Services 3

Companies that engage in a "Cycle of Success" are more likely to have which of the following?

All of the above

Of the following, which is NOT an environmental design condition that irritates shoppers according to Alain d'Astous?

Arrangement of store items is always the same

Which of the following hotel customers has the most inelastic demand slope?

Business travelers in high season

Dial-A-Mattress uses what technique to train and develop staff?

Coaching

IBM employs the term ____________ to describe the deconstruction (or unbundling) of a company's activities and subsequent reconstruction into ____________ (as opposed to a value chain) in which value is created by businesses and their suppliers, buyers, and partners by combining and enhancing the component services collectively provided by participants.

Componentization; value nets

A strategy of empowerment is most likely to be appropriate when which of the following factors are present within the organization and its environment?

Customer interactions are relational as opposed to transactional.

Banks ensure eye contact by requiring tellers to record ____________ on a checklist at the start of a transaction.

Customer's eye color

Which of the following is NOT one of the productive capacity forms in a service context?

Customers

According to a national survey of 1000 adults in the United States, which of the following is the most dreaded waiting queue?

Doctor's office

TF. "Failure" points in the restaurant service blueprint provided in the chapter only occur in the backstage processes.

False

TF. "Risk of excessive wait" points in a restaurant service blueprint provided in the chapter occur mainly in the backstage processes.

False

TF. A drawback of service blueprints is that they cannot give managers the opportunity to identify potential fail points in the process where there is a significant risk of things going wrong and diminishing service quality

False

TF. A good example of inventorying demand is a haircut that can be set up and prepared for one day and executed the next.

False

TF. A key characteristic of service blueprinting is that it makes little or no distinction between what customers experience "front-stage" and the activities of employees and support processes "backstage."

False

TF. According to the Mehrabian-Russell Stimulus-Response Model, people avoid crowded environments because of the number of people rather than being deterred by the unpleasant feeling of crowding, people being in the way, or lacking perceived control.

False

TF. According to the study by Mattila and Wirtz, putting scent and sound aspects of servicescapes at odds with each other actually enhances consumer impulse purchasing.

False

TF. All employees are eager to be empowered.

False

TF. Customer participation refers to the actions and resources supplied by customers during the service production and/or delivery process, including all but emotional inputs.

False

TF. Efforts directed at changing demand patterns on a city bus should be aimed at cross-training individual employees.

False

TF. Employee satisfaction is both necessary and sufficient for having high performing staff.

False

TF. Employee satisfaction typically has little impact on customer satisfaction.

False

TF. Empowerment is based on the "control" model that assumes employees are capable of making good decisions.

False

TF. Fast music environments have been shown to generate more revenue and get customers to spend longer amounts of time in an environment than slow music environments.

False

TF. Full-time workers perform better than part-time workers, but part-time workers are more satisfied.

False

TF. Functionality refers to the floor plan, size and shape of furnishings, counters, and potential machinery and equipment, and the ways in which they are arranged.

False

TF. Great references from past employers are not a form of behavioral observation.

False

TF. In practice, the large majority of service encounters are routine, involving a high level cognitive processing and little affect.

False

TF. Interpersonal skills include visual communication, attentive listening, and body language and tend to be specific to each service setting.

False

TF. Marketing communications attempt not to attract customers who will enhance the ambiance with their presence because of potential legal ramifications.

False

TF. Measures of capacity utilization include: the number of hours that facilities, labor and equipment are productively employed in revenue operations and the size of the physical facility.

False

TF. Optimum and maximum capacities are never one and the same (e.g. a sport performance).

False

TF. Parallel lines to multiple servers is commonly known as a "Snake"

False

TF. Part-time customer service representatives are far less likely to be satisfied with their work as full-time staff.

False

TF. Processing times for people are typically less variable than objects or things.

False

TF. Random fluctuations in business are usually caused by factors well within management's control.

False

TF. Service sabotage is classified as either covert (displayed only to co-workers) or overt (displayed only to customers).

False

TF. Service staff poka-yokes usually focus on preparing the customer for the encounter, understanding and anticipating their role in the service transaction, and selecting the correct service or transaction.

