Exam 13: Services: the Intangible Product

Gerald's Tire Service provides each employee with a clean, sharp-looking uniform. It also instructs employees to put all tools back where they belong and keep the work area clean and uncluttered. Gerald's Tire Service emphasizes ________ in the five service quality dimensions.

Because customers have different needs and expectations, the key to distributive fairness in service recovery is to

Because of ________, many companies have altered their no-questions-asked return policies to include time limits, restocking fees, and store-credit-only refunds.

Explain the concepts of emotional support and instrumental support. When are they important?

When Buffalo Bank required all customers to use its online banking services, over 20 percent of its customers closed their accounts. In this scenario, Buffalo Bank's service fell outside customers' zone of tolerance.

What does it mean to say that a service is perishable? Name three services that would be considered perishable.

When managers understand what their service providers are facing on a day-to-day basis by directly observing them and talking to customers, it is called "management by walking around."

By changing a standard from "be nice to customers" to "greet every customer with a smile," a services marketing manager has created a(n) ________ goal.

The Crystal Beach Resort has a five-star rating and wants to keep it that way. The resort has specific standards for service and has trained its employees to deliver service according to these standards, but even one unhappy customer could endanger the resort's reputation. What can the manager do to ensure that frontline employees offer consistent, excellent service to every visitor?

A service is any intangible offering that involves a deed, performance, or effort that

When corporate headquarters announced new service quality standards for pizza franchise owners, Roland knew he would have trouble gaining employees' support because

To meet or exceed customers' expectations, marketers must

The knowledge gap is where "the rubber meets the road," where the customer directly interacts with the service provider.

The school Brenda attends has an advising and registration day where students go to a large hall to sign up for classes. The school Taylor attends assigns each student to an individual faculty member who advises each student through their course of study. Taylor's school is most likely emphasizing which of the five dimensions of service quality?

After observing a customer verbally abuse a server, the first thing a manager can do to ensure quality service is to

Service providers often encounter rude and unreasonable consumers. Services marketing managers can reduce the delivery gap, even for these customers, by

Today, almost every sales rep can immediately check the company's inventory and production schedule electronically. This allows sales reps to sell what is available and make promises to customers that they can keep. This technology has improved service delivery through

Airline passengers in Europe receive much greater monetary compensation when they are bumped due to overbooking than do passengers in the United States. How do airline passengers determine what is "fair" when there is a service failure?

The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado, maintains its five-star rating by focusing on five service characteristics: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles. Employees are instructed to always address a guest by name, if possible. To accomplish this, employees are trained to listen and observe carefully to determine a guest's name. Which service characteristic is this an example of?

The communications gap can be reduced by managing customer expectations.