Ch 13. Services: The Intangible Product

Involving the emplyees in setting performance goals can be very instructive in helping a firm reduce the _____ gap as it increases their input into a systematizing the expected output.

Standards

When a service delivery fails, customers need to be told ___________ in order to reduce buyers' irritation and dissatisfaction and reduce the perceived time for resolution.

approcimately how long it will take the firm to resolve the issue.

One way for a firm to reduce the ______ gap is to ensure that the sales force does not make promises the firm cannot keep.

Communication

Knowledge Gap

Conduct research to better understand what customers want.

Inseperable

Customers tend to get upset when their favorite manicurest is not working.

_____ fairness refers to customers' desire to be compensated a fair amount to correct a percieved loss that resulted from a service failure.

Distributive

When a firm such as Ruth Chris Steak House tells servers to "use your best judgement" in serving a customer who is not satisfied with his $40 steak, it is allowing the server to make decisions at the point of delivery. This is called ______.

Empowerment

A restaurant is facing a problem in service delivery on a night when there are twice as many customers dining as usual. An integral part of recovery of the service dilemma is to provide both disruptive and procedural _______ in resolving the delays in getting all customers served.

Fairness

Customers experience a ______ gap when quaility is unreliable because there are no service guidelines or benchmarks established by management.

Standards

In the provision of a service, there are several possibilities to mismatch the service and customer needs resulting in one of several types of service ________, such as in communicates

Gap

Three of the dermatoligist's patients have very different skin problems. Because of the _____ characteristics of services, the doctor needs to customize each patient's diagnosis and treatment.

Heterogeneity

Buying a service, such as a haircut, a medical treatment, or a lawyer's advice, is percieved as more risky to the consumer, becasue the service cannot really be sampled in advance nor experianced without the provider. This service characteristic is called ______.

Inseparability

Claire's accessory stores sell many girls their first pair of earings along with the process of piercing their ears. The store tried to create an entire experiance for the event, and both the customer and the store employee are integral to the process. Claire relies on the service attribute of _____ as an opportunity to involve the customer and increase percieved value.

Inseparability

One difference between products and services is demonstrated by a hair salon, where the stylist delivers the service at the same time the customer recieves it. This is called _____.

Inseparability

Why do retailers often feature in-store computer displays for their employees who provide service to customers.

Instrumental Support

A brand like Google will invest resources in creating a simple, attractive site that has interesting images and icons, such as the daily updates to the Google logo for holidays and special events, in order to better communicate the _____ element of their service and image to users.

Intangible

Bill's father is going to have major heart surgery. The uncertainty the family is feeling is in part due to health care services being ________. In other words, health care is a service that cannot be touched, tasted, or seen like merchandise can.

Intangible

Consumers can see and touch a product, such a laptop computer, but cannot touch the financing program used to purchase the laptop. Services cannot be touched, tasted, or seen; they are ______.

Intangible

intangible

It is difficult for the salon to convey the benefits of a new hand cleaning techniques.

Jo owns a large reail company and wants to find out more about his customers' service expectations. Which one of the following is the best way for Joe to gain this insight?

Jo need to engage in structured market research on his industry and brand.

The marketing managers needs to communicate with customers and employees on anongoing basis in order to understand buyers' expectations and to reduce the ______ gap.

Knowledge

In the delivery of good service, employees usually take their cue from attitude and actions of ______, which sets policy and have the ability to influence the entire corporate posture on quality service performance.

Management

The delivery quaility service is the task of everyone in the firm, but the commitment to quaility service is established and illustrated best by ______, which establishes policy and sets examples for the entire company.

Management

A customer who is dissatisfied with a restaurant's service delivery and finds it to be quite different from what was promised in the advertising is very likely to do which of the following?

Not return to the restaurant, communicate the negative experiance via the internet, communicate the negative experiance via word of mouth.

Heterogeneous

On Fridays and Saturdays, the staff is different and the normal process is shortened from 55 to 45 minutes per customer.

United Airlines flies a plan from Los Angeles to New York at 8 o'clock on Tuesday morning only 25% full. On Friday, the same flight is overbooked by 15%. One of the traits of service marketing is the quality of _______, in which the flights must be delivered on the day scheduled or it is lost.

Perishability

After waiting in line over 2 hours to experiance a new ride at an amusement park, the ride breaks. Everyone waiting is given a "rain check" with the sequential order of their line location enabling them to return in 4 hours and re-queue in order. Most guest will be satisfied, as they are experiencing _____.

Procedural Fairness

Previously, retailers offered no-question-asked returns but have since changed policies in recent years due to customers who took advantage of the policy. Since most buyers appreciate _______, some stores have instead instituted a 90-day limit on returns, as that is a reasnable amount of time for a consumer to decide whether to keep the item.

Procedural fairness

Customer ___ refers to human or mechanical activities undertaken by firms to help satisfy their customers' needs and wants.

Service

Standards Gap

Set appropriate service goals and measure service performance.

When there is a service failure, customers typically want some sort of material compensation that offsets their inconvenience or loss. In other words, they want ______.

Tangible restitution

Which of the following are potential sources of hetergeneity of service quaility at a hair salon?

The same hair stylist at different times of the day, week, or month, two different hair stylist working at the same location.

Perishable

There is a waiting line on Friday and Saturday afternoons, but those time slots cannot be invenoried for them when there is no demand.

True of False: Delivery gap always result in service failure.

True

Heterogeneity (variability) in service delivery at a resturant can result from all of the following except ________.

a manager who designs a specific way for all hostesses to accept reservations over the phone.

A tire store finds that its business is heavily skewed to the weekend, and few customers arrive on Monday through Wednesday. Since. rotating, balancing, and replacing tires is a service that cannot be stockpiled, one of the dilemmas facing the firm is ______.

balancing supply and demand

Communications Gap

be realistic in telling potential buyers about the services that can be provided and manage those customer expectations effectively.

Purchasing a cruise, for example, is different from purchasing an automobile, in that the cruise ______.

cannot be easily separated from the service providers such as the stewards and crew.

In a delivery of a service, one of the most significant elements is able to predict _______.

customer expectations

Service quality is defined as _______.

customers' perceptions of how well a service meets or exceeds their expectations.

one of the best methods to ensure that guest at Hilton Hotels recieve quaility service is to solicit suggestions and feedback from ______.

guest, and employees.

The primary reason there is greater heterogenity in services than in products is because ______.

human inputs generate differences

Delivery Gap

improve employee performance through support, incentives, and the use of technology.

For the marketing manager to be able to deliver consistent quality service, it is imperative to set ______.

measurable goals that are based on customer expectations

Despite having to deal with difficult guest, the service provider can be motivated to provide "service with a smile" when the firm _______.

provides support and incentive to motivate quality service.

One of the most important factors for the adequate service recovery is for the provider to ______.

respond to the customer and resolve the problem quickly.

A resturant delivers particularly bad service at lunch one Tuesday. One of the biggest problems with the marketing of such services is that the resturant service providers cannot ________.

undo "bad" service and often are unaware of the extent of the problem until the buyer complains.