Publications

Web

Guest Services

Summary Our Guest Services team is available to assist you throughout your stay, and will handle any concierge services needed while you are on campus. Additionally, they can assist you with any needs... View Details

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

2017
Working Paper

Inequality in Knowledge Repository Use in Scaling Service Operations

By: Melissa A. Valentine, Tom Fangyun Tan, Bradley R. Staats and Amy C. Edmondson

To scale service operations requires sharing knowledge across the organization. However, prior work highlights that individuals on the periphery of organizational knowledge sharing networks may struggle to access useful knowledge at work. A knowledge repository (KR)... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Repository; Scaling Service Operations; Fluid Teams; Groups and Teams; Knowledge Management; Performance

SSRN

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TeachingInterests

Managing Service Operations

By: Frances X. Frei

Managing Service Operations (MSO) focuses on how firms can deliver excellent service while achieving business success. This involves a deep understanding of customers, competitors, and the firm's internal mechanisms.

Career Focus

Managing Service... View Details

11 Apr 2000
Research & Ideas

Financial Services 24/7

routine part of most people's lives, there is no doubt that technology—especially Internet technology—is having a huge impact on the financial services industry. With much hype and headlines, Web trading has revolutionized the securities... View Details

Keywords: by Susan Young

March 1993 (Revised April 1995)
Case

IBM After-Sales Service

By: Janice H. Hammond

IBM has established a service delivery system to provide service and maintenance parts for its installed base of computers. The case outlines the competitive pressures IBM faces from alternative providers of maintenance services (e.g. other OEMs, third-party... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Service Operations; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Logistics; Operations; Distribution; Customer Focus and Relationships; Competitive Strategy; Computer Industry

Here is an in-depth guide to the most powerful available benchmarking technique for improving service organization performance — Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The book outlines DEA as a benchmarking technique, identifies high cost service units, isolates... View Details

You've Got Mail! The Late 19th Century U.S. Postal Service Expansion, Entrepreneurship, and Firm Performance

2008
Working Paper

Contracting for Servicizing

By: Michael W. Toffel

Servicizing, a novel business practice that sells product functionality rather than products, has been touted as an environmentally beneficial business practice. This paper describes how servicizing transactions mitigate some problems associated with sales... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Contracts; Market Transactions; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Sales

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September–October 1991
Article

The Service Driven Service Company

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and James Heskett

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March 2001 (Revised May 2001)
Case

&Samhoud Service Management

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Ashish Nanda and Monica Mullick

&Samhoud, a small service management consulting firm in the Netherlands, grapples with the dilemma of firing its largest client while introducing Heskett's theory of the service profit chain. View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Management Practices and Processes; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Relationship Management; Consulting Industry; Netherlands

March 1996 (Revised July 1996)
Case

Service Corporation International

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Craig F Schreiber

The CFO of a high-growth company in the low-growth and fragmented funeral services industry must decide how to optimize capital structure and earnings growth while maximizing the company's market value. View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Value Creation; Business Growth and Maturation; Consolidation; Industry Growth; Capital Structure; Expansion; Service Industry; United States; North and Central America

2006
Book

Service Productivity Management: Improving Service Performance Using Data Envelopment Analysis

By: H. David Sherman and Joe Zhu

Here is an in-depth guide to the most powerful available benchmarking technique for improving service organization performance—Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The book outlines DEA as a benchmarking technique, identifies high cost service units, isolates specific... View Details

Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis; Economics; Operations; Mathematical Methods

2005
Book

Best Face Forward: Why Companies Must Improve Their Service Interfaces With Customers

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Bernard J. Jaworski

Keywords: Technology; Digital; Services; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Service Delivery; Marketing

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September 2019
Article

The Persistence of Broadband User Behavior: Implications for Universal Service and Competition Policy

By: Andre Boik, Shane Greenstein and Jeffrey Prince

In several markets, firms compete not for consumer expenditure but consumer attention. We examine user priorities over the allocation of their time, and interpret that behavior in light of salient tensions in policy discussions over universal service, data caps, and... View Details

Keywords: Broadband Service; Attention Allocation; Consumer Behavior; Household; Internet and the Web; Competition; Policy

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January 2005 (Revised March 2008)
Exercise

New Service Design Exercise

By: Frances X. Frei

Used in the second module of a course on Managing Service Operations, which addresses the design of sustainable service models (606-031). Provides an opportunity for students to design a new service offering, paying careful attention to the link between strategic... View Details

Keywords: Design; Management; Service Operations; Strategy

August 2013 (Revised September 2013)
Course Overview Note

Entrepreneurship in Healthcare IT Services (EHITS) Fall Term 2013: Course Outline and Syllabus

By: Robert F. Higgins

This is the syllabus and course outline for "Entrepreneurship in Healthcare IT and Services (EHITS)" taught by Prof. Bob Higgins in the fall of 2013. Contains the course overview, objectives, goals and themes. View Details

Keywords: Healthcare Technology; Health Services; Healthcare Ventures; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology; Health Industry; Technology Industry; United States

January 2001
Background Note

Application Service Providers

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Sanjay Pothen

Examines the Application Service Provider (ASP) business model. First, defines the ASP model and describes different ways to categorize ASPs. Next, summarizes the various ways that ASPs create value for their clients. Then, analyzes the economic model for ASPs,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Web Services Industry