To reach business travelers (its largest market) Canadian Airline has installed
continuous “power to the seat” and Internet service for those who need to work on their
laptops for the entire plane trip. By adding these amenities, Canadian Airline has
improved the __________ of the service environment:
A. Spatial input
B. Symbolic design
C. Ambient conditions
D. Targeted artifacts
E. Functionality
Henry, Brad, and Carlos are all studying to be dog groomers at a local Petsmart training
academy. Henry and Brad believe they received inadequate training because they could
not get a job when the course concluded. Carlos thinks the academy was a great
experience and really enjoys grooming the pets at Pet Heaven Kennels. In this example,
satisfaction levels were influenced by:
A. Poor service quality
B. Their perceptions of service quality
C. Their emotional states
D. Their attributions for service success
E. Their perception of equity
Olivia and Ian were due to be wed last March when a tornado blew down the church
where the wedding was to be held. Even though the wedding was postponed and they
risked losing over one thousand dollars in deposits, they were not worried because they
had purchased wedding insurance. The salesperson had guaranteed they would have a
perfect wedding no matter what happened. When Ian called the insurance agent, he
learned that the policy did not provide coverage if the wedding was postponed due to an
act of nature such as a tornado. In this case, provider _____ of the gaps model of
service quality was apparent as their “perfect wedding” did not happen as promised.
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 3
D. Gap 4
Which of the following is NOT a company-controlled factor that influences customer
expectations?
A. Advertising
B. Personal selling
C. Employee appearance
D. Word-of-mouth communication
E. Pricing strategy
Pizza Hut, Uncle Sam’s, Domino’s and Papa John’s all deliver pizza in Cartersville,
Georgia, a town of about 30,000. As a result, one would expect all of the pizza delivery
services to use _____-based pricing.
A. Standardized
B. Simultaneous
C. Competition
D. Supply
E. Cost
One of the most frequently measured _________ is willingness to recommend the
service.
A. Behavioral intentions
B. Customer priorities
C. Preferences
D. Future expectations
E. Individual requirements
Based on the Framework for Understanding Physical Environment-User Relationships,
a person’s ___________ to the servicescape is what influences his or her behavior in
the service environment.
A. Approach to
B. Commitment to
C. Affiliation with
D. Internal response to
E. Route to
According to the text, the relationships between businesses and their customers have the
ability to evolve. In the first step of this evolution process, customers are identified as:
A. Acquaintances
B. Prospects
C. Strangers
D. Friends
E. Allies
_____ conditions include background characteristics of the environment such as
temperature and lighting.
A. Ergonomic
B. Holistic
C. Physiological
D. Ambient
E. Environmentally-driven
Which of the following is NOT a strategy a service provider would use if its goal were
to manage customer expectations?
A. Create tiered-value service offerings
B. Negotiate unrealistic expectations
C. Communicate criteria for service effectiveness
D. Teach customers to avoid peak demand periods and see slow periods
E. Offer choices
Which of the following is the BEST example of procedural fairness?
A. The restaurant charged the man for two meals when he sent back his overcooked
steak and demanded one cooked correctly
B. Miriam decided the missing button was not important enough to make another trip to
the cleaners and complain
C. When Tia walked into the salon and asked to have her hair cut, the receptionist
pointed to the sign that read, “To keep from inconveniencing our customers, this hair
salon will not style the hair of anyone who does not have an appointment”
D. The small movie theater gave all patrons two free movie tickets for the night of their
choice when the movie projector broke half way through showing the newest Brad Pitt
movie
E. The hotel refused to help a man find a room for the night when he missed his
scheduled flight
Customer _____ are the standards for performance against which service experiences
are compared.
A. Perceptions
B. Expectations
C. Attitudes
D. Judgments
E. Wants
An airline that offers price discounts and “Internet Specials” for passengers who order
tickets online is:
A. Rewarding customers
B. Positioning customers
C. Managing the customer mix
D. Defining customers’ jobs
E. Educating customers
New York City rents a number of its public school facilities to local flea markets on
weekends during the school year and summer months. New York City is using which of
the following strategies for shifting demand to match capacity in its public schools?
