Almost never needed — but here is the ladder if it is.
Before you escalate
Check the ticket thread: status updates are posted there as work happens.
Waiting on us or waiting on you? Some tickets pause for information; the thread says which.
The escalation ladder
Reply with "escalate" on the ticket — it goes to the queue lead immediately.
Ask for the duty manager — for priority conflicts, or if the lead is the problem.
Use an Urgent ticket referencing the original — last resort; it pages on-call.
What escalation is not
It is not a way to jump the queue for a new request — new work keeps its own priority. Escalation is for existing tickets that have missed their targets or gone quiet.
We publish our response targets and we miss them rarely; when we do, the post-mortem lands in the ticket thread alongside the apology.