In Our blog “The basics of technical support,” I have shared the definition of technical support and stressed its importance. Do you know how poor technical support can affect your business growth plan or how it can make your customers dislike your products or services?
Any company that depends heavily on technology should invest heavily in its technical support team. This facilitates resolving issues quickly and effectively, which in turn reduces the negative influence on the company and its clientele.
Today, there is a strong connection between various support levels (Level 1, Level 2, Level 3), and each has its own clear SLAs. Support is available depending on the complexity of the issue at hand. The greater the level, the higher the expertise required. In this blog, we will learn about “the basics and advance details of Level 1.”
What is level 1 Technical Support?
Tier 1 or level 1 support is the technical assistance for handling all your customer questions and tickets. Customers have the option to contact your support team by email, live chat, or via phone, and in some cases, they can even do so via social media channels.
Customers must have a good initial impression of the technical support staff when interacting with Level 1 Technical Support. These professionals are the first point of contact for consumers, and they solve simple problems and offer basic guidance for more complicated ones.
Nowadays, the primary point of contact for customer support is shifting away from chat portals towards social media or online forums. However, it’s true that many SaaS customers still prefer to communicate via email or chat, making these channels continue to see a high traffic volume.
Reporting the issue to keep things going is the first and foremost important activity in technical support service. L1 support staff does it, acknowledges the request, assigns a category to it, and tracks it until they have rectified the issue to the client’s satisfaction.
They are required to follow SOPs in order to tackle frequent customer issues such as verifying hardware and software, having trouble installing and setting up, and having problems with their login and password.
The executive in Level 1:
- Acquire information from and about customers
- Take calls from customers and respond to their concerns
- Get back to customers via email and social media
- Gather information about the amount of assistance required by conducting basic troubleshooting utilizing surveys.
- Make requests for Tier 2 support
- Sharing relevant product details.
- Resolve typical issues with things like login credentials, menu orientation, device installation, and configuration.
Tools such as Zendesk, Freshdesk, Salesforce, and Zoho can be utilized for ticket management. Hubspot has produced a comprehensive list of these tools, which may be found here.
The L1 staff must have enough training in these tools. If the request is very complicated, the L1 team will hand it over to the L2 team.
In general, the character of L1 is one that is fundamental. In contrast, heavy-duty tickets are typically closed at Level 1 in SaaS companies of a small scale, where everyone is expected to know everything.
When does L1 support give way to L2?
When the nature of tickets is complicated, the executive is unable to help the client, or the available knowledge guide does not have related answers stored. The case will be referred to a more senior support staff member (L2). As a result, they will be able to tackle increasingly complicated problems with ease.
Level 2 executives have greater experience and knowledge than their Level 1 experts. In most cases, an L2 group will consist of subject matter experts in areas like the product, network, etc.
What is the procedure for Level 1 Technical Support?
Customers contact Level 1 Technical Support, and the team responds with basic help. Typically, these are the steps involved in the process:
- Problem Detection: The first step is to request the customer to characterize the issue. The executive to pinpoint the source of the issue and devise a solution with this data in hand.
- Helping out in the beginning: The executive will offer some initial help based on the details supplied by the customer.
- If the problem is a straightforward one, like resetting a lost password, restarting the device, or double-checking the network, the support staff will be happy to help. In addition, they could include a knowledge base with tutorials that customers can use to figure out how to fix the problem on their own.
As soon as the staff fixes the problem, they will request the client for feedback.
To Sum Up
L1 Technical Support is crucial in delivering high-quality and timely technical assistance to customers. The executives help with the basic issues first and then notify the senior staff for more advanced solutions (if necessary.)
It plays an essential role in securing customer satisfaction and preserving the company’s reputation by facilitating a pleasant interaction with the company for each individual client. Moreover, it is also important to give clients the guidance they need to fully employ the benefits of the SaaS offerings.
0 Comments