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Publications
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- All HBS Web
(2,562)
- Faculty Publications (646)
- May 1996 (Revised March 1998)
- Case
SaleSoft, Inc. (A)
By: Das Narayandas
SaleSoft, a start-up firm, markets Comprehensive Sales Automation Solutions (CSAS) that automate a firm's sales, marketing, and service functions. Even though the product has received very favorable responses from prospects, product complexity and a long buying cycle... View Details
- May 1996 (Revised November 2018)
- Case
Ecolab, Inc.
By: Ashish Nanda
By 1993, Ecolab has established a dominant market position in the institutional cleaning industry. As the company’s principal competitor, Diversify, drives sales aggressively, Ecolab president Al Schuman faces a choice about how best to market Ecolab’s offerings.... View Details
- April 1996 (Revised April 2004)
- Case
Virtual Vineyards
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Alvin J. Silk, Lisa Klein Pearo and Thomas A. Gerace
Virtual Vineyards markets wine from small California vineyards directly to consumers through its site on the World Wide Web. It also facilitates fulfillment of customer orders. The case focuses on the ways in which Virtual Vineyards provides value to end consumers... View Details
- March 1996 (Revised January 1997)
- Case
America Online: Using Information Technology to Better Serve the Customer
By: James I. Cash Jr. and Judy E. Stahl
Mike Connors, president of AOL Technologies, examines several efforts to correct operational problems inhibiting the company's growth. What will need to be done to support growth and counter competition from Prodigy, Compuserv, and Internet-related services? View Details
- November 1995 (Revised March 2004)
- Case
Massachusetts General Hospital: CABG Surgery (A)
By: Steven C. Wheelwright and James Weber
A cross-functional team at Massachusetts General Hospital tries to reengineer the service delivery process (the "care path") for heart bypass surgery (CABG) in order to shorten hospital stays (and lower costs) while maintaining/enhancing the quality of care provided. View Details
Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Business Processes; Mission and Purpose; Product Positioning; Product Marketing; Management Practices and Processes; Customer Satisfaction; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Fair Value Accounting; Ethics; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; Massachusetts
- August 1995 (Revised January 1997)
- Exercise
Consumer Behavior Exercise (D)
By: John A. Deighton and Susan M. Fournier
Students are instructed to interview a recent purchaser of a low-involvement product or service in depth about his/her ownership and usage experiences. The exercise provides students with first-hand understanding of important concepts in consumption domain (e.g.,... View Details
Keywords: Consumer Behavior
- August 1995 (Revised January 1997)
- Exercise
Consumer Behavior Exercise (E)
By: John A. Deighton and Susan M. Fournier
Students are instructed to interview a recent purchaser of a high-involvement product or service in depth about his/her ownership and usage experiences. The exercise provides students with first-hand understanding of important concepts in consumption domain (e.g.,... View Details
Keywords: Consumer Behavior
- August 1995 (Revised January 1997)
- Exercise
Consumer Behavior Exercise (F)
By: John A. Deighton and Susan M. Fournier
Students are instructed to interview a recent purchaser of a high-involvement/ego-expressive product or service in depth about his/her ownership and usage experiences. The exercise provides students with first-hand understanding of important concepts in consumption... View Details
Keywords: Consumer Behavior
- August 1995 (Revised October 1996)
- Case
IDS Financial Services (Condensed)
By: John A. Deighton
Highlights the decision that must be made on balancing customer acquisition and retention and de-emphasizing the structural issues involved in administering the independent contractor sales force. View Details
- March 1995 (Revised April 1997)
- Case
Co-operative Bank, The
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Srikant M. Datar
A British bank with strong roots in the cooperative movement encounters declining profitability in an increasingly competitive and deregulated financial services industry. It attempts to grow by broadening its customer base and increasing the range of products and... View Details
- February 1995 (Revised June 1999)
- Case
Chemical Bank: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Norman Klein
The retail bank division of Chemical Bank faces declining margins and increased competition in its credit and deposit gathering and processing business. It wishes to implement a new strategy to become a preferred financial service provider to target customer groups.... View Details
- January 1995 (Revised November 1996)
- Case
Avalon Information Services, Inc.
By: Lynn S. Paine and Wilda White
The Privacy Review Committee of Avalon Information Services must decide how to deal with concerns voiced by its retail supermarket customers about the privacy of consumer data collected through Avalon's point-of-sale data collection program. One customer is proposing... View Details
- October 1994 (Revised November 1994)
- Case
British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer
By: W. Earl Sasser and Norman Klein
Explores the uses of scanning technology, interactive software, and powerful data bases to assist customer relations representatives in resolving customer complaints. Competitive alliances in international markets are noted, but the focus is on the evolving commitment... View Details
- October 1994 (Revised March 1999)
- Case
Ritz-Carlton: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer
By: W. Earl Sasser, Thomas O. Jones and Norman Klein
Explores the interface of an information system that keeps track of guests and their preferences, and the people systems that deliver multiple services at Ritz-Carlton hotels. The luxury hotel chain's unique service credo and commitment to quality principles are... View Details
- September 1994 (Revised October 2002)
- Case
Citibank: Launching the Credit Card in Asia Pacific (A)
Consumer Bank pondered the possibilities of launching a credit card in the Asia Pacific region. The bank's New York headquarters, and several of its country managers in the region, were not enthusiastic. But others were supportive because of the opportunity to expand... View Details
- July 1994 (Revised January 1997)
- Case
Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation
The largest ski resort in Colorado must determine how to select customer segments to focus its promotional and service-delivery efforts. Making segmentation work depends on reordering its pricing policy and "service packages." View Details
- June 1994 (Revised September 1994)
- Background Note
Beating the Commodity Magnet
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and George T. Bowman
All markets follow a cycle of growth and maturity, then commoditization and decline. This note argues that while commoditization of an industry may seem inevitable, the better managed firms find a way to make money in the commodity cycle. These firms know how and when... View Details
- May 1994
- Background Note
Segmenting Customers in Mature Industrial Markets: An Application
In mature industrial markets, segmenting customers by size, industry, or product benefits alone rarely is sufficient. Customer behavior regarding trade-offs between price and service also becomes an important criterion. This note offers a framework to enable such... View Details
- 1 Nov 1993
- Conference Presentation
Information Technology's Role in Transforming Customer Service
By: Jim I. Cash Jr.
- October 1993 (Revised July 1997)
- Case
Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A)
By: Roy D. Shapiro and Michael D. Watkins
AT&T's Universal Card Services (UCS) has been extremely successful during its short lifetime. Dedicated to improving service quality and customer satisfaction, chief quality officer Rob Davis and his quality team have designed and put into place an unusual measurement... View Details