Which of the following statements about the American Customer Satisfaction Index
(ACSI) is true?
A. The ACSI demonstrates to service providers that there is much room for
improvement in customer satisfaction
B. The ACSI was developed by the federal government as a way to include customer
satisfaction measurements in census data
C. In spite of the name, the ACSI also measures customer satisfaction levels for
countries with which the U.S. has a greater than average level of trade
D. The only country that is currently studying customer satisfaction and creating an
index is the United States
E. The ACSI tracks customer perceptions of the level of satisfaction provided by sole
proprietorships as well as by large corporations
Roger Simpson is an event planner who specializes in planning family reunions. He
typically works with one or two members of the family who provide him with all the
family-related information. If a family reunion planner refuses to provide Simpson
information about Uncle George and his descendents because he did not like Uncle
George, that family member will have contributed to the widening of provider _____ by
preventing Simpson from doing his job to the best of his ability.
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 3
D. Gap 4
E. Gap 5
Josh’s teachers describe him as a mathematical genius. His parents did not get any
education after high school. They have hired Josh a tutor even though they do not
understand why Josh needs to understand string theory and quantum physics. The
tutoring that Josh receives has a high degree of _____ for Josh’s parents.
A. Nonsearchability
B. Abstractness
C. Incorporeal existence
D. Generality vs. specificity
E. Mental impalpability
Service companies can close provider gap 4 by:
A. Improving communications between sales and operations departments
B. Using a systematic new-service development process
C. Eliminating employee role ambiguity and role conflict
D. Creating customer-defined standards
E. Making sure customers understand their roles and responsibilities
The Chatham Landing apartment complex offers tenants $200 off one month’s rent for
each new tenant referral. By rewarding tenants for making a tenant referral, Chatham
Landing is encouraging tenants to perform which of the following customer jobs?
A. Helping oneself
B. Positioning the company
C. Promoting the company
D. Recruiting customers
E. Helping others
It is often useful to create a service blueprint at the ___________ stage of the service
innovation and development process.
A. Commercialization
B. Business analysis
C. New services strategy development
D. Service concept development and evaluation
E. Idea generation
A person who is a(n) _____ is a type of complainer who is unlikely to say anything to
the service provider. This type of complainer often doubts the effectiveness of
complaining because of a belief that the consequences will not merit the time and effort
they will expend complaining.
A. Irate
B. Passive
C. Aggressive
D. Activist
E. Voicer
Customer _____ are the standards for performance against which service experiences
are compared.
A. Perceptions
B. Expectations
C. Attitudes
D. Judgments
E. Wants
During two-day orientation and extensive on-the-job training, each Ritz-Carlton Hotel
employee learns the Ritz-Carlton Gold Standards, which contain a credo, 20 basics of
service, knowledge of one’s work area, answering the telephone with a smile, wearing
immaculate uniforms and the three steps of service. The three steps of service are
comprised of a warm and sincere greeting, anticipation and compliance with guests’
needs and a fond farewell using the guest’s name, if possible. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is
using which of the following human resource strategies?
A. Hiring the right people
B. Providing needed support systems
C. Eliminating employee churn
D. Developing people to deliver service quality
E. Creating supportive servicescapes
The Hilton Hawaiian Village offers its guests mattresses that adjust to body contours
and weight. The bed designed with air baffles and wooden slats is good for people with
bad backs and those with varicose veins. These mattresses use _____ to create positive
responses to the hotel’s servicescape.
A. Bioengineering
B. Physiological tooling
C. Physical factors design
D. Holistic design
E. Ergonomics
_____ occurs in markets with a high concentration of sellers. Any price offered by one
company will be matched by its competitors in order to avoid giving the low-price
seller a distinct advantage.
A. Cost-plus pricing
B. Price signaling
C. Value pricing
D. Price lining
E. Price standardization
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
In India weddings are timed to occur when Venus is in the ascendant and Jupiter is
strong. This day is deemed lucky. In 2005, almost 15, 000 couples in New Delhi had
their wedding on December 25, the day astrologers announced would be the best day
for a wedding. It is very likely that wedding planners in New Delhi have difficulty
narrowing provider ______ of the gaps model of service quality due to their inability to
match supply and demand.
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 3
D. Gap 4
Because of the _____ of services, service producers find themselves playing a role as
part of the product itself and an essential ingredient in the service experience for the
consumer.
A. Comparability
B. Intangibility
C. Heterogeneity
D. Simultaneous production and consumption
E. Perishability
Based on the Framework for Understanding Physical Environment-User Relationships,
a person’s ___________ to the servicescape is what influence his or her behavior in the
service environment.
A. Approach to
B. Commitment to
C. Affiliation with
D. Internal response to
E. Route to
To determine the source of customers’ favorable and unfavorable perceptions in service
encounters, researchers use which of the following research methods?
A. Trailer calls
B. Mall intercept interviews
C. Role-playing experiments
D. Critical incident technique
E. Thematic apperception tests
Moonlight Catering has increased the deposit it requires before agreeing to cater an
event to $300. This amount is nonrefundable and must be paid when Moonlight
Catering is hired for the job. This increase in deposit will help Moonlight Catering
achieve its goal of:
A. Customer enhancement
B. Prospecting
C. Increasing its value-added service
D. Customer satisfaction
E. Customer retention
Due to the _____ characteristic of services, customers will frequently interact with
each other during the service production process and may affect each other’s
experiences.
