Chapter 13 Questions

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 distributive and procedural ________________ in resolving the delays in getting all customers served.

- Fairness

Services are __________ which means that they cannot be touched, tasted, or seen.

- Intangible

Assurance:

- knowledge and courtesy by employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence

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 - high prices to impart high quality - general goals based on employee feedback - high employee-to-customer ratios

- measurable goals that are based on customer expectations

Reliability:

- the ability to perform a service dependably and accurately.

Which of the following products or services is considered perishable in the sense that it cannot be stockpiled? - A box of candles - A pair of shoes - A package of gum - A dental exam

- A dental exam

Empathy:

- caring, individualized attention provided to customers

An important element of offering emotional support to employees is to ______ when they have been empowered to make decisions in dealing with the customer. - encourage the employee not to be supportive - let them talk back to the customer - not punish them - encourage the customer to be upset

- not punish them

Tangibles:

- appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials

In delivery of a service, one of the most important early steps is addressing the knowledge gap, or the ability to understand ______. - demand for the service - consumer expectations - how to handle a service failure - costs and profitability

- consumer expectations

If a customer issues a complaint about poor service but is compensated in a way that he or she feels offsets the inconvenience of the service failure, the customer has received ______. - procedural fairness - tangible restitution - distributive fairness - the zone of tolerance

- distributive fairness

A continuing dilemma for marketers of services is to understand buyers' ________________ which means to understand in advance what they think will be delivered based on their previous experiences and knowledge.

- expectations

Firms are able to gain a better understanding of customers' service expectations by using quantitative and qualitative market ______, which can be extensive and expensive. - guesses - research - forces - experiences

- research

One of the most important factors for adequate service recovery is for the provider to ______. - find a solution that costs the company the least amount of money possible - respond to the customer and resolve the problem quickly - guarantee that all problems will eventually be resolved in the order in which they occur - allow the customer to solve the problem on his or her own

- respond to the customer and resolve the problem quickly

A business that experiences service delivery gaps can use which of the following methods to improve the quality of its service? (Select all that apply.) - Empower employees to work in the customer's best interest. - Ask each customer what level of service he or she expects when he or she enters the business. - Provide incentives and support for service providers. - Implement self-service technologies.

- Empower employees to work in the customer's best interest. - Provide incentives and support for service providers. - Implement self-service technologies.

True or false: Delivery gaps always result in a service failure. True False

- True

An effective method to assess customer service expectations is to analyze customer ______ behavior in which management is told by buyers what dissatisfies them. - exit - buying - loyalty - complaint

- complaint

Responsiveness:

- willingness to help customers and provide prompt service

Which of the following situations best illustrates how a firm can offer employees emotional support and stand behind the employees' actions? - At a picture framing store, employees are told to ignore unruly, dissatisfied customers and wait on other buyers first. - At the return desk at a large home repair store, employees are taught not to accept any item that is no longer in an unopened package. - At a copy center, part-time employees are encouraged to turn over any unhappy customer to the supervisor immediately. - At a dry cleaning store, employees are told not to charge unhappy customers but to enter their name on a "black list" of clients.

- At a copy center, part-time employees are encouraged to turn over any unhappy customer to the supervisor immediately.

True or false: Service providers that have high customer satisfaction ratings this year are unlikely to achieve the same level of satisfaction next year. True False

- False

Which of the following is most likely to lead to high levels of customer loyalty? - Intangible compensation for service failures - Low prices - High levels of customer dissonance - High customer satisfaction ratings

- High customer satisfaction ratings

Which of the following are benefits that a service provider receives from engaging in effective service recovery? (Select all that apply.) - Increased purchase intention - Lower service costs - Improved word of mouth - Higher levels of customer satisfaction than prior to the service failure

- Increased purchase intention - Improved word of mouth

Joe owns a large retail 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? - Joe should choose a time to watch his customers interact with services and workers in the store and make his best educated guess. - Joe needs to ask others in the industry what they know about customers' expectations. - Joe needs to engage in structured market research on his industry and brand. - Joe should primarily use information gathered through the Internet on his industry.

