Case and account escalation

Release version: Australia

Updated March 12, 2026

2 minutes to read

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Summary of Case and Account Escalation

The escalation feature in ServiceNow is designed to enhance visibility and communication regarding critical customer issues related to cases and accounts. By escalating a case or an account, customers can ensure that important issues receive the necessary attention and are tracked effectively until resolution.

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Key Features

Escalation Management: Users with the escalation requester role can initiate escalations from the case or account form.
Case vs. Account Escalation: Case escalations are typically managed by customer service agents focusing on individual issues, while account escalations are overseen by escalation managers and may encompass multiple cases.
Configuration Tasks: System administrators can configure escalation management, create templates for processing escalation requests, and define escalation severity levels to visually signify urgency in the user interface.
User Tasks: Users can escalate cases/accounts, manage escalated issues, de-escalate once resolved, and optionally include an approval process for escalations.

Key Outcomes

By effectively using the escalation feature, ServiceNow customers can improve response times to critical issues, enhance communication across teams, and ensure that escalated cases and accounts are prioritized according to their severity. This structured approach leads to better customer satisfaction and more efficient issue resolution.

Use the escalation feature to highlight specific cases or accounts and raise awareness of important customer issues.

Escalating a case or an account provides the following benefits:

Increases attention about a customer issue.
Facilitates communication about that issue.
Provides a way to track progress toward a resolution.

Users with the escalation requester role can escalate a case or an account by selecting the Escalate Case related link on the case or account form.

Case and account escalation differences

While the escalation process is similar for cases and accounts, there are some important differences to note.

Case escalations: A customer service agent typically manages a case escalation and works directly with the escalated case to resolve the issue.
Account escalations: An escalation manager typically manages an account escalation, which can include multiple associated cases, and records details in the escalation record.

For more information, see Case and account escalation differences.

Configuring case and account escalation

The following table includes an overview of case and account escalation configuration tasks. Users with the system administrator role can perform these tasks.

Table 1. Case and account escalation configuration tasks
Task	Description
Configure escalation management	Configure case and account escalation using Customer Service Management guided setup.
Create a case or account escalation template	Escalation templates determine how an escalation request is processed, including the type of escalation and an optional approval process.
Create a case or account escalation severity	Create definitions for different levels of escalation severity and select color indicators to highlight escalated cases and accounts in the user interface.

Using case and account escalation

The following table includes an overview of case and account escalation user tasks.

Table 2. Case and account escalation user tasks
Task	Description
Escalate a case or an account	Escalate cases or accounts, either on behalf of customers or for internal purposes. Escalating a case or account creates an associated escalation record. Role required: escalation requester
Manage an escalated case or account	Manage a case or account through the escalation process using the escalation record. The system identifies cases and accounts on lists and forms with color indicators that correspond to the escalation severity: red (high) or orange (medium). Role required: Customer service agent Escalation manager
De-escalate a case or an account	De-escalate cases or accounts when the cause of the escalation is resolved. Role required: de-escalation requester
Use an optional escalation approval process	Include an optional approval step for approvers to review a request and either approve or reject an escalation. When using the optional approval step, the system creates the escalation record upon approval and associates it with the case or account.