In order to manage fluctuating demand in a service business, an organization must
understand all of the following EXCEPT:
A. How to chart demand patterns
B. Random demand fluctuations
C. Demand patterns by market segment
D. Predictable demand cycles
E. Vertical demand configurations
The type of complainer that is called a(n) _____ has an above average propensity to
complain. They have a very optimistic sense of the potential positive consequences of
all types of complaining.
A. Irate
B. Passive
C. Aggressive
D. Activist
E. Voicer
The reason Sophia chose to stay at a particular chain of bed & breakfast inns was
because its web site promises free breakfast at any inn that did not offer a wake-up
service. When Sophia stayed at one of the chain’s inns, she was allowed to oversleep
and missed an important sales call even though she had asked to be awakened at 7:00
AM. The inn manager told her that his hotel did not offer a wake-up service and
apologized for her inconvenience. He did not offer her a free breakfast and Sophia
swore never to stay at the inns again. The chain of inns needs to:
A. Underpromise and overdeliver more services
B. Coordinate its external communications
C. Create more functional internal marketing channels
D. Use more centralization of service definition
E. Use transformational advertising
_____ arise(s) when the customer is required to pay a penalty to switch providers.
A. Fixed costs
B. Legal inertia
C. Financial inertia
D. Contractual costs
E. Opportunity costs
A hotel that has 300 rooms charges a rate of $150 per night Monday through Thursday.
During this period of peak demand, the hotel operates at 100 percent capacity. On
weekends (Friday through Sunday), the hotel discounts half of its rooms at a rate of
$100 per night while the remaining rooms are still priced at $150 per night. Calculate
the hotel’s yield for a Saturday night, if it fills 50 percent of the $150 rooms and sells all
of the $100 rooms.
A. 58 percent
B. 63 percent
C. 78 percent
D. 93 percent
E. 171 percent
Many companies do not identify and act on the correct non-financial measures. One of
the four major mistakes that companies make is _______. In other words, companies
attempt to measure complex phenomenon with one or two simple measures or use
quantitative metrics to capture qualitative results for factors such as leadership.
A. Not linking measures to strategy
B. Not validating the links
C. Not setting the right performance targets
D. Measuring incorrectly
E. Not creating a balanced scorecard
Regency Dry Cleaners operates in a medium-sized community. Its customers all live
within a 20-mile radius of the cleaners. Regency provides its regular customers with
several alternative pickup and delivery schedules rather than a single weekly pickup
and delivery. Regency’s driver will pick up clothes in the morning and deliver them
back clean in the afternoon if that is what a customer needs. Regency has found the
increase in its total number of customers because of this service more than pays its
additional operation expenses. Regency has built its customer retention strategy around:
A. Customization bonds
B. Social bonds
C. Niche marketing
D. Focused marketing
E. Structural bonds
Enterprise Rent-A-Car closely ties customer service to employee success. With a
tracking system called the Enterprise Service Quality Index (ESQi), the company
routinely follows up with customers by phone to determine their level of satisfaction
with their most recent Enterprise service encounter. Only completely satisfied
customers count toward an employee ESQi score, which is used to measure employee’s
potential for promotion. Enterprise is using_________ to determine whether
performance meets standards.
A. Complaint solicitation
B. Lost customer research
C. Trailer calls
D. Customer panels
E. Critical incident studies
In a _____ pricing strategy, new services are introduced at high prices with large
promotional expenditures.
A. Penetration
B. Skimming
C. Prestige
D. Contingency
E. Visible
The correlation between a brand’s wallet allocation rule and its financial results is
________ than the relationship between previous service and financial measures.
A. Far lower
B. Somewhat lower
C. Not much different
D. Somewhat higher
E. Far higher
Derrick saves coupons from 10-minute oil and lubrication services (e.g., Jiffy Lube,
Quick Lube and Speedi-Lube) and when he needs to have his car’s oil changed, he
chooses the oil and lubrication service that offers the best deal on a 10-minute oil
change. For 10-minute oil and lubrication services, Derrick defines value as:
A. All that I get for all that I give
B. Everything I want in a service
C. Low price
D. Reliable service
E. The quality I get for the pace I pay
A retail store manager instructed two new sales associates to greet customers quickly
when they enter the store. On the first day the sales associates are working on the
selling floor, one sales associate greets customers immediately after they enter the store,
while the other associate greets customers after they have looked around for a minute or
two. Which of the following risks incurred by describing services in words alone has
led to the sales associates greeting customers at different time intervals?
A. Overcautious
B. Ostentation
C. Objectivity
D. Biased interpretation
E. Transformation
Offensive marketing effects involve market share, reputation and:
A. Word-of-mouth communication
B. Vertical integration
C. Price premiums
D. High purchase volumes
E. Geodemographic segmentation
In addition to compensation, customers expect _____. In other words, they expect
fairness in terms of policies, rules and timeliness of complaint process.
A. Functional equity
B. Procedural fairness
C. Interactional fairness
D. Service equity
E. Outcome fairness
Which of the following research methods provides feedback on soft measures?
A. Complaint solicitation
B. Lost customer research
C. Trailer calls
D. Customer panels
E. Critical incident studies
The busiest time for tax preparers is the week prior to April 15. Many tax preparers
send out mailings to their regular customers asking the customers to bring their tax
information in to the tax preparer’s office in January and February. The mailings explain
how they will receive their tax refunds much quicker if they bring their information in
now rather than wait till the last minute. Tax preparers are using which of the following
strategies for shifting demand to match capacity?
A. Differentiate on price
B. Modify timing and location of service delivery
C. Vary the service offering
D. Stretch capacity
E. Communicate with customers
_________ are created by providing services to the client that are designed right into
the service delivery system.
A. Financial bonds
B. Customization bonds
C. Individualization bonds
D. Structural
E. Social bonds
Peak demand regularly exceeds capacity in all of the following service businesses
EXCEPT:
A. Hotels
B. Public transportation systems
C. Restaurants
D. Insurance companies
E. Tax accountants
When a lawyer feels a conflict between what she is asked to do and her own
personality, orientation or values she is experiencing _____ conflict.
A. Person/role
B. Vertical
C. Organization/client
D. Inter-client
E. Horizontal
Which of the following hotel employees is NOT a boundary spanner?
A. Chef
B. Front desk clerk
C. Housekeeping employee
D. Concierge
E. Room service operator
You can get a haircut in one of the rural counties that surround Atlanta for $15. You will
pay around $45 for the same haircut if you buy it in one of the five counties that make
up the Atlanta area. Which type of competition-based pricing does this best exemplify?
may vary
_____ marketing is used by companies to prevent customer defection.
A. Vertical integration
B. Guerilla
C. Defensive
D. Flank-movement
E. Offensive
_____ service is the level of service the customer hopes to receive.
A. Desired
B. Adequate
C. Functional
D. Predictable
E. Augmented
Hyatt Hotels has installed automated check-in machines at some of its hotels. To check
in and get a room key, guests insert a credit card into the machine. Hyatt is
experimenting with the use of:
A. Self-service technologies
B. Functional symbols
C. Robotics
D. Compatibility management
E. Output dimensions
WedSafe is the name of one of several companies that provide wedding insurance. For
example, in the event that a wedding is called off, the couple can insure themselves
against loss of their nonrefundable deposits. If WedSafe’s primary marketing effort is
satisfying its customers, the company is in which stage of the customer relationship
evolution?
A. Prospects
B. Leads
C. Friends
D. Associate
E. Acquaintances
_______ focuses on the interpersonal treatment received by the consumer during the
complaint process.
