Deck 8: Designing and Managing Service Processes

Question 1

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

Answer 1

True

Question 2

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

A) Maintain a list of prospective customer "resumes."
B) Conduct a "job analysis" of customers' present roles in the business.
C) Proper education and training to ensure that customers are aware of how they are expected to perform.
D) Motivate customers by ensuring that they will be rewarded for performing well.
E) Regularly appraise customer performance.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

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.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

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

A) Reduced number of service failures.
B) Reduced cycle time.
C) Enhanced productivity.
D) Increased profitability.
E) Increased customer satisfaction.

Question 5

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

A) Eliminating non-value adding steps.
B) Shifting to self-service.
C) Delivering direct service.
D) Separating services.
E) Redesigning the physical aspect of service processes.

Question 6

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

A) service standards and scripts
B) physical evidence
C) internal physical interaction
D) internal IT interaction
E) visibility

Question 7

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

A) Line of transference
B) Line of interaction
C) Line of visibility
D) Backstage actions by customer contact personnel
E) Front-stage actions by customer contact personnel

Question 8

Blueprinting is a more sophisticated version of ____________.

A) linear graphing
B) flowcharting
C) Cox & Snell analysis
D) non-linear graphing
E) cluster analysis

Question 9

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.

Question 10

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

Question 11

The first step in developing a service blueprint is ____________.

A) to reach a consensus on which activities are more important than others
B) to identify all the key activities involved in creating and delivering the service
C) to identify the links between a set of alternative service possibilities
D) to identify the key employees who will be enacting the service blueprint
E) to identify the key customers who will be participating in the service

Question 12

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

Question 13

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

Question 14

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

A) enhance servicescape features such as furniture and lighting
B) complicate employee handling of special requests
C) clarify the interactions between customers and employees
D) enhance customer technical know-how
E) diminish customer complaining capacity

Question 15

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

Question 16

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

Question 17

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

A) roll; retrieval; implicit aspects; explicit aspects
B) stage; servicescape; exterior; interior
C) stage; service area; customers; employees
D) roll; canopy; employees; equipment
E) roll; service area; front-stage; backstage

Question 18

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

A) kanbans
B) poka-yokes
C) jidokas
D) banzais
E) sodokus

Question 19

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."

Question 20

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

Question 21

List the nine components of a service blueprint.

Question 22

What are the acts that "restaurant drama" can be divided into?

Question 23

What does SST stand for?

Question 24

Discuss the potential company benefits, potential customer benefits, and challenges and limitations of the bundled service approach to managing the service delivery process.

Question 25

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

Question 26

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

Question 27

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

A) the customer's eye color
B) the customer's bank account number
C) the customer's shirt size
D) the customer's account type
E) the customer's nationality

Question 28

List two reasons why customers appreciate SSTs.

Question 29

What is the definition of "fail point"?

Question 30

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

Question 31

When a rental car customer is not interested in filling out paperwork or processing payment and check of the rental car, this is an example of which service process redesign?

Question 32

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

A) Develop customer trust.
B) Understand customers' habits and expectations
C) Teach customers to use innovations while limiting trial.
D) Pretest new procedures and equipment.
E) Publicize the benefits.

Question 33

What is the only fail point in the service blueprint that was listed as physical evidence in the restaurant drama?

Question 34

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

A) One act
B) Two acts
C) Three acts
D) Four acts
E) Five acts

Question 35

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

A) printing dress code requests on invitations
B) sending reminders of dental appointments
C) printing guidelines on customer cards
D) billing customers for services rendered
E) all of the above are examples of preparing customers for service encounters

Question 36

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

Question 37

What three questions does Mary Jo Bitner suggest managers should put their firms' SSTs to the test with?

Question 38

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.

Question 39

Discuss the potential company benefits, potential customer benefits, and challenges and limitations of the direct service approach to managing the service delivery process.

Question 40

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.

A) conglomerating; value portfolios
B) componentization; value nets
C) delimiting; servicescapes
D) delimiting; service portfolios
E) conglomerating; service portfolios

Question 41

Which aspect of service process redesign did FedEx employ when it transferred more than 50 percent of its transactions from call centers to its Web site?

Question 42

Describe how TLContact was able to reduce failure points in its service.

Question 43

Describe the aspects of self-service technology that were important to TLC in developing CarePages.

Question 44

Amazon.com's success is a combination of which service redesign aspects?

Question 45

Describe how Avis uses service blueprinting to enhance its customers' experiences.