GMAT Reading Comprehension
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Source: OG11th
Level: 3
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 guarantees specify what clients can expect and what the firm will do if it fails to fullfill these expectations. Particularly with first-time clients, an unconditional guarantee can be an effective marketing tool if the client is very cautious, the firms fees are high, the 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 failure 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 services, it may mislead clients by suggesting that lawsuits or medical procedures will have guaranteed outcomes.Indeed, professional service firms with outstanding reputations and performance to match have little to gain from offering unconditional guarantees. And any firm that e commitment to quality of service is merely employing a potentially costly implements an unconditional guarantee without undertaking a commensurate implements an unconditional guarantee without undertaking a commensurate commitment to quality of service is merely employing a potentially costly marketing gimmick.
Which of the following hypothetical situations best exemplifies the potential problem noted in the second sentence of the second paragraph (highlight text)?
- 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 a re certain to be accurate.