation resolution framework that includes CSMs as key facilitators.
• Use escalations as training opportunities to refine risk management strategies.
  

The C-Suite

Why They Care: Senior executives control priorities and resources. Their involvement ensures escalations are treated as a strategic business issue, not just an operational hassle.

How to Engage Them:

• Provide high-level insights on customer risk trends during executive briefings.
• Involve executives in key customer escalations where high-touch engagement is needed.
• Use escalations to justify investments in customer-focused initiatives.
  

Creating a Governance Model for Alignment

1. Define Clear Roles and Responsibilities
   Every team should understand their role in the escalation process. A well-defined RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) matrix ensures clarity and accountability.
2. Implement a Structured Communication Framework
   Weekly Escalation Review Calls: Bring key stakeholders together to discuss ongoing high-risk accounts.
   Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) on Escalations: Use past escalation data to drive continuous improvement.
   Executive Sponsorship Model: Assign senior executives to high-risk accounts.
3. Invest in the Right Technology
   A centralized system—whether it’s Gainsight, Salesforce, or another CRM—should track escalations, ownership, and outcomes. Visibility into customer risks and resolution status is essential for cross-functional coordination.
4. Drive a Culture of Proactive Engagement
   Escalation management should be seen as part of a proactive risk mitigation strategy, not just an emergency response tool. Encouraging early risk identification and engagement helps prevent escalations from turning into crises.

Wrap Up

Escalation management isn’t just a function—it’s a mindset. A company-wide approach to customer risk ensures that high-stakes situations are resolved quickly, customers feel valued, and systemic issues get addressed at their core.

When every team understands their role in escalation management, your company moves from reacting to problems to actively preventing them. This alignment, governance, and shared accountability create a customer-first culture that drives long-term growth and retention.

So, if you want to build an effective customer escalation management function, remember: it’s not just about having a dedicated team. It’s about getting all hands on deck.