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.

Question List: 1 2 3 4 5 6

The passage most clearly implies which of the following about the professional service firms mentioned in highlight text

  • 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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