Understanding the Hierarchy of IT Helpdesk Levels

The goal for companies aiming to stand out in the market is to ensure a seamless user experience, investing in improving their relationship with customers. One aspect of the customer experience is technical support levels. These IT helpdesk levels are crucial for resolving customer issues. There are first and second-level technical support levels, and they are important tools for providing assistance to consumers.

We have already discussed what ticketing tools software is. Today, we want to talk to you about how user requests are managed at different technical support levels and how Freshworks has found a solution to manage them through a single software.

How many IT helpdesk levels are there?

From the moment your customers contact the customer service team seeking assistance, there can be different types of problems to resolve. Depending on the complexity of the problem, we can talk about:

First-level technical support
Second-level technical support

There are times when support can be provided directly by the operator involved in the customer’s request. This is the quickest way to close a support ticket, allowing the operator to save time and the team to manage fewer requests.

Other times, however, it is necessary to involve various teams within the company to resolve technical issues. In this case, we refer to first and second-level technical support. Let’s take a closer look at these technical support levels.

What Is First-Level Technical Support?

First-level technical support is provided directly by technicians with excellent product knowledge. This type of assistance comes into play when the customer service operator is unable to resolve the user’s problem, passing the request to the competent team.

At this point, the relevant office listens to the customer’s demands and calls back to provide IT helpdesk levels based on urgency and priority. In this situation, the technicians involved:

Collect data and information
Engage in customer interaction
Provide answers to resolve issues
Address simple and relatively common problems

Examples include installation and navigation issues, login difficulties with usernames and passwords, and menu navigation obstacles.

What Is Second-Level Technical Support?

Second-level technical support comes into play when first-level support does not resolve the customer’s problem. If the problem cannot be resolved at that moment, a support ticket will be opened and handled by a dedicated technician.

Technicians dedicated to second-level technical support have solid experience, deep vertical training, and extensive knowledge of the company’s internal information. Therefore, they handle more complex issue resolutions.

There are also third and fourth IT helpdesk levels. Third-level technical support involves individuals who have worked on product creation or have advanced training. On the other hand, when referring to fourth-level technical support, it means involving technicians external to the company structure. In any case, these are two types of technical support that are much less common than the first and second levels.