Question about Support Escalation

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Mr_IT_Guy
A model citizen

Question about Support Escalation

@CarolineS@MerakiDave, @anyone at Meraki,

 

Can you give some insight as to how Meraki support escalation works? I currently have a ticket that I was trying to get support help on this morning and was unsatisfied with how the tech (not the one originally assigned to the case) handled the issue. Essentially, the message was, "I don't see what's causing the issue so there's no issue" even though I was clearly able to reproduce the issue. When I asked the tech to escalate me up, he asked for my rationale. I responded with something along the lines of "While I make no offense to your skillset, I'm having an issue you are not seeing that maybe someone above you might". He then informed me that there is no real escalation process, which I know is not true. Ultimately it was an intense phone call that resulted in me being very unhappy and telling the tech I would call back to get a different technician before  I hung up on him.

 

I have had difficulty being escalated up before. It required calls from my Meraki rep and some e-mails being sent from our IT Director before I got to a Senior Technician. Other times, I was able to be escalated with no issue. Why is this a difficult request? I know I'm not the only person to have this happen to. 

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1 Accepted Solution
RodrigoC
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

Hey @Mr_IT_Guy,

 

I'm very sorry to hear about your experience. Could you please DM me your case number so I can take a look?

 

To answer your question, there is, in fact, an escalation process but there is no 'Next Tier' Escalation team to take over the case after it's been escalated. The reason for this is that Meraki has a single tier support model and you should be on the line with a top-tier Engineer capable of tackling your problem from the moment you call in.

 

So what does escalating get you? Short answer: visibility!

 

When you request your case get escalated, from that point forward, a support manager and your sales team will be monitoring the case and making sure progress is being made as efficiently as possible. Additionally, we assign an Engineer to be your single point of contact and when appropriate, schedule a regular update cadence with you, the customer.

 

As for who gets assigned as your dedicated Engineer, we prefer to leave the case with the person that has done the most work for that particular ticket. The reason being, this Engineer is most familiar with the troubleshooting steps taken so far and will likely be the person who can come to a resolution the quickest. That being said, there are some instances where the Support Manager might opt to move the ticket to a different Engineer due to time zone conflicts, particular experience with the issue at hand, or any other circumstantial consideration. 

 

Furthermore, know that aside from requesting your case be escalated, you can always request to speak with a Manager (We are here to help and always happy to get things back on track!) or ask to speak with another Engineer to get a second opinion. 

 

I hope this information helps paint a better picture of how escalations work on our end, but please feel free to @ me with any follow-up questions you might have.

 

At Your Service,

Rodrigo Cepeda

Cisco Meraki Support Manager

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RodrigoC
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

Hey @Mr_IT_Guy,

 

I'm very sorry to hear about your experience. Could you please DM me your case number so I can take a look?

 

To answer your question, there is, in fact, an escalation process but there is no 'Next Tier' Escalation team to take over the case after it's been escalated. The reason for this is that Meraki has a single tier support model and you should be on the line with a top-tier Engineer capable of tackling your problem from the moment you call in.

 

So what does escalating get you? Short answer: visibility!

 

When you request your case get escalated, from that point forward, a support manager and your sales team will be monitoring the case and making sure progress is being made as efficiently as possible. Additionally, we assign an Engineer to be your single point of contact and when appropriate, schedule a regular update cadence with you, the customer.

 

As for who gets assigned as your dedicated Engineer, we prefer to leave the case with the person that has done the most work for that particular ticket. The reason being, this Engineer is most familiar with the troubleshooting steps taken so far and will likely be the person who can come to a resolution the quickest. That being said, there are some instances where the Support Manager might opt to move the ticket to a different Engineer due to time zone conflicts, particular experience with the issue at hand, or any other circumstantial consideration. 

 

Furthermore, know that aside from requesting your case be escalated, you can always request to speak with a Manager (We are here to help and always happy to get things back on track!) or ask to speak with another Engineer to get a second opinion. 

 

I hope this information helps paint a better picture of how escalations work on our end, but please feel free to @ me with any follow-up questions you might have.

 

At Your Service,

Rodrigo Cepeda

Cisco Meraki Support Manager

Mr_IT_Guy
A model citizen

Thanks @RodrigoC! I'll be messaging you shortly.

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PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Hi @RodrigoC.

 

There needs to be some kind of formal escalation process.

 

The majority of my support interactions have been good.  I have also had a couple that I have not been happy with.  I have also requested escalation - and been left with the feeling that it went no where and there was no effect.

 

I'm well connected on the Meraki side of things (if I do say so myself) so I can turn to other channels, but not all customers/engineers have other accessible channels like this.

 

 

Can I make some more suggestions:

* When you ring in, change the IVR is ask if this is a "Network down" emergency (like Cisco TAC).  Give priority to "network down" events.

* An escalation request should trigger an automatic review by a manager.  That manager should probably ask the customer if they would like the ticket "re-keyed" for a different engineer to look at.

* Managers should have a pool of much more experience engineers to draw on ("consultants" if you like) to seek their feedback.  These people may or may not need to get involved in the actual case.

RodrigoC
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

 

Hey @PhilipDAth,

 

I think you touch on some fantastic points and I'm going to take this chance to shamelessly highjack this thread to talk about the Meraki Support structure (in the context of the points raised) and hopefully add a little more color as to why we operate the way that we do. 

 

There needs to be some kind of formal escalation process.

 

As I mentioned in my previous response, there is absolutely an escalation process defined on our end and if you ever receive any pushback, please ask to speak to a manager. We are here to ensure everything goes swimmingly and we will make any necessary adjustments to ensure things get back on track! 

 

 

Can I make some more suggestions:

* When you ring in, change the IVR is ask if this is a "Network down" emergency (like Cisco TAC).  Give priority to "network down" events.

 

Historically speaking, here at Meraki, we do everything in our power to avoid adding 'extra steps' to anything we do... including support! We want to make our service as simple and effective as the products we sell. To us, that mean that we want to prioritize every call as if it were a network down call. In fact, if you look at our numbers for FY18 you will find that the average hold time is just over 2 minutes! Support should be fast for everyone, not just people in critical situations! 😃

 

* An escalation request should trigger an automatic review by a manager.  That manager should probably ask the customer if they would like the ticket "re-keyed" for a different engineer to look at.

To further expand on my original post, the minute you request a case be escalated, the first thing your Support Engineer will do is speak with a manager and make sure that (1) All relevant parties are brought in on the case and (2) that there are clear next steps defined and proper goals are set. As for the re-keying bit, although we might not get on the phone by default (avoiding more of those 'extra steps') if you want your case re-assigned or wish to speak with the manager taking point, all you have to do is ask and we are happy to oblige! 

 

* Managers should have a pool of much more experience engineers to draw on ("consultants" if you like) to seek their feedback.  These people may or may not need to get involved in the actual case.

So similarly to my point about how fast support should be available to everyone not just the people in critical states, the best and brightest minds of Meraki should be available to everyone, not just people who asked for their case to be escalated. We don't have a team to take escalations because we have our best and brightest front and center taking cases to make sure you don't have to escalate your case or ask for a next tier engineer to get your issue resolved. 

 

That being said, note that our Engineers are never alone when working a case. In fact, one of the reasons we are able to have all our engineers support our entire product line is because of how effectively our department communicates. One of our mantras at Meraki Support is that teamwork makes the dream work! If you ever get a chance to visit any of our offices, you will note that there is not a single cubicle or office in the entire building. We have a 100% open floor plan, because we understand that no one person has all the answers and that communication is paramount to solving problems effectively. When you open a ticket with us it's not a single engineer taking care of you, our entire department is actively working to ensure you problem gets fixed. 

 

Having said this, there is a small team of 'Meraki Wizards' at support who's main purpose is to review bug reports our engineers put together to ensure they are robustly written and contain enough information to be actionable on the developers end. However, they are some of the nicest folk here at Meraki and do a great deal of consulting with all our engineers. In other words, consulting with the veterans is not something gated by escalations, these are resources that get leveraged on every case that needs it!

 

 

I'm well connected on the Meraki side of things (if I do say so myself) so I can turn to other channels, but not all customers/engineers have other accessible channels like this.

 

I wanted to save this snippet for last, because I think I can neatly wrap up my thoughts while addressing it. If there is one thing I would like people to take away from this post is that no one should ever feel like they need to have special connections to get what they need. Here at Support we see ourselves as your allies and we want everyone to be confortable bringing things up with us. Our entire Support organization is built to make sure that whether you have a single AP, or thousands of full stack networks across the globe, you get 100% of our resources and 100% of our attention. If you ever feel we could be doing better, let us know and we are happy to kick it up a notch. 😉

 

 

I hope this help answer some of the communities questions on how meraki support opperates and please don't hesitate to keep the questions coming if there are any more left.

 

 

Cheers to all,

Rodrigo

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

With regard to having an IVR to select a "network down emergency" and the comment about the average response time being 2 minutes;

 

The longest I have waited on the phone to get an answer is 40 minutes.  5 to 10 minutes is more typical.  I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have had a sub 2-minute answer.  Maybe I have just been unlucky.

 

Looking at the average is a bit distorted.  What is the 90th (or 95th) percentile, the time in which 90% of all calls are answered?  If it is more 10 minutes you probably need to change the IVR ...

MRCUR
Kind of a big deal

@PhilipDAth The *only* times I've had to hold for a long time is when the transfer process between call centers seems to be broken. I've only encountered this around the times where the office answering is changing. This seems to happen somewhere between 7-8AM Eastern in the US where it switches from the Sydney office to the San Francisco office. Generally hanging up and calling back gets me right to someone. 

MRCUR | CMNO #12
MRCUR
Kind of a big deal

@RodrigoC How does the "priority" on cases created through Dashboard influence the support process? 

MRCUR | CMNO #12
RodrigoC
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

Hi @MRCUR,

 

The priority selected acts as a multiplier for the priority numeric value of the ticket (based primarily on time since last update). This means that tickets marked 'High' priority will receive a response before tickets marked 'low' priority, but all responses will still be within our email/dashboard SLA times; <4 hours for the initial response and  <24 hours for all subsequent responses.

 

This is why we always encourage our customers to call in whenever they are facing critical issues. Calling in will get you a response within a couple of minutes vs a couple hours with a 'high' priority Dashboard ticket.

 

- Rodrigo

MRCUR
Kind of a big deal

@RodrigoC Good to know - thank you!

MRCUR | CMNO #12
akan33
Building a reputation

I have a case opened from last October (yes, last October) with no progress at all, the ticket is being passed from one engineer to another, repeating the same basic steps every time. I have escalated to the Cisco Engineer because it is VPN integration issue with an ASA, even the Cisco engineer is showing his frustration at this point because of the lack of response from Meraki support. 

 

I have tried to get escalation multiple times, even saying that I will return the product back, but I still feel there's no a real sense of how critical the issue is for us right now, while the ASA engineer responds within the next hours with a very detailed progress or questions the Meraki engineer keeps giving us some basic checks and pointing to a KB, which we have checked thousand of times. 

 

To be honest, this is very frustrating and disappointing, nobody in Meraki is looking at these SLAs/KPIs?! 

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

One of the problems is I believe they use averages on how well things are going.  The problem is, if 50% of your customers are happy then 50% are less than happy.  I've suggested Meraki should use a 90th percentile instead.

 

Then they know that the actual KPI for the majority of their customers.

akan33
Building a reputation

But what about individual tickets, I mean, if a customer is telling you the service is breaking every now and then, and this is stopping a bigger deployment, I would assume there's someone there taking care of these escalations and assigning the proper engineer as well as following up closely this ticket. a ticket opened 8 months ago without a proper escalation process doesn't say much about this company, I could expect this support level from a start-up not from Cisco Meraki.

MRCUR
Kind of a big deal

@akan33 Have you called Support and asked to speak with a manager? 

MRCUR | CMNO #12
akan33
Building a reputation

yeah and in London he seems to be always in meetings 🙂 

 

the problem is that they don't even talk between engineers, we have to repeat the same things over and over. They have taken several captures, they keep asking for the same, it means that they are not probably uploading any information. 

RodHelpdesk
Conversationalist

akan33 and Mr_IT_Guy
Its not just you having issues getting issues resolved or escalated.

 

Sorry RodrigoC, what happens when a top-tier Engineer cant/wont fix the issue and then flat out refuses to escalate when requested.

 

5 April 18 My ticket was opened... still no resolution.
The assigned Tech provided no assistance other than paraphrasing my questions.
When asked too, would not escalate the issue.


1 May 18 So, I opened another ticket, figuring another tech would get the ticket and I would get some traction there.
Another tech was assigned; but then the tech from previous case, took over the case and requested that I keep the case in one location.
Still refused to escalate. (I just noticed that the case was closed in the last week, reopened that again, its not fixed)


Phone call to in country support got another case started... still no resolution...
Asked again for escalation... just the next guy up the chain who could not provide any more useful information.
During these calls I found out it was a known issue locally!  So nearly a month of wasted effort in problem solving.
Meraki have no fix for this.


I can still produce the issue at will and currently have some settings in place to mitigate it. (Even though the Meraki Tech said it would not make a difference)

Pointing out the SLAs mean nothing...


I've since found out that other Meraki MX users in Australia have the same issue and cannot get any traction with Support either.

 


Our licence is expiring in 10 days...
Our new routers have not arrived yet... delayed shipping. (Hint, they're not Meraki)
I hate rewarding bad behaviour, but we are now going to have to pay AU$700 just to get some more time to get the new routers in place.


So if you're in Australia, using a MX6x, using the Major telco as your ISP, you WILL have issues with upload speed and packet loss, that then fails over to 4G (if you have one) or nothing... if you dont.


Meraki have no fix for this.

akan33
Building a reputation

Completely agree, I am a big Cisco fan, what Meraki is doing with its support is definitely not good for Cisco. My ticket is opened since last end of October,  "escalated" through different ways, reseller, trying to make them escalate, etc. only last week a manager called me apologizing for how the case has been handled! there's no a good follow up, there is for simple small cases yes, but not for complex issues. I have talked to many engineers, some of them didn't even bother to register what they did, I can't understand why. I tried to escalate through the support center and I only got excuses or just ignoring the request.

aws_architect
Building a reputation

I also have couple tickets open since May , we are in August ...

 

i think should be a button on the support interface to request escalation , for exemple Atlassian have it an It works well .

 

 

Jeff_Longley
Getting noticed

I'm another UK based person frustrated by support...

 

It would seem that support wait until the very last SLA point before responding (so often 24 hours between responses) and even then their response is designed to frustrate, asking questions that have already been covered, or the classic "Raise it as a feature request"

 

forget SLA's - Move to the Net promoter Score system if you really want to know what your customers are thinking.

aws_architect
Building a reputation

Thank you Jeff_Longley , I share exactly the same experiences with you.

 

It is more confortable to know that I am not the only one being frustrated by the Support.

 

Let's hope that someone hear us.

 
Jeff_Longley
Getting noticed

oh and asking for a call to be escalated doesn't work either. I was told "I'm already working with other people, if it needs escalating, I'll escalate it."

akan33
Building a reputation

I completely agree with you and I share your pain. 

Gan
Conversationalist

I opened a TAC case and the TAC responses does not seem like he is interested to help the issue. 
He gave 2 links which did not answer the query.

In return, I researched the community and provided the link back and explained there is a beta out for the reported problem.

TAC replies that beta for it is closed and I should wait for the actual release. 
Nothing else. 

I have now requested for an escalation on the ticket, as per @RodrigoC advise. 
lets see if the TAC actually gets his manager to review the ask. 

Gan
Conversationalist

My TAC case, the engineer gave a template about acknowledging my escalation and I did not see a Manager own it up. (signs of an ailing hierarchy)

 

However, this community is good, Rodrigo responded promptly and help through. Thanks Meraki Community!. 

pranesh
Comes here often

Hi Had opened a case with meraki for solarwinds integration issue meraki engg had asked to arrange solarwinds also in call so we scheduled call and shared invite but meraki engineer never showed up and we are trying to call them and trying to pull them in call call is getting answered but from support end they are not speaking this is going 

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