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IT help desk tiers help you streamline your support process, improve employee productivity, and serve customers and users better.
These tiers structure your support process into various levels, each with capabilities and support staff skilled to handle specific issues.
But how to decide how many support levels you need for your organization?
To help you with this, we’ll discuss different IT help desk tiers in detail In this article.
What Are IT Help Desk Tiers?
IT help desk tiers are various levels of support offered to users facing issues while using a software application or system. This multi-level IT support enables you to direct an inquiry to a relevant tier with the expertise to handle that inquiry.
Thus, you can offer the right type of support according to the needs of customers or users, instead of offering general support. This way, you can resolve queries efficiently and provide the best customer service. Common methods of offering IT support are phone, live audio/video chat, social media, or virtual troubleshooting.
IT help desk tiers are:
- Tier 0
- Tier 1
- Tier 2
- Tier 3
- Tier 4
An organization can have its own structure of help desk tiers based on business size, number of support staff, and staff expertise. Most organizations usually keep three IT support tiers while big enterprises may have five tiers to handle a large number of queries.
IT Help Desk Tiers Statistics
84% of buyers are likely to spend more due to excellent customer service.
91% of respondents in a survey agreed that help desk systems improve their productivity.
Level 0: Self-Service
In self-service or IT support level 0, an organization offers various resources and tools to empower users or customers so they can resolve common issues themselves. It solves issues like account setups, password resets, pricing details, how to enable a function, etc. Level 0 provides resources including:
- Knowledge base with informative articles, how-to guides, references, etc.
- FAQs with answers to common questions
- Service catalogs with information on a specific product or service, how to use them, and other details
- Self-service portals that users can use to log issues they face
- Forums to discuss issues with other users, share experiences, and help each other
This way, users don’t have to reach out to the customer service team each time they face an issue, including minor ones. Customers can instead access resources to get the answer and save time on both ends.
Level 1: Basic Support
In basic support or level 1 support, users or customers reach out directly to support teams when facing an issue that can’t be resolved at level 0. Issues or queries at this stage could be:
- A security incident
- Account management issues
- Maintenance tasks
- Handling updates and patches
- How to use a complex functionality of a specific tool
IT support staff at this level have the technical knowledge to be able to resolve known issues and/or assist users. They’re also skilled at communication to provide excellent services to users.
If an issue is more critical and can’t be addressed at level 1, the staff escalates it to the next level.
Level 2: Technical Support (Troubleshooting)
Technical support or level 2 support involves more complex issues, requiring expert help desk support. Issues/queries at this stage could be:
- Troubleshooting system issues
- Hardware/software malfunctions
- Errors or bugs in an application
- Access issues
- Credential issues
- Visiting the user or offering assistance virtually
- Documenting the issue in detail with the resolution
- Creating helpful guides and knowledge base articles to assist tier 1 staff
Level 2 support staff are tech experts and experienced professionals with deeper knowledge of a product or service to be able to offer in-depth technical IT support to users. However, they may or may not be developers, engineers, or product creators.
If an issue is not resolved at level 2, the support staff must escalate it to level 3.
Level 3: Expert Support
Expert support or level 3 IT support is the topmost tier that an organization offers internally. It addresses the critical issues such as:
- Code-level system/software issues
- A cyberattack
- Issues in servers or data centers
- Flaws in the app logic
- Creating knowledge base guides and articles on how to troubleshoot complex issues
- Creating documentation about an issue and its resolution
- Monitoring IT support queues to manage the smooth flow of tickets at various levels
Level 3 or tier 3 support agents are specialists in a product or service and the logic, processes, and technology behind it. They could be the product’s developers, chief architects, or engineers. They also have the highest access permissions for resources so they can inspect an issue’s root cause and provide solutions. They may rewrite the code, redesign an app, recreate the app logic, etc. to solve an issue.
If an issue is beyond the scope of Level 3, it goes to Level 4.
Level 4: External Support
An organization can outsource external support or Level 4 IT support from a third party or vendor to handle highly critical issues that Level 3 can’t fix. Issues/queries at this stage could be:
- System failures
- External hardware/software maintenance
- Network issues
- Printer issues
- Server security, performance, or functionality issues
- Vendor software support
External support could be your software vendors or third-party service providers with expertise in handling highly complex issues.
Conclusion
IT help desk support tiers provide a structure for your support team. It optimizes the support process to ensure issues are resolved efficiently to delight customers and users.
If you’re a small to medium-scale organization, you can benefit from three IT support tiers and scale it up when your business scales. If you’re an enterprise, five-tier support will be helpful in handling all issues and providing the best user experience.
