Salesforce Support Tiers Explained: Standard vs Premier vs Signature – Choosing the Right Level for Your Business
Why Choosing the Right Support Tier Matters
Selecting the appropriate Salesforce support tier is a strategic decision that impacts both your operational resilience and your budget. Salesforce support tiers range from basic self-service to highly personalized, white-glove service.
The difference between them can mean hours (or days) of downtime versus rapid recovery when an issue strikes. For enterprises that run mission-critical systems on Salesforce, the support level isn’t just an IT concern—it’s central to business continuity and risk management.
On the other hand, paying for more support than you need can drain resources with little return on investment. Therefore, finding the right balance is crucial for cost control and ensuring you have help when you truly need it. Read our complete guide to Salesforce Support and Success Plans.
In short, the support tier you choose should align with the importance of Salesforce to your operations. The goal is to optimize Salesforce support value: provide sufficient support to protect the business and resolve problems quickly, without overpaying for unnecessary services.
Overview of Salesforce Support Tiers
Salesforce offers three main support plans (often called “Success Plans”) to its customers.
Here’s a quick Salesforce support comparison to set the stage:
- Standard Support: Included with all Salesforce licenses by default. This is a basic support level providing access to self-help resources. You have access to the Salesforce Help Center, knowledge articles, documentation, and community forums for troubleshooting. Salesforce Standard support includes the ability to log support cases, but assistance from Salesforce technicians is limited to local business hours and non-urgent matters. There are no frills, such as dedicated contacts or proactive services. This tier is suitable for small businesses or low-risk environments where Salesforce is important but not critical to life or death every hour of the day.
- Premier Support: An upgraded support tier (typically around 20-30% of your net license costs) that offers enhanced service and faster response. Salesforce Premier support includes 24/7 access to support for critical issues, meaning if you have a major outage at 3 AM, Salesforce engineers are available. It also provides quicker initial response times on cases (we’ll detail SLAs below). Premier comes with access to experts and a range of specialized resources: for example, you receive guidance from Salesforce specialists, can schedule Expert Coaching Sessions or “accelerators” (one-on-one consultations on specific topics), and get health checks on your Salesforce org with best-practice recommendations. Training benefits are also part of Premier, including exclusive webinars and various training discounts or vouchers. Premier is often bundled with Salesforce Unlimited Edition licenses. It is designed for businesses that rely heavily on Salesforce on a day-to-day basis and require a reliable support safety net and ongoing optimization advice.
- Signature Support (Signature Success Plan): The top-tier, premium support plan offering Salesforce’s highest level of service. Salesforce Signature support provides a designated Salesforce support team and a named Customer Success Manager or Technical Account Manager (TAM) assigned to your account. You receive personalized, proactive support: Salesforce will actively monitor your systems, send you alerts about potential issues, and even assist with Key Event Management (planning and support for major events like big product launches or Black Friday traffic). Signature offers the fastest response times for any issues (with stringent SLAs for critical problems) and the most hands-on partnership – effectively a white-glove service. This plan is typically used by large enterprises or organizations in high-risk, regulated, or mission-critical environments where even a small amount of downtime or a single critical incident could have major business or financial repercussions. Signature Success Plan pricing is customized (it requires contacting Salesforce for a quote) and represents a significant investment. Therefore, it’s generally only justified when Salesforce is truly central to operations or when an organization lacks the internal capacity to handle urgent issues independently.
Learn more about Negotiating Salesforce Support Fees and Packages.
Key Differences in Value and Service Levels
All three tiers differ in the level of support and value-added services they provide.
Below are the key dimensions to consider when comparing Salesforce support tiers:
- Support Availability & Channels: Standard support is generally limited to standard business hours (typically 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, for your region) for case responses and relies on you using online help and community resources for many answers. Premier support offers 24/7 availability for critical P1 issues – you can reach Salesforce support engineers any time, day or night, if a major issue occurs. Premier also offers phone support in addition to online case submission, providing multiple channels for help. Signature support is available 24/7 for all high-priority issues, with a direct hotline to senior support staff and involvement of your designated support team. With Signature, you often have standing calls or Slack/IM channels with Salesforce during critical events. Essentially, Standard is “only in working hours,” Premier is “always on-call for emergencies,” and Signature is “always on-call, with a personal team ready.”
