Questions 下列各 ·Read the article below about service production and the questions on the opposite page． ·For each question(13-18)，mark one letter(A。B，C，or D)on your Answer Sheet． Service are not purchased from a supplier and stored on a shelf until ordered by the customer. Instead, they are manufactured or produced after they are requested by the customer. This itself sets service retailing apart from goods retailing and places the retailer in the channel as the manufacturer as well as the retailer of the service being sold. The placement of the retailer as the product of the service carries with it all the problems associated with the manufacture of goods-research and development, scheduling, raw materials acquisition, quality control and service consistency throughout various branch store operations. The improvement or upgrading of services must be done by the retailer. Constant monitoring of completion and decisions on improving aspects of the service, as well as research into the satisfaction customers are experiencing with their purchases, are part of service management. Scheduling of services retailing presents a dual problem. If the service is performed on a good owned by the customer (china repair, silver polishing, etc. ), the production process can be scheduled in an orderly flow of first in, first out. The craft worker focuses on one item and, when finishing it, moves to the next. The scheduling process is more complicated where the service involves the individual ( legal services, beauty care, driving lessons, and the like). With theses types of service, production and consumption take place at the same time. A scheduling of customers is required to maximize the production capabilities of the service offering. The driving instructor who has no student must sit idly. Greater attention may then be required in scheduling services, especially those involving the customer. In the retailing of mens suits, the quality control activity is left to the manufacturer, while in the retailing of services, the involvement with quality control standards rests with the retailer. Customers purchasing a shirt at the main store expect the same quality when they purchase an identical shirt at a branch store. This consistency in quality is assumed with goods retailing. The consistency of quality in service retailing is much more in doubt. The driving instructor at one store may be very different from an instructor at another store with the same retail chain. The involvement of the craft worker in the production process for custom draperies may also differ within the same retail store. To ensure the consistency of a service, the store must establish procedures and policies which can be implemented throughout each branch store within that chain. Central training may be the best way to accomplish this consistency. It is of course possible that a customer may develop a preference or loyalty to one specific craftsperson, but the development of loyalty to the store with consistency of the production process is a more healthy loyalty to cultivate. In this area, the store may try to develop a strong brand-name recognition for its service. A faulty product may be covered under the manufacturers liability, yet the retailer, when becoming the manufacturer one must be aware of the sole liability associated with the service. Other than the liability of faulty raw material, theres no other recourse for the retailer to turn to. Store-liability coverage should be considered, and most likely increased, especially for those services performed on the individual (beauty services, dental treatments). What is the writers opinion about service retailing?