Chapter 11 Review and Application

1.1 I went to the Bureau of Labor statistics and found some interesting information. The consumer price index is up + .04 % in February, 2009. On the other hand unemployment was down 8.5 % and so was payroll. An upside is average employment earnings are up + .03 %. To answer the chapter question, is ‘Yes’ the government statistics are in line, in touch with the markets. For example, many car companies are allowing a time of forgiveness if a customer gets laid off and can’t make a payment.

2.1 Bank’s have intangible product and services. Often customers have a hard time understanding products, especially when they can’t see it with their own eyes. For example, overdraft protection on ones account. Only when a customer writes a check out for more than they have in an account does the fee’s and the pain catch up to the consumer.. Another example is a certificate of deposit, when compared with the returns on a booming stock market years ago. The CD offers a little more piece of mind today, than loosing upwards of fifty percent on Wall Street investment and that again is hard to relate to.

3.1 Today my wife and I went for a tour ride with Conch Air. I called the owner and found that he has eight years of air tour experience. The operator booked me and my wife for 5 P.M and was ready and waiting. Assurances were given that if you don’t make it back you don’t have to pay and made some small talk to see how strong out stomachs were. The operator assured us that the ride was worth the money. In the end, the bi-plane ride gave us a fabulous view of a Florida Key, and a lifetime of memories. The motto here was ‘If you’ve got the time to spare, fly Conch Air’. The five components of service quality were all here, reliable, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibility.