The _______ suggests an initially disappointed customer who has experienced good
service recovery might be even more satisfied and loyal as a result.
A. Baker’s dozen paradigm
B. Service recovery paradox
C. Halo effect
D. Service dilemma
E. Service quandary
Every functional area in a Marriott Hotel operates under standard operating procedure
manuals where all processes and services are carefully documented. Housekeepers, for
example, must perform 64 required steps in cleaning a room. These specific guidelines
result in uniformly clean rooms anywhere in the Marriott Hotel chain. By having
specific guidelines for cleaning a room, Marriott is avoiding one of the problems
associated with:
A. Inadequate management of service promises
B. Over-promising in advertising and personal selling
C. Inadequate external marketing communication
D. Inadequate interactive marketing communications
E. Inadequate internal marketing communications
When the dentist’s office bills the patient who had an appointment but did not show up
for it and did not cancel the appointed, it is an example of _____ because the patient
was made aware of the policy before making the appointment.
A. Functional fairness
B. Procedural fairness
C. Interactional fairness
D. Service equity
E. Outcome fairness
United Jersey Bank offers customers, who have a combined balance of $3000 or more
in a United Jersey Checking Account and Preferred Money Market Account, a service
called United Jersey Preferred Banking. This service is designed to make banking more
convenient and profitable for customers. United Jersey Preferred Banking eliminates
monthly maintenance fees, provides unlimited free transactions at ATMs, preferred
rates on personal loans, higher interest rates on savings with higher balances and a
consolidated monthly statement. United Jersey Bank does not offer United Jersey
Preferred banking to customers with a combined balance of less than $3000 in a United
Jersey Checking Account and Preferred Money Market Account since these customers
are:
A. In the wrong segment
B. Not divisible
C. Not profitable in the long run
D. Known as difficult customers
E. None of the above
All of the following are situations in which a penetration pricing strategy would be
appropriate EXCEPT:
A. Sales volume of the service is very sensitive to price
B. Economies in unit costs can be achieved by operating at large volumes
C. A service faces threats of strong potential competition very soon after introduction
D. There is no class of buyers willing to pay a higher price to obtain the service
E. The service is a major improvement over past services
Which of the following is NOT a risk associated with the use of price differentiation to
smooth demand?
A. Customers paying higher prices may feel they are being treated unfairly
B. Attracting undesired market segments
C. Increased capacity utilization
D. Customers becoming accustomed to low price
E. The potential impact on the organization’s image
Two roommates both registered for an introduction to business class. At midterm, one
roommate found his instructor so boring that he was thinking of changing his major to
history. The other roommate had a charismatic teacher and looked forward to going to
class. This heterogeneity of instruction demonstrates:
A. How difficult it is to synchronize supply and demand with service
B. That customer service depends on employee actions
C. How customers affect each other
D. The fact services cannot be readily communicated or displayed
E. Why services cannot be inventoried
Which of the following statements describes how consumers and employees are
responding to technology-based services?
A. Services can readily calm fears that privacy may be sacrificed if technology is used
B. An infusion of technology can lead to an increase in human interaction
C. The payback for investments in technology is a certainty
D. Employees are often reluctant to integrate technology into their work lives
E. All of the above statements describe how consumers and employees are responding
to technology-based services
AT&T Universal Card Services (AT&T USC) gives its employees the right to grant
credit lines to customers and adjust customers’ bills without management approval. By
giving its employees the authority to make decisions that will benefit its customers,
AT&T USC is:
A. Including employees in the company’s vision
B. Empowering employees
C. Measuring and rewarding strong service performers
D. Promoting teamwork
E. Enveloping service-oriented internal processes
Which of the following is NOT a reason why a service firm may avoid a customer
relationship with a particular customer?
A. Customer is in the wrong segment
B. Customer is not divisible
C. Customer is not always right
D. Customer is not profitable in the long run
E. Customer is difficult
Which of the following is NOT an example of a hard customer-defined service
standard?
A. On-time delivery
B. 36-hour response time
C. Number of missed pickups
D. Orders entered the same day they are received
E. Understand the customer’s question or request
To be effective, complaint solicitations requires:
A. The same complaint be mentioned at least ten times before any action is taken
B. An individual complainer to have no more than one complaint
C. The company to treat the complaint as a snapshot of its service
D. Valid and reliable service questions
E. Rigorous recording of numbers and types of complaints through many channels
When a service firm’s resources are fully employed, but not overused; and customers
are receiving quality service in a timely manner, the firm is operating _____ capacity.
A. Above maximum
B. At maximum
C. Above optimum
D. At optimum
E. Below optimum
Because the customer essentially provides his/her own service, Internet-based services,
automated phone services and services delivered via DVD or video technology are
often referred to as _______________.
