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- June 2018
- Article
Personal and Social Usage: The Origins of Active Customers and Ways to Keep Them Engaged
By: Clarence Lee, Elie Ofek and Thomas Steenburgh
We study how digital service firms can develop an active customer base, focusing on two questions. First, how does the way that customers use the service postadoption to meet their own needs (personal usage) and to interact with one another (social usage) vary across... View Details
Keywords: Customer Engagement; Adoption Routes; Word-of-Mouth; Digital Marketing; Bayesian Estimation; Customers; Communication; Consumer Behavior; Marketing; Internet and the Web; Analytics and Data Science
Lee, Clarence, Elie Ofek, and Thomas Steenburgh. "Personal and Social Usage: The Origins of Active Customers and Ways to Keep Them Engaged." Management Science 64, no. 6 (June 2018): 2473–2495. (Lead Article.)
- Article
Are Self-service Customers Satisfied or Stuck?
This paper investigates the impact of self-service technology (SST) usage on customer satisfaction and retention. Specifically, we disentangle the distinct effects of satisfaction and switching costs as drivers of retention among self-service customers. Our empirical... View Details
Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Technology; Customer Satisfaction; Competition; Cost; Banks and Banking; Behavior; Market Transactions; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques
Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei. "Are Self-service Customers Satisfied or Stuck?" Production and Operations Management 19, no. 6 (November–December 2010). (Awarded the Decision Sciences Institute Stan Hardy Award for Outstanding Paper Published during 2010 in the Field of Operations Management.)
- 25 Jul 2005
- Research & Ideas
An Organization Your Customers Understand
subordinate to the functions? Maybe you should organize by product, with separate units set up to serve specific markets. You play with the different combinations in your hands. How to decide ... This is the most obvious—and... View Details
Keywords: by Robert Simons
- 16 Nov 2016
- Research & Ideas
Turning One Thousand Customers into One Million
soliciting feedback from its most loyal and vocal customers” As impressive as that accomplishment was, 1,000 customers is hardly enough to ensure long-run success. For that, these companies had to scale up dramatically, from 1,000 to over... View Details
- 08 Aug 2005
- Research & Ideas
A Balanced Scorecard Approach To Measure Customer Profitability
unit times spent on these resources by specific activities for products, services, and customers. For example, if a customer support department has a cost of $70 per hour, and a particular transaction for a... View Details
Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan
- 24 Feb 2014
- Research & Ideas
Busting Six Myths About Customer Loyalty Programs
differentiation is difficult in retail as well because development of such advantages takes time and is difficult to execute. All the while, low-price players are constantly looming to pounce. Can low-margin retailers afford customer... View Details
- 21 Jan 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
Learning from Customers in Outsourcing: Individual and Organizational Effects
- 2015
- Working Paper
Customers and Investors: A Framework for Understanding Financial Institutions
By: Robert C. Merton and Robert T. Thakor
Financial institutions have both investors and customers. Investors, such as those who invest in stocks and bonds or private/public-sector guarantors of institutions, expect an appropriate risk-adjusted return in exchange for the financing and risk-bearing that they... View Details
Keywords: Financial Institutions
Merton, Robert C., and Robert T. Thakor. "Customers and Investors: A Framework for Understanding Financial Institutions." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 21258, June 2015.
