In this changing business dynamic, customer support is also changing entirely. The customer service team usually comes across queries that are as straightforward as asking about password resets or complex problems such as technical issues.
These queries usually create a waiting time for customers, making them frustrated and impacting customer service quality. This is the point where a customer-tiered support system comes in to help organize these queries.
This comprehensive guide will cover the key components of a tiered support model to solve this issue of getting so many customer tickets, uncover the benefits of this model, and what steps need to be taken to integrate this into your support system.
The tiered support model is a structured approach that helps businesses categorize customers' routine inquiries instead of treating all queries at the same level. The model categorizes the requests based on their complexity and the amount of support that is required to get them solved.
Imagine a system with multiple levels where the frontline level deals with the more simple requests. At the same time, the technical issues and specific problems are escalated to higher support tiers or senior team members with relevant expertise.
The model ensures that each query is directed to its specific route and optimizes the problem-solving process. This makes businesses solve customer issues efficiently and in a well-organized manner without compromising the quality of customer service.
The tiered structure of support model brings various benefits to the business, aiming to increase the efficiency of the customer service process. The models offer the following benefits.
The model organizes customer inquiries into different levels based on their level of complexity. This categorization of inquiries helps teams handle them efficiently without missing any requests. This makes the inquiry handling process more streamlined, and this approach also ensures that customers are getting resolution to their problems, creating an overall smooth experience.
The organization and categorization of issues lead to customer needs being resolved in a timely manner without any delays, which leads to higher customer satisfaction. With relavnt people dealing with specific issues, it gets easier for customers to get specialized assistance.
This personalized problem-solving approach also makes consumers feel valued and heard. Satisfied customers are more likely to stay loyal to the brand; thus, businesses also retain customers easily.
The model benefits customers and helps support teams work efficiently and with more focus. Frontline agents handle more straightforward customer problems by incorporating feedback while letting higher-level managers deal with complex customer issues as they have in-depth knowledge about more technical stuff.
This division of tasks among the team members does not burden the frontline team, resulting in employees being more productive and motivated to do the work.
Businesses allocate resources more efficiently after implementing multi tiered systems. Different team members dealing with relevant problems according to their expertise do not cause the time and resources wasted by an unskilled team member. The model minimizes the problem resolution time and maximizes employee productivity by optimizing business resource utilization.
The model is highly flexible and scalable according to changing business dynamics. Whenever customer demands increase and lead to more customer inquiries, businesses following a tiered system model can increase the levels of dealing with request handling.
This can be done without disrupting the business model at all. The flexibility will ensure that businesses continue to provide high-quality customer service in times of rapid growth.
Although the tiered support model serves so many benefits to the business, there are some drawbacks to the business.
Understandably, a business goes for a tiered support model when it receives an overwhelming number of customer queries. However, it cannot be ignored that most of these requests received are the basic routine queries that are to be solved by the lower-tier support team, which means they become overworked.
There are rarely any instances when the problem is too complex and intricate that i needs the involvement of higher level managers to handle the issue. Solving such repetitive queries by the lower-tier teams may cause them to become overworked and reduce efficiency.
There is limited knowledge sharing in the tiered support model, as everyone interacts with the people who are at their level, creating a silos approach. This approach gives limited opportunities for lower-tier members to interact with teams at higher levels and learn from them unless they personally seek out help to learn. This lack of knowledge sharing creates a hindrance to overall growth and development.
Companies need to promote a culture of clear accountability and transparency because there is a chance of reduced accountability while working in a tiered model support system. All team members are entirely focused on what they can solve, sometimes the frontline team feels less accountable and transfer the issue to higher support tiers. This lack of accountability can lead to delayed customer requests and lower satisfaction levels.
It is not a good approach to follow the tiered support model for companies with smaller teams when there are just a few support reps. Creating distinct tiers will be a feasible option because you need people with explicit differences in knowledge levels to create tiers. In such cases, teams may require some alternative model, such as assigning different people to deal with specific categories of issues.
There are varying levels of customer service that are covered below in detail.
