Welcome to Levels of Technical Support!

After watching this video, you will be able

to: Describe the need for tiered support Recognize the different levels of
technical
support, and Identify support procedures and skills required
at each level. What is the need for tiered or leveled support? Having tiered
support has the following advantages: Strategically route issues to different
levels
of support based on the product, issue complexity, and severity. Having a timeline
and protocol for solving
issues helps the organization as it grows. For a growing organization, tiered
support
helps handle a large volume of issues effectively by using resources appropriately.
Customer satisfaction is improved by reducing
their wait time. And tiered support provides an opportunity
for training tech support professionals and gives them a chance to broaden their
skill
sets. There are five levels of technical support,
ranging from levels 0 to 4. Level 0 support is the self-service level,
where users can find help with FAQs or a knowledge base. Level 1 support is usually
basic help desk
service. Level 2 support is more in-depth troubleshooting
of issues. Level 3 support includes support specialists
and skilled engineers. And level 4 is support provided by third-party
businesses that might supply some parts of the components that are not directly
supported
by the organization. Let’s look at the levels a little closer. Level 0 contains
self-service support, like FAQs on a webpage or product documentation that users
can retrieve
online for themselves. It also includes chatbots for simple queries, Discussion
forums for help from other users,
and knowledge bases for support. The next is Level 1 support, which includes
Help Desk. Common issues may involve Support helping
Users navigate new applications and menus. Using phone, email, or social media
support,
Level 1 generally involves basic username and password issues, hardware and
software
installation, and setup issues. If unable to address the issues, Level 1 support
escalates the issue to Level 2. Level 2 support deals with harder and more
specific tasks than Level 1. They review the steps documented by Level
1 technicians and start troubleshooting issues escalated to them. They have in-
depth product knowledge, technical
skills, and excellent communication skills to help resolve issues and communicate
the
same to customers. If an issue isn’t resolved by them, customers
are escalated to the Level 3 support tier. Next is Level 3 support. Level 3
technicians are skilled specialists
and analysts with a wide range of experience and wide access to resources needed to
recreate
the issue in a lab environment. The technicians attempt to determine the root
cause of the issue and this may lead to product changes and solutions passed down
to Level
1 and 2 technicians. And the last level of support is Level 4 support,
though it exists outside the organization. It includes contracted support for
products
sourced from other manufacturers. This may consist of support for printers,
computers, software, machine maintenance, and other outsourced hardware and
software. Level 3 or Level 2 support may forward some
queries for review by Level 4 support. Now, IT Support Levels usually describe the
skills and access levels the IT support personnel have. This table shows the skills
required at each
support level. At Level 0, users can browse and retrieve
support information from the web or app-based platforms, including product details,
FAQs, technical
information, manuals, and search functions. Level 1 requires staff to have a basic
level
of technical knowledge. They are trained to resolve known problems
and fulfill service requests by following documented standard operating procedures
(SOP)
or scripts. Level 2 requires support personnel having
deep knowledge and a good understanding of the product or service. They may or may
not be the programmers or
engineers who designed and created the service or product, but they should have
adequate knowledge and
experience of the specified product or service. At level 3, Subject Matter Experts
(or SMEs)
and specialists typically have the highest level of skills and are often called
product
specialists. This group must have experience in solving
complex problems and may include the actual creators, engineers, programmers, or
chief
architects who designed and developed the product or service. And the final level,
that is, level 4, prefers
suppliers and business partners providing support and services for products or
components
that are not directly supported by an organization but are essential for customer
service. In this video, you learned that: Tiered support is needed to route
technical
support issues correctly based on product, complexity, and severity, and to improve
technical
support training and upskilling opportunities for tech support professionals.
Technical support levels range from 0 to 4,
of which levels 1, 2, and 3 are the main levels of tech support. And level 0 is a
self-service tool for customers,
while level 4 is usually provided from outside the company.