Exam 13: Services: the Intangible Product

Monique was looking for a venue for her wedding reception. When she visited one potential location, she noticed that the landscaping was not complete, and there was stained carpet in the lobby. Which of the service quality building blocks caused Monique to select an alternative venue?

Jackson manages an upscale French restaurant in the Washington, DC, area. His restaurant offers a few specials each evening in addition to its regular menu. Jackson has trained his servers to report comments and requests for items that have previously been offered only as specials. Jackson uses this information to reduce the ________ gap in services marketing.

In Europe it is common for hotel guests to ask to see the room before they agree to rent it for the night. Which difference between a service and a product does this custom help overcome?

Online reviews of the Paradise Motel by its customers indicate that the motel offered stale food, it advertised babysitting services that were not readily available, and had an assistant manager with a poor attitude. If you were the new manager of the Paradise Motel, how would you use the five dimensions of service quality to identify and correct the problems?

The marketing of services differs from the marketing of products because services are tangible and separable from the service provider.

Many services marketers use training and standardization to reduce service perishability.

Randall arrived at the hotel to find that, although he had a guaranteed reservation, the hotel had no rooms available. He became angry when the hotel made him a reservation at a more expensive hotel but refused to pay the difference in room rates. Randall was upset because, in his opinion, the hotel's solution did not incorporate

When marketers state that services are ________, they are referring to the fact that services are not always of the same quality from one time period to another or from one service provider to another.

Kayla is the new manager of a resort hotel. She knows from reviewing customer complaints that service quality at the hotel is not consistently meeting customers' expectations, and she believes that the biggest problem is that her employees are not sure what is expected of them. To improve service quality, Kayla will

What is the problem associated with service quality standards such as "be nice" or "do what the customers want"?

Barnes & Noble bookstores have computers available for associates to use to search for books requested by customers and to place special orders. These computers are an example of

Yolanda manages a Best Sleep Inn along an interstate highway. She knows from experience that 5 to 10 last-minute customers will call after 8 p.m. each evening looking for a room and asking the price. Yolanda has empowered her staff to offer discounts when the motel is largely vacant, and to quote the standard price when the motel is close to full. She knows her service is ________, meaning that if no one stays in the room, it generates no revenue that evening.

________ means allowing employees to make decisions about how service is provided to customers.

Firms can close the ________ gap by matching customer expectations with actual service through use of marketing metrics.

Dentists know most consumers are hesitant to use their services, in part because what they provide can be painful or uncomfortable at best, but also because much of what they provide is intangible. What is intangibility? How can dentists attempt to overcome intangibility aspects of their service?

Colin has been directed by his boss to determine if the company is meeting customers' service quality expectations. One of Colin's problems is that services are ________, making evaluation of service quality difficult.

Physicians regularly overstate the expected recovery time from surgery, knowing that managing patients' expectations will reduce the ________ gap associated with their service.

The owners of hotels whose services are produced and consumed at the same time know that consumers do not have the opportunity to try out their service before purchasing. Many hotels use ________ to overcome the problem of inseparability of services.

Listening to the customer is the first step in service recovery.

Along the service-product continuum, which of the following would be considered the most service dominant?