escalation

Etymology

From escalate + -ion.

noun

1. an increase or rise, especially one to counteract a perceived discrepancy
   Thousands of violent videos are still available on the internet, according to Alexander, who claims they lead to an escalation in offline tensions between rival gangs. "I believe some young people are losing their lives as result of this material on the internet," she said. April 19, 2012, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian
2. a deliberate or premeditated increase in the violence or geographic scope of a conflict
3. (customer support) The reassignment of a difficult customer problem to someone whose job is dedicated to handling such cases.
   The manager ensures that the escalation team generates a continuous stream of root cause analysis exercises and the subsequent corrective actions. 2003, Garry Schultz, The Customer Care and Contact Center Handbook, page 229
   Resolving escalations tends to require large amounts of time and energy from the support engineer working on an escalation and from the manager driving it. If those individuals are also required to attend to other issues, they will either neglect other customers (not good) or do a poor job of driving the escalation (very bad). 2016, Francoise Tourniaire, The Art of Support, page 154