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  • All HBS Web  (6,239)
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    • News  (1,341)
    • Research  (4,149)
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Show Results For

  • All HBS Web  (6,239)
    • People  (3)
    • News  (1,341)
    • Research  (4,149)
    • Events  (16)
    • Multimedia  (81)
  • Faculty Publications  (2,880)
Page 1 of 6,239 Results →
  • 2014
  • Other Teaching and Training Material

Marketing Reading: Customer Management

By: Sunil Gupta
This Reading on customer management sheds light on how companies should evaluate and manage their customers in order to grow profitably. Customer management allows marketing managers to inform investment decisions by drilling down into each customer's profitability or... View Details
Keywords: Customer Acquisition; Customer Churn; Customer Profitability Analysis; Customer Retention; Firm Value; Organizational Structure
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Gupta, Sunil. "Marketing Reading: Customer Management." Core Curriculum Readings Series. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing 8162, 2014.
  • May 2021
  • Simulation

Customer Compatibility Exercise Application

By: Ryan W. Buell
Customers impose considerable variability on the operating systems of service organizations. They show up when they wish (arrival variability), they ask for different things (request variability), they vary in their willingness and ability to help themselves (effort... View Details
Keywords: Customer Compatibility; Customer Relationship Management; Strategy; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Performance Efficiency; Analysis; Consumer Behavior; Analytics and Data Science
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Buell, Ryan W. "Customer Compatibility Exercise Application." Harvard Business School Simulation 620-707, May 2021.
  • January 2018 (Revised January 2021)
  • Background Note

Customer Lifetime Social Value (CLSV)

By: Elie Ofek, Barak Libai and Eitan Muller
One of the hallmarks of the digital revolution is the rise of the socially connected consumer. Concomitantly, the ability of companies to affect and measure the social interactions among customers has grown tremendously. Consequently, in assessing the full value of... View Details
Keywords: Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Management; Social Contagion; Word Of Mouth; Customer Engagement; Customer Value and Value Chain; Measurement and Metrics; Customer Relationship Management
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Ofek, Elie, Barak Libai, and Eitan Muller. "Customer Lifetime Social Value (CLSV)." Harvard Business School Background Note 518-077, January 2018. (Revised January 2021.)
  • 2019
  • Working Paper

The Customer May Not Always Be Right: Customer Compatibility and Service Performance

By: Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei
This paper investigates the impact of customer compatibility – the degree of fit between the needs of customers and the capabilities of the operations serving them – on customer experiences and firm performance. We use a variance decomposition analysis to quantify the... View Details
Keywords: Customer Compatibility; Satisfaction; Profitability; Customer Relationship Management; Service Operations; Customer Satisfaction; Banking Industry; Retail Industry
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Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei. "The Customer May Not Always Be Right: Customer Compatibility and Service Performance." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-091, February 2016. (Revised December 2019.)
  • February 2025
  • Article

Improving Customer Compatibility with Tradeoff Transparency

By: Ryan W. Buell and MoonSoo Choi
Through a large-scale field experiment with 393,036 customers considering opening a credit card account with a nationwide retail bank, we investigate how providing transparency into an offering’s tradeoffs affects subsequent rates of customer acquisition and long-run... View Details
Keywords: Transparency; Customer Selection; Customer Compatibility; Retention; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Banking Industry; Australia
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Buell, Ryan W., and MoonSoo Choi. "Improving Customer Compatibility with Tradeoff Transparency." Management Science 71, no. 2 (February 2025): 1335–1355.
  • September 2023
  • Article

Customer Churn and Intangible Capital

By: Scott R. Baker, Brian Baugh and Marco Sammon
Intangible capital is a crucial and growing piece of firms’ capital structure, but many of its distinct components are difficult to measure. We develop and make available several new firm-level metrics regarding a key component of intangible capital – firms’ customer... View Details
Keywords: Customer Base; Transaction Data; Customer Churn; Intangible Capital; Capital Structure; Measurement and Metrics; Customers
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Baker, Scott R., Brian Baugh, and Marco Sammon. "Customer Churn and Intangible Capital." Journal of Political Economy Macroeconomics 1, no. 3 (September 2023): 447–505.
  • March 2021
  • Article

