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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(8,225)
- People (9)
- News (1,436)
- Research (5,709)
- Events (20)
- Multimedia (9)
- Faculty Publications (4,105)
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- November 2001
- Article
Leveraging the Customer Base: Creating Competitive Advantage Through Knowledge Management
By: Elie Ofek and Miklos Sarvary
Ofek, Elie, and Miklos Sarvary. "Leveraging the Customer Base: Creating Competitive Advantage Through Knowledge Management." Management Science 47, no. 11 (November 2001).
- 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
Hill, Linda A. "Building Effective One-on-One Work Relationships." Harvard Business School Background Note 497-028, October 1996.
- 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
Ascarza, Eva. "Retention Futility: Targeting High-Risk Customers Might Be Ineffective." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 55, no. 1 (February 2018): 80–98.
- 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
Roberts, Michael J. "ACTC Customer Service Department." Harvard Business School Case 393-056, December 1992. (Revised June 1993.)
- August 1988
- Background Note
Close Encounters of the Four Kinds: Managing Customers in a Rapidly Changing Environment
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
Shapiro, Benson P. "Close Encounters of the Four Kinds: Managing Customers in a Rapidly Changing Environment." Harvard Business School Background Note 589-015, August 1988.
- 16 Jan 2006
- Research & Ideas
What Customers Want from Your Products
Marketers have lost the forest for the trees, focusing too much on creating products for narrow demographic segments rather than satisfying needs. Customers want to "hire" a product to do a job, or, as legendary Harvard Business... 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
- 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
- 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
- October 2012
- Article
Target the Right Market
By: Jill Avery and Thomas Steenburgh
SparkPlace is a two-year-old business with a hot new product: software that manages and measures the effectiveness of permission-based marketing campaigns for social media. The company is in the process of deciding on which of two customer segments to focus its... View Details
Keywords: Marketing; Market Segmentation; Customer Defection; Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Relationship Management; CRM; Market Segmentation And Target Market Selection; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Technology Industry; United States
Avery, Jill, and Thomas Steenburgh. "Target the Right Market." Harvard Business Review 90, no. 10 (October 2012): 119–123.
- 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
Schlesinger, Leonard A., and Jeffrey Zornitsky. "Job Satisfaction, Service Capability and Customer Satisfaction: An Examination of Linkages and Management Implications." Human Resource Planning 14, no. 2 (1991): 141–149.
- 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
Martinez-Jerez, Francisco de Asis, V.G. Narayanan, and Lisa Brem. "Internet Customer Acquisition Strategy at Bankinter." Harvard Business School Case 103-021, February 2003. (Revised March 2007.)
- October 2009
- Case
Don Soderquist: Negotiating the Wal-Mart-P&G Relationship (A)
By: James K. Sebenius and Ellen Knebel
This case describes the negotiations and strategic choices of Don Soderquist, who as Chief Operating Officer of Wal-Mart, helped to forge a major partnership with P&G in the 1980s and 1990s. The case chronicles the challenging barriers to success along with several of... View Details
- November 1998
- Article
Measuring and Managing the Benefits of Customer Retention: An Empirical Investigation
By: N. Narayandas
Narayandas, N. "Measuring and Managing the Benefits of Customer Retention: An Empirical Investigation." Journal of Service Research 1, no. 2 (November 1998).
- 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
- 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; Retail Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States
Pérez Cavazos, Gerardo, Suraj Srinivasan, and Monica Baraldi. "Signet Jewelers: Assessing Customer Financing Risk." Harvard Business School Case 117-038, June 2017. (Revised January 2019.)
- February 2024 (Revised February 2024)
- Teaching Note
Travelogo: Understanding Customer Journeys
By: Eva Ascarza and Ta-Wei Huang
Teaching Note for HBS Exercise 524-044. The exercise aims to teach students about 1) Customer Segmentation; and 2) constructing buying personas, 3) Get actionable insights from clickstream data. View Details
- 14 Jul 2003
- Research & Ideas
Keeping Your Balance With Customers
From product push to customer pull, technology has vastly reshaped the business transaction—and in turn, the customer's place in the value chain. Today, managing the customer... View Details
Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton
- September 2010 (Revised August 2011)
- Background Note
Pricing, Profits, and Customer Value
By: Frank V. Cespedes, Benson P. Shapiro and Elliot B. Ross
This note discusses how some firms (start-ups and established companies) maximize customer value and profits via their pricing processes. It is aimed at companies that compete on the basis of performance initiatives rather than absolute cost advantages and low price.... View Details
Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Cost; Price; Profit; Performance Effectiveness; Sales; Competitive Strategy
Cespedes, Frank V., Benson P. Shapiro, and Elliot B. Ross. "Pricing, Profits, and Customer Value." Harvard Business School Background Note 811-016, September 2010. (Revised August 2011.)
- November 2011 (Revised August 2012)
- Background Note
Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs
By: Frank V. Cespedes, Thomas Eisenmann and Steven G. Blank
Provides practical guidelines for conducting market research to explore and validate demand for entrepreneurial offering. Explains how the research objectives of entrepreneurs might differ from those relevant to managers evaluating product or service offerings to... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V., Thomas Eisenmann, and Steven G. Blank. "Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs." Harvard Business School Background Note 812-097, November 2011. (Revised August 2012.)