Escalating a Site Visit to Service Envoy
When a technician goes quiet or a job stalls, ask us to step in
Most marketplace site visits run without anyone needing to step in. When one doesn't — a technician stops answering, work never gets submitted, a pay change sits unanswered — you can escalate the site visit to Service Envoy and we'll get involved directly.
Escalation is for marketplace site visits, where Service Envoy sits between you and another company. It isn't available on internal visits worked by your own employees, and it isn't available on Private Network site visits either — there we have no standing to compel anything, and the faster route is your own.
Private Network visits settle directly between you and your technician. Service Envoy isn't a party to that arrangement: you invited the technician, you agreed the pay, and you pay them yourself. So the Request Escalation action and the pay-card escalation buttons don't appear on a Private Network visit. If a network technician goes quiet, Unassign them before they check in, or use Remove Technician after they've checked in, and route the visit again.
When to escalate
Escalate when you've tried to resolve it directly and can't move it forward. The most common reasons:
Technician not responding — you've messaged them and heard nothing.
Work not submitted for approval — the visit is finished but the technician hasn't submitted it, so you can't approve or close it out.
Pay change request ignored — you proposed a pay change and it's been sitting unanswered.
Technician did not show — no arrival, no notice.
Work quality dispute — the work was done but not to the agreed standard.
Deliverables missing or incomplete — photos, signatures, or required files never came through.
Schedule change ignored — you asked to move the visit and got no answer.
Other — anything that doesn't fit the list; describe it in the notes.
You do not need an existing dispute open to escalate. This is deliberate: the most common problem is a technician who hasn't done anything at all, so there's often nothing else on the visit to point at.
How to escalate
Open the site visit.
Click Site Visit Actions (top right) → Request Escalation.
Pick a reason, then describe what's happened.
Click Send to Service Envoy.
Write the notes for someone who has never seen this job. Support reads your description word for word. The escalations that get resolved fastest include the dates you tried to make contact, what you've already asked for, and what outcome you actually need — "approve and close it", "release the tech so I can re-route", "hold the payout". A note that says only "tech won't respond" means we have to come back to you with questions before we can do anything.
What happens next
The escalation goes straight to Service Envoy support and into our internal review queue. On the site visit you'll see a red Escalated to Service Envoy banner on the Routing tab, and the whole sequence is recorded in the visit's Activity tab.
As we work it, the banner updates:
Escalated to Service Envoy — received, waiting to be picked up.
Service Envoy is reviewing this site visit — a person is actively working it.
When it's finished, the banner clears and the resolution is recorded on the visit.
Service Envoy can act on the visit directly when it's warranted — approving stalled work, releasing a technician, or holding a payout while a dispute is sorted out.
One escalation at a time
A site visit can have one open escalation. If it's already escalated, the Site Visit Actions menu shows Withdraw Escalation instead. Raising a second one wouldn't get it looked at any sooner — it would just duplicate the entry in our queue.
Withdrawing an escalation
If the technician comes back to you and you sort it out yourselves, use Site Visit Actions → Withdraw Escalation. We'll stop reviewing it. You can escalate again later if it stalls a second time — withdrawing doesn't use anything up.
Escalating a pay change specifically
On marketplace site visits, pay change proposals have their own escalation shortcut on the Technician Rates card on the site visit's Financials tab, and it covers both ways a proposal can stall:
The technician declined it — the card offers Escalate to Service Envoy.
The technician hasn't answered it — the card offers No response — escalate.
Either one tells support how long the proposal has been outstanding and whether it was refused or ignored, so we can pick it up with the context already in hand.
What technicians see
Technicians never see the escalation queue, and never see your escalation or what you wrote in it. What they do see is Service Envoy contacting them about the specific site visit. Escalating isn't a mark on a technician's public record — it's a request for us to get involved in one job.
If you're the technician: escalating from your side
Technicians can ask Service Envoy to step in too. If the client has gone quiet, the site isn't ready, the work doesn't match the work order, or a request of yours is being ignored, you can escalate the site visit yourself.
Open the site visit.
Click Tech Actions → Escalate to Service Envoy.
Pick a reason (Client not responding, Site not ready or no access, Work differs from the work order, Schedule change request ignored, Pay or expense request ignored, Safety concern on site, or Other), then describe what's happened.
Click Send to Service Envoy.
Only the technician assigned to the site visit can do this, or an admin or back-office user of their company acting for them. It's for marketplace site visits only; on a Private Network visit, take it up directly with the company that sent it.
What you write goes to Service Envoy support only. The client doesn't see your note; the visit's Activity tab records that you escalated it and the reason you picked. While your escalation is open, Tech Actions shows Withdraw Escalation instead, for when it has been sorted out.
A site visit has one open escalation at a time. If the client has already escalated the visit, you'll be told Service Envoy is already reviewing it, and support will contact you.
Waiting on the client to approve your work? That has its own item. Once your submitted work has waited 7 days for approval, Tech Actions also shows Escalate Overdue Approval, which asks Service Envoy to follow up with the client about approving it. The 7 days don't count while the client has marked your deliverables missing or incomplete. Upload what they asked for, and the count starts again from your upload.
Escalation isn't the first step
Before escalating, it's usually quicker to try the direct routes: message the technician from the site visit, propose a schedule change or a pay change, or — if the visit hasn't started and you need a different technician — cancel and re-route it. Escalation is what you reach for when those have run out or the other side has gone quiet.