Critical Reasoning: Conclusion Weakening Questions

Customer Support: We have been receiving complaints about our customer service for a while now. Hiring additional employees to answer phones in the customer service department would improve our service and, therefore, increase the satisfaction of our customers.

Human Resources: Hiring more employees is costly. We should give our current employees an incentive to finish every conversation with a customer in the minimum amount of time so that they learn how to optimize their performance.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the suggestion of the Human Resources department?

Incorrect.

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By explaining why hiring additional employees is costly, this answer choice weakens the Customer Support's claim, and thereby indirectly strengthens Human Resources' suggestion. However, you were supposed to weaken the Human Resources' position.

Incorrect.

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This answer choice neither weakens nor strengthens Human Resources' suggestion. The history and advancement of the customer service industry are well out of the scope of the argument. Information about such a topic is irrelevant since it cannot weaken Human Resources' suggestion.

Incorrect.

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By showing that shorter queues for support increase customer satisfaction, this answer choice strengthens the position of both the Customer Support and Human Resources. While in most cases strengthening one side means weakening the other, in this argument, both sides agree that the queues should be kept short, but both have different methods of achieving this goal.

Focus on the method suggested by Human Resources' and look for an answer choice that can weaken it or strengthen the Customer Support's method alone.

Incorrect.

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This answer choice neither weakens nor strengthens Human Resources' suggestion because it emphasizes the importance of customer service, a factor which is not under dispute. Both sides are looking to solve the problem mentioned. The point being debated is whether each side's solution will prove to be successful.

That's the way!

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This answer choice directly undermine Human Resources' suggestion by showing that their suggested method has already been tested, and while this method led to shorted calls, it also was found that customer satisfaction would decrease if it were to be implemented. This defeats the purpose of the method to being with.

Employees new to customer service as an occupation require training, and an adjustment period, which can result in significant expenses.

In the last 15 years, customer service has made a complete conversion from handling written complaints to dealing with customers solely through electronic mail and telephone calls.

Increasing the satisfaction of customers can be achieved by reducing the amount of time a caller waits on the line before being answered.

A recent experiment showed that when given cash bonuses, customer service employees would answer more customer calls per hour, but the level of customer satisfaction would decrease.

Statistics show that customer service is rated as the most important parameter affecting a customer's decision to recommend a product or service to a peer.