How to Create Escalation Rules in Salesforce

I was working as a Salesforce admin. Recently, the support manager asked me to automate the process for cases generated from the phone (origin).

If the case remains unresolved within 10 hours after it is created, it should automatically escalate to the support manager. To automate this process in Salesforce, we have a case escalation rule that allows us to transfer unresolved cases to other users.

Here, I will explain the escalation rule in Salesforce and how to create a case escalation rule in Salesforce using the above scenario and a step-by-step explanation.

Table of Contents

Case Escalation Rules in Salesforce

In Salesforce, if a case remains unresolved within a specified timeframe, it should automatically escalate. In the case escalation rule, we need to define criteria so that, according to those criteria, when a case escalates from one user and is not resolved, it is allocated to the appropriate supervisor or team.

Escalation rules in Salesforce prioritize the support of important customers. We can create as many escalation rules on objects as we want, but only one can be active. A rule can contain many rule entries.

Create Escalation Rules in Salesforce

In the following steps, I have explained how to set up the case escalation rule so that if the case does not get resolved after a particular time interval, it will be transferred to the appropriate supervisor or team.

Go to Setup. -> Home Tab -> Quick Find box. Search for Escalation Rules and click on it.

Click on the New button to create a new Escalation Rule.

Enter the Rule Name. Here, I have entered the ‘Case Escalation Rule.’ Then, make sure to check the Active checkbox to apply the rule.

Set up Escalation Rule in Salesforce:

After saving the rule, you will see a list of created rules. Now, click on the Rule Name, and we will add entry criteria and action.

Rule Entries For Case Escalation in Salesforce:

As you click on the rule name, click the New button to set the Entry Criteria.

When you click the new button, enter 1 in the Sort Order field so that it will execute first in the rule entry order. Then, add the Rule Entry Criteria for this rule entry. Here, I have entered ‘Case Origin – Equals – Phone.‘

Then click on the option that you want to specify the business hours criteria for this escalation rule.
- Now specify how escalation times are set; here, you need to set the time from when the case should escalate to another user. Here, I have selected When a case is created.
- After that, click on the Save button. This way, we set up the rule entries in the escalation rule.

Create Case Escalation Rule in Salesforce

Case Escalation Actions in Salesforce:

After saving the entry criteria, you need to add a New Escalation Action for that by clicking on the New button.

Assign Case Escalation Rule in Salesforce

Then, we need to specify the time criteria for this rule. In the Age Over field, enter how many hours the case should be escalated after creating the case, and select 0 or 30 minutes from the dropdown.
- Then, in the Auto-reassign cases, you need to add a user or queue. Using the lookup dialogue, you can add a user or queue so that after the case is escalated, it will be assigned to the specified user or queue.
- We can also Notify Users about cases assigned to them by sending an email alert, which can be triggered by adding a Predefined Email to the Notification Template.
- After that, click on the Save button. This way, we set up the escalation actions in the escalation rule.

Create a Case Escalation Rule in Salesforce

Here, you can see the Case Escalation Rule has been created with rule entries and escalation rules.

Setup a Case Escalation Rule in Salesforce

This escalation rule applies to case records with a phone as the case origin. If the case is not resolved within 10 hours, it will escalate to the user or queue that we specified in the escalation rule.

Conclusion

I hope you have an idea about the escalation rule in Salesforce. In that, I explained when to use the case escalation rule, rule entries, and escalation actions and how we can automate the process of transferring unresolved cases to other users using the case escalation rule in Salesforce with examples.