Before you read

Discuss these questions

1. Based on your experience, agree or disagree with the statement from the text B that a monopoly on management of customer relationships in the service sector is being lost and passed to machines?

2. According to text B customer relationships are becoming more important than products themselves which means that customer demand has become the scarcest resource in a service centered economy. What economic risks may it create in future?

3. Do you think that in future marketspace will be able to exist independently of the fundamental laws of economics? Give your reasons.

Reading Tasks

A Understanding main points

Read text B and answer these questions.

1. What is the new rethinking of how companies interact with and create experiences for their customers?

2. Why do companies mentioned in the next have to sell their core products in negative margins and why? What do they rely on?

3. What is the main challenge for managers in a customer centered economy?

4. Which economic sector has long been characterized by dis-economies of scale?

5. What is the name of the game both in the marketspace and marketplace now?

6. In your opinion, what is the back- office reengineering revolution of the 1980s?

B Understanding details

Choose the correct answer or completion to these questions or statements. More than one option may be correct.

1. Which of the following businesses are now selling their products at a loss?

a. Amazon; b. Microsoft; c. IBM d. Ritz-Carlton;

2. Modern economy makes businesses more and more dependent on:

a. technologies; b. core products; c. customer relationships; d. innovations.

3. According to the text collaborative filtering technology is:

a. screen-to-face interactions; b. commoditisation; c. personalisation;d. logistics technology.

4. Nowadays, even product-based businesses are becoming almost totally dependent on:

a. economies of scale; b. follow-on services and maintenance; c. competitive technologies; d. commoditisation.

5. What makes service the key business differentiator?

a. supply; d. demand; c. customer centric shift; d. advent of screen-to-face technologies.

Vocabulary tasks

A Synonyms

1. The word Internet is used several times in the text. What other phrase is used that has a similar meaning?

2. The phrase `to elevate something to new heights` is used in the text. What other phrase with the similar meaning is used in the text? What other similar phrases or verbs do you know?

Дата добавления: 2015-07-10