UNDERSTANDING SUPPORT LEVELS

ENTERPRISE PRODUCT SUPPORT

Building effective practices

February 21, 2010

Haroon Mansoori
Thinker – Enterprise IT & Technology

© 2010-2011.
 L0 – Level 0 Tags: Customer Service, Self Help, Self Support, Self Service
Common Definition: Customers, particularly of technical products, prefer a single and accessible point of contact to resolve their product- and usage-related queries. Post-
sale customer support is so vital a function when it comes to selling technical products, that superior support can spell the difference between one product and another.
Effective customer support is a key to increased sales volumes, competent service delivery processes and determines the level of customer satisfaction.
L0 – Type 1 (consumer support) L0 – Type 2 (product support)
The type 1 typically applies to non-software product companies. The second type of level 0 support, particularly for product companies, are being considered as agent-
Customer support consultants are available 24x7 to customers calling less self-service portals where customers can search for resolutions get their basic queries answered
in to the Service Desk. Calls may be logged by telephone, email or the or find relevant information. In some cases, the customer can directly log case online which reaches
web and technical support representatives use a combination of to the level 1. The level 0 support is seen as:
engineering and customer interaction skills to resolve problems
satisfactorily. Their performance can be monitored by customers  Online Support Forum
remotely, ensuring transparency. Service delivery parameters are set  Online Knowledgebase
by the client and executed to benchmarks of quality and response  Online Help Manuals
times. The basic queries addressed through this level have been:  Online Blogs/ Wikis
 Bugs database search
1. Customer verification and entitlement/eligibility validation
2. Case/Incident logging Self-service is now considered as a primary communication channel. Some vendors incentivize their
3. Customer follow-ups customers to use this channel and increase deflection rate from level 1 & level 2 to Level 0. The
4. Issue routing and customer response vendors have found cost benefits from 30% to 60%.
Industry Verticals Business Verticals
 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)
 Internet Service Providers (ISPs)  IT-enabled toys, games and products
 Wireless Vendors  Logistics
 Application Service Providers (ASPs)  Hospitality
 Independent Software Publishers  Real Estate
 Consultants, Integrators  Insurance
 Value Added Resellers (VARs), Value Added Dealers (VADs)  Banking and Finance
 Aerospace and Defense
eServices
 Product Diagnostic/ Self-Healing
o Product Diagnostics  Multi-channel Assisted Services  Knowledge Base Management
o Tools and utilities for problem recovery o Voice o Knowledge Base Article generation
o Update pull from hosted solution KB o Email o Technical Publication
o Interactive menu o Web o Search capability
 Problem Diagnosis o Chat o Integration with Support Portal
o Health check routines  Assisted Self-Help  Collaborative Co-authoring
o Diagnostic Tools/Utilities o Web / tool based diagnostics o Wikis
o Error IDs o Pro-active multi-channel support o Blogs
o Guided navigation o Online Community
o Community / Blog search results
availability
 L1 – Level 1 Tags: Customer Support, First line support, front-end support, helpdesk, Tier 1
Common Definition: Initial level of support to resolve basic technical issues. Customer support specialists in this group typically handle straightforward and simple problems
while possibly using some kind of knowledge management tool. Personnel at this level have a basic to general understanding of the product or service and may not always
contain the competency required for solving complex issues. The goal for this group is to handle 70%-80% of the user problems before finding it necessary to escalate the
issue to a higher level.

Level 1 is usually first line of defense and represents the organization that either fields the call or event that comes in via multiple channels (Phone, Monitoring Platform,
Email, Web Forms, etc.). This level tries to perform a quick assessment and do what they can with the help of documented processes for dealing with the Product, Service,
Asset, etc. in question. Common examples of L1 teams include Help Desk and Network Operations Center (NOC).

Typical Activities
 Be a first point of technical support contact
 Verify customer entitlement; gather the customer’s information, environment,
applications, third-party applications, service packs, etc.
 Determine the customer’s issue by analyzing the symptoms and figuring out the
underlying problem
 Identify and understand what the customer is trying to accomplish
 Identification of incidents through classification/ categorization
 Begin sorting through the possible solutions available
 Diagnosis & basic troubleshooting
 Provide resolution based on documented processes and procedures
 Prepare for case/call escalation

L2 – Level 2 Tags: Technical Support, Tier 2, Line 2

Common Definition: This is a more in-depth technical support level than Level 1 containing experienced and more knowledgeable personnel on a particular product or
service. It denotes following advanced technical troubleshooting and analysis methods. Technicians in this realm of knowledge are responsible for assisting Level 1 personnel
solve basic technical problems and for investigating elevated issues by confirming the validity of the problem and seeking for known solutions related to these more complex
issues.