- Response Times (SLAs): The guaranteed response times differ drastically. Under Standard support SLAs, a high-severity “business down” case typically has a target initial response time of around 2 business days, which can be far too slow for urgent incidents. Premier support dramatically improves this: for a Severity Level 1 (critical) issue, Premier’s target initial response is typically 1 hour, and they are available to respond 24/7. Less severe issues under Premier have correspondingly faster targets than Standard (for example, a Severity 2 might target 2 hours, and lower severity cases are typically resolved within a few business hours). Signature support goes even further: the highest-priority issues have a target response time of 15 minutes or less under Signature, with Salesforce mobilizing a dedicated war-room team immediately. In other words, Signature treats your P1 problems as a top priority, Premier treats them as urgent within an hour, whereas Standard may not even look at them until possibly the next day. These SLA differences are crucial for organizations with strict uptime requirements. If you cannot afford to wait to get help, Standard support will feel insufficient. The Salesforce support comparison in SLAs alone often drives many companies to upgrade from Standard to Premier for peace of mind.
- Expertise and Guidance: With Standard support, you’re largely on your own for figuring out best practices or tricky implementations – Salesforce will fix product bugs or help with basic issues. Still, they won’t necessarily guide you on how to optimize your usage. Premier includes access to a broader pool of Salesforce experts and success resources. This can include “accelerators” or coaching sessions on topics such as implementing new features, improving adoption, conducting organizational health checks, and even reviewing up to 200 lines of custom code for issues. You also get a bit of consultative support: for instance, Premier offers annual “Success reviews” where Salesforce will go over your usage and make suggestions. Signature elevates this by providing a designated success manager and possibly a dedicated support engineer team who deeply understand your implementation. They will regularly advise on your strategy, provide roadmap insights, and essentially act as an extension of your team. Signature customers receive white-glove treatment – for example, your Customer Success Manager can advocate internally at Salesforce on your behalf, ensuring your support cases are escalated and resolved as quickly as possible, and providing you with advance notice about upcoming changes or opportunities relevant to your organization. This level of expertise is invaluable for complex Salesforce environments, but might be overkill for simpler uses.
- Proactive Services and Monitoring: Another big differentiator is the level of proactive vs reactive support. Standard support is almost entirely reactive – you encounter an issue, you file a case, and you wait for help. There’s no proactive monitoring of your Salesforce org by Salesforce at this tier. Premier support introduces some proactive elements: for example, Salesforce will perform system Health Checks, which can identify potential problems (such as governor limits nearing their thresholds, security issues, or performance bottlenecks) and advise you before those issues become incidents. They also provide optimization recommendations periodically. However, Premier still largely relies on you to reach out when something is wrong. Signature support is very proactive. With Signature, Salesforce sets up monitoring alerts on your instance for critical metrics and will often catch issues (or unusual activity) and inform you, sometimes before you notice it yourself. They also offer Key Event Management, meaning if you have a known upcoming high-stakes event (a major sale, a big user migration, etc.), the Salesforce Signature team will work with you ahead of time to perform a performance test, prepare, and have staff on standby during the event. Essentially, Signature is about preventing problems and being prepared, not just reacting to them. This can significantly reduce downtime and fire drills if your Salesforce usage is complex.
- Tools and Additional Features: All tiers have access to the basic Salesforce support portal and help docs, but higher tiers come with more tools. For example, Premier customers receive a library of best-practice guides, admin assist tools, and sometimes sandbox diagnostics that Standard customers may not have access to. Premier and Signature also typically include Developer support — assistance with issues such as API problems or debugging Apex code —. In contrast, Standard support may inform you that custom code falls outside their standard scope. Signature might even provide sandbox seeding tools or early access previews for upcoming releases to help large clients stay ahead. Another feature is training: Standard provides you with Trailhead (free online learning) and help articles, but Premier support often includes formal training credits or at least one-on-one coaching, as mentioned. The signature could include private workshops or on-site support training for your team, as per your agreement.
In summary, the higher the tier, the more comprehensive and faster the support.
Standard is “DIY with backup if needed (slowly)”, Premier is “We’ve got your back 24/7 for serious issues and will help you improve”, and Signature is “We’re your partner in keeping Salesforce running perfectly and will treat your issues as our emergency.”
Matching the Support Tier to Your Business Criticality
How do you choose the right Salesforce support tier for your business?
The decision should be driven by the criticality of Salesforce to your operations, the complexity of your Salesforce environment, and the capabilities of your in-house team.