Tier 0 empowers customers to solve their issues through self-service channels. This involves using chatbots, FAQs, automated emails responding to common queries, and knowledge bases. Customers can rely on these resources to support their queries. Tier 0 support is continuously updated, preventing the business support system from overloading with basic questions.
For instance, while using the mobile banking app you can quickly ask chatbot where to look for the account balance, you will not be required to call customer service team for this.
Tier 1 is when you meet the frontline support team handling simpler issues without technical support. The first tier is also very predictable, so the customer support team usually has tailor-made answers for these common and repetitive queries to avoid delays.
For example, if you are using new software for the very first time and cannot figure out how to upload files, the Tier 1 support team can help you with this as it is not a technical issue, and since the issue has some set steps, you will be answered without any delay.
Tier 2 is like calling more technical people for help, those who have deeper and broader product knowledge. They can explain more complex features and can also solve advanced issues. This next tier is not just about providing the solution but also involves diagnosing the problem.
For example, if you are a company owner facing issues in online transactions. The technical support team in tier 2 will first diagnose why the problem is taking place and then provide a solution to solve this issue.
Tier 3 is the top-level tier and comprises people working closely with product engineers and developers. These people are well-trained in fixing complex bugs and know how to update the software for specific needs.
For instance, after the launch of a new game, a gaming platform receives multiple complaints of the game crashing for almost all users. This issue is something that requires tier 3 to be involved. People and developers from tier 3 will find the bug and then resolve the issue for a smoother gaming experience for the players.
No matter what tier level user complaint belongs to, all the tier support team needs to work in close coordination to ensure that all the complaints are handled timely and customers do not face any delays that can potentially impact their experience.
Triage is used in medical contexts to prioritize patients with more critical issues. In recent years, the term has been broadly adopted for various contexts, one being the business context of customer support triage.
In a business context, customer service triage means that the customer issue that is more intricate or could impact the consumer experience should be given priority. However, there are three categories of customer support triage, which are discussed below.
This category of customer triage is for issues that require immediate help and attention. This means that the nature of the problem is critical, and it would impact the user's ability to use the product if the issue is not resolved.
Urgent issues can be caused by customers not being able to log into their accounts. The customer support team should solve these issues on an immediate basis without causing any delay.
High-priority issues are a little less critical than urgent ones; they require immediate help but can wait for resolution. They may be issues that do not need to be solved immediately but if not solved in a timely manner, they may cause the customer experience to be impacted.
The delay of high-priority issues can cause trouble for companies in the long run. For example, there can be a broken link on the website that does not require immediate resolution but is a high priority because it can influence the customer journey.
These are the issues that are not time-sensitive and can be addressed over an extended period. They can be general questions about the product or minor issues on the website that are not preventing customers from fully utilizing the products. These issues are valid and deserve attention but do not require immediate action, so they can be dealt with after dealing with high-priority issues.
The following steps need to be followed to implement the tiered model.
Before implementing a tiered support model, you must analyze your existing customer support system comprehensively. You must analyze the quantitative metrics, including the average resolution time and customer satisfaction score. It is important to gain qualitative insights from your entire team, as they will know current customer challenges and potential solutions the company needs to follow.
Define tiers in the support model to ensure effectiveness. You should create a detailed document mentioning all the tier's responsibilities and capabilities for the training.
Categorizing issues is a crucial task based on complexity, with basic queries shifting to Tier 1 and complex issues directed towards higher authority personnel.
It is extremely important to allocate resources strategically to each tier. You should evaluate people's skills and then align resources that match the support team's capabilities in that particular tier. It is also important to equip each tier with the appropriate tools required to offer assistance.
A company should provide adequate training to its customer support team in each tier to prepare its agents to deal with customers. It should also offer continuous training to these agents.
There should be a set and certain criteria by which you need to escalate issues. After escalation, a system should monitor the entire personalized support process continuously. You should collect customer feedback to improve the support model.
The following are the metrics used to measure the effectiveness of the tiered support model.
To sum it all up, it is important for a company to have a tiered model to streamline the customer query handling process. If the system is streamlined, your customer needs will be fulfilled, and you can enhance your overall customer experience. Moreover, do not miss out on JustReply if you want to boost your customer support service.
