Sunoco is readying a chain-wide set of marketing initiatives designed to improve its
image with women drivers and win more return business to its service station outlets
throughout Ontario. It refurbished all of its restrooms and tried to hire friendly
personalities and real customer service skills instead of “just who was available”. It
hired an outside research organization to send people to Sunoco service stations twice
monthly to grade staff on their customer interaction skills. What research method did
Sunoco use to make sure that each station was implementing the new service strategy?
A. Market-oriented ethnography
B. Trailer calls
C. Mystery shoppers
D. Requirements research
E. Customer panels
Based on servicescape usage, a dance studio is a(n) _____ environment.
A. Self-service
B. Vertical service
C. Remote service
D. Flexible service
E. Interpersonal services
The first time Alexis went to take golf lessons, she had a golf pro who was very patient
with her and who was able to pinpoint what she was doing wrong without making her
feel uncoordinated. Her second golf lesson was not nearly as helpful. The golf pro who
gave the lesson wanted Alexis to watch what he was doing and imitate his swing. He
was unable to verbalize his instructions. Alexis’s experience with the two golf
instructors illustrates the _____ of service.
A. Intangibility
B. Heterogeneity
C. Simultaneous production and consumption
D. Perishability
E. Divisibility
In which of the following service industries are you most likely to find the service
provider using fee for service pricing?
A. Apartment rental business
B. Management consulting business
C. Cleaning service industry
D. Airline industry
E. Internet service providers
Which of the following is NOT an example of technical outcome quality?
A. The taste of a meal at a restaurant
B. An airplane arriving on time at an airport
C. A pest control company eradicating termites in a townhouse
D. The sales associate greeting a customer in a specialty clothing store
E. A utility company connecting electricity for a customer’s new home
From the customer’s point of view, the most vivid impression of service occurs in the
service _____ when the customer interacts with the service firm.
A. Event
B. Socialization
C. Encounter
D. Arrangement
E. Linkage
The _____ dimension of service quality is highly dependent on employees’ ability to
communicate their credibility and to inspire trust and confidence.
A. Reliability
B. Responsiveness
C. Assurance
D. Empathy
E. Tangibles
Cookies is a retail store where customers host parties for guests to bake and decorate
cookies. The store offers customers their money back if the party experience is boring.
Cookie’s is:
A. Creating tiered-value offerings to improve customer education
B. Preparing customers for the service process through customer education
C. Offering a service guarantee to manage customer expectations
D. Featuring the servicescape as a tool for integrating its marketing communications
E. Confirming that performance equals performance standards to manage customer
expectations
When calculating share of wallet, a brand’s ___________ is the relative position that a
customer assigns to the brand in comparison to other brands also used by the customer
in the category.
A. Rank
B. Return
C. Spending allocation
D. Revenue
E. Spending rule
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
Toyota found that intent to purchase a Toyota automobile increased from 37 percent to
_____ percent with both positive sales and service experiences.
A. 97
B. 91
C. 80
D. 75
E. 68
The growth of e-tailing has led to the identification of four core dimensions that
consumers use to evaluate Web sites at which they experience no questions or
problems. They are:
A. Efficiency, fulfillment, system availability, and privacy
B. Responsiveness, reliability, assurance, and empathy
C. Context, content, community, and connectivity
D. Content, reliability, privacy, and download speed
E. Efficiency, effectiveness, maneuverability, and attractiveness
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 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. What
advice would you give Progressive Insurance if it wanted to expand its market to
include China, where there is a rapidly growing middle class?
A. Use the same service model the company uses in the United States and success is
guaranteed
B. It is impossible because service excellence is not appreciated in other countries
C. Values are the same worldwide so Progressive should have no problem
D. Other than some language differences, Progressive should have no difficulty because
its service is based on human interaction
E. The many legal, cultural and language barriers will make it very challenging
Without good mailing lists, businesses cannot engage in effective direct-marketing
advertising. On average 20 percent of the U.S. population moves annually. Return Path
is a company that provides changes of addresses to businesses. It takes a business’s
mailing list, compares it to address changes that it gathers daily in its database and
makes any necessary corrections. Return Path is a part of which trend in the services
marketing industry?
A. The increasing importance of service industries to the U.S. and world economies
B. The decrease of human interaction as a result of widespread use of technology-based
services
C. The growth in the use of technology-based services
D. Increased competition in the direct-mail industry
E. The fact that direct marketing firms are placing increased emphasis on providing
services
Nine months after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,
maternity hospitals were filled to capacity as people who had been waiting for the right
time to have children decided that there was no time like the present. The maternity
hospitals experienced a(n):
A. Random demand fluctuation
B. Relative demand shift
C. Predictable demand cycle
D. Vertical demand configuration
E. Organized demand pattern
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
Which of the following factors does NOT cause provider gap 3?