A. Comparability
B. Intangibility
C. Heterogeneity
D. Simultaneous production and consumption
E. Perishability
Which of the following trends has directly influenced the development of services
marketing concepts and strategies?
A. The decreasing importance of service industries to the U.S. and world economies
B. The growth in information-based technology
C. Decreased competition in professional services
D. The fact that manufacturing firms are placing increased emphasis on providing
services
E. None of the above
The University of Central Florida’s Incentive/Efficiency Program encourages
employees to submit tangible ideas or suggestions that will result in savings or generate
additional revenue for the University of Central Florida. The person who suggests an
adopted proposal receives a cash reward equal to 10 percent of the first year’s net
savings or generated revenues. The University of Central Florida’s Incentive/Efficiency
Program is designed to achieve which of the following research objectives?
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
Elmer Jennings is a government auditor and works for the Bracken and Leach firm. He
is the one who checks to see that city and county governments have complied with
accounting principles. As an auditor, Jennings sometimes will spend six weeks in one
office while he checks its accounting records. The closeness of the relationship that
Jennings builds with the government employees he works with was realized by Bracken
and Leach when Jennings left the firm, went to work for another one and took his
clients with him. This is an example of how _____ benefits can be both helpful and
harmful.
A. Confidence
B. Reliability
C. Social
D. Transactional
E. Economic
When IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer, wanted to open a store in Chicago,
the company asked groups of customers to dream up their ideal shopping experience
and draw a design for a store that would satisfy their needs. IKEA subsequently
incorporated the customers’ ideas into the service design for the store. Instead of simply
conducting surveys to determine customer expectations, IKEA put customers in a “wish
mode” and successfully used an innovative approach to close provider _________ of
the gaps model of service quality.
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 3
D. Gap 4
During the commercialization stage, the service goes live and is introduced to the
marketplace. This stage has two primary objectives. One is to build and maintain
acceptance of the new service among large numbers of service delivery personnel who
will be responsible for day to day service quality. The other is to:
A. Evaluate tangibles for the service that are designed to reduce problems associated
with service heterogeneity
B. Monitor all aspects of the service during introduction and through the complete
service cycle
C. Provide adequate resources to prevent service failures
D. Develop a positioning strategy around which the service provider can build a
sustainable competitive advantage
E. Analyze the market and begin the next new service development process
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 the company. Only completely satisfied customers count toward an employee
ESQi score, which is used to measure employee’s potential for promotion. Enterprise
uses a _____ customer-defined standard.
A. Reactive
B. Proactive
C. Informal
D. Hard
E. Soft
When is a service guarantee inappropriate?
A. When prices for the service are high
B. When negative impact of unsolved problems is high
C. When service quality is truly uncontrollable
D. When company has a poor image for service quality
E. When company depends on frequent customer purchases
Progressive Insurance examined insurance from the customers’ viewpoint and saw how
difficult it was to get an auto claim processed and paid by insurance companies. Then
the company crafted its service strategy around solving that problem. The company
now has fleets of claim adjustors on the road every day, ready to rush to the scene of an
accident in their territory and provide fast claims processing-sometimes on the spot.
Progressive Insurance relies on _____ service standards.
A. Company-defined
B. Competitor-focused
C. Customer-defined
D. Cost-focused
E. Service provider-defined
Which type of conflict results from the fact that Sully’s Cleaning requires its employees
to wear uniforms?
A. Person/role
B. Vertical
C. Organization/client
D. Inter-client
E. Horizontal
The growth of e-tailing has led to the identification of four core dimensions that
consumers use to evaluate Web sites at which they experience no questions or
problems. They are:
A. Efficiency, fulfillment, system availability and privacy
B. Responsiveness, reliability, assurance and empathy
C. Context, content, community and connectivity
D. Content, reliability, privacy and download speed
E. Efficiency, effectiveness, maneuverability and attractiveness
When Alicia and Jordan dined at Formia Ristorante, a contemporary Italian restaurant
in New Jersey, they both enjoyed Formia’s coy, smart and embracing atmosphere.
Formia creates this atmosphere with a single large dining room that measures 20 by 60
feet and contains 14 roomy tables. Ceiling fans slowly swirl as candlelight dances
across the tables that are attentively cared for by servers. Vertical pink and white florid
patterns emerge from old wainscoting. Finally, Formia’s two-page menu offers guests a
range of pasta, chicken, veal and seafood entrees, in addition to nightly specials that are
handwritten and presented on large index cards. Alicia and Jordan experienced the
_____ element of Formia Ristorante’s services marketing mix.
A. Product
B. Production
C. Process
D. Place
E. Physical evidence
Keith-McCoy is a government auditing firm that specializes in auditing public
transportation systems. The firm was operating at maximum capacity when it was asked
to submit a bid on a very lucrative account in Chicago. If the firm were to win this
account and keep all of its current accounts, it will more than likely:
A. Decrease employee turnover potential
B. Increase customer satisfaction through a work focus
C. Increase employee burnout
D. Increase service quality
E. Create a narrower window of opportunity for meeting deadlines
_____ cost refers to the effort invested in identifying and selecting a service from your
consideration set.
A. Convenience
B. Monetary
C. Psychological
D. Time
E. Search