Since service companies have found that customers differ in their relationship value
and that it may be neither practical nor profitable to meet or exceed all customers’
expectations, they have divided their target markets according to:
A. Current and/or future profitability
B. Behavior
C. Usage
D. Volume
E. User characteristics
Which of the following is NOT likely to occur when a company uses an offensive
marketing effect?
A. Higher market share
B. Increased price premium
C. Customer churn
D. Customer acquisition
E. Improved word-of-mouth communication
The three themes that underlie customer evaluation of satisfying SSTs are:
A. Solved an intensified need; did its job; context
B. Solved an intensified need; better than the alternative; did its job
C. Color correctness; content; context
D. Variability; heterogeneity; solved an intensified need
E. Better than the alternative; color correctness; content
When creating a blueprinting for a technology-delivered self service, a row labeled
“onstage technology” can be added to the blueprint:
A. Only in place of the onstage contact employee action row
B. Only in addition to the onstage contact employee action row
C. Either in place of or in addition to the onstage contact employee action row
D. Above the physical evidence row
E. Below the support process row
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
The augmentation of an existing service line is a:
A. Major innovation
B. New service for the currently served market
C. Service line extension
D. Service improvement
E. Service franchise
Gwen’s first trip to an amusement park was as a chaperone for a class of first grade
students who were allowed to fill up on sugar on the bus trip to the park. By the end of
the day, Gwen was very frustrated and very tired. Later when she revisited the
amusement park, Gwen could not enjoy the experience because she kept remembering
how miserable she had been acting as a chaperone. Gwen’s satisfaction with amusement
parks was adversely influenced by:
A. Poor service quality
B. Her perception of service quality
C. Her emotional state
D. Her attributions for service success
E. Her perception of equity
Sales associates at Nordstrom are given a “personal” book to keep track of customers’
names, telephone numbers, height and weight, likes and dislikes (e.g., color, style and
texture preferences) and charge account numbers to help them become a personal
shopper for the customer. In addition, sales associates have an open account to send
thank-you notes or flowers to customers. By having a personal book and sending
thank-you notes or flowers to customers, Nordstrom’s sales associates are showing they
care by emphasizing the _____ dimension to influence customer perceptions of
Nordstrom’s service quality.
A. Reliability
B. Responsiveness
C. Assurance
D. Empathy
E. Tangibles
By noting that a number of customers had complained about late bus arrivals at one
particular stop, the bus line rerouted the bus away from a heavy traffic area. By
increasing its miles traveled slightly, the bus was able to improve its arrival time
substantially at the stop where it had formerly been perpetually late. Which service
recovery strategy did the bus line use?
A. Make the service fail safe
B. Learn from recovery experiences
C. Treat customers fairly
D. Encourage and track complaints
E. Respond quickly
Which of the following is NOT an example of a strategy used to shift 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 busy days and times to customers
In order to have a greater likelihood for ultimate success, who should be involved in the
new service development process?
A. Customers and employees
B. Suppliers, distributors and all employees
C. All members of the internal and external environment except customers
D. Top management only
E. Members of the marketing department only
According to the _______, while advertising, sales and promotions pour profits into
your company, there will always be some customer defection, which has the potential to
grow larger.
A. Bucket theory of marketing
B. Iceberg principle of relationships
C. 80/20 principle
D. Service paradigm shift
E. Echo principle of marketing
The greatest potential variability in the interaction between a customer and a service
firm occurs in a(n) _____ service encounter.
A. Detached
B. Phone
C. Face-to-face
D. Public
E. Integrated communication
A retail store manager instructed two new sales associates to greet customers quickly
when they enter the store. On the first day the sales associates are working on the
selling floor, one sales associate greets customers immediately after they enter the store,
while the other associate greets customers after they have looked around for a minute or
two. Which of the following risks incurred by describing services in words alone has
led to the sales associates greeting customers at different time intervals?
A. Overcautious
B. Ostentation
C. Objectivity
D. Biased interpretation
E. Transformation
The 25th Hour Inc. is a business that runs errands for people. Its employees have been
called in to care for a toddler when her mother went into labor, to buying groceries for a
mother who wanted to attend her child’ soccer game and to decorate for parties. If any
customer is not completely happy with the service The 25th Hour provides, its
employees are told to immediately refund the customer’s money (less any expenses) as
soon as the complaint is made known. This sort of service recovery policy helps to
narrow provider _____ of the gaps model of service quality.
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 3
D. Gap 4
The new owner of the Atlanta Falcons football team wanted to know why game
attendance was low. Former purchasers of season tickets were asked to provide an
anecdote about a satisfying and a dissatisfying experience at a Falcon game. The
researchers used:
A. Complaint solicitation
B. Critical incidents studies
C. Relationship surveys
D. Trailer calls
E. Customer panels
Which of the following is one of the ways an organization benefits from maintaining
and developing a loyal customer base?
A. Employee retention
B. Customers’ increasing expectations of more personalized service
C. A reactive market-growth strategy
D. The ability to engage in guerilla marketing
E. Competitor entrenchment
Standardization of services in the form of ______________ is exemplified by maid
services by Molly Maids as well as routinized tax services developed by H&R Block.
A. Substitution of technology for personal contact and human effort
B. Improvement in work methods and training
C. Organizational flattening
D. Employee encroachment
E. Autonomous management
Which of the following is NOT a form of qualitative research?
A. Process checkpoint evaluations
B. Mystery shopping
C. Trailer calls
D. Requirements research
E. Relationship surveys
Aramark is a food service company that supplies meals to more than 200,000 hospital
patients daily. To improve its service, it created a database that tracks patient
preferences individually by hospitals, regionally and nationally. The accumulated
database is used to provide better menus. Aramark’s kitchen staff deliver the food and
are referred to as hosts. All hosts have a minimum of 40 hours of training to teach them
how to be courteous, efficient and quick. These trained hosts deliver customized meals
from carts preloaded according to room number. According to patient surveys, Aramark
has boosted patient satisfaction by almost 10 percent by providing customized meals.
Aramark is using _____ in its customer retention strategy.
A. Financial bonds
B. Social bonds
C. Customization bonds
D. Structural bonds
E. Heterogeneity
The highest customer expectations are referred to as _____ expectations.
A. Normative
B. Acceptable
C. Ideal
D. Ego-satisfying
E. Id-oriented
The last time Lia went shopping at Nordstrom’s department store she had a very
pleasant experience. When she entered Nordstrom’s, she asked a sales associate named
Sarah for assistance finding a pair of jeans, a pair of shorts, a skirt and matching tops.
Sarah enthusiastically agreed to help and treated Lia like royalty throughout her
two-hour shopping trip. Sarah stayed with Lia the entire time she was in Nordstrom’s
and showed her a number of different styles of jeans, shorts, skirts and tops. Sarah
brought Lia additional items while she was in the fitting room and offered her advice on
accessorizing her outfits. After the sale, Sarah thanked Lia for her purchases. Lia’s
experience at Nordstrom’s is an example of which type of service encounter incident?
A. Recovery
B. Adaptability
C. Spontaneity
D. Believability
E. Coping
Nike’s introduction of women-only boutiques called Nike Goddess to satisfy the needs
of a growing number of women athletes is an example of a(n):
A. Compliant standard
B. Concrete substitution
C. Internal anchor
D. One-time fix
E. Quick solution
Spatial layout and functionality increase in importance when:
A. Service is provided in a self-service environment
B. Customers are under no time pressure
C. Service is provided in a remote environment
D. Photographic blueprints are used to assess the service process
E. Service is provided in an interpersonal services environment
When is a biased interpretation likely to occur during a discussion of a new restaurant?
A. At the beginning of the conversation
B. When one party uses nonverbal communications
C. When one party uses words like nice and different to describe the restaurant
D. Just prior to the conclusion of the conversation
E. Whenever the conversation is disrupted by noise
At the _____ stage of the service development and innovation process, the new service
is made available to a limited number of its potential customers.
A. Commercialization
B. Business analysis
C. Market testing
D. Service development and evaluation
E. Post introduction evaluation
The first step in delivering high service quality is:
A. Hiring the right people
B. Understanding customer requirements
C. Innovation
D. A service blueprint
E. Employee training
Which of the following statements about relationship surveys is true?
A. Relationship surveys are not statistically valid even though they are very useful to
service providers
B. Relationship surveys should be conducted weekly
C. SERVQUAL is a type of relationship survey
D. With relationship surveys, the same respondents should be used each time the survey
is administered
E. To be reliable and valid, the relationship survey should be administered to all of the
service provider’s customers
A sign at the entrance to the children’s hospital contained the hospital’s mission
statement and explained its vision. This sign provided patients and their families with
_____ orientation.
A. Place
B. Cultural
C. Promotable
D. Physical evidence
E. Function
A hair salon designed to appeal to children does not use the standard salon furniture.
Instead, children sit on carousel horses to get their haircuts. Large TV monitors
strategically located throughout the salon show kid-targeted videos and cartoons are
there to entertain the children. The child-friendly hair salon’s servicescape services in
what two capacities?
A. A package and as a facilitator
B. A facilitator and as a boundary spanner
C. A differentiator and as a facilitator
D. A boundary spanner and as a differentiator
E. A socializer and as a facilitator
Features research and lead user research are both categorized as types of:
A. Post transaction surveys
B. Database marketing research
C. Process checkpoint surveys
D. Future expectations research
E. Relationship surveys
_____ has consistently proven to be the most important determinant of service quality.
A. Reliability
B. Responsiveness
C. Assurance
D. Empathy
E. Tangibility
Which of the following is NOT considered a capacity constraint for a service provider?
A. Equipment
B. Labor
C. Money
D. Facilities
E. Time
A service firm is underutilizing its labor, equipment and facilities when:
A. Demand exceeds maximum capacity
B. Demand exceeds optimum capacity
C. Supply and demand are balanced at the level of optimum capacity
D. Demand is below optimum capacity
E. Demand is below minimum capacity
At Benford Bank, all customers opting for the drive-thru can pick from one of three
lanes. One line may seem to move faster than the others, but all allow customers to
accomplish any type of transaction. Which of the following queue configurations does
Benford Bank use?
A. Multiple queue
B. Double queue
C. Take-a-number queue
D. Queue with barriers
E. Roundabout queue