Bob and Tiffany have been busy this week seeing all kinds of service providers. In
which of the following service situations would Bob and Tiffany have had the lowest
level of participation?
A. A visit to McDonald’s for breakfast
B. A session with their marriage counselor
C. The hauling of a grand piano from their home in Nashville to their parents’ home in
Brentwood in a truck they rented for that purpose
D. Tiffany’s annual physical examination
E. Bob’s weekly visit with his personal trainer
Joyce and Amber are both new mothers who are concerned about child-proofing their
homes to keep their babies safe. Joyce called Baby Safe, an agency that will send an
expert in childcare to her home to conduct an individualized survey of the home and
advise on dangerous situations. Amber went on the Internet and found a Web site that
told her exactly what she should do to make her house safe. Which of the service
delivery roles did Amber perform?
A. Customer mix manager
B. Competitor
C. Productive resource
D. Contributor to quality and satisfaction
E. Recruiter
For a physical evidence strategy to be effective, it must:
A. Offer customization capabilities
B. Create departmental integration
C. Be linked clearly to the organization’s overall goals and vision
D. Be blueprinted
E. Avoid creating negative ambient conditions
On his way to work today, Terry saw a billboard for a physician’s group that specialized
in vascular surgery. In his local newspaper there was a full-page ad for a medical clinic
that performed similar surgery. Then in his mail, he got a brochure from yet another
medical clinic asking him if he wanted to get rid of ugly varicose veins. Which trend
that influenced the development of services marketing concepts and strategies is
illustrated here?
A. The increasing importance of service industries to the U.S. and world economies
B. The increase of government regulation of professional service industries
C. The growth in database marketing
D. Increased competition in professional services
E. Professional firms are placing increased emphasis on providing services
When the character playing Alice in Wonderland signed autographs and had her picture
taken with guests at Disneyworld, it was an example of a(n):
A. Customer action
B. Onstage contact employee action
C. Backstage contact employee action
D. Support process
E. Audience action
Each year representatives of college activities boards throughout the U.S. gather at
regional National Association of College Activities (NACA) conventions to listen, talk
to and hire acts for the upcoming school year. Auburn Moon from Philadelphia is one of
the agencies that attends the NACA conventions. The owner of this agency prepares a
CD that contains two or three songs by each of the acts she represents and gives them
out to students at the conventions. Students can listen to the CDs at their leisure and
share the music with other decision makers on campus. With the CDs, Auburn Moon is
_____ about its entertainers and their abilities.
A. Motivating its customers
B. Positioning its customers
C. Managing the customer mix
D. Defining its customers’ jobs
E. Educating its customers
A(n) _____ expectation occurs when customer expectations are driven by another
person or group of people.
A. Derived service
B. Other-self
C. Dyadic
D. Service-vision
E. Shared
The _____ dimension of service quality is highly dependent on employees’ ability to
communicate their credibility and to inspire trust and confidence.
A. Reliability
B. Responsiveness
C. Assurance
D. Empathy
E. Tangibles
All of the following are measurement areas contained in a balanced performance
scorecard EXCEPT:
A. Competitor measures
B. Customer perceptual measures
C. Financial measures
D. Innovation and learning
E. Operational measures
New Bedford College has a two-year masters degree program designed for special
education teachers. Thirty-five students enter the program each fall. The education
department requires that the 35 students take the same classes. Classes are made
available in sequence. If Beth wanted to take only one special education class to get her
a teaching certificate in learning disabilities (LD), she would be unable to because she
would not be able to participate in any carry-over projects from previous classes (This
is a common teaching tool for the New Bedford education department faculty.). New
Bedford College will avoid setting up a relationship with Beth because:
A. She is in the wrong segment
B. She and others like her are compatible
C. Her needs are homogeneous with many others
D. She would be a difficult customer
E. She would not be profitable in the short-run
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 a central figure in the neighborhood
network.
A. Esteem benefits
B. Self-actualization
C. Social support system
D. Utility transfer
E. Assurance group
When Alicia went to talk to a cleaning service about having the carpets in her
apartment shampooed, she was told that if she would rent the service’s equipment and
do it herself, it would cost her 50 percent less and be done much sooner because the
service’s personnel were booked solid for the next two weeks. The cleaning service is:
A. Rewarding customers
B. Positioning customers
C. Managing the customer mix
D. Defining customers’ jobs
E. Educating customers
If customers believe they have multiple service providers to choose from, or if they can
provide the service for themselves, their levels of _____________ are higher than those
of customer who believe it is not possible to get better service elsewhere.
A. Adequate service
B. Desired service
C. Predicted service
D. Ideal service
E. Derived service
Many service organizations have discovered that, to be truly responsive to customer
needs, frontline employees need to be ___________ to accommodate customer requests
and to recover on the spot when things go wrong.
A. Empowered
B. Socialized
C. Tutored
D. Lectured
E. Promoted
The ad guaranteed that you would be skydiving after only a couple of hours of lessons.
