Chapter 13

Maria asks Glenda what housecleaning service she would recommend in Oakview. Glenda responds that Pristine Cleaning is great if you can be assured that Janice will be the person assigned to your house. Glenda's recommendation addresses which of the following service features?

Heterogeneity

Saresh owns the Change-ezz, a salon specializing in the unique hair needs of minority populations. Recently, Saresh has been trying to improve the quality of service received by his customers. However, he has experienced difficulty in finding ways to standardize and control the salon's quality of service. Saresh's problem illustrates which of the following unique features of service?

Heterogeneity

H&R Block, a major tax preparation firm, reported having a problem with its employees being inconsistent in the filing of returns. The firm is experiencing a problem with which of the following characteristics of the service offering?

Heterogeneity

Which of the following service characteristics results in variability of service quality yet provides the opportunity for customizing services to match the specific needs of individual customers?

Heterogeneity

Which of the following statements about customer contact in services marketing is false?

High-contact services are less expensive to deliver because they are typically equipment based.

What should marketers do to promote the consistency and reliability of their services most effectively?

Train employees and develop standard procedures for dealing with customers

Which of the following countries was the world's first service economy?

United States

Troy is a service provider for a low-contact type of service. Which of the services below is Troy most likely to provide?

Website design

Service industries account for ____ of the gross domestic product of most developed nations.

nearly three-quarters

When Prize Pet Grooming offers pet owners who recommend the business to a friend $10 off their next grooming bill, it is a program designed primarily to

encourage word-of-mouth communication.

Which of the following services falls closest to the middle of the tangibility continuum?

Dinner at the Olive Garden

Which of the following is the best example of a high-contact service?

Plastic surgery

There are five elements that affect customers' perceptions of service quality. They are reliability, appearance of the tangibles, responsiveness, assurance, and

employee empathy.

One of Maya's staff suggested that they offer senior citizens a free month of membership for every person they recommended to the "Y." This particular form of promotion would be designed to

increase positive word-of-mouth communication.

The fact the services cannot be inventoried and then sold at a later date is called

perishability.

Refer to Scenario 13.2. When Kaycee visited the accountants' offices and used the look of the surroundings, as well as the office furniture condition in her evaluation of the service business, she was most likely using the elements of the ____ dimension of service quality.

tangibles

A small private college in Tennessee paid a large sum of money to a marketing firm to study the college's current marketing strategy and help develop new strategies for attracting students. The college is having a difficult time evaluating the effectiveness of the marketing firm's work because this type of service has many

credence qualities.

Many services have aspects that consumers may never be able to evaluate, even years after the purchase and consumption of the service. These attributes are called

credence qualities.

Which of the following service providers are most likely to use demand-based pricing?

cruise ships

By installing automated check-in kiosks in some airports, airlines have increased production capacity and reduced the number of personnel. This results in a decrease in

customer contact.

Aaron works as a salesperson at an auto dealership. His annual bonus has been calculated based on the volume of cars sold during the year. Next year, however, the calculation for the bonus will also include information from customer comments. The new bonus calculation is most likely designed to improve Aaron's

employee performance.

Flo, the spokesperson in Progressive Insurance TV commercials, is used to symbolize friendliness, reliability, and knowledge of the company's products. The part Flo plays in the promotion is designed to address the ____ characteristic of services.

intangibility

As the owner of a services business, you are constantly challenged to maintain consistent quality in your services. This heterogeneity is both a challenge and an opportunity. The opportunity arises because __________________.

it allows you to customize your services to match the specific needs of individual customers

Tara finds evaluating a new pair of jeans much easier than evaluating tennis lessons because she can try on the jeans to see exactly how they feel and fit. In other words, the jeans have many ____ qualities.

search

The continuum of tangibility goes from ____ on one end to ____ on the other end.

service-dominant products; good-dominant products

Consumers look closely at service quality when comparing competing services because

services are very difficult to evaluate.

