Customer Service - Publications - Faculty & Research

04 Aug 2006
What Do You Think?

What Happens When the Economics of Scarcity Meets the Economics of Abundance?

terms of where value is added in the supply chain . The value is created through the service of helping customers find what they want within the sea of choice . It is ironic that the Internet, which is... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

12 Nov 2021
Op-Ed

Can Our Parenting Struggles Make Us Better Leaders?

they have an obligation to work proactively to further the company’s mission. Alaska Airlines, likewise, has become one of the most successful and well-regarded airlines by giving its frontline workers much more control over customer... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati; Air Transportation

06 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 6

authority, substituting their economic and political sovereignty for the people's. This has been accomplished by creating an enormous public service sector operating in the material interest of politicians themselves and of their big... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Aug 2001
Research & Ideas

Making an Ally of Uncle Sam

services flow from the company to customers. Money flows in the reverse direction, from customers to the company and from the company to suppliers. Along the horizontal dimension are the company's... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Watkins, Mickey Edwards & Usha Thakrar

08 Nov 2011
News

Saluting Our HBS Veterans

Counselman (MBA 2005), a former Marine officer in Iraq, Bosnia, and the Horn of Africa, is the founder and CEO of Fidelis, an organization that assists service personnel with the military-to-civilian transition. Emphasizing education,... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; veterans; National Security and International Affairs; Government

21 Jul 2023
Blog Post

Malcolm McClain (MBA/MPP 2023) Named First RISE Career Fellow

historically distressed communities nationwide. He later served as an HBS Rock Center for Entrepreneurship Summer Fellow, working to address the labor shortage within the restaurant industry, developing service models to protect and... View Details

11 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Adding Time to Activity-Based Costing

suppliers and customers to reduce demands on capacity throughout the supply chain, introducing menu-based pricing in which customers pay for the features and services they use,... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

15 Jan 2020
News

The Business of Access

the nonprofits and social services organizations whose staffs had the skills to help, and plotted a different way to give back. “My thinking was, if I were to help people here in California,” she recalls, “that would pay it forward for... View Details

Keywords: Maureen Harmon

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Brand Power from Wedgwood to Dell: Part One

when he began his own pottery workshop in 1759. Nevertheless, each of the three, she writes, instinctively grasped the fundamentals of earning long-term customer trust and loyalty. Effective brand creation and management have a vital... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Mar 2025
News

Venture: Time Heals All

Assembling a nursing schedule for a hospital ward can be surprisingly difficult—a little like playing three-dimensional Tetris, says Ilana Springer Borkenstein (MBA 2022). “It is a really challenging, tedious task.” Nurse managers must take into consideration a host of... View Details

Keywords: Amy Crawford; Illustration by Klaus Kremmerz; Ambulatory Health Care Services; Health, Social Assistance

02 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Managing the Open Source vs. Proprietary Decision

on customized software, bundled software, and (to a lesser extent) support services are significantly more likely to engage in some open source than pure software developers. Synergies are likely to make it... View Details

Keywords: by Josh Lerner & Mark Schankerman; Technology

01 Jan 2008
News

Meg Whitman, MBA 1979

she picked up customer expertise at P&G and later at Disney, where she ran the Consumer Products Division. As a VP at Bain & Company, she gained industry experience that she later applied as head of the Children’s Group at Stride Rite and... View Details

01 Dec 2002
News

What You Know Depends on Where You Go

HBS associate professor Robert Kennedy and LARC executive director Gustavo Herrero interview customers of BancoSol at a market in La Paz. The bank specializes in microloans and has the second-largest number of View Details

01 Sep 2012
News

Alumni Books

best innovations: Find and fill an important unmet customer need. Plan for profitability. Strive for sustainability. Establish credibility. Gather necessary resources. Lead and manage effectively. Maintain balance and learn to enjoy the... View Details

Keywords: Educational Services; Educational Services; Educational Services; Educational Services

01 Sep 2011
News

Alumni Book Briefs

environment everyday practices. The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World by Fred Reichheld (MBA ’78) with Rob Markey (MBA ’90) (Harvard Business Review Press) Reichheld and Markey explain how practitioners have built Net... View Details

Keywords: Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services

04 Dec 2000
What Do You Think?

Have We Overdone Deregulation and Privatization?

consumers were that deregulation: (1) unleashes the power of a self-correcting free market (Jeff Struck), giving customers services at prices they are willing to pay and quality levels that they are willing... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

11 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Politicians Benefited From Using Toxic Loans

Talk of the recent financial crisis often falls into a simplistic narrative of villainous banks, marketing toxic financial products to innocent customers who did not understand their risks. Among the storied victims are municipal... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

08 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

The Startling Percentage of Financial Advisors with Misconduct Records

Mark Egan, an assistant professor of finance at Harvard Business School and a co-author of the study. “The average settlement is in excess of $100,000 and the median is $40,000. These are costly offenses.” Included in the study was any record of View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

February 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Case

AptDeco: Circular Economy Furniture Marketplace

By: Ayelet Israeli and Jamie Merkrebs

AptDeco, a used furniture marketplace, was growing rapidly in the tri-state area. The co-founders were confident that the business model, financial position, and unit economics positioned AptDeco for scaling in the massive $120 billion furniture market, despite its... View Details

Citation

Educators

Purchase

01 Feb 1997
News

Doing It Your Way

a day to purchase goods and services (such as magazine subscriptions) advertised on Time Warner Inc.'s World Wide Web site, for example. The software leads customers through a series of screens and... View Details

Keywords: Marguerite Rigoglioso (profiles by Linda Goodspeed, Elaine Gottlieb, Nancy O. Perry, and Judith A. Ross)

Publications