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Quality and Performance Excellence

7th Edition Evans Test Bank


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CHAPTER 06—Quality in Customer-Supplier Relationships

TRUE/FALSE

1. From the total quality (TQ) perspective, every company is part of a long chain of customers and
suppliers.

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationships and Performance Excellence
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

2. Customers are more likely to switch because of product quality issues than for perceived service
problems.

ANS: F DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationships and Performance Excellence
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

3. The upstream portion of the supply chain has little impact on the quality of goods and services that
downstream customers receive.

ANS: F DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationships and Performance Excellence
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

4. Adhering strictly to job descriptions and performing only the listed duties is one of the governing
principles that describe customer-supplier relationships under total quality.

ANS: F DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Principles for Customer-Supplier Relationships KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

5. The goal of building partnerships with customers and suppliers can be seen as an extension of the
teamwork principle that applies to all TQ activities.

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Principles for Customer-Supplier Relationships KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

6. The foundation of trust which forms the basis of effective customer-supplier relationships is what
Juran describes as the “pattern of collaboration.”

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Principles for Customer-Supplier Relationships KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

7. Along with the obvious teamwork implications for relationships based on trust versus suspicion,
monitoring supplier or customer behavior adds value to the product.
ANS: F DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Principles for Customer-Supplier Relationships KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

8. Multiple levels of review and inspection reduces the cost incurred by the suppliers.

ANS: F DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Principles for Customer-Supplier Relationships KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

9. One of the challenges of monitoring the Internet for information is that unlike a focus group or
telephone interview, inaccurate perceptions or factual errors cannot be corrected.

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

10. “Implication” refers to the collection of associations and emotions unconsciously linked to a word,
concept, or experience.

ANS: F DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

11. Quality function deployment (QFD) allows people to see how aspects of their products and services
relate to customer satisfaction.

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

12. In the Malcolm Baldrige criteria, one of the key questions is how a company collects and analyzes
customer and market needs, expectations, and opportunities, and relates them to the development of
strategies.

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

13. In a product market transaction, customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction takes place during moments of
truth.

ANS: F DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Managing Customer Relationships
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

14. Moments of truth may be direct contacts with customer representatives or service personnel, or when
customers read letters, invoices, or other company correspondence.

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Managing Customer Relationships
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

15. Service standards might include technical standards or behavioral standards.


ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Managing Customer Relationships
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

16. Customer engagement software is designed to help companies increase customer loyalty, target their
most profitable customers, and streamline customer communication processes.

ANS: F DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Managing Customer Relationships
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

17. The first and most obvious practice to achieve performance excellence is that purchasing decisions
should be based only on the product’s cost.

ANS: F DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Suppliers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

18. Firms pursuing TQ aim to reduce the number of suppliers they work with to the point of having only
one supplier for some components.

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Suppliers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

19. One of the benefits of reducing the number of suppliers is that there are fewer “special causes” of
variation.

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Suppliers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

20. One common form that cooperation takes is the early involvement of suppliers in the design of new
products.

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Suppliers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

21. Security concerns in customer-supplier relationships can be dealt with through nondisclosure
agreements.

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Suppliers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

22. Deming recommends joint quality planning between customers and suppliers, featuring the exchange
of quality-related information.

ANS: F DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Suppliers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge
23. Other than the four identified by Gersuny and Rosengren, a fifth role for customers is to be a key
outcome, or product, of value-creating transformation activities.

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

24. The Resource Dependence Perspective deals with how organizations manage to get the resources they
need from their environment.

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

25. According to the Resource Dependence Perspective, the effectiveness of an organization should be
understood in terms of how well it meets the demands of internal groups and organizations that are
concerned with its actions and products.

ANS: F DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

26. Unlike Resource Dependence Perspective, the total quality perspective recognizes that organizations
must satisfy the demands of not only customers, but also other entities in the environment including
various government agencies, interest groups, shareholders, and—to some extent —society as a whole.

ANS: F DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

27. Quality customer-supplier relationships are seen from the total quality (TQ) perspective as consisting
of mutually beneficial partnerships.

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

28. One similarity between TQ and the RDP is that they both believe that managing interdependencies
with other organizations is a key to success.

ANS: T DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

29. One of the key ideas of integrative bargaining—invent options for mutual gain—refers to the fact that
it is easy to make decisions in the presence of an adversary.

ANS: F DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

30. One of the key principles of integrative bargaining says that fair solutions result from the personalities
of the negotiators rather than deciding on the criteria on which to evaluate the result.

