| Course | MT221 Customer Service |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 7 |
| Paper type | Escalation procedure |
| Length | About 880 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT221 Unit 7
Seventy-Five Dollars Without Asking Anyone: A Unit 7 Escalation Procedure for a Mobile Auto Glass Company
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MT221: Customer Service
Unit 7 Escalation Procedure
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Northline Auto Glass, its roles, limits and every amount are composite and illustrative; bracketed figures stand where the company's complaint records would supply the numbers; the sources cited are real.
Document Control
Procedure: Customer Complaint Escalation. Owner: Service Manager. Effective date: [March 1]. Review date: [September 1]. Applies to: schedulers, customer care staff, technicians and managers at all Northline locations.
Purpose
This procedure sets who may settle a customer complaint, up to what amount, within what time and when a case must move up. Its aim is to resolve most complaints in the first contact, keep similar cases treated alike, and make sure safety issues reach a manager immediately.
Tier One: Schedulers
Schedulers handle most complaints, since they answer the phones. They may waive the [$49] mobile service fee, credit up to [$75] to a customer's account and book a priority window within two business days. They must resolve or escalate within the same call or by the end of the business day.
The [$75] limit comes from the company's own complaint records. Over the past year, about [80] percent of complaints that ended with a credit were settled for [$75] or less: late arrivals, a missed reminder, a second visit for wrong glass. Setting the limit at that level lets schedulers close those cases on the first call. Bowen and Lawler (1992) argued that empowerment works when employees have the information and authority to solve the problems they see most often, and the limit is set where most problems sit.
Tier Two: Customer Care Lead
The customer care lead handles cases a scheduler cannot settle, and any complaint where a customer asks for a supervisor. The lead may approve up to [$300], authorize a weekend or after-hours visit and reimburse a calibration or rental cost with a receipt. The lead must contact the customer within one business day of escalation.
Tier Three: Service Manager
The service manager handles cases involving workmanship disputes, property damage and repeat failures. The manager may approve up to [$1,000], order a redo by a different technician, settle minor property damage such as a scratched dashboard or paint, and authorize a full refund. The manager must contact the customer within one business day and decide within three.
Tier Four: General Manager
The general manager handles anything above [$1,000], legal threats, media inquiries and any case involving injury. The general manager must be notified the same day.
The Safety Rule
Any report that the new glass is leaking into the car, that the windshield is moving or separating, that a camera or sensor is giving warnings after an install, or that anyone was hurt goes straight to the service manager and the general manager the same day, whatever tier receives it. The customer is told not to drive the car if the glass may be loose, and a technician is sent within twenty-four hours. A windshield supports the roof in a rollover and helps the passenger airbag deploy correctly, so a bad install is a safety issue, not a service inconvenience.
A loose windshield skips every tier and lands on two managers the same day.
Clocks and Handoffs
Each tier has a time limit, and a case that is not resolved within it moves up automatically. Every handoff must include a written summary in the complaint system so the customer never has to tell the story twice. Tax et al. (1998) found that customers judge complaint handling partly on the procedure itself, including how quickly and consistently it moves, and having to repeat the story wears down even patient customers.
Two Worked Cases
A customer calls because the technician arrived ninety minutes late with no warning and she missed a meeting. The scheduler apologizes, waives the [$49] fee and adds a [$25] credit, staying within tier one, and logs the cause as an overbooked route. The case closes on the first call.
A second customer reports that rain is getting into the car along the top of the new windshield two days after the install. The scheduler does not offer a credit. Under the safety rule, the case goes straight to the service manager and the general manager, a technician is booked for the next morning, and the customer is told how to cover the gap if more rain is forecast. The manager later decides on a reinstall and a refund of the labor charge, a tier-three remedy.
Tracking
Each month, the service manager reviews the number of complaints at each tier, the average time to resolution, the total credits by tier and the causes behind them. If more than [30] percent of cases reach tier two, the tier-one limit or training should be reviewed. Hart et al. (1990) argued that complaints are information about the process, and this review is where that information turns into changes.
Exceptions
A scheduler may escalate any case early if the customer is distressed or the situation is unclear, and no employee will be faulted for escalating a case in good faith. A manager may lower a tier's limit temporarily for an employee in training.
References
Bowen, D. E., & Lawler, E. E., III. (1992). The empowerment of service workers: What, why, how, and when. Sloan Management Review, 33(3), 31-39.
Hart, C. W. L., Heskett, J. L., & Sasser, W. E., Jr. (1990). The profitable art of service recovery. Harvard Business Review, 68(4), 148-156.
