Which of the following is NOT a soft customer-defined standard?
A. Uniforms are to be immaculate
B. Avoid other tasks while on the telephone with customers
C. Deliver orders on the date promised
D. Thank the customer at the end of the call
E. Listen to customers attentively
The openings of new fast-food franchises are typically highly promoted events
especially when the franchise is new to a geographic area. Special food promotions are
offered on the day of the grand opening and sometimes guest appearances. Often if a
grand opening event is scheduled for the first of the month, the business will actually
start serving customers who happen to notice that it is open during the week prior to the
first. In this way, employees can familiarize themselves with their jobs and minor
problems can be handled before they become major. This pre-opening practice is most
closely related to which stage of the new service development process?
A. Commercialization
B. Business analysis
C. Market testing
D. Service development and evaluation
E. Post introduction evaluation
While being trained at Disney University in Orlando, Florida, Disney employees are
told they are not just employees but pivotal “cast members” in a “show.” From street
sweepers to monorail pilots, each cast member must go out of his or her way to make
the resort seem unreal. No matter how tired employees are or how deeply guests may
try their patience, employees must never lose composure. _______ labor is required of
Disney employees to always maintain composure.
A. Physical
B. Mental
C. Personal
D. Accountable
E. Emotional
The core offerings of hospitals, hotels, and banks are primarily deeds and performances
and therefore are_________________.
A. Services
B. Experiences
C. Attributes
D. Goods
E. Benefits
_______-based pricing occurs in services that are standardized across providers.
A. Demand
B. Profit
C. Competition
D. Supply
E. Cost
Because Virginia’s brother died while he was cashing a check at the local bank, Virginia
has always hated any type of banking. When it became necessary for her to go to the
bank to empty her brother’s safe deposit box, she complained the whole time about the
inept service, the too-cold air conditioning and the poor parking. Virginia’s customer
satisfaction 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
The Baltimore Orioles, a professional baseball team, offer standing room only seats to
fans when a home game at The Ballpark at Camden Yards is sold out. The Baltimore
Orioles are stretching _____ to adjust the capacity of The Ballpark at Camden Yards to
meet fan demand.
A. Time
B. Labor
C. Facilities
D. Equipment
E. Customers
Cable TV companies that offer subscribers different programming packages are:
A. Outsourcing
B. Creating tiered-value service offerings
C. Communicating with customers
D. Managing horizontal communications
E. Exceeding customer expectations
To reach business travelers (its largest market) Canadian Airline has installed gate-side
business centers where tired business travelers can enjoy a hot shower or sit in massage
chairs and listen to soothing music. These amenities are examples of which composite
dimension of servicescapes?
A. Spatial layout
B. Signs
C. Artifacts
D. Ambient conditions
E. Functional forms
Which of the following describes a reason why integrated marketing communications
have not been the norm in many companies?
A. Employees circumvent interactive communication norms
B. Communication autonomy often leads to employee ambiguity
C. Customer empowerment is short term
D. Various parts of the company are responsible for different aspects of communication
E. The servicescape is designed to impede external communication
Things that can be counted, timed or observed through audits are _____
customer-defined service standards.
A. Formal
B. Hard
C. Informal
D. Qualitative
E. Responsive
A business traveler checked into a Hyatt hotel and was given a room next to the
elevator. When he turned on the television, he was greeted with a Hyatt customer
service survey. He immediately took advantage of having the survey to let Hyatt know
how unhappy he was with his room location. The business traveler would most likely
be classed as a(n) _____ type.
A. Irate
B. Passive
C. Voicer
D. Aggressive
E. Mediator
Sometimes firms have service encounters that fail because of ___________, who
intentionally or unintentionally act in a way that is disruptive, rude, or aggressive.
