978-1259709074 Chapter 13 Solutions Manual

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Chapter 13 – Services: The Intangible Product Marketing 6th

Answers to End of Chapter Learning Aids

Marketing Digitally

1 What services does Zipcar (www.zipcar.com) offer? Go to Zipcar’s website and click on “for

everybody.” Evaluate how quick it is to reserve a car in a major city or at a university that has

a dedicated Zipcar car pickup/dropoff location.

1 Go to Zappos’s website, www.zappos.com, and examine its customer service offerings. Next,

go to Reseller Ratings, www.resellerratings.com, and look up Zappos. Based on these

reviews, does Zappos have a service gap? If so, how can the company close it?

Marketing Applications

1 Those companies from which you purchase products and services are not pure sellers of

services, nor are they pure sellers of products. What services does Home Depot provide?

What goods does a health club provide?

The service–product continuum concept discussed in this chapter notes that a company can be service

2 You have been sitting in the waiting room of your mechanic’s shop for more than an hour.

With the knowledge that products are different from services, develop a list of the things the

shop manager could do to improve the overall service delivery. Consider how the shop might

overcome problems associated with the tangibility, separability, heterogeneity, and

perishability of services.

Providing great service is not easy, so companies must make diligent efforts to analyze their service

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• Separability: Services are inseparable, meaning that service production cannot be separated from

• Variability: Variability implies that services may vary because they are provided by humans. One way

• Perishability: Services are perishable because they cannot be stored for future use. One way to

3 You have conducted a zone of tolerance analysis for your local pizza place. You find that the

lengths of the reliability and responsiveness boxes are much greater than those of the other

three service quality dimensions. You also find that the restaurant is positioned above the

zone box on reliability but below the box on responsiveness. What should you tell the

manager to do?

Determining customers’ perceptions of a service’s ability to meet or exceed their expectations is difficult,

but the zone of tolerance offers an effective method. For the pizza place, students should examine the

company’s performance relative to customers’ expectations regarding the five service quality factors.

4 Assume you were hired by the local grocery store to help assess their service quality. How

would you go about undertaking this project?

Service quality is the customers’ perceptions of how well a service meets or exceeds their expectations.

It is often difficult for customers to evaluate service quality. There are five service dimensions to

determine overall service quality: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles.

5 What should a restaurant server do who is faced with an irate customer who has received

undercooked food after a long wait? How can he or she avoid a service failure by being

empowered? What should the server do?

Despite a firm’s best efforts, sometimes service providers don’t meet customer expectations. When this

happens, the firm must make amends with the customer and learn from the experience. Service recovery

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6 What types of support and incentives could your university provide advisors to help make

them more attentive to students’ needs?

This question reminds students that universities provide services too and that advisors, as service

providers, often face the difficult task of dealing with unhappy students. Therefore, they must empathize

with advisors and consider what possible supports and incentives could make their lives easier.

7 What mobile apps do you use that help facilitate your transactions with a specific retailer or

service provider? Would you rather use the apps or engage in a face-to-face relationship with

a person? How, if at all, would your parents’ answer to these two questions differ?

Apps have become an increasingly important means of service delivery. Most students probably rely more

heavily on apps, whereas their parents might consider face-to-face interactions important for key personal

transactions.

8 A local health club is running a promotional campaign that promises you can lose an inch a

month off your waist if you join the club and follow its program. How might this claim cause a

communications gap? What should the club do to avoid a service failure?

The communications gap refers to the difference between the actual service provided to customers and

the service that the firm’s promotion program promises. This claim might cause a communications gap if

every client expects to lose an inch off their waist in a month. The club can avoid this service failure in

several ways:

Manage customer expectations. The club should offer a disclaimer that not everyone will achieve

The club should consider changing its line to promise only what it can deliver. Rather than promise

The club can manage customer expectations when the service is delivered. If a client is exercising,

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Chapter 13 – Services: The Intangible Product Marketing 6th

9 Suppose the health club didn’t listen to your advice and ran the promotional campaign as is. A

new member has come in to complain that not only did he not lose inches off his waist, he

actually gained weight. How should the health club manager proceed?

In taking the perspective of the health club manager, students must consider two elements of service

recovery: how to placate the disgruntled customer and then how to avoid such problems in the future.

10 You are hired by a career consulting firm that promises to market new graduates to

high-paying employers. The firm provides potential clients with an impressive list of

employers. It charges the clients a fee, and then a separate finder’s fee if the client gets a

position. The firm aggressively markets its services and has a large client base. You learn that

the firm simply takes submitted résumés and posts them to a variety of online job search

engines. The firm never actually contacts any firms on its clients’ behalf. The CEO, himself a

recent college grad, tells you that the firm never promises to actually contact potential

employers, only that it has access to employers and will distribute clients’ résumés. What do

you think of the career consulting firm’s practices?

