Whether a customer assumes the role of competitor is unaffected by trust, control or
time.
The use of transactional marketing will tend to narrow provider gap 1.
Even though some service providers would like to reduce customer participation in the
service delivery, it cannot be done.
Since customers naturally look for price anchors, as well as familiar services, against
which to judge focal services, price framing is an appropriate strategy to use for pricing
many types of services.
There is no way to improve the education of the customer after the sale is made.
Service blueprints are most useful when developed for a particular customer or
customer segment, assuming that the service varies across segments.
By renting its 21 executive suites for slumber parties on the weekend, the Hyatt
Regency Reston in Reston, Virginia is shifting demand to match capacity by varying its
service offering.
Value may be perceived differently because of consumers’ idiosyncratic tastes,
knowledge about the service, buying power and ability to pay.
Research indicates that yield management approaches are most appropriate when a
service market is targeting one large market segment.
Market testing is used to pilot run a new service to be sure the operational details are
functioning smoothly.
Because the production and consumption of services is simultaneous, the mass
production of services is difficult.
The most important determinant of perceptions of service quality among U.S.
customers is reliability.
The sources of customer expectations are all controlled by the service provider.
In business-to-business situations in which large accounts are involved, senior members
of the account team commonly conduct service expectation meetings and reviews.
Customer-defined standards should be established based on customer complaints and
other forms of reactive feedback.
A potential benefit of empowerment is quicker responses to dissatisfied customers
during service recovery.
The absence of customer-defined standards will broaden provider gap 2.
The letters ACSI are an acronym for the Association of Customer Service Institute,
which measures customers’ perceptions of service quality around the world.
Research by TARP Worldwide, Inc. found that a full 96 percent of customers who
report being “very satisfied” (i.e., they are in the “top box” in satisfaction) say they will
“definitely repurchase” from the same company.
A service provider that wants to be perceived as empathetic should allow its employees
to customize the services to meet the specific needs of each individual customer.
For the organization, relationship marketing increases customer purchases, lowers costs
and creates free word-of-mouth advertising.
Every service encounter is an opportunity to build satisfaction and quality.
Prestige pricing is a special form of cost-plus pricing by service marketers who offer
some sort of status service like providing cold storage for a mink coat or maintenance
for a Rolls Royce.
On site, the customer requires functional and chronological orientation.
A customer’s personal service philosophy is an influence on his/her adequate service
expectations.
The Net Promoter Score is based on just one survey question.
Well-implemented retention strategies will have long-term success even if there is no
solid base of service quality and customer satisfaction to build on.
Individual differences exist in customers’ desire to participate in the service process.
The parking lot, the neon signs, the building exterior and the restrooms are all part of a
servicescape for a nightclub.
Defensive marketing can be used to reduce customer defection.
The ability to segment customers narrowly based on profitability implications may raise
questions of privacy for customers.
There is no way to calculate the relationship value of a customer.
Empowerment is simply giving employees the authority to make decisions on the
customer’s behalf.
“Stretch” strategies for adjusting capacity to meet demand can be used indefinitely.
Virtually all companies possess standards and measures that are company defined.
Guarantees that are written by the legal department are generally more meaningful to
customers than any other type.
Although consumer satisfaction tends to be measured at a particular point in time as if it
were static, satisfaction is a dynamic, moving target.
Customers’ adequate service levels are less stable than their desired levels.
The first step in the process for setting customer-defined standards is to translate
customer expectations into behaviors and actions for each service encounter.
A plastic surgeon who wants his patients to watch a video on rhinoplasty before they
have a “nose job” is trying to educate his patients so they can have a higher level of
participation in the process.
Once Mariko had carried her dry cleaning to the car, she took a minute to see if the
cleaners had removed the stain from her wool skirt. The stain was still there, so Mariko
took the skirt back to the cleaner. When Mariko showed the stained skirt to the cleaner
employee, she shrugged and said, “I guess you want us to reclean the skirt?” Mariko
responded, “Yes, please.” The employee took the skirt, gave Mariko a dirty look and
began sorting some items on the counter. The employee did not treat Mariko with:
A. Functional fairness
B. Procedural fairness
C. Interactional fairness
D. Service equity
E. Situational fairness
Summer enrollments at New Bedford College are low. The campus administrators rent
out dorms to people participating in hostel programs. These participants have their
meals provided in the school cafeteria. New Bedford is using which of the following
strategies for shifting demand to match capacity?
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Oakley Millwork is a supplier of products used in the construction industry. It has a
published policy that if a customer places an order from its catalog and the product is
not available for immediate delivery, the customer gets the item free. Oakley
Millwork’s policy is an example of a(n):
A. Explicit service promise
B. Word-of-mouth communication
C. Situational factor
D. Implicit service promise
E. Service predicator
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
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
The three types of complementary pricing are:
A. Substitute pricing, price bundling and leader pricing
B. Leader pricing, value pricing and price lining
C. Leader pricing, penetration pricing and captive pricing
D. Two-part pricing, results-based pricing and bundling
E. Two-part pricing, captive pricing and loss leadership pricing
A tax accountant may provide a different service experience to two different customers
on the same day depending on their individual needs and personalities and on whether
she is meeting with them when she is fresh in the morning or tired at the end of the day.
This is an example of service _____________.
A. Versatility
B. Heterogeneity
C. Simultaneous production and consumption
D. Perishability
E. Intangibility
Discover Card has an automated inquiry system that enables card members to obtain
their current balance, available credit and payment information via telephone without
speaking to an account representative. With its automated inquiry system, Discover
Card is enhancing customer participation in the service process by:
A. Recruiting customers
B. Positioning customers
C. Managing the customer mix
D. Defining customers’ roles
E. Educating customers
After determining that responsiveness was a major concern of customers, American
Express conducted additional research to establish the exact number of days customers
defined as responsive for the various company processes (e.g., 2 days for reissuing lost
cards and 15 days for deciding on an application). By conducting additional research,
American Express was addressing which of the following steps in the process for
developing customer-defined standards?
A. Developing feedback mechanisms for measurement of standards
B. Identifying existing or desired service encounter sequences
C. Establishing measures and target levels for standards
D. Deciding whether hard or soft standards are appropriate
E. Translating customer expectations into behaviors and actions for each service
Patients sitting in dental chairs are part of the _____ element of the services marketing
mix.
A. People
B. Product
C. Place
D. Promotion
E. Physical evidence
A service encounter that occurs without any direct human contact is a(n) _____
encounter.
A. Remote
B. Technology-mediated
C. Detached
D. Public
E. Impersonal
Which of the following types of research is unique to services?
A. Trailer calls
B. Market-oriented ethnography
C. Mystery shopping
D. Database marketing research
E. Critical incident studies
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
Which of the following service encounter themes reflects employees’ responding to
problem customers, i.e., customers who are unwilling to cooperate with the service
provider, other customers, industry regulations, and/or laws?
A. Recovery
B. Adaptability
C. Spontaneity
D. Credibility
E. Coping
Parents everywhere are very busy and often cannot spend time with their children. In
the Netherlands, children who want a bedtime story can call the telephone service and
request to listen to one of twenty prerecorded fairy tales. The phone company charges
$7 per story. Because of the prerecording of the stories, this bedtime service reduces the
problems typically associated with the _____ characteristic of services.
A. Versatility
B. Heterogeneity
C. Simultaneous production and consumption
D. Perishability
E. Intangibility
The lack of inventory capability in services is due to which of the following
characteristics of services?
A. Heterogeneity and perishability
B. Simultaneous production and consumption and intangibility
C. Perishability and simultaneous production and consumption
D. Heterogeneity, perishability and intangibility
E. Simultaneous production and consumption and heterogeneity
Which of the following is NOT a benefit of conducting research on the Internet?
A. Higher response rate
B. Control of data quality
C. Ability to target hard to reach populations
D. Opportunity to use multimedia to present video and audio
E. All of the above are benefits of conducting research on the Internet.
The health industry in the U.S. is an $840 trillion business. Adam.com is trying to cash
in on some of that money by providing an Internet service that will help hospitals
answer their patients’ health-related questions. Every year, Adam.com does an informal
survey of its customers. It uses open-ended questions to determine what people like and
dislike about its service. Adam.com is conducting _____ research.
A. Qualitative
B. Functional
C. Inferential
D. Secondary
E. Quantitative
Product and service features that are unexpected and surprisingly enjoyable are known
as ___________.
A. Satisfiers
B. Musts
C. Delights
D. Ego-oriented services
E. Forecasted intensifiers
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
Bob Wilson owns and operates Flashdance Skating Rink. Last Monday afternoon, he
had rented the rink out for a birthday party that was cancelled at the last minute due to a
flu epidemic that had sickened three-fourths of the children who were invited. While
Wilson kept the deposit, he did not get the skate rental fees or the snack food money he
had anticipated from the rental. Wilson lost money as a result of the _____
characteristic of services.
A. Heterogeneity
B. Simultaneous production and consumption
C. Incomparability
D. Perishability
E. Intangibility
Anika belongs to an Internet library, which lets her trade books she no longer wants for
like-valued items she does want. Most members follow the rules of the Web site, but a
few unscrupulous members do not mail requested books because they are more
interested in acquiring books than sharing them with others. Anika has the potential to
experience problems with which e-service quality dimension as she trades books?
A. Assurance
B. Reliability
C. Fulfillment
D. Empathy
E. Efficiency
A dental office that provides patients a variety of magazines to read and TV to watch
while they are waiting is using which of the following waiting line strategies?
A. Establishing a reservation process
B. Making waiting more pleasurable
C. Expanding waiting room capacity
D. Differentiating waiting customers
E. Employing operational logic
The ability to connect to the Internet through a modem using the same wires that
transmit cable television was an example of a _____ when it was first introduced.
A. Major innovation
B. New service for the currently served market
C. Service line extension
D. Service improvement
E. Style change
The Long Island Railroad installed ticket vending machines in train stations to expedite
the purchase of train tickets during periods of peak demand. The Long Island Railroad
is using which of the following waiting line strategies?
A. Establishing a reservation process
B. Making waiting fun or at least tolerable
C. Expanding waiting room capacity
D. Differentiating waiting customers
E. Employing operational logic to reduce wait
When they go away on vacation, some dog owners choose to leave their dogs in posh
pet resorts that offer a variety of activities for the dogs, such as swimming pool frolics,
nature walks, and hayrides. The dog owners pay around $17 per night for basic
boarding at the pet resorts and up to an additional $20 for the other activities, which
would be collectively classified as:
A. Goods
B. Values
C. Services
D. Satisficers
E. Attributes
Steve, a baseball fan who regularly goes to games right after work, is thirsty and hungry
by the time he gets to the ballpark. He hopes and desires that the food and drink
vendors will visit his section of the stands frequently. Another fan, Bart, who regularly
has dinner elsewhere before he attends games, has a lower level of desired service from
the food and drink vendors at the ballpark. In this example, Steve and Bart have
different ____________ that shape their desired level of service.
A. Personal service philosophies
B. Personal needs
C. Predicted service levels
D. Derived service expectations
E. Adequate service expectations
The Apple Store’s clean, open spaces and white walls create a modern feel and draw all
of the customer’s attention to relatively few products on display. The Apple Store’s
servicescape is playing what strategic role?
A. Package
B. Boundary spanner
C. Differentiator
D. Facilitator
E. Socializer
Compatibility management:
A. Is unrelated to the implementation of customer participation strategies
B. Does not coalesce well with the drama metaphor used to describe services
C. Is a process for managing the customer mix
D. Is only of value in internal marketing
E. Creates a homogeneous employee pool
Offering choices to the customer is a strategy for:
A. Avoiding the perception of service inconsistency
B. Managing service promises
C. Managing customer expectations
D. Managing horizontal communications
E. Improving customer education
College activities boards (CABs) have the responsibility for hiring the entertainment
that appears on college campuses. They have limited budgets and when dealing with
them, talent agencies have to remember they often define value as low prices. Describe
how a talent agency might use this information in pricing to those on CABs that
actually have the authority to hire the musicians they represent. Give specific examples
with each.
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What is provider gap 4 of the gaps model of service quality?
What type of qualitative research is used to monitor changes in customer expectations
and to provide a forum for customers to suggest and evaluate new service ideas?
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What is the final step in the process for setting customer-defined standards?
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List three sources of customer expectations that are market-controlled factors.
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What are the three types of benefits customers enjoy through relationship marketing?
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What are the four risks incurred when services are described in words alone?
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Some professional associations manage customer expectations by offering different
membership packages to professionals, students and retirees. What is the term used to
describe this practice?
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Drew had his house professionally sprayed for cockroaches last week. Yesterday he
found a roach in his kitchen sink. He has requested the company that did the initial
spraying to return to his house and spray again. Briefly describe Drew’s zone of
tolerance and his expectations for this second spraying.
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Which provider gap occurs if company communications make service promises about
its people that do not mesh with employees’ actual behavior?
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What are the critical fixed-capacity factors that affect how well a service business can
handle demand fluctuations?
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Are the referee uniforms, the wide aisles, the racks and counters and the scoreboards all
part of the servicescape at a Foot Locker store?
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CompuMark is a company that provides marketing and computer expertise to
companies who want to set up their own Web sites. The owners of the company believe
they need to improve customers’ perceptions of the service provided by CompuMark.
As a result, the owners hired a service marketing research company to conduct research
about its customers’ expectations. The research was appropriately designed, executed,
and presented to the owners. Discuss the two most likely occurrences at this point in the
research process. What is the role of the service marketing research company in
determining what the owners of CompuMark will do next?
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