Vendor Escalation Protocols

Purpose: Define escalation steps for vendor incidents. Move from initial contact to resolution, tracking, and compensation.

Escalation Protocol Overview

Tier 1: Vendor Response (Within SLA)

When to Use Tier 1

• Vendor responds within SLA target (15 min)
• Vendor acknowledges incident
• Vendor working on resolution

Response Steps

1. Contact vendor: - [ ] PagerDuty: Use vendor PagerDuty escalation path - [ ] Email: support@vendor.com (include incident details) - [ ] Phone: Vendor phone number

2. Provide incident context: - [ ] Incident ID: [ID] - [ ] Impact: [what is failing?] - [ ] Severity: P1-P4 - [ ] Time observed: [timestamp] - [ ] What you need: [resolution or workaround]

3. Track vendor response: - [ ] Time contacted: ____:____ - [ ] Vendor response time: ____:____ (total minutes: ____) - [ ] Vendor acknowledgment: Yes / No - [ ] Vendor estimated resolution: ____ minutes

4. Document in timeline: - [ ] Timeline entry: Vendor contacted, acknowledged - [ ] Vendor response: [summary of response] - [ ] Next steps: [what vendor will do]

Tier 1 Communication

• Slack update: "Vendor contacted, awaiting response (SLA: 15 min)"
• Timeline update: Document vendor response
• Customer comms: Not required unless SLA violated

Tier 1 Success Criteria

• ☐ Vendor responds within SLA: 15 min (Tier 1 vendor) or 30 min (Tier 2 vendor)
• ☐ Vendor acknowledges incident: Yes
• ☐ Vendor provides estimated resolution: Yes
• ☐ Vendor updates timeline: Yes

Tier 2: Extended Vendor Response (After SLA)

When to Use Tier 2

• Vendor response after SLA target
• Vendor working on resolution, but slower than SLA
• SLA violation detected

Response Steps

1. Escalate to higher tier: - [ ] PagerDuty escalation: PagerDuty automatically escalates after SLA - [ ] Email escalation: Send escalation email to vendor VP - [ ] Phone escalation: Call vendor VP directly

2. Check vendor status page: - [ ] Check vendor status page: Is vendor having outage? - [ ] Document status page: [link, timestamp] - [ ] Update customer: If customer affected, notify them

3. Prepare workaround: - [ ] Identify workaround: Can you switch providers? - [ ] Prepare fallback: Database, CDN, payment gateway - [ ] Test workaround: Verify workaround works

4. Track SLA violation: - [ ] Time SLA violated: ____:____ (total minutes: ____) - [ ] SLA violation duration: ____ minutes - [ ] Calculate credit: [amount] - [ ] Document SLA violation: [reason, impact]

5. Document in timeline: - [ ] Timeline entry: Vendor SLA violated - [ ] Escalation: Vendor VP notified - [ ] Workaround: [summary of workaround]

Tier 2 Communication

• Slack update: "Vendor SLA violated, escalated to VP (SLA + 15 min)"
• Timeline update: Document SLA violation, workaround
• Customer comms: Notify customers if SLA violated

Tier 2 Success Criteria

• ☐ Vendor responds after SLA: Yes
• ☐ Escalation triggered: Yes
• ☐ Vendor provides workaround: Yes
• ☐ SLA violation documented: Yes

Tier 3: Critical Vendor Failure (1+ hours)

When to Use Tier 3

• Vendor fails to respond after 1 hour
• Critical vendor outage (payments, CDNs, monitoring)
• Customer churn risk
• Revenue loss > $X per minute

Response Steps

1. VIP escalation: - [ ] PagerDuty VIP escalation: Notify vendor executive - [ ] Email escalation: vendor-executive@vendor.com - [ ] Phone escalation: Call vendor CEO/CFO

2. Prepare customer comms: - [ ] Notify customers: Email, in-app notification, support ticket - [ ] Explain impact: What is failing? What will it cost? - [ ] Provide workaround: How can customers work around? - [ ] Offer compensation: Credits, refunds, extensions

3. Customer comms plan: - [ ] Notify customers: All affected customers - [ ] Communication cadence: Update every 30 min - [ ] Comms channel: Email, in-app, support ticket - [ ] Comms template: Use customer-vendor-incident-comms.md

