Publications

November 2001 (Revised October 2017)
Case

GuestFirst Hotel (A): Customer Loyalty

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Provides a hotel context in which to explore the link between customer loyalty and financial performance, using four years of hotel data. Challenges students to find the extent of the relationship between loyalty and performance. View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Mathematical Methods; Finance; Performance; Relationships; Customer Focus and Relationships; Data and Data Sets; Accommodations Industry

August 2013
Teaching Plan

Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service and Company Culture

By: Frances X. Frei and Annelena Lobb

winter 2000
Article

Beyond Market Orientation: When Customers and Suppliers Disagree

By: C. Steinman, R. Deshpande and J. U. Farley

Keywords: Markets; Customers

Find at Harvard

24 Apr 2014
News

Management skills pay off in personal and professional pursuits

Chuck Marantz (MBA 1973) talks about the parallels of professional and personal management skills. (Published April 2014) View Details

November 2009 (Revised September 2010)
Case

Personal Rapid Transport at Vectus, Ltd.

By: Benjamin Edelman

Personal Rapid Transport (PRT) vehicles—often called "driverless taxis"—sought to combine the best characteristics of cars, taxis, and trains, while adding features unavailable in any existing transportation system. Like cars and taxis, PRT vehicles carried small... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Network Effects; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Transportation Networks; Transportation Industry

November 2018 (Revised May 2019)
Case

California Closets: Organizing the Customer Experience

By: Boris Groysberg and Annelena Lobb

California Closets had used robust net promoter score (NPS) data, surveyed across its locations, to create a more consistent and satisfying customer experience. CEO Bill Barton wanted to further optimize the customer experience around best practices. He also wanted to... View Details

Keywords: Net Promoter Score; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Customers; Acquisition; Demographics; Strategy

March 2003
Background Note

Linking Customer Management Effort to Profits

By: Das Narayandas

Describes the link between a vendor's customer management effort and customer profitability. View Details

Keywords: Profit; Customer Relationship Management

August 2013
Case

Tyra Banks: Personal Branding

By: Rohit Deshpandé

Keywords: Branding; Brand Management; Marketing; Brands and Branding

21 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The New Math of Customer Relationships

in as personal and amiable a way as possible, asks 10,000 customers to close their accounts every month. It's important to point out that this is out of a current base of about... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

April 1989
Supplement

Mark Kaufman and 3 Strikes Custom Design (B)

By: Howard H. Stevenson

Find at Harvard

Research Summary

Managing the Operating Role of Customers

By: Frances X. Frei

Customers in operating roles introduce considerable variability into the production environment including differences in the demands they impose on the environment and the unpredictability of those demands. When customers are the source of production variability, the... View Details

1 Apr 1982
Conference Presentation

Negativity in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Reviews

By: Teresa M. Amabile

Keywords: Social Psychology

Research Summary

Managing Customer Information

By: Frances X. Frei

After a service offering is implemented, firms routinely collect significant amounts of data, including customer, employee, and firm financial data. However, service firms are not nearly as effective as they could be in taking advantage of these data. This research... View Details

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

March 2006 (Revised April 2008)
Module Note

Conceptualizing the Customer Operating Role

By: Frances X. Frei

The module introduces students to the concept and implications of a customer operating role. Building on the first year operations curriculum in which only employees' and machines' operating roles are considered, it provides the additional perspectives needed to bring... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Performance Efficiency; Perspective; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Service Operations

13 Jul 2016
HBS Case

How Uber, Airbnb, and Etsy Attracted Their First 1,000 Customers

who have rides to offer. (Same idea as Airbnb, which connects people needing rooms with home-owners.) So to launch as a platform service, these companies need to find users on both the supply and demand sides. “Poaching View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Service; Transportation

20 Jul 2012
News

Use Social Media to Partner with Customers and Improve Service

February 2003 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Internet Customer Acquisition Strategy at Bankinter

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez, V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

Bankinter, a relatively small Spanish bank, has a large presence as an Internet financial services provider. Leading the way to profitability through the Internet will give Bankinter a major competitive advantage over the larger, more established Spanish banks. Ann... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Internet and the Web; Activity Based Costing and Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Spain

January 1991 (Revised January 1993)
Case

Xerox Corp.: The Customer Satisfaction Program

In August 1990 the president and executive vice president of Xerox are reviewing the progress made on its customer satisfaction program. The emphasis placed on the program, the success of the program to date, and the drive to achieve the corporate goals of customer... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry