Exam 13: Services Marketing

Consumers look closely at service quality when comparing competing services because

What should marketers do to promote the consistency and reliability of their services most effectively?

Zappos strongly monitors its Twitter feeds in its goal to offer "WOW" customer service. In fact, some Twitter followers of Zappos were totally surprised to find out that Zappos had ordered them pizzas after they expressed their hunger in tweets. Zappos had gone well beyond traditional customer service. This incredible detail to potential customer needs demonstrates that Zappos has strong

Which of the following represents a supplementary service?

Sarah has been using the same hairdresser for years. What has kept Sarah loyal is the fact that she knows her hairdresser is going to consistently do a great job. Sarah places great importance on _____ when evaluating her hairdresser.

Lashawna is a concert promoter who works for singer Kanye West. She works very hard to make sure most of Kanye's concerts are sold out because she understands the concept of perishability, which means

The U.S. economy is the world's first service economy.

Who judges service quality?

The intangible nature of services often leads customers to use prices as a measuring tool for quality.

Many services have aspects that consumers may never be able to evaluate, even years after the purchase and consumption of the service. These attributes are called

The nonprofit organization does not need to develop a strategy for each of the marketing mix variables of product, price, distribution, and promotion.

Production and consumption of services must simultaneously occur due to the ____ characteristic of services.

How does the marketing mix (product, price, distribution, and promotion) differ in nonprofit marketing?

Credence qualities are attributes, such as taste, satisfaction, or pleasure, which can be assessed only during the purchase and consumption of a service.

Because of a service's ____, standardization and quality are difficult to control.

The willingness and readiness of employees to meet the needs of the customer while providing the service is an important dimension of service quality called

Scenario 13.1 Use the following to answer the questions. The YMCA in mid-town Atlanta has recently upgraded its facilities, including building a new Olympic-sized swimming pool and children's playground. All locations of the Atlanta "Y" are open from 6:00 am until 11:00 pm, 360 days a year. The children's playground is accessible for members only and is a fenced and secured area. During the weekdays, children under the age of 12 can engage in supervised activities at the playground, for no extra fee. Additionally, there are swimming classes for children of all ages, which is also covered by the monthly membership fee. The swimming pool has been very popular with the professionals who stop by for a swimming workout before or after work. Many of the YMCA locations are very busy all day; however, the midtown "Y" is busier during the early morning and early evenings. At a recent meeting, Maya Sinclair, its manager, shared her concerns about getting more people into the "Y" at other times of the day. She asked for ideas from her staff about how to do this. She also said that the city of Atlanta had reduced the "Y"'s funding for the next year by 20%. This would cause a need for the "Y" to either gain additional members or charge more per member for the annual fee. Refer to Scenario 13.1. The children who take swimming lessons must be in attendance at the pool during the time of their appointment. The need for the child to be in attendance in order to receive the lesson is an example of the ____ feature of a service, while the need for them to be there at the time of their appointment represents the ____ feature.

H&R Block, a major tax preparation firm, reported having a problem with its employees being inconsistent in the filing of returns. The firm is experiencing a problem with which of the following characteristics of the service offering?

The ability to customize services to match the specific needs of individual customers is an advantage to service marketers and may lead to standardized packages.

Any service provider that offers time-sensitive services receives most of its revenue during