The Escalation Escalator
CTO who escalates to the vendor's CEO for every minor issue, bypassing customer success entirely.
16 min
Duration
About this persona
Mark Anderson is not unreasonable. He is a CTO who has learned that escalation produces results faster than normal channels -- and he is not wrong that it often does. What he has not calculated is the relational damage: CS teams stop bringing him problems early because they know he will go over their heads, which means he hears about issues later, which makes him escalate more. Getting through a conversation with Mark requires acknowledging his past experience with slow resolution, establishing a credible escalation protocol he will actually trust, and getting a specific commitment from him to use it before going to the CEO again.
Scenario
You are a Customer Success Manager or Account Manager at the vendor. Mark emailed your CEO this morning about a billing discrepancy that was already in an open support ticket. Your CEO forwarded it to you with a note: please handle. Your goal is to resolve the immediate issue and establish a direct channel that gives Mark a reason to use it before reaching out to the CEO next time.
Skills tested
- credibility establishment
- de-escalation of a habitual escalator
- building a new agreement
- holding firm without dismissing
- redirecting without lecturing
What you'll practice
- How to address the behavior pattern without attacking the person
- How to make a direct channel feel more reliable than escalation
- What a credible escalation protocol actually sounds like
- How to close a conversation with a specific agreement, not just a good feeling
Personality traits
Practice this conversation
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