Services are usually provided through ____ directed at people or objects.

the application of human or mechanical efforts

Services have six basic characteristics: intangibility, inseparability of production and consumption, perishability, client-based relationships, customer contact, and

heterogeneity.

Frank went on a tour of NASA headquarters. All guests of the tour were asked to turn off their cell phones. However, sometime during the tour Frank noticed someone off to the side loudly talking on the cell phone. Frank is annoyed, not only because the man disobeyed directions but also because his rude conduct was impacting everyone else's enjoyment. He felt that everyone, including the tour attendees, has the shared responsibility to be courteous to others and the tour guide. This problem is a challenge involving

inseparability.

The children who take swimming lessons must be in attendance at the pool during the time of their appointment. The need for the child to be in attendance in order to receive the lesson is an example of the ____ feature of a service, while the need for them to be there at the time of their appointment represents the ____ feature.

inseparability; perishability

Martin, one of the staff members at the YMCA, suggested that the "Y" offer discounted memberships to senior citizens over the age of 65; however, they could only use the facility between the hours of 9:00 am and 4:00 pm. Martin's plan is most likely addressing the issue with ____, and relates to the ____ characteristic of services.

off-peak demand; perishability

The accountant who Kaycee chose to prepare her taxes will most likely require her to schedule an appointment due to the ____ characteristic of the service. If Kaycee schedules an appointment during the month of February, the accountant will most likely use ____ when charging for the service.

perishability; demand-based pricing

Compared to goods marketers, services providers are more likely to promote performance documentation, availability, guarantees, and

price.

All of the following are elements of the inseparability characteristic of services except that

services are easy to standardize and control.

Tina, a waitress at the Riverfront Grill, is angry that a customer complained that his soup was cold because of her slow service. Riverfront owner Max Griffin reminds her that she must focus on service quality as defined by

the customer's perceptions.

The four factors that affect a customer's evaluation of a service are the analysis of customer expectations, service quality specifications, management of service expectations, and

employee performance.

The heterogeneity characteristic of services provides marketers with tremendous opportunity to

customize their services to meet unique individual needs.

Prudential Insurance uses "the rock" symbol to communicate stability and security to customers. This is Prudential's attempt to help customers better understand its services by

emphasizing tangible cues in promoting the service.

You are considering hiring an outside consultant to help you improve your services business. You believe your most pressing issue is how to maintain consistent quality in the delivery of your services. Your customer surveys suggest you need to work on this very important issue. Based on this, you should be looking for a consultant who has experience in dealing with the _______________ issue related to services.

heterogeneity

The more ____ involved with delivering a service, the greater the degree of heterogeneity.

human labor

The necessary interaction between service provider and customer that allows a service to be delivered is called

customer contact.

Donald saw an advertisement for a local gym on the television. During the ad, there were images of the gym, its equipment, and its staff. This ad was most likely designed with the goal of

making the intangible aspects of the gym more tangible.

Carlos is speaking to his brother about the interaction he had today with one of his clients. Since he is referring to his customer as a client, Carlos is most likely a(n)___.

masseur

One way service businesses communicate a higher level of service quality to their customers is by having their employees be clean, sharp looking, and dressed in appropriate uniforms. This is a way to address the ____ characteristic of services.

intangibility

Service marketers make promises to customers, suggesting that the customer place some degree of trust in the service provider. In this way, service marketers are trying to address the challenge of the service characteristic of

intangibility.

When a theater entices customers to see movies during the daytime by offering tickets at a reduced price, it is trying to solve the services marketing problem of

off-peak demand.

Attributes which are assessed only during the consumption of a service are called

experience qualities.

