Support Availability and Service Response Times Print


The service desk serves as the primary interface between the support and customers. Its function is to record and respond to customer requests for assistance with queries or problems and the resolution of these queries/problems with respect to all services. Customer Support commences when the Service has been handed over to the Customer (Service Commencement Date) and continues to be effective until the Agreement and / or the Service(s) are cancelled. Our customer service center operates 09:00 to17:00 Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays)

IT Support Level / Function Support methodology Target Response Time

Tier 0

Self-help and user-retrieved information

Users retrieve support information from online web hosting knowledgebase, including FAQs, detailed product and technical information within web hosting software, blog posts, manuals, and search functions.

Users also use apps to access service catalogs where they can request and receive services without involving the IT staff.

Email and web forms are used to send questions and requests to upper support tiers or company personnel.

Systems online inline with our 99.9% uptime guarantee

Tier 1

Basic help desk resolution and service desk delivery

Minor Problem (Minimal Impact)

Support for basic customer issues such as solving usage problems and fulfilling service desk requests that need IT involvement.

If no solution is available, tier 1 personnel escalate incidents to a higher tier.

Lower-level technical personnel, trained to solve known problems and to fulfill service requests by following scripts.

8 Working hours to respond to call

16 Working hours to troubleshoot

Tier 2

In-depth technical support

Limited or isolated area of functional disability

Experienced and knowledgeable technicians assess issues and provide solutions for problems that cannot be handled by tier 1.

If no solution is available, tier 2 support escalates the incident to tier 3.

Support personnel with deep knowledge of the product or service, but not necessarily the engineers or programmers who designed and created the product.

4 Working Hours to respond to call

8 Working hours to troubleshoot

Tier 3

Expert product and service support

More than 50% of system functionality disabled

Access to the highest technical resources available for problem resolution or new feature creation.

Tier 3 technicians attempt to duplicate problems and define root causes, using product designs, code, or specifications.

Once a cause is identified, the company decides whether to create a new fix, depending on the cause of the problem. New fixes are documented for use by Tier 1 and Tier 2 personnel.

Tier 3 specialists are generally the most highly skilled product specialists, and may include the creators, chief architects, or engineers who created the product or service.

1 Working Hour to respond to call

2 Working Hours to troubleshoot

Tier 4

Outside support for problems not supported by the organization

Contracted support for items provided by but not directly serviced by the organization, including data center connectivity, vendor software support, machine maintenance, depot support, and other outsourced services.

Problems or requests are forwarded to tier 4 support and monitored by the organization for implementation.

Preferred vendors and business partners providing support and services for items provided by Encode.


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Venatour Sports Travel

Encode have continually surpassed themselves in developing our new website. Their patience in learning and understanding what we needed from a website to provide the best service to our customers has been beneficial on so many levels. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for intelligent solutions to their web, seo or business needs.

Lisa Cooley

Positive: Professionalism, Quality, Responsiveness, Value

Working with Neil is a dream; he's fast, efficient, responsive and full of website knowledge and advice. He won't baffle you with IT over load and will be honest about the best working solution.

Highly recommended!

Ellie Stevenson Author

Positive: Professionalism, Value

Encode and I had a very useful discussion about Wordpress and related issues at no cost to myself. He gave me some very helpful information and answered the questions I had.

I learnt quite a lot! Thank you.

Silvia Boev

Positive: Professionalism, Quality, Responsiveness, Value

I am very excited to work again with Neil. His attention to detail is second to none. I have seen his work in action in the past and he is great. I love his calm approach and his patient guidance to non-tech people like me. I would highly highly reccommend him!

Dr Fuz

Neil is the best! He has sorted out all our business emails and everything runs a great deal better now. Website issues are now a thing of the past as Neil has introduced a maintenance programme to ensure the site is always working optimally and any content changes are actioned pretty much immediately.

Highly recommended!!

H Scott-Brown

'Encode' provided my hosting and domain transfers. They were able to deal with the technicalities of the transfer in a particularly speedy manner, taking all the worry of the transfer, domain issues DNS and nameserver headaches as well as the migration. A couple of emails, and phone call meant it was done smoothly, swiftly and efficiently. All I can say is I'm really please they were recommended to me. Thank you

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