NET 201 Final Exam

In the early 1990s, help desks began to assess their efficiency and effectiveness by creating metrics and measuring customer satisfaction levels. This demonstrated their contribution to an organization's bottom line.

True

One of the reasons that the Web is having a large impact on the support industry is that it gives the service desk an alternative and less expensive way to support customers.

True

Regardless of the size of a service desk, the physical layout must facilitate efficient communication among analysts to avoid situations such as having more than one analyst working on the same incident.

True

Some service desk managers recommend that analysts take a quick look in the mirror before they answer the phone to ensure that they have a relaxed and pleasant facial expression.

True

Successful managers are able to focus on how their team or department fits into the company as a whole and how it contributes to the company's goals.

True

Technology such as knowledge management systems, network monitoring systems, and diagnostic systems enables the service desk to absorb many activities performed by other support groups. These other groups may then focus on tasks such as projects, operations activities, and maintenance activities.

True

Which is the most active (i.e., allows for interaction) type of training?

Webinars

Which is statement best describes centralized service desks?

Which is statement best describes centralized service desks?

Decision trees work well for entry level analysts and for service desk customers because they can walk through a methodical approach to solving incidents.

True

External service desks may perform pre- and post-sales support; typically internal service desks don't provide this type of service.

True

In addition to having and knowing how to use the right processes, tools, and technologies, an analyst needs a good work environment, good work habits, and a great attitude.

True

____ skills include the understanding of the importance of meeting a customer's needs.

Business

All service desks can benefit from technology.

True

A typical senior service desk manager ____.

actively promotes the value of the service desk to upper management and the entire company

If a service desk analyst is unable to resolve an incident, he or she should ____.

determine how quickly the incident needs to be resolved, escalate the incident to the correct person, and communicate to the customer when updates will be given

The "S" in SME stands for _______.

subject

First contact resolution rate refers to the percentage of incidents resolved by the service desk.

False

One of the uses of remote control and diagnostic systems by the service desk is to provide informal training to customers.

True

A(n) _______ is a proven way of completing a task to produce a near optimum result.

best practice

A(n) _______ greets callers when all service desk analysts are busy and can provide valuable information when customers are asked to wait on hold.

announcement system

When was the definition of technical support expanded to include customer support?

1980s

When did US companies begin adopting ITIL and the service desk concept, versus the traditional help desk concept?

1990s

concept, versus the traditional help desk concept?

1990s

When did customers increasingly begin to look for self-help services such FAQs and online knowledge bases?

2000s

Of the service desks surveyed by HDI, ____ percent report that the monthly number of tickets they receive is increasing.

66

According to HDI's 2012 Report, ____ percent of incidents are resolved by the person who initially received the call.

69

Which is the best example of a service request?

A user wants information about a an upcoming release

____ listening is particularly important when interacting with customers over the telephone or via the Web because they cannot see you nodding your head or making eye contact.

Active

_______ is the science of people-machine relationships that is intended to maximize productivity by reducing operator fatigue and discomfort.

Ergonomics

Companies providing global support must address the language and legal issues that come with working in an international environment; it is not so important to address technical and cultural issues.

False

Even a highly effective service desk cannot compensate for deficiencies, such as customer perception, elsewhere in the organization.

False

Good stress management skills will enable a service desk analyst to eliminate all stress.

False

Most companies now have fully proactive service desks.

False

One of the main benefits of analyzing data is to find out who is making mistakes and then take the proper corrective action.

False

Service Level Agreements are considered the most comprehensive way to fully measure service desk performance.

False

Service desks that operate 24 hours a day don't need any more security than those open during regular business hours.

False

Since the service desk typically owns all incidents, they should be held solely responsible for effective incident management.

False

The service desk typically has primary responsibility for service asset and configuration management activities.

False

The term technical center is being used increasingly to refer to a call center that uses technologies such as e-mail and the Web in addition to the telephone to communicate with its customers.

False

Which is true about knowledge and information-retrieval?

Getting ahead in the support industry requires both the ability to retrieve information and the ability to acquire knowledge.

Which is true about the consolidation of support services?

Having the service desk maintain user accounts and perform some security-related activities has reduced the time required to satisfy these requests, and enhanced customer satisfaction.

Which is true?

In a team setting, the team performs better than the individual team members alone.

In the 1980s, why did outsourcing have a profound effect on the support industry?

It forced companies to recognize and determine the real costs associated with delivering the support services needed by their customers.

