Chapter 1

What is a service desk? -A group of people who resolve incidents. -A single point of contact within a company for managing customer incidents and service requests. -A place where telephone calls are made, or received, in high volume. -A phone line used by people who need technical support.

A single point of contact within a company for managing customer incidents and service requests.

Which is true? -Follow the sun support means that when an analyst owns an incident, he follows that incident to its resolution, even if this requires that he work overtime. -Companies that need to provide global support but lack a large support staff may opt to have a single global service desk. -Companies who have one centralized, global service desk find it tends to be more costly than providing follow the sun support. -Typically, service desks providing follow the sun support use their own tools and have their own processes and their own data to better serve customers.

Companies that need to provide global support but lack a large support staff may opt to have a single global service desk.

A caring attitude refers to the service desk's ability to be available when customers need help and make it easy for customers to obtain help.

False

A common best practice for service desks is to discourage complaints as complaints are typically biased customer opinions and are not useful in helping service desks improve.

False

A good practice is a proven way of completing a task to produce a near optimum result and is proven over time through experience and research to work for a large number and variety of people and organizations.

False

A process engineer develops and oversees the knowledge management process.

False

It is standard practice on most service desks not to log easy-to-solve or common incidents and service requests, as this wastes valuable resources.

False

The term web center is now being used to refer to a call center that uses e-mail and the web, in addition to the phone, to communicate with customers.

False

What is the importance of a customer service value chain? -All of the above. -It demonstrates that all of the departments within a company are interdependent and must work together to deliver services to external customers. -It illustrates that whether a service desk is supporting internal or external customers that analysts must focus on providing excellent customer service. -It shows the flow of activities that should be followed by service desk analysts to provide value to all customers, whether they are internal or external.

It demonstrates that all of the departments within a company are interdependent and must work together to deliver services to external customers.

Which is true about best practice frameworks and standards? -Most frameworks and standards consider processes critical to a successful IT department, therefore, lessening the responsibility of the service desk itself. -Most process-related initiatives are handled as formal projects to ensure that all stakeholders are engaged and that desired outcomes are achieved. -Microsoft Operations Framework, the international standard for IT service management, guides organizations in improving their IT processes. -Successful IT organizations purchase tools first and then design or redesign their processes to best utilize their tools and obtain meaningful data.

Most process-related initiatives are handled as formal projects to ensure that all stakeholders are engaged and that desired outcomes are achieved.

Which of the following is true? -In order for Service Level Agreements to be effective, they should be no longer than 2 pages. Contracts and Operational Level Agreements, which are more complex, may be longer, if necessary. -Operational Level Agreements underpin Service Level Agreements by ensuring that all parties involved in meeting SLA targets understand their respective responsibilities. -Service Level Agreements are created by the service desk, given to the customer, and spell out the services the service desk will provide the customer. They do not list any customer responsibilities. -All of the above.

Operational Level Agreements underpin Service Level Agreements by ensuring that all parties involved in meeting SLA targets understand their respective responsibilities.

What is the most expensive component of a service desk? -people -technology -information -processes

People

Which is correct? -All of the above. -Service desk analysts should learn to strike all negative phrases from their vocabulary. -Satisfied customers are always loyal. -The customer is always right.

Service desk analysts should learn to strike all negative phrases from their vocabulary.

Which is true? -To be successful, IT service desks should have three levels of support. -Most IT service desks strive to resolve 50 percent of reported incidents at the first point of contact. -Taking ownership of an incident means tracking the incident to ensure that the customer is kept informed of its status, the incident is resolved and that the customer is satisfied with the resolution. -If an IT service desk analyst takes ownership of an incident, he is committing to resolving the incident within the expected timeframe.

Taking ownership of an incident means tracking the incident to ensure that the customer is kept informed of its status, the incident is resolved and that the customer is satisfied with the resolution.

A known error is a problem that has a documented root cause and a workaround.

True

Data that is organized in a meaningful way is known as information.

True

Front-line service provider positions include dispatcher, level one analyst, and level one specialist.

True

Skill refers to the service desk's ability to quickly and correctly resolve customer incidents and service requests.

True

Which term refers to the perceived worth, usefulness, or importance of a product or service to the customer? -cost -expectations -value -customer service factor

Value

A(n) ____ service desk responds to questions, distributes information, and handles incidents and service requests for its company's employees. -local -internal -external -global

internal