Marketing of Services-1

Assignment – A

Question 1. a “Services possess some key distinguishing characteristics” Comment
b. What are the problems encountered by sales manager marketing manager in marketing services

Question 2 a. List 5 incidents when a service company has exceeded your expectations. How did you react? Did these interactions changed the way you did business with the firm in future? How?
b. What are the levels at which the service products should be analysed? How would you conceptualize your service product at these levels if you were offering:
1. An education institution offering professional PG courses
2. E Banking
3. Insurance policies

Question 3. How can you achieve success in new service development? How have new service improvements taken place in case of:
1. Repair service
2. Tourism
3. Breakdown and repair services
4. Comp uter education

Question 4 a. Suggest 3 services for which location of service firm is not important? why?
b. Suggest suitable alternative channels of distribution for :
1. healt hcare servi ces
2. Security services
c. Why is the management of quality in services a difficult issue? How can a service manager utilise service quality gap model to create and deliver quality service?

Question 5. Why is pricing of services so difficult? What pricing policies are followed for the following facilities and why?
1. Multiplexes
2. Shopping arcades
3. Theatres (for drama)

Assignment – B

Question 1 a) How can public relations be fostered? Give examples Do all services require public relations.
b. “Service Organisations may have a limited view of the very wide range of promotional methods available’. Discuss

Question 2. How has branding of financial products affected the marketing of these products in India? Discuss the trends in branding of financial services?

Question 3. Post September 11 2001, the marketing of services too has undergone a sea change. In what way? How has the hotel, tourism and airlines services been affected? What can be done to take care of this problem? Comment.

Case Study

The Sheraton Perth is one of Australia’s finest hotels. Umesh, a service management consultant, was looking forward to celebrating his niece’s wedding at the hotel. He did not drink beverages containing caffeine, except on special occasions when he enjoyed his cappuccino. Relaxing after the wedding, he decided to forget his diet. When the banquet staff was serving the after dinner tea and coffee, he asked the sever for a cup of his drink. He realized it was not part of the set menu and was even willing to pay for it. The server replied that the rest of the guests would have to be served first. Umesh felt that it was reasonable, since it would take time to prepare his special order. Later he noticed that all the guests but him had been served. When the server was reminded of the order, he was told that the supervisor had refused the order. Umesh became irritated and asked to speak to this person. The person appeared and explained that the reception dinner was a set menu and his drink was not on the menu. Umesh again explained that he was willing to pay for the same and also wait for it to be prepared. The supervisor replied that cappuccino was available only from the restaurant downstairs and company policy did not allow it to be brought upstairs. When Umesh asked the banquet supervisor if he knew the slogan placed next to every bed at the Sheraton, the supervisor said that he did not.

“AT THE S HERATON LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT” WAS THE SLOGAN

Question 1. How should have been the situation handled?

Question 2. Is there anything wrong with the firm – customer interface? Comment

Question 3. What will be your suggestion to the supervisor?

Question 4. How could the firm avert such situations in future?

Assignment – C

1. Greater life expectancy has resulted in an increase in income for
(a) Hospitals
(b) Banking
(c) Entertainment Forms
(d) None of these

2. Services can be primarily described in one word as
(a) Activities
(b) Benefits
(c) Satisfaction
(d) All the above.

3. One way to describe services is
(a) Purely intangible
(b) Partly int angible
(c) Equal part tangible and intangible
(d) None of these

4. The most important factor influencing the price to be changed ultimately.
(a) Struct ure of the Market.
(b) Price set by competition
(c) Objectives of the firm
(d) Life cycle stage of the service.

5. The most important reasons why customers rely on subjective impression rather than concrete evidence is
(a) Intangible nat ure of services
(b) Quality of service
(c) Difficulty in evaluating the service
(d) All the above

6. Which of the following would you choose for promotion of service
(a) Sales promotion and advertising and public relations
(b) Personal selli ng and public relations and adventure
(c) Publicity and advertisi ng and sales promotion
(d) Personal selli ng and sales promotions and advertisi ng

7. Which of there is not true
(a) Personal selling involves and one to one relation with the customer
(b) Personal selling i s best suited for mass distributed consumer products
(c) Presentation and packaging are becoming important promotional tools
(d) All the above

8. Which of the ways below would you choose for advertising services.
(a) Radio
(b) Direct mail
(c) Newspaper
(d) None of the above

9. The essential task which need not be performed in order to consummate successful exchange
(a) Contact
(b) Prospects
(c) Promotion
(d) None of these