A. Differentiate on price
B. Modify timing and location of service delivery
C. Vary the service offering
D. Stretch capacity
E. Communicate with customers
Which of the following statements has been suggested as a plausible explanation for the
customer perception that service quality is declining?
A. Increasing use of technology is perceived by many customers as less service because
there is no human interaction
B. Companies provide unclear tactics for customers to follow when dealing with service
providers
C. Delivering consistent, high-quality service becomes routine
D. Customers have no concept of what conditions produce to quality service
E. Too many talented employees are left mired in front-end jobs that do not challenge
them
Service companies can close provider gap 4 by:
A. Improving communications between sales and operations departments
B. Using a systematic new-service development process
C. Eliminating employee role ambiguity and role conflict
D. Creating customer-defined standards
E. Making sure customers understand their roles and responsibilities
If customers believe they have multiple service providers to choose from for a
particular service, or if they can provide the service for themselves, their levels of
adequate service are _________ those of customers who believe it is not possible to get
better service elsewhere.
A. Lower than
B. Higher than
C. More volatile than
D. More stable than
E. The same as
Which of the following statements is a criterion for the creation of appropriate service
standards?
A. The standards should be based on behaviors and actions that are very important to
customers
B. The standards should be challenging even if that means they are unrealistic
C. The standards should be based on past complaints rather than current and future
customer expectations
D. The standards should be established for behaviors and actions that at the present time
cannot be improved
E. All of the above are criteria for the creation of appropriate service standards
Ruth recently visited a day care center that is convenient to her work. Ruth is thinking
of letting the day care workers care for her infant son while she is at work. The first
thing Ruth noticed when she walked in the door of the facility was the smell of urine.
There was a dead plant in the window. Toys were strewn about the floor and Ruth
almost tripped over a tricycle. In this example, Ruth experienced negative aspects of the
_____ element of the day care center’s services marketing mix.
A. Product
B. Production
C. Process
D. Place
E. Physical evidence
Which of the following is NOT a type of differential used by service providers to
synchronize demand and supply?
A. Time
B. Quantity
C. Place
D. Utility
E. Incentive
Provider _____ is the difference between service delivery and the service provider’s
external communications.
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 2
D. Gap 4
PSE&G, a utility company located in New Jersey, is conducting a service marketing
research study to assess its service performance. It will measure the gaps between
customer expectations and perceptions along the five dimensions of service quality.
Which of the following types of research should PSE&G use?
A. Critical incident studies
B. Requirements research
C. SERVQUAL surveys
D. Trailer calls
E. Customer panels
A pseudo-relationship occurs when
A. The service encounter is static
B. The customer interacts many times with the same company, but with different
service providers
C. The company interacts with different members of a household
D. Frequency of service is greater than service reach
E. The service provider has accepted the validity of the service paradox
In terms of servicescape complexity, which of the following is a lean service
environment?
A. ATM machine
B. Fred Astaire Dance Studio
C. Vanderbilt University Hospital
D. Microtel Inns & Suites
E. Delta Air Lines
The key to success in the _____ stage of the customer relationship is the firm’s ability to
use customer knowledge and information systems to deliver highly personalized and
customized offerings.
A. Friendship
B. Ally
C. Colleague
D. Comrade
E. Partnership
In many instances, customers develop loyalty to an organization in part because of costs
involved in changing to and purchasing from a different firm. These costs are called:
A. Financial inertia
B. Opportunity costs
C. Switching costs
D. Fixed costs
E. Retained costs
Provider gap 3 of the gaps model of service quality is caused by:
A. Failure to match supply and demand
B. Advertising that over-promised
C. Failure to connect service design to service positioning
D. Inadequate maintenance of servicescape
E. A tendency to view each external communication as independent
During Benford Bank’s annual “Stellar Teller” contest, tellers match their skills in the
areas of money counting, knowledge of bank policy and ability to make customers feel
like royalty. To assess money-counting skills, tellers are required to sort a mishmash of
ones, fives, 10s and 20s by denomination, arrange the bills so that they all face the same
way, then tally the cash on an adding machine and put it back into a deposit bag. Time
and accuracy count. A bank teller’s money-counting skills are a:
