Qualify, Route, and Escalate

What you will complete

A qualification rubric, routing precedence, human review matrix, and unavailable-owner fallback.

Make the operating decision

Collect only information needed for the next decision: requested service, service location, timing, existing relationship, and a small number of job details. Mark unprovided values unknown. A fixed rubric can recommend in-area review, clarification, referral, manual callback, or decline under approved rules.

Route restrictions and existing relationships before general distribution. Check opt-out, duplicate state, existing customer, warranty path, service area, service type, and safety escalation. Then apply owner availability. Every outcome needs a destination, owner, response expectation, fallback, and evidence to inspect.

AI may summarize free text and identify possible categories, but it must show the source words and confidence. It cannot decide that a situation is safe, that a customer has no warranty, or that a price applies. When evidence conflicts or confidence is low, the system stops at review.

Worked fictional example: Harbourlight Roofing

A Harbourlight form names Toronto, a routine inspection, and next-month timing. It reaches normal review. An existing customer asks about warranty coverage and routes to the account owner. A note saying the roof may collapse triggers an immediate human escalation without diagnosis.

Harbourlight Roofing, its staff, customers, enquiries, service rules, and results are fictional. The course does not claim a live deployment, faster response, more bookings, or revenue improvement.

Complete workbook section 4

Use the evidence available for your own bounded job. Write unknown when the evidence is missing, and record the person or action that can resolve it.

1. Write the minimum intake questions.
2. Define review, clarify, refer, decline, and escalation outcomes.
3. Order restrictions, relationships, fit, and availability checks.
4. Name owner, fallback, and evidence for every outcome.

Open the course workbook PDF or read the workbook details.

Critical gate before continuing

• Unknown is not a disqualifier.
• Existing relationships are preserved.
• Safety and warranty decisions remain human.
• Everyone-away and failed-assignment states are visible.

If a gate fails, repair the current section, narrow the scope, leave the route manual, or record a blocked or stop decision. Continuing is not the only successful learner action.

Common failure modes

• Expanding beyond a qualification rubric, routing precedence, human review matrix, and unavailable-owner fallback. before the current artifact can be graded.
• Turning a missing value, unavailable source, or blocked integration into a confident conclusion.
• Treating a prompt instruction as proof that the effective tool or permission boundary works.
• Marking a manual, simulated, or untested route as live.

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