Prior to the troubleshooting process, it is important that the technician review the work order to see what has already been accomplished by the Level 1 technician and how
long the technician has been working with the particular customer. If a problem is new and/or personnel from Level 2 group cannot determine a solution, they are responsible
for raising this issue to the Level 3 technical support group.

In addition, many companies may specify that certain troubleshooting solutions be performed by this level to help ensure the intricacies of a challenging issue are solved by
providing experienced and knowledgeable technicians. This may include, but is not limited to onsite installations or replacements of various hardware components, software
repair, diagnostic testing, and the utilization of remote control tools (such as WebEx, live meetings, telnet, etc) used to take over the user’s machine for the sole purpose of
troubleshooting and finding a solution to the problem.
Typical Activities
 Problem Diagnosis
 Problem Isolation
 Application of broad product knowledge for troubleshooting
 Escalation management
 Updating knowledge database and creating new resolution scripts
 L3 – Level 3 Tags: Escalation Support, Tier 3, Back-end Support, High-end Support, Advanced Support
Common Definition: This is the highest level of support in a three-tiered technical support model responsible for handling the most difficult or advanced problems. It denotes
following expert level troubleshooting and analysis methods. These individuals are experts in their fields and are responsible for not only assisting both Level 1 and Level 2
personnel, but also with the research and development of solutions to new or unknown issues.

The Level 3 technicians have the same responsibility as Level 2 technicians in reviewing the work order and assessing the time already spent with the customer so that the work
is prioritized and time management is sufficiently utilized. If it is at all possible, the technician will work to solve the problem with the customer as it may become apparent that
the Level 1 and/or Level 2 technicians simply failed to discover the proper solution. Upon encountering new problems; however, Level 3 personnel must first determine whether
or not to solve the problem and may require the customer’s contact information so that the technician can have adequate time to troubleshoot the issue and find a solution.

In some instances, an issue may be so problematic to the point where the product cannot be salvaged and must be replaced. Such extreme problems are sent to Level 4 for in-
depth analysis by this group. If it is determined that a problem can be solved, this group is responsible for designing and developing 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.
Typical Activities
 Tracking escalation status and ownership
 Managing access to code base and laboratory
 Managing support and engineering escalation response time, etc.
 Addressing product or environment critical issues
 Problem simulation /triage
 Providing hot patches/workarounds
 Identifying/suggesting fixes/patches, etc.

L4 – Level 4 Tags: Engineering Support, Tier 4, Specialist Support

Common Definition: While not universally used, a Level 4 support often represents an escalation point beyond the organization. This is generally a hardware or software
vendor. Within a corporate incident management system it is important to continue to track incidents even when they are being actioned by a vendor and the SLA may have
specific provision for this.

While leading companies today not only support existing products using available resources, but also continuously add new features, for added revenue realization from the
products and the existing customers. Level 4 is also synonymous with engineering sustenance and/or specialist support. These groups provide specialist and high-end
expertise looking into cases escalated beyond Level 3. This group follows independent troubleshooting methods and coordinates with product engineering/development
teams. This group has full access to product codes and kernel cores. This group may suggest bug fixes and remedial methods - both for short term and long term resolutions.
Typical Activities
 Bug Fixation and Sustenance
 Configuration Management
 Black-box and white-box Testing
 Version and Release Management
 Simulation/ replication through mission critical environment

Quick Summary
Levels/ Deails Level 1
Tags Customer Support
People Scalable operations with skilled
and experienced multi-lingual
teams
Infrastructure State-of-art voice and data
infrastructure with multiple
redundancies
Competency In-house expertise with
frameworks for most
technologies and domains
Processes Performance management and
agent productivity enabled
processes; ITIL, SEI-CMMi, COPC,
Six Sigma compliant processes
Channels Voice, electronic and web-based
support
Level 2
Technical Support
Qualified engineers equipped
with customer interaction skills
State-of- art technology and
communications infrastructure
Experience across products,
industry-standard platforms and
operating systems
Performance management and
agent productivity enabled
processes
Voice, electronic and web-based
support
Level 3
Escalation Support
Product engineering experts
adept at all levels of technology
and problem complexity
Technology and communication
infrastructure that enables case
simulation and resolution
Experts across various industry
verticals, platforms and OS
Escalation support mechanism to
engage higher level teams
Live Chat, voice, electronic and
remote support
Level 4
Engineering Support
Scalable large talent pool with
technology expertise
Advanced infrastructure with
stringent quality checks
In-house deep domain
competency across industry
verticals
Proven, mature distributed
development and engineering
processes
Voice, electronic and remote
support