No one wants a client to become frustrated and ask to speak with someone higher up, but it may happen despite your best efforts. Here's what to do if this happens to you.

1. Remain calm.
   • Empathize with them. (e.g. "Seeing this situation, I would be frustrated too!")
   • Avoid attempting to reason with their emotions. People always have a right to be frustrated, and we don't know what else could be causing it on their end.
   • People mirror each others' behavior. While it may be hard for you to remain calm when they are heated, it will be harder for them to stay heated if you are calm. (They must expend more energy!)
   • Recognize if it will help for you to take a break before revisiting the situation. If you are on the phone, tell the client you will look further into their request and either place them on hold or call/email them back.
2. De-escalate the situation.
   • Remain helpful. Steer the conversation to a productive direction. (e.g. "Here is what I'll do to make things right.... Will that work for you?")
   • Let them know you will do to help. As an Account Manager, you have full access to Vision's resources to help resolve their problem.
   • Avoid correcting them, commanding them, or telling them what other people will say. (e.g. "My supervisor will tell you the same thing.")
   • People are usually frustrated at a situation rather than at a person.
3. If they insist, let the client know someone in management will follow up with them.
4. Fill out the escalation form and paste the result in the case notes.
5. Assign the case to the technical support manager with status "Escalated."

At this point the technical support manager will judge whether follow-up comes from Technical Support or another department such as Client Success or Project Management. Criteria for this include:

• Aging CMS 4 or 5 software → Client Success
• Need for premium DR → Client Success
• Need for visionLive → Client Success
• Recent launch QA → Project Management (assigned PM / DRod)
• Post-launch project → Project Management (Kristoffer)

Proactive Vision Escalations

There are some red flags that should be brought to your manager's attention immediately. These include (but are not limited to):

• illegality, litigation and suing, lawyers and attorneys
  • e.g. Palm Springs citizen saying, "You've got until Monday morning to remove the photo or I will have my lawyers contact you."
  • e.g. a city being threatened with litigation or being subpoenaed for information and asking us for information related to it
• bad press about Vision or a client's website
  • e.g. news footage of Sheboygan County's site down on election night
• going out to bid, mentioning they've had contact with our competitors
  • e.g. Yonkers going out to bid instead of getting a CMS upgrade
• questioning staying or going with Vision
  • e.g. Casey Danner from Prescott Valley saying, "We're seriously reconsidering our relationship with Vision."
• bad feedback a client provides to others
  • e.g. Magdalena Prado from Bell saying, "The first thing I tell people who ask about the visionCMS is that it's quirky."
• key words and phrases: "unacceptable," "disappointed," questioning whether we want their business
  • e.g. Plymouth saying they are "disappointed in our $80,000 website"

If a client mentions anything along these lines, please notify your manager immediately as it can have major impacts on our business.