A. Service competency
B. Competitive tendency
C. Service inclination
D. Service responsibility
E. Service detractor
________ refers to the actions taken by an organization in response to a service failure.
A. Service recovery
B. Service paradox
C. Service inconsistency
D. Outcome fairness
E. Procedural recovery
Many carwashes offer free replacement washes to car owners if it rains or snows within
24 hours of when they had their cars cleaned at the carwash. Because people who
would take advantage of this service guarantee are the ones that are concerned about the
appearance of their car, this service guarantee:
A. Shows the absence of a customer focus
B. Illustrates the importance of employee empowerment
C. Does not fit the service provider’s image
D. Is very meaningful
E. Is unconditional
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel trains each employee to note the likes and dislikes of regular
customers and record this information into a computerized guest history profile that
provides information on the preferences of 240,000 repeat Ritz-Carlton customers.
Through the use of this customer database, the Ritz-Carlton is able to provide more
personalized service to its guests. If, for example, a guest prefers a feather pillow or
always orders a glass of sherry before retiring, this information can be entered in the
database and these needs can be anticipated and met. By providing more personalized
service, the Ritz-Carlton is narrowing provider _____ of the gaps model of service
quality.
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 3
D. Gap 4
During the days following Superstorm Sandy, telephone and Internet service was poor
across a wide area because so many people were trying to get in touch with friends and
relatives. Customers of these services soon realized that they should not expect the level
of service they were accustomed to prior to the storm. These customers were quite
forgiving during this time because they recognized that service performance was being
affected by:
A. Predicted service
B. Uncontrollable situational factors
C. Personal situational factors
D. Derived service expectations
E. Implicit service promises
A friend of yours is setting up a math tutoring service. She has asked you, “Do all
services need to offer customer guarantees?” Explain your answer. Then explain why or
why not she should or should not offer a customer service guarantee.
may vary
The money a company makes from customer retention comes from four sources.
Why are Level 4 retention strategies the most difficult to imitate?
may vary
What kind of growth strategy is Procter and Gamble pursuing as it ventures into
services such as Tide Dry Cleaners and Mr. Clean Car Washes?
may vary
Imagine you are a consultant and you have been asked to give a seminar to bank
employees on how they can use the five dimensions of service to improve customers’
perceptions about the quality of the bank’s service. What ideas would you give them to
better customers’ perception of each of the bank’s service dimensions?
may vary
List the four characteristics that distinguish services from goods and discuss how each
would impact the marketing of a chain of fitness centers that is being started by six
former Olympic athletes.
may vary
Callie’s Canine Cottage has 45 kennels for boarding dogs. During June, July, August,
November and December, each of the kennels is booked. During these months, Callie’s
always charges its regular price of $15 per day per kennel. When business is slow,
Callie’s sometimes charges a discounted rate of $13 per day per kennel for the first 25
kennels booked and $15 for the rest. On September 15, Callie’s filled 25 kennels at $13
per day and 10 kennels at $15 per day. Calculate Callie’s yield for September 15.
may vary
Name an elaborate self-service servicescape.
may vary
Why would a consumer be more likely to complain about a poorly mended prom dress
than burnt toast?
may vary
What is another name for post transaction surveys?
may vary
How would environmental psychologists describe the emotion elicited in a mother
forced by her elementary-aged son to go to a haunted house with particularly gruesome
sights and bloodcurdling screams?
may vary
The data have been gathered. It is now time to analyze these data and interpret them.
What is the primary goal of this part of the marketing research process?
may vary
What is service recovery?
may vary
Which element of the services marketing mix is influenced by the health inspector’s
report that is prominently displayed in all restaurants?
may vary
List the four core dimensions consumers use to evaluate Web sites.
may vary
Lorenzo attended his first antique auction last night. When he asked about bidding, he
was told to get a bidder’s number and that no bid would be accepted unless it was made
by raising the card with the number on it. What kind of on-site orientation was Lorenzo
being given?
may vary
Give three examples of external marketing communications.
may vary