Here are example scenarios and considerations:
- Small Business or Low-Risk Usage: If you’re a small company using Salesforce in a limited or non-critical way (for example, a simple CRM for a small sales team) and you have some in-house admin knowledge, the Standard support may be perfectly adequate. You can rely on the community and basic Salesforce support for occasional issues. The cost of upgrading might not be worth it if an issue in Salesforce wouldn’t severely impact your business for a day or two. Standard support’s slower response is a trade-off these organizations often accept to save costs. Example: A young startup with five Salesforce users might opt for Standard because any issues can typically be addressed in the morning, and they have a partner consultant on call for urgent needs.
- Mid-Sized or Growing Business: As reliance on Salesforce increases (for instance, your sales and customer service processes are all run on it), the risk of an extended outage or unresolved issue also grows. Many scaling businesses upgrade Salesforce support to Premier when they reach a point that even a few hours of CRM downtime would disrupt operations. If you operate across multiple time zones or require support outside regular business hours, Premier is a logical choice. Premier is also valuable if your team is performing extensive development or customization on Salesforce, as you’ll benefit from developer support and guidance. Example: A retail company expanding internationally uses Salesforce for e-commerce orders. They chose Premier support because they operate 24/7 and need the assurance that a critical issue at midnight will get immediate attention from Salesforce’s team. The faster response and expert guidance help their relatively small IT team manage a growing, complex system without needing to hire dozens of specialists.
- Large Enterprise or Mission-Critical Environment: If Salesforce is deeply integrated into your revenue generation, customer experience, or product delivery, any downtime can result in significant losses or service commitments. Regulated industries (finance, healthcare) and global enterprises often consider the Signature Success Plan. A signature is appropriate when you require an almost zero-downtime tolerance and a highly personalized support relationship. It’s also a fit if your organization doesn’t have a large internal Salesforce support staff—Signature’s assigned team can fill that gap as mentors and emergency responders. Example: A global financial services firm processes transactions through Salesforce and has integration with dozens of systems. They cannot afford prolonged outages or slow issue resolution due to regulatory requirements for uptime. They invest in Signature support to get a 15-minute response SLA for critical issues and proactive monitoring. The dedicated Customer Success Manager works closely with their IT department, even joining quarterly planning meetings to align Salesforce’s roadmap with the firm’s strategy. The cost of Signature is high, but for this firm, the cost of an outage or major incident is far higher, so it’s justified as insurance.
Ultimately, evaluate how sensitive your business is to Salesforce issues. If a bug in Salesforce causes inconvenience but not a disaster, Standard might be sufficient. If an outage rings alarm bells in the boardroom, consider Premier at minimum.
And if Salesforce is the lifeblood of your operations, Signature or additional high-availability measures should be considered.
You can also mix and match tiers for different organizations or products – for example, use Premier for your production organization, but Standard for a less critical sandbox or a secondary product – to optimize costs while still protecting the most vital areas.
Negotiating Support Contracts for Better ROI
Salesforce support tiers come at a significant cost, especially Premier and Signature.
The good news is that you can often negotiate support contracts to get a better deal or more value.
Here are strategies to consider:
- Leverage Your Licensing Volume: Salesforce usually charges Premier as a percentage of net license fees. If you’re signing a large license deal or renewal, you have leverage to negotiate a discount on the Premier support uplift. For instance, rather than the standard 30%, you might negotiate a lower percentage or cap the increase. Volume purchases or multi-year commitments can be used as bargaining chips: “We’ll commit to a bigger license purchase, but we want Premier support at 20% instead of 30%, or include it at no extra cost.” Salesforce sales reps often have some flexibility on support pricing when it’s tied to a bigger deal.
- Bundle Negotiations (Renewals and Upgrades): Renewal time is your best opportunity to reevaluate and negotiate support. If you’ve been on Standard and are considering Premier, express that you have concerns about cost and see if Salesforce will throw in incentives (like extra training credits or a small services package) to sweeten the upgrade. Conversely, if you’re on Premier and not fully convinced of its value, be prepared to let Salesforce know you might downgrade – this can prompt them to offer a better rate or additional benefits to keep you at Premier. Also, if you’re on the fence about Signature, sometimes Salesforce can arrange a sort of “trial period” or a stepped approach (e.g., a short-term Signature engagement for a critical period, or some Signature features at Premier pricing) to prove the value to you.
