> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.lightwork.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Escalations

> When and why Felicity escalates, and what to do when she does.

## In one minute

Felicity escalates a conversation to your team when she cannot handle it confidently on her own. Escalations arrive in your inbox with a summary of the conversation so far and suggested next steps. Your job is to review, respond, and optionally hand back to Felicity when the issue is resolved.

***

## When Felicity escalates

Felicity will escalate a conversation in the following situations:

**No confident answer available**
If the resident's question does not match anything in your knowledge base, Felicity will not guess. She will let the resident know that a team member will follow up and escalate the conversation.

**Sensitive or complex topics**
Certain topics are always escalated regardless of knowledge base coverage:

* Complaints or disputes.
* Legal matters, including notices or court proceedings.
* Safeguarding concerns.
* Financial hardship or vulnerability indicators.
* Anything involving personal safety.

**Resident requests a human**
If a resident says they want to speak to a person (or words to that effect), Felicity immediately hands over without further questions.

**Repeated misunderstanding**
If Felicity and the resident go back and forth without reaching a resolution, she will escalate rather than continue a circular conversation.

**Module-specific triggers**
Each module has its own escalation triggers:

* **Resident Desk** - unknown intent after follow-up questions, contradictory information from the resident.
* **Prospects** - screening failures that need manual review, scheduling conflicts that cannot be resolved automatically.
* **Maintenance** - emergency or urgent repairs, issues requiring immediate landlord approval, contractor availability problems.

***

## What an escalation looks like

When a conversation is escalated, it appears in your inbox with an **Escalated** status badge. Opening it, you will see:

* **Escalation reason** - why Felicity escalated (e.g. "No knowledge base match for this question" or "Resident requested human contact").
* **Conversation summary** - a brief recap of what the resident asked and what Felicity has done so far.
* **Suggested next steps** - what Felicity recommends you do (e.g. "Provide the resident with information about X" or "Review the repair request and approve the work order").
* **Full conversation history** - every message exchanged, so you have full context.

***

## Handling an escalation

<Steps>
  <Step title="Review the context">
    Read the escalation summary and conversation history. Understand what the resident needs and why Felicity could not handle it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Respond to the resident">
    Reply directly from the inbox. Your response goes to the resident on the same channel (email or WhatsApp) the conversation has been on.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Resolve or hand back">
    Once the resident's query is answered, mark the conversation as resolved. If the issue is partially addressed and Felicity can take over again (e.g. you have added a knowledge base article), she will resume automated handling.
  </Step>
</Steps>

***

## Reducing escalations

The most effective way to reduce escalations is to improve your knowledge base:

* **Review escalation reasons** - if the same type of question keeps getting escalated, add a knowledge base article to cover it.
* **Check for gaps** - Felicity's [AI suggestions](/platform/knowledge-base#ai-suggestions) queue shows questions she has been asked but could not answer. Adding articles for these directly reduces future escalations.
* **Keep articles current** - outdated information can cause Felicity to give partial answers, which may lead to follow-up escalations.

***

## Escalation notifications

When a conversation is escalated, the assigned team member (or all team members, depending on your settings) receives a notification. You can configure notification preferences in [Settings](/platform/settings).

***

## Assigning escalations

If your team has multiple members, escalated conversations can be assigned to specific people:

* **Automatic routing** - configure task routing rules so escalations go to the right team member based on property, module, or topic. See [Team and permissions](/platform/team-permissions).
* **Manual assignment** - any team member can reassign an escalated conversation to a colleague from the inbox.