Publications

February 2007 (Revised May 2008)
Supplement

Bancaja: Developing Customer Intelligence (B)

In 1996, CEO Fernando Garcia Checa wanted to make customer analytics a part of Bancaja's new strategy. Bancaja, a savings bank based in Valencia, Spain, was expanding and wanted to exploit customer information to increase commercial effectiveness. At the same time, it... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Credit Cards; Analytics and Data Science; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Marketing Strategy; Banking Industry; Spain

19 Feb 2014
News

Choosing the Right Customer

06 Jun 2016
News

Know the Job Your Product Was Hired to Do

Keywords: innovation; customer relationship management; consumer choice

January 2024 (Revised February 2024)
Exercise

Travelogo: Understanding Customer Journeys

By: Eva Ascarza, Nicolas Padilla and Oded Netzer

In late May 2023, Sarah Merino, the newly appointed manager of the Customer Insights group at Travelogo—an online travel booking platform—initiates a comprehensive analysis of clickstream data to understand the varied behaviors and needs of their users. In preparation... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Analysis; Analytics and Data Science; Marketing Strategy; Segmentation; Consumer Behavior; Travel Industry; United States

November 2011
Supplement

Comfort Class Transport: Does Customer Service Need an Overhaul? Faculty Spreadsheet (Brief Case)

Keywords: Capacity Utilization; Supply ＆ Demand; Operations Management; Customer Service; Operations; Customer Focus and Relationships; Performance Capacity

Awards

Berry-AMA Book Prize for the Best Book in Marketing

By: Sunil Gupta

Winner of the 2006 Berry-AMA Book Prize for the Best Book in Marketing for Managing Customers as Investments: The Strategic Value of Customers in the Long Run (Wharton School Publishing) with Donald R. Lehmann. View Details

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

October 1996
Background Note

Building Effective One-on-One Work Relationships

By: Linda A. Hill

Addresses how to build effective one-on-one work relationships. Spells out the importance of analyzing your network and understanding on whom you are dependent. Also provides some criteria for assessing the quality of your relationships. Finally, it discusses how to... View Details

Keywords: Performance Effectiveness; Quality; Networks; Conflict and Resolution

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Building a Better Buyer-Seller Relationship

other colleagues, including HBS professor V. Kasturi Rangan, have arrived at some answers for designing, developing, and managing long-term customer relationships. And this area is big business with a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

November 2001
Article

Leveraging the Customer Base: Creating Competitive Advantage Through Knowledge Management

By: Elie Ofek and Miklos Sarvary

Keywords: Customers; Competitive Strategy; Knowledge Management

Find at Harvard

February 2018
Article

Retention Futility: Targeting High-Risk Customers Might Be Ineffective.

By: Eva Ascarza

Companies in a variety of sectors are increasingly managing customer churn proactively, generally by detecting customers at the highest risk of churning and targeting retention efforts towards them. While there is a vast literature on developing churn prediction models... View Details

Keywords: Retention/churn; Proactive Churn Management; Field Experiments; Heterogeneous Treatment Effect; Machine Learning; Customer Relationship Management; Risk Management

Find at Harvard

Read Now

Program

Transforming Customer Experiences

Summary Superior customer service can differentiate your business in the marketplace—if you design the right offerings and execute flawlessly. Led by HBS thought leaders who are experts in customer... View Details

04 Mar 2002
Research & Ideas

Don’t Lose Money With Customers

Investors diligently manage financial portfolios to maximize returns on their assets; yet corporate managers who invariably proclaim their business customers to be... View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs

August 1988
Background Note

Close Encounters of the Four Kinds: Managing Customers in a Rapidly Changing Environment

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Describes four kinds of selling: 1) transaction, 2) systems, 3) major account management, and 4) strategic account relationships. Explains the advantages, disadvantages, and risks of each. The second half is devoted to a discussion of strategic account relationships... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Social Psychology

Research Summary

The Value Profit Chain: Treat Employees Like Customers and Customers Like Employees

By: W. Earl Sasser

W. Earl Sasser, Jr., Leonard A. Schlesinger, and James L. Heskett complted a multi-firm study that provides further empirical verification of relationships established in their earlier examinations of 'breakthrough' service and the service profit chain.... View Details

2000
Working Paper

Leveraging the Customer Base: Creating Competitive Advantage Through Knowledge Management

By: Elie Ofek and Miklos Sarvary

February 2003 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Internet Customer Acquisition Strategy at Bankinter

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez, V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

Bankinter, a relatively small Spanish bank, has a large presence as an Internet financial services provider. Leading the way to profitability through the Internet will give Bankinter a major competitive advantage over the larger, more established Spanish banks. Ann... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Internet and the Web; Activity Based Costing and Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Spain

Teaching Interest

Managing Service Operations - MBA Elective Curriculum

By: Ryan W. Buell

World-class service organizations deeply understand the needs and behaviors of their customers, and design, manage, and improve their operating models accordingly. This course investigates the distinct challenges inherent in leading service operations, which make up... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Loyalty; Quality; Employees; Service Models; Service Industry

1991
Article

Job Satisfaction, Service Capability and Customer Satisfaction: An Examination of Linkages and Management Implications

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Jeffrey Zornitsky

Survey data from 1,277 employees and 4,269 customers of a personal lines insurance organization were analyzed with the following results: (a) employee perceptions of service quality are positively related to both job satisfaction and self-perceived service capability;... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Satisfaction; Jobs and Positions; Customer Satisfaction