Customer Benefit Package

Assignment #1, Course Marks: 10%

Customer Benefit Package

Background information:

Many goods and services are "bundled" in a certain way to provide value to customers. This not only enhances what customers receive, but can also differentiate the product from competitors. Such a bundle is often called a customer benefit package. A customer benefit package (CBP) is a clearly defined set of tangible (goods) and intangible (service) features that the customer recognizes, pays for, uses, or experiences. The CBP is a way to conceptualize and visualize goods and services by thinking broadly about how goods and services are bundled and configured together.

A primary good or service is the "core" offering that attracts customers and responds to their basic needs. For example, the primary service of a personal checking account is convenient financial transactions. Peripheral goods or services are those that are not essential to the primary good or service, but enhance it. A personal checking account might be supported and enhanced by such peripheral goods as a printed monthly account statement, designer checks and check books, a special credit card, and such peripheral services as a customer service hot line and online bill payment.

Finally, a variant is a CBP feature that departs from the standard CBP and is normally location-or firm-specific.

The CBP attributes and features are chosen by management to fulfill certain customer wants and needs. For example in a car dealership, financing and leasing, which are peripheral services, meet the customer's wants and needs of personal financial security. In fact, if two vehicles have similar prices and quality levels, then the leasing program may be the key to which vehicle the customer buys.

When defining a CBP, it is important not to confuse the features determined by management with customers' wants and needs. For example, if a customer need is to ensure the safety of their valuables in a hotel, a CBP feature that management might select is a room safe. Thus, you would not put "safety of valuables" in a CBP, but rather you would include "room safe."

1. Describe the differences in the customer benefit package for the Super 8 Motel chain versus the CBP for the Fairmont Hotel chain. Explain the reason for the differences.
2. What group of customers are being targeted by Super 8? What group of customers are being targeted by Fairmont Hotels?
3. In approximately 500 words, define a customer benefit package (CBP) for a brand new restaurant designed mainly for children.

Introduction to Operations Management, Assignment #1

Customer Benefit Package

1. Describe the differences in the customer benefit package for the Super 8 Motel chain versus the CBP for the Fairmont Hotel chain. Explain the reason for the differences.

Though the primary function is to provide lodging to travellers, the following are the descriptions of the benefit package offered by Super 8 Motel Chain VS Fairmont hotel chain.