ANS: F DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. In Japanese, the word _____ means both “customer” and “honorable guest. ”
a. seiketsu
b. okyakusama
c. kaizen
d. shitsuke
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationships and Performance Excellence
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

2. _____ refers to customers’ investment in or commitment to a brand and product offerings.


a. Customer perception
b. Customer support
c. Customer engagement
d. Customer service
ANS: C DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationships and Performance Excellence
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

3. Characteristics of _____ include customer retention and loyalty, customers’ willingness to make an
effort to do business with the organization, and customers’ willingness to actively advocate for and
recommend the brand and product offerings.
a. customer service
b. customer engagement
c. customer support
d. customer perception
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationships and Performance Excellence
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

4. _____ are those companies that provide the organization with goods and services that help them to
satisfy the needs of their own customers.
a. Delighters
b. Suppliers
c. Retailers
d. Satisfiers
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationships and Performance Excellence
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

5. A _____ includes the materials and other inputs purchased from suppliers, their use in the production
of goods and services.

a. supply chain
b. consumption chain
c. semantic network
d. associative network
ANS: A DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationships and Performance Excellence
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

6. _____ developed a useful framework to distinguish between adversarial and teamwork relationships
with suppliers.
a. Joseph Juran
b. W. Edwards Deming
c. Philip B. Crosby
d. Jeffrey Pfeffer
ANS: A DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Principles for Customer-Supplier Relationships KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

7. Which of the following terms refer to meeting customer needs rather than simply trying to conform to
specifications?
a. Policy deployment
b. Fitness for use
c. Least cost benefit
d. Benchmarking
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Principles for Customer-Supplier Relationships KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

8. The third principle of effective customer-supplier relationship which states that the relationship must
be based on trust rather than suspicion was described as pattern of collaboration by _____.
a. Joseph Juran
b. Edwards Deming
c. Philip B. Crosby
d. Frederick Taylor
ANS: A DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Principles for Customer-Supplier Relationships KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

9. Both RDP and TQ share the idea that:


a. organizations must exclusively focus on satisfying the demands of the customers.
b. interdependence should be managed by gaining total control over the other organization.
c. managing interdependencies with other organizations is a key to success.
d. the sources of an organization’s success lie within its boundaries.
ANS: C DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

10. Executives of Credit Suisse practice _____, by which they watch customers, perform typical
customer tasks, such as exchanging foreign currency or navigate the firm’s own website, and even
spend a day in a wheelchair to understand the challenges that disabled customers face.
a. experience illusion
b. experience immersion
c. quality function deployment
d. pattern of collaboration
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

11. A formal approach to getting into customers’ minds that involves looking deeply into people’s past
experiences for events and experiences that generated strong emotions at an early age is called:
a. imprint analysis.
b. subliminal decoding.
c. dream analysis.
d. suggestion mapping.
ANS: A DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

12. In relation to an approach to get into customers’ minds, _____ refers to the collection of associations
and emotions unconsciously linked to a word, concept, or experience.
a. implication
b. imprint
c. moments of truth
d. illusion
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

13. In relation to the practices for dealing with customers, _____ is the next step after people in the
organization have gathered information about customer needs.
a. using the information to create process variance
b. measuring customers’ levels of loyalty and engagement
c. measuring customers’ perceptions of satisfaction
d. broadcasting the information collected within the organization
ANS: D DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

14. Which of the following is a key idea of integrative bargaining?


a. Integrate people and the problem
b. Focus more on positions than interests
c. Invent options for self-gain
d. Insist on using objective criteria
ANS: D DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

15. Translating customer needs into product features can be done in a structured manner using:
a. the Delphi method.
b. competitive intelligence.
c. quality function deployment.
d. flowcharting.
ANS: C DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

16. With respect to customer satisfaction attributes, _____ is a product attribute.


a. price
b. usability
c. exception handling
d. on-time delivery
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

17. With respect to customer satisfaction attributes, _____ is a service attribute.


a. process variance
b. accountability
c. usability
d. price
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

18. With respect to customer satisfaction attributes, _____ is an image attribute.


a. exception handling
b. reliability
c. on-time delivery
d. usability
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

19. Integrative bargaining is also called:


a. distributive negotiation.
b. principled negotiation.
c. positional negotiation.
d. hard-bargaining negotiation.
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

20. The metric net promoter score was developed by _____.


a. Edwards Deming
b. Frederick Taylor
c. Joseph Juran
d. Fred Reichheld
ANS: D DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

21. As per the net promoter score, scores of 9 and 10 are usually associated with _____.
a. promoters
b. passives
c. detractors
d. dissatisfiers
ANS: A DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

22. As per the net promoter score, scores of 7 and 8 are usually associated with _____.
a. passives
b. promoters
c. detractors
d. dissatisfiers
ANS: A DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

23. As per the net promoter score, _____ is the term used for customers who are satisfied but may switch
to competitors.
a. executors
b. passives
c. detractors
d. promoters
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

