# Escalation Handoff

> Hand a problem support cannot fix to somebody who can, without the customer paying for the handoff.

- Skill: `tinyhumansai/escalation-handoff` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tinyhumansai/escalation-handoff`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tinyhumansai/escalation-handoff/raw
- Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: tinyhumansai (https://skillmd.com/u/tinyhumansai)
- Updated: 2026-09-22
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tinyhumansai/escalation-handoff

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# Escalation Handoff

An escalation is a customer being disappointed once and trusting you anyway. The
failure they remember is not that it took time; it is the silence afterwards.

## When to use

- Support has tried what it can and the customer still has the problem.
- A ticket needs authority support does not hold.

## Steps

1. **Check `escalations` and `known-issues` first.** The same problem escalated
   twice is usually one nobody closed the loop on, and the second escalation
   will land on somebody who already answered it.
2. **Write what was tried.** An escalation with no attempt behind it is a queue
   transfer, and it will be sent back.
3. **State the customer's actual problem,** not the internal diagnosis. The
   person picking it up needs to be able to check whether the diagnosis is even
   right.
4. **Name who holds it now** — a person or a desk, not "engineering".
5. **Tell the customer,** in the same session: that it has moved, who has it,
   and when they will next hear something. Only give a date you actually hold;
   if you give one, it goes on `commitments`.
6. **Set a check-back.** A stalled escalation is the one place customers are
   actively being let down, and nothing surfaces it except somebody looking.

## Output

An `escalations` row with what was tried, who holds it, and what the customer
was told — plus the message that actually went to the customer.