Publications

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27 Oct 2014
News

Track Customer Service, but Don't Forget the Financials

Keywords: customer satisfaction; financial results; front line employees; decision making

2008
Book

Ownership Quotient: Putting the Service Profit Chain to Work for Unbeatable Competitive Advantage

By: James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser Jr. and Joe Wheeler

Hundreds of large organizations worldwide have used the groundbreaking Service Profit Chain to improve business performance. Now The Ownership Quotient reveals the next generation of the chain: customer and employee "owners" of your business. Employee-owners exhibit... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Customer Ownership; Employee Ownership; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation

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2011
Teaching Note

The Haidilao Company

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Zheng Xiaoming and Ziqian Zhao

Haidilao Hot Pot brings customers delightful dining experiences. Like most restaurants, its workforce is mostly composed of young employees born in underdeveloped suburban areas. Instilled with the founder's unique entrepreneurial values, they are enthused and... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Customer Service; Employee Empowerment; Global Corporate Cultures; Organizational Values; Transformations; China; Restaurants; China

April 2006
Background Note

Informing Service Management with Customer Data

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Taught as the third module in a Harvard Business School course on Managing Service Operations. Explores the role of data analysis in ongoing service management. Describes how to realize the maximum amount of value from analyses and use this information in... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Design; Analytics and Data Science; Service Operations; Mathematical Methods; Value

13 Feb 2019
News

Want Digital Disruption? Decouple the Customer Experience

02 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Disruptors Sell What Customers Want and Let Competitors Sell What They Don’t

unbundling that allows customers to pick and choose the content they consume (be it articles, music tracks, or airline tickets), Teixeira identifies the fueling factor in this case as "decoupling"—separating... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

July 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Allianz Customer Centricity: Is Simplicity the Way Forward?

By: Eva Ascarza and Emilie Billaud

This case explores the tradeoffs between product personalization and simplicity as companies grow. The case presents an opportunity to understand whether and how each of these approaches enables and/or limits companies’ abilities to provide customer satisfaction while... View Details

Keywords: Simplicity; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customization and Personalization; Customer Satisfaction; Performance Efficiency; Strategy; Insurance Industry; Europe; Germany

21 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

The Parable of the Bungled Baggage And the Unhappy Customer

satisfy this customer at the very top end. So, I kept quizzing her about this and it was obvious that they'd done a lot of homework. They understood the value of this View Details

Keywords: by W. Earl Sasser

07 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

What Customers Need to Hear from You During the COVID Crisis

need, the new world for brands will have trust at its core. The mandate to brands from global consumers is clear: step up and help, not just your own customers and employees,... View Details

Keywords: by Jill Avery and Richard Edelman

September 2022
Background Note

On CUE: The Quest for Optimal Customer Unit Economics

By: Elie Ofek, Barak Libai and Eitan Muller

Startups are often evaluated by how well they perform on unit economics, defined as the ratio of a customer’s lifetime value (LTV) to acquisition costs (CAC). A common target for unit economics, advocated by many VCs and analysts, is 3:1 (i.e., LTV/CAC=3). While there... View Details

Keywords: Unit Economics; Business Startups; Performance Evaluation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Relationship Management; Analysis

04 Mar 2002
Research & Ideas

Don’t Lose Money With Customers

products and services to each customer over time. Second, they need to be clear about how to sell the same product or service simultaneously to customers that have very... View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs

16 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

The Outside-In Approach to Customer Service

own capabilities with those of its suppliers and partners to address some of those problems. The goal is to bring value to customers in ways that are beneficial for them while... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products

October 1990
Case

Manufacturers Hanover Corp.: Customer Profitability Report

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Banking company noting declining profitability from its traditional lending activities has started to measure the total profitability of its lending relationships. A loan pricing model estimates the profit and return-on-equity from commercial loans. Additional work was... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Revenue; Commercial Banking; Banks and Banking; Customer Value and Value Chain; Banking Industry

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

02 Feb 2015
News

Disruptors Sell What Customers Want and Let Competitors Sell What They Don’t

September 2013
Teaching Note

Gary Hirshberg and Stonyfield Farm

By: Nancy F. Koehn and Nora N. Khan

Gary Hirshberg and Stonyfield Farm is the story of one entrepreneur's vision and journey to create a market-leading, environmentally responsible business founded on the principles of product quality, organizational alignment and sustainability. A former... View Details

Keywords: Development Stage Enterprises; Entrepreneurs; Experimentation; Management By Objective; Technology; Values; Leadership; Entrepreneurship; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States