A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Service Desk Professional, 4e Solutions 1-1

Chapter 1 Solutions

Review Questions

1. Technology is pervasive and it is being used by people of all ages, backgrounds, and
skill levels at work, at school, and at home.
2. A single point of contact within a company for managing customer incidents and
service requests.
3. How they are treated at the first point of contact.
4. False. Technical support refers to the wide range of services that enable people and
companies to continuously use the computing technology they acquired or developed
and includes a set of services known as customer support. Customer support involves
helping a customer understand and benefit from a product’s capabilities by answering
questions, solving problems, and providing training.
5. (a.) They are both customer service and support organizations and they both handle
incidents. (b.) A service desk has a broader scope of responsibilities than a help desk.
For example, it serves as the single point of contact for customers and it handles
service requests in addition to incidents.
6. ITIL is a set of best practices for IT service management.
7. An unplanned interruption to an IT service or a reduction in the quality of an IT
service.
8. Incident – a broken device (e.g., a device that broke through misuse or overuse).
Problem – a hardware defect (e.g., a defect caused during the manufacturing process).
Service request – a request to install and standard software package.
9. Resolve as many incidents as possible at level one. Make the most efficient use of
level two and level three resources.
10. People, processes, technology, and information.
11. Results that customers consider reasonable or due to them.
12. Customer expectations represent a moving target. Any level of service that companies
consistently deliver becomes the standard and going beyond that standard can be
extremely difficult and costly.
13. (1) Return business. (2) New business as a result of positive word of mouth. (3)
Customer loyalty.
14. A huge demand for support coupled with a shortage of information technology (IT)
professionals.
15. They are willing to interact with service desks via technologies other than the
telephone such as email and web-based services such as self-help, online chat, and
video demonstrations.
16. (1) Good problem-solving skills are important because customers contact the service
desk with more complex incidents. (2) Writing skills have greater importance because
analysts must interact with customers through email and chat and because they
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Service Desk Professional, 4e Solutions 1-2

contribute to the written information that customers can access via the web. (3)
Internet skills, such as the ability to use browsers, find content online, and use
Internet-based diagnostic tools such as remote control systems, are imperative because
these are the tools and techniques used to deliver support.
17. (1) Help to define standards. (2) Modify SLAs to include mobile computing policies
and procedures, particularly relating to areas such as information security
management, change management, service asset and configuration management,
request fulfillment, and access management. (3) Adopt practices such as improved
knowledge management, self-help, and the introduction of social or communal forms
of support, along with a more formalized approach to problem management.
18. It creates opportunities for (1) service desk analysts, (2) service desk team leaders and
supervisors, and (3) people who assume supporting roles in the service desk such as
people who maintain the service desk’s web site and knowledge engineers.
19. (1) Regional, in country service desks. (2) Follow the sun support. (3) One
centralized, global service desk.
20. They provide best practices that service desks can use to determine how best to use
their people, processes, technology and information.
21. Find ways to (1) reduce costs, (2) increase productivity, and (3) satisfy their
customers and (4) continuously upgrade their business, technical, soft, and self-
management skills.
22. False. Although certifications are important, certification coupled with experience is
what is most valued, along with a willingness to learn new skills and stay current.
23. Internal service desks and external service desks.
24. The linked set of activities during which value is added when serving customers.
25. The difference between how customers perceive they have been treated and how they
expect to be treated.
26. A written document that spells out the services that the service desk will provide, the
customer’s responsibilities, and how service performance is measured.
27. (1) Responsiveness (be there). (2) A caring attitude (be willing). (3) Skill (be able).
28. (1) Using data captured via their tools. (2) Customer satisfaction surveys. (3)
Monitoring.
29. Tell them what you can do.
30. No, but they are always the customer.
31. Going the extra mile (give a little something extra).
32. (1) Save them time. (2) Enhance their self-sufficiency.
33. (1) Business. (2) Technical. (3) Soft. (4) Self-management.
34. Soft and self-management skills such as listening, communication, and stress-
management skills.