- 07 Apr 2020
- Research & Ideas
What Customers Need to Hear from You During the COVID Crisis
in crises. These survey results form the basis for our analysis and advice below. Do consumers want to hear from brands during a crisis? Yes, they do, but only when that communication is comforting and reassuring to them and provides View Details
Keywords: by Jill Avery and Richard Edelman
- 30 Mar 2003
- Research & Ideas
How Your Employees and Customers Drive a New Value Profit Chain
chain is that of obtaining an understanding of customer lifetime value and that of true employee value at various levels in the organization. These are the drivers of subsequent effort in many organizations we've observed. From this... View Details
Keywords: by Manda Mahoney
- 27 Sep 2010
- Research & Ideas
Customer Experts Lose Influence When Teams are Pressured
for relevant customization and adaptation to specific client needs. This is a significant aspect of maintaining ongoing client relationships. I observed that teams under heightened pressure tend to shut out... View Details
Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert
- 21 Jul 2003
- Research & Ideas
Don’t Get Buried in Customer Data—Use It
way the wind is blowing. It also helps prevent you from running after individual problems that may not be significant in the aggregate. The transactional data gives the detail behind the relationship." It helps you pinpoint specific... View Details
Keywords: by Jean Ayers
- 13 Jul 2016
- HBS Case
How Uber, Airbnb, and Etsy Attracted Their First 1,000 Customers
million. “You have to be more proactive and control the acquisition process, which word-of-mouth does not allow for.” That’s where digital marketing can help, allowing companies to target specific customers... View Details
- 24 Oct 2023
- Research & Ideas
When Tech Platforms Identify Black-Owned Businesses, White Customers Buy
Democratic-leaning areas. And new customers of Black-owned businesses were more likely to be white, based on an analysis of reviewers’ profile photos, relative to prior customers. Luca and his coauthors also worked with Wayfair to analyze... View Details
- 16 May 2016
- HBS Case
Food Safety Economics: The Cost of a Sick Customer
Chipotle Mexican Grill’s ongoing struggle to win customers back months after a contaminated food crisis highlights the challenges companies face with keeping food safe. Chipotle has seen its shares tumble and recently reported its... View Details
- 10 Aug 2015
- Research & Ideas
Why a Federal Rule on CEO Pay Disclosure May Get You In Trouble With Customers
Here's a tip for companies looking to woo customers away from the competition: Besides advertising fair prices for your products, try advertising fair wages for your employees. Recent research from Harvard Business School indicates that... View Details
- June 23, 2021
- Article
Research: When A/B Testing Doesn't Tell You the Whole Story
By: Eva Ascarza
When it comes to churn prevention, marketers traditionally start by identifying which customers are most likely to churn, and then running A/B tests to determine whether a proposed retention intervention will be effective at retaining those high-risk customers. While... View Details
Keywords: Customer Retention; Churn; Targeting; Market Research; Marketing; Investment Return; Customers; Retention; Research
Ascarza, Eva. "Research: When A/B Testing Doesn't Tell You the Whole Story." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (June 23, 2021).
- December 2014 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Compass Group: The Ascension Health Decision
By: Ryan W. Buell
In 2012, Compass Group (Compass) was on the verge of closing a $2 billion deal with Ascension Health (Ascension), one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States. Under the deal, Compass would provide foodservice management and cleaning services for 86 of... View Details
Keywords: Operations Strategy; Sectorization; Operational Focus; Customer Compatibility; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Operations; Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Industry; Health Industry; United States
Buell, Ryan W. "Compass Group: The Ascension Health Decision." Harvard Business School Case 615-026, December 2014. (Revised February 2020.)
- March 2016 (Revised February 2020)
- Teaching Note
Compass Group: The Ascension Health Decision
By: Ryan W. Buell
In 2012, Compass Group (Compass) was on the verge of closing a $2 billion deal with Ascension Health (Ascension), one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States. Under the deal, Compass would provide foodservice management and cleaning services for 86 of... View Details
- March 2016
- Supplement
Compass Group: The Ascension Health Decision
By: Ryan W. Buell
In 2012, Compass Group (Compass) was on the verge of closing a $2 billion deal with Ascension Health (Ascension), one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States. Under the deal, Compass would provide foodservice management and cleaning services for 86 of... View Details
Keywords: Operations Strategy; Sectorization; Operational Focus; Customer Compatibility; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Operations; Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Industry; Health Industry; United States
Buell, Ryan W. "Compass Group: The Ascension Health Decision." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Supplement 616-705, March 2016.