You recognize the importance of providing technical support for your customers, internal and external, but what level of information technology (IT) support does your organization need? Understanding three common levels of support will help you decide how to offer this critical service efficiently, economically, and effectively.
Level One – Initial Interactions
First level support (Help Desk) teams make the initial connection with the customer. These support personnel often have the least IT expertise and experience. They may resolve basic issues, but they use other resources to help the customer. The Help Desk team collects data on the customers’ concerns and open service tickets to elevate more serious problems to a higher level of support.
Level Two – Technical Challenges
This second level support team has a higher level of expertise and company experience. They may also contact the customer for specific details about the problem to aid them in their troubleshooting activities. The individuals on the Level Two team may know the product well, but they usually are not the engineers who designed and developed the product. Level Two support will defer to Level Three issues that require expert support service.
Level Three – Major Issues
Level Three personnel dive into the underlying reason for the customer’s concern. These individuals employ their technical expertise to locate the issue in the underlying software code or the development of a product. As developers and engineers, they can identify and fix the problem. Then they communicate the solution to the Level One or Level Two team who explain the resolution to the customer.
So, what level support do you need? Here are a few questions to consider:
- Are you inundated with customer questions and concerns? Are they complaining it takes too long for you to resolve issues?
- Do you find your internal IT experts spending too much of their time answering basic user questions?
- Have you incorporated a tiered level of support and a ticketing system for incoming issues?
As a small or midsized business, you may not have the budget to hire and develop Level One and Level Two support teams. You have an IT team of experts, but you rely on them to monitor the security and health of your IT infrastructure, and you don’t want them spending time educating customers on basic product functionality.
Consider outsourcing your support services. Managed service providers (MSP) can provide the technical support for your customers. With the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), the professionals at an MSP can help you find products to automate your Help Desk and use AI to become increasingly adept at answering customer questions.
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