Sentiment escalation
Opt-in, consent-gated rolling sentiment scoring that automatically escalates a souring support case — assign a senior rep, bump priority, notify a manager — and auto-recovers when tone improves.
Sentiment escalation watches the tone of a support conversation and steps in when a customer is getting frustrated — before the case breaches or churns. It is one of Pact's most powerful support automations, and also one you must deliberately turn on.
Off by default, and consent-gated
Sentiment escalation is disabled by default. It only runs for a tenant that has explicitly consented to sentiment processing. Without consent, the scorer is a strict no-op — no scoring, no escalation. This is a consent-native product: analyzing a customer's tone is a choice you opt into, not a default.
How it works
On each non-internal customer message, Pact scores the rolling sentiment of the conversation. When the score crosses a threshold you configure, escalation rules fire.
- AI scorer — used when your workspace has a BYOK AI provider configured.
- Lexicon fallback — a deterministic word-list scorer when no AI key is present. (Both paths are consent-gated; neither runs without consent.)
What an escalation does
When a rule matches, Pact can:
- Assign to a senior rep — with a real priority bump on the case.
- Notify the manager.
- Raise an alert.
Each escalation is recorded, with a timeline event, and is guarded by a cooldown so a wobbling conversation doesn't flap between escalated and normal.
Auto-recovery
Sentiment escalation doesn't just ratchet up. When the customer's sentiment improves past a recovery margin (hysteresis, so it won't bounce on a single positive message), Pact auto-resolves the escalation and can restore the priority it bumped.
Two different sentiment signals
This page covers the rolling sentiment escalation that actively reassigns and alerts. It's distinct from the lighter sentiment read that triage attaches to a case on create and reply, which informs routing but doesn't itself escalate.
Turning it on
- 1
Record consent
Enable sentiment processing consent for the tenant. Until this is set, nothing runs.
- 2
Configure escalation rules
Set the threshold and the actions (assign senior, notify manager, alert).
- 3
Connect an AI provider (recommended)
A BYOK AI provider gives you the AI scorer; the lexicon fallback works without one.