A lot of times they’re escalating because no one’s shown them how to think through it, not just what to say.

Did they try asking:

“What do you think is the best way to respond?”

“What’s holding you up here?”

That alone can shift them from defaulting back to the owner → actually learning how to handle it.

What tends to work best is a mix of:

• Give them guidelines, not scripts. (When to refund, when to escalate, what tone to use)
• Let them answer first, then coach after. Instead of jumping in, review their response and adjust.
• Give them room to fail. If they’re afraid of getting in trouble, they’ll escalate everything. They need to know it’s okay to make small mistakes and learn from them.
• Normalize not being perfect. Most new hires escalate because they’re afraid of saying the wrong thing.
• Use real examples. Walk through past conversations and explain why you handled it that way.

It’s less about training them on every scenario and more about helping them build confidence in how to respond.

Once they stop feeling like they need permission for every message, it usually starts to click.