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Passage52 Answers
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Seeking a competitive advantage, some professional
service firms(for example, firms providing advertising,
accounting, or health care services) have considered
offering unconditional guarantees of satisfaction. Such
(5) guarantees specify what clients can expect and what the
firm will do if it fails to fulfill these expectations.
Particularly with first-time clients, an unconditional
guarantee can be an effective marketing tool if the
client is very cautious, the firm's fees are high, the
(10) negative consequences of bad service are grave, or
business is difficult to obtain through referrals and
word-of-mouth.
However, an unconditional guarantee can sometimes
hinder marketing efforts. With its implication that fail-
(15) ure is possible, the guarantee may, paradoxically, cause
clients to doubt the service firm's ability to deliver the
promised level of service. It may conflict with a firm's
desire to appear sophisticated, or may even suggest that
a firm is begging for business. In legal and health care
(20) services, it may mislead clients by suggesting that law-
suits or medical procedures will have guaranteed out-
comes. Indeed, professional service firms with outstandin
reputations and performance to match have little to gain
from offering unconditional guarantees. And any firm
(25) that implements an unconditional guarantee without
undertaking a commensurate commitment to quality of
service is merely employing a potentially costly
marketing gimmick.
1. The primary function of the passage as a whole is to
(A) account for the popularity of a practice
(B) evaluate the utility of a practice
(C) demonstrate how to institute a practice
(D) weigh the ethics of using a strategy
(E) explain the reasons for pursuing a strategy
2. All of the following are mentioned in the passage as
circumstances in which professional service firms can
benefit from offering an unconditional guarantee
EXCEPT:
(A) The firm is having difficulty retaining its clients of
long standing.
(B) The firm is having difficulty getting business
through client recommendations.
(C) The firm charges substantial fees for its services.
(D) The adverse effects of poor performance by the firm
are significant for the client.
(E) The client is reluctant to incur risk.
3. Which of the following is cited in the passage as a goal
of some professional service firms in offering
unconditional guarantees of satisfaction?
(A) A limit on the firm's liability
(B) Successful competition against other firms
(C) Ability to justify fee increases
(D) Attainment of an outstanding reputation in a field
(E) Improvement in the quality of the firm's service
4. The passage's description of the issue raised by
unconditional guarantees for health care or legal
services most clearly implies that which of the following
is true?
(A) The legal and medical professions have standards of
practice that would be violated by attempts to fulfill
such unconditional guarantees.
(B) The result of a lawsuit of medical procedure cannot
necessarily be determined in advance by the
professionals handling a client's case.
(C) The dignity of the legal and medical professions is
undermined by any attempts at marketing of
professional services, including unconditional
guarantees.
(D) Clients whose lawsuits or medical procedures have
unsatisfactory outcomes cannot be adequately
compensated by financial settlements alone.
(E) Predicting the monetary cost of legal or health care
services is more difficult than predicting the
monetary cost of other types of professional
services.
5. Which of the following hypothetical situations best
exemplifies the potential problem noted in the second
sentence of the second paragraph (lines 14-17)?
(A) A physician's unconditional guarantee of
satisfaction encourages patients to sue for
malpractice if they are unhappy with the treatment
they receive.
(B) A lawyer's unconditional guarantee of satisfaction
makes clients suspect that the lawyer needs to find
new clients quickly to increase the firm's income.
(C) A business consultant's unconditional guarantee of
satisfaction is undermined when the consultant fails
to provide all of the services that are promised.
(D) An architect's unconditional guarantee of
satisfaction makes clients wonder how often the
architect's buildings fail to please clients.
(E) An accountant's unconditional guarantee of
satisfaction leads clients to believe that tax returns
prepared by the accountant are certain to be
accurate.
6. The passage most clearly implies which of the following
about the professional service firms mentioned in line
22?
(A) They are unlikely to have offered unconditional
guarantees of satisfaction in the past.
(B) They are usually profitable enough to be able to
compensate clients according to the terms of an
unconditional guarantee.
(C) They usually practice in fields in which the
outcomes are predictable.
(D) Their fees are usually more affordable than those
charged by other professional service firms.
(E) Their clients are usually already satisfied with the
quality of service that is delivered.
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