Overview
The nature of a request for sensitive financial statement data means that your engagement is often necessary to help progress the request. By leveraging RapidRatings’ private company outreach service, you’ve already taken step 1 to proactively mitigate risk in your value chain. However, the engagement cannot stop there. To build and maintain a successful outreach program, you must take a hands-on approach and get involved in the process.
An escalation refers to any instance during the outreach process where RapidRatings’ Member Services team has indicated that they require your support to progress a request. While we will do all we can before and during the outreach process to avoid needing to escalate a request, it’s crucial to understand that some are inevitable. The more engaged you are and the more prepared you are to action them, the more successful your outreach program will be.
In this section, we will discuss the following:
- Common reasons for escalations and their corresponding statuses, as well as guidance on how to respond and take action.
- How escalations appear on your FHR Exchange Program Dashboard, what to look out for regarding escalations specifically, and on what cadence.
- The difference between an escalation and a close notice.
I. Common Escalation Reasons
RapidRatings’ Member Services team will escalate requests to you via the FHR Exchange for the following reasons. The format you will see reflected on your Program Dashboard is "Client Assistance Requested: Escalation Reason".
| Escalation Reason | Explanation | Action Needed From You |
|
Invalid Contact |
RapidRatings has determined that the target contact information is invalid from either an email bounce back or an internet search | Provide an email address and direct phone number for a specific person. General mailboxes such as info@ or support@ are not effective for these types of requests |
|
Requested Confirmation |
RapidRatings’ target contact would like you to reach out directly to validate the request and confirm it’s legitimate | Reach out to the target contact and confirm that the request is valid and legitimate |
|
No Business
|
RapidRatings’ target contact has cited no business, not enough business, or pending business with you and would like details on next steps before completing the request | Reach out to the target contact to confirm your business relationship with them or clarify next steps |
|
Miscellaneous
|
RapidRatings’ target contact has been unresponsive to the outreach effort. RapidRatings will also use this reason for other less common scenarios not outlined above | Reach out to the target contact and advise them to engage with RapidRatings to complete the request |
When a RapidRatings Member Services Associate escalates a request via the FHR Exchange, you will receive an automated email in the following format:
“Dear [your name],
I am contacting you as [your organization’s name] as requested a Financial Health Rating for [your supplier or vendor’s name] and we need your assistance to complete this request.
Summary of Interaction and Suggested Next Steps
[customized message from the Member Services Associate including context/reasoning for the escalation, questions for you, and suggested steps to take]
Please log into the Client Portal to see more details.
Thank you for your assistance, and please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.”
II. Program Dashboard Walkthrough
In this section, we will walk through how to navigate your Program Dashboard to stay on top of escalations, as there are likely to be several pending at once. We will provide some tips and best practices for effective escalation management.
On the homepage of your RapidRatings account, you will see a section titled My Program Summary. You will see two boxes that show you the number of pending escalations:
If you are listed as the Relationship Manager on an open outreach request, pending escalations on those requests will appear in the My Escalations view. You are responsible for actioning these. On the Program Management Dashboard, these requests will appear in the My Escalated Requests list.
The All Escalations view includes all pending escalations for open outreach requests, regardless of who the Relationship Manager is. Your organization's Primary Service Contact is responsible for ensuring the pending escalations in this view are being actioned consistently. These requests will appear in the All Escalated Requests on the Program Management Dashboard.
Click All Escalations, and it will bring you to the Program Management Dashboard, which includes list views as shown below:
We strongly advise checking these views at least twice per week and clearing the list by responding via email to the Member Services Associate who escalated the request. Once you take action and provide guidance, the Member Services Associate will "reclaim" the request, which will take it out of escalation status in the system.
As part of the Program Management Dashboard view, you will see several columns, which we have outlined and defined below for reference:
| Column Name | Definition |
| Counterparty | Your supplier or vendor |
Request Type
|
|
| Counterparty Contact | The supplier or vendor contact you provided to us |
| Relationship Manager | The contact at your organization responsible for the request |
| Escalation Reason | One of the four reasons why the request was escalated |
| Age of Escalation | Number of days the request has been in escalation status |
| Comment | The customized message the Member Services Associate wrote to you asking for guidance |
You can and should strategically work through your pending escalations by filtering and sorting the list based on some of or all of these criteria. For instance, let's say you want to handle your Invalid Contact escalations first. In that case, you can filter the list to only show escalations for Invalid Contacts.
Or maybe you want to prioritize your oldest escalations. Scroll over to the Age of Escalation column and click the "up" arrow to the sort the list oldest to newest.
To see the specific message the Member Services Associate sent to you within the portal, click on the counterparty name. This will bring you to the Request Details Page. From there, scroll down a bit until you see the Activity Log on the right side of the page. Continue scrolling until you reach a Status Update that begins with "Action needed: ...". You can also view this message directly in the system-generated email the Member Services Associate sent you.
III. Escalations vs. Close Notices
An escalation requires your immediate assistance in order to progress an open request, whereas a close notice is a notification that we are closing a request as a loss. Based on the reason we provide as to why we are closing the request, we strongly encourage you to take action on your side to help turn the request into a win. However, the request will remain closed on RapidRatings' side unless substantial progress is made.
Summary
- If you are listed as the Relationship Manager on an outreach request, pending escalations that you are responsible for will appear in the My Escalations view. You are responsible for providing feedback on these.
- Your organization's Primary Service Contact should oversee the All Escalated Requests list.
- Check your Escalations view at least twice weekly with a goal of clearing it. Think of your Escalations view as a to-do list: action it and check it off your list. The goal is to clear the list by providing RapidRatings' Member Services team with the feedback and context they need to move your outreach requests forward.
- Remember: a hands-on approach and your active engagement early on is critical to the long-term success of your outreach program. Help us build relationships with your suppliers or vendors early on, and then we'll take it from there.