Tier 1 and Tier 2 Support Conflicts

Hi John, this can be segregated if you have a SLA within your organisation.

For example, set an interal Service Level Agreement within your support group to differentiate the level of problem for each problem reported by user thru' Helpdesk.

In my organisation, our Level 1 is the Helpdesk and Level 2 is the Support Staff (who usually solve user problem onsite) if our Helpdesk is unable to solve thru' phone.

Hence, with SLA anything that cannot be solved by Helpdesk will be channelled to Level2 support staff and of course this is stipulated by a time frame or call duration with user on phone.

In our organization (whose views I do not in any way shape or form represent), FPOC is a call center in Roseville, CA that handles most of this half of the country. What they cannot handle gets sent to local client support, at the Vancouver, WA site in my case.

I think I speak for all of us here (again as individual employees, not the company) when I say that for the most part, the call center guys have the tech support skills of a pack of rabid chimpanzees. This is not entirely their fault; they were trained that way. It can sometimes take days (or a wipe and reload) to undo what tell the users to do in 15 minutes.

They do provide a useful buffer between the users and the local technicians, however. Ideally, by the time a problem reaches us, we already have contact info, location, and the nature of the problem (or at least symptoms of the problem) spelled out for us. Their remote location tends to lead to a lack of understanding about how things work here, and that often leads to problems. It is a mixed blessing.

I think this argument really depends on the organization. On the help desk I worked before joining TechRepublic, their was no division between the call center and help desk. I worked the call center, which could be considered Tier 1 support, but we resolved over 70% of all calls without having to send a tech to the client's machine. Indeed, we only escalated calls that needed a human at the scene.

In the past, I have worked as Tier 1 support and Tier 2 support. In the company that I work for, both teams work in close proximity to one another. Yes, there are conflicts, there is no way of getting around that. Find me a company that doesn't have conflict and I'd love to work there.

Some of the ways my company tried to lessen the conflict between the two groups:

Have the Tier 1 support person work with the Tier 2 group for a couple of weeks. This person will become a better front-line troubleshooter when they come back to tier 1 support. They?ve seen the people and the people have seen them. They are not just another strange voice on the phone now. They have the knowledge of what it takes to do the hands on troubleshooting. With the right knowledge the Tier 1 support person should be able to perform a better computer ?medical triage? before escalating the issue to Tier 2.

Have the Tier 2 person spend a couple of days with the Tier 1 support group (that?s if they have never worked Tier 1 before). Let them find out what it?s like to pull teeth from a person over the phone in order to get clear information on what the problem is.

To lessen the distinction between tier 1 and 2: Tier 2 should always provide the resolution information back to Tier 1. If the problem could have been solved at the first point of contact, then provide Tier 1 with the information so that they may do so next time. If Tier 1 can perform the task, then give it to Tier 1. Have them own the problem rather than just being a call dispatcher. More than likely, that Tier 1 person is going to be promoted to Tier 2 someday. Why not treat each problem that you tackle together as a training event.

The transition between Level 1 and Level 2, should not affect the entire process of support at all reason that Both level are working for the same issue, get the user (or customer) satisfied. For what I think, conflicts between coworker in level-1 or 2 are mostly creating by human errors (lack of training, information, experience and so on..) Its also a cooperation issue, if you separate your Level-1 from your level-2 your creating a hole of knowledge sharing that could be need from a Level to another. That?s why discussion database are for, but still: You will never be in control of the situation that will happen to you but you?ll be in 100% control of how you react to these situation. The attitude between coworkers is the keys! Both of the level are in the same clan. I?m not saying that is easy but why not make the effort.!
(ps: sorry for my english I got a big french accent.!)

The Tier 1 and 2 support is a good idea only if it organized correctly. But with Tier 1 personnel being left to flop around on their own they too often try to get rid of an inquiring user the quickest way possible, rather than the most productive way, i.e. offering a complete solution to the user's needs.
With dis-organization the Tier 2 gets to be more relaxed and does not encourage referrals from Tier 1's. This way each has their day at the user's less than satisfied expense.

Recently a Tier 3 offerred me his Name and requested that I be transferred to him when a Tier 1 would dust me off. At a later date when I did ask for the Tier 3, by name, the Tier 1 was competent enough to know that a cloud would hang over him if the Tier 3 was brought into the discussion. Obviously, the Tier 1 advised he was not allowed to contact the Tier 3.
Techs at any level are great. But with lack of Management, and I stress Quality Manangement, it is a waste of Tier salary grades and user's faith inthe Tier's producing Company.

I train Tier 1 Help Desk technicians. I have invested a lot of time reviewing escalated cases in order to prevent Tier 2 from pigeonholeing our Tier 1 Techs as "entry" level techs. The key is to create criteria surrounding case types; What does Tier 2 expect Tier 1 to have troubleshot beofre escalating the case/ticket? Reading escalated case notes give Tier 1 techs a great insight as to what the Tier 2 group did in order to resolve an issue, then Tier 1 and 2 can determine if that solution is"allowed" at Tier 1 or if it should be reserved for tier 2.
This allows for Tier 2 to feed thier ego because they "gave" tier 1 a solution. Tier 1 gets an ego boost because they now have more power than they did previously.

I guess I'm at least partly a Tier 2 guy; though I mostly do development, I have to fix things when they break. We provide the Intranet, payrolls, network time clocks, etc. etc. for more than a hundred hotels.

The people who work the help desk are all pretty good. When they have something they can't solve, they come and find one of us, and we work out the problem. Also, when we need them to do something, we just go ask. It seems to work fine. We all go out drinking occasionally, too. Maybe that helps.

Organization is the key. Our Call Center/Help Desk is organized into two Support Teams of 7 technicians and a team leaders. The teams alternate morning and afternoon answering the phones. When they are not on the phones, they run tickets, do followup, visit customers, handle special projects. The supervisor/team leader of each team is Tier 2. The important point is that a technican owns a call until it is resolved. If the tech cannot answer the question, he consults his/her team leader and/or conferences in the appropriate expert (network tech or application specific expert) and stays on the line until the problem is resolved. That way the technician learns and is able to answer the next call. We resolve 60 plus percent of calls received without having to take a message and call the customer back.