The Customer May Not Always Be Right: Customer Compatibility and Service Performance

By: Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei
This paper investigates the impact of customer compatibility – the degree of fit between the needs of customers and the capabilities of the operations serving them – on customer experiences and firm performance. We use a variance decomposition analysis to quantify the... View Details
Keywords: Customer Compatibility; Satisfaction; Profitability; Service Operations; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Performance
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Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei. "The Customer May Not Always Be Right: Customer Compatibility and Service Performance." Management Science 67, no. 3 (March 2021): 1468–1488.
  • July 2010 (Revised January 2017)
  • Background Note

Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Customer Lifetime Value Analysis (2024)

By: Thomas Steenburgh and Jill Avery
Customers are increasingly being viewed as assets that bring value to the firm. Customer lifetime value is a metric that allows managers to understand the overall value of their customer base and relate it to three customer strategies firms employ: asset... View Details
Keywords: Customer Lifetime Value; Return On Investment; Customer Acquisition; Customer Retention; Customer Churn; "Marketing Analytics"; Marketing; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Marketing Strategy; Measurement and Metrics; Strategic Planning; Value
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Steenburgh, Thomas, and Jill Avery. "Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Customer Lifetime Value Analysis (2024)." Harvard Business School Background Note 525-017, July 2010. (Revised January 2017.)
  • 2014
  • Other Teaching and Training Material

Marketing Reading: Creating Customer Value

By: Sunil Gupta
This Reading explores how firms can create value for their customers. The goal of any business is to delight customers by understanding its customers' needs and to provide products and services to meet those needs. As a result, it is critical to understand what... View Details
Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Consumer Marketing; Customer Experience; Network Effects; Service Profit Chain; Total Customer Value
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Gupta, Sunil. "Marketing Reading: Creating Customer Value." Core Curriculum Readings Series. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing 8176, 2014.
  • February 2024
  • Course Overview Note

Managing Customers for Growth

By: Eva Ascarza
Keywords: Customer Management
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Ascarza, Eva. "Managing Customers for Growth." Harvard Business School Course Overview Note 524-033, February 2024.
  • December 2009
  • Article

Closing the Customer Feedback Loop

By: Rob Markey, Fred Reichheld and Andreas Dullweber
Realizing that customer retention is more critical than ever, companies have ramped up their efforts to listen to customers. But many struggle to convert their findings into practical prescriptions for customer-facing employees. Some companies are addressing that... View Details
Keywords: Customer Centric Initiative; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain
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Markey, Rob, Fred Reichheld, and Andreas Dullweber. "Closing the Customer Feedback Loop." Harvard Business Review 87, no. 12 (December 2009): 43–47.
  • April 2023 (Revised August 2023)
  • Teaching Note

Adobe's Customer Journey

By: Sunil Gupta, Rajiv Lal and Celine Chammas
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 522-033. View Details
Keywords: Customer Journey; Marketing Effectiveness
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Gupta, Sunil, Rajiv Lal, and Celine Chammas. "Adobe's Customer Journey." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 523-076, April 2023. (Revised August 2023.)
  • March–April 2019
  • Article

Operational Transparency: Make Your Processes Visible to Customers and Your Customers Visible to Employees

By: Ryan W. Buell
Conventional wisdom holds that the more contact an operation has with its customers, the less efficiently it will run. But when customers are partitioned away from the operation, they are less likely to fully understand and appreciate the work going on behind the... View Details
Keywords: Operational Transparency; Customers; Services; Operations; Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Customer Satisfaction; Behavior; Service Industry
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Buell, Ryan W. "Operational Transparency: Make Your Processes Visible to Customers and Your Customers Visible to Employees." R1902H. Harvard Business Review 97, no. 4 (March–April 2019): 102–113.
  • November 2015 (Revised February 2016)
  • Case

Allianz Turkey: Focus on the Customer (A)

By: W. Earl Sasser and Gamze Yucaoglu
At the age of 39, Solmaz Altın took over the helm at Allianz Turkey. Solmaz quickly realized that, although the insurance market was thinly penetrated in Turkey, the company was operating in a very competitive environment with pressure on prices and, hence, cost... View Details
Keywords: Service Excellence; Customer Experience; Customer Service; Emerging Market; Customer Focus; Net Promoter Score; Customer Relationship Management; Competition; Leading Change; Service Operations; Emerging Markets; Customer Satisfaction; Insurance Industry; Turkey
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Sasser, W. Earl, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Allianz Turkey: Focus on the Customer (A)." Harvard Business School Case 316-093, November 2015. (Revised February 2016.)
  • October 2014 (Revised November 2016)
  • Technical Note

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) vs. Customer Lifetime Return on Investment (CLROI)

By: Elie Ofek
This note presents two related measures for assessing the financial value of a customer to the firm. The first is the well-known measure of Customer Lifetime Value, or CLV for short. The second, which has received much less attention, treats the acquisition of a... View Details
Keywords: Customer Lifetime Value; Return On Investment; Segmentation; Social Networks; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing Strategy; Investment Return; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Media
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Ofek, Elie. "Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) vs. Customer Lifetime Return on Investment (CLROI)." Harvard Business School Technical Note 515-049, October 2014. (Revised November 2016.)
  • November 2015 (Revised February 2016)
  • Supplement

Allianz Turkey: Focus on the Customer (B)

By: W. Earl Sasser and Gamze Yucaoglu
At the age of 39, Solmaz Altın took over the helm at Allianz Turkey. Solmaz quickly realized that, although the insurance market was thinly penetrated in Turkey, the company was operating in a very competitive environment with pressure on prices and, hence, cost... View Details
Keywords: Service Excellence; Customer Experience; Customer Service; Emerging Market; Customer Focus; Net Promoter Score; Customer Relationship Management; Competition; Leading Change; Service Operations; Emerging Markets; Customer Satisfaction; Insurance Industry; Turkey
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Sasser, W. Earl, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Allianz Turkey: Focus on the Customer (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 316-094, November 2015. (Revised February 2016.)
  • March 2014
  • Article

Choosing the Right Customer

By: Robert Simons
Companies that win in competitive markets identify a primary customer and dedicate maximum resources to meeting that customer's needs. This article will show you how to identify the best primary customer for your business by analyzing perspective, capabilities, and... View Details
Keywords: Strategy Execution; Customer Focus; Organization Design; Accountability; Management Control Systems; Customer Relationship Management; Organizational Design
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Simons, Robert. "Choosing the Right Customer." Harvard Business Review 92, no. 3 (March 2014): 48–55.
  • TeachingInterests

Transforming Customer Experiences - Executive Education

By: Ryan W. Buell
In today's fast-growing service sector, a new set of frameworks are required to build a robust and competitive service business. Transforming Customer Experiences draws upon the latest research and insights to equip senior managers with a new toolkit for leading... View Details
  • 2023
  • Working Paper

The Customer Journey as a Source of Information

By: Nicolas Padilla, Eva Ascarza and Oded Netzer
In the face of heightened data privacy concerns and diminishing third-party data access, firms are placing increased emphasis on first-party data (1PD) for marketing decisions. However, in environments with infrequent purchases, reliance on past purchases 1PD... View Details
Keywords: Customer Journey; Privacy; Consumer Behavior; Analytics and Data Science; AI and Machine Learning; Customer Focus and Relationships
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Padilla, Nicolas, Eva Ascarza, and Oded Netzer. "The Customer Journey as a Source of Information." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-035, October 2023. (Revised October 2023.)
  • March 2017
  • Exercise

Designing Transformational Customer Experiences

By: Stefan Thomke
Anyone who has recently travelled, gone shopping, or tried to have a problem solved may have little recollection of the experience. Worse yet, some are frustrated by the lack of responsiveness or empathy that they encountered. The reality is that most customer... View Details
Keywords: Customer Experience; Exercise; Learning By Doing; LEGO; Storytelling; Customer Satisfaction; Design; Innovation and Management; Transformation; Service Delivery
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Thomke, Stefan. "Designing Transformational Customer Experiences." Harvard Business School Exercise 617-051, March 2017.
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