- Request Custom SLAs or Terms: The out-of-the-box SLAs we discussed are standard; however, large enterprise customers can negotiate custom support terms. For example, you could negotiate a slightly faster response time than typical Premier for certain case severities, or even negotiate penalties/credits if Salesforce fails to meet the SLA. While Salesforce doesn’t widely advertise custom SLAs, if your business is important to them (due to a large contract), they may agree to specific support guarantees beyond the standard language. This effectively provides you with some Signature-level assurance without paying for Signature, if negotiated correctly. Ensure any such promises are written into the contract or support addendum.
- Evaluate Premier vs. Signature ROI: If Signature’s cost seems too high, identify which particular benefits of Signature you truly need and see if they can be achieved through Premier, plus perhaps some internal measures or third-party help. For example, if you want a named support person who understands your system, consider requesting that Salesforce assign a consistent point of contact within Premier support (although this is not guaranteed, you can ask). Or invest in training your admin team to handle most issues, using Premier mainly for escalation. The goal is to avoid paying for extras you won’t use. Conversely, calculate the cost of downtime or major incidents for your business – this can justify the support spend. If one hour of downtime costs $ 100,000 in lost revenue, having Signature’s 15-minute response time versus Premier’s 1 hour could save a significant amount of money in an outage scenario. Building this kind of ROI case can help internally when seeking budget approval for a support upgrade, and externally when negotiating with Salesforce (they’ll see you’ve done the homework).
- Negotiation Timing and Benchmarking: Don’t wait until after you’ve signed a big Salesforce deal to address support options. Bring up support tier needs during the initial deal discussions – Salesforce may be more generous then to close the sale. Also, benchmark Salesforce support tiers against industry norms and other vendors. For example, if a competitor offers included premium support or if Salesforce has given another customer a better rate, use that information. Engaging a third-party advisor or consulting firm familiar with Salesforce contracts (like specialized licensing negotiators) can provide insight into what discounts or concessions are realistic. They can also help articulate your requirements in negotiation-speak to get the best result.
By playing the support tier choice as part of your overall Salesforce negotiation strategy, you can often either save money or gain additional value-added services.
The key is to make Salesforce understand that your goal is to get the right level of support at a fair price – and that you’re willing to adjust your contract (or even walk away from extras) if it doesn’t make economic sense.
This approach often opens the door to creative solutions, such as limited-time promotional rates or the inclusion of some Signature-like features in a Premier plan as a compromise.
Enterprise Examples of Smart Support Tier Decisions
Real-world examples can illustrate how businesses align support levels to their needs:
- Global Online Retailer (Avoiding Overkill): A global retail company operating an e-commerce platform on Salesforce Commerce Cloud initially considered Signature support due to the high stakes during the holiday shopping season. However, after analysis, they realized their in-house IT team and Salesforce partner had strong expertise and monitoring in place. They opted for Premier support instead, supplementing it with an internal 24/7 on-call rotation. During Black Friday, they leveraged Premier’s 1-hour response SLA for a few minor issues, which were resolved swiftly. They saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by not going with Signature, and Premier proved sufficient when combined with robust internal processes.
- Financial Services Firm (Preventing a Disaster): A financial services firm, using Salesforce as the backbone of its client onboarding, suffered a severe outage when a deployment went wrong. Under their Standard support, it took nearly a day to get a Salesforce support rep actively working on the issue, contributing to significant downtime. This incident was a wake-up call. They upgraded to Premier support immediately after, recognizing that with 24/7 coverage and faster escalation, they would likely have had the issue addressed within an hour or two, thereby avoiding a regulatory breach. In the next year, a similar incident occurred, but this time, the Salesforce Premier team was on a bridge call within 30 minutes at 11 PM, and service was restored quickly. The firm calculated that the Premier fee was a fraction of the losses averted by the faster response.
- Manufacturing Enterprise (White-Glove Partnership): A manufacturing enterprise company underwent a digital transformation, migrating multiple legacy systems to Salesforce. Given the complexity and the fact that factory operations were tied to Salesforce uptime, they chose the Signature Success Plan. Over the first year, their designated Customer Success Manager helped tailor Salesforce features to the company’s processes and coordinated monthly health check reports. When a major update was scheduled on Salesforce’s end, the Signature team provided proactive guidance and standby support, resulting in a smooth upgrade with zero downtime during business hours. The company’s CIO reported that having Salesforce essentially “on speed dial” gave their leadership confidence to migrate even more critical processes onto the platform, accelerating their transformation. In this case, Signature’s high cost paid off by enabling greater innovation with less risk.
