Deck 9: Service Processes

Question 1

Poka-yoke is roughly translated from Japanese as "quality management."

Answer 1

False
Explanation: Poka-yokes (roughly translated from the Japanese as "avoid mistakes") are common in factories.

Question 2

Services often take the form of repeated encounters involving face-to-face interactions.

Answer 2

True
Explanation: The top of the matrix shows the degree of customer/server contact: the buffered core, which is physically separated from the customer; the permeable system, which is penetrable by the customer via phone or face-to-face contact; and the reactive system, which is both penetrable and reactive to the customer's requirements.

Question 3

The "service blueprint" is a classification of services.

Answer 3

False
Explanation: Just as is the case with manufacturing process design, the standard tool for service process design is the flowchart.Recently, the service gurus have begun calling the flowchart a service blueprint to emphasize the importance of process design.

Question 4

Most services consist of a bundle of goods and services known as the service package, which is the major output of the development process.

Question 5

The customer is (or should be) the second most important focal point of all decisions in a service organization.

Question 6

When recovering from a defective service encounter, poor treatment from a server calls for an apology.

Question 7

Poka-yoke is roughly translated from Japanese as "avoid mistakes."

Question 8

The service-system design matrix identifies five alternative forms of service encounters.

Question 9

A service business is an organization whose primary business requires interaction with customers to produce the service.

Question 10

Poka-yokes are procedures that block the inevitable mistake from becoming a service defect.

Question 11

When recovering from a defective service encounter, a botched task calls for an apology.

Question 12

It is difficult to separate the operations management functions from marketing in services.

Question 13

Because little or no inventory is carried in a service operation, it is easy to separate the operations management functions from marketing in services.

Question 14

Effective management of services requires a clear focus on understanding operations, so much so that it may even require the exclusion of consideration of marketing or personnel.

Question 15

The term "encounter" is defined by Webster's Dictionary as "meeting in conflict or battle" and is used to also designate meetings between consumers and service systems.

Question 16

The service-system design matrix identifies six forms of service encounters.

Question 17

When recovering from a defective service encounter, a poor treatment from a server calls for material compensation.

Question 18

Marketing is responsible for fulfilling the service guarantee.

Question 19

When recovering from a defective service encounter, a botched task calls for material compensation.

Question 20

A service system with a high degree of customer contact is less difficult to control than a low degree of customer contact service system.

Question 21

Service guarantees can be used at the service design stage to focus the firm's delivery system on the things it must do well to satisfy the customer.

Question 22

Implicit services are not part of the service package.

Question 23

An implicit service implies psychological benefits that the customer may sense only vaguely.

Question 24

In services, the product is developed first and then the process to produce the service is developed.

Question 25

Choosing how to accommodate customer induced variability in a service business is the decision of the front-line service provider.

Question 26

An explicit service is readily observable by the senses.

Question 27

Which of the following is a characteristic that can be used to guide the design of service systems?

A)Services cannot be inventoried.
B)Services are all similar.
C)Quality work means quality service.
D)Services businesses are inherently entrepreneurial.
E)Even service businesses have internal services.

Question 28

It is not necessary that a well-designed service system be robust.

Question 29

The work process involved in providing the service must involve the physical presence of the customer in the system.

Question 30

"Combine the pain" is an application of behavioral science to service encounters.It means that, when something is going wrong for a group of customers, it is better to totally enrage one or a very few customers rather than slightly annoying a large number of customers.

Question 31

An important aspect of service products is that they cannot be inventoried.

Question 32

Which of the following is not part of "the service triangle"?

A)Employees
B)Support systems
C)Customers
D)Service strategy
E)Service encounter

Question 33

Which of the following refers to the physical presence of the customer in a service system?

A)Creation of the service
B)Customer contact
C)Intermittent production
D)Continuous production
E)None of these

Question 34

Customer contact refers to creation of the service.

Question 35

A facilitating good is something purchased or consumed by the buyer or items provided by the customer.

Question 36

A characteristic of a well-designed service system is that it manages the evidence of service quality in such a way that customers are aware of the value of the service provided.

Question 37

A supporting facility is the same thing as a facilitating good.

Question 38

One characteristic of a well-designed service system is that it is cost-effective.

Question 39

Service strategy begins by integrating operations and strategy.

Question 40

The "back end" of the service encounter is more important than the "front end" because the "back end" is where most service providers are paid.

Question 41

Which of the following is not a strategic use of the service-system design matrix?

A)Enabling systematic integration of operations and marketing strategy
B)Design of the service package
C)Comparing how other firms deliver specific services
D)Indicating evolutionary or life cycle changes that might be in order as the firm grows
E)Clarifying exactly which combination of service delivery the firm is in fact providing

Question 42

In the service-system design matrix, what kind of production efficiency is expected from a service encounter designed to be "face-to-face loose specs"? ______________________________________

Question 43

Which of the following is considered a high-contact service operation?