False

TF. Servicescapes are never purely function.

False

TF. Spatial layout refers to the ability of items to facilitate the performance of service transactions

False

TF. The goal of a restaurant in varying its service level and menus is only to appeal to different needs within the same group of customers.

False

TF. When a firm wants to inventory demand via a reservation system and has insufficient capacity it should lower prices selectively

False

TF. With a moderate participation level, customers work actively with the provider to co-produce the service.

False

Theme parks cleverly design their waiting areas to do which of the following?

Find ways to give the customers the impression of constant progress

Blueprinting is a more sophisticated version of ____________.

Flowcharting

All of the following are questions to ask about demand patterns and their underlying causes EXCEPT ____________.

How much demand are competitors receiving?

Which of the following is the correct action for a firm to take that wants to reduce demand and has insufficient capacity?

Increase prices or encourage use in other time slots.

Service process redesign efforts typically focus on achieving all EXCEPT which of the following key performance measures?

Increased profitability.

Which of the following is NOT one of the five basic approaches to managing demand?

Inventory capacity until demand increases.

Which of the following fragrances would you use to relax and calm customers?

Lavender

Which of the following is NOT a key component of a service blueprint?

Line of transference

Which of the following is NOT one of the dimensions of the service environment?

Location

Which of the following is NOT one of the steps in managing customers as partial employees?

Maintain a list of prospective customer "resumes."

Which of the following is NOT one of the alternative queuing configurations discussed?

Multiple line to single servers ("snake")

Which of the following is an ambient condition?

Music

A service organization's capacity to satisfy demand is constrained by all of the following EXCEPT ____________.

Number of competitors

A cleaning and repair firm that wants to generate business during low demand periods would do best to offer which of the following?

Offer free pickup and delivery of portable items that need servicing.

The two dimensions of Russell's model of affect are ____________ and ____________.

Pleasure; arousal

Server ____________ ensure that service staffs do things correctly, as requested, in the right order, and at the right speed.

Poka yokes

The demand for a city bus is most likely to vary by all EXCEPT which of the following?

Population in the city.

Service process redesign can be categorized into all EXCEPT which of the following types?

Separating services

Of the following, which is NOT an ambient condition that irritates shoppers according to Alain d'Astous?

Store is too small

Which of the following is NOT one of the six steps that can help smooth the path of customer change?

Teach customers to use innovations while limiting trial

From the customer's perspective which of the following is the most important aspect of service?

The encounter with service staff.

How many "acts" does a meal at Chez Jean consist of?

Three

Southwest Airlines illustrates a high-involvement company.

True

TF. "Spa dentistry" involves the practice of pampering patients with neck rubs, foot massages, etc. during necessarily invasive treatments inside their mouths.

True

TF. A blueprint specifies in detail how a service process should be constructed.

True

TF. A good example of a service poka-yoke is a surgeon whose surgical instrument trays have indentations for each instrument.

True

TF. A key problem with self-service technologies is that so few of them incorporate service recovery systems.

True

TF. A well-planned script should provide a full description of the service encounter and can, in itself, help to identify potential or existing problems in a specific service process

True

TF. Ambient conditions refer to those characteristics of the environment pertaining to our five senses.

True

TF. Facing competition from numerous casinos in other locations, Las Vegas has been trying to reposition itself away from being an adult destination to a somewhat more wholesome family fun resort.

True

TF. For the monetary price of a service to be effective as a demand management tool, managers must have some sense of the shape and slope of a product's demand curve.

True

TF. Hiring at Southwest Airlines is best summarized by the word "humor."

True

TF. One of the most direct ways for a hotel to reduce excess demand at peak periods is to charge customers more money to use the service during those periods

True

TF. One way to stretch capacity is to utilize the facility for longer periods.

True

TF. Part of the challenge of implementing poka-yokes in service contexts is the need to address not only server errors, but also customer errors.

True

TF. Queues represent a symptom of unresolved capacity management problems.

True

TF. Research by Marriott Hotels indicates that four of the five top factors contributing to customer loyalty come into play during the first 10 minutes of service delivery.

