Publications

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

Educators

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

Educators

06 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

The Right Way to Manage Customer Churn for Maximum Profit

bucket and in a little over three years all your current customers might be gone,” says Gupta, the Edward W. Carter Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. For that reason, many... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Service; Financial Services

29 May 2013
Blog Post

“A place to grow personally and professionally.” - Yolanda Anton

than what I already have. Do not misunderstand me: I love the industry. I am still interested in the link to the customer and in the final product. But I want to see those aspects of a project from the... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing; Technology

April 2002 (Revised March 2008)
Teaching Note

eBay: The Customer Marketplace (A) and Combating Fraud (B) (TN)

By: Frances X. Frei

Teaching Note for (9-602-071) and (9-602-152). View Details

Keywords: Web Services Industry

February 2006
Case

Millions of Customers and the Search for a Business: the Challenge of IRC-Hispano

Like many online services, IRC-Hispano, the world's largest Spanish-language chat organization, has many customers but sees few revenues. As an association, its structure presents many limitations and hurdles to overcome involving investing in technology platform... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Decision Choices and Conditions; Digital Platforms; Technology Adoption; Internet and the Web; Organizational Structure; Technological Innovation; Revenue; Web Services Industry; Technology Industry; Spain

23 Jan 2019
News

The Promise of Personalized Medicine

and a 501(c)(3) called Cure Rare Disease. With the foundation, Horgan is trying to build something radical: A model for personalizing drug development, with the hopes of saving not only his brother but... View Details

August 1995
Article

Can Computer Personalities Be Human Personalities?

By: C. I. Nass, Y. Moon, B. J. Fogg, B. Reeves and D. C. Dryer

Keywords: Information Technology; Personal Characteristics

May 2016 (Revised January 2018)
Case

Airbnb, Etsy, Uber: Acquiring the First Thousand Customers

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Morgan Brown

By 2016, two-sided online platforms (or marketplaces) were pervasive among the highest growing internet startups around. These marketplaces sought to match suppliers of assets for rent, physical products or services with customers demanding them. Among the most notable... View Details

Keywords: Airbnb; Etsy; Uber; Growth Hacking; Two-sided Market; Internet and the Web; Marketing Strategy; Digital Platforms; Digital Marketing; Business Startups; Transportation Industry; Accommodations Industry

Educators

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Let Customers Call the Shots

want as a resource to negotiate better deals and to clean up their personal marketing environment. Empowerment is sometimes captured in the slogan "get what you want, when you want it, where you want... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2009
Other Teaching and Training Material

Personal Rapid Transport at Vectus, Inc.

By: Benjamin Edelman

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 groups—often just a single... View Details

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

March 1998
Teaching Note

Personality Types: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (TN)

By: David A. Thomas and Emily Heaphy

Describes a class design for teaching students about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The Ideal Organization exercise is the centerpiece of the class. It demonstrates that people with different cognitive types have distinct preferences for the type of... View Details

Keywords: Job Search; Working Conditions; Personal Development and Career; Situation or Environment; Perception; Integration

March 31, 2023
Article

What Is the Optimal Pattern of a Customer Journey?

By: Julian De Freitas

Even though customer experience (CX) leaders are becoming increasingly focused on optimizing their firms’ customer journeys, they face a clear challenge: Which touchpoints along the journey should they invest in? That is, which moments when the customer interacts with... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Customers; Brands and Branding

June 1987 (Revised May 1992)
Case

Carolina Power & Light Co.: Customer and Operating Services Group

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Energy Industry; United States

21 Mar 2016
HBS Case

Can Customer Reviews Be 'Managed?'

Research says 85 percent of people will make a purchase after reading online reviews about a product or service. This has had huge implications for the hotel industry and helps explain why TripAdvisor, a massive repository of... View Details

Keywords: by Brian Kenny; Advertising; Travel

01 Jun 2011
News

Howard Stevenson: The Personal Side

passionate he was about HBS. I knew he would bring his customary relish and gusto, but even I was surprised at the enormous energy he put into it. He had a wonderful impact on our alumni and made deep View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools

09 Jan 2013
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Understanding Customers

Addiction to Service Heroes In their new book, Uncommon Service, coauthors Frances Frei and Anne Morriss show it is possible for organizations to reduce costs while dramatically enhancing customer service.... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

26 Oct 2018
News

Personalities Jean-Claude Biver And The Making Of The Modern Watch Industry

February 2018
Article

Retention Futility: Targeting High-Risk Customers Might Be Ineffective.

By: Eva Ascarza

Companies in a variety of sectors are increasingly managing customer churn proactively, generally by detecting customers at the highest risk of churning and targeting retention efforts towards them. While there is a vast literature on developing churn prediction models... View Details

Keywords: Retention/churn; Proactive Churn Management; Field Experiments; Heterogeneous Treatment Effect; Machine Learning; Customer Relationship Management; Risk Management