Software and hardware (and technology in general) save individuals, small businesses and massive corporations copious amounts of time. It does so by automating mundane tasks, by accurately keeping track of huge amounts of data and by providing easy to use interfaces to interact with data. However, when a piece of hardware or software is broken or has bugs, it becomes a black hole of time. Many of computer monitors have been smashed by irate consumers who are sick and tired of trying to fix a problem that seems to have no origin! Technical support is essentially a specialized form of customer care that enables consumers like you and I to communicate our problems to a seasoned technician who can help us fix the problem over the phone or through instant messaging. In some cases, the technician can remotely diagnose and fix the problem through remote technical support. The immense requirement of a specialized sector to deal with technical problems led to the evolving of a technical support system. Companies may have technical support in-house (which means the manufacturer of the product handles technical queries and requests for support) or they may outsource it to a third-party that absorbs this particular part of their business.
Through the years, tech support has evolved to changing consumer behavior, customer expectations and advances in technology. Today almost every technology company has some form of tech support and consumers have come to expect technical support as their right and not just a privilege. Tech support has developed vertically into tiers (four main tiers) to ensure that the customers need is serviced accurately and promptly but also to cut costs by hiring specialist technicians only at the higher tiers. It makes no sense for a specialized hardware engineer to be sitting on the technical support floor handling calls about how to insert a floppy into a floppy drive! The tier system, therefore, serves a dual purpose: to maintain customer satisfaction by servicing all customer needs and to cut costs by servicing low-intensity technical support calls at lower, less specialized tiers.
The first tier of technical essentially tries to gather as much information from the customer as possible in order to determine whether it is a low-intensity call that need not be passed to higher tiers or whether a more experienced or knowledgeable technician needs to handle the call. The first tier is the technical support team's first line of defense of sorts against an inexperienced, confused consumer. The first tier needs to decipher what the customer is saying in layman terms, solve the problem or pass it on to the appropriate tier. The second tier of technical support is more advanced and solves more complicated technical support questions. Technicians at the second tier have it a little easier than their friends down at the first tier because at this stage, they already have a technical background about the customer's problem (thanks to the hard work of the first tier folks!). Second tier technicians are sometimes completely shielded from the customer altogether, only providing technical knowledge and support to first tier technical support. The third tier is the highest internal tier and is responsible for technical queries that are not documented or that have no known solution. The third tier technicians are essentially investigators, who try and figure out what the problem is without any background knowledge of symptoms and possible causes. Hiring third tier technicians is very expensive so companies will use them sparingly! If you are a customer and you've made it through all these tiers and the technician transfer you to a fourth tier, you better start looking for contingency plans. The fourth tier of technical support basically implies that the company you called is going to call the company that it bought goods from and go through the same process you went through! You're better off throwing your equipment or software away.
Source: http://goo.gl/d1dk5
Through the years, tech support has evolved to changing consumer behavior, customer expectations and advances in technology. Today almost every technology company has some form of tech support and consumers have come to expect technical support as their right and not just a privilege. Tech support has developed vertically into tiers (four main tiers) to ensure that the customers need is serviced accurately and promptly but also to cut costs by hiring specialist technicians only at the higher tiers. It makes no sense for a specialized hardware engineer to be sitting on the technical support floor handling calls about how to insert a floppy into a floppy drive! The tier system, therefore, serves a dual purpose: to maintain customer satisfaction by servicing all customer needs and to cut costs by servicing low-intensity technical support calls at lower, less specialized tiers.
The first tier of technical essentially tries to gather as much information from the customer as possible in order to determine whether it is a low-intensity call that need not be passed to higher tiers or whether a more experienced or knowledgeable technician needs to handle the call. The first tier is the technical support team's first line of defense of sorts against an inexperienced, confused consumer. The first tier needs to decipher what the customer is saying in layman terms, solve the problem or pass it on to the appropriate tier. The second tier of technical support is more advanced and solves more complicated technical support questions. Technicians at the second tier have it a little easier than their friends down at the first tier because at this stage, they already have a technical background about the customer's problem (thanks to the hard work of the first tier folks!). Second tier technicians are sometimes completely shielded from the customer altogether, only providing technical knowledge and support to first tier technical support. The third tier is the highest internal tier and is responsible for technical queries that are not documented or that have no known solution. The third tier technicians are essentially investigators, who try and figure out what the problem is without any background knowledge of symptoms and possible causes. Hiring third tier technicians is very expensive so companies will use them sparingly! If you are a customer and you've made it through all these tiers and the technician transfer you to a fourth tier, you better start looking for contingency plans. The fourth tier of technical support basically implies that the company you called is going to call the company that it bought goods from and go through the same process you went through! You're better off throwing your equipment or software away.
Source: http://goo.gl/d1dk5
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