Escalation Rules: Automatic Priority Detection

A user tells you the checkout page is broken. That message lands in the same inbox, in the same grey, as somebody saying they liked the new icons. Escalation rules are how the first one stops looking like the second.

What escalation does to a feedback item

A matching item gets a red Escalated badge, shows up under the Escalated filter in your inbox, and records which rule caught it. Nothing is moved or deleted.

Writing your first rule

Open your project Settings and pick the Rules tab, then New Rule.

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A rule is a name, a set of conditions, a priority number, and an on/off toggle. Higher priority rules get checked first.

The five conditions

Every condition you fill in has to match. Leave one blank and it stops being checked, so a rule with one condition is a broad net and a rule with four is a narrow one.

Keywords match words in the message, comma separated:

error, bug, broken, crash, not working

Matching ignores case, so error catches "Error", "ERROR" and "big error here".

URL pattern matches the page the feedback came from, using globs:

Pattern	Matches
/checkout/*	/checkout/step1, /checkout/confirm
/api/**	/api/users, /api/v2/orders/123
/settings	Exactly /settings

Feedback type narrows to thumbs-down only, thumbs-up only, or either. Console errors only matches sessions where JavaScript threw. Has screenshot only matches items that came with an image.

Conditions are ANDed, never ORed

This rule wants all three things at once:

Name:          Checkout Bugs
URL Pattern:   /checkout/*
Keywords:      error, stuck, won't load
Feedback Type: Negative

Negative feedback from a checkout page that never says any of those words walks straight past it. If you wanted either condition to fire on its own, that is two rules.

Four rules to start from

Name:          Critical Errors
Keywords:      error, bug, broken, crash, not working, can't, won't
Feedback Type: Negative
Priority:      10

Name:          Payment Issues
URL Pattern:   /checkout/*, /billing/*, /subscription/*
Keywords:      charged, payment, refund, card, billing
Priority:      20

Name:          Documented Bugs
Keywords:      bug, error, broken
Has Screenshot: checked
Priority:      15

Name:           App Errors
Console Errors: checked
Feedback Type:  Negative
Priority:       12

Start from these four and adjust the words to your product. The payment rule outranks the rest because a billing complaint costs you money while you read it, and documented bugs outrank plain crashes because a report with a screenshot is one you can act on today.

Keeping the rules honest

Start with two or three rules on words you are certain about, then go back in a fortnight and read what they caught. Escalating everything is the same as escalating nothing, and it takes about a month to notice because the badge still looks urgent.

Each review, check three things: that every escalated item was worth interrupting somebody for, that nothing serious came through unflagged, and that no single rule is quietly matching half the inbox.

Aim the URL patterns at the paths where a broken page costs you something: checkout, signup, billing.

Escalation rules need a Pro plan

Free projects can see escalated items and filter by them. Creating and editing the rules is Pro.