Suppose Pizza Hut discounts its pizzas on Tuesday evening because demand is slow. This pricing strategy is known as low demand pricing.

false

Production and consumption of services must simultaneously occur due to the ____ characteristic of services.

inseparability

Brittany recently moved to a new city and is trying to find a new mechanic to do maintenance and repair on her car. She visits several places to judge their overall appearance, cleanliness, and organization and finally chooses a mechanic. Brittany was trying to overcome the ____ aspect of services.

intangibility

When using an accountant to prepare her tax return, Kaycee really can't determine the level of the accountant's expertise, or whether the accountant actually determined the absolute highest dollar amount Kaycee could have legally received. This is an example of the ____ of a service.

credence qualities

The fact that the first massage Gretchen gives each day is better than the last massage demonstrates the ____ of services.

heterogeneity

In an attempt to attract customers, service marketers often promise great results and satisfaction to customers, but marketers should be careful not to

promise too much and cause customer expectations beyond what they can deliver.

During periods of high demand, Uber pricing will often go up. This has been termed "surge pricing." On the other hand, when times are slow, the prices of rides will often go down. This is to encourage passengers to use Uber during periods of slow demand. This pricing strategy is an example of

off-peak pricing.

When Kaycee looked in the yellow pages and on the Internet for information on the accountants in the area, she was most likely using ____ qualities to evaluate the accountant service.

search

If Best Western bundles its rooms with services such as free local phone calls, cable television, wireless Internet access, and complimentary breakfast, these services are known as ____ services.

supplementary

Lashawna is a concert promoter who works for singer Kanye West. She works very hard to make sure most of Kanye's concerts are sold out because she understands the concept of perishability, which means

that if the tickets are not sold, seats will remain empty and they can never be sold to anyone again.

Consumers are ________________likely to tell other people about a bad customer service experience compared to a good one.

two times more

Zappos strongly monitors its Twitter feeds in its goal to offer "WOW" customer service. In fact, some Twitter followers of Zappos were totally surprised to find out that Zappos had ordered them pizzas after they expressed their hunger in tweets. Zappos had gone well beyond traditional customer service. This incredible detail to potential customer needs demonstrates that Zappos has strong

empathy

Safe Auto Insurance advertises "minimum coverage for minimum budgets" for its automobile insurance. Which of the following best describes Safe Auto's approach?

For some services, customers look for the low-cost provider, which is what Safe claims to be.

Which of the following is not a service product?

A 100% service satisfaction guarantee

Which of the following is similar for both for-profit and nonprofit marketing?

Ability to use effective marketing activities

Which of the following best defines nonprofit marketing?

Activities conducted by individuals and organizations to achieve some goal other than ordinary business goals such as profit or return on investment

Which of the following statements is true about customer services?

Both goods and service marketers offer customer services.

A US Airways flight from Dallas to Houston was full, and the tickets were more expensive than the almost-empty US Airways flight from Chicago to Phoenix. This is an example of what kind of service pricing?

Demand-based

Hair stylists find it challenging to standardize their service because the customer must be involved in production (i.e., the haircut). This illustrates which of the following unique features of services?

Inseparability

Select the true statement about nonprofit marketing.

Major nonprofit marketers in the United States are social causes and charitable organizations.

____ marketing includes activities conducted by individuals and organizations to achieve some goal other than ordinary business goals such as profit.

Nonprofit

You recently began working as the marketing director for a nonprofit organization. Prior to this role, you always worked in for-profit organizations. You immediately recognize that marketing in a nonprofit environment is dramatically different than marketing in a for-profit environment. Which of the following statements is true regarding the differences in marketing in a nonprofit versus a for-profit environment?

Nonprofit organizations usually deal more with ideas and services than with goods.

____ is the value of the benefit that is given up by selecting one alternative rather than another.

Opportunity cost

The two levels of expectations that consumers generally have about services are

acceptable and desired.

Client-based relationships are least likely to be developed by

appliance repairmen.

According to the text, the direct consumers of a nonprofit organization's ideas or services are called its ____ public

client

The main characteristic of a ____ is that customers are satisfied to the point that they use a service repeatedly over a period of time.

client-based relationship

Many services base their success on building a group of satisfied customers who use their services on a regular basis over long periods of time. This critical component of success is referred to as

client-based relationships.