These examples show that optimizing Salesforce support value is about context: the “right” tier varies.
The global retailer avoided overpaying for support by not overshooting their needs. At the same time, the financial and manufacturing firms learned that underestimating support needs can be costly and that investing in higher-tier support can protect and even enhance the business.
Common Mistakes to Avoid with Salesforce Support Tiers
When evaluating or using Salesforce support plans, be cautious of these common pitfalls:
- Underestimating Critical Needs: Don’t choose a too-low tier (to save money) if Salesforce is truly critical to your operations. It’s a mistake to assume “we’ll never need that 24/7 support” only to face a major after-hours outage with no immediate help. Align the tier to the worst-case scenario impact, not just day-to-day normal conditions.
- Overbuying Unnecessarily: Conversely, many companies get talked into Signature support or Premier plus add-ons that they don’t use. Paying for the highest tier “just in case,” when your org isn’t that complex or your team can handle a lot in-house, can waste budget. Carefully evaluate whether the extra benefits will be genuinely utilized. Salesforce support costs are significant – ensure the value justifies the expense.
- Ignoring SLA Fine Print: It’s easy to gloss over the details of the support contract. One mistake is assuming a certain response or resolution time that isn’t guaranteed. For example, even Premier’s 1-hour response doesn’t mean the issue is fixed in an hour; it means they start working on it. Also note exclusions: some Salesforce products or issues may not be covered in the same way (e.g., Standard support may not assist with custom code, or Marketing Cloud support may have its process). Read the fine print and understand exactly what you’re getting. If something critical to you is not covered (such as support for a third-party integration), negotiate it or have a backup plan in place.
- Not Utilizing Support Benefits: Many who have Premier or Signature don’t fully use what they’re paying for. This is a mistake of unrealized value. If you have Premier, take advantage of the included training sessions, health checks, and ask for expert consultations on upcoming projects. If you have a Signature account, engage regularly with your Success Manager and schedule quarterly business reviews. These tiers are pricey, so squeeze all the benefits out of them – they can significantly improve your Salesforce ROI by enhancing user adoption, system health, and preventing issues.
- No Internal Support Strategy: Another mistake is thinking, “We bought a high support tier, so we’re covered,” and neglecting internal readiness. Even with Salesforce’s help, you need clear internal processes: define who in your team contacts Salesforce and how to quickly identify a Severity 1 issue. Have runbooks for common incidents. Also, keep records of support performance – if Salesforce support consistently misses SLA targets for you, bring it to their attention or use it in negotiations.
- Set-and-Forget Mentality: Businesses evolve, and so does the criticality of systems. Perhaps two years ago, your Salesforce was a low-priority system, and Standard was sufficient; today, it handles half of your operations. A mistake is not revisiting your support tier during each renewal or major business change. You should continuously benchmark Salesforce support tiers against your current needs. Adjust up or down at renewal time based on the past year’s experience (e.g., number of incidents, growth of user base, new projects). Support isn’t one-size-fits-all forever.
Avoiding these mistakes ensures that you’re neither overpaying nor leaving yourself under-protected. It helps you get exactly what you need from Salesforce’s support, no more and no less.
Embedding the Support Tier into Your IT Governance
Once you’ve selected a support tier, treat it as a key component of your IT governance and business continuity planning.
Here’s how to integrate and govern it effectively:
- Establish Clear Processes: Define how your team engages with Salesforce support. For example, create an internal playbook that outlines the steps to take when an issue arises, including whether to triage it internally or escalate it to Salesforce. Who has the authority to open high-severity cases or call the Premier hotline? By having this in place, you can efficiently leverage your support plan when time is of the essence.
- Regular Performance Reviews: If you’re on Premier or Signature, schedule regular check-ins (quarterly or biannually) with Salesforce to review support performance. Discuss any major issues that occurred, how well the SLA was met, and any upcoming concerns. If you’re on Standard, you might still review internally how many cases you opened and their outcomes. The goal is to ensure the support tier delivers the expected value. If it’s not, document those gaps – they can justify a change in tier or be used in negotiations to improve service.
- Utilization Tracking: Keep track of how often and for what you use Salesforce support. If Premier includes 100 coaching sessions a year, but you only use 2, that’s data to consider. If you never called after-hours support, note that. On the other hand, if you find yourself raising Severity 1 cases every month, that indicates a heavy reliance. Tracking usage helps in two ways: (1) You can increase adoption of underutilized benefits by reminding your team to use them, and (2) you have concrete data to decide whether to downgrade, maintain, or upgrade your support level next cycle.