This scenario forces student to question to what degree the career consulting firm’s practices might

violate their ethical standards. Using the ethical decision-making framework, students should evaluate

these practices to determine an appropriate course of action.

In applying the ethical decision-making framework:

• “Have you thought broadly of any ethical issues associated with the decision in question?” The

• “Have you involved as many possible people who might have a right to offer input into or have actual

• “Does this decision respect the rights and dignity of the stakeholders?” The clients believe that the

• “Does this decision produce the most good and the least harm to the relevant stakeholders?” The

• “Does this decision uphold relevant conventional moral rules?” It likely violates the community’s

• “Can you live with this decision alternative?” If the decision is to have the firm change its practices

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Quiz Yourself

1 Which of the following represents the most fundamental difference between a product and a service?

a. heterogeneity

b. tangibility

c. perishability

d. serviceability

e. inseparability

11 The Gaps Model is designed as a diagnostic tool to highlight specific areas where

a. marketers deliver better quality service compared to the physical goods they sell.

b. manufacturers are cutting costs on product quality.

c. marketers are falling short in their service delivery.

d. marketers can take advantage of unsuspecting customers.

e. there is a gap in product quality compared to service quality.

Chapter Case: Transportation Network Services: Uber vs. Lyft vs. Taxis

1 How can Uber and Lyft apply the Service Gaps Model to identify potential service failures?

Using the building blocks of service quality, how can Uber and Lyft ensure high service

quality?

Reliability is the ability to perform the service dependably and accurately. For Uber and Lyft, reliability

would involve having cars that are reliable and safe. In order to do this, Uber and Lyft should have their

Responsiveness is the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. Uber and Lyft need to

Assurance is the knowledge of and courtesy of the employees. Uber and Lyft drivers need to be friendly

12 If Uber or Lyft fails to pick up a customer in a timely fashion, what should they do to rectify the

service failure?

Both companies should follow these steps:

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1. Listening to the Customers and Involving Them in the Service Recovery – allow the customer to

2. Finding a Fair Solution – provide the customer with a way to contact the company and offer

3. Resolving Problems Quickly – each company must have a clear policy for late pickups, adequate

Additional Teaching Tips

In this chapter, students learn the difference between marketing a product vs. marketing a service.

Students find that since a service can’t be “seen” or measured with a quantifiable outcome, that the

marketing strategy must be different in marketing services. The building blocks of service quality are the

foundation of the chapter, which then dovetails into how to improve customer service through the methods

to reduce delivery gaps.

The Broadmoor Hotel example in the text is strongly recommended to allow students to apply the five

service quality areas. A good way to do this is to divide the class into 4 or 5 groups and have them

tackle the case. Then open classroom discussion by dialogue in comparing/contrasting the responses

from each of the groups. Of course, a good understanding of the five service qualities is needed before

assigning the case. One good way to do this after discussion/lecture on the topic is to divide the class into

groups. Have each group develop a role-play skit on (1) good customer service incorporating the five

service quality areas and an alternate skit on (2) bad customer service.

Students have fun with the skit exercise and it often brings out some humorous acting moments.

Instructors will want to assign different topics (popular food chain, hotel, college bookstore, retail chain,

etc.) to each group to get them focused on the skit and not thinking up “what” to complete the skit on.

Each group presents the “good” skit first in which the audience (the rest of the class) takes notes and

discussion takes place on how the five service qualities were present. The group then performs their “bad

service skit” in which discussion follows on how to incorporate good service techniques and improve the

service gaps.

On-line teaching tip: Instructors can have students complete this same exercise by having students

record individual skits/scenarios and uploading them to the online platform. Other learners in the online

environment can then post their analysis on the five service qualities and either their suggestions on

improving the delivery gaps or write a paper outlining the same concepts (meanwhile the other learners

are also preparing their own skits). Instructors may want to pair students on the responses in the online

forum. For fun, instructors may want to have the class use online voting to vote on the best

“performance.”

Connect Activities

Activity Type Learning Objectives 13-

01 02 03 04 05

Wegmans Services Its Employees and Its Customers Case Analysis X X

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Wegmans Services Its Employees and Its Customers

Activity Type: Case Analysis

Learning Objectives: 13-01, 13-03

Difficulty: Hard

Activity Summary: This case describes the unique customer service approach of Wegmans, a

supermarket chain. Students answer questions applying chapter concepts to the case.

Activity

Introduction: Many grocery stores strive to meet customers’ needs. However, for Wegmans, that is

not enough. Wegmans works to exceed customers’ needs and expectations on a daily basis. In an

Concept Review: Providing good customer service can add value to a firm’s products. Even firms

Follow-Up Activity

For another, photo-intensive view of what’s good about Wegmans, show the following in class:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/why-wegmans-is-the-greatest-supermarket-ever

You can ask students to note the following:

Which items on the list are related to products, and which to services? The list points out that grocery

The Wegmans formula truly creates loyal customers and fantastic word of mouth. Skim the comments

Note the number of items that have to do with the Tangibles component of service quality.

