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- All HBS Web
(2,566)
- People (2)
- News (546)
- Research (1,694)
- Events (3)
- Multimedia (9)
- Faculty Publications (945)
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- March 2002
- Background Note
Virtuous Cycles: Improving Service and Lowering Costs in E-Commerce
Illustrates how various elements in a customer's encounter with Internet services relying on physical service (labor-intensive customer support and/or logistics) affect one another. Presents a framework that suggests: 1) that improving service quality in specific... View Details
Keywords: Internet and the Web; Service Delivery; Performance Efficiency; Performance Effectiveness; Service Industry
Hallowell, Roger H. "Virtuous Cycles: Improving Service and Lowering Costs in E-Commerce." Harvard Business School Background Note 802-155, March 2002.
- 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
Campbell, Dennis, and Frances X. Frei. "The Cost Structure, Customer Profitability, and Retention Implications of Self-Service Distribution Channels: Evidence from Customer Behavior in an Online Banking Channel." Management Science 56, no. 1 (January 2010): 4–24. (Lead Article.)
- February 2000
- Case
E2M Health Services
By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Naomi Atkins
Outlines the growth of an innovative diabetes disease management organization from 1994-99. Having demonstrated the success of their model in managing diabetes populations in Texas and New York State, the CEO and president must decide the future strategy of the company... View Details
Keywords: Business Model; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Markets; Revenue; Innovation and Invention; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy; Internet; Health Industry
Bohmer, Richard M.J., and Naomi Atkins. "E2M Health Services." Harvard Business School Case 600-077, February 2000.
- November 1989 (Revised February 1992)
- Case
Ford Motor Co.: Dealer Sales and Service
Since Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Co., Ford vehicles have been sold and serviced the same way. By the late 1980s Ford began to consider making changes in its sales and service process. Two developments forced Ford to reconsider these processes. First, Ford found... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Distribution Channels; Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Industry; Service Industry; Service Industry; United States
Schlesinger, Leonard A. "Ford Motor Co.: Dealer Sales and Service." Harvard Business School Case 690-030, November 1989. (Revised February 1992.)
- March 2006
- Background Note
Customer-Introduced Variability in Service Operations
By: Frances X. Frei
Presents a typology of customer-introduced variability and offers guidance on how to manage each type. Central to the ideas developed is how to mitigate the effects of the apparent trade-off between reducing variability and diminishing the service experience or... View Details
Frei, Frances X. "Customer-Introduced Variability in Service Operations." Harvard Business School Background Note 606-063, March 2006.
- 2016
- Book
Innovation Equity: Assessing and Managing the Monetary Value of New Products and Services
By: Elie Ofek, Eitan Muller and Barak Libai
This book bridges the gap between what academics know, and what innovation stakeholders—from managers, to investors, to analysts, to consumers—need to know about how new products and services are expected to perform in the marketplace. The book develops a compelling... View Details
Keywords: Innovation; Technology Diffusion; New Products; Customer Lifetime Value; Monetization Strategy; Social Influence; Innovation Adoption; Forecasting Demand; Commercialization; Marketing Strategy; Practice; Customer Value and Value Chain; Research; Innovation and Management; Technology Adoption; Forecasting and Prediction; Product Development
Ofek, Elie, Eitan Muller, and Barak Libai. Innovation Equity: Assessing and Managing the Monetary Value of New Products and Services. University of Chicago Press, 2016.
- July 1998 (Revised May 2004)
- Case
Custom Research Inc. (B)
By: William J. Bruns Jr. and Susan Harmeling
Supplements the (A) case. View Details
Keywords: Service Industry
Bruns, William J., Jr., and Susan Harmeling. "Custom Research Inc. (B)." Harvard Business School Case 199-002, July 1998. (Revised May 2004.)