- Align with Business Continuity Plans: Your disaster recovery or business continuity plans should reflect the support tier that you have established. For example, if you have Signature support, your BCP can assume Salesforce will respond within minutes and involve them in drills for major incident simulations. If you have Standard, your BCP may require contingencies such as alternative workflows, as support may be slower. Incorporate the support response expectations into your broader incident response planning.
- Budget Re-evaluation: Include support costs in your annual IT budget review. Because support fees are often a percentage of licenses, they can grow as you expand Salesforce usage. Ensure the finance and procurement teams understand what that money is buying. It should be a conscious decision each year that “Yes, we will continue paying for Premier because… (reasons)” or “No, let’s downgrade this product’s support to Standard because it’s not critical anymore.” This governance step ensures that you’re continuously aligning costs with value.
By embedding the support tier into governance, you avoid the trap of “set it and forget it.” Instead, you actively manage it as an asset that contributes to your operational reliability.
It also positions your team to optimize Salesforce support value over time – adjusting the level of service as your business evolves and ensuring you’re getting your money’s worth.
Future Trends in Salesforce Support
Looking ahead, Salesforce (and enterprise software support in general) is evolving.
Here are a few future trends in Salesforce support that businesses should keep an eye on:
- AI-Powered Support and Proactive Assistance: Salesforce has been investing in AI (for example, the Einstein AI capabilities). We can expect AI-driven support tools to become part of the Success Plans. This might include intelligent chatbots that can handle common support queries instantly, predictive analytics that detect anomalies in your org and alert you before something breaks, or even automated issue resolution for known problems. For instance, an AI might recognize that an integration job is failing frequently and proactively open a case or suggest a fix before you even realize there’s a pattern. Such AI-enhanced support could improve response times and reduce human error, benefiting all tiers (perhaps offering more to Premier/Signature customers initially).
- Personalized, Outcome-Based Support: As businesses demand more accountability, Salesforce might shift from just time-based SLAs (response times) to outcome-based support commitments. This could mean agreements where support is tied to your business outcomes – for example, ensuring a critical sales process is always running, not just responding within a specified time frame. We might see custom support agreements that focus on uptime guarantees or even shared risk models (credits or penalties). Large enterprises may seek support that guarantees a certain level of business continuity, effectively making Salesforce a partner in success, rather than just a break-fix responder.
- Expanded Success Services: The line between “support” and “consulting” may continue to blur for top-tier plans. Signature already provides some consultative elements. In the future, Salesforce might introduce new tiers or options where you can get à la carte services – for example, a dedicated AI specialist if you’re implementing AI features, or industry-specific technical advisors. Future support tiers might be more modular, allowing companies to customize the type of specialized help they receive (e.g., security focus, development focus, etc.). This can help businesses tailor support to their particular strategy.
- Better Integration with DevOps and Monitoring Tools: We anticipate that Salesforce will integrate more seamlessly with customers’ DevOps workflows. For example, more direct hooks between your monitoring tools and Salesforce support could automatically escalate issues. Or providing customers with self-service diagnostic tools (powered by Salesforce’s backend insights) so you can resolve issues without even opening a case. Essentially, support might become more real-time and collaborative. Signature customers, in particular, may gain access to more comprehensive system dashboards or even co-monitoring, where Salesforce and your team share a unified view of performance.
- Community and Peer Support Enhancements: Salesforce’s ecosystem is huge, and we might see the Trailblazer Community and peer support become formally integrated into support plans. Perhaps future Standard support will receive stronger community-moderator support or quicker answers via the community, thanks to AI routing. Salesforce might incentivize experts in the community to assist, effectively augmenting official support. This could raise the baseline quality of Standard support by leveraging collective knowledge, while Premier/Signature continue to differentiate with official expert involvement and guaranteed SLAs.
Overall, the trend is toward more proactive, intelligent, and customer-tailored support. For customers, this is good news: it means that over time, you should receive more value and faster resolution for the same or less effort.
However, these advanced support capabilities might come at a premium or require negotiating them into your plan.
Staying informed about these trends ensures that when Salesforce rolls out new support offerings, you can consider them in your next contract negotiation or renewal to maintain a competitive edge in support.
Read more about our Salesforce Contract Negotiation Service.