4. Document in timeline: - [ ] Timeline entry: VIP escalation triggered - [ ] Customer comms: Notify customers - [ ] Workaround: [summary of workaround]

Tier 3 Communication

• Slack update: "CRITICAL: Vendor SLA violated > 1 hour, VIP escalation"
• Timeline update: Document VIP escalation, customer comms
• Customer comms: Notify all affected customers

Tier 3 Success Criteria

• ☐ Vendor responds after 1 hour: Yes
• ☐ VIP escalation triggered: Yes
• ☐ Customer comms executed: Yes
• ☐ Compensation provided: Yes

Vendor Escalation Decision Flow

`` START │ ├─ Vendor outage detected │ ├─ Vendor status page: outage declared? │ │ ├─ YES → Verify outage, escalate │ │ └─ NO → Contact vendor directly │ └─ Contact vendor (PagerDuty/email/phone) │ ├─ Vendor response received? │ ├─ YES → Track response, update timeline │ └─ NO → Check response time │ ├─ Within SLA → Tier 1 (continue tracking) │ ├─ After SLA → Tier 2 (escalate) │ └─ > 1 hour → Tier 3 (VIP escalation, customer comms) │ └─ Incident resolved? ├─ YES → Document resolution, update timeline └─ NO → Escalate again ``

SLA Violation Tracking

SLA Violation Types

SLA Violation Calculation

Example 1: Response Time Violation

• SLA target: 15 min
• Actual response: 30 min
• SLA violation: 30 - 15 = 15 min
• Compensation: Credit for 15 min (based on pricing)

Example 2: Uptime Violation

• SLA target: 99.9% uptime
• Actual uptime: 98%
• SLA violation: 99.9% - 98% = 1.9% downtime
• Compensation: Credit based on downtime

Example 3: Resolution Failure

• SLA target: Resolution within 15 min
• Actual resolution: 45 min
• SLA violation: 45 - 15 = 30 min
• Compensation: Credit for 30 min (based on pricing)

Vendor Incident Documentation

Incident ID Format

• vendor-[YYYY-MM-DD]-[vendor]-[id]

Example Incident ID

• vendor-2026-09-13-stripe-payment-api-down-001

Documentation Fields

• ☐ Incident ID: vendor-[YYYY-MM-DD]-[vendor]-[id]
• ☐ Vendor: [vendor name]
• ☐ Incident start: ____:____
• ☐ Incident end: ____:____
• ☐ Total duration: ____ hours
• ☐ SLA target: ____ min
• ☐ SLA violation: Yes / No
• ☐ SLA violation duration: ____ min
• ☐ Compensation amount: $____
• ☐ Customer affected: Yes / No
• ☐ Workaround used: Yes / No

Vendor SLA Enforcement

Automatic SLA Tracking

• ☐ PagerDuty tracking: Monitor vendor PagerDuty escalations
• ☐ Email tracking: Log vendor response times
• ☐ Phone tracking: Log phone call durations
• ☐ Status page tracking: Monitor vendor status page

SLA Violation Log

SLA Compliance Score

Prevention and Improvement

Vendor Performance Review

• Frequency: Quarterly
• Reviewers: SRE Lead, VP Engineering
• Review criteria: SLA compliance, response times, customer impact

Vendor Negotiation

• Frequency: Annually
• Negotiators: VP Engineering, CFO
• Negotiation goals: Improve SLA, reduce cost, increase uptime

Vendor Switching

• Trigger: SLA violations > [threshold] or customer churn risk
• Process: Evaluate alternatives, plan migration, switch providers
• Documentation: Update vendor-incident-contact-matrix.md

Usage: Use for every vendor incident. Follow escalation protocol, track SLA violations, calculate credits. Works with vendor-incident-contact-matrix.md and customer-vendor-incident-comms.md.

Product links: /l/ops-starter-kit-vol-2 | /l/ops-starter-kit | /l/automation-starter-pack

From the HIVE80lab kit

• The First 30 Minutes — free incident quick-start
• Ops Starter Kit — full incident-response kit for small teams — $14
• Ops Mega Bundle — all 5 kits in one download — $29
• Small-Team Ops Audit — prioritized findings + fix plan, five-day turnaround — $149
• Custom Incident Runbook — done-for-you, built from your estate, 48h — $249

Part of the five-pillar incident-response set: see the pillars overview and the blameless post-incident review template.