A. Ineffective employee recruitment
B. Failure to match supply and demand
C. Efficient marketing research systems
D. Channel conflict over objectives and performance
E. Lack of employee empowerment, perceived control, and teamwork
In the simplest terms, _____ are deeds, processes, and performances.
A. Attributes
B. Experiences
C. Services
D. Goods
E. Benefits
The _____ dimension of service quality is the caring, individualized attention given to
customers.
A. Reliability
B. Responsiveness
C. Assurance
D. Empathy
E. Tangibles
Which of the following statements about the benefits of service guarantees is true?
A. To be valid, service guarantees must be in writing
B. A good guarantee forces the company to focus on its customers
C. Employee morale can be adversely affected by service guarantees
D. The guarantee negates the service recovery strategy of act quickly
E. A good guarantee will generate a lot of feedback-most, if not all of it, useless
A service provider that has an inappropriate employee evaluation and compensation
system will experience provider:
A. Gap 1
B. Gap 2
C. Gap 3
D. Gap 4
The McDonald’s arches and the Toys ‘R’ Us mascot Geoffrey Giraffe are both examples
of which composite dimension?
A. Ambient conditions
B. Functional forms
C. Spatial shapes
D. Signs, symbols and artifacts
E. Holistic icons
Bruce was driving to work yesterday when he was nearly run off the road by a speeding
furniture delivery truck. On the back of the truck was a phone number to call if you
believed the driver was not handling the truck safely. Rather than deciding to never buy
furniture from this furniture company, Bruce called the company and complained about
the truck driver. The person who took his call thanked Bruce for his concern,
apologized for the driver and promised to reprimand him. Which service recovery
strategy was the furniture store using?
A. Make the service fail safe
B. Learn from lost customers
C. Use procedural fairness
D. Encourage and track complaints
E. Treat customers proactively
When Joan woke up this morning, she felt terrible. She had a headache, sore throat and
upset stomach. She called her doctor’s office, explained her condition to the receptionist
and asked if she could make an appointment to see the doctor as soon as possible that
day since she was going on vacation tomorrow. Joan desired expectation to see her
doctor the same day she became sick resulted from a(n):
A. Personal need
B. Personal service philosophy
C. Derived service expectation
D. Perceived service alternative
E. Adequate service expectation
Harris Woodard has purchased a franchise business called Like New Windshields, a
company that repairs cracked and pitted vehicle windshields. As a franchisee, he will
come to your home or office to repair a damaged windshield. His goal is to make sure
that he has enough customers without having more than he can handle efficiently.
Which of the following is going to make it difficult for him to accomplish his goal?
A. Lack of inventory capability
B. Compatibility management
C. Customer heterogeneity
D. Franchise empowerment
E. Fluctuating equilibrium points
The last step in building a service blueprint is to:
A. Draw the line of interaction and visibility
B. Identify the physical evidence needed to support service quality
C. Map the service process from the customer contact person’s point of view
D. Link customer and contact person activity to needed support function
E. Add evidence of service at each customer step
Instead of having a hair stylist color her hair, Chandra prefers to dye her own hair.
Which of the following roles is Chandra performing?
A. Customer mix manager
B. Competitor
C. Productive resource
D. Contributor to quality and satisfaction
E. Recruiter
Lois Kay is an experienced baker. She has decided to bake and decorate her daughter’s
wedding cake instead of ordering one at the bakery. What service delivery role is Kay
performing?
A. Customer mix manager
B. Competitor
C. Productive resource
D. Contributor to quality and satisfaction
E. Recruiter
Based on the Framework for Understanding Physical Environment-User Relationships,
employees and customers’ internal responses to the dimensions of their physical
surroundings are:
A. Cognitive, emotional, and physiological
B. Individual, contextual, and personal
C. Cognitive only
D. Emotional only
E. Emotional and physiological only
_____ research is conducted to clarify problem definition and prepare for more formal
empirical research.
A. Functional
B. Quantitative
C. Primary
D. Secondary
E. Qualitative
Which of the following is an example of the people element of an airline company’s
services marketing mix?
A. Pilots
B. Baggage handlers
C. Customers
D. Flight attendants
E. All of the above
Flying across the Pacific Ocean is an eight-hour trip that could be dreadful if you did
not fly by Singapore Airlines. One frequent flyer between the United States and Japan
noted the Singapore cabin crew gives the impression that it is truly their pleasure to
serve the passengers. Seating has been designed to provide comfort in the airline’s wide
body planes. In first class, the seats are referred to as sky suites because they are so
roomy. Every meal is carefully planned and served. The commitment to making the
long flight as pleasant as possible indicates Singapore Airlines:
A. Does not rely on physical evidence
B. Considers reliability more important than empathy
C. Has a service culture
D. Does not use internal marketing
E. Wants to increase the number of service encounters it has with a customer