Ever since being acquired for $2 billion, Mitel has claimed that the transition to a privately-owned company will hasten its growth. Roughly a year and a half following the headlining acquisition, that prediction seems to be coming to fruition.
After all, Mitel facilitates interactions between more than 70 million people each day. With so many people using their services, it should come as no surprise that there’s an uptick in the volume of users who need to reach Mitel customer service.
We decided to release a definitive guide on reaching Mitel support as quickly as possible. In this article, you’ll learn about what their customer service team has to offer, how the community can help, and the fastest ways that you can get in touch with them.
What Does Mitel Support Offer
It’s no secret that customers had a positive view on ShoreTel prior to its acquisition by Mitel, but it seems that the new management has been struggling to maintain that public perception. Reviews of the Mitel support team have steadily gotten worse since the change in ownership.
This piece actually took us longer to write since we wanted to give an honest review on what their team had to offer but couldn’t really do that due to the fact that getting in touch with a representative was the virtual equivalent of scaling Mount Everest.
When we did manage to speak to a representative, the responses were hours apart and the agent eventually just stopped responding to us without addressing our concerns. However, we at GetVoIP like to be fair so here are some potential future offerings that may come along.
Future Offerings
Following the Google Cloud partnership that Mitel announced earlier this year, it’s highly likely that customer service will be able to expand its offerings in the months to come.
For instance, it utilizes the Google AI Contact Center that the tech giant launched in mid-2018 to keep up with the volume of support tickets. It helps to ensure that their human agents don’t get overwhelmed.
While it was never meant to replace flesh-and-bone representatives, it certainly reduces the load on customer support teams. The AI can resolve the majority of incoming calls before it takes up the time of a real person.
This Google Cloud chatbot has the ability to refer to the entire knowledge base of any company that implements it. It’s highly likely that Mitel plans to leverage its existing informational resources and use it as a foundation for the AI to build on.
While all that talk of how Mitel could grow in the future is hopeful, we must stick to the reality. That’s why we’re going to take a look at some of the contemporary shortcomings of Mitel support in the next section.
Mitel Support Shortcomings
As we mentioned in the above section, there has been a visible degradation of Mitel customer service quality ever since they acquired ShoreTel. Here are some of the key shortcomings that you should consider before making your decision on which business VoIP provider to go for.
Frequent Outages
One of the main complains that Mitel customers have been posting about recently are the frequent outages in support. There are incidents where all Mitel support channels will go dark for days at a time without any prior notice nor explanation.
This can make it difficult for companies relying on Mitel products for their normal business operations to get help when they encounter a problem.
For instance, if your VoIP provider is Mitel and suddenly the entire system grinds to a halt, you would want to be able to speak to a representative immediately. While you might hope to resolve the issue immediately, you’re likely to be left wondering when you’ll hear back.
Slow Phone Support
Another issue that many customers have expressed concern over is the fact that Mitel phone support is often congested. It’s gotten to the point that callers need to wait over two hours just to speak to a representative.
We can understand that it’s difficult to keep up with everything when facilitating communication between 70 million people on a daily basis. However, hold times this sluggish are far beyond what’s considered acceptable.
Based on what we’ve seen through first-hand research along with Mitel verified customer reviews, it’s clear that Mitel support needs a big boost in funding. This could resolve their severe understaffing problem.
If you read our piece on which business VoIP provider keeps you on hold the longest then you already know that ShoreTel used to average out at under 10 minutes. That means the wait time has increased by over 12x since the Mitel acquisition
Unreliable Live Chat
If the phones are clogged up, then you might think you’ll have better luck reaching out to Mitel support through their live chat. Sadly, you’ll be met with a gloomier fate if you take this route as the live chat on their website rarely works.
In fact, its operation is so unreliable that we were unable to successfully connect to an agent despite multiple attempts. This is a significant issue since the live chat is a staple of any support department.
Even worse is the fact that there was no reason given or prior notice that would explain why the live chat wasn’t functioning as intended. We even disabled all VPNs and adblockers to ensure that there was no external reason for the malfunction but it resulted in no avail.
Disappearing Social Media Agents
With calling the Mitel support number and live chatting out of the question, most customers are forced to reach out through social media. Requesting help from Mitel via their social media channels is by far the easiest method, but it still isn’t up to par if you look at the big picture.
While we were, at long last, able to speak to a Mitel representative after reaching out on the official Twitter and Facebook accounts, we found that we’d have to wait around 12 hours in between responses.
As if that wasn’t enough, the agents tend to disappear in the middle of a case without properly resolving the issue at hand. This means that, while it’s easier to get in touch with an agent through social media, you’ll still struggle to get a resolution for the original problem.
Mandatory Follow-Ups
When you submit a ticket, you’ll often find that following up 48 hours after the initial submission is a mandatory part of the process. If you fail to do so, you won’t get a response.
There are multiple customers with verified reviews that complain about the fact that they need to manually follow up on every ticket that they submit. This is the bare minimum to get the attention of a Mitel support representative.
