You escalated it. Did the rep ever hear?

What escalating does

Escalating is how a manager says "this one needs the rep, now", usually about a customer waiting past your reply SLA or a promise gone overdue. It opens an investigation for the item and, with Notify the rep ticked, which it is by default, tells the rep the queue names against it.

They get an email, and a WhatsApp message on their company number from your workspace's escalation number: a separate WhatsApp number an admin pairs for this alone. It is not one of your linked numbers, it is not archived, and it sends nothing but these notices. Without one, the rep is told by email only.

Anyone on your escalation list is copied on the rep's email: a team lead, a sales head, a shared inbox. When the rep cannot be emailed, because nobody holds the number, there is no address on file, or the rep switched these emails off, the list still hears.

The item records what happened: who was emailed, whether the WhatsApp notice was sent, and if not, why not.

When nothing happens

An escalation the rep reads and puts down used to need a manager to chase it by hand. Now the item does it. If nobody on your side has written on the chat or spoken to the customer on a connected call since the escalation, the rep is reminded: the same email, with the same people copied, and the same WhatsApp message, each saying it is a reminder and how long ago the item was escalated.

You set the schedule once, on the Escalation channels page: how long to wait, from 1 hour to 3 days, and how many reminders at most, from 1 to 10. The default is every 4 hours, up to 3. The wait counts from the moment the last notice reached the rep, not from when it was queued.

Reminders go out inside your business hours. One that falls due at night waits for the morning. Weekends are not skipped: your business hours apply to every day.

Switching reminders on never reaches back. Only items escalated after that are reminded, so nobody wakes up to a pile of old escalations.

What stops a reminder

A reply. The moment anyone on your side writes on the chat, from any linked number, or a WhatsApp call with the customer connects, the reminders stop. It does not have to be the rep: a colleague who answered the customer has done what the escalation asked.

They also stop when the item is no longer escalated, when its investigation is closed, or when the last reminder you allowed has gone. The item says which.

A reply stops the reminders, not the escalation. "Let me check" is a reply, and whether it was enough stays with the manager, or with Nora, which closes an escalated finding only once it has read the thread again and is sure it was dealt with.

Remind the rep now

Some escalations cannot wait 4 hours. Remind the rep now, on the item, sends one more notice straight away, by the same route. It is refused while the last notice is still on its way, and within 15 min of the last one, so a rep is never told twice in a minute. A reminder sent by hand does not use up the automatic ones, and the next automatic reminder waits the full interval from it.

What the rep receives

The email names the finding, the customer, how serious it is, how long it has been open and who escalated it, with a button to open the item. The WhatsApp message says the same in 2 or 3 lines, with the customer's name and number so the rep can tap straight through, and the link.

Neither carries a word of the chat. Reading the conversation means opening the item, which needs a sign-in and is written to the access log before anything is shown, like every other read.

Notices are sent the way a person sends a message: a pause, then typing, never at a fixed interval. One can take a few minutes to arrive, and until it has, the item shows it as on its way. What your reps are told about all of this is on what your employer can and cannot see.

What this does not do

• It never messages a customer. Notices go to your rep and the addresses you list, from the escalation number, and no linked company number can send through WAOversight.
• It never puts the conversation in a notice. Not a quote, not the matched words, not Nora's reasoning.
• It does not reply for the rep or move the chat to someone else. The reply still comes from a person, on their phone.
• It cannot see a reply made outside WhatsApp. If the rep emailed the customer or rang them on an ordinary phone line, the reminders carry on until the item is closed or the last one has gone.
• It does not remind on an item with no chat to act on, such as a number that dropped its link. Those stay with the manager.
• It does not count against the rep. A message from the escalation number never opens a customer wait, so it cannot slow anyone's reply times.
• It depends on the escalation number staying paired. Without it, or if WhatsApp restricts it, notices go by email only, and each item says why.