Which of the following is NOT a demonstrated benefit of service blueprinting?
A. Providing a platform for innovation
B. Recognizing roles and interdependencies among functions, people, and organizations
C. Designing moments of truth from the customer’s point of view
D. Clarifying competitive positioning
E. All of the above are demonstrated benefits of blueprinting.
PSE&G is a utility company. One of its service guarantees is to keep all appointments.
If PSE&G fails to keep an appointment mutually agreed upon by the customer and the
company, PSE&G will credit residential customers’ accounts by $25 and business
customers’ accounts by $100. The guarantee only applies to appointments for meter
readings, account investigation, gas service, gas appliance repair and both electric and
gas meter work scheduled three days in advance. Which of the following statements
about PSE&G’s service guarantee is FALSE?
A. PSE&G’s guarantee is easy to understand and communicate
B. PSE&G’s guarantee is unconditional
C. PSE&G’s guarantee is meaningful
D. PSE&G’s guarantee is easy to invoke
E. PSE&G’s guarantee is qualitative
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
Which of the following statements about the benefits of service guarantees is true?
A. To be valid, service guarantees must be in writing
B. A good guarantee forces the company to focus on its customers
C. Employee morale can be adversely affected by service guarantees
D. The guarantee negates the service recovery strategy of act quickly
E. A good guarantee will generate a lot of feedback-most, if not all of it, useless
Which of the following has the strongest effect on a service provider’s profits?
A. Market share
B. Unit costs
C. Location
D. Employee salaries
E. Customer defection
When its sales were declining, Canadian Airline conducted a marketing survey to
understand the expectations of the business traveler, its target market. It learned
business travelers resent that they are bosses in their own offices but are totally
controlled by the whims of the airlines when they travel. If Canadian Airline had only
surveyed former customers who were still in their database, it would have used which
service recovery strategy?
A. Critical incident
B. Make the service fail safe
C. Welcome and encourage complaints
D. Learn from lost customers
E. Customer empowerment
Service blueprinting is grounded in all of the following disciplines EXCEPT:
A. Computer systems analysis
B. Decision theory
C. Economics
D. Industrial engineering
E. Logistics
_________ 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
Traditional thinking has defined _____________ as “bundles of goods and services that
companies offer to customers,” but customers think of them as sets of customer-facing
processes.
A. Mobile applications
B. Start-ups
C. Style changes
D. Solutions
E. Innovations
The primary constraint on service production for a lawyer is:
A. Equipment
B. Utility
C. Money
D. Facilities
E. Time
Historically, the Japanese have had poor dental care. As part of their beauty regimen,
the Japanese do have a habit of lightening and whitening their skin. Teethart has
developed “tooth manicure” salons, which allow Japanese to match their teeth
coloration to their skin. A personalized whitening mouthpiece is developed for each
patient. The mouthpiece is placed around the teeth and a cleaning solution is added. The
patient listens to soothing music and sits in a comfortable chair while his or her teeth
are whitened. Monthly treatments in this spa-like environment reflect the _____
element of Teethart’s service mix.
A. Product
B. Production
C. Process
D. Place
E. Promotion
A service firm that conducts periodic internal marketing research to assess employee
satisfaction and needs is using which of the following human resource strategies for
closing provider gap 3?
A. Hiring the right people
B. Providing needed support systems
C. Using a control system to eliminate unnecessary service encounters
D. Training teams to deliver service quality
E. Establishing effective servicescapes
When Roberta gets her hair cut, she carefully explains to the hair stylist how she
expects it to look once the haircut is finished. Roberta is playing the role of a:
A. Customer mix manager
B. Competitor
C. Productive resource
D. Contributor to quality and satisfaction
E. Recruiter
A consumer who is more likely to engage in negative word-of-mouth than any other
type of consumer is called a(n):
A. Irate
B. Annoyance
C. Aggressive
D. Activist
E. Voicer
A vacuum cleaner repair shop that called recent customers to ask if the people who
waited on them were friendly and courteous, if the cleaner had been clean when it was
returned to them and if they had any trouble finding the new store is collecting feedback
on _____ measurements.
A. Hard
B. Basic
C. Formal
D. Soft
E. Informal
Adam was working late in his hotel room when the light bulb in the lamp at his desk
burned out. He called the front desk and asked for a replacement bulb. The desk
manager told Adam that a new one would be provided tomorrow morning and that he
did not have the key to the stockroom. Adam tried to explain how much he needed the
light to finish his sales report, but the manager was polite but adamant that he could not
help. This example illustrates lack of:
A. Functional fairness
B. Procedural fairness
C. Interactional fairness
D. Service equity
E. Situational fairness
Many frequent flyers have missed their flights due to long, slow security checks before
being allowed to enter the airline’s terminal. This policy designed to ensure safe flights
has resulted in problems associated with perceived:
A. Functional equity
B. Procedural fairness
C. Interactional fairness
D. Service equity
E. Outcome fairness
An attorney who charges a client for a missed appointment is taking into account the
_____ characteristic of services.
A. Heterogeneity
B. Simultaneous production and consumption
C. Incomparability
D. Perishability
E. Intangibility
In the service marketing triangle, ______ marketing refers to enabling the service
promise.
