Chapter 2

Question 1

True or false? Communication skills are often more difficult for a new help desk agent to learn than a technical skills or business skills

Answer 1

True

Question 2

A(n) ______ is a choice each support agent makes about how professional or casual, respectful or condescending, formal or informal, or terse or verbose they will be in their interaction with users

Answer 2

personal communication style

Question 3

A user’s first impression of a support agent usually comes from the:

a. greeting
b. solution to the problem
c. incident script used
d. agent’s tone and style

Answer 3

a. greeting

Question 4

Which listening type focuses on opportunities to empathize with the user and provide positive support?

a. discriminative
b. comprehensive
c. critical
d. therapeutic
e. relational

Answer 4

d. therapeutic

Question 5

Which listening type focuses on learning about the knowledge level and emotional state of the user?

a. discriminative
b. comprehensive
c. critical
d. therapeutic
e. relational

Answer 5

a. discriminative

Question 6

Which of these is not a strategy for effective listening?

a. avoid distractions
b. view the problem from the user’s perspective
c. talk to fill awkward silences
d. probe for details

Answer 6

c. talk to fill awkward silences

Question 7

Nonverbal communication behaviours include posture, facial expressions, _______, and ________

Answer 7

eye contact, gestures, distance, voice quality

Question 8

True or false? Nonverbal behaviours are often more important than the meaning of words in a communication.

Answer 8

true

Question 9

True or false? Empathy means a user support agent takes ownership and responsibility for a user’s problem.

Answer 9

false

Question 10

A support agent should make liberal use of the word:

a. I
b. you
c. we
d. oops

Answer 10

c. we

Question 11

One measure of whether a support agent understands a user’s problem is whether they can express the problem in:

a. the user’s actual words
b. the support agent’s own words
c. industry standard vocabulary
d. the wording used in the script for the problem

Answer 11

b. the support agent’s own words

Question 12

True or false? Of the three essential communication skills, listening (or reading) comes before understanding and responding.

Answer 12

true

Question 13

True or false? Scripts designed to guide a user support agent through an incident should be memorized or read verbatim to a user to avoid mistakes.

Answer 13

false

Question 14

A support worker who uses a telephone extensively is likely to need to know how to put a call on hold and _____

Answer 14

greet a caller, transfer a call, terminate a call

Question 15

True or false? One of the goals of incident management is to help users be more self-reliant.

Answer 15

true

Question 16

Which of the following is not a primary strategy for a support organization that aims for customer service excellence?

a. treat clients with respect
b. explain to clients what you can do for them
c. agree to any demand a client makes
d. return calls to clients when promised

Answer 16

c. agree to any demand a client makes

Question 17

Which of these is not a recommended incident management strategy for support agents?

a. ask goal-directed diagnostic questions
b. say thank you
c. teach the user self-reliance
d. never admit that you are not sure

Answer 17

d. never admit that you are not sure

Question 18

True or false? A successful support worker is one who has learned from experience how to manipulate a user’s behaviour to make the user more productive.

Answer 18

false

Question 19

True or false? A customer-service ethic is an organization-wide commitment to the concept that the client is always right.

Answer 19

false

Question 20

A support website implementor uses four criteria to evaluate a client-friendly site: content, _____, _____, and mechanics.

Answer 20

organization, format

Question 21

A(n) ______ is a way to organize the commentary on a single topic in a discussion forum from oldest to newest, in an easy-to-follow format.

Answer 21

thread

Question 22

A(n) ______ is a neutral participant in a conflict resolution situation who helps participants by training, negotiating, and listening.

Answer 22

mediator, facilitator