- Joe needs to engage in structured market research on his industry and brand.

Mary went to the local supermarket, where she shopped regularly, to purchase her groceries for the week. Which of the following was a delivery gap that resulted in a service failure by the grocery store? - Mary had trouble finding the coffee aisle because the signs were unclear. - It took Mary a little longer to find what she needed since they recently remodeled the store. - Mary did not find a parking spot that was as close as she wanted to the store. - Mary had to wait a long time in the checkout line because the clerk kept making errors using the cash register.

- Mary had to wait a long time in the checkout line because the clerk kept making errors using the cash register.

Which of the following are characteristics that make marketing services different from product marketing? - Perishable - Intangible - Heterogeneous - Profitable

- Perishable - Intangible - Heterogeneous - inseparable

Lilly went to the Yummy Fork for lunch, and when her food arrived, it was not what she ordered. She later posted a negative comment about the Yummy Fork on a blog. Which one of the five service dimensions was used by Lilly to determine she did not like the service by the Yummy Fork? - Reliability - Tangibles - Assurance - Empathy

- Reliability

One of the most effective methods to assess how well a firm is delivering adequate service to consumers is to employ the ______ Model to evaluate their service provision. - Knowledge - Service Recovery - Service Gaps - Intangibility

- Service Gaps

Jane has multiple managers at her retail job. It is company policy that customers cannot return items without a receipt, but sometimes managers will allow customers to receive store credit for their returns. One day a customer was irate that Jane would not allow a return for store credit because the manager on duty adhered to the company policy. The customer wrote a complaint about Jane to the corporate office. What needs to change about this situation?

- The support that managers provide must be consistent and coherent throughout the organization.

What problem might occur if a grocery store decides to install self-checkout devices? - The technology will be more expensive in the long run than paying human employees - The technology will be too challenging for some customers. - The technology will be less accurate in counting money than human employees. - The technology will lead to customers purchasing fewer items.

- The technology will be too challenging for some customers.

Which of the following is NOT a method to reduce delivery gaps? - Threaten to terminate employees - Use technology to minimize errors - Provide support and incentives - Empower employees

- Threaten to terminate employees

True or false: To assess service quality, it is necessary to understand both customers' perceptions and their expectations. True False

- True

Customer service is best represented by which of the following statements? Customer service ______. - adds to marketing efforts by helping to meet the customers' needs and wants - mandates that all customer needs must be met - defines the task of marketing an intangible or primarily intangible item - ensures that customers become lifelong customers

- adds to marketing efforts by helping to meet the customers' needs and wants

In addition to empowering and rewarding service providers, as well as offering instrumental support, service managers are advised to ______. - support the customer publicly and the service provider privately - employ part-time providers so it is easier to fire them in the event of a problem - be consistent and predictable in their support - remind the provider that the customer is always right

- be consistent and predictable in their support

If the Americana Hotel has successfully closed the standards gap, the knowledge gap, and the delivery gap in providing customers with service, it is still necessary to close the _____________ gap.

- communication

Ryanair advertised the lowest rates in Europe with fares of $12 between Paris and Munich. However, when Bill arrived at the airport, he had to pay $28 in taxes, $25 for one small carry-on bag, $6 for a non-alcoholic beverage, and $2.50 to use the restroom on the plane. Between Ryanair and the customer there is a ______. - knowledge gap - delivery gap - standards gap - communication gap

- communication gap

Service quality is defined as ______. - the ways in which a service communicates its value despite its intangibility - customers' perceptions of how well a service meets or exceeds their expectations - managers' perceptions of how well a service matches the standards it was designed to meet - customer expectations for the service

