Publications

November 1998
Article

Measuring and Managing the Benefits of Customer Retention: An Empirical Investigation

By: N. Narayandas

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Management; Customer Focus and Relationships

January 2013 (Revised April 2015)
Case

Affinity Labs: Valuing Customer Growth

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Elizabeth Kind

In November 2006, Chris Michel left Military.com, which he founded in 1999, to start Affinity Labs, a global network of online communities. That month, Michel raised a Series A round of venture funding and established a partnership with Monster, which he had sold... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Demand and Consumers; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks; Online Technology

24 Nov 2020
News

How Fake Customer Reviews Do — and Don’t — Work

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

21 Mar 2016
HBS Case

Can Customer Reviews Be 'Managed?'

“We’ve studied many industries and the biggest impact, biggest factor that impact peoples’ decisions making is word-of-mouth.” By their claim they’re kind of saying companies should focus much less on... View Details

Keywords: by Brian Kenny; Advertising; Travel

17 Jun 2016
Op-Ed

Companies Need to Start Marketing Security to Customers

undercut a positive message about a product's benefits with safety warnings. That might make you feel uncomfortable and even dissuade you from buying the brand. You might instead buy a competitive product that doesn't flag safety issues... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch; Entertainment & Recreation

01 Oct 1997
News

After 27 Years at HBS, Shapiro Shifts Professional Focus

product-line planning, and marketing organization, Shapiro was a member of the School's faculty for 27 years. He will continue to teach in select HBS Executive Education programs. "I cherish the memories and... View Details

Winter 2013
Article

How to Identify the Best Customers for Your Business

By: Frank V. Cespedes, James P. Dougherty and Ben S. Skinner III

How can businesses achieve profitable growth so that their costs don’t grow faster than sales? This article focuses on scaling a venture’s sales process and provides a methodology for identifying core customers and some implications for governance criteria and... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Growth Management; Sales

2015
Working Paper

Corporate Sponsorship in Culture—A Case of Partnership in Relationship Building and Collaborative Marketing by a Global Financial Institution and a Major Art Museum

By: Ragnar Lund and Stephen A. Greyser

Purpose: This paper examines cultural sponsorship from a partnership and relationship marketing perspective. It studies a case of how a partnership between two international institutions, a bank and a museum, adds value to both in terms of interaction with... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Partners and Partnerships; Marketing Strategy; Culture; Banks and Banking

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09 Dec 2019
Research & Ideas

Identify Great Customers from Their First Purchase

School. By incorporating data most companies discard, Ascarza and her co-researcher devised an algorithm capable of quickly analyzing more than 40 variables to create a “first impression” of the customer... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Retail; Service

January 2008 (Revised April 2008)
Teaching Note

Pilgrim Bank (B): Customer Retention (TN)

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Teaching Note for [602095]. View Details

Keywords: Customers; Banks and Banking; Customer Focus and Relationships; Banking Industry

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

03 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The State of Customer Service Leadership

Breakthrough Service is Different.” What is your definition of breakthrough service, and why is it different? Sasser: Breakthrough services are those that provide extraordinary results and a high-quality... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Retail

September 2008
Case

Steven Scheyer: Renegotiating the Newell Rubbermaid Relationship with Wal-Mart

By: James K. Sebenius and Ellen Knebel

In April 2001, Newell Rubbermaid's incoming CEO Joe Galli tapped Steve Scheyer to become President of Newell Rubbermaid's soon-to-be-created Wal-Mart Division. Scheyer had to renegotiate a partnership with Wal-Mart--Rubbermaid's largest customer--that had grown... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Distribution Channels; Partners and Partnerships; Negotiation Process

August 2016 (Revised June 2017)
Case

InsideSales.com (A)

By: Frank V. Cespedes

This case focuses on growth requirements for a company moving from its base in SMB customers (Small and Mid-Sized businesses) to Enterprise customers (companies with more than 500 employees). It examines the differences in buying processes, product requirements,... View Details

Keywords: Business Organization; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Change And Adaptation; Organizational Design; Talent; Talent Management; Organizations; Growth Management; Sales; Salesforce Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Technology Industry; United States

June 16, 2020
Article

Your Customers Have Changed. Here's How to Engage Them Again.

By: Rohit Deshpandé, Ofer Mintz and Imran S. Currim

The coronavirus makes your customers less able and less willing to spend than before. How should you re-engage with them? Advice from Rohit Deshpandé and colleagues. View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Health Pandemics; Situation or Environment; Customer Relationship Management

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Article

Turnkey or Tailored? Relational Pluralism, Institutional Complexity, and the Organizational Adoption of More or Less Customized Practices

By: Ryan Raffaelli and Mary Ann Glynn

We examine how the organizational adoption of new practices is influenced by relational pluralism, i.e., an organization's multiple ties to actors inside and outside its industry. We theorize that institutional mechanisms of practice diffusion underlying relational... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Processes; Adoption; Customization and Personalization

March 2011
Exercise

Customer Intelligence Advantage: Module 2 Assignment

By: F. Asis Martinez Jerez

This exercise directs students to analyze a customer-centric firm by first understanding the elements that characterize a customer-centric organization, then by capturing and comparing this firm's approach to customer-centricity. Students interview three levels in the... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Employees; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leadership; Competitive Advantage