Services Marketing Differs from Product Marketing

Activity Type: Click & Drag

Learning Objectives: 13-01

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Difficulty: Medium

Activity Summary: Students are presented with eight statements about services—four related to a

health club and four related to a hotel. They must classify each of them in two ways: (a) by the

difference between products and services the statement represents, and (b) whether the statement

represents a customer experience or a marketing activity.

Activity

Introduction: Two national firms, the Prestige Hotel and Pro Fitness chains, strive to deliver quality

Concept Review: Economies of developed countries like the United States have become

Follow-Up Activity

In small groups, have students discuss how the four characteristics of services apply to university

education. Some ideas:

Intangibility: Although education has tangible elements, the actual learning process is intangible, and

Inseparability: The instructor and the student both have important roles in the delivery of educational

Perishability: If a class ends up having two or three empty spaces in the fall, those spaces can’t be

Variability: Many factors can contribute to variability in the educational experience. Obviously,

Understanding Service Gaps

Activity Type: Click & Drag

Learning Objectives: 13-02

Difficulty: Medium

Activity Summary: The student is presented with four examples of problems caused by service

gaps, and four possible solutions for problems related to gaps, and must classify these items

according to the related gap.

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Activity

Introduction: Apartment complexes often look for ways to recruit new tenants and retain current

Concept Review: Customers have certain expectations about how a service should be delivered. A

Follow-Up Activity

Divide the students into groups and have one student in each group briefly describe a service failure s/he

Netflix: Service Excellence 24/7

Activity Type: Video Case

Learning Objectives: 13-02

Difficulty: Medium

Activity Summary: This case explains how Netflix delivers quality service to its customers. After the

video ends, students are asked questions about the video and related course concepts.

Activity

Introduction: Netflix is an online movie rental service that distributes more than two million DVDs per

Concept Review: A knowledge gap occurs when marketers don’t understand what their customers

Video: The video is presented to the student below the introductory information. The video plays

Follow-Up Activity

Class discussion: What new challenges does Netflix face in delivering quality service, now that so much

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Some possible answers:

The streaming service has fewer movies available than does the DVD service; this is especially true

for the newest and oldest titles. A DVD customer who switches to streaming might be disappointed if

With the DVD service, Netflix’s service quality is dependent on good performance by the US Postal

Sweetwater

Activity Type: Video Case

Learning Objectives: 13-02, 13-03, 13-05

Difficulty: Medium

Activity Summary: This case discusses Sweetwater Sound, an online retailer of audio equipment

and music-related products. After the video ends, students are asked questions about the video and

related course concepts.

Activity

Introduction: Sweetwater Sound was started in 1979 as a professional recording studio. Now named

simply Sweetwater, it has evolved into one of the leading online retailers of recording and audio

equipment, musical instruments, and accessories. Central to its success is the company’s passion for

Concept Review: Today, services account for almost 80% of U.S. GDP. Beyond this economic

impact, providing exceptional customer service is a critical component in delivering value to

Video: The video is presented to the student below the introductory information. The video plays

embedded on the page, after which questions are presented.

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FedEx: Excellence in Customer Service

Activity Type: Video Case

Learning Objectives: 13-02, 13-03, 13-05

Difficulty: Medium

Activity Summary: FedEx prides itself on excellent customer service. This video case describes

some of its initiatives. After the video ends, students are asked questions about the video and related

course concepts.

Activity

Introduction: Delivering high-quality service is a top priority at FedEx. The company seeks to offer

Video: The video is presented to the student below the introductory information. The video plays

Follow-Up Activity

With an operation as large and complex as FedEx’s it is important to design and operate their services

efficiently and effectively. Have the students work in groups, with each group choosing one of the gaps in

Transportation Network Services: Uber vs. Lyft vs. Taxis

Activity Type: Case Analysis

Learning Objectives: 13-01, 13-02, 13-03, 13-04

Difficulty: Medium

Activity Summary: This case discusses how Uber and Lyft operate, how they compare to taxi

services, and the challenges they face. Students answer questions applying chapter concepts to the

case.

Activity

Introduction: Local transportation options have expanded recently due to the launch of Uber and

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Follow-Up Activity

Ask the class if anyone has used Uber or Lyft, and how the service experienced performed on the five

building blocks of service quality (reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles). Also,

ISeeIt Video Case: Service Quality

Activity Type: Video Case

Learning Objectives: 13-01, 13-03

Difficulty: Easy

Activity Summary: This video case explores different aspects of service quality for a coffee shop.

Activity

Introduction: Service quality is difficult to measure given that each customer has a different

expectation about a service experience. While the service gap, which is the difference between

customers’ expectations and the service experienced, can be difficult to analyze, Martha can still

Video: The video is presented to the student below the introductory information. The video plays

embedded on the page, after which questions are presented.

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