Publications

14 Sep 2015
News

Rewriting the Rules of Service Competition

April 2008
Module Note

Service Design in the Context of Customer-Operators

By: Frances X. Frei

Taught as the second module in a Harvard Business School course on Managing Service Operations: Understanding the Customer Operating Role (606-092). Addresses the design and management of service operations with significant customer operating roles. The focus is on... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Management; Design; Service Operations; Cost

01 Apr 2002
News

Charting the Luminary Leadership in Professional Service Firms

Charting the Luminary Leadership in Professional Service Firms In their new book Aligning the Stars: How to Succeed When Professionals Drive Results (Harvard Business School Press), HBS professor Jay W. Lorsch and former Bain & Company... View Details

Keywords: professional service firms; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

Uncommon Service

Most companies treat service as a low-priority business operation, keeping it out of the spotlight until a customer complains. Then service gets to make a brief appearance – for as long as it takes to calm the customer down and fix whatever foul-up jeopardized the... View Details

Fall 2016
Article

How Do Customers Respond to Increased Service Quality Competition?

By: Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

When does increased service quality competition lead to customer defection, and which customers are most likely to defect? Our empirical analysis of 82,235 customers exploits the varying competitive dynamics in 644 geographically isolated markets in which a nationwide... View Details

Keywords: Service Quality Competition; Retail Banks; Empirical Operations; Retention; Service Operations; Quality; Competition; Banking Industry; United States

Keywords: U.S. Postal Service; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services

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20 Oct 2011
News

New Business Ideas for the U.S. Postal Service

February 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Case

SafeGraph: Selling Data as a Service

By: Ramana Nanda, Abhishek Nagaraj and Allison Ciechanover

Set in January 2021, the CEO of SafeGraph, a four-year-old startup that sold Data as a Service, looked to the future. His aim was to become the most trusted source for data about a physical place. The company provided points of interest (POI) and foot traffic data on... View Details

Keywords: Data As A Service; Monetization; Pricing; Business Startups; Analytics and Data Science; Consumer Behavior; Analysis; Business Model; Health Pandemics; Information Industry; United States

03 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Web Services

service technologies from a provider, customer, and investor perspective. Customers are concerned with integration and driving down costs, said Steven Lewis, Microsoft's general manager of .net market... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Service

October 2008 (Revised February 2012)
Case

Amazon Web Services

By: Robert S. Huckman, Gary P. Pisano and Liz Kind

Considers the development of Amazon Web Services (AWS), a division of Amazon.com, Inc., specializing in the provision of web-based storage and computing services to web developers. The case focuses on the issues facing Andy Jassy, the head of AWS, in 2008 as AWS faces... View Details

Keywords: Price; Market Entry and Exit; Service Operations; Competition; Diversification; Web Services Industry; Web Services Industry

November 1999 (Revised November 2000)
Background Note

Overview of the Professional Services Course, An

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Ashish Nanda

Provides an overview of the HBS MBA Professional Services Course. Presents a structure and an outline intended to serve as a reference and provide orientation to students as the course progresses. View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Curriculum and Courses; Personal Development and Career

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November 2012
Article

Mumbai's Models of Service Excellence

By: Stefan Thomke

02 Nov 2015
News

The Secret Sauce of the Service Sector

1997
Chapter

Frontiers of Online Financial Services

By: R. Kalakota and F. Frei

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Finance; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

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

November 1975 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Province of Ontario Translation Services

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Keywords: Canada

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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