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
Which of the following statements about providing customers with service quality is
true?
A. All customers must be provided the same superior quality of service
B. All customers are worth attracting and keeping through the use of service quality
C. The same services marketing strategy should be used with all customers
D. All customers will be profitable in the long run; therefore, each is deserving of
quality service
E. Links exist among customer satisfaction, service quality and increased purchases
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
As the flight attendant listened to the business traveler complain about having to sit in
the plane and wait for two hours before the plane took off, the attendant sorted through
some magazines, got a blanket for another passenger and clearly ignored the legitimate
complaints of the businessperson. This is clearly a problem with:
A. Functional fairness
B. Service equity
C. Interactional fairness
D. Distributive fairness
E. Relationship management
One of the most useful forms of analysis in marketing research is the _____, which
combines information about customer perceptions and importance ratings.
A. Zone of tolerance chart
B. Hierarchical needs matrix
C. Importance/performance matrix
D. Perception/expectation hierarchy
E. Quality/satisfaction chart
A telephone order taker for a catalog retailer is expected to treat each customer with
concern and courtesy and be willing to spend as much time as needed to get the order
taken, while not leaving other customers waiting on hold for too long. The telephone
order taker is likely to experience _____ tradeoff.
A. Demand/supply
B. Client/organization
C. Customization/standardization
D. Inclination/competency
E. Quality/productivity
Which of the following statements about complaint solicitation is true?
A. Customer complaints provide an adequate source of information about customers’
perceptions and expectations of services
B. The technique of soliciting customer complaints is only used for services
C. Research on customer complaints is one of the most difficult research techniques to
use
D. Research on customer complaints allows companies to improve failure points and to
improve or correct the performance of contact personnel
E. No major companies would depend on customer complaints as its only source of
information on its customers’ perceptions and expectations of its services
Provider _____ is the difference between customer expectations of service and
company understanding of those expectations.
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 3
D. Gap 4
The basic formula for _____ is Price = Direct costs + Overhead + Profit margin.
A. Contribution margin
B. Return on investment
C. Cost-based pricing
D. ABC costing
E. Net profit
After moving to Florida, Vanessa opened both a savings and a checking account at
Benford Bank. Although Benford had a higher minimum balance requirement for free
checking than the other two banks she considered, Vanessa chose Benford because it
was located closer to her home than the other banks. Vanessa would rather expend other
costs than _____ costs.
A. Convenience
B. Monetary
C. Psychological
D. Time
E. Search
Which of the following statements describes a benefit of critical incident studies?
A. The method provides abstract data
B. The method provides data that is readily quantifiable
C. The research method is especially useful when the service is new
D. The research method is especially useful for services in the maturity stage of their
product life cycle
E. All of the above statements describe a benefit of critical incident studies
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
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
Because appropriate hard measurements are not always intuitive or obvious, the
potential for counting or tracking an irrelevant aspect of operations is high. Thus, it is
often desirable to link operational performance measures with _________ to be sure
they are strongly correlated.
A. Tangible measurements
B. Basic measurements
C. Soft measurements
D. Formal standards
E. Customer panels
Based on servicescape usage, a convenience store is a(n) _____ environment.
A. Self-service
B. Vertical service
C. Remote service
D. Flexible service
E. Interpersonal services
The New York Palace, an upscale hotel in New York City, synchronizes demand and
hotel capacity by offering an attractively priced weekend package during the fall when
demand for its rooms slows down. In addition to having a luxury-filled weekend at the
New York Palace for $219 per night, guests enjoy very select privileges from Saks Fifth
Avenue. Its weekend package provides a personal shopping coordinator, complimentary
gift wrap and package delivery to the hotel, individual beauty consultation and a 10
percent Saks discount. The New York Palace’s weekend package closes provider ____
of the gaps model of service quality.
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 3
D. Gap 4
PIMS (profit impact of marketing strategy) research:
A. Is used for determining the short-term effect of service quality on company profits
B. Shows that companies offering superior service achieve the same market share
growth as those who offer average service
C. Demonstrates the advantages of offensive marketing
D. Relies on executives’ opinions to predict how services will affect profit
E. Is accurately described by all of the above
Elysian Events, a wedding planning company, noted how many couples had a wedding
catastrophe of some kind. As a result, it abandoned wedding planning and began
offering wedding insurance to protect couples from financial losses due to weather
emergencies, stolen wedding rings, damaged wedding dresses, etc. In terms of the
service blueprint, preparation of documents to submit to the insurance underwriting
company that makes it possible for Elysian Events to offer wedding insurance
inexpensively is part of which section of the service blueprint?
A. Customer actions
B. Onstage contact employee actions
C. Backstage contact employee actions
D. Support processes
E. Audience actions
Which of the following is NOT a base for differentiating waiting customers?
A. Willingness to perform service role
B. Importance of the customer
C. Duration of the service transaction
D. Urgency of the job
E. Payment of a premium price
The ads for a weight loss program that promised the program would change an
individual’s eating habits through hypnosis is probably overstating its usefulness
because there are some people in the world that cannot be hypnotized. This sort of
misleading advertising broadens provider _____ of the gaps model of service quality.
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 3
D. Gap 4
_____ costs represent other sources of sacrifice perceived by consumers when buying
and using a service.
A. Penalty
B. Forfeit
C. Opportunity
D. Nonmonetary
E. Psychological
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-Jackson’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 key drivers of service quality, customer retention and profits include:
A. The servicescape and internal marketing
B. The five dimensions of service quality and service encounters
C. External marketing communications and employee training
D. Public relations and direct marketing
E. All of the above
For which of the following service providers would a guarantee be inappropriate?
A. A child care provider who has a reputation for providing the best and most
responsible child care in a community
B. A truck rental company
C. An engine tune-up at a car dealership
D. A travel agency
E. A university
________ is the level of service that customers believe they are likely to get during an
impending transaction or exchange.
A. Adequate service
B. Desired service
C. Predicted service
D. Forecasted intensity
E. Personal service
When a customer of Twin Cities Rehabilitation Center complained that his therapist
was one hour late for their appointment, the owner of the center gave the customer
credit for one free hour of therapy. The action taken by the owner is an example of
___________.
A. Service recovery
B. Service paradox
C. Service inconsistency
D. Outcome fairness
E. Procedural recovery
When translating abstract customer requirements into concrete behaviors and actions,
the pertinent information should be gathered and interpreted by _________ to avoid the
creation of company-defined standards rather than customer-defined standards.
A. Company managers
B. An objective source such as an outside research firm
C. Contact employees only
D. Company managers and contact employees
E. The company’s board of directors
Service companies can close provider gap 4 by doing all of the following EXCEPT:
A. Avoiding over-promising in advertising
B. Conducting market research
C. Adequately educating customers to use service appropriately
D. Viewing all of its external communications as interdependent
E. Including interactive marketing in communications plans
All of the following are potential benefits of empowering frontline service workers
EXCEPT:
A. Quicker responses to customer needs during service delivery
B. Employees feel better about their jobs
C. Employees may “give away the store”
D. Employees will interact with customers with more warmth and enthusiasm
E. Quicker responses to dissatisfied customers during service recovery
American Woman Fitness Centers offer first-time customers a 3-month membership for
$79, a saving of $20 off the regular 3-month membership price. American Woman
Fitness Centers’ pricing strategy is aligned with which of the following customer
definitions of 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 pace I pay