- 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
- 06 Jul 2020
- Research & Ideas
The Right Way to Manage Customer Churn for Maximum Profit
the example of an online retailer who suddenly sees a monthly shopper stop buying for two months. “Customers just stop using the service but don’t have to tell the company.” In order to manage churn, companies typically use machine... View Details
- 2016
- Book
Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice
By: Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon and David S. Duncan
The foremost authority on innovation and growth presents a path-breaking book every company needs to transform innovation from a game of chance to one in which they develop products and services that customers want to buy and are willing to purchase at a premium price.... View Details
Christensen, Clayton M., Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David S. Duncan. Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice. New York: Harper Business, 2016.
- 23 Jan 2012
- Research & Ideas
Break Your Addiction to Service Heroes
your biggest buckets of cost and rethinking those strategically in ways that give your customers something they value," notes Frei, the UPS Foundation Professor of Service Management at Harvard Business... View Details
- February 2005 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
Phase Zero: Introducing New Services at IDEO (A)
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Laura Feldman
Focuses on whether world-renowned product design firm IDEO's new customer service fits with the firm's strategic position and organization capabilities. Over the course of IDEO's 13-year history, an increasing share of revenues are a result of "Phase 0"... View Details
Keywords: Strategy; Service Operations; Product Design; Infrastructure; Customer Focus and Relationships; Innovation and Invention; Service Industry; Boston; United States
Edmondson, Amy C., and Laura Feldman. "Phase Zero: Introducing New Services at IDEO (A)." Harvard Business School Case 605-069, February 2005. (Revised March 2013.)
- September 2018
- Case
ProdEng: Services for Oil & Gas Extraction
By: Frank V. Cespedes, Maria Fernanda Miguel and Mariana Cal
ProdEng is a venture created as part of a PE fund and provides oil field services in Argentina. In 2016, an industry-wide unforeseen oil and gas demand slump drove ProdEng’s average service rates down by more than 37%, with EBITDA margins falling from 50% to 24% in the... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V., Maria Fernanda Miguel, and Mariana Cal. "ProdEng: Services for Oil & Gas Extraction." Harvard Business School Case 819-003, September 2018.
- 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
Deighton, John, and James T. Kindley. "Olympic Rent-A-Car U.S.: Customer Loyalty Battles." Harvard Business School Brief Case 913-568, June 2013.
- Research Summary
Using IT to Leverage Human Resources in Services
Discussion of the Internet and IT to date concentrates on how they will replace, rather than support, human service providers. While this approach is appropriate for a few firms, it is inadequate for many. The Internet and other information technology... View Details
- 16 May 2005
- Research & Ideas
Confronting the Reality of Web Services
What's next for Web services? In his case summary "Will Web Services Really Transform Collaboration?" published in the Winter 2005 edition of MIT Sloan Management Review, HBS associate professor Andrew P. McAfee argues that the... View Details
Keywords: by Sara Grant
- 09 Jan 2013
- Sharpening Your Skills
Sharpening Your Skills: Understanding Customers
Questions To Be Answered What's the biggest obstacle to excellence in service organizations? Should I do what my customers tell me to do? How can I understand my customers... View Details
Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty
- 2012
- Book
Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business
By: Frances Frei and Anne Morriss
Most companies treat service as a low-priority business operation, keeping it out of the spotlight until a customer complains. Then service gets to make a brief appearance—for as long as it takes to calm the customer down and fix whatever foul-up jeopardized the... View Details
Frei, Frances, and Anne Morriss. Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business. Cambridge: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012.
- 17 Sep 2001
- Research & Ideas
Let Customers Call the Shots
technologies could be used to create a captive one-to-one relationship between firms and consumers, so that customers could literally be viewed as assets. We should start to realize that things are not that simple. Ultimately, a... View Details
Keywords: by Martha Lagace
- 14 Sep 2015
- Research & Ideas
Rewriting the Rules of Service Competition
buy results and experiences, not services or products. That’s why IKEA’s leaders focus on the few things that produce results and experiences for the right customers. This requires another important piece of knowledge: View Details