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

Janet had to deal with a very difficult customer who wanted to be given complimentary services such as free flights and upgrades on future flights when he very vocally complained in the airport about delays and lost luggage. He screamed at Janet and was very offensive. Her supervisor made Janet feel a little better about the unsettling experience by offering ______ support and commending her on how she handled the difficult passenger. - instrumental - emotional - physical - financial

- emotional

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

- empowerment

When a hotel has a service delivery problem such as a broken air conditioning system on a very hot weekend, one critical element of service recovery is to ______. - find a solution that seems fair to all customers - offer the customers who complain the most an equivalent number of nights free on a future stay - offer the most frequent customers an equivalent number of nights free on a future stay - ask each customer who complains what they feel would be equitable

- find a solution that seems fair to all customers

Jane has realized that she does not enjoy taking a taxi to work because there is substantial ______ in the delivery of the service depending on who is driving her cab that day. - price differential - intangibility - perishability - heterogeneity

- heterogeneity

The primary reason there is greater heterogeneity in services than in products is because ______________. - human inputs generate differences - of unknown outcomes on the buyer's part - cost inequities generate differences - of the increasing use of technology in delivering services

- human inputs generate differences

One difference between products and services is demonstrated by a hair salon, where the stylist delivers the service at the same time the customer receives it. This is called ______. - intangibility - heterogeneity - inseparability - perishability

- inseparability

One of the basic ways in which services differ from products is that production and consumption are ______ from each other. Consequently, service providers often include options for the customer to become more involved in the production of the service, which usually results in greater customer satisfaction. - inseparable - infinite - intangible - perishable

- inseparable

One of the best ways for managers to reduce the ______ gap is to conduct ongoing research and regularly talk with employees to explain what customers expect to get from the brand and the firm. - delivery - communication - standards - knowledge

- knowledge

The marketing manager needs to communicate with customers and employees on an ongoing basis in order to understand buyers' expectations and to reduce the ______ gap. - knowledge - delivery - standards - communications

- knowledge

One of the first steps in service recovery is that the firm needs to allow the customer to air his grievance and for the firm to ______ him. - listen to - ignore - reward - reduce the price for

- listen to

One of the problems in using customer complaint behavior to assess buyers' service expectations is that ______. - managers often are more concerned with resolving the complaint than analyzing the essence of the problem - it is extremely time consuming and is essentially dated by the time it is processed - managers usually do not respond to customer complaints so there is no record of the information - it is very costly to collect and process given the value of the information

- managers often are more concerned with resolving the complaint than analyzing the essence of the problem

Service providers cannot inventory or stockpile things like haircuts during slow times to "sell" later when the facility is busy. This characteristic of services is called ______. - infinity - inseparability - perishability - intangibility

- perishability

Despite having to deal with difficult guests, the service provider can be motivated to provide "service with a smile" when the firm ______. - provides frequent training programs for employees - establishes a policy for the firm that the customer is NOT always right - provides support and incentives to motivate quality service - does not deal with unruly customers and removes them from the service list

- provides support and incentives to motivate quality service

Poor service delivery can be converted into a positive interaction through service ______, an effort that resolves the problem fairly and shows the buyer that the firm is listening to the complaint. - recognition - repositioning - recovery - repetition

- recovery

Poor service delivery can be converted into a positive interaction through service ______, an effort that resolves the problem fairly and shows the buyer that the firm is listening to the complaint. - repetition - recovery - recognition - repositioning

- recovery

McDonald's has a policy that, in addition to ketchup, mustard, and onions, all burgers must have two pickles. This contributes to efforts to reduce the ______ gap and provide measurable service quality based on expectations. - delivery - communication - knowledge - standards

- standards

A customer with a complaint about the way in which a washing machine repair was made will become increasingly more annoyed with the service provider ______. - as the compensation becomes more tangible - the longer it takes to get an answer from the firm - the longer the service provider listens to his or her complaint - as the perceived fairness of the process increases

- the longer it takes to get an answer from the firm