Incident management for high-velocity teams
Understanding the 5 IT support levels
The IT team resolves issues ranging from forgotten passwords to disrupted networks. IT support levels provide structure by filtering issues by severity and recommended response.
With this approach, an agent’s experience determines which support tickets appear on their desk. New agents never have to worry about handling situations beyond their abilities. If they encounter a tricky problem, IT support tiers make the escalation process seamless.
This article will outline the five IT support levels, how they contribute to efficient problem-solving, and best practices for implementing them into your workflow.
What are the levels of IT support?
The five IT support levels represent a hierarchy designed to help IT teams prioritize technical issues. Each level corresponds to distinct problem groups. Simple scenarios that users can fix themselves belong to level zero, while urgent concerns flow to level five. Agents work at a level that matches their knowledge and history.
Splitting the help desk into tiers of IT support increases the company’s organizational load. However, the ultimate result is an improved user experience and faster incident response time.
You can choose which levels make sense for your operation. Many IT teams are effective with just two or three support tiers. If you skip segmenting your IT staff, several problems can occur. One major challenge is resource inefficiency, as tickets may end up with agents who are not best equipped to handle them.
The 5 levels of IT support
Here’s a breakdown of each support level and its primary functions.
Level 0: Self-service
At level zero, users act as their own support. They find answers through company-provided resources such as FAQ pages, knowledge bases, service catalogs, how-to guides, user forums, and AI chatbots.
Giving users a way to resolve issues without interacting with people boosts efficiency, allowing your team to channel their energy toward more complicated work. Frustrated customers can settle their complaints in minutes rather than hours or days.
Well-developed incident management strategies consider severity levels when determining a response. A three-tiered arrangement is standard, with level three being the least serious. Any issue under IT level zero will also meet severity level three classification requirements.
These issues include lost passwords, outdated profiles, and basic application errors.
Level 1: Basic help desk
Agents enter the scene at IT support level one, focusing on minor problems with limited disruptive power at the lowest severity level.
To equip a level one help desk, you only need staff with minimal experience. They should be able to provide more in-depth help than self-service tools, but they’ll deal with a similar class of tickets. For example, if a user forgets their password, their first step might be to check out the company FAQs page.
If those instructions don’t help, they’ll seek further assistance. An agent can walk the user through missed steps or offer an alternate solution.
Level one support staff may also deal with minor software or hardware glitches, such as malfunctioning programs. The user probably needs to reconnect to the network or restart their device. Agents at this level need to identify and correct such hiccups quickly and should have the customer service skills to interact with stressed-out users.
Level 2: Technical support
Level two is where agents start digging into technical issues. Severity level three problems may appear in this segment but won’t represent the majority. Instead, agents focus on severity level one and two incidents that could interrupt typical workflow. They’ll respond to system outages, update errors, hardware malfunctions, and permissions flaws.
Support staff here need more expertise than basic help desk employees. Their everyday toolkit includes remote access software and time-saving aids like incident management templates. Many companies require level two analysts to obtain credentials such as a computer science degree or specific certifications.
Documentation standards become more rigid at this point as well. Issues at levels zero and one are often resolved without a written record. That’s not the case with technical queries that rise to level two. A proper incident communication plan is necessary to keep staff informed and prevent repeats.
Level 3: Expert support
Level three support is the highest in-house tier. When tickets make it this far, they invariably involve severe or extremely complicated incidents.
Sometimes, the query starts with a level two agent trained in escalation policies. When they can’t find a fast solution, they pass it to level three to protect the incident response lifecycle.
The level three support team is the right choice to handle severe problems because everyone is an expert. Joining this level means obtaining advanced degrees or certifications relevant to niche knowledge. Tasks requiring level three support include integrating software and APIs, server maintenance, and creating and updating standard operating procedures.
For example, if the server fails, level three specialists spring into action to determine the cause and restore functionality. Many issues they handle are severity level one and need immediate fix.
Level 4: External support
Many problems benefit from external solutions instead of in-house help. Level four support involves vendors and highly skilled experts outside your company.
Sometimes, external advice is necessary due to an issue’s urgency or complexity. These are severity level one and two issues you don’t have the resources to solve.
External support is also a facet of many vendor-specific problems. Vendors understand their products and have specialized knowledge you can’t access – you may not have a choice but to reach out to them. Many product and hardware warranties stipulate that repairs must come through the vendor.
Software bugs, repairs on proprietary hardware, and unusual, complicated incidents outside your team’s scope are examples of level-four tickets.
Level two and three IT staff can collaborate with vendors to find the best answers for their team’s unique situation.
Benefits of having defined IT support levels
Clearly defining and organizing IT support levels shortens the average incident response time. Tickets go to the right people; everyone understands the escalation protocols if a mistake occurs.
Increased efficiency can have a noticeable effect on cash flow due to the significant cost of downtime, which research shows can reach as high as $9,000 per minute.
Customer satisfaction also balloons when companies adopt a tiered IT approach. Clients appreciate speedy resolutions and talking to experts who understand their problems. If the IT team doesn’t sort complaints, customers might encounter an unqualified agent before discovering someone with the appropriate experience.
Best practices for implementing IT support levels
Create a solid plan when you set up your IT service tiers by following these best practices:
- Evaluate your team and rate their skill sets. Figuring out who belongs at level one is easy, but placing higher-level talent requires some thought.
- Define the workflow for every level. Don’t leave anyone guessing. Each level’s responsibilities should be unambiguous and easy to verify.
- Develop clear escalation procedures. Every agent should know the team above theirs and understand when to contact them.
- Create an incident handbook. Detail how agents should handle each issue. Guidelines will enforce regularity.
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Train staff. Perfect their customer service skills and technical knowledge. Include performance reviews to encourage improvement.
No matter how you arrange your IT help desk, continuous training is mandatory for efficient operation. Training could include conducting regular assessments, solving mock incidents, providing study materials, and helping team members obtain certifications.
Choosing the right IT support level for your business
Incorporating every major support tier is a good strategy when your company is large or highly technical. But what levels of IT support make sense for smaller teams? Your company might be okay with a self-service level, a basic help desk, and options for external help.
Determine your IT support requirements by examining the size of your team and the number of daily tickets. If you sell a SaaS product, customer inquiries and complaints will likely stream in all day. But, if you’re a small company providing a service, your needs won’t be as extensive.
Company goals and resources should impact your decision as well. Employing level three experts, for instance, gets pricey, as they may be among the highest-paid staff on the payroll. Save money by skipping level three or two and taking complications straight to an outside expert if basic help isn’t enough.
Enhance IT support with Jira Service Management
Setting up a tiered support system helps the IT team manage issues quickly. Make the process hassle-free with Jira Service Management. This product is a user-friendly ticketing and service desk software that sorts tickets into custom queues based on severity level.
With Jira Service Management, you can do the following:
- Automatically escalate tickets according to your team’s protocols.
- Build a comprehensive audit log of incidents and responses.
- Automate everyday support interactions.
- Create a custom help center for customers and employees.
Manage incidents in one place.
Jira Service Management offers reporting tools that help you track incidents and requests across all IT support levels. IT, engineering, and customer service teams can collaborate and keep track of data, no matter where they are.
Integrating Jira Service Management into your workflow enhances the effectiveness of your incident response plan. With this platform, settling requests and queries involves less friction. A smoother experience leads to happier customers, reduced downtime, and better visibility into persistent problems.
Let Jira Service Management start improving your IT support desk. Download the software today.
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