10. Simply stated, services are
(a) Deeds
(b) Processes
(c) Performances
(d) All of the above

11. Service provides added value as
(a) Convenience
(b) Timeliness
(c) Comfort
(d) All of the above

12. Financial services do not include the following
(a) Mutual funds
(b) Tele-banking
(c) Real estate
(d) None of these

13. The best career in health care for the worki ng woman from a satisfaction perspectives is
(a) Gener al Practitioner
(b) Physio Therapist
(c) Ombudsman
(d) Trainer

14. The best example of technology bared service
(a) Voice activated cell-phone
(b) Teleconferencing
(c) Fax machine
(d) None of these

15. The resulting implication of intangibility of service is
(a) Service cannot be patented
(b) Price of service is diffi culty
(c) Services cannot be displayed or communicated
(d) All the above

16. Perish ability in service refers to
(a) Difficulty in synchronization of supply and demand
(b) Service is not to be returned or resold
(c) A and b above
(d) None of them

17. The most important ‘P’ of the extended marketi ng mix for services is
(a) People
(b) Physical evidence
(c) Perishability
(d) None of the above

18. The historic sources of company superiority an
(a) Technology
(b) Innovation
(c) Economics of scale
(d) All of these

19. Under the GAPS analysis, the first provider GAP occ urs because of
(a) No direct interaction with customers
(b) Unwillingness to ask about expectations
(c) Non-preparedness in advertising them
(d) All of these

20. Appropriat e resource in service consti tutes
(a) People
(b) Technology
(c) Systems
(d) All of these

21. Not selecti ng the Report Services Design Standard is Gap No
(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4

22. Broken promises in services mainly occur ducts
(a) Over-promising in advertising or personal selling
(b) Inadequate coordination between ops and marketing
(c) Difference in policies and procedures across service outlets.
(d) All of them

23. Customer percepti on of service is influenced by
(a) Service quality
(b) Customer sati sfaction
(c) A & B
(d) None of these

24. The basic type of service enc ount ers are
(a) 1.
(b) 3
(c) 5
(d) none of these

25. Dimensions of service quality are
(a) Reliability
(b) Empathy
(c) Responsi veness
(d) All of these

26. A fallout of not regimenting the market carefully is means that there woul d be a broad interpretation of
(a) customer expectation
(b) needs of requirements
(c) none of these
(d) a & b

27. Which of these i s not true for service
(a) Homogeneity
(b) Separabitity
(c) Tangibility
(d) All of them

28. Which of them is true
(a) Perishability
(b) Customer participation
(c) Ownership
(d) All of them

29. Services having a product package in the form of combi nations of tangibles and intangibles are
(a) Hospitals
(b) Restaurants
(c) Airlines
(d) All the above

30 Which term is used to describe service pricing
(a) Payment
(b) Fee
(c) Commission
(d) Charges

31. The main pricing strategy followed is
(a) Cost plus pr icing
(b) Market oriented pricing
(c) Flexible pricing
(d) Promotional pricing

32 The service provided by advetising is
(a) Inform ing
(b) Convincing
(c) Persuading
(d) All of them

33. Which of these is true for personal selling
(a) The person selling the service should develop a personal relation with the cli ent
(b) He must customise the service offering by showing that he is selling a service
(c) He should use indirect selling techniques
(d) None of the above

34. Which of them is not true for advertising
(a) Adverti sing should not affect the contact personnel
(b) It should provide tangible clues to the customers
(c) It should make the service offering early understood
(d) This should not lead to misconceptions about the service offering

35. The key decision to be taken regarding location of services is
(a) Customer’s needs
(b) Importance of geography location as part of service
(c) Service inseparability
(d) Al the above

36. The key factor for direct distribution i ncludes
(a) Customer needs
(b) Location of service point
(c) A & B
(d) None of them

37. What is the importance of retaining customers in services
(a) You don’t have to look for new customers at all
(b) They are with you when the reason is lean
(c) It helps in bringing more business
(d) All the above

38 In how many ways do employees and cust omers respond to thei r physical surrounding
(a) Cognitively
(b) Emotionally
(c) Physiologically
(d) All the above

39. How can customer behaviour in service production and delivery situation be facilitated
(a) Customer understand their roles and how they are expected to perform
(b) Customers are able to perform as expected
(c) There are valued rewards for performing as expected
(d) None of these

40. Which is correct for the people involved delivering service.
(a) The service principal is the entity that creates the service concept
(b) The service del iverer is the entity that interacts with the customer in the actual execution of the service
(c) Both are correct
(d) Both are wrong.