CIM Service Desk & Escalation Processes 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A user calls the service desk reporting that a critical business application is completely unavailable. What is the service desk agent's FIRST action?
- Begin troubleshooting the application immediately
- Log the incident and assign a priority based on impact and urgency (Correct answer)
- Transfer the call to the application support team
- Ask the user to restart their computer
Correct answer: Log the incident and assign a priority based on impact and urgency
The first action is always to log and prioritize the incident based on its business impact and urgency before any other steps.
Question 2: Which escalation type occurs when a service desk agent hands an incident to a specialist team because the issue requires deeper technical expertise?
- Hierarchical escalation
- Functional escalation (Correct answer)
- Managerial escalation
- Priority escalation
Correct answer: Functional escalation
Functional escalation transfers an incident to a team with specialized skills when the current tier lacks the expertise to resolve it.
Question 3: A service desk manager notices that 40% of incidents are being escalated to Tier 2 without any troubleshooting attempt. What is the BEST corrective action?
- Increase Tier 2 team headcount
- Review and update service desk knowledge base and provide additional training (Correct answer)
- Lower the escalation threshold
- Implement a new ticketing system
Correct answer: Review and update service desk knowledge base and provide additional training
Updating the knowledge base and training agents addresses the root cause of premature escalation by improving Tier 1 capability.
Question 4: What does 'first contact resolution' (FCR) measure at the service desk?
- The time taken to answer the first call
- The percentage of incidents resolved without escalation or callback (Correct answer)
- The number of incidents logged on first shift
- The speed at which tickets are assigned to Tier 2
Correct answer: The percentage of incidents resolved without escalation or callback
FCR measures what proportion of incidents are fully resolved during the initial contact, without needing follow-up or escalation.
Question 5: During a major outage, multiple users call reporting the same issue. What is the recommended service desk approach?
- Handle each call independently and open separate tickets for each user
- Identify the common incident, open one major incident ticket, and link all related contacts (Correct answer)
- Escalate every call immediately to Tier 3
- Ask users to email instead to free up phone lines
Correct answer: Identify the common incident, open one major incident ticket, and link all related contacts
Linking related contacts to a single major incident ticket prevents duplicate effort and enables coordinated resolution.
Question 6: What is the primary purpose of a service desk call script or decision tree?
- To replace the need for knowledgeable agents
- To ensure consistent data collection and guide agents through standard diagnostics (Correct answer)
- To reduce call duration by skipping troubleshooting
- To automate ticket creation without human intervention
Correct answer: To ensure consistent data collection and guide agents through standard diagnostics
Scripts and decision trees standardize the information gathered and help agents follow proven diagnostic steps consistently.
Question 7: An incident is escalated to Tier 2 but the Tier 2 team determines it belongs to Tier 3. Who should update the ticket and notify the user?
- The original Tier 1 agent who logged the ticket
- The Tier 2 team before transferring to Tier 3 (Correct answer)
- The Tier 3 team upon receipt
- The service desk manager
Correct answer: The Tier 2 team before transferring to Tier 3
The Tier 2 team holds ownership during the handoff and should update the ticket and communicate with the user before transferring to Tier 3.
CIM Service Desk & Escalation Processes 2
A user calls the service desk reporting that a critical business application is completely unavailable.
What is the service desk agent's FIRST action?