Large software companies often use ____ as they hire people from countries in another part of the world.

Large software companies often use ____ as they hire people from countries in another part of the world.

_______ determines how easily the service desk can be reached by service desk staff, other employees of the company, and its customers.

Location

_______ systems enable a company to monitor calls and evaluate analyst performance or tape calls for security purposes.

Recording

____ injuries are physical symptoms caused by excessive use of the hands, wrists, and arms.

Repetitive stress

In the 1990s, which was true about world class help desks?

They resolved a large percentage of problems.

The responsibilities of a service desk trainer or training group may include providing one-on-one training, developing and delivering training programs, and looking at statistics to determine training needs of service desk staff.

True

When sitting at their desk, analysts' legs should be relaxed and feet flat on the floor or on a footrest.

True

When using an automatic call distributor (ACD), analysts should make sure they correctly use wrap-up mode, which prevents the ACD from routing a new inbound call to an analyst's extension.

True

____ is the perceived worth, usefulness, or importance of a product or service to a customer.

Value

In the 1970s, as companies focused on providing technical support, they realized the need to distinguish between ____.

construction of new systems and effective use of those systems

A(n) _______ is a measurable characteristic that must exist for something, such as a process, project, or team, to be viewed as successful.

critical success factor

An example of _______ would be posing a question or problem to a large group of people via Facebook or Twitter.

crowdsourcing

In the 1970s, vendors tried to encourage customers to "screen" problem calls before calling the vendor in order to ____.

determine the exact nature of the problem

When service desk analysts are working with customers, they should ____.

discourage and report inappropriate and wasteful use of computing resources such as use of harassing e-mails and printing large unnecessary reports

Most hardware and software companies have ____ service desks to support their customers.

external

In a multi-level support model, application and network support analysts are typically ____.

level 2

In a multi-level support model, external vendors are typically ____.

level 3

Large software companies often use ____ as they hire people from countries in another part of the world.

offshore outsourcing

A(n) ____ call center primarily does telemarketing.

outbound

A typical service desk supervisor ____.

oversees day-to-day operation of the service desk

The process of handling customer requests for new standard software or a laptop computer is called ____.

request fulfillment

ITIL defines a(n) _______ as a means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks.

service

A service desk with eight people is considered ____.

small

Verbal skills, customer service skills, and teamwork skills are examples of ____ skills.

soft

Which role would typically have the least amount of interaction with the customer?

support group analyst

Skills people need to use and support the specific products and technologies the service desk supports are referred to as ____ skills.

technical

With all the methods of contacting a service desk now available, the telephone is being phased out as a contact channel.

False

If an organization wants an ITIL-compatible tool to manage their incident, problem, request, and change management processes, integrate with network and systems management tools, asset management tools, and sophisticated knowledge management systems, a commercially developed incident management system is a good choice.

False

In the context of the DIKW hierarchy, knowledge is uniquely a human characteristic.

False

Information management systems are the technology used to capture and distribute known solutions to incidents and answers to FAQs.

False

It is considered best practice to have the service desk handle service requests as part of the incident management process. This enables the service desk to accurately measure how effective their handling of service requests is.

False

Many companies specify target response times for all contact channels in their SLAs or when communicating services to customers, so that customers will know how long it will take the service desk to resolve the incident or service request.

False

The trend is that all Web-based services will soon be offered for some type of a fee.

False

There is not currently much of a career opportunity in the field of customer service and technical support.

False

When assessing the service desk's performance, quality is the primary measure looked at, as it directly relates to customer satisfaction.

False

When buying service desk software, one should look at vendors who are ITIL-compliant first, as their software will most likely meet most requirements without customization.

False

When maintaining customer records, it is best practice to maintain all data in a single CMDB, accessible by all who are authorized.

False

Which is true about internal service desks?

They tend to be underfunded.

According to Frederick Herzberg, a behavioral scientist, responsibility is one of the factors that leads to job satisfaction.

True

At the very least, companies expect people applying for entry-level positions to be computer literate.

True

Certifications related to ITIL and project management are beneficial because they help service desk analysts acquire a broader understanding of IT industry best practices and provide a bigger picture perspective than technical certification programs tend to offer.

True

ITIL is described as ____.

a set of best practices for IT service management

Describing a software company is as excellent when compared to other software companies means they are ____.

best-in-class

A(n) _______ service desk responds to questions, distributes information, and handles incidents and service requests for its company's employees.

internal