A university's student body would be considered its ____ public; parents, alumni, and trustees would be included as its ____ public.

client; general

The intangibility aspect of a service means that

consumers may have a problem evaluating service offerings.

Sam just bought a new phone. However, almost immediately he started experiencing glitches. Sam called the phone company's helpline. He was surprised to find that the helpline was entirely automated. The automated helpline described some common problems that customers might experience and provided instructions on what to do. Sam followed the instructions and his phone started working correctly. Although Sam was happy that the problem was fixed, he was frustrated that the entire process was automated. Sam would prefer to have a higher degree of ____________________ when he calls in to ask for help.

customer contact

Who judges service quality?

customers

In general, differences between goods and services are determined by the

degree of tangibility

Many cellular phone plans contain a certain number of anytime minutes and then either significantly more or even unlimited night and weekend minutes. This is an example of

demand-based pricing.

The marketing channels for services are usually

direct from provider to customer.

The fact that the "Y" is open from 6:00 am until 11:00 pm refers to the ____ element of its marketing mix.

distribution

Client-based relationships are most likely to be developed by

doctors

Julianne is planning her upcoming wedding later this year. She has made a list of all the expenses that will be required for the wedding she has planned. Which of the following is not one of the service products associated with Julianne's wedding?

flowers for the church

Services ____________ factors for the customer to evaluate as compared to goods.

have fewer

Because of a service's ____, standardization and quality are difficult to control.

heterogeneity

Services delivered through machinery such as computer kiosks, ATMs, and vending machines can reduce the ____ that comes from increased contact with human employees.

heterogeneity

Ximena works from her place of residence. She is employed by a call center and usually answers marketing-related questions for customers who call in. This practice is known as

home sourcing

A sign in a doctor's office waiting room says "Please be courteous of the others waiting with you." The doctor's office is trying to positively influence the ____ aspect of services.

inseparability

Jeff was interested in taking classes to become a certified yoga instructor. In order to earn the certification, he found out he would need to take 200 hours of training. He would have to be present in the training classes with a trainer for all 200 hours. The fact that he would have to attend the classes with a trainer reflects the _____ quality of services.

inseparability

Personal trainers cannot complete their work without their clients present because of the ____ feature of services.

inseparability

Sierra decided to try learning ballet. However, after a few weeks she realized she was the worst in the class. Sierra signed up for extra lessons with the instructor. After the lessons, the instructor kept telling Sierra that she was slowly improving. Yet it was hard for Sierra to evaluate whether she was really improving as she could not see a noticeable difference. These ballet lessons are hard to evaluate due to

intangibility.

Jayden donates his time to a nursing home every Friday after school. Sometimes this means he misses hanging out with his friends for certain events. However, Jayden is committed to volunteering at the nursing home because his grandfather is one of the residents. He only misses his regular routine at the nursing home for very special occasions. Because Jayden must sometimes sacrifice events with his friends to volunteer, this represents a(n)

opportunity cost

Any service provider that offers time-sensitive services receives most of its revenue during

peak demand.

Some services are time sensitive, meaning that a significant number of customers desire the service around the same time. This point in time is called

peak demand.

According to your text, one perspective from which to view services is as a ____ targeted at a(n) ____.

performance; audience

Jonas is in charge of designing a promotion campaign for NetJets, a private jet service company that has a high level of service quality. In an effort to make the service more tangible to potential consumers, the ad Jonas is creating will feature

pictures of the exterior and interior of the planes.