Megan was excited at the prospect. After enrolling in the class, she learned that rather
than skydiving by herself, which is what the ad implied, she would be skydiving in
tandem (belted to another experienced sky diver) due to safety requirements. Megan’s
disappointment was the result of:
A. Inadequate management of customer expectations
B. Under-promising and over-delivering
C. Improper vertical communication
D. Differences in policies and procedures across departments
E. Inadequate customer empowerment
A potential service employee should be assessed not only for service competencies, but
for ___________.
A. Service fortitude
B. Empathy
C. Assurance
D. Service inclination
E. Service responsibility
All of the following are strategic roles of the servicescape EXCEPT:
A. Package
B. Boundary spanner
C. Differentiator
D. Facilitator
E. Socializer
The final step in the process for developing customer-defined standards is to:
A. Provide feedback about performance to employees
B. Periodically update target levels and measures
C. Track measures against standards
D. Provide feedback about performance to customers
E. Establish measures and target levels
_____ research is conducted to clarify problem definition and prepare for more formal
empirical research.
A. Functional
B. Quantitative
C. Primary
D. Secondary
E. Qualitative
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
All of the following are customer perceptual measures within the balanced
performance scorecard EXCEPT:
A. Number of defections
B. Number of cross sales
C. Service perceptions
D. Long-term value of customer
E. Service expectations
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
Yesterday, Mike went to the dentist for his 6-month check-up. Two weeks before he
went to the dentist, he called the office to make an appointment. The day before his
check-up, the office’s receptionist called him to confirm his appointment. When Mike
arrived at the office, he checked in with the receptionist and then waited in the waiting
room for 15 minutes, reading a magazine, before being greeted by the dental hygienist,
who escorted him to an examination room. The dentist entered the room, greeted Mike,
examined Mike’s teeth, took a set of x-rays and asked the dental hygienist to clean
Mike’s teeth. When his teeth were cleaned, the hygienist told Mike he should return in 6
months for another check-up. Mike experienced the _____ element of the dental office’s
services marketing mix.
A. Product
B. Personalization
C. Process
D. Place
E. Physical evidence
Which of the following products has the highest degree of nonsearchability?
A. Motor oil
B. Fresh doughnuts
C. A wedding veil
D. Fast food
E. Massage therapy
The most distinguishing characteristic of services is:
A. Heterogeneity
B. Perishability
C. Intangibility
D. Comparability
E. Divisibility
When you visit the web site for Hyatt hotels, you can look at pictures of its newest
hotels, register for its continuity programs and make reservations quickly. Because the
site is inviting, attractive and fun to browse, customers perceive the Hyatt hotels to also
be this way. By designing it this way, Hyatt has used:
A. Clue management
B. Customer-driven cues
C. Company-oriented tangibles
D. A visual enhancement strategy
E. A virtual enhancement strategy
Bruce was driving to work yesterday when he was nearly run off the road by a
speeding furniture delivery truck. On the back of the truck was a phone number to call
if you believed the driver was not handling the truck safely. Rather than deciding to
never buy furniture from this furniture company, Bruce called the company and
complained about the truck driver. The person who took his call thanked Bruce for his
concern, apologized for the driver and promised to reprimand him. Which service
recovery strategy was the furniture store using?
A. Make the service fail safe
B. Learn from lost customers
C. Use procedural fairness
D. Encourage and track complaints
E. Treat customers proactively
Jack and Luke used the same mechanic to fix their cars. Both were unhappy with
recent repairs. Luke who complained because his car was improperly repaired will have
a ______ level of adequate service and a _____ zone of tolerance than Jack who did not
complain about how poorly his car was running after the mechanic put in new spark
plugs and did other maintenance.
A. Lower; narrower
B. Lower; wider
C. Higher; narrower
D. Higher; wider
E. Stays the same; stays the same
For which of the following services does successful service delivery depend on
consumers having a moderate level of participation by providing information, effort or
physical possessions?
A. A weight-reduction program
B. Airline travel
C. A symphony concert
D. A haircut
E. Marriage counseling
Because a service is a performance, it often cannot be previewed or inspected in
advance. This property of intangibility is known as:
A. Incorporeal existence
B. Nonsearchability
C. Generality
D. Abstractness
E. Multidimensionality
Which of the following is NOT a category of strategy that service providers can use to
match service promises with service delivery?
A. Integrate the service dimensions
B. Improve customer education
C. Manage service promises
D. Manage customer expectations
E. Manage internal marketing communications
A consumer’s decision to produce a service for himself or herself or contract externally
for the service depends on a variety of factors. Which of the following is an example of
a psychic reward a homeowner might receive if he decides to landscape his own yard
instead of hiring a landscape design expert?
A. Control over the landscaping process and the final results
B. Feelings of pride and pleasure as he looks at the final results
C. A high degree of confidence in his own ability to landscape
D. The skills and knowledge of a landscape artist
E. Less expensive process than a professional landscaper would offer