True

TF. Restaurants are often quite theatrical in their use of physical evidence (such as furnishing, décor, uniforms, lighting, and table settings).

True

TF. Service consumers use service environment as an important quality proxy

True

TF. Service process redesign encompasses reconstitution, rearrangement, or substitution of service processes.

True

TF. Signs are frequently used to teach and reinforce behavioral rules in service settings.

True

TF. Suggestion involvement empowers employees to make recommendations through formalized channels.

True

TF. Technical skills encompass all the required knowledge related to processes.

True

TF. The "Cycle of Mediocrity" is most often found in large, bureaucratic organizations like regulated oligopolies.

True

TF. The Ritz-Carlton uses personality profiles to select the best applicants.

True

TF. The appearance of both service personnel and customers can reinforce or detract from the impression created by the service environment.

True

TF. The term "productive capacity" refers to the resources or assets that a firm can employ to create goods and services.

True

TF. The use of violet is commonly associated with its ability to create an inner feeling of calm.

True

TF. Yield analysis forces managers to recognize the opportunity cost of selling capacity for a given date to a customer from one market segment when another might subsequently yield a higher rate.

True

According to Adrian North, the key to driving unwanted people away is ____________.

Unfamiliarity

Excellent service firms use all of the following to identify the best job candidates EXCEPT ____________.

Viewing transcripts

Organizations that display a commitment to effective human resources management are characterized by ____________.

a distinctive culture of service leadership and role modeling by top management

The "Cycle of Failure" includes all of the following EXCEPT ____________.

adequate pay and job security

The term ____________, used by Dennis Nickson and his colleagues, would most apply to sales associates at Victoria's Secret or Calvin Klein.

aesthetic labor

Which of the following is NOT a way of understanding the nature of demand curves?

analyze competing demand positions

In environmental psychology the typical outcome variable is ____________ or ____________ of an environment.

approach; avoidance

Examples of preparing customers for service encounters include all of the following EXCEPT ____________.

billing customers for services rendered

Service blueprints ____________, and how these are supported by backstage activities and systems.

clarify the interactions between customers and employees

When firms are organized by functional structures ____________.

customers fall between the cracks

The Nordstrom sales associate replacing shirts at no cost to the client is an example of ____________.

employee empowerment

The field of ____________ studies how people respond to specific environments.

environmental psychology

Which of the following is the best example of problems created by inappropriate color usage?

green buses in Israel

Southwest's fundamental hiring principle is ____________.

hire people with the right attitude

Service employees are important to customers and competitive positioning, because the front line ____________.

is the most visible part of the firm

Outcomes of the "Cycle of Failure" for firms include ____________ and ____________.

low service quality; high employee turnover

Well managed unionized organizations ____________.

may still be quiet successful

The ____________ complex a(n) ____________ process becomes, the more powerful is its potential impact on ____________.

more; cognitive; affect

The problem of capacity constrained organizations that cannot stockpile services is most commonly found among services that process ____________ and ____________.

people; physical possessions

Training is most effective at reducing ____________.

personal/role stress

The four things that must be systematically redistributed throughout an organization to empower employees are ____________, ____________, ____________, and ____________.

power; information; rewards; knowledge

Possible strategic applications of excess capacity include all of the following EXCEPT ____________.

reducing variation in current capacity

Service environments, also called ____________ relate to the style and appearance of the physical surroundings and other experiential elements encountered by customers

servicescapes

The ____________ or ____________ includes both the ____________ and ____________ of a service facility.

stage; servicescape; exterior; interior

The first step in developing a service blueprint is ____________.

to identify all the key activities involved in creating and delivering the service

If a service environment is inherently ____________, one should avoid increasing ____________ levels, as this would move customers into the "distressed" region of Russell's model.

unpleasant, arousal

Which of the following may result in allocation to separate queuing areas?

urgency of the job

The dreamlike lobby of Health Park Medical Center in Fort Meyers, Florida is a good example of ____________.

using color schemes to enhance the service experience

The line of ____________ divides front-stage activities from backstage activities.

visibility