Staffing for Success: building an account escalations team that delivers

When a critical account is at risk due to product issues, misalignment, or service failures, an effective Account Escalations team can mean the difference between churn and renewal. However, assembling the right team requires more than just pulling people from Support or Customer Success—it requires a strategic blend of customer-centric thinking, technical acumen, and cross-functional expertise.

So, what does it take to properly staff an Account Escalations team? Let’s break down the key qualities, backgrounds, and best practices that help companies build a world-class escalations function.

The Must-Have Criteria for Account Escalation Managers

A Customer-Centric Vision: Holistic vs. Transactional Thinking

A great escalation manager doesn’t just solve problems—they understand the bigger picture of how an issue impacts the customer’s long-term success. While Support teams often focus on transactional case resolution, an Account Escalations team must take a holistic, customer-focused approach by asking:

• How does this escalation fit into the broader customer lifecycle?
• Is this issue a symptom of a larger systemic risk (e.g., adoption failure, misalignment)?
• What’s at stake for the customer—are they in a renewal cycle, an expansion phase, or at risk of contraction?

Understanding of the Customer Lifecycle & Business Value

Escalation managers must know how to map a technical issue to business impact. Not all escalations are created equal, and a well-staffed team knows how to prioritize based on customer health and business risk.

Key Skills:

• Experience with Customer Success methodologies (e.g., Gainsight, Totango) to assess risk signals.
• Understanding of renewal cycles, expansion potential, and executive-level concerns.
• Ability to identify whether an escalation is a short-term product issue or a long-term adoption challenge.

Strong Product Knowledge (Let’s Face It: Most Issues Are Technical)

The majority of escalations stem from product issues, integration challenges, or platform limitations. While Account Escalation Managers don’t need to be engineers, they must have enough technical depth to:

• Diagnose root causes and push back when an issue is operational rather than technical.
• Communicate effectively between Support, Engineering, and Product.
• Understand the customer’s tech stack and architecture to guide them toward the right solution.

Ideal Backgrounds:

• Technical Account Managers (TAMs): They already have deep product expertise and a customer-first mindset.
• Sales Engineers: Their knowledge of customer architecture, implementation, and scoping makes them excellent escalation managers.

A Deep Grasp of Internal Cross-Functional Roles & Processes

Escalation teams don’t solve issues alone—they orchestrate the right internal teams to align the best resources at the right times for the right customers. This requires:

• Clear escalation workflows between Support, Product, and Engineering.
• Internal influence skills to escalate with urgency while maintaining positive relationships.
• Understanding of sales and renewals to ensure commercial teams are looped in when needed.

Ideal Backgrounds:

• Customer Success Managers (CSMs) who excel at short-term, high-impact problem-solving (not necessarily long-term relationship-building).
• Sales Engineers who understand renewal risk, pricing structures, and expansion opportunities.

Where to Find the Best Account Escalation Managers

Many companies make the mistake of hiring escalation managers only from Support teams. While Support engineers are great for troubleshooting, they often lack the business context and customer lifecycle knowledge needed for account-level escalations.

Instead, the best Account Escalation Managers often come from:

• Technical Account Managers (TAMs) – They understand customer impact, product limitations, and long-term success.
• Rockstar CSMs – Those who thrive on problem-solving but aren’t necessarily focused on long-term relationship management.
• Sales Engineers (SEs) – They bring customer architecture knowledge and a strong grasp of renewal and upsell processes.

Structuring the Right Escalation Team for Your Organization

The best Account Escalations teams are not reactive firefighting units—they are strategic problem solvers who work across teams to mitigate risk and prevent future churn.

Best Practices for Building Your Escalation Team:

• Clearly define escalation roles vs. Support & CSM roles.Ensure every escalation manager has strong internal alignment skills—they need to influence Product, Engineering, and Sales without formal authority.
• Make product training a priority—even if an escalation manager isn’t an engineer, they should be able to speak technically with confidence.
• Track escalation impact on business metrics—show how escalations contribute to retention, expansion, and customer satisfaction.

What's next?

Building the right Account Escalations team isn’t about hiring firefighters—it’s about hiring strategic problem solvers who understand the customer lifecycle, business value, and technical challenges.

By structuring your team with TAMs, Sales Engineers, and high-impact CSMs, and by focusing on cross-functional alignment, product knowledge, and business impact, you can build an escalation function that not only resolves issues but drives long-term customer success.