Best Practices for Handling Account Escalations

Working an escalated customer issue? Don’t just "loop in" your internal leaders — prepare them. It’s easy to think: “𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘪𝘨 — 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘊𝘊 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵, 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵, 𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘌𝘖 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺.” But if you don’t prep them, you risk adding noise — not value. Here’s what great CSMs do instead: They 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 ahead of time. Because when a major issue hits — a critical bug, a failed onboarding handoff, a missed expectation — you only get one shot to show the customer that your company is aligned and taking ownership. That’s why it’s worth having this conversation in advance: “𝘏𝘦𝘺, 𝘪𝘧 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘱, 𝘐 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘱 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘭. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦: ‘𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 — 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥.’ This shows we’re aligned at the highest level and treating it as a priority. Five minutes of effort from a department head can create a huge impact — but only if they know 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 to say and 𝘄𝗵𝘆 it matters. It’s not about making your leaders customer-facing. It’s about giving them the context and confidence to step in 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦 — when it counts most. Because when done right, these touchpoints rebuild trust, show ownership, and reinforce that you’re not just managing the issue… your entire company is. Have you ever coached an internal leader through an escalation? What worked? Let’s compare notes. #customersuccess #escalation

I have been building teams that save accounts for almost 13 years inside of B2B SaaS. Most “save plays” fail because Customer Success is left project-managing siloed teams. Here’s a play that I used in 2023 for my customer success team to turn a $5M (ARR) at-risk account into an $8M expansion. No secret-- The only way to win this game is for every team to put ego in a box, take collective ownership + accept accountability for renewing that at risk account (works best with shared OKRs) Try this framework: ⚠️Detect & Escalate - Shared Ownership: Ops Team (automated alerts in CRM/CSP..healthscore) + CSM(context/adoption/tactical) + Sales (account intel) - Metrics: Health score (<50), pipeline stall (>60 days), executive disengagement/turnover or M&A activity - Example: Sales flagged CTO ghosting latest luncheon meeting while Product spotted 40% usage drop. Combined alerts triggered Tier 1 escalation to Gainsight and customer success manager alerted to action-->triggers CTA and start of "get account healthy" playbook 🔍 Root Cause War Rooms - Squad: CSM, Product Engineer, Solutions Architect, Sales, Support/TAC Lead, Project/Onboarding Leader, Executive Team - Process: - An hour collaborative session mapping pain points to org functions - Shared doc with Product bugs (Engineering), ROI gaps (Finance), adoption blockers (CSM + Enablement) - Output: Ranked list of fire drills vs. strategic rebuilds ⚡️ Execution: The 3-Layer Accountability Stack 1. Tactical (Daily): Engineering standups on bug resolution + CSM/Sales shared Slack channel for client comms 2. Strategic (Weekly): CRO/CPO/CSO review of MAP progress against revenue guardrails 3. Executive (Bi-Weekly): Joint customer-facing roadmap reviews with our CEO/CRO ↔ their CIO Case Study: $5M → $8M The Crisis: - Health score red, Support tickets up 300%, Sales pipeline frozen, no client engagement The Save: 1. Week 1: Engineering deployed hotfixes (critical bugs) while CSM team rebuilt training docs 2. Week 3: Finance team recalculated ROI using NPV model + identified $1.2M expansion opp. 3. Week 6: Sales + CSM co-pitched new use case to CTO with Product Lead The Win: - 91% critical bugs resolved in 30 days (Eng) - $2M expansion closed in 90 days (Sales) - 68% adoption rebound (CS) - 20% TCV uplift locked pre-renewal (Sales) Truth 💣: At-risk accounts expose organizational silos. Your playbook needs named owners in: - Product (fix velocity) - Finance(ROI storytelling) - Customer Success (adoption surgery) - Sales(expansion threading) Teams that align around customer P&L impact (not just their metrics) turn churn risks into growth engines = NRR 💸 🏃♂️ 🏃♀️ to comments for Full RACI Matrix Template Like & Follow to Rebel 💪 🔥www.rebelsofSaaS.com 🎧Rebels of SaaS

Want to ruin your team’s confidence, confuse your customer, and burn yourself out? Step in and solve every escalation yourself. I learned that the hard way. Early in my leadership career, I told my team: “If anything escalates, loop me in. I’ll help fix it.” And one day, they did. A customer was frustrated, the CSM was stressed, and I immediately went into hero mode. I emailed the customer directly. Took over the conversation. Built a resolution plan. I led it all and “saved the day.” Or so I thought. But here’s what really happened: 🚫 The CSM felt defeated. Questioned their ability to lead the partnership. 🚫 The customer started bypassing the CSM and coming straight to me. 🚫 I was suddenly drowning in work I shouldn’t be doing. And worst of all? I unintentionally broke the relationship, on both sides. The reality is, not every escalation needs a savior. What it needs is a leader who knows when to coach instead of take control. Now, when an escalation hits my radar, I do these 5 things instead: 1️⃣ Slow it down before speeding it up Take a beat. Understand the root cause. De-escalate emotionally before acting tactically. 2️⃣ Coach, don’t commandeer Support your CSM in building their response strategy. Help them lead with clarity and confidence. 3️⃣ Stay in the background (unless you really need to be front and center) Let your team own the narrative. You can shadow the call, but let them drive it. 4️⃣ Reaffirm roles Customers need to trust the CSM as their partner. Your presence should reinforce, not replace, that trust. 5️⃣ Debrief and develop Escalations are learning moments. Recap what happened and how to handle it even better next time. Leadership isn’t about jumping in to save the day. It’s about building a team that knows how to navigate hard days without you. How do you handle escalations on your team?