marketing chap 13

In delivery of a service, one of the most important early steps is addressing the knowledge gap, or the ability to understand ______.

consumer expectations

Service quality is defined as ______.

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

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

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

An important element of offering emotional support to employees is to ______ when they have been empowered to make decisions in dealing with the customer.

not punish them

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 ______.

perishability

Customers experience is a _____ gap, when quality is unreliable because there are no predictable guidelines or benchmarks systematically established by the service provider's management.

standards

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

False

Which of the following best illustrates a specific service standard that is directly measurable?

Make eye contact with every customer and greet them with a smile.

Match each of the five dimensions of service quality (on the left) with its definition (on the right).

Reliability- Ability to perform the service dependably and accurately Responsiveness- Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service Assurance- Knowledge and courtesy by employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence Empathy- Caring, individualized attention provided to customers Tangibles- Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials

An interior design consulting firm offers a $100 gift card to the employee with the highest customer satisfaction scores at the end of each month. Which method of eliminating the delivery gap is this an example of?

Rewards and incentives

Marissa works for a local restaurant. Each time a customer reports a compliment to a manager about an employee, the employee receives a star pin to wear. What is the advantage of the "star pin" to the restaurant and Marissa?

The star pin is a reward that reinforces the provision of excellent customer service and makes the employee feel recognized.

Which of the following are potential sources of heterogeneity of service quality at a hair salon?

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

Which of the following characteristics is not one that discriminates services from products?

Volatility

Is providing rewards to employees for excellent services a key part of customer service program? Why or why not?

Yes, rewards reinforce behavior that encourages employees to continually give great service.

Which of the following situations best evidences how a firm can offer employees emotional support and stand behind the employees' actions?

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

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. Provide incentives and support for service providers. Implement self-service technologies.

Which of the following is most likely to lead to high levels of customer loyalty?

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 Improved word of mouth

A cosmetics store has a list of service goals for its employees. One of the goals is to "give every customer as much attention as they need." What is the problem with this goal?

It is neither specific nor measurable.

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

Match each type of service gap (on the left) with the corresponding way of achieving closure (on the right).

Knowledge gap- Conduct research to better understand what customers want. Standards gap- Set appropriate service goals and measure service performance. Delivery gap- Improve employee performance through support, incentives, and the use of technology. Communications gap- Be realistic in telling potential buyers about the services that can be provided and manage those customer expectations effectively.

Match each type of service gap (on the left) with its definition (on the right).

Knowledge gap- The difference between customer expectations and what the firm perceives the customer to expect Standards gap- The difference between the firm's perceptions of customers expectations and the service standards it sets Delivery gap- The difference between the firm's service standards and the actual service it provides to customers Communications gap- The difference between actual service provided to customers and the service that the firm's promotion program promises

The Service Gaps Model can be very useful to improve the delivery of services. Match each of the following gaps with an example of that gap.

Knowledge- Diners at a restaurant think the portions are too small, but the manager is unaware of this complaint. Standards- Management believes that customers in a restaurant think the service is very slow, however, management allows servers to stand around and chat. Delivery- A restaurant usually serves fresh bread made on the premises, but at the end of the day the ovens are shut down early and only cold loaves are available. Communication- A restaurant advertises they are open for breakfast, but when guests arrive on Sunday morning, there is a sign on the door indicating they only open for brunch at 11:00.

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

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

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

complaint

One method to recover from a service delivery problem is to provide ______ fairness, by which customers perceive they are getting an equivalent return for the inconvenience they suffered when the service was not delivered as expected.

distributive

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 ______.

distributive fairness

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.

emotional

An airline employee is able to make a decision at the moment of assigning a passenger a seat at the gate when it is obvious the flier is in a wheel chair. The firm has _____ the employee by allowing him to move the passenger to first-class seating.

empowered

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

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

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 or justice

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

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.

heterogeneity

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 ______.

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

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

A deed, performance, or effort that cannot be physically possessed is called a(n) ______.

service

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

service

A grocery store is at the product-dominant side of the Service-Product Continuum since most items are selected self-service from the shelves; however, ______.

the firm can still view service as a viable competitive advantage

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 ______.

the longer it takes to get an answer from the firm

The zone of tolerance refers to ______.

the area between customers' desired expectations and the minimum level of acceptable service

Which of the following is an example of a service?

A massage

When using zone of tolerance marketing metrics, the five scores assigned to service quality dimensions will always total ______.

100%

Which of the following products or services is considered perishable in the sense that it cannot be stockpiled?

A dental exam

______ is a customer's perception of the benefits s/he received compared with the costs.

Distributive fairness

Lisa is a manager at a customer service call center for a footwear manufacturer. One of the customer service representatives, Mark, is upset because he just finished a call in which the customer berated him for the poor quality of a pair of shoes. Mark is worried that he may be punished for offering the customer a refund and a 20% discount on her next pair of shoes, but Lisa reassures him that he made the right decision and tells a few jokes to get his spirits up. What type of support has Lisa provided?

Emotional

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 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? (Select all that apply.)

Perishable Intangible Heterogeneous

Which of the following is NOT a method by which managers can provide rewards and incentives to employees?

Providing technology and instrumental support at the facility

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.

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.

Which of the following is NOT a method to reduce delivery gaps?

Threaten to terminate employees

In addition to empowering and rewarding service providers, as well as offering instrumental support, service managers are advised to ______.

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 ______.

communication gap

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

distributive

Since humans' work output cannot be standardized to the same degree as the output of a machine, one substantial difference between the marketing of services and products is the ______ of service delivery.

heterogeneity

When many students are complaining about a problem at an online university, one of the best things the university can do to better serve its students is to ______.

honestly listen to students' complaints and use their messages to build a committed relationship

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

human inputs generate differences

In addition to providing service employees with emotional and instrumental support, management should offer the staff ______ that reward them for providing customers with good service.

incentives

Sally is having trouble deciding which college to attend. While there are buildings, classrooms, and libraries to evaluate, the actual learning is much more difficult to evaluate. It is this ______ of the purchase that makes marketing the service, a college education, complicated.

intangibility

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

intangible

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.

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

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

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.

recovery

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

research

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

respond to the customer and resolve the problem quickly

Joanna learned from customer satisfaction surveys that diners in her restaurant wanted to be able to make substitutions. She has decided to allow substitutions, but has not told all of the servers of this. Joanna is demonstrating a(n) ______ gap, causing her restaurant to provide a lower degree of service than she intends.

standards

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.

standards

The Service-Product Continuum evidences ______.

that most firms combine both goods and services in their offerings.

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

true

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

true