Tax, S. S., Brown, S. W., & Chandrashekaran, M. (1998). Customer evaluations of service complaint experiences: Implications for relationship marketing. Journal of Marketing, 62(2), 60-76. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299806200205
Reading the MT 221 Unit 7 instructions
The seventh unit usually asks for an escalation procedure that decides who may settle which complaints, up to what amount and within what time. Most prompts expect a document format with an owner and dates, a purpose statement, tiers with distinct authority and time limits, rules for handoffs and a way to track results. Dollar limits should be justified, ideally from the business's own record of past settlements, so routine cases stay at the first desk. A small business might need only two tiers; the number should follow the real decision limits. Safety or legal issues often need a rule that bypasses the tiers. Worked examples help readers see how the procedure applies. An escalation procedure differs from a recovery plan: it covers who decides across all complaint types. Expect about four pages, citing empowerment and complaint handling research in APA 7.
Inside the MT221 Unit 7 example
The procedure opens with a document control block and a purpose. Tier one sets the schedulers' authority and same-day limit, and a paragraph explains that about eighty percent of past credited complaints settled at or below $75, with Bowen and Lawler on empowerment matched to common problems, which a margin note highlights. Tiers two through four set rising limits, distinct case types and response clocks. The safety rule explains why a windshield is a safety part and what happens the same day, and the highlighted line states it plainly. The clocks section requires written handoffs so customers never repeat themselves, citing Tax and colleagues on procedure. Two worked cases, a late van and a leaking install, show the tiers and the safety rule in use, with a second note. A monthly review with Hart and colleagues and a short exceptions section close the document.
MT221 Unit 7 rubric: what earns full points
Escalation procedures in MT 221 are typically graded on clarity, justification and practicality. Each tier should have a distinct authority, a clear list of case types and its own time limit. Graders reward limits that are explained with evidence, such as the distribution of past settlements, rather than chosen arbitrarily. Handoff rules that spare the customer from repeating the story show attention to the experience. A safety or legal bypass rule demonstrates judgment about risk. Worked examples make the procedure usable and earn credit for showing it in action. Tracking with a trigger for review shows the procedure will improve. Document format, with an owner and review date, matters for this genre. The empowerment paper by Bowen and Lawler carries most of the argument for the first-tier limit.
MT221 Unit 7 help from the desk
Escalation procedures most often go wrong by setting limits with no stated reason, which makes them hard to defend. Another common problem is tiers with overlapping authority, so staff do not know who decides. Some procedures have no time limits, leaving cases stuck. Others require the customer to explain the problem again at each tier. Safety issues are often handled like any other complaint. Worked examples are frequently missing. Be careful not to copy a large company's structure into a small business. If your business has no complaint records, estimate the typical settlement from experience and say so. Our writers can take your business's roles and typical complaints and help set tiers, limits and clocks that fit them.
Get an MT221 Unit 7 example written to your instructions
Describe the business and the complaints its front line handles, or use the Unit 7 case as written, and attach the rubric. Your first procedure is free: tiers, limits, clocks and a safety bypass fitted to that case, returned within 24-48h. Where the prompt names no dollar amounts, the sample proposes limits and explains each, so they can be tuned to the case. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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MT221 Unit 7 questions, answered
How should the dollar limits be chosen?
From what the business already approves, where that data exists, and from the cost of delay where it does not. The example sets tier one at $75 because most past goodwill credits fell below it, so routine cases never leave the first desk. State the reasoning in the procedure itself; a figure with no stated basis is the one an instructor questions.
Does every procedure need four tiers?
No. A small business might need two, the person on the phone and the owner, while a large contact center might need five. The number should follow how many different decision limits actually exist. What graders look for is that each tier has a distinct authority and a clock of its own, not that the ladder has a particular number of rungs.
Is an escalation procedure the same as a service recovery plan?
They connect but do different jobs. A recovery plan lays out the order of steps that repair one type of failure, while an escalation procedure decides who may authorize what across all complaint types, and at what point a case must go higher. In many courses the recovery plan comes first, and the escalation procedure turns its remedies into formal limits.
Where can I find a free MT221 Unit 7 sample paper?
The full MT221 Unit 7 escalation procedure is on this page. It sets four tiers with dollar limits and clocks for a mobile auto glass company, adds a safety bypass rule and two worked cases and includes margin notes.
Why does the safety rule skip every tier?
Because a leaking or loose windshield can be dangerous: it helps support the roof in a rollover and helps the passenger airbag deploy. Such reports go to two managers the same day and get a technician within twenty-four hours.