Publications

May 2005
Class Lecture

Managing Markets, Segments, and Customers

By: Das Narayandas

March 2006
Background Note

Influencing Customer Behavior in Service Operations

By: Frances X. Frei and Amy C. Edmondson

Explores ways in which service firms can influence the behavior of their customers. Drawing from research on employee motivation and applying it to customer motivation, the note describes two levels of managerial control: instrumental control, which shapes behavior... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Governance Controls; Consumer Behavior; Service Operations; Emotions; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence; Service Industry

January 2023 (Revised November 2023)
Module Note

LCA Module Overview: Customers

By: Nien-hê Hsieh

This note provides an overview of key questions, themes, and concepts to be covered in the module and provides a brief description of each case and how it relates to these questions, themes, and concepts. View Details

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

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

16 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Your Customers Have Changed. Here's How to Engage Them Again.

The coronavirus shock has disrupted more than jobs, supply chains, and financial markets. Your customer has changed fundamentally, too. The number one task for many companies now is discovering where their B2C and B2B View Details

Keywords: by Rohit Deshpandé, Ofer Mintz, and Imran S. Currim; Retail; Service

16 May 2011
Research & Ideas

What Loyalty? High-End Customers are First to Flee

Businesses that offer their customers the highest levels of service might like to believe that all their efforts to pamper and please will pay off with an extremely loyal following. “Customers you might expect to be the most 'stuck' are... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

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

summer 2002
Article

Case Study: Customer Profitability and Customer Relationship Management at RBC Financial Group

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

Keywords: Profit; Customer Relationship Management; Groups and Teams; Finance

February 1994
Case

Xerox Corp.: The Customer Satisfaction Program (A)

A rewritten version of an earlier case, Xerox Corp.: The Customer Satisfaction Program. Does not provide an update and no new content is added. The new (A) and (B) case structure merely isolates the service guarantee issue. View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Customer Satisfaction

2003
Book

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

By: James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser Jr. and Leonard A. Schlesinger

Keywords: Value; Profit; Employees; Customers

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

Read Now

March 2000 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Hewlett Packard--Computer Systems Organization: Selling to Enterprise Customers

By: Das Narayandas and Robert C. Dudley

In late 1996, Manuel Diaz, head of Worldwide Sales for Hewlett-Packard's (HP) Computer Systems Organization (CSO), is reviewing the results of an audit of HP's enterprise customer management approach with the objective of identifying market and organizational... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Audits; Transformation; Customer Relationship Management; Cost vs Benefits; Marketing Strategy; Sales; Computer Industry

06 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

The Right Way to Manage Customer Churn for Maximum Profit

It’s a sad fact of doing business: customers leave. “You’d like to have 100 percent of customers stay 100 percent of the time,” says Harvard Business School Professor Sunil Gupta. “But that’s just not the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Service; Financial Services

October 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

Managing Customer Retention at Teleko

By: Eva Ascarza and Ta-Wei Huang

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 523-005. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; United States

May 1998 (Revised July 1999)
Teaching Note

ACTC Customer Service Department TN

Teaching Note for (9-393-056). View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships