The importance of level 4 care on your telephone line services

In the modern world of communication, it is more important than ever that customers can always reach your business.

Disruptions to internet or phone services can prevent daily operations and your business could miss out on sales or even decrease customer satisfaction.

With a growing number of businesses using these communication services, there is more demand for engineers. Therefore, it is essential to consider which level of service supports your business in order to minimise any downtime.

What is a service care maintenance level?

Openreach is the company who owns and manages the majority of phone lines and connectivity throughout the UK. Every telephone line has a level of care as standard with Openreach, who maintain the network guarantee should a fault develop.

Each service care level has a guaranteed response and fault resolution time. Level 1 or 2 come as standard for the majority of basic lines. This means when an issue occurs, it will be 2 or 3 working days before the fault is attended to and resolved (although sometimes quicker).

If the line is used for internet services, it can result in no connection for 2 working days. If the fault develops on a Friday, it can be Monday or Tuesday before the service is repaired – a bank holiday can result in an even further delay.

What is level 4 service care?

Level 4 is the highest level of care and manages repairs within a 6-hour period on each requested phone line, regardless of weekends, bank holidays or working hours. This is a 365-day 24/7 service with the ability to log faults at any time of the day costing just £7.00 per month per line.

Sometimes for matters beyond our control such as poor weather, can have an effect on this time period. However, Datakom has the ability to escalate and fast track any fixes for lines in the event of any downtime.

Why upgrade to level 4?

As businesses invest in their communication services, Openreach technicians are more in demand. It’s important to ensure minimal disruption and ensure as little downtime as possible.

What’s at risk:

• Customer satisfaction
• Employee productivity
• Potential employee overtime costs
• Missed business
• Brand reputation

Level 4 service care offers security and peace of mind for customers, with faults being logged and resolved in a short time period. It’s always recommended that you upgrade to level 4 on any lines that you consider essential and in need of a faster level of fix service.

How do I upgrade to a higher level?

If you would like to upgrade your account to care level 4 please send us an email to billing@datakom.co.uk stating which lines you would like to add level 4 care to, and we’ll give you a call to organise the rest.

Please bear in mind that if you currently have a fault logged, we will be unable to escalate this fault fix to the new level – this will only take effect for any future faults which are logged.

If you are unsure which care level you currently have on your lines or broadband services please contact your account manager on 01656 33 44 55 and they will be able to assist. Alternatively, please see page 2 of your bill, if no service level is listed here you would be on care level 1 or 2.