Vendor Overdue Work Order Escalator

How It Works

Once a ticket is assigned to a vendor, this recipe watches the clock. If no

response or status change comes within X business hours, it sends a follow-up.

Still nothing after Y hours? It escalates to a secondary vendor or PM supervisor.

The resident gets transparent updates at every step — including "still waiting on

the vendor" when that's the truth.

What You Get

• Auto-follow-up with vendors after configurable stall window
• Escalation to secondary vendor list or PM supervisor
• Resident updates with realistic ETAs (even "still pending")
• Anti-spam limits: bounded follow-up frequency
• Full audit log of every follow-up touch
• Special handling for parts backorders, phone-only vendors, and scope disputes

Setup Steps

1. Connect your ticketing system, SMS/email, and vendor contacts
2. Set stall detection windows per severity (e.g., Emergency: 2h, Urgent: 8h, Routine: 24h)
3. Define your secondary vendor list per trade
4. Configure anti-spam limits (max follow-ups per ticket)
5. Set resident update frequency for long-running tickets

Tips

• Some vendors only answer the phone — create a "call vendor" task instead of messaging
• For parts backorders, change ticket state and schedule resident updates every N days
• Route scope or price disputes to an approval workflow before re-scheduling
• Keep follow-up messages short and action-oriented: "Reply with ETA or available windows"
• Review stall patterns monthly to identify unreliable vendors