24. As per the net promoter score, scores of 6 or below represent _____.
a. passives
b. promoters
c. satisfiers
d. detractors
ANS: D DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge
25. In the context of integrative bargaining, fair solutions result from deciding on the:
a. criteria on which to evaluate the result.
b. personalities of the negotiators.
c. feasibility of the solution.
d. degree of compromise the adversary is willing to make.
ANS: A DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

26. In services, customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction takes place during instances in which a customer
comes in contact with an employee of the company. These instances are called:
a. moments of truth.
b. critical to quality moments.
c. turning points.
d. focal points.
ANS: A DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Managing Customer Relationships
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

27. Customer relationship management helps firms gain and maintain competitive advantage by:
a. integrating markets irrespective of demography or behavioral characteristics.
b. streamlining processes around traditional functions rather than customers.
c. continuing making products that better meet customers’ needs and provide increased
value.
d. forecasting customer retention and defection rates.
ANS: D DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Managing Customer Relationships
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

28. _____ are measurable performance levels or expectations that define the quality of customer contact.
a. Satisfaction standards
b. Features and benefits
c. Contact quality measures
d. Service standards
ANS: D DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Managing Customer Relationships
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

29. _____ software is designed to help organizations increase customer loyalty, target their most profitable
customers, and streamline customer communication processes.
a. Customer imprint
b. Customer relationship management
c. Customer service support
d. Customer interrelationship
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Managing Customer Relationships
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

30. While dealing with suppliers, it is important to:


a. base purchasing decisions on cost; not quality.
b. increase the number of suppliers.
c. establish short-term contracts.
d. measure and certify supplier performance.
ANS: D DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Suppliers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

31. Many firms use a metric called _____ to measure customer loyalty and engagement.
a. collaboration spectrum
b. net promoter score
c. imprint scale
d. core competency score
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

32. _____ is the difference in the percentage of promoters and detractors.


a. collaboration spectrum
b. net promoter score
c. imprint scale
d. core competency score
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

33. According to Gersuny and Rosengren, customers have four distinct roles. Which of the following is
one of them?
a. Distributor
b. Supplier
c. Coworker
d. Employer
ANS: C DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

34. The Resource Dependence Perspective was developed by:


a. Philip B. Crosby and Jeffrey Pfeffer
b. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Gerald Salancik.
c. Joseph Juran and Philip B. Crosby.
d. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran.
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

35. The most important similarity between the Resource Dependence Perspective and Total Quality is
their mutual emphasis on the idea:
a. of internal customers as a key quality perspective.
b. that human resources are the key competitive edge for any organization.
c. that the sources of an organization’s success lie outside its boundaries.
d. of constituencies of quality at different levels of the organization.
ANS: C DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

36. Which of the following ideas of integrative bargaining deals with eliminating emotions from issues,
forcing participants to work together to attack the problem and not each other?
a. Focusing on interest, not positions
b. Inventing options for mutual gain
c. Separating the people from the problem
d. Insisting on using objective criteria
ANS: C DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

ESSAY

1. What is the TQ view on customer-supplier relationships?

ANS:
From the TQ perspective, every company is part of a long chain of customers and suppliers. Each
company is a customer to its suppliers and a supplier to its customers, so it does not make sense to
think of a company as only one or the other. One implication of this concept is that your customer’s
customers are your customers as well.

DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationships and Performance Excellence
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

2. Describe the role of customer engagement in performance excellence.

ANS:
Customer engagement refers to customers’ investment in or commitment to a brand and product
offerings. Customer engagement goes beyond loyalty and is an important outcome of a
customer-focused culture and the organization’s listening, learning, and performance excellence
strategy. Characteristics of customer engagement include customer retention and loyalty, customers’
willingness to make an effort to do business with the organization, and customers’ willingness to
actively advocate for and recommend the brand and product offerings.

DIF: Difficulty: Moderate NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationships and Performance Excellence
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

3. What is the impact of suppliers on performance excellence?

ANS:
The quality of goods and services received from suppliers has a significant effect on the quality of
goods and services that downstream customers receive. If a supplier’s performance is of consistently
high quality, its customer can decrease or eliminate costly incoming inspections that add no value to
the product. The importance of suppliers is at least as great when they provide training, software, or
other goods or services that do not physically become part of the final product; they will influence its
quality nevertheless by shaping the quality of the processes used to produce it.

DIF: Difficulty: Moderate NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationships and Performance Excellence
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

4. What are the key principles for effective customer-supplier relationships?

ANS:
Three governing principles describe CSRs under total quality:
1) recognition of the strategic importance of customers and suppliers,
2) development of win-win relationships between customers and suppliers, and
3) establishing relationships based on trust.

DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Principles for Customer-Supplier Relationships KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

5. What is the benefit of the teamwork approach in customer-supplier relationships?

ANS:
The goal of building partnerships with customers and suppliers can be seen as an extension of the
teamwork principle that applies to all TQ activities. Traditionally, customers have used many different
suppliers for the same purchased item, and they typically have been awarded short-term contracts. This
practice fosters a competitive situation in which suppliers strive to outbid each other and may sacrifice
quality for cost. A teamwork relationship results in the need for fewer suppliers, with many items
being single-sourced. With few suppliers, companies do not have to rely on annual bidding, and can
award longer-term contracts. This enhances the motivation to work together for mutual benefits.

DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Principles for Customer-Supplier Relationships KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

6. List the practices used to improve customer-supplier relationships.

ANS:
The most basic practices for dealing with customers are: (1) collect information constantly on
customer expectations; (2) disseminate this information widely within the organization; (3) use the
information to design, produce, and deliver the organization’s products and services; and (4) measure
customers’ perceptions of satisfaction and their levels of loyalty and engagement.

DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

7. List some of the most popular ways of collecting information about customers.
ANS:
Some of the most popular ways to collect information about customers are surveys, service evaluation
cards, focus groups, and listening to what customers say during business transactions, especially when
they complain. Having top managers of a company act as customers of their own organizations is
another way to better understand customer needs. A more recent approach to collecting customer
information is to monitor the Internet and social media.

DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

8. Describe imprint analysis.

ANS:
A more formal approach to getting into customers’ minds is called imprint analysis. “Imprint” refers to
the collection of associations and emotions unconsciously linked to a word, concept, or experience.
The stronger the emotion, the stronger is the imprint. Events and experiences imprinted with strong
emotions at an early age usually last just below the level of consciousness for a person’s entire life. By
looking deeply into people’s past experiences, imprint analysis can help companies understand what
drives today’s behavior. Also, imprints of current experiences reveal emerging needs; thus, imprint
analysis can actually forecast customer behavior.

DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

9. What are the commonly used factors to measure customer loyalty and engagement?

ANS:
Commonly used factors to measure customer loyalty and engagement are:
1) Overall satisfaction
2) Likelihood of a first-time purchaser to repurchase
3) Likelihood to recommend
4) Likelihood to continue purchasing the same products or services
5) Likelihood to purchase different products or services
6) Likelihood to increase frequency of purchasing
7) Likelihood to switch to a different provider

DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Customers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

10. How does CRM help firms gain and maintain competitive advantage?

ANS:
CRM helps firms gain and maintain competitive advantage by:
1) Segmenting markets based on demographic and behavioral characteristics.
2) Tracking sales trends and advertising effectiveness by customer and market segment.
3) Identifying and eliminated non-value-adding products that would waste resources as well as those
products that better meet customers’ needs and provide increased value.
4) Identifying which customers should be the focus of targeted marketing initiatives with predicted
high customer response rates.
5) Forecasting customer retention (and defection) rates and providing feedback as to why customers
leave a company.
6) Studying which goods and services are purchased together, leading to good ways to bundle them.
7) Studying and predicting which Web characteristics are most attractive to customers and how the
website might be improved.
8) Streamlining processes around customers rather than traditional functions, resulting in improved
flow of information and cycle times.

DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Managing Customer Relationships
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

11. List the three guiding principles upon which a strong customer/supplier relationship is based.

ANS:
Strong customer/supplier relationships are based on three guiding principles:
1) recognizing the strategic importance of suppliers in accomplishing business objectives, particularly
minimizing the total cost of ownership,
2) developing win-win relationships through partnerships rather than as adversaries, and
3) establishing trust through openness and honesty, thus leading to mutual advantages.

DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Suppliers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

12. What are the benefits of reducing the number of suppliers?

ANS:
The first advantage of reducing the number of suppliers is that administrative costs are greatly
reduced. Also, cutting the number of suppliers reduces the variability in the incoming products,
making it much easier to control the quality of outgoing products. This is because there are fewer
“special causes” of variation.

DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management TOP: A-Head: Practices for Dealing with Suppliers
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

13. Discuss the roles for customers identified by Gersuny and Rosengren.

ANS:
Gersuny and Rosengren identified four distinct roles for customers:
1) resource,
2) worker (or coworker),
3) buyer, and
4) beneficiary (or user).
A fifth role has emerged from work in the human service area: Customers can be a key outcome, or
product, of value-creating transformation activities, such as education and health delivery. In the first
two roles, customers act as inputs to the transformation process, while in the last three, they act as
outputs. Each of these roles is instrumental in creating competitive quality within a firm.

DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

14. List the key ideas of integrative bargaining.

ANS:
The key ideas of integrative bargaining (or principled negotiation) are:
1) separate the people from the problem;
2) focus on interests, not positions;
3) invent options for mutual gain; and
4) insist on using objective criteria.

DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic


STA: DISC: Operations Management
TOP: A-Head: Customer-Supplier Relationship in Organization Theory
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

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