How the Assisted Support Process Works

When a customer has a break/fix issue for which it cannot find a solution on Microsoft’s Knowledge Base and is unwilling to use newsgroup support because the problem needs a quick resolution or is very complex, it can turn to Microsoft’s assisted support services. The process follows these steps:

Step 1. Depending on the customer’s or partner’s support program, they first call Customer Services (CS) or contact their Technical Account Manager (TAM).

If they call CS, a Customer Service Agent checks the caller’s support program membership, processes payment if the call is fee-based, classifies the case, assigns it a case number, and then routes the call to the appropriate technical support (TS) professional. Most calls go directly into a telephone queue, but occasionally a callback is scheduled for non-urgent issues.

If they call their TAM, the TAM usually helps refine the problem and provides initial troubleshooting advice. This helps determine whether a case needs to be submitted to CS or whether there might be a better solution path. The TAM may start gathering specifics of the problem and, depending on the problem and the customer’s own in-house IT expertise, may guide the customer to an existing fix. If a case needs to be submitted to CS, a TAM expedites its resolution or escalation to a higher-level TS professional. TAMs also ensure that their customers remain informed about the status of the problem until it is resolved and keep the PSS technical team informed of their customers’ changing requirements and expectations as case resolution progresses.