A. Profitable customers
B. Dysfunctional customers
C. Friends
D. Strangers
E. Heterogeneous customers
When Selena purchased a new refrigerator from Sears, she was told by the salesperson
that the refrigerator would be delivered to her apartment on Thursday between the hours
of 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. However, the refrigerator was not delivered until 4:00 p.m.
on Friday. The late delivery caused Selena to be dissatisfied with Sears’s delivery
service. Selena’s dissatisfaction with Sears’ delivery service resulted from:
A. Inadequate management of service promises
B. Over-promising and over-delivering
C. Inadequate customer education
D. Excessive horizontal communication
E. Differences in policies and procedures across distribution units
The central focus of the gaps model of service quality is the:
A. Constant need to provide value for dollars spent
B. Four dimensions of service
C. Difference between customer expectations and perceptions
D. Temptation to handle services as if they were tangibles
E. Customer-employee-supplier triumvirate
Rather than treating all of its customers the same, FedEx categorized its customers
internally as “the good, the bad, and the ugly” based on their ___________.
A. Loyalty
B. Profitability
C. Attitude
D. Volume
E. User characteristics
Which of the following is NOT a reason why a service firm may avoid a customer
relationship with a particular customer?
A. Customer is in the wrong segment
B. Customer is not divisible
C. Customer is not always right
D. Customer is not profitable in the long run
E. Customer is difficult
Which of the following is an example of an SST?
A. A haircut
B. Mowing your own grass
C. An x-ray
D. A car repair
E. An electronic hotel checkout
The last time Dominique traveled on an airplane she took an antihistamine before her
flight to keep her ears unclogged and prevent an earache. Dominique took an
antihistamine to prevent a(n) ____ response to the airplane’s environment.
A. Perceptual
B. Emotional
C. Cognitive
D. Tensional
E. Physiological
Which of the following statements about how technology has positively influenced
service is true?
A. Technology provides approaches for delivering existing services in more accessible,
convenient, productive ways
B. Technology facilitates basic customer service functions
C. Technology facilitates transactions by offering a direct vehicle for making purchases
D. Technology provides an easy way for customers to learn and do research about
products and companies
E. All of the above statements about how technology has influenced service are true
American Express’s “Service Tracking Report” systematically measures both customer
satisfaction and employee performance worldwide. Compiled on a monthly basis, the
document uses statistics to measure the performance of business units throughout the
world against more than 100 service quality factors related to their customers’ three
major service dimensions-responsiveness, timeliness and accuracy. American Express’s
“Service Tracking Report” is a(n):
A. Service performance index
B. Quality improvement measure
C. Total quality management assessment
D. Customer service indicator
E. Internal-external service control benchmark
What are poka-yokes?
A. Customers who have a propensity to complain
B. Automatic warnings or controls to ensure mistakes don’t happen
C. Service failures
D. Common sources of complaints
E. Methods for tracking complaints
PSE&G is a utility company. One of its service guarantees is to keep all appointments.
If PSE&G fails to keep an appointment mutually agreed upon by the customer and the
company, PSE&G will credit residential customers’ accounts by $25 and business
customers’ accounts by $100. The guarantee only applies to appointments for meter
readings, account investigation, gas service, gas appliance repair and both electric and
gas meter work scheduled three days in advance. Which of the following statements
about PSE&G’s service guarantee is FALSE?
A. PSE&G’s guarantee is easy to understand and communicate
B. PSE&G’s guarantee is unconditional
C. PSE&G’s guarantee is meaningful
D. PSE&G’s guarantee is easy to invoke
E. PSE&G’s guarantee is qualitative
When the toddler’s ball rolled under the motel bed, his mother was surprised to find a
dirty sock and used crumbled tissues under the bed. This physical evidence of service
was not what the mother expected to find in this luxury hotel and served to broaden the
provider _____ of the gaps model of service quality.
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 3
D. Gap 4
In order to get an accurate cholesterol reading, an individual must fast for at least eight
hours before the test. When you schedule a cholesterol test at your doctor’s office, you
will receive a brochure that will explain the fasting and why it is so very necessary.
Providing this sort of educational literature to patients is one way doctors try to narrow
provider _____ of the gaps model of service quality.
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 3
D. Gap 4
Which of the following is NOT considered a capacity constraint for a service provider?
