Technical Support

Technical support (tech support) refers to services provided by the enterprises to assist the users of technology.

Support Levels

Tier 0 or Level 0 (Self-help) Support

Support is in the form of "wiki's" or FAQs that allow for users to access and resolve information on their own rather have to contact a local Helpdesk or Service Desk for resolution.

Tier 1 or Level 1 Support

Can also be called as first-line support, level 1 support, front-end support, support line 1 etc.

It is the initial support level responsible for basic customer issues.

Goal: To address 70% - 80% of the user problems before finding it necessary to escalate the issue to a higher level.

Personnel pre-requisites: Have to have a basic to general understanding of the product or service and may not always contain the competency required for solving complex issues.

Roles of a Tier 1 specialist

• Gather the customer’s information
• Determine the customer’s issue by analyzing the symptoms and figuring out the underlying problem (Note that when analyzing the symptoms the specialist should identify the need of the customer).
• Once the problem is identified, the specialist can begin sorting through the possible solutions available. Technical support specialists in this group typically handle straightforward and simple problems while "possibly using some kind of knowledge management tool" also known as “Known Error Database (KeDB)”.
• Log the tickets in any tool
• Track the ticket to closure

 

KeDB includes troubleshooting methods such as verifying physical layer issues, resolving username and password problems, uninstalling/reinstalling basic software applications, verification of proper hardware and software set up, and assistance with navigating around application menus.

Tier 2 or Level 2 Support

It is synonymous with level 2 support, support line 2, administrative level support etc

Goal: Advanced technical troubleshooting and analysis.

Personnel Pre-requisites: Have more in-depth technical support level than Tier 1

Roles of a Tier 2 Specialist:

•       Responsible for assisting Tier I personnel in solving basic technical problems
•       Investigating elevated issues by confirming the validity of the problem
•       Seeking for known solutions related to these more complex issues.
•       This team needs to collect information such as program name that is failed or application name or any database related details (table name, view name, package name, etc.) or API names. These details are useful for Tier 3.
•       Responsible to escalate the unsolved issues to the Tier 3 technical support group.

Prior to the troubleshooting process, the technician should

  

•        Review the work order to see what has already been accomplished by the Tier 1 technician
•       Identify from how long the technician has been working with the particular customer.
•       Prioritize the troubleshooting process and properly manage time.

 

Tier 3 or Level 3 Support

It is synonymous with level 3 support, 3rd line support, back-end support, support line 3, high-end support etc.

Goal: Expert level troubleshooting and analysis methods. It is the highest level of support in a three-tiered technical support model responsible for handling the most difficult or advanced problems.

Personnel Pre-requisites: Have more in-depth technical support level than Tier 1

Roles of a Tier 3 Specialist:

•       Assist both Tier 1 and Tier 2 personnel
•             Assist the research and development of solutions to new or unknown issues.
•       Tier 3 team can analyze the code and data using information from Tier 1 and Tier 2.
•       If it is determined that a problem can be solved, this group designs and develops one or more courses of action, evaluating each of these courses in a test case environment, and implementing the best solution to the problem.
•       Once the solution is verified, it is delivered to the customer and made available for future troubleshooting and analysis.
•       In certain instances where the product cannot be fixed and must be replaced, such extreme problems are also sent to the original developers for in-depth analysis.

Prior to the troubleshooting process, the technician should

•       Review the work order to see what has already been accomplished by the Tier 1 technician
•       Identify from how long the technician has been working with the particular customer.
•       Prioritize the troubleshooting process and properly manage time.