Tier 1 Help Desk: A Quick Summary
Tier 1 support is the first line of technical assistance, addressing basic user issues and requests. The goal of L1 support agents is to provide fast response times and quick resolutions, minimizing disruption to employees’ workflows and business operations.
- Team Lead: Oversees operations and ensures efficient support delivery.
- L1 Support Agents: The frontline technicians who handle basic troubleshooting and requests.
- System Administrator: Provides essential system-level support and escalates complex issues when necessary.
The cost for outsourcing Tier 1 support ranges from $8 – $18 per ticket, depending on the level of activities covered and the complexity of the supported IT environment. Use our free online calculator to estimate your costs based on your specific needs.
Mille Solutions offers assistance to both IT and non-IT businesses in handling Tier 1 help desk requests by implementing established IT Service Management (ITSM) processes and adhering to ITIL best practices.
Table of Contents
What You Get with IT Support Services
User account and license management
- Granting and revoking access to folders, services, and data.
- Resetting expired and forgotten passwords.
- Managing software licenses and addressing activation errors.
Digital workplace management
- Digital workplace setup and user onboarding.
- Installing and configuring user applications.
- User offboarding.
Network and application support
- Monitoring the performance of applications and networks.
- Acting to restore failed services as quickly as possible.
- Troubleshooting common user issues with applications and networks (e.g., VPN connectivity, known software bugs).
Peripheral support
- Assisting users with connecting and setting up printers, scanners, and other equipment.
- Installing and updating drivers.
Ticket management
- Registering, triaging, and responding to incidents reported by users or raised by monitoring tools.
- Collecting information about an incident to analyze the root cause.
Knowledge management
- Creating and upkeeping a knowledge base of internal and public user support articles and FAQs.
Level 1 Help Desk Setup Plan
When establishing tier one of IT help desk support for employees, we factor in the maturity of your company’s IT infrastructure and IT landscape complexity. When setting up the support for customers, we take into account the complexity of products or services the help desk will deal with.
Mille Solutions outlines the following general setup steps for both options:
1:Planning
- Define the users to provide support to.
- Define the scope of workload, including the types of issues (e.g., software usage issues, service description inquiries) your help desk needs to process, the estimated number of monthly requests, and the size of the support team.
- Identify the goals of your help desk (increasing user support cost-effectiveness, improving CSAT and user adoption rate, etc.).
- Calculate the budget and create a risk management plan.
2. Tier 1 help desk
3.1. If Tier 1 help desk is done in-house
Hiring and training staff
Duration: 1-3 months
- Define the qualifications a help desk manager and L1 agents need to possess according to your user support needs.
- Conduct onboarding training with hired staff to get them familiar with your company’s organizational structure and products or services you provide.
Ticket management software selection and customization
Duration: from 1 week (for ready-made software)
- Choose between a free and functionally limited ready-to-use ticket management software, a paid solution with extended features (e.g., omnichannel support, AI-driven chatbots), or custom software completely fitting your case.
- Perform customization (for platform-based software) and integrate it with required IT systems (e.g., CRM, ERP).