The Offshore Sailing School in Jersey City, New Jersey offers a basic sailing course,
which takes place in three days over two weekends, for $495. Students enrolled in the
course attend classroom sessions that cover the theory and technology of sailing and
receive hands-on sailing instructions in the water that introduces them to all
fundamental sailing skills. Student participation in the Offshore Sailing School’s
classroom sessions and hands-on sailing instructions illustrates the _____ characteristic
of services.
A. Versatility
B. Heterogeneity
C. Simultaneous production and consumption
D. Perishability
E. Intangibility
Service employees who depend on tips or commissions for income are likely to face
greater levels of _____ conflict than employees who receive a straight salary.
A. Person/role
B. Vertical
C. Organization/client
D. Inter-client
E. Horizontal
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
The empowerment of employees makes which of the following service recovery
strategies easier to implement?
A. Make the service fail safe
B. Learn from lost customers
C. Treat customers fairly
D. Encourage and track complaints
E. Respond quickly
(p. 267-268) Which of the following is an example of a specific behavior or action that
defines the performance expected by customers?
A. Cost estimate is price customer pays
B. Fixes the product right the first time
C. Delivers the product on the promised date
D. Greets customers within 5 minutes of entering the store
E. All of the above
The research exploring the relative importance of service dimensions on overall service
quality or customer satisfaction has confirmed _____ as the most critical dimension.
A. Assurance
B. Tangibles
C. Empathy
D. Responsiveness
E. Reliability
Which of the following is NOT a technology substitution for personal contact and
human effort?
A. On-line services
B. Professional maid service
C. Voice mail
D. Automatic teller machines
E. Automatic car wash
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
Flying across the Pacific Ocean is an eight-hour trip that could be dreadful if you did
not fly Singapore Airlines. One frequent flyer between the U.S. and Japan noted its
cabin crew gives the impression that it is truly their pleasure to serve the passengers. In
short, they make flying with Singapore Airlines very satisfying. What role does this
passenger have the cabin crew playing?
A. Embodying the service
B. Marketing the organization
C. Personifying the service in the customer’s eyes
D. Engaged in capacity management
E. Eliminating the need for differential advantages
A company that uses a four-tier scheme to segment is customers by profitability:
A. Is using usage segmentation
B. Identifies customers who need different sorts of attention
C. Can increase profitability by increasing sales to lower-level customers
D. Cannot use relationship marketing effectively
E. Is accurately described by all of the above
________ 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
All of the following are measures within the innovation and learning perspective of the
balanced performance scorecard EXCEPT:
A. Employee skills
B. Return on innovation
C. Number of new products
D. Time spent talking to customers
E. Service expectations
The University of Leeds in the U.K. released findings of its study of television viewing
behaviors. Seventeen families had permission for cameras with sound to be placed in
the main living areas of their homes for two three-week periods over two years to watch
them watch television. The University of Leeds used _____ to determine that people
who have specifically chosen to watch a program are more likely to remain present for
the commercial breaks within it.
A. Multicultural surveys
B. Market-oriented ethnography
C. Process checkpoint evaluations
D. Requirements research
E. Diversity studies
Boston Symphony Orchestra realized the classic music market was generally becoming
older and needed to learn how to appeal to younger concert-goers. It hired a research
agency to identify the positive and negative attributes of going to concerts. One type of
research conducted by the agency was to interview former symphony season ticket
holders who were not longer attending the concerts. In other words, the agency used:
A. Complaint solicitation
B. Critical incidents studies
C. Relationship survey
D. Trailer calls
E. Lost customer research
Which of the following is a strategy used for managing customer education?
A. Teach customers to avoid peak demand periods and see slow periods
B. Clarify expectations after the sale
C. Prepare customers for the service process
D. Conform performance to standards
E. Create tiered-value offerings
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
Pret a Manger, a London-based sandwich shop, introduced restaurant-quality
sandwiches with fast-food velocity. This would be an example of a
A. Major innovation
B. New service for the currently served market
C. Service line extension
D. Service improvement
E. Style change
A major cause of _____ is the difference between what a firm promises about a service
and what it actually delivers.
A. Customer empowerment
B. Poorly perceived service
C. Service downsizing
D. Service autonomy
E. Originator ambiguity
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 the company. Only
completely satisfied customers count toward an employee ESQi score, which is used to
measure employee’s potential for promotion. Enterprise closes provider _____ by using
marketing research.
