Consider the following statement and choose the option that follows. Problem: Customers report long wait times at branches. Course of Action: I. Increase the number of service counters. II. Encourage use of online and mobile banking.

Correct — C.
Rule: a course of action follows if it is practical and tackles the stated problem.

I: more service counters serve more customers at once, so queues shorten.
II: online and mobile banking lets customers skip the branch, so fewer people wait.

Each attacks the long wait from a different side → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Only I follows — Only I leaves out II, which cuts the wait by reducing how many customers need to visit a branch at all. That is a practical fix too.
• (b)
  Only II follows — Only II leaves out I. Adding service counters is the most direct way to serve waiting customers faster, and nothing about it is impractical.
• (d)
  Neither follows — Neither follows would need both actions to be impractical or off the point. Each one targets the long wait at branches directly.

A course of action is judged on two tests: does it address the stated problem, and is it practical to carry out? It need not solve the problem completely.

Here the problem is long waits at branches. One action raises capacity (more counters), the other lowers demand (online and mobile banking). Both pass both tests, so both follow.

Key facts

• A course of action follows if it is practical and addresses the problem as stated.
• Two actions can both follow when each tackles the problem in a different way.
• Raising capacity and reducing demand are two separate ways to shorten a queue.

Common traps

• Picking the one action that looks like the better fix, when the question asks which follow, not which is best
• Rejecting II because it changes nothing inside the branch, though it cuts the number of people waiting there

No directly related past PYQ was found.