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  • All HBS Web  (3,893)
    • People  (1)
    • News  (648)
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    • Events  (7)
    • Multimedia  (5)
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  • September 2005 (Revised February 2007)
  • Case

Angels and Devils: Best Buy's New Customer Approach (A)

By: Anita Elberse, John T. Gourville and Das Narayandas
In November 2004, The Wall Street Journal reported that consumer electronics retailer Best Buy's new customer approach was to shun the "devils" among its customers. The "customer centricity" initiative, which was led by Best Buy's CEO Brad Anderson, was based on an... View Details
Keywords: History; Customer Relationship Management; Opportunities; Marketing Strategy; Leadership Style; Problems and Challenges; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; Electronics Industry
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Elberse, Anita, John T. Gourville, and Das Narayandas. "Angels and Devils: Best Buy's New Customer Approach (A)." Harvard Business School Case 506-007, September 2005. (Revised February 2007.)
  • July 2021 (Revised October 2021)
  • Case

Allianz Customer Centricity: Is Simplicity the Way Forward?

By: Eva Ascarza and Emilie Billaud
This case explores the tradeoffs between product personalization and simplicity as companies grow. The case presents an opportunity to understand whether and how each of these approaches enables and/or limits companies’ abilities to provide customer satisfaction while... View Details
Keywords: Simplicity; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customization and Personalization; Customer Satisfaction; Performance Efficiency; Strategy; Insurance Industry; Europe; Germany
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Ascarza, Eva, and Emilie Billaud. "Allianz Customer Centricity: Is Simplicity the Way Forward?" Harvard Business School Case 522-008, July 2021. (Revised October 2021.)
  • 2019
  • Working Paper

Managing Churn to Maximize Profits

By: Aurelie Lemmens and Sunil Gupta
Customer defection threatens many industries, prompting companies to deploy targeted, proactive customer retention programs and offers. A conventional approach has been to target customers either based on their predicted churn probability, or their responsiveness to a... View Details
Keywords: Churn Management; Defection Prediction; Loss Function; Stochastic Gradient Boosting; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Profit
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Lemmens, Aurelie, and Sunil Gupta. "Managing Churn to Maximize Profits." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 14-020, September 2013. (Revised December 2019. Forthcoming at Marketing Science.)
  • Article

Are Self-service Customers Satisfied or Stuck?

By: Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei
This paper investigates the impact of self-service technology (SST) usage on customer satisfaction and retention. Specifically, we disentangle the distinct effects of satisfaction and switching costs as drivers of retention among self-service customers. Our empirical... View Details
Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Technology; Customer Satisfaction; Competition; Cost; Banks and Banking; Behavior; Market Transactions; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques
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Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei. "Are Self-service Customers Satisfied or Stuck?" Production and Operations Management 19, no. 6 (November–December 2010). (Awarded the Decision Sciences Institute Stan Hardy Award for Outstanding Paper Published during 2010 in the Field of Operations Management.)
  • April 2025 (Revised May 2025)
  • Background Note

Customer Acquisition and the Cash Flow Trap

By: E. Ofek, Barak Libai and Eitan Muller
Startups as well as existing firms recognize the need to invest in order to acquire customers for their new ventures. And as each customer is expected at some point to have generated sufficient gross margins to cover their CAC, management expects that, soon enough, the... View Details
Keywords: Business Model; Customers; Forecasting and Prediction; Cash Flow; Business or Company Management
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Ofek, E., Barak Libai, and Eitan Muller. "Customer Acquisition and the Cash Flow Trap." Harvard Business School Background Note 525-056, April 2025. (Revised May 2025.)
  • July 2010
  • Supplement

Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Customer Lifetime Value Analysis (CW)

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Jill Avery
Customers are increasingly being viewed as assets that bring value to the firm. Customer lifetime value is a metric which allows managers to understand the overall value of their customer base and relate it to three customer strategies firms employ: asset acquisition -... View Details
Keywords: Competency and Skills; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Decisions; Framework; Management Practices and Processes; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Strategic Planning; Mathematical Methods; Value
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Steenburgh, Thomas J., and Jill Avery. "Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Customer Lifetime Value Analysis (CW)." Harvard Business School Spreadsheet Supplement 511-702, July 2010.
  • 05 Aug 2010
  • What Do You Think?

What Is Customer Opinion Good For?

research and shoring up the weakest, all competitors' products take on the same characteristics. As she puts it, "Meanwhile, the very instruments that these managers are relying on to establish and reinforce differentiation—competitive... View Details
Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Technology
  • February 2001 (Revised June 2002)
  • Case

Customer Value Measurement at Nortel Networks--Optical Networks Division

By: Das Narayandas
Since 1995, Nortel Networks' Optical Networks (ON) division has been incorporating customer satisfaction and loyalty measures into its business practices to increase customer value. Over the years, key process owners in various parts of the organization have become... View Details
Keywords: Business Divisions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Management Teams; Marketing Strategy; Value Creation; Telecommunications Industry
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Narayandas, Das. "Customer Value Measurement at Nortel Networks--Optical Networks Division." Harvard Business School Case 501-050, February 2001. (Revised June 2002.)
  • 01 Jul 2002
  • News

