When something about orders or purchased products doesn't work, customers want quick support. The first point of contact here is First Level Support. But what exactly does he do and what can you earn in this area? We have summarized all important information for you here.
Definition: What is first level support?
In order to help users and customers with problems, companies rely on so-called helpdesks. Help desks are used in particular by Software and hardware companies used for customer problems. But also internal to the company For example, IT departments run help desks to assist employees with problems. They are usually divided into three different levels of support — the first level is the First Level Support. He is the first point of contact or”Single point of contact“, when users have difficulties with orders, software, or hardware such as laptops or smartphones and need assistance.
First level support employees record and process support requests as a first step. The aim is to solve as many problems as quickly as possible and to differentiate simple inquiries from more serious problems.
What are the levels of support?
In addition to first level support, there are often two other levels of support:
The levels in the help desk work according to a level system and have various tasks:
All incoming concerns first reach First Level Support. First Level Supporters solve simple queries themselves — problems that are beyond their knowledge are forwarded to Second Level Support. If cases are so complex that they cannot be solved there, then the Third Level Support Team takes over.
What are the tasks of First Level Support?
As the first point of contact in the support process, employees in First Level Support have different areas of responsibility:
- you record customer data and all details about the incoming inquiries and create a “ticket” for them.
- you categorizing the queries: Can they solve them or do they have to pass them on to higher support levels?
- You edit simple technical questions independently and analyze them using internal wikis, for example.
- you stating Tell users about the problem and guide them through the solution steps.
- When they report issues to Second Level Support, they describe the issue in detail in the ticket.
- you documenting the support request in the customer database.
The tasks show: Contact with customers is part of the daily business of first-level supporters. The inquiries go over website forms, by email, telephone, Chat or even via chatbots one with them.
Typical problems that First Level Support solves itself include resetting passwords or granting access authorizations.
How much do you earn in First Level Support?
As in any professional field, the salary in First Level Support depends on how much experience and what qualifications employees have. Loud Glassdoor The average annual salary in First Level Support in Germany is 39,000€ gross. Higher salaries are around 46,000€.
These are the benefits of First Level Support
Every day, companies receive a variety of support requests — and customers expect to be helped quickly. In view of this, a good customer support decisively and also influences customer satisfaction. First-level support plays an important role here for various reasons:
- Many technical difficulties or problems arise again and again. By solving these standard cases, First Level Support can already provide up to Handling 80 percent of ticket cases.
- By filtering these simple but frequent requests, First Level Support employees have second and third level support more time for more complex problems. You can therefore serve customers more comprehensively — a plus for customer satisfaction.
- Efficient and well-trained first level support can latency significantly reduce for users, which also leads to more satisfied customers.
- First level support quickly resolves complex problems the right experts continue — this ensures that customers can be helped directly in higher support levels.
First level support with chatbots
chatbots are on the rise in customer service. And that will happen over the next ten years, according to the market research institute Gartner continue to gain weight. Chatbots can also take on various tasks in first level support and bring some benefits with yourself:
In particular, the recurring questions tie up a lot of customer support capacity. Chatbots can standardized answers answer these questions by creating FAQs or standard inquiries as a database. You can also direct customers to support pages where they can fix their problem themselves (keyword Self-service).
- The advantage: Chatbots can answer questions at any time, so users get immediately feedback and, if necessary, can solve standard topics directly with the help of chatbots. This saves users waiting time and saves support staff capacity. Last but not least, this is how companies save expenses one.
Chatbots can also pass on more difficult cases to support staff. They can obtain the necessary information from the customer in advance and thus fill out the ticket. This process is also known as”prequalify”.
- The advantage: When employees then take over, they can continue to communicate with customers in the same chat and go straight to analyzing and solving the problem. So they can solve the case more efficient process and take more time to communicate with customers.
Here is the most important thing from the article at a glance:
- First Level Support is the first point of contact for customer questions.
- He deals with simple cases himself and forwards more complex topics to higher levels (second and third level support).
- Customer communication plays an important role in first-level support, so employees should have the appropriate skills.
- First level support saves users waiting time and creates capacity for complex cases at higher support levels. This has positive effects on customer satisfaction.
- Chatbots can take on many tasks in first level support, which the efficiency increases support and reduces costs.
