Escalate conversations nobody has answered

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.

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 is told about 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.

Open Workflow settings