A. Virtual service technologies
B. Superficial services
C. Subtle deficiencies
D. Service amplification tendencies
E. Self-service technologies
_____ concerns the results that customers receive from their complaints.
A. Functional fairness
B. Procedural fairness
C. Interactional fairness
D. Service equity
E. Outcome fairness
The Walt Disney Company dress code requires male cast members with mustaches or
beards to trim their facial hair to no longer than one-quarter of an inch and be
well-groomed. Male cast members without mustaches and beards must be clean shaven
every day. All cast members must keep their nametags visible at all times, have no
visible tattoos and be professional in appearance. The Walt Disney Company’s dress
code reflects the _____ dimension of service quality.
A. Reliability
B. Responsiveness
C. Assurance
D. Empathy
E. Tangibles
Which of the following is NOT an effective pricing strategy to use when customers
define value as “low price”?
A. Odd pricing
B. Synchro-pricing
C. Value pricing
D. Penetration pricing
E. Discounting
(p. 243-244) The last step in building a service blueprint is to:
A. Draw the line of interaction and visibility
B. Identify the physical evidence needed to support service quality
C. Map the service process from the customer contact person’s point of view
D. Link customer and contact person activity to needed support function
E. Add evidence of service at each customer step
Every time Tom and Betty stay at a Marriott Hotel, they earn points that can be used at
a later date for free rooms, meals and other hotel amenities. Marriott is using _____ to
implement its retention strategy.
A. Financial bonds
B. Social bonds
C. Customization bonds
D. Structural bonds
E. Security bonds
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
Velma was preparing to take her first airplane trip in more than 20 years. One of the
primary reasons why she has not flown is because she is over six feet tall and the
closeness of the seats made her extremely uncomfortable. Just prior to making plane
reservations, she saw an article in a travel magazine congratulating United and
American Airlines for increasing the room between passenger seats. She did not have
time to read the whole articlejust the first paragraph. She made her reservations on
United Airlines with the expectation that she would not have to feel like she was ‘shoe
horned” into her seat. When she boarded the plane, she was struck with how close the
seats appeared. It wasn”t long before she learned that United had only increased the
room for the first six rows and American had made sure that every seat had extra room.
Velma’s service expectation levels were shaped by:
A. Explicit service promises and word-of-mouth communications
B. Past experience and word-of mouth communication
C. Implicit and explicit service promises
D. Implicit service promises and predicted service
E. Past experience and explicit service promises
An organization that wanted to create quantitative measures of its innovation and
learning should use:
A. Rate of customer defection
B. The 80/20 principle
C. Long-term value of innovation to customers
D. The operating efficiencies continuum
E. Performance-to-goal percentages
Which of the following is NOT a research objective for improving upward
communication in a service organization?
A. Gain first-hand knowledge about customers
B. Improve internal service quality
C. Gain first-hand knowledge of employees
D. Obtain ideas for service improvement
E. Gain first-hand knowledge about competitors
An airport with large, easily read signage and well-designed foot traffic patterns that
allow travelers to perform their roles with ease is providing travelers with _____
orientation.
A. Place
B. Cultural
C. Promotable
D. Physical evidence
E. Function
Parking for travelers flying out of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta is
difficult, even for those who have the time to look. For those arriving at the airport with
only time enough to catch their flight, parking was truly a nightmare until the
development of the GoldParker System, which guarantees a convenient parking place to
its members. The system is extremely popular among business travelers and works just
as advertised. By instituting the GoldParker System, Hartsfield’s management
has_______ to manage customer expectations:
A. Made realistic promises
B. Created effective horizontal communication
C. Offered a service guarantee
D. Engaged in public relations
E. Created a tiered-value service offering
The ad for legal services that Marla saw indicated the lawyers would receive no money
unless their client did. To Marla, this statement indicated the legal firm offering this
service was using:
A. Synchro-pricing
B. Two-part pricing
C. Mixed bundling
D. Contribution margin pricing
E. Contingency pricing
When customers have been surprised by a service outcome that is much better or worse
than expected, they tend to look for reasons and their assessments of the reasons can
influence their satisfaction. These perceived causes of service success or failure are
known as:
A. Blame states
B. Fairness assessments
C. Perceived disadvantages
D. Service advantages
E. Service attributions
Karen owns a cottage on Martha’s Vineyard, a popular island destination for tourists
from about April to October. When Karen visits the island in March to dine at her
favorite pizza restaurant, she expects great service because the tourists are not there.
Because she predicts she will receive great service, her _____ than it is during the
tourist season.
A. Level of desired service will be higher
B. Tolerance of situational factors will be higher
C. Level of adequate service will be higher
D. Zone of tolerance will be wider
E. Level of adequate service will be lower
Which of the following is an example of a poka-yoke?
A. Lynsey is so upset with the service she got at the travel agency that she is launching
a one-woman campaign to put it out of business
B. The business owner complains to the licensing board every time the next-door
restaurant’s employees forget to put the lids on the garbage cans
C. The day care center has carefully labeled bins for each parent to fill with food,
diapers, clothes and toys so that one child’s stuff will not confused with another’s
D. The customer refused to pay the delivery fee because the package arrived two days
late
E. The dentist’s office staff regularly does lost customer research
An important influence in desired service expectations is ____________, the
customer’s underlying generic attitude about the meaning of service and the proper
conduct of service providers.
