Vox pop: Do you get frustrated at going through level one support?

Sonia Cuff, co-founder, The Missing Chair

Where do I start? There are the over-simplified ticket submission forms that don’t allow for screenshots or room to detail what we’ve already tried. 

And the long call queue wait times, followed by 30 mins of trying to get a Level 1 tech to understand what we’ve already done, why it needs to be escalated and why the resolutions steps on their script haven’t worked and won’t work. 

Then having to follow-up days later when L2 or L3 haven’t called us back.  
Partners will only recommend vendors from which they get good support, so let us skip the L1 steps or, even better, give us a known technical support contact to deal with – not just a sales account manager. 

Andrew Charlton, chief executive, Exelerate

Yes, I do get frustrated with Level 1 support. Much of the support we need is B2B. Thankfully, the majority of our partners do not force us to navigate a strict L1, L2, L3 sequence for support. 

Why? Because we try to observe an unwritten rule: do not to raise “101” support tickets. We try our utmost to be self-sufficient. By the time a support ticket is raised, we should have already exhausted potential solutions offered by colleagues, “Dr Google” or the plethora of support forums on the web. 

Members of our respective teams are known to each other and respect that time is valuable, and all the obvious and many of the less obvious resolutions would have been explored prior to a case been logged. This allows L3 support to hone in on areas we might have overlooked or not considered quickly.

Liong Eng, chief executive, Silverfern IT

The majority of the vendors have not got this right yet. We are very frustrated with Level 1 support from vendors.

Most of them provide this service from call centres located outside Australia where communication can be a major issue. Different time zones can be another major issue, resulting in slow response to our clients. 

I believe the vendors that can respond promptly and effectively to partner requests with local L1 support teams will bring in more potential business from partners.

My recommendations are that vendors should:

1. Provide L1 support using local talent;
2. Have a dedicated L1 support line for partners only – not mixed in with the end user L1 support;
3. Take into account different time zones within Australia.