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 3
D. Gap 4
(p. 187-188) The carpenter came to install the new flooring in the Barry kitchen two
weeks ago. Once he had removed the old flooring, he announced he needed to go get a
sander to smooth out the subflooring. He has not been back. A person who is a voicer
type when it comes to complaining would react to this by:
A. Assuming he had done something to alienate the carpenter
B. Taking no action whatsoever
C. Spreading negative word of mouth about the carpenter to all of his or her friends and
relatives
D. Confronting the carpenter at another job site and demanding to know when he would
be back to finish the floor
E. Hiring another carpenter to finish the job
Which of the following statements about communications and the service marketing
triangle is true?
A. External marketing communications include advertising, public relations, personal
selling and sales promotions
B. The sides of the service marketing triangle are customers, providers and the
company
C. Interactive marketing communications are exemplified by vertical and horizontal
communications
D. All communications methods that relate to the service marketing triangle are either
verbal or print
E. Service encounters are an example of internal marketing
Harrah’s Entertainment, a casino hotel company, has a company incentive program
weighted toward team results. A relatively small percentage of compensation is based
on individual goals. Everyone in the organization is rewarded based on customer
service scores. Harrah’s Entertainment is:
A. Including employees in the company’s vision
B. Empowering employees
C. Creating employees as customers
D. Promoting teamwork
E. Developing service-oriented internal processes
The extent to which customers recognize and are willing to accept variation in service
performance is called the ____________:
A. Acceptable variation
B. Extent of indifference
C. Area of acceptability
D. Area of impartiality
E. Zone of tolerance
One factor that influences adequate service is _____, the level of service that customers
believe they are likely to get.
A. Predicted service
B. Forecasted intensity
C. Evoked service
D. Ego-oriented service
E. The service paradigm
Which of the following statements does NOT describe how consumers typically define
value?
A. Value is all that I get for all that I give
B. Value is everything I want in a service
C. Value is low price
D. Value is reliable service
E. Value is the quality I get for the price I pay
After determining that reliability was a major concern for its customers, a pest control
company translated customer expectations into behaviors and actions for its monthly
sprayings of homes and businesses. Having accomplished that, the pest control
company needs next to:
A. Provide feedback about performance to employees
B. Establish target levels for standards
C. Determine whether hard or soft standards are appropriate
D. Develop measurements for standards
E. Track behaviors and actions against existing standards
A service firm that calculates the long-term value of a customer is looking at the _____
in its balanced performance scorecard.
A. Competitor perspective
B. Customer perspective
C. Financial measures
D. Innovation and learning perspective
E. Operational measures
American Airlines conducts ongoing in-flight surveys to assess passengers’ perceptions
of the ticket buying process, gate agents, flight attendants, food and beverage service,
condition/comfort of airplanes and adherence to departure/arrival schedules. American
Airline’s research provides feedback on _____ measurements.
A. Hard
B. Basic
C. Formal
D. Soft
E. Informal
Mike hurt his back and has to go to physical therapy every other day. He has a series of
exercises he is supposed to do on the days he does not see the therapist. After two
months, Mike was not feeling any better and complained to the therapist who at that
point realized Mike was not performing all of the stretching exercises that he should be
at this point in his rehabilitation. Mike had been handed a booklet when he started his
therapy. Because he had only been instructed in how to perform some of the exercises
in the booklet but not all of them, he had thought he was not to do the others. Mike feels
like he has been wasting his time. The service provider has erred by:
A. Inadequate internal marketing communications
B. Inappropriate external marketing communications
C. Providing inadequate customer education
D. Under-promising and over-delivering
E. Inadequate management of customer expectations
Which of the following is NOT a source of customer expectations?
A. Word-of-mouth communications
B. Advertising
C. Pricing
D. Sales promises
E. Target market
The busiest time for tax preparers is the week prior to April 15th. 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
Companies that emphasize acquiring new customers rather than retaining current
customers are using _____ marketing.
A. Transactional
B. Developmental
C. Proactive
D. Relationship
E. Acquisition
Inadequate customer communication occurs when:
A. The services have synchronized supply and demand
B. Customers are experienced users of the service
C. The services are low in credence qualities
D. The service is difficult for the customer to evaluate even after it has been delivered
E. The services are high priced
Henri, Brad and Wesley are all studying to be dog groomers at a local Petsmart training
academy. Henri and Brad believe they received inadequate training because they could
not get a job when the course concluded. Wesley 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
Which of the following statements describes a problem in cost-based pricing for
services?
A. Monetary price must be adjusted to reflect the value of non-monetary costs
B. Heterogeneity of services limits comparability
C. Prices may not reflect customer value
D. Labor is more difficult to price than materials
E. Information on service costs is not available to customers