A. Functional fairness
B. Procedural fairness
C. Interactional fairness
D. Service equity
E. Outcome fairness
Service companies can close provider gap 3 by doing any of the following EXCEPT:
A. Teaching customers to perform their roles appropriately
B. Synchronizing supply and demand
C. Motivating intermediaries to meet company service goals
D. Empowering employees
E. Developing customer-defined service standards
Which of the following organizations is most likely to experience wide fluctuations in
demand?
A. Dentist
B. Hospital
C. Carwash
D. Stockbroker
E. Interior decorator
When consumers have problems with a Web site, they use _____ dimensions to
evaluate e-service quality.
A. Tangibility, efficiency, and fulfillment
B. Responsiveness, compensation, and contact
C. Empathy, efficiency, and expectations
D. Reliability, privacy, and assurance
E. Efficiency, fulfillment, reliability, and privacy
_____ is a form of competition-based pricing that involves charging the most prevalent
price on the market for a service.
A. Value pricing
B. Price signaling
C. Fee for service pricing
D. Going-rate pricing
E. Price trimming
In the early 1990s when the US. General Accounting Office (GAO) studied the
financial effect of service quality on companies that had won the Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award, it determined that these elite quality firms benefited in all of
the following ways EXCEPT:
A. Increased market share
B. Improved return on sales
C. Improved sales per employees
D. Increased return on assets
E. Increased advertising
In some long-term customer-firm relationships, a service provider may become part of a
customer’s __________ , such as when a hairdresser serves as a personal confidant, or a
proprietor of a local retail store is known as a central figure in the neighborhood
network.
A. Esteem benefits
B. Self-actualization
C. Social support system
D. Utility transfer
E. Assurance group
Service providers sometimes need to tell customers that services have been performed
for them. To get credit for their actions, service providers need to reinforce their actions
with appropriate communication about their accomplishment of the service. After which
of the following services customers most likely require further information?
A. Pet grooming
B. A fluoride treatment given to a child
C. A full-body massage
D. Car insurance
E. Gas station
Ally Bank advertises “24/7 live customer care” which means that customer can call by
telephone and speak with a human being about their banking matters any time of day or
night. Ally Bank customers never have to talk to a machine. With this service feature,
Ally Bank is emphasizing the _________ dimension of service quality.
A. Reliability
B. Responsiveness
C. Assurance
D. Empathy
E. Tangibles
Briefly explain why it is difficult to mass produce a service.
may vary
Employee appearance and dress are important aspects of the _________ dimension of
service quality.
may vary
What is a consumer’s “wished for” level of performance?
may vary
What is the first step in the new-service development process?
may vary
Why would an insurance company give all applicants for the position of customer
service representative a personality test?
may vary
Two major types of customer-defined service standards can be distinguished. What kind
of a customer-defined standard is the following: “Maintain a neat and tidy appearance?”
may vary
What is the Net Promoter Score and how is it calculated?
may vary
What is the central focus of the gaps model of service quality?
may vary
What type of pricing strategy will most likely be used by marriage counselors, bridal
consultants, public accountants and tax attorneys?
may vary
What is the last stage of the new-service development process?
may vary
Which type of conflict is most commonly felt by an employee whose income depends
largely on tips instead of a salary?
may vary
Will and Jason NaJami are going to open a swimming pool service this summer. They
will put in pools, repair damaged ones and provide a pool-cleaning service. They have
decided to use a service guarantee as their primary service recovery tool. How can they
make sure that their service guarantee is effective?
may vary
Describe the three new elements of the service marketing mix.
may vary
George was asked by an employee of a local do-it-yourself store to describe in detail his
experiences in the store as he bought house paint, caulk, and brushes. He later learned
several of his acquaintances had been asked to do the same thing. What research
method was being used by the do-it-yourself store?
may vary
Two major types of customer-defined service standards can be distinguished. What kind
of a customer-defined standard is the following: “Leave no customer on hold for longer
than five minutes?”
may vary
What do tax preparation services, law offices, dental practices, and architects have in
common?
may vary