Publications

16 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

Turning One Thousand Customers into One Million

worked Going from zero customers to 1,000 customers can be a slow process for platforms because of the need to acquire both providers and customers of products and View Details

Keywords: by Thales S. Teixeira and Michael Blanding; Retail; Transportation; Accommodations

December 2005 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS (A)

CVS's retail pharmacy operations are functioning poorly and dissatisfying customers. Many customers are defecting as a result. A pharmacy service improvement team has documented the current prescription fulfillment process, its exception rates, and the problems... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Performance Improvement; Business Processes; Retail Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

25 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

An Organization Your Customers Understand

customer but every entity that interacts with you in a significant manner."3 This claim is repeated in the book The Customer Is CEO, which defines a customer as "the... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

Article

The Cost Structure, Customer Profitability, and Retention Implications of Self-Service Distribution Channels: Evidence from Customer Behavior in an Online Banking Channel

By: Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

This paper uses the context of online banking to investigate the consequences of employing self-service distribution channels to alter customer interactions with the firm. Using a sample of retail banking customers observed over a 30-month period at a large U.S. bank,... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Service Operations; Distribution Channels; Consumer Behavior; Internet and the Web; Banks and Banking; Technology Adoption; Service Delivery; Market Transactions; Market Participation; Profit; Retail Industry; Banking Industry; United States

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February 2024
Case

SundaySky: Changing Customer Experiences through Personalized Video

By: David C. Edelman and James Barnett

In June 2023, SundaySky CEO Jim Dicso considers growth strategies. The software-as-a-service company provided software to create advertising videos, customer service videos, and other videos, like employee training modules, and had begun to pilot a new generative... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Strategy; Technology Adoption; AI and Machine Learning; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Advertising Industry; Technology Industry; United States

June 2017 (Revised January 2019)
Case

Signet Jewelers: Assessing Customer Financing Risk

By: Gerardo Pérez Cavazos, Suraj Srinivasan and Monica Baraldi

Marc Cohodes, a renowned short seller, has identified weaknesses in Signet's business strategy, which he argues is heavily reliant on providing loans to customers with subprime credit scores. He believes that the company accounts for its receivables portfolio using... View Details

Keywords: Short Selling; Bad Debt Expense; Accounting; Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Finance; Financing and Loans; Valuation; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States

24 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Busting Six Myths About Customer Loyalty Programs

was very clear that he wanted to ensure that customers who visited another casino would lose something by not accumulating rewards with Harrah's: the opportunity to get to higher levels of rewards and View Details

Keywords: by Marcel Corstjens & Rajiv Lal; Retail; Consumer Products

October 2002 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Dell Computers (A): Field Service for Corporate Clients

By: Frances X. Frei, Amy C. Edmondson and Corey B. Hajim

Explores the highly successful PC and low-end server manufacturer's entry into the large-scale server market in the United States. A key difference of this new market is the intense service element required to support the larger hardware. Specifically, the industry... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Customer Relationship Management; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Service Operations; Business or Company Management; Emerging Markets; Problems and Challenges; Service Delivery; Computer Industry; United States

May 2016 (Revised January 2018)
Case

Airbnb, Etsy, Uber: Acquiring the First Thousand Customers

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Morgan Brown

By 2016, two-sided online platforms (or marketplaces) were pervasive among the highest growing internet startups around. These marketplaces sought to match suppliers of assets for rent, physical products or services with customers demanding them. Among the most notable... View Details

Keywords: Airbnb; Etsy; Uber; Growth Hacking; Two-sided Market; Internet and the Web; Marketing Strategy; Digital Platforms; Digital Marketing; Business Startups; Transportation Industry; Accommodations Industry

20 Dec 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

How to Design a Better Customer Experience

Click HereHarvard Business School Professor Stefan Thomke describes how his Executive Education students use LEGO blocks to design customer experiences. (Video by Executive Education) Why do some product or View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Health; Entertainment & Recreation

May 2011
Article

Think Customers Hate Waiting? Not So Fast...

By: Ryan W. Buell and Michael I. Norton

Managers typically look for ways to reduce wait time to increase customer satisfaction. New research suggests there's a better approach: showing customers a representation of the effort, whether literal or not, being expended on their behalf while they wait. (The... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Service Delivery; Consumer Behavior; Performance Effectiveness; Customer Satisfaction

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22 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Bringing ‘Lean’ Principles to Service Industries

Wipro Technologies, an Indian outsource provider of software services, launches its own lean initiative. "In terms of operations and improvements, the service industries in general are a long way behind manufacturing," Upton... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Computer

April 18, 2023
Article

The Rebirth of Software as a Service

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Jacco van der Kooij

Traditional sales models focus on customer acquisition and the “funnel” or “pipeline” metrics that dominate talk about sales. But this approach falls short when applied to a recurring revenue business, where the customer life cycle looks more like a bowtie, not a... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Sales; Technology Industry

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December 2000 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Achieving Customer Satisfaction at Pizza Hut (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Preeti Choudhary

Describes how Pizza Hut measures and monitors customer satisfaction, customer complaints, and the quality of its retail locations. View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Systems; Risk Management; Franchise Ownership; Performance Evaluation; Problems and Challenges; Quality; Service Industry; Service Industry

May 1994
Background Note

Segmenting Customers in Mature Industrial Markets: An Application

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

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

Keywords: Segmentation; Framework; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Strategy; Industrial Products Industry

June 1998 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Nicole Tempest

Wells Fargo, the industry leader in electronic banking, has implemented a Balanced Scorecard in its online financial services group (OFS) to track and measure performance. The OFS group develops and supports services that allow existing and future banking customers to... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Internet and the Web; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Finance; Change; Situation or Environment; Measurement and Metrics; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

January 2012 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Ctrip: Scientifically Managing Travel Services

By: David A. Garvin and Nancy Hua Dai

Ctrip is a $437 million Chinese on-line travel services company with a scientific, data driven approach to management. The case explores Ctrip's founding and early growth, its expansion into multiple market segments including hotel reservations, air ticketing, leisure... View Details

Keywords: Scientific Management; Data-driven Management; Management; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Market Entry and Exit; Mathematical Methods; Business Processes; Information Management; Travel Industry; China

01 Mar 2004
What Do You Think?

Are Customer Loyalty Initiatives Worth the Investment?

to let customers acquire points or miles or any loot unconnected to the product they are using . . . It's about customers and suppliers caring for each other's success." As Alan de Winter put it,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

June 2013
Case

Olympic Rent-A-Car U.S.: Customer Loyalty Battles

By: John Deighton and James T. Kindley

The marketing and operations managers for Olympic Rent-A-Car meet to decide how to respond to changes in the loyalty rewards program at the market-leading competitor. The competitor's program gives awards based on dollars spent instead of days rented and eliminates... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Competitive Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Industry; Service Industry