Sarah has been using the same hairdresser for years. What has kept Sarah loyal is the fact that she knows her hairdresser is going to consistently do a great job. Sarah places great importance on _____ when evaluating her hairdresser.

reliability

Which of the following represents a supplementary service?

room service

202. Lily had to get braces for her crooked teeth. She picked out the color bands she liked best, and her orthodontist put the braces on. For several days afterward, Lily's mouth was sore. She was not sure if this was normal or not. She figures that different people probably have different experiences. Despite not knowing, she has a lot of faith in her orthodontist as he has a great reputation and has never steered her wrong before. Lily was able to evaluate the bands used for her braces using ____________ qualities. She evaluates the doctor's expertise and service based on _____________ qualities.

search; credence

Antonio is planning a trip to Cancun for spring break. He will likely be able to evaluate the hotel's size, amenities offered, and prices by looking at information on its website. However, he won't be able to evaluate the comfort level of the bed or the friendliness of the employees until he actually spends time at the hotel. The type of evaluation attributes Antonio is using before his trip are called _______ and those he uses during the trip are called _____.

search; experience

When service companies change high-contact services into low-contact services, the

service becomes less personalized.

The U.S. economy is now referred to as a(n)____________.

service economy

Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, placed great value on customer service. He employed greeters to greet customers as they entered the store. Greeters needed to adhere to certain expectations. For instance, greeters were expected to look professional. They were told that whenever a customer was within 10 feet, they must look them in the eye, smile, and greet them. They were also expected to walk customers over to find what they wanted. These expectations best fall under

service quality specifications.

Michael works on developing press releases for a nonprofit organization looking for new ways to encourage recycling among consumers and businesses. Michael is engaging in

social marketing

Every year Vanessa participates in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training event used to raise money for leukemia and lymphoma research. Vanessa does not know anyone personally with leukemia and lymphoma, but she loves participating in the event and raising money for a good cause. Vanessa is part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's

target public

An important difference between for-profit and nonprofit marketing is that

the goals of the nonprofit organization differ from the goals of the for-profit organization

Allstate's logo features two hands, and its slogan is "You're in good hands with Allstate." Allstate most likely uses hands as part of its logo because

the hands symbolize the service that Allstate offers.

In most service industries, customer-contact employees are

the lowest-paid and least-trained employees.

American Life uses leather-look portfolios and high-quality paper and printing for its life insurance policies in order to indicate

the quality of its services.

The perishability of services means

when demand is low, the unused capacity is lost forever.

What are the three primary ways that marketers deliver services?

Service facilities, customer's home, or from a distance

Dentists find it difficult to attract customers because many customers cannot distinguish whether or not the product offered is beneficial. This aspect of the dentist's product is called ____ quality.

credence

Andrea has just opened a new service business called Paws n' Claws, which provides dog grooming and doggie day care. Andrea has done research about the role dogs play in today's culture, particularly for those people who do not have children. She knows that some of these people represent a target that is urban, professional, and travels frequently. Andrea's business is likely to have a _____ and she will probably refer to the dog owners as ___.

high level of customer contact; clients

Symbols such as the Travelers' Financial Services umbrella are designed to help customers overcome the ____ of services.

intangibility

Demand-based pricing most closely relates to the ____ of services.

perishability

Because practically all marketers provide some services, ____ typically do not exist in today's business environment.

pure goods

The willingness and readiness of employees to meet the needs of the customer while providing the service is an important dimension of service quality called

responsiveness

A service is usually offered as part of a bundled package of services with a core service and one or more ____ services.

supplementary

Distribution for nonprofit organizations is

typically characterized by short channels.

Surveys, focus groups, and customer comment cards are all methods used by service companies to

understand customer needs and expectations.

In service marketing, the most important link to the customer is

well-trained contact employees.

Just Relax Massage Therapists have a large customer base although they do very little advertising. Their promotion strategy relies mostly on

word of mouth.

Stephanie sets up her new interior decorating business and advertises her expertise in high-quality draperies and other window treatments. One of her first customers is extremely dissatisfied with Stephanie's work, so Stephanie redoes the job at her own expense because she knows how powerful ____ is (are) for services and wants to stay in business.

word-of-mouth communication

You run a services business and you are constantly looking for ways to project an image of quality to your current and potential customers. You recognize there are very few tangible elements customers can view before making a services purchase. If you want to improve these elements of your business, then you should focus on improving

your facilities and your employees