A. Personal need
B. Personal service philosophy
C. Derived service expectations
D. Perceived service alternative
E. Situational attitude
Tom Grantham, a U.S. citizen, decided to outsource the preparation of his personal
income taxes to a company in India. After he emailed his earnings and scanned receipts,
his tax return was completed in two days at a cost of $50 ” about one-third of what a
U.S. firm like H&R Block charges. However, he had to file his return as ‘self-prepared,”
since it was not prepared by a U.S. accountant. Using a foreign service provider may
require customers to reset their:
A. Attitudes
B. Judgments
C. Expectations
D. Perceptions
E. Performances
Salespeople for college texts call on college instructors to sell them on using a
particular text for their classes. Improvements in efficiency have led some publishers to
stop making sales calls altogether on smaller colleges. It is a much better use of the
sales force’s time to call on schools with large classes and big adoption rates. From the
customer’s point of view, this application of the profitability tier:
A. Could cause resentment
B. Will not cause any problems
C. Simply increases the importance of word-of-mouth communication
D. Is not profitable
E. Creates across-the-board customer enhancement
Which of the following statements about service encounters is true?
A. When a customer has multiple service encounters with a firm, the only important
encounter in terms of the customer’s perception is the first one
B. If a customer is interacting with a firm for the first time, that initial encounter will
create a first impression of the organization
C. All encounters are equally important in building customer relationships
D. A customer will remember only negative service encounters and will forget any and
all positive ones
E. All services have on average about the same number of service encounters
Which of the following factors does NOT lead to provider gap 4?
A. Absence of strong internal marketing program
B. Over-promising in advertising
C. Insufficient communication between advertising and operations
D. Differences in policies and procedures across company branches
E. Creating clear standards
Hewlett-Packard uses FedEx to handle all of its fulfillment orders from its retail web
site. Once an order is placed at the HP web site, it is automatically transmitted to
FedEx’s Memphis headquarters. Orders are packaged at FedEx’s warehouse and shipped
by FedEx to the HP customer. This arrangement was set up as a solution to problems
with distribution capacity that HP experienced prior to the implementation of this
arrangement. Which strategy is HP using to adjust capacity to match demand?
A. Using part-time employees
B. Cross-training employees
C. Scheduling downtime during low periods
D. Performing maintenance and renovations
E. Outsourcing activities
Which element of the services marketing mix is influenced by the health inspector’s
report that is prominently displayed in all restaurants?
What kind of labor is the hotel operator performing when she has to explain for the
120th time why the hotel’s fire alarm went off accidentally ” with a smile?
When Tom had the satellite dish placed on the roof of his house, the installer dislodged
and made no attempt to replace a half dozen roofing shingles. Tom has complained
several times to his friends about the lousy service, but he would never complain to the
Better Business Bureau, nor is he likely to recommend the installer to friends. What
kind of complainer is Tom?
List two examples of sources of customer expectations over which the marketer has
limited control.
A television production company that asks viewers of a particular show to encourage
their friends and relatives to watch next week’s episode is using which method to create
effective service communications?
Which characteristic of services best explains the existence of zones of tolerance?
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?”
Why would a health club create tiered-value service offerings? What are the
advantages of such a strategy?
On which of the provider gaps do the actions of retailers, franchisees, agents and
brokers have the greatest impact?
What is service recovery?
Give a brief generalized definition of a customer’s perception of service.
For a tax audit, Shameika brought all of her tax records for the last three years to her
CPA’s office. There the CPA, with Shameika’s help, tried to reconstruct what had
happened during that time period. What kind of consumer presence is required here?
Maria Kingsley is a fortune teller. She is concerned because today two of her clients
missed their appointments to have her read their Tarot cards and she had plans for the
money she would have earned. With which characteristic of services is Kingsley most
concerned?
An airline is concerned with whether its passengers are satisfied with how their
luggage is handled before, during and after a flight. With which element of the services
marketing mix is the airline concerned?
Based on her experience as a waitress, Belle believes that a server in a restaurant
should keep the customers’ drink glasses full. When she goes to a restaurant where she
has to ask to have her drink glass refilled, she automatically assumes that the restaurant
has bad service. What is the concept that describes her attitude about the proper conduct
for the servers?
What kind of a pricing strategy is a crafts show using when it charges a lower entry fee
for teenagers and senior citizens?
Lorenzo attended his first antique auction last night. After examining the merchandise,
he noticed several signs posted around the building. “All sales are final”. “All
merchandise sold on an ‘as-is’ basis”. “We are not responsible for any merchandise left
overnight”. In terms of customer participation, what was the purpose of those signs?
With respect to customer demand, what do the insurance industry, the banking industry
and the dry cleaning industry have in common?
What do servicescapes, personal selling and service encounters have in common?
Imagine you are the manager of an electrical contracting company that does repair
work, remodeling and new construction for homeowners. You understand that you need
to set customer-defined standards in order to close the gap between customer
expectations and what your company is now delivering. List and define the two major
types of customer-defined standards and give three examples of each.