Publications

06 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

The Right Way to Manage Customer Churn for Maximum Profit

effort. The most obvious examples of managing churn are cell phone and cable companies, in which the customer relationship is contractual, and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Service; Financial Services

October 2001 (Revised October 2017)
Supplement

Pilgrim Bank (B): Customer Retention

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Banking Industry

01 Mar 2004
What Do You Think?

Are Customer Loyalty Initiatives Worth the Investment?

retaining customers than programs that focus on retaining customers but add cost to the product or service." Others tended to regard Treacy's View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2011
Background Note

Customer Loyalty Schemes in the Retail Sector

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Aldo Sesia

Customer loyalty schemes (or programs) are explicit efforts by retailers to gain long-term patronage from customers. Loyalty schemes are developed for a variety of reasons: to reward loyal customers, to generate more robust information about customer behavior, to... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Business Strategy; Retail Industry; United Kingdom; United States

July 2010
Supplement

Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Customer Lifetime Value Analysis (CW)

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Jill Avery

Customers are increasingly being viewed as assets that bring value to the firm. Customer lifetime value is a metric which allows managers to understand the overall value of their customer base and relate it to three customer strategies firms employ: asset acquisition -... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Decisions; Framework; Management Practices and Processes; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Strategic Planning; Mathematical Methods; Value

16 May 2011
Research & Ideas

What Loyalty? High-End Customers are First to Flee

Businesses that offer their customers the highest levels of service might like to believe that all their efforts to pamper and please will pay off with an extremely loyal following. “Customers you might... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

June 2013
Case

Olympic Rent-A-Car U.S.: Customer Loyalty Battles

By: John Deighton and James T. Kindley

The marketing and operations managers for Olympic Rent-A-Car meet to decide how to respond to changes in the loyalty rewards program at the market-leading competitor. The competitor's program gives awards based on dollars spent instead of days rented and eliminates... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Competitive Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Auto Industry; Service Industry

November 2022 (Revised August 2025)
Exercise

Managing Customer Retention at Teleko

By: Eva Ascarza

This exercise aims to teach students about 1) Targeting Policies; and 2) Algorithmic decision making, and 3) Retention management. View Details

Keywords: Algorithmic Decision Making; Marketing Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships

2009
Chapter

Creating Superior Customer Value in a Connected World

By: Ranjay Gulati

"In the early twenty-first century, customers are more demanding than ever, and difficult economic times make them all the more so. As customers tighten their wallets and increase their demands, firms face greater pressure to provide superior customer value. Reducing... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Consumer Behavior; Product Design; Social and Collaborative Networks; Value Creation

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 View Details

Keywords: by Marcel Corstjens & Rajiv Lal; Retail; Consumer Products

July 2023 (Revised August 2025)
Supplement

Managing Customer Retention at Teleko

By: Eva Ascarza

This exercise aims to teach students about 1)Targeting Policies; and 2)Algorithmic decision making, 3) Retention management. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Telecommunications Industry; Technology Industry; United States

June 1987 (Revised May 1992)
Case

Carolina Power & Light Co.: Customer and Operating Services Group

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Energy Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

February 2001 (Revised June 2002)
Case

Customer Value Measurement at Nortel Networks--Optical Networks Division

By: Das Narayandas

Since 1995, Nortel Networks' Optical Networks (ON) division has been incorporating customer satisfaction and loyalty measures into its business practices to increase customer value. Over the years, key process owners in various parts of the organization have become... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Management Teams; Marketing Strategy; Value Creation; Telecommunications Industry

Product R&D at many companies is a major bottleneck. The difficulty is that fully understanding the needs of just a single customer can be an inexact and costly process--to say nothing of the needs of all customers or even groups of them. In the course of... View Details

February 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

HubSpot and Motion AI: Chatbot-Enabled CRM

By: Jill Avery and Thomas Steenburgh

HubSpot, an inbound marketing, sales, and customer relationship management (CRM) software provider, announced that it had acquired Motion AI, a software platform that enabled companies to easily build and deploy chatbots, fueled by artificial intelligence, to interact... View Details

October 2023 (Revised August 2025)
Teaching Note

Managing Customer Retention at Teleko

By: Eva Ascarza and Ta-Wei Huang

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 523-005. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; United States

December 1999
Case

Lees Supermarkets: Customer Loyalty Programs

By: David E. Bell, Rajiv Lal and Ann Leamon

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Marketing Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry