Part – 02
Revision
QUESTION 1
Considering your knowledge of Customer Benefit Packages and
Service Delivery Strategies…
a)
What might be the Customer Benefit Package that you
as the owner of a small building business will offer to your
client? Explain and justify your decisions. 10
b)
What might be the key aspects of “Service Encounter
Design” to support your answer to part a) above?
10
Total 20 Marks
Complete Focus on new reference book &
lecture slide.
Answer
Customer Benefit package is the set of tangible
and intangible features that the customer
recognizes, pays for, uses or experiences.
So in Customer Benefit Package, we have 3
important elements Primary goods/services,
Peripheral services/goods and variants.
Draw the diagram : page 15 new reference book
As the owner of a small building business, my CBP for
the customer includes the following:
Primary Goods –
• a designed house
• Designed to the specification
• Build on time
• Quality of the building
• Cost effective and standard materials used to
build.
• Reasonable price
Peripheral goods and services
• A prompt quotation to the customer.
• Cleanliness in the working area.
• Limited use of energy such as
water/electricity.
• Skilled workers
• Minimum or no waste of materials during the
construction.
Variant
• A professional and polite staff
• Professional advise on the design
• Innovative & cost effective designs
The end of the answer
how can you answer these types of
questions?
• Understand the definition
• Make sure, you know the three elements such as
primary, peripheral, variants.
• Primary – the main or core product or service. For
example the primary good in an automobile company
is Vehicle or car.
A primary service in a hospital is treatment for diseases.
A primary service in a hotel is room.
A primary service in a bank is keeping the accounts of a
customer.
Peripheral goods/ service
• A peripheral good or service is something that
is not essential for the product or good, but
enhances the end product or service.
• For example accessory in a car such as the
leather seats, audio system, color, brochure of
vehicles, discount coupons, free stay in a hotel
all are peripheral goods/services.
Variants
Is a feature that coming with standard customer
benefit package as a additional quality at
times.
For example for a hotel, the location may be a
variant if it is located in the heart of the city,
multi-lingual staff in hotel is another variant,
again a baby sitter in a shopping mall is
another variant.
Where do you find the information
regarding this topic?
Reference book page 14, page 15, page 16
Remember to include the diagram as it ensure
maximum marks, and underlining your
understanding.
What might be the key aspects of “Service
Encounter Design” to support your answer to
part a) above?
Service encounter means the interaction
between the customer and the service
provider. So, in most cases customer and
service provider come into direct contact
while the delivery of goods and services.
customer encounter design means making sure
that customer will be satisfied when receiving
goods and services from the service provider.
A service encounter design should
include the following aspects:
– Customer contact behaviour and skills – designing
how employees interact with customers during
the service delivery
– Service provider selection, development and
empowerment – involves finding, developing and
keeping good customer-contact employees with
service management skills
Recognition and rewards – includes how to motivate and keep staff
Service recovery and guarantee – designing how to react to a “service upset”,
i.e. a dissatisfied customer.
How to correct mistakes to satisfy the customer
How to compensate a customer, etc.
Where can you find the referenced for this
question?
Reference book page 226,227,228,236
paragraph 236. Chapter 06
From your knowledge of meeting customers “wants
and needs” through competitiveness…
Discuss the likely business operations related to the
wants and needs of guests at the hotel. Link your
answer to lecture material and use examples as
appropriate.
– Customers’ needs vary – consequently organisations
segment customers into target groups. So the guests in a
hotel may have different needs. Youngsters would need
more entertainments such as live music, discotheque,
again the old may look for more relaxation and services
such as spa, swimming pool e.t.c
– Identifying what customers need and want requires “being
close to the customer” . To understand this hotel must try
to be close with the customers by communicating with
them and understanding their opinion.
Identifying customer needs is not always easy … customers don’t
always know what they want until it’s been created.
Creating “breakthrough” goods and services sometimes require
companies to take risks … not all of these succeed. Some services
such as express check-in and check – out services can be included.
– Dis-satisfiers – these are requirements that are
expected in a good or service (e.g. a “clean” hotel
room)
– If these requirements are not present then
customers become dissatisfied - sometimes very
dissatisfied
Satisfiers – these are things that customers say
they want (e.g. a restaurant in the hotel)
Providing these goods or services provides
customer satisfaction
– Exciters and Delighters – these are new or
innovative features that customers do not expect
but that add value (e.g. free wi-fi in the hotel)
– Providing these goods or services provides
customers with “extra” satisfaction and can lead
to competitive advantage
Where can you find the reference for
this question?
Lecture slide chapter 04
The reference book page 118, 119
What is service recovery? Or any
question related service recovery.
Service recovery is a process of correcting a
service upset and satisfying the customer.
Service upset is any problem a customer has
with the service delivery system such as
service failure, error, defect, mistake or crisis.
Service recovery is designing how to react to a
“service upset”, i.e. a dissatisfied customer.
• How to correct mistakes to satisfy the customer
• How to compensate a customer, etc.
There are different approaches to do
service recovery
Collect the data on the type of failures
Analyze the data
Identify the most frequent or critical failures
Develop service recovery responses to each type
Include those information in the training program
Hire good people
Train them
Empower the staff
Service guarantee
Refer the diagram shown in page 232 reference book, again
page 231
How might you use “search” and “experience” &
“credence” attributes in relation to your hotel visit?
Customers want quality in the goods and services they
purchase. Customers use three types of attributes in
evaluating the quality of goods and services: search,
experience, and credence.
Search attributes are those that a customer can
determine prior to purchasing the goods or services.
For example color, price, freshness, style, fit, feel,
hardness and smell. I can use the search attributes for
visiting a hotel by knowing the price, style or star
category of hotel. Again the Pictures used in
promotion, marketing, on the Internet, etc can be used
for search.
Experience attributes are those that can only be
discerned after purchase or during consumption or use.
For example in the hotel that I visit, I can only know
the customer satisfaction, fun, friendliness of the
staff, safety in the hotel only when I experience the
same.
Credence attributes are those aspects of a good or
service that a customer must believe in but cannot
personally evaluate even after purchase and
consumption.
For example in the hotel that I visit the sincerity of the
staff members cannot be evaluated even after the
check –out.
Briefly discuss how a hotel might use the five competitive
priorities: cost, quality, time, flexibility and innovation, to
determine their strategy and operations.
• Cost – leading on price. Offering discounts for regular
customers different pricing strategies for different room
types, etc.
• Quality – offering high level of service, good quality related
to the price, etc. Meeting or exceeding expectations
• Time – short waiting times, e.g. speed of service at checkin, in restaurant, etc.
• Flexibility – understanding customer wants & needs and
responding quickly to specific requests, etc.
• Innovation – application of new ideas to the service
experience. Aiming for new ways to exceed customer
expectations, etc.
Where do you find the reference for
this question?
Page 122,123.124.125.126- 130 new reference
book. Again lecture slide ( PBO) CHAPTER 04
Organisations need to use the value chain to gain
customers, create value, and keep customers. Use
examples for your business (airplane engine
manufacture) to illustrate how this might work in
practice
CHAPTER 2 NEW REFERENCE BOOK PAGE 42
ONWARDS