A)On-line brokerage house
B)Internet sales for a department store
C)Physician practice
D)Telephone life insurance sales and service
E)Automobile repair

Question 44

Which of the following is a major factor that distinguishes service design and development from manufacturing design and development?

A)The service process and service product can be developed independently.
B)The service package has the same legal protection available to manufactured goods.
C)The service package is the major output of the development process.
D)Manufacturing is far more capital intensive than services.
E)Capacity decisions are much more critical in manufacturing operations.

Question 45

There are many applications of poka-yokes in service organizations.Which of the following is one of the three-T's used to classify poka-yokes?

A)Talent
B)Teamwork
C)Trust
D)Treatment
E)Time

Question 46

Which of the following approaches to service design is characterized by having the customer take a greater role in the production of the service?

A) Production-line approach
B) Personal-attention approach
C) Quality approach
D) Do-it-yourself approach
E) Self-service approach

Question 47

Which of the following is a characteristic of a well-designed service system?

A)Provides an unconditional service guarantee.
B)Each element of service system is consistent with the operating focus of the firm.
C)The front end of the service encounter is equal to the back end.
D)It segments the pleasure for the customer.
E)It lets the customer control the process.

Question 48

In the service-system design matrix, an Internet and on-site technology service encounter is expected to have which of the following?

A)High sales opportunity
B)High degree of customer/server contact
C)Low production efficiency
D)High production efficiency
E)None of these

Question 49

Which of the following is an alternative possible service encounter included in the service-system design matrix?

A)Face-to-face distance
B)Internet
C)Questionnaire response
D)Automated teller (ATM)
E)Response card encounter

Question 50

Which of the following is one of the three contrasting approaches to delivering on-site service?

A)Airline approach
B)Self-service approach
C)Fast food approach
D)Do-it-yourself approach
E)Internet approach

Question 51

Which of the following is not an element of a good service guarantee?

A)Unconditional (no small print)
B)The customer controls the process
C)Easy to understand
D)Easy to communicate
E)Meaningful to the customer

Question 52

Which one of the following is not a major factor distinguishing service design and development from manufacturing design and development?

A)The process and product must be developed at the same time.
B)Many service organizations can change their service offerings virtually overnight.
C)Many parts of the service package are often defined by the training that individuals receive before they become part of the service organization.
D)The service package, rather than a definable good, is the output of the development process.
E)Service operations can be protected by patents; manufacturing operations cannot.

Question 53

Which company is mentioned in the text as a pioneering of the production line approach to delivering on-site service?

A)Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
B)McDonald's Corporation
C)Prudential Insurance Company
D)Southwest Airlines
E)Citibank

Question 54

In the service-system design matrix, a face-to-face total customization service encounter is expected to have which of the following?

A)Low sales opportunity
B)Low production efficiency
C)High production efficiency
D)Low degree of customer/server contact
E)None of these

Question 55

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a well-designed service system?

A)Robust
B)Cost-effective
C)Puts customers in charge
D)User-friendly
E)Effectively links "front office" with "back office"

Question 56

In the service-system design matrix, a face-to-face loose specs service encounter is expected to have which of the following?

A)Low sales opportunity
B)Low production efficiency
C)High production efficiency
D)Low degree of customer/server contact
E)None of these

Question 57

Which of the following is one of the three contrasting approaches to delivering on-site service?

A)Quality approach
B)Stock market approach
C)Production-line approach
D)Retail approach
E)Professional approach

Question 58

There are many applications of poka-yokes in service organizations.Which of the following is one of the three-T's used to classify poka-yokes?

A)Task
B)Time
C)Teamwork
D)Trust
E)Talent

Question 59

In the service-system design matrix, a mail contact service encounter is expected to have which of the following?

A)High sales opportunity
B)High degree of customer/server contact
C)High production efficiency
D)Low sales opportunity
E)None of these

Question 60

Which of the following are alternative possible service encounters included in the service-system design matrix?

A)Mail contact
B)Warranty
C)Sales call
D)Field service
E)None of these

Question 61

What are the physical resources that must be in place before a service can be offered called? ______________________________

Question 62

In a service operation, what are the materials purchased or consumed by the buyer called? _____________________________________

Question 63

What is the designation of the approach to service design characterized by having the customer take a greater role in the production of the service? _______________________________________
C.H.Lovelock and R.
F.Young propose that the service process can be enhanced by having the customer take a greater role in the production of the service.

Question 64

What are the psychological benefits that the customer may sense only vaguely called? ___________________________________

Question 65

Contrast the "personal attention approach" to service with the "assembly-line approach." In your opinion, which is superior? Why?

Question 66

How does the degree of customer contact relate to the kinds of skills needed by service workers and the degree of training they require?

Question 67

Describe the role of service guarantees from the marketing and the operations perspective.