Mismanagement of Customer Loyalty

Keywords: Werner Reinartz, V. Kumar
  • 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; Auto Industry; Service Industry
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Deighton, John, and James T. Kindley. "Olympic Rent-A-Car U.S.: Customer Loyalty Battles." Harvard Business School Brief Case 913-568, June 2013.
  • April 1995 (Revised April 1995)
  • Case

Pillsbury: Customer Driven Reengineering

By: Robert S. Kaplan
Pillsbury is transforming itself from an integrated producer of flour and bakery products to a value-added supplier of premium branded products. After initial successes applying activity-based costing to manufacturing operations, two senior executives decide to... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Production; Cost Management; Activity Based Costing and Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Food and Beverage Industry
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Kaplan, Robert S. "Pillsbury: Customer Driven Reengineering." Harvard Business School Case 195-144, April 1995. (Revised April 1995.)
  • 17 Nov 2010
  • News

Putting the Customer First

Keywords: Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction; Construction; Specialty Trade Contractors; Construction
  • May 16, 2016
  • Article

Food Safety Economics: The Cost of a Sick Customer

By: Dina Gerdeman and John A. Quelch
Chipotle Mexican Grill’s ongoing struggle to win customers back months after a contaminated food crisis highlights the challenges companies face with keeping food safe.

Chipotle has seen its shares tumble and recently reported its first-ever quarterly loss... View Details
Keywords: Food Safety; Organic Food; Supply Chain Management; Globalization Of Food Business; Mérieux NutriSciences: Marketing Food Safety Testing; Food Safety Modernization Act 2011; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Transition; Economic Systems; Food; Health; Supply and Industry; Logistics; Practice; Problems and Challenges; Quality; Safety; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Insurance Industry; Public Administration Industry; Public Relations Industry; Retail Industry; Service Industry; Mexico; North America; United States; Canada
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Gerdeman, Dina, and John A. Quelch. "Food Safety Economics: The Cost of a Sick Customer." Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (May 16, 2016).
  • 01 Sep 2008
  • News

Stanford Lets Students Customize

EXCHANGING IDEAS: HBS Dean Jay Light talks with Stanford Dean Robert Joss. Stanford describes its new MBA curriculum, launched last fall, as a “revolutionary change in management education.” It aims to remedy what the school viewed as a... View Details
Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services
  • 2012
  • Chapter

Firing Your Best Customers: How Smart Firms Destroy Relationships Using CRM

By: Jill Avery and Susan Fournier
With incidences in the 20%–25% range, the practice of firing customers has become increasingly attractive as firms try to maximize the lifetime value of their customer portfolios. This chapter traces the relationship trajectory of a 30-year customer of Filene's... View Details
Keywords: Brands; Brand Management; CRM; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customers; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry
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Avery, Jill, and Susan Fournier. "Firing Your Best Customers: How Smart Firms Destroy Relationships Using CRM." In Consumer-Brand Relationships: Theory and Practice, edited by Susan Fournier, Michael Breazeale, and Marc Fetscherin, 301–316. Routledge, 2012. (Paperback edition published in 2013.)
  • March 31, 2023
  • Article

What Is the Optimal Pattern of a Customer Journey?

By: Julian De Freitas
Even though customer experience (CX) leaders are becoming increasingly focused on optimizing their firms’ customer journeys, they face a clear challenge: Which touchpoints along the journey should they invest in? That is, which moments when the customer interacts with... View Details
Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Customers; Brands and Branding
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De Freitas, Julian. "What Is the Optimal Pattern of a Customer Journey?" Harvard Business Review (website) (March 31, 2023).
  • Dec 18 2018
  • Interview

Transforming Customer Experiences Webinar

    Unlock the Mysteries of Your Customer Relationships

    Consumers have always had relationships with brands, but sophisticated tools for analyzing customer data are finally allowing marketing organizations to personalize and manage those relationships. With this new power comes a new challenge: People now expect companies... View Details
    • June 2023
    • Article

    National Customer Orientation: An Empirical Test across 112 Countries

    By: Ofer Mintz, Imran S. Currim and Rohit Deshpandé
    Customer orientation is a central tenet of marketing. However, less is known about how customer orientation varies across countries and time. Mintz, Currim, and Deshpandé (Eur. J. Mark., 56: 1014–1041, 2022) propose a country-level construct, national customer... View Details
    Keywords: Global Range; Customer Focus and Relationships
    Citation
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    Mintz, Ofer, Imran S. Currim, and Rohit Deshpandé. "National Customer Orientation: An Empirical Test across 112 Countries." Marketing Letters 34, no. 2 (June 2023): 189–204.
    • April 2007 (Revised April 2011)
    • Teaching Note

    Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel (TN)

    By: Dennis Campbell and Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez
    Teaching note to 106029. View Details
    Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Customers; Profit; Accommodations Industry
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    Campbell, Dennis, and Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez. "Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel (TN)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 107-072, April 2007. (Revised April 2011.)
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