This level of specificity enables the same collection of individuals to support several different services (i.e. broadband) and further optimize the use of Tier 4s subject matter experts (SME).
Escalation occurs when a problem (which has previously taken the form of a trouble ticket) is forwarded to the next higher tier. Often this process is controlled by the customer care trouble management system in use (e.g. MediaOne uses a product by Remedy). The customer care trouble management system places rules and process flow on each trouble ticket so that it must abide by a process similar to Figure 1.1. This process ensures that before a plant operations person gets a trouble ticket, it has traversed through tiers 1, 2, and 3 previously. Because of these rules, common trouble tickets are combined and unique trouble tickets become more defined as each tier attempts to correct the problem using the resources it has at its disposal. All of which makes optimum use of the resources at each tier.
Summary
A common misconception is that it is less costly to solve problems over the phone. This is only true when the problems one is attempting to solve are "phone friendly". The most efficient troubleshooting happens when problem solving and escalation are happily married. To increase ones efficiency in this area one should emphasize ways to ascertain the source of the problem as quickly as possible (i.e. continually dividing the problem in half). Problems that show a high probability of requiring a service appointment should be escalated immediately. The remaining problems could then be addressed more quickly with a higher probability of solving it over the phone.
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