This is just as surprising as it is unacceptable as most VoIP providers are expected to reply to support tickets before the stated period. Users should also expect a response without any manual follow-up.
Poor Outlook
Reaching a Mitel agent, while tough, is only half the battle. Even if you manage to speak to one, the outlook for your problem still isn’t looking good. A considerable portion of the tickets that receive a response remains unresolved.
This is due to the fact that agents may not have the necessary knowledge required to fix the problem or simply stop replying to the customer after the first few responses.
Customer service departments that are difficult to get in touch with are bad enough. The fact that your issue may not even be solved after all that trouble you went through just to speak to an agent really rubs salt on the wound.
Consider the Customer Support Community
Mitel User Group, often abbreviated to MUG, is a community comprised of Mitel users, employees, and partners. There are quite a few benefits to joining MUG. First, you’ll be able to speak with technical specialists very easily.
This can come in handy if you run into a problem with a Mitel service and need to get it resolved as soon as possible. While the Mitel User Group operates independently of the company itself, familiar if you’ve seen PayPal’s community forums, it’s a great resource for fixing bugs.
Furthermore, the group even offers web-based training that can turn you into a specialist. Familiarizing yourself with the intricacies of Mitel software will help you resolve issues on your own rather than relying on the customer support department of the company.
You’ll also get access to the product documentation of various Mitel solutions which can make it far easier to diagnose a problem. Lastly, members of the MUG also get to give input that influences the development of future Mitel products and features.
Mitel’s Customer Service Phone Support
The Mitel support number is consistent regardless of your location: 800-722-1301. If you’re using one of the many Mitel Connect applications and run into a problem then you’ll want to call a different hotline though.
There are three numbers that you can use to get in contact with the Mitel Connect team if you’re in North America:
- 888-322-3822
- 646-442-3690
- 408-962-4550
If you want to get in touch with the Mitel Connect team from outside North America then you can call their UK (+44 8081 349920) or Australian (+61 800 258 533) hotlines.
Phone support, while still quite slow, is generally more reliable than the other channels that you might use to get in touch with the department. You’ll likely be waiting for quite a while, but the odds of getting a good outcome are marginally higher.
We’ve tackled the pros and cons of live chat vs phone support before and the results might surprise you.
Mitel Support via Social Media
It’s worth noting that, in addition to the Mitel support phone number, you can also get in touch with Mitel’s customer support department through social media. Any concerns that you send to their Facebook page will instantly be forwarded to their system.
The autoresponder will then tell you that you’ll receive a response from an agent within 24 hours. While this isn’t the fastest way to get in contact with the customer service team, it’s always nice to see companies with broad coverage that goes beyond emailing or calling the Mitel support number.
You can also send the Mitel team a direct message through their official Twitter account. Both channels seem rather active with multiple posts being released daily on Facebook as well as Twitter.
Mitel Support Response Time
If you need Mitel VoIP support, you’re likely in a hurry to speak with a representative so that you can resolve the problem as soon as possible and get back to normal business operations.
At GetVoIP, we understand that speed is key when talking about the customer service teams of companies. That’s why we decided to test Mitel out first-hand.
We decided to reach out to Mitel during the weekend since a good service provider will be ready to serve their customers 24/7. We got a response 14 hours after first sending a message to their Facebook page and Twitter account.
This is by no means “instant” but not too bad considering the fact that it was 1 AM in Ottawa, Mitel’s home city, and on a Saturday to boot.
Sadly, the live chat feature on the Mitel website wasn’t working when we tested it out so we can’t comment on their response time through that channel. That being said, the representative we spoke to said that they would inform their IT department of the outage.
Overall, weekend coverage by the Mitel VoIP support team is commendable but the unreliable operation of various channels and subpar response time is something to be wary of if you plan on using one of their products.
Other Online Channels
Mitel has been praised for its diverse expansion, incorporating itself into multiple channels. A good example is the official YouTube channel that has nearly a thousand videos, most of which are tutorials.
While it’s not exactly live support, these videos can help some users resolve their problems. However, comments are disabled on their videos so you won’t be able to ask any questions through YouTube.
At the end of each video, a link to learn.mitel.com is provided. This page serves as an extensive archive of all Mitel’s educational videos. The videos are grouped into sets based on the model, product, or language covered which helps users find relevant resources without hassle.
Is Mitel Support Worth The Cost?
The cheapest plan on Mitel is the “Essentials” plan. It costs $20.99/month for each user that you add. Is the customer service good enough to justify that price?
If you look at the Mitel’s live customer service alone then that’d probably be a stern no. However, there’s a reasonable amount of online resources that can help you resolve problems on your own. If you don’t mind the DIY doctrine then Mitel may still be a viable option.
We’ve noted the importance of self-service, and it seems as though Mitel agrees with us on that matter. However, it’s unclear whether that’s due to preference or simple lack of choice resulting from their understaffed department.
The combination of video tutorials and the community makes it easier for Mitel users to solve problems on their own. This takes some load off the visibly overwhelmed representatives.
To learn more about some of the other top VoIP providers be sure to check out the official GetVoIP buyer’s guide.
