1. Roughly estimate your spending for an average month. What percentage of your spending goes for services versus goods? Do the services your purchase has value? In what sense? If you had to cut back on your expenses, what would you cut out?

2. Visit two local retail service providers that you believe are positioned very differently (such as Target and Nordstrom, or Burger King and a fine restaurant). From your own observations, compare their strategies on the elements of the services marketing mix.

3. Choose an organization to interview and use the integrated gaps model of service quality as a framework. Ask the manager whether the organization suffers from any of the factors listed in the figures in this chapter. Identify the gap(s) that appear to be the most problematic.

4. Use the internet to locate the website of Disney, Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, or any other well-known, high-quality service organization. Which provider gaps have the company closed. How can you tell?