Phone
(888) 816-8119Anything stopping work right now. This is the only channel answered outside business hours, and the only one that should be used for a P1.
Service commitments
What we commit to, in writing
Most providers will tell you they are responsive. This page is the version of that claim you can hold us to: when we answer, how we rank what comes in, who you escalate to, and what we need from you to make any of it work.
Hours and after-hours coverage
The question a prospect who has been let down before asks first, so it goes near the top.
Business hours
Mon to Fri, 8:00am to 6:00pm ET
All three channels below are staffed during these hours, and our initial response targets apply to tickets raised inside them.
Outside business hours
Live answer, 24 hours a day
The support line is answered by a person at any hour, including weekends and holidays. Call it for a critical incident and an engineer starts work straight away. We do not publish a numeric response target outside business hours, because staffing overnight is thinner and a number we could not reliably meet would be worth nothing to you. Coverage is the same for every managed client and does not depend on your tier.
How we rank what comes in
Every ticket gets a priority when it opens, and it can be reassessed at any point. If you think yours is ranked wrong, say so and it will be looked at again.
- P1
Critical
Initial response15 minutes, during business hoursYour organization cannot work. A system everyone depends on is down, or a security incident is active.
For example: Email is down for the whole office. The server hosting your line-of-business application is unreachable. Ransomware is spreading. Your internet connection has failed at your only site.
- P2
High
Initial responseAs set in your service agreementA department or a critical role cannot work, or something is degraded badly enough that it will become a P1 if it is left.
For example: The accounting team cannot reach the finance system on payroll day. A failing drive in a server that is still running. One executive locked out ahead of a board meeting.
- P3
Normal
Initial responseAs set in your service agreementOne person is blocked on one thing, and there is a workaround or the work can wait a little.
For example: A laptop will not connect to the printer. A user needs access to a shared folder. Outlook keeps asking for a password on one machine.
- P4
Scheduled
Initial responseAs set in your service agreementNothing is broken. This is planned work, a request, or a question, and it happens on a date you agree with us.
For example: Setting up a new starter for next month. Moving a workstation. A quote for replacement laptops. A question about your Microsoft 365 licence count.
Why these are response times, not fix times
Everything above is a commitment to start, not a promise to finish. We will not guarantee a resolution time, and you should be wary of any provider who does.
The reason is simple. How long a fix takes depends on what broke. A password reset takes two minutes. A failed server with a corrupt backup takes two days, and part of that is waiting on a hardware vendor we do not control. A provider who promises a four-hour resolution on everything is either padding every estimate or planning to argue with you about definitions later.
What we will do instead is tell you what we know as we know it. When we pick up a P1 you get an assessment, a plan, and an honest estimate. If that estimate changes, you hear it from us before you have to ask.
How to reach us, and which is fastest for what
All three land in the same ticket queue. They are not equally quick.
Requests that are not blocking anyone: a new starter, a licence, a change you want scheduled. Email creates a ticket automatically, so nothing is lost.
Chat
In-app chat during business hoursShort questions where a two-minute exchange beats a written ticket. Anything longer, the engineer will move it to a ticket so it is tracked.
Where it goes if you are not getting anywhere
You do not have to work down this list in order. Skip to the bottom whenever you think it is warranted.
- 01
The engineer who picked up
Your ticket has a named owner from the moment it opens. They work it, and they are the person you chase.
- 02
The senior engineer on duty
If the fix is outside the first engineer's depth, or a P1 is still open after an hour, a senior engineer joins the ticket. You are told when this happens. You do not re-explain the problem.
- 03
Your named service lead
For anything that has gone on too long, keeps recurring, or where you are not happy with how it is being handled. Your service lead is named at onboarding and does not change without notice.
- 04
EMTEK ownership
Any P1 open beyond four hours reaches ownership automatically, and you can escalate to that level yourself at any point without going through the steps above. Ask any engineer for the escalation contact and they will give it to you.
What we ask of you
Response targets assume these are in place. Where they are not, we will still do our best, but the clock stops being a fair measure.
Accurate contact details
Names, mobile numbers and an out-of-hours contact for whoever should be called at 2am. We keep this current at every quarterly review, but tell us sooner when someone leaves.
One authorized approver
Somebody who can approve spend and change on your behalf. Waiting on an approval nobody is empowered to give is the most common reason a ticket sits still.
Timely access
Physical access to sites and equipment rooms, and administrative access to the systems we manage. We cannot fix what we cannot reach.
The right channel
Call the support line for a P1. An email sent at 9pm is read the next business morning, and if that email was an outage, we lost the whole night.
Already a client and something is wrong?
Do not read the rest of this page. Call (888) 816-8119, or open the support page for the other routes in.