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
According to the service profit chain:
A. There is an underlying logic connecting employee satisfaction and customer loyalty
B. Internal marketing is more important than either interactive or external marketing
C. The strategies for internal, external and interactive marketing are equally important
D. Customer loyalty is unrelated to internal marketing
E. Reliability is the most important of all the desired service characteristics
The Learning Academy provides tutoring for children who are having trouble mastering
some skill in school – whether it is math, reading, studying, or something else. It wants
to monitor and determine the strengths and weaknesses of The Learning Academy’s
curriculum. Which of the following types of research should The Learning Academy
use to realize this objective?
A. Complaint solicitation
B. Critical incidents studies
C. Relationship surveys
D. Key client studies
E. Trailer calls
Which of the following statements about customer satisfaction and service quality is
true?
A. Customer satisfaction is a focused evaluation that reflects the customer’s perception
of specific dimensions of service like reliability and responsiveness
B. Service quality is more inclusive than customer service
C. It is correct to use the terms customer service and service quality interchangeably
D. Customer satisfaction is influenced by perceptions of service quality
E. None of the above statements about customer satisfaction and service quality is true
On his way to work today, Terry saw a billboard for a physician’s group that specialized
in vascular surgery. In his local newspaper there was a full-page ad for a medical clinic
that performed similar surgery. Then in his mail, he got a brochure from yet another
medical clinic asking him if he wanted to get rid of ugly varicose veins. Which trend
that influenced the development of services marketing concepts and strategies is
illustrated here?
A. The increasing importance of service industries to the U.S. and world economies
B. The increase of government regulation of professional service industries
C. The growth in database marketing
D. Increased competition in professional services
E. Professional firms are placing increased emphasis on providing services
In _____ pricing, a service firm determines price by calculating component costs of the
service and adding a mark up.
A. Contingency
B. Fee for service
C. Perceived value
D. Cost-plus
E. Going-rate
Molly and Tom are getting married. Last month they hired a caterer for the wedding
reception. This month they attended a wedding for which their chosen caterer had
provided food, dishes and flowers. Neither thought the food was good and Molly
worried that the dishes looked cheap. However, they feel they cannot change caterers at
this date due to the large deposit required by the catering company when it took the job.
Molly and Tom do not want to pay:
A. Extraneous expenses
B. Opportunity costs
C. Switching costs
D. Fixed costs
E. Retained costs
Universal Credit Card Services (UCCS) gives its employees the right to grant credit
lines to customers and adjust customers’ bills without management approval. By giving
its employees the authority to make decisions that will benefit its customers, UCCS is:
A. Including employees in the company’s vision
B. Empowering employees
C. Measuring and rewarding strong service performers
D. Promoting teamwork
E. Enveloping service-oriented internal processes
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 of the following statements has been suggested as a plausible explanation for the
customer perception that service quality is declining?
A. Technology-based services, which are superior to human-based services, are not
being implemented enough
B. Services are leveling the playing field and consistently trying to offer the same level
of service to every customer
C. Companies are decreasing their reliance on self-service and increasing the use of
human interaction in the performance of services
D. Customer expectations are higher because of the excellent service they receive from
some companies
E. Even though it is Easy to provide consistent, high-quality service, many companies
do not want to do it
A review of two decades of studies examining the links among customer satisfaction,
service quality and firm performance concluded that improvements in customer
satisfaction have _________ impact on firms’ financial performance.
A. A significant and positive
B. Absolutely no
C. A small negative
D. An undetermined
E. A large negative
Nude bathing is the norm at the Tagoona lakefront beach. By prohibiting the wearing of
clothes on weekdays, the Tagoona lakefront beach is:
A. Rewarding customers
B. Positioning customers
C. Managing the customer mix
D. Defining customers’ jobs
E. Educating customers
Business travelers today are more likely to order room service than ever before. A tired
piece of chicken in a congealed sauce kept company by a heap of wilted lettuce will
likely cause the customer to think negatively about his or her hotel stay. This is an
example of how _____ influences customer satisfaction.
A. The salesperson’s emotional state
B. Problems with perceived equity
C. A product feature
D. Service validity
E. Service attribution
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
Research on the adoption of technology services has identified five groups of
customers. The group of customers who are highly motivated to try new technologies
are called ____________.
A. Skeptics
B. Hesitaters
C. Avoiders
D. Pioneers
E. Explorers
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
Which of the following factors leads to provider gap 2?
A. Inappropriate physical evidence and servicescape
B. Inadequate marketing research
C. Lack of integrated services marketing communications
D. Failure to match supply and demand
E. Inadequate horizontal communications
One of the Four Seasons Hotel’s customer-defined standards is “staff will speak to
guests in an attentive, natural, and courteous manner.” This is an example of a(n)
________ customer-defined standard.
A. Responsive
B. Intangible
C. Informal
D. Measurable
E. Soft
With which service recovery strategy is the reliability dimension of service quality most
closely associated?
A. Make the service fail safe
B. Learn from lost customers
C. Treat customers fairly
D. Encourage and track complaints
E. Respond quickly
Two roommates both registered for an introduction to business class. At midterm, one
roommate found his instructor so boring that he was thinking of changing his major to
history. The other roommate had a charismatic teacher and looked forward to going to
class. This heterogeneity of instruction demonstrates:
A. How difficult it is to synchronize supply and demand with service
B. That customer service depends on employee actions
C. How customers affect each other
D. The fact services cannot be readily communicated or displayed
E. Why services cannot be inventoried
_______ has consistently proven to be the most important determinant of service
quality.
A. Reliability
B. Responsiveness
C. Assurance
D. Empathy
E. Tangibility
The wallet allocation rule takes into account both _________ and the number of brands
in the set the consumer uses.
A. Size
B. Rank
C. Revenue
D. Spending
E. None of the above.
What kind of service was Miriam talking about when she said, “We should have no
trouble getting good seats on the bus because few people ride at 10:30 a.m. on a
weekday”?
may vary
Every month the pest exterminator does a monthly spraying at Jean Poole’s house.
Every month Jean gripes that she is being ripped off by the exterminating company and
that she’s going to find a new one. But she never does change service providers due to:
A. The iteration principle
B. Customer inertia
C. Service standardization
D. Switching costs
E. Process reciprocity
The new owner of the Atlanta Falcons football team had research conducted to learn
why game attendance was low. The research revealed several reasons, including
shortage of toilet paper and straws, high prices for bad seats, and inadequate parking.
Once all the problems were fixed, the team owner did not want to have any future
attendance problems. He set up kiosks in the football stadium where attendees could
give the team and the arena a “report card”. This would be an example of:
A. A trailer call
B. A critical incident study
C. Market-oriented ethnography
D. Requirements research
E. A SERVQUAL survey
The overall goal of a customer participation strategy is to:
A. Determine optimal production levels
B. Increase customer satisfaction and productivity
C. Eliminate uncertainty due to customer actions
D. Maximize word-of-mouth advertising
E. Act socially responsible
_____ service represents the minimum tolerable expectation, the bottom level of
performance acceptable to the customer.
A. Desired
B. Adequate
C. Functional
D. Predictable
E. Augmented
Pandora is an Internet-based music discovery service that helps its customers find and
enjoy music that they like. A customer can create up to 100 unique “stations” by
identifying favorite songs or artists and then Pandora’s expert system analyzes what
they like and provides suggestions based on this analysis. Pandora is using
____________ to develop and maintain customer relationships.
A. Customization bonds
B. Social bonds
C. Niche marketing
D. Focused marketing
E. Structural bonds
Which of the following statements about service encounters is true?
A. When a customer has multiple service encounters with a firm, the only important
encounter in terms of the customer’s perception is the first one
B. If a customer is interacting with a firm for the first time, that initial encounter will
create a first impression of the organization
C. All encounters are equally important in building customer relationships
D. A customer will remember only negative service encounters and will forget any and
all positive ones
E. All services have on average about the same number of service encounters
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
The first time Barry brought his car to Auto Lube to have the oil changed he was very
satisfied with the service. The service manager consulted him several times while his
car was being serviced, asked him if there were any problems with the car,
recommended when additional services should be performed and answered questions
directly and politely. However, when Barry went back to Auto Lube after three months
to have his oil changed again, he was not satisfied with the service. The manager spoke
to him only when he arrived and when he paid his bill. In addition, the manager was
impatient and unfriendly during the interaction. Barry’s experience at Auto Lube
illustrates the _____ of services.
A. Intangibility
B. Heterogeneity
C. Simultaneous production and consumption
D. Perishability
E. Divisibility
Which of the following is NOT included in the list of questions managers and
researchers want answered about defensive marketing?
A. What is a loyal customer?
B. How can defection-prone customers be identified?
C. What is the role of service in defensive marketing?
D. What aspects of service are most important for customer retention?
E. What aspects of service are most important for increasing market share?
First National Bank of Chicago tracks 650 service quality measures relating to timely,
accurate and responsive service. The measures include speed of telephone answering,
number of abandoned calls, turnaround time on inquiries and the speed at which the
bank transfers securities. The measures used by First Bank of Chicago are _____
measurements.
A. Hard
B. Basic
C. Formal
D. Tangible
E. Informal
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. In other
words, the research agency conducted a:
A. Complaint solicitation
B. Requirements research
C. Relationship surveys
D. Trailer call
E. Process checkpoint evaluation