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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(7,895)
- People (9)
- News (1,428)
- Research (5,712)
- Events (20)
- Multimedia (9)
- Faculty Publications (4,085)
- 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
- Research Summary
How to Manage Customers for Increased Profits and Customer Satisfaction
By: Frances X. Frei
For many service firms, the customer plays an important role in contributing to the cost and/or quality of the service. This is very different than many manufacturing contexts, for example, where the firm has virtually complete control over product cost and quality. ... View Details
- February 2025
- Article
Improving Customer Compatibility with Tradeoff Transparency
By: Ryan W. Buell and MoonSoo Choi
Through a large-scale field experiment with 393,036 customers considering opening a credit card account with a nationwide retail bank, we investigate how providing transparency into an offering’s tradeoffs affects subsequent rates of customer acquisition and long-run... View Details
Keywords: Transparency; Customer Selection; Customer Compatibility; Retention; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Banking Industry; Australia
Buell, Ryan W., and MoonSoo Choi. "Improving Customer Compatibility with Tradeoff Transparency." Management Science 71, no. 2 (February 2025): 1335–1355.
- March 2022 (Revised March 2022)
- Module Note
Managing Customers in the Digital Era
By: Eva Ascarza
The last two decades have witnessed incredible technological advances that have transformed the ways customers connect with each other and enabled firms to track customers in multiple ways through various channels to personalize (and automize) their offerings at... View Details
Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Technological Innovation
Ascarza, Eva. "Managing Customers in the Digital Era." Harvard Business School Module Note 522-066, March 2022. (Revised March 2022.)
- 2015
- Book
Strong Brands, Strong Relationships
By: Susan Fournier, Michael Breazeale and Jill Avery
From the editorial team of the ground-breaking Consumer-Brand Relationships: Theory and Practice comes this new volume. Strong Brands, Strong Relationships is a collection of innovative research and management insights that build upon the foundations of... View Details
Keywords: Brand Building; Brand Management; CRM; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Advertising; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Advertising Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry
Fournier, Susan, Michael Breazeale and Jill Avery, eds. Strong Brands, Strong Relationships. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2015.
- November 2015 (Revised February 2016)
- Case
Allianz Turkey: Focus on the Customer (A)
By: W. Earl Sasser and Gamze Yucaoglu
At the age of 39, Solmaz Altın took over the helm at Allianz Turkey. Solmaz quickly realized that, although the insurance market was thinly penetrated in Turkey, the company was operating in a very competitive environment with pressure on prices and, hence, cost... View Details
Keywords: Service Excellence; Customer Experience; Customer Service; Emerging Market; Customer Focus; Net Promoter Score; Customer Relationship Management; Competition; Leading Change; Service Operations; Emerging Markets; Customer Satisfaction; Insurance Industry; Turkey
Sasser, W. Earl, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Allianz Turkey: Focus on the Customer (A)." Harvard Business School Case 316-093, November 2015. (Revised February 2016.)
- March–April 2019
- Article
Operational Transparency: Make Your Processes Visible to Customers and Your Customers Visible to Employees
By: Ryan W. Buell
Conventional wisdom holds that the more contact an operation has with its customers, the less efficiently it will run. But when customers are partitioned away from the operation, they are less likely to fully understand and appreciate the work going on behind the... View Details
Keywords: Operational Transparency; Customers; Services; Operations; Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Customer Satisfaction; Behavior; Service Industry
Buell, Ryan W. "Operational Transparency: Make Your Processes Visible to Customers and Your Customers Visible to Employees." R1902H. Harvard Business Review 97, no. 4 (March–April 2019): 102–113.
- Article
Measuring and Managing Customer Profitability
By: Robert S. Kaplan and V.G. Narayanan
Kaplan, Robert S., and V.G. Narayanan. "Measuring and Managing Customer Profitability." Cost Management 15, no. 5 (September–October 2001): 5–15.
- January 2024 (Revised February 2024)
- Course Overview Note
Managing Customers for Growth: Course Overview for Students
By: Eva Ascarza
Managing Customers for Growth (MCG) is a 14-session elective course for second-year MBA students at Harvard Business School. It is designed for business professionals engaged in roles centered on customer-driven growth activities. The course explores the dynamics of... View Details
Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Making; Analytics and Data Science; Growth Management; Telecommunications Industry; Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; Education Industry; Travel Industry
Ascarza, Eva. "Managing Customers for Growth: Course Overview for Students." Harvard Business School Course Overview Note 524-032, January 2024. (Revised February 2024.)
- Research Summary
Consumer-Brand Relationships
Susan M. Fournier is conducting extensive research into the relationships consumers form with brands. Her work builds on the premise that, although marketers espouse the notion of relationships in current thought and practice, none have theoretically maximized the... View Details
- March 2021
- Article
The Customer May Not Always Be Right: Customer Compatibility and Service Performance
This paper investigates the impact of customer compatibility – the degree of fit between the needs of customers and the capabilities of the operations serving them – on customer experiences and firm performance. We use a variance decomposition analysis to quantify the... View Details
Keywords: Customer Compatibility; Satisfaction; Profitability; Service Operations; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Performance
Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei. "The Customer May Not Always Be Right: Customer Compatibility and Service Performance." Management Science 67, no. 3 (March 2021): 1468–1488.
- 2019
- Working Paper
The Customer May Not Always Be Right: Customer Compatibility and Service Performance
This paper investigates the impact of customer compatibility – the degree of fit between the needs of customers and the capabilities of the operations serving them – on customer experiences and firm performance. We use a variance decomposition analysis to quantify the... View Details
Keywords: Customer Compatibility; Satisfaction; Profitability; Customer Relationship Management; Service Operations; Customer Satisfaction; Banking Industry; Retail Industry
Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei. "The Customer May Not Always Be Right: Customer Compatibility and Service Performance." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-091, February 2016. (Revised December 2019.)
- November 2015 (Revised February 2016)
- Supplement
Allianz Turkey: Focus on the Customer (B)
By: W. Earl Sasser and Gamze Yucaoglu
At the age of 39, Solmaz Altın took over the helm at Allianz Turkey. Solmaz quickly realized that, although the insurance market was thinly penetrated in Turkey, the company was operating in a very competitive environment with pressure on prices and, hence, cost... View Details
Keywords: Service Excellence; Customer Experience; Customer Service; Emerging Market; Customer Focus; Net Promoter Score; Customer Relationship Management; Competition; Leading Change; Service Operations; Emerging Markets; Customer Satisfaction; Insurance Industry; Turkey
Sasser, W. Earl, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Allianz Turkey: Focus on the Customer (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 316-094, November 2015. (Revised February 2016.)
- 2000
- Chapter
Relationship Marketing and Key Account Management
By: Joseph P. Cannon and N. Narayandas
Keywords: Customer Relationship Management
- June 2020
- Background Note
Customer Management Dynamics and Cohort Analysis
By: Elie Ofek, Barak Libai and Eitan Muller
The digital revolution has allowed companies to amass considerable amounts of data on their customers. Using this information to generate actionable insights is fast becoming a critical skill that firms must master if they wish to effectively compete and win in today’s... View Details
Keywords: Cohort Analysis; Customers; Analytics and Data Science; Segmentation; Analysis; Customer Value and Value Chain
Ofek, Elie, Barak Libai, and Eitan Muller. "Customer Management Dynamics and Cohort Analysis." Harvard Business School Background Note 520-122, June 2020.
- 2004
- Book
Collaborative Customer Relationship Management: Taking CRM to the Next Level
By: Alexander H. Kracklauer, Daniel Quinn Mills and Dirk Seifert
Kracklauer, Alexander H., Daniel Quinn Mills, and Dirk Seifert. Collaborative Customer Relationship Management: Taking CRM to the Next Level. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2004.
- April 1998
- Teaching Note
Managing Customers for Profits (TN)
By: Das Narayandas
Teaching Note for (8249) and (8257). View Details
- 2014
- Other Teaching and Training Material
Marketing Reading: Creating Customer Value
By: Sunil Gupta
This Reading explores how firms can create value for their customers. The goal of any business is to delight customers by understanding its customers' needs and to provide products and services to meet those needs. As a result, it is critical to understand what... View Details
Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Consumer Marketing; Customer Experience; Network Effects; Service Profit Chain; Total Customer Value
Gupta, Sunil. "Marketing Reading: Creating Customer Value." Core Curriculum Readings Series. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing 8176, 2014.