A. Equipment
B. Labor
C. Money
D. Facilities
E. Time
In which of the following service industries would you most likely find the service
provider using competition-based pricing?
A. Banking industry
B. Hospital industry
C. Legal services
D. Tax accounting business
E. Rental car industry
If the purpose of the service blueprint is to understand the integration of the various
elements of the service process, the blueprint should be examined:
A. As a whole picture of the service process
B. Vertically
C. From left to right only
D. Horizontally
E. From right to left only
Pret a Manger, a London-based sandwich shop, introduced restaurant-quality
sandwiches with fast-food velocity. Pret a Manger’s faster service is a _____ growth
strategy.
A. Share building
B. Divestment
C. Service development
D. Diversification
E. Marketing integration
Jiffy Lube, a franchiser of 10-minute oil and lubrication services, has been plagued by a
lack of consistency across franchise outlets. The lack of consistency has resulted from
Jiffy Lube’s failure to require franchisees to adhere to common service standards as it
rapidly expanded its franchise business across the U.S. Jiffy Lube’s failure to require
franchisees to adhere to common service standards has led to provider _____ of the
gaps model of service quality.
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 3
D. Gap 4
Federal Express distributes a weekly Service Quality Indicator report comparing
performance to goals on 12 different items. Upon receipt of the report, managers and
contact personnel investigate root causes of service failures. By distributing a weekly
Service Quality Indicator report and investigating service failures, Federal Express is
addressing which of the following steps in the process for developing customer-defined
standards?
A. Translating customer expectations into behaviors and actions for each service
B. Tracking measures against standards
C. Electing behaviors and actions for standards
D. Establishing measures and target levels for standards
E. Deciding whether hard or sod measures are appropriate
The supervisor of a hotel housekeeping staff instructed a new housekeeper in the 45
ways a room must be cleaned if its guest has checked out but she forgot to mention that
a less thorough method was to be used if the guest was staying additional nights. The
next month the supervisor wonders why the new housekeeper is using many more
packets of toiletries than the other housekeepers are. Also, it is taking the housekeeper
the same amount of time to clean a recently vacated room as it does to clean a room that
will be housing the same people for another night. The best explanation for the
misunderstanding about the service to be provided by the housekeeper is _________, a
risk incurred when services are described in words alone.
A. Oversimplification
B. Incompleteness
C. Subjectivity
D. Biased interpretation
E. Transformation
Describe the types of social bonds that can bind customers to the firm.
may vary
As defined by the service marketing triangle, what are the two types of internal
communications?
may vary
Human behavior is influenced by the physical setting in which it occurs. How does the
servicescape influence the individual behavior of consumers and employees? Give
examples.
may vary
Environmental psychologists have researched people’s emotional responses to physical
settings. They have concluded that any environment will elicit emotions that can be
captured by two basic dimensions. What are they?
may vary
What is the first step in designing service marketing research?
may vary
A national cleaning service sent several crews to New Jersey and New York after
Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The crews were trained to deal with mud, mildew, and all
the problems of making a flooded home or building inhabitable again. The print and
media ads that the cleaning service ran stated that the company had a patented system
that would remove all unpleasant odors from flooded structures and leave a clean smell.
Its sales reps who contacted owners of apartment complexes and shopping centers
promised that the crews could come into an average size of apartment complex and
have it looking and smelling like new in two weeks. Several people who rent
apartments in the complexes that the service cleaned have commented unfavorably on
the sweet smelling air freshener the company used to mask the smell and noted the
moldy odor was still perceptible. Also, the time required to clean a complex was more
like four weeks instead of the two as promised. Which provider gap does this example
describe? List various strategies that can be used to narrow and possibly eliminate this
provider gap.
Lorenzo attended his first antique auction last night. After examining the merchandise,
he noticed several signs posted around the building. “All sales are final.” “All
merchandise sold on an ‘as-is’ basis.” “We are not responsible for any merchandise left
overnight.” In terms of customer participation, what was the purpose of those signs?
may vary