Priority Routing

Not all messages are equal. A P0 escalation from PATCH about a customer-critical issue must preempt QUILL's P2 request for content feedback. Priority routing ensures that agent attention is allocated by business impact, not arrival order.

The four-tier priority system maps directly to business outcomes. P0 (Immediate): customer impact in progress, system failure, revenue at risk. SLA: acknowledged within 2 minutes, resolved or escalated within 15. P1 (Urgent): time-sensitive opportunity, approaching deadline, quality regression detected. SLA: acknowledged within 15 minutes. P2 (Standard): normal workflow, routine handoffs, scheduled deliverables. SLA: processed within 2 hours. P3 (Background): non-urgent optimizations, informational updates, metrics digests. SLA: processed within 24 hours.

Priority inflation is the silent killer. When agents mark every message P1, the system degrades to FIFO with extra metadata. We track priority distribution weekly. Target: P0 should be under 2% of messages, P1 under 15%, P2 at 55-65%, P3 at 20-30%. If P1 exceeds 25%, agents are inflating priorities and the routing system loses its discriminating power.