Publications

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March 2018
Article

In Pursuit of Enhanced Customer Retention Management: Review, Key Issues, and Future Directions

By: Eva Ascarza, Scott A. Neslin, Oded Netzer, Zachery Anderson, Peter S. Fader, Sunil Gupta, Bruce Hardie, Aurelie Lemmens, Barak Libai, David T. Neal, Foster Provost and Rom Schrift

In today’s turbulent business environment, customer retention presents a significant challenge for many service companies. Academics have generated a large body of research that addresses part of that challenge—with a particular focus on predicting customer churn.... View Details

Keywords: Customer Retention; Churn; Customer Relationship Management; Measurement and Metrics

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March 2003
Background Note

Customer Migration and Customer Types

By: Das Narayandas

Describes the evolution of customer relationships using the price vs. cost-to-serve matrix. View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Cost; Price; Service Operations

February 19, 2018
Article

The Parts of Customer Service That Should Never Be Automated

By: Ryan W. Buell

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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... View Details

11 May 2022
News

Are You Tracking the Customer Service Metrics That Really Count?

March 2001 (Revised March 2002)
Background Note

Service Recovery

Discusses the value of service recovery to service organizations working to enhance customer loyalty. Also provides practical advice to managers and examines strategies proven helpful to service organizations in their recovery objectives. View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Operations; Service Industry

September 2015 (Revised March 2025)
Technical Note

FIELD Global Capstone: Developing Customer Empathy

By: Jill Avery

The Design Thinking process begins with empathizing with potential customers. Empathizing, being aware of, interpreting, and understanding the thoughts of others, as well as being able to vicariously experience them oneself, requires the careful and deliberate study of... View Details

Keywords: Market Research; Design Thinking; Customer Behavior; Ethnography; Interviews; Surveys; A/B Testing; Experimentation; Marketing; Customer Focus and Relationships; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers

March 2002 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Customer Profitability and Customer Relationship Management at RBC Financial Group (Abridged)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

The Royal Bank of Canada uses customer relationship management and customer profitability tools to gain a competitive advantage in Canada's increasingly crowded financial services market. The case presents two pricing and customer management issues: one from the point... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Customer Relationship Management; Price; Perspective; Marketing; Competitive Advantage; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Canada

July 1998 (Revised October 2004)
Case

Custom Research Inc. (A)

By: William J. Bruns Jr. and Susan Harmeling

Custom Research is considering terminating service to many clients to eliminate unprofitable work and concentrate on the more profitable client projects. View Details

Keywords: Customers; Profit; Decision Making; Service Industry

February 2002 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Customer Profitability and Customer Relationship Management at RBC Financial Group

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

The Royal Bank of Canada uses customer relationship management and customer profitability tools to gain a competitive advantage in Canada's increasingly crowded financial services market. The case presents two pricing and customer management issues: one from the point... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Price; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing; Customer Value and Value Chain; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Canada

Teaching

Overview

By: Rob Markey

Managing Service Operations - MBA Elective Curriculum

World-class service organizations deeply understand the needs and behaviors of their customers, and design, manage, and improve their operating models accordingly. This course... View Details

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

24 Aug 2018
Video

Customer Interaction Days

2013
Working Paper

Where do the Most Active Customers Originate and How Can Firms Keep Them Engaged?

By: Clarence Lee, E. Ofek and Thomas Steenburgh

In this paper, we study how firms offering Web services can acquire and develop an active customer base. We focus on two basic questions. First, how does the method of customer acquisition affect the way customers use the service to meet their own needs and to interact... View Details

Keywords: Customer Engagement; Adoption Routes; Hidden Markov Models; Search; Word-of-Mouth; Digital Media; Customer Relationship Management; Internet and the Web; Mathematical Methods; Consumer Behavior; Entrepreneurship; Marketing Reference Programs; Web Services Industry

April 1987
Supplement

Inland Steel Co. Product Policy, Video 3: Customer and Technical Services

By: Benson P. Shapiro and Lawrence B. Levine

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Research Summary

Dynamic Customer Relationship Management

Professor Lemon's work on dynamic customer relationships provides insight into how the customer's view of the relationship changes over time. Her research shows that current customers will adjust usage levels of a service in response to firm price changes in order to... View Details

April 2011 (Revised May 2011)
Case

EMC2: Delivering Customer Centricity

By: Thomas Steenburgh and Jill Avery

This case introduces the concept of customer centricity and traces its development at EMC, the world's leading data storage hardware and information management software company. EMC's customers had historically relied on EMC salespeople to guide them through the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Interpersonal Communication; Customer Relationship Management; Knowledge Acquisition; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Salesforce Management; Social and Collaborative Networks; Internet; Information Technology Industry

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