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- All HBS Web (457)
- Faculty Publications (262)
- 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
Thomke, Stefan. "Designing Transformational Customer Experiences." Harvard Business School Exercise 617-051, March 2017.
- Article
The Magic That Makes Customer Experiences Stick
By: Stefan Thomke
Why do some customer experiences have that magical "wow" factor, making them all destined for success, while others get few, if any, enthusiastic customer responses? How would we "design" a great customer experience? These are some of the questions that the article... View Details
Keywords: Customer Experience; Emotion; Innovation; Experimentation; Storytelling; Customer Satisfaction; Emotions; Design; Innovation and Invention
Thomke, Stefan. "The Magic That Makes Customer Experiences Stick." MIT Sloan Management Review 61, no. 1 (Fall 2019).
- November 2011
- Case
Comfort Class Transport: Does Customer Service Need an Overhaul?
By: Michael J Roberts and Paul E. Morrison
The general manager of a chauffeured limousine transport company is concerned about underperformance at the company's customer service call center. The eight-person call center handles almost all customer interaction including discussing company services with... View Details
Keywords: Capacity Utilization; Supply ＆ Demand; Operations Management; Customer Service; Management; Demand and Consumers; Service Operations; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Performance Capacity; Customer Satisfaction; Transportation Industry
Roberts, Michael J., and Paul E. Morrison. "Comfort Class Transport: Does Customer Service Need an Overhaul?" Harvard Business School Brief Case 114-374, November 2011.
- Research Summary
Understanding Customers
In conventional business case studies, protagonists almost never have the option of stepping back to seek a new understanding of the customer. But to be effective in practice, managers need both the self-assurance and ability to initiate and pursue, with rigor and... View Details
- March 2003
- Background Note
Monitoring the Health of Customer Relationships
By: Das Narayandas
Discusses the role of satisfaction and loyalty measurement in monitoring the health of customer relationships. View Details
- August 2002
- Background Note
Customer Benefit Stack
By: Das Narayandas
Describes a process to understand customer benefits created in industrial markets using the metaphor of a customer benefit stack. View Details
- July 2003 (Revised October 2018)
- Case
Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service
By: Youngme Moon and John Quelch
Starbucks, the dominant specialty-coffee brand in North America, must respond to recent market research indicating that the company is not meeting customer expectations in terms of service. To increase customer satisfaction, the company is debating a plan that would... View Details
Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Profit; Recruitment; Marketing Strategy; Service Operations; Performance Improvement; Planning; Food and Beverage Industry
Moon, Youngme, and John Quelch. "Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service." Harvard Business School Case 504-016, July 2003. (Revised October 2018.)
- Article
Are Self-service Customers Satisfied or Stuck?
This paper investigates the impact of self-service technology (SST) usage on customer satisfaction and retention. Specifically, we disentangle the distinct effects of satisfaction and switching costs as drivers of retention among self-service customers. Our empirical... View Details
Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Technology; Customer Satisfaction; Competition; Cost; Banks and Banking; Behavior; Market Transactions; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques
Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei. "Are Self-service Customers Satisfied or Stuck?" Production and Operations Management 19, no. 6 (November–December 2010). (Awarded the Decision Sciences Institute Stan Hardy Award for Outstanding Paper Published during 2010 in the Field of Operations Management.)
- October 1993
- Article
Developer-user Interaction and User Satisfaction in Internal Technology Transfer
By: D. A. Leonard-Barton and D. Sinha
Leonard-Barton, D. A., and D. Sinha. "Developer-user Interaction and User Satisfaction in Internal Technology Transfer." Academy of Management Journal 36, no. 5 (October 1993): 1125–1139.
- Research Summary
Overview
By: Ryan W. Buell
From creating flight itineraries online, to interacting with tellers to complete complex banking transactions, to engaging with the government to address civic problems, customers are playing an increasingly vital role in the performance of operations in a broadening... View Details
Keywords: Service Operations; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Retention; Customer Behavior; Operational Transparency; Customer Compatibility; Engagement; Customers; Decision Making; Design; Management; Operations; Quality; Relationships; Social Psychology; Technology; Value; Banking Industry; Service Industry; Travel Industry; Web Services Industry; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry
- 16 Jan 2006
- Research & Ideas
What Customers Want from Your Products
Marketers have lost the forest for the trees, focusing too much on creating products for narrow demographic segments rather than satisfying needs. Customers want to "hire" a product to do a job, or, as legendary Harvard Business... View Details
- Fall 2020
- Article
Competing on Customer Outcomes
By: Marco Bertini and Oded Koenigsberg
Customers ultimately want to pay for meaningful outcomes, not the products and services that presumably deliver them. Today, companies can be increasingly accountable for those outcomes with three kinds of technologically-enhanced revenue models. Adopt one to better... View Details
Keywords: Market Positioning; Revenue Strategy; Customer Satisfaction; Marketing Strategy; Business Model; Value Creation
Bertini, Marco, and Oded Koenigsberg. "Competing on Customer Outcomes." MIT Sloan Management Review 62, no. 1 (Fall 2020).
- 20 Sep 2007
- Research & Ideas
How to be a Customer
How-to books targeting customers often focus on how to game the system, how to return the cocktail dress on Monday after you've worn it once on Saturday, how to exploit manufacturer warranties and View Details
Keywords: by John Quelch
- 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
Narayandas, Das. "Customer Value Measurement at Nortel Networks--Optical Networks Division." Harvard Business School Case 501-050, February 2001. (Revised June 2002.)
- 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
Ascarza, Eva, and Emilie Billaud. "Allianz Customer Centricity: Is Simplicity the Way Forward?" Harvard Business School Case 522-008, July 2021. (Revised October 2021.)
- 2002
- Article
Beyond Customer Loyalty
By: James L. Heskett
Keywords: Customer Satisfaction
Heskett, James L. "Beyond Customer Loyalty." Managing Service Quality 12, no. 6 (2002).
- 04 Mar 2002
- Research & Ideas
Don’t Lose Money With Customers
customer. "Sometimes it makes sense to have a conversation with customers to find out how satisfied they are, and there are other times when the vendor might be better off drawing inferences from observations of actual View Details
Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs
- 21 Apr 2008
- Research & Ideas
The New Math of Customer Relationships
managers think of customers, and introduce the idea that not all customers contribute equal value. Concrete examples illustrate the self-reinforcing nature of the connections between employee loyalty and View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne
- 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
Groysberg, Boris, and Annelena Lobb. "California Closets: Organizing the Customer Experience." Harvard Business School Case 419-004, November 2018. (Revised May 2019.)
- January 1997
- Background Note
Buy Low, Sell High: Creating and Extracting Customer Value by Enhancing Organizational Performance
Provides an integrated framework for creating customer value and managing the firm profitably. Focuses on the use of product/service line management and effective customer service to achieve customer satisfaction and high profitability. View Details
Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Framework; Performance Efficiency; Sales; Business Strategy; Customer Satisfaction; Profit; Product Marketing; Business or Company Management
Shapiro, Benson P. "Buy Low, Sell High: Creating and Extracting Customer Value by Enhancing Organizational Performance." Harvard Business School Background Note 597-071, January 1997.