Publications

16 Jul 2010
News

Health Insurance Rate Wars - Are We Focused on the Right Fight?

July 2003 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service

By: Youngme Moon and John Quelch

Starbucks, the dominant specialty-coffee brand in North America, must respond to recent market research indicating that the company is not meeting customer expectations in terms of service. To increase customer satisfaction, the company is debating a plan that would... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Profit; Recruitment; Marketing Strategy; Service Operations; Performance Improvement; Planning; Food and Beverage Industry

December 2014 (Revised February 2023)
Module Note

Legal Analysis: Customers

By: Lena G. Goldberg

This Note introduces the Module on Responsibilities to Customers taught in Leadership and Corporate Accountability, a required course in the Harvard Business School MBA program. The Note outlines the asymmetries inherent in the company-customer relationship and... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Legal Liability; Customer Relationship Management

Against a backdrop of intensifying competition, rising labor costs, and ascending customer expectations, companies are actively seeking ways to do more with less – for example, compelling customers to take on new roles in the value creation process. And, when... View Details

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; Banking Industry; Canada

December 1992 (Revised June 1993)
Case

ACTC Customer Service Department

Focuses on the young general manager of a new cable TV system and on its customer service department. Jeanne LaFrance, the general manager, has an uneasy feeling about the way in which the department is being managed. She sees symptoms of what she suspects are serious... View Details

Keywords: Management; Problems and Challenges; Planning; Customer Focus and Relationships; Performance Evaluation; Telecommunications Industry

28 Jun 2023
Video

Female and Focused on STEM: Inside the Harvard MSMBA Engineering Sciences Program

01 Apr 2002
News

New Director of MBA Career Services Focuses on Power of Alumni Network

start on developing the expertise required for a successful network job search, a skill that will be even more useful later in their careers. The process also requires more time and thought. "People are less likely to automatically follow... View Details

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

24 Aug 2018
Video

Customer Interaction Days

March 27, 2025
Article

How One Company Used AI to Broaden Its Customer Base

By: Sunil Gupta and Frank V. Cespedes

The software company SAP successfully leveraged AI tools to begin selling to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) market, which had previously been uneconomical for its in-person sales approach. By mapping the customer journey and deploying over 40 AI tools, SAP... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Sales; Business Strategy; Market Entry and Exit

Read Now

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; Banking Industry; Canada

November 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Technical Note

Customer Data Privacy

By: Eva Ascarza and Ta-Wei Huang

This note provides an overview of the evolving landscape of customer data privacy in 2023. It highlights two pivotal aspects that make privacy a central concern for businesses: building and maintaining customer trust and navigating the intricate regulatory... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Risk and Uncertainty; Reputation; Trust; Information Management; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Europe; United States

November–December 2006
Article

Customer Metrics and Their Impact on Financial Performance

By: Sunil Gupta and Valarie Zeithaml

Keywords: Customers; Measurement and Metrics; Finance; Performance

Find at Harvard

26 Feb 2021
News

Harvard professor: Focusing on time instead of money can make you happier ― here’s how

January 2005 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Zipcar: Influencing Customer Behavior

By: Frances X. Frei and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

At Zipcar, customers share the use of cars and, as a result, rely on each other for their service experience. Customers are required to keep the car clean and the gas tank full and to return the car on time. Told from the perspective of two customers: Sal Fishman, who... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Governance Controls; Behavior; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Consumer Behavior; Leasing; Transportation Industry; Service Industry; United States

May 2010
Article

How to Stop Customers from Fixating on Price

By: Marco Bertini and Luc Wathieu

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

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