Escalation rules in Salesforce belong to cases. Leads have assignment rules, which decide an owner once and do nothing if that owner never acts. Anything that moves an untouched lead on is something your team built.
How teams do it
- A scheduled flow. A flow runs on a timer, finds leads still at the default status after a set time, and reassigns them or alerts a manager.
- A record-triggered flow with a scheduled path. Each new lead schedules its own check, which fires if the status has not changed.
- A routing app's retraction. LeanData and Traction Complete can take a lead back from an owner who does not act, and give it to someone else.
Where it breaks
- The test is the wrong field. "Not touched" is tested on status, but reps log activity without changing status, so a worked lead is taken back, or a stale one is kept.
- The next owner is wrong. The escalation reassigns to a person or queue that has left or has no members.
- It loops. The lead is retracted, reassigned and retracted again, and owners keep changing. See the owner keeps changing.
- It stopped. A scheduled flow that was deactivated, or a retraction that was turned off, escalates nothing and says nothing. See retraction not working.
Check it yourself
SELECT COUNT() FROM Lead WHERE IsConverted = false AND Status = 'New' AND CreatedDate < LAST_N_DAYS:3If this count is not small, your escalation is not working, whatever the flow says. Compare it with leads stuck at the default status.
The routing health checklist17 questions, from the rules to the handoff.
Open it
Have it checked every night instead.
Routing Forensics connects as a read-only user and checks this, and the rest of your routing, against your real leads. Three design partners get a free health report on their own CRM, free for 90 days: what is leaking, where, and what it is worth. Apply for a place.
The free scan cannot see this one: it reads assignment rules, flows and queues only. Connected, it is checked every night.