A. Internal
B. External
C. Strategic
D. Interactive
E. Integrated
The supervisor of a hotel housekeeping staff instructed a new housekeeper in the 45
ways a room must be cleaned if its guest has checked out but she forgot to mention that
a less thorough method was to be used if the guest was staying additional nights. The
next month the supervisor wonders why the new housekeeper is using many more
packets of toiletries than the other housekeepers are. Also, it is taking the housekeeper
the same amount of time to clean a recently vacated room as it does to clean a room that
will be housing the same people for another night. The best explanation for the
misunderstanding about the service to be provided by the housekeeper is _________, a
risk incurred when services are described in words alone.
A. Oversimplification
B. Incompleteness
C. Subjectivity
D. Biased interpretation
E. Transformation
Compatibility management:
A. Is unrelated to the implementation of customer participation strategies
B. Does not coalesce well with the drama metaphor used to describe services
C. Is a process for managing the customer mix
D. Is only of value in internal marketing
E. Creates a homogeneous employee pool
_____ are personal and nonpersonal statements about a service made by an
organization to customers.
A. Marketing testimonials
B. Implicit service promises
C. Word-of-mouth communications
D. Past experience influencers
E. Explicit service promises
States or conditions essential to the physical or psychological well-being of a customer
that are pivotal factors that shape what customers desire in a service are known as
__________.
A. Personal needs
B. Personal service philosophies
C. Derived service expectations
D. Perceived service alternatives
E. Situational factors
Which of the following statements describes a marketing implication that results from
the intangibility of services?
A. Services cannot be inventoried.
B. Services cannot be easily patented.
C. Services cannot be readily displayed.
D. The actual costs of a “unit of service” are hard to determine.
E. All of the above.
Domino’s instructs its telephone pizza order takers to pick up the telephone on the first
ring and not to put customers on hold. When answering the telephone, an order taker
must be energetic, friendly and let the customer hear the smile on his or her face.
Domino’s guidelines for order takers’ telephone answering behavior will influence
which of the following service quality dimensions for Domino’s?
A. Reliability
B. Responsiveness
C. Assurance
D. Empathy
E. Tangibles
Compatibility management is LEAST important in which of the following services?
A. Airplane flights
B. Movie theater
C. College basketball game
D. Theme park
E. Long distance telephone service
Patients sitting in dental chairs are part of the _____ element of the services marketing
mix.
A. People
B. Product
C. Place
D. Promotion
E. Physical evidence
The first time Barry brought his car to Auto Lube to have the oil changed he was very
satisfied with the service. The service manager consulted him several times while his
car was being serviced, asked him if there were any problems with the car,
recommended when additional services should be performed and answered questions
directly and politely. However, when Barry went back to Auto Lube after three months
to have his oil changed again, he was not satisfied with the service. The manager spoke
to him only when he arrived and when he paid his bill. In addition, the manager was
impatient and unfriendly during the interaction. Barry’s experience at Auto Lube
illustrates the _____ of services.
A. Intangibility
B. Heterogeneity
C. Simultaneous production and consumption
D. Perishability
E. Divisibility
Continental Airlines has installed automated ticket machines in its major airport
terminals that enable passengers to purchase tickets, obtain boarding passes and get seat
assignments by inserting a credit card into the machine. A passenger using a
Continental Airlines’ automated ticket machine is playing the role of a:
A. Customer mix manager
B. Competitor
C. Productive resource
D. Contributor to quality and satisfaction
E. Recruiter
Which of the following approaches to pricing considers that customers may judge
quality on the basis of price?
A. Demand-based pricing
B. Profit-based pricing
C. Competition-based pricing
D. Supply-based pricing
E. Cost-based pricing
Hildy’s children are giving her a weekend trip to a Lake Tahoe resort. Their
expectations of the amenities and services the resort will provide are much higher
because they are planning the trip for their mother’s approval rather than for their own
use. This is an example of a(n) _____ expectation.
A. Derived service
B. Other-self
C. Dyadic
D. Service-vision
E. Shared
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?”
What is the key determinant of whether a product is a good or a service?
Which approach to measuring service quality assumes that not all expenditures aimed
at improving quality are equally valid?
How does the way the balanced performance scorecard examines operational measures
differ from the traditional uses of such measurements?
What kind of demand fluctuation for janitorial services resulted from the 2004
hurricane season in Florida?
Which retention strategy relies primarily on financial incentives?
Which type of marketing, as defined by the service marketing triangle, includes
recruiting, motivating and training?
Why are spatial layout and functionality very important to customers in self-service
environments?
Briefly define customer expectations for a service.
When is a customer for a janitorial service most likely to notice the cleaning done by
the service and make some comment about it?
Human behavior is influenced by the physical setting in which it occurs. How does the
servicescape influence the individual behavior of consumers and employees? Give
examples.
What are four customer goals for organizations that engage in relationship marketing?
When a hair salon introduced a database system for keeping up with information on
clients’ hair, such as hair color and timing of permanents, it is one way of addressing
customer requirements. What name applies to this method of changing services to better
meet customer needs?
What kind of fairness is being requested when customers want their complaints handled
politely, fairly and honestly?
What is another name for post transaction surveys?
During what stage of the new-service development process is empathetic design used?
Imagine you have been hired to work an internship in a resort hotel in Hilton Head,
South Carolina, for the summer. The manager learns you have had this service
marketing class. In talking with you, she states that she feels the hotel is not always
providing satisfactory service and may be performing in some areas below customer
expectations. She stops talking and looks at you. Remember your future career may be
riding on your answer. What do you tell her?
What are the key determinants of service quality, customer retention and profits?
What are some influences on the lifetime or relationship value of a customer?
What are service performance indexes, how are they created and how do companies
use these indexes?