The Concept of Quality Service

CHAPTER QUIZ QUESTIONS

True/False

1. The concept of quality service deployment is based on the belief that services should be designed to reflect customer requirements. (T)

2. Being meaningful and easy to invoke are important elements of a good unconditional service guarantee. (T)

3. A process is said to be in control when all the variation that is noticed can be assigned to specific causes. (F)

4. The first stage or rung of the service quality ladder is cost of quality. (F)

5. The average business hears only from 10 percent of its dissatisfied customers. (F)

6. The systematic-response approach to service recovery uses a protocol to handle customer complaints. (T)

7. The term "producer's risk" refers to the probability that a sample will indicate an acceptable quality incorrectly. (F)

8. A service guarantee becomes a service winner when it covers all aspects of the service. (T)

9. When customer expectations are confirmed by perceptions, service quality is considered satisfactory. (T)

10. According to the SERVQUAL quality assessment instrument, responsiveness is the most important dimension of service quality. (F)

11. Serving complimentary drinks on a delayed flight is an example of empathy being shown by the service personnel to the irate customer. (F)

12. In the service quality gap model, GAP1 arises because of the management’s lack of understanding about how customers formulate their expectations. (T)

13. Setting goals and standardizing service delivery tasks will help close GAP3, the service performance gap. (F)

14. The most important function of SERVQUAL is to keep a record of service quality trends through periodic customer surveys. (T)

15. Managing evidence of information is the key to closing the gap between customer perception and service delivery. (T)

16. Severity of failure, speed of recovery, service guarantee and perceived service quality are all factors governing service recovery expectations. (F)

17. A customer’s failure to remember the process steps is an error that falls in the preparation category. (F)

18. Juran identified internal failure costs, external failure costs, detection costs, and prevention costs. (T)

19. Fixing service-process problems before they affect the customer could be classified as another component to the systematic-response approach. (T)

20. The Walk-through Audit focuses on the effectiveness of each stage in the service delivery process (T)

21. The Club Med example illustrated the creative initiative by staff to implement a pre-recovery. (F)

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following dimensions of service quality is most important to customers?

a. Empathy

b. Assurance

c. Reliability*

d. Tangibles

2. Which of the following is not an advantage of offering a service guarantee?

a. It acts as a mechanism to differentiate the firm from its competitors.

b. It advertises the firm's commitment to quality.

c. It allows employees to interpret broadly the firm's service standards.*

d. It acts as a means of receiving feedback from customers.

3. Which of the following is a poka-yoke method?

a. Adopting a checklist to help an employee avoid making a mistake*

b. Designing a service to reflect the customers' needs and requirements

c. Designing a service in a robust manner that can withstand abuse by customers

d. Comparing a firm's quality performance to the performance of others that are considered "best in class"

4. Which one of the following is not an approach to service recovery.

a. case-by-case

b. systematic-response

c. unconditional guarantee*

d. early intervention

5. The costs of quality for services include all of the following except:

a. failure costs.

b. prevention costs.

c. control costs.*

d. detection costs

6. A gap in service quality is not the difference between:

a. customer expectations and management's perceptions of customer expectations.

b. the service delivery and the results that are communicated externally to the customer.

c. customer expectations and management's perception of the delivered service.*

d. the perceptions of the delivered service that are translated into service quality specifications and the actual service delivery.

7. Which one of the following is not an example of detection costs?

a. Rework*

b. Collecting quality data

c. Process control

d. Periodic inspection

8. Which of the following is not considered effective in achieving and maintaining service quality?

a. Encouraging service providers to be highly visible in dealing with customers.

b. Establishing peer groups among service providers to foster teamwork and a sense of pride.

c. Installing a system of incentives that emphasizes quality.

d. Increasing supervision of service providers.*

9. Which of the following is not part of a good service guarantee?

a. It is unconditional.

b. It is easy for the customer to understand.

c. It is meaningful to the customer.

d. It is difficult for the customer to invoke.*

10. All of the following are examples of “detection costs” of quality except

a. Quality planning.*

b. Periodic inspection.

c. Process control.

d. Collecting quality data.

11. Which quadrant in the matrix below represents attributes of a good service guarantee?

12. Which of the following is a strategy for closing the gap between customer expectations and management perceptions of customer’s expectations (GAP 1)?

a. Standardization of service delivery.

b. Improved market research.*

c. Employee empowerment.

d. Investment in training.

13. Which of the following statements is not true concerning a service guarantee?

a. A well designed and implemented service guarantee can help a firm gain control over its operation

b. Fear of customer cheating inhibits some mangers from adopting a service guarantee.

c. Managers are likely to worry about the costs of a service guarantee, but for the wrong reasons.

d. Managers who seek control over the financial consequences of a service guarantee should require customers to meet various conditions.*

14. There are five dimensions that customers use to judge service quality. The willingness to help customers and to provide prompt service is

a. assurance.

b. empathy.

c. reliability.

d. responsiveness.*

15. Shigeo Shingo is credited with which of the following quality ideas?

a. robustness

b. quality is free

c. poka-yoke*

d. quality function deployment

16. When a process appears to be functioning properly when, if fact, it is out of control, the type of error and injured party is identified as:

a. Type I error, producer’s risk

b. Type II error, consumer’s risk*

c. Type I error, consumer’s risk

d. Type II error, producer’s risk

17. The difference between a customer’s ________ of a service and the _______ of the service delivered is called GAP 5.

a. perceptions; perceptions

b. perceptions; expectations

c. expectations; perceptions*

d. expectations; expectations

18. Which of the following is not a reason that a service guarantee works?

a. Encourages individual employees to set their own standards.*

b. Generates reliable data on poor performance.

c. Builds customer loyalty.

d. Forces a firm to identify failure points.

19. Which of the following is not true of a Customer Satisfaction Survey?

a. Survey can be completed at customer convenience.

b. Survey usually is conducted by operations personnel.*

c. Primary focus of survey is on overall impression of service.

d. Survey is designed around common service dimensions.

20. Which of the following is not possible using SERVQUAL?

a. Record customer expectations.

b. Track service quality trends.

c. Measure the quality of competitors.

d. Identify dimensions of service quality.*

21. Which of the following is not true of a Walk-through Audit?

a. Focuses on five dimensions of service package.

b. Emphasis is on evaluation of each stage of service delivery.

c. Survey is completed at customer convenience.*

d. Survey usually conducted by operations personnel.