---
key: set-up-escalation-for-late-conversations
title: Escalate conversations nobody has answered
audience: staff
section: settings/communications
routes: ["/settings/org/communications-workflow"]
permissions: ["org.notifications.configure"]
features: ["settings.org.communications-workflow"]
since: 0.0.1
updated: 0.0.1
status: published
summary: Choose who is notified when a customer conversation goes unanswered, how long Nova waits between steps, and whether to use push, email, text or a voice call.
keywords: [escalation, late reply, nobody answered, missed call follow up, SLA breach, manager alert, on call, push notification, escalate]
related: [set-who-covers-unassigned-conversations, check-who-was-notified-about-a-conversation, work-your-communications-queue]
---
In the sidebar, open **Settings**, then choose **How Links Open** under **Communications**. The page address is `/settings/org/communications-workflow`. The page title reads **Communications Workflow**; scroll to **Escalation runtime**.

## Before you start

- Your role needs permission to change organization notification settings.
- Escalation only runs for a family (**Texts**, **Email**, **Calls**, **Voicemails**) that is switched on under **Family policy** with **Schedule SLA escalation** on. See [[set-who-covers-unassigned-conversations]].
- Decide who should be woken up. Steps can reach specific people, teams (your crews), or fall back to whoever currently owns the item.

## Steps

1. Turn on the switch at the top of **Escalation runtime**. The pill near the top of the page changes to **Escalation on**.
2. Leave **Fallback to current assignee** on so a step with nobody named still reaches the current owner instead of doing nothing.
3. Under **Default escalation teams** and **Default escalation users**, press the names to include. Nova adds them to every step, on top of the step's own names.
4. Under **Escalation steps**, press **Add step**. Give it a **Label**, set **Delay minutes**, and press the **Channels** it should use: **In-app**, **Mobile push**, **Browser push**, **Email**, **Text** or **Voice call**.
5. Under **Escalate to users** and **Escalation teams**, press the names for this step.
6. Add further steps for a second and third reminder. Each new step starts 15 minutes after the previous one; change **Delay minutes** to suit. Press **Remove** on a step you no longer want.
7. Wait for the pill on the **Workflow defaults** section, further up the page, to read **Saved**. There is no save button.

## What you see

- **Delay minutes** counts from when the customer's text, email or voicemail arrived. For a missed-call follow-up it counts from when the follow-up passes the family's **Default SLA minutes**.
- A step is skipped when someone has replied, or the callback has been resolved, before it is due.
- Urgent items, such as a text that arrives during the phone line's quiet hours or a high-priority email, run every step at once.
- Escalation pushes, emails, texts and calls wait for each person's own quiet hours; the in-app notice still appears. **Quiet-hours behavior** and each family's **Urgent bypasses quiet hours** are saved but do not change that today.
- To confirm who was actually told, press **Open delivery diagnostics** near the top of the page. See [[check-who-was-notified-about-a-conversation]].

## If something looks different

- **Remove** is missing on the last step: one step always stays; turn escalation off instead.
- No teams appear under **Default escalation teams**: no active crews exist, or your role cannot read them.
- A step sent nothing: nobody was named on it or in the defaults, and **Fallback to current assignee** was off or the item had no owner. Or someone answered before it was due. Check who was actually told with **Open delivery diagnostics**.

[[route:/settings/org/communications-workflow|Open Workflow settings]]