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June 2005 (Revised March 2017)
Teaching Note

Siebel Systems: Organizing for the Customer

By: Robert Simons

Teaching Note to (103-014). The Siebel Systems case describes the unusual accountability and organizing choices made by managers of a successful, rapidly growing software development company. The case is set in 2002, but details the critical decisions made by founder... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Execution; Organization Design; Structure; Job Design; Diagnostic Control Systems; Customers; Strategy; Organizational Design

January 2024 (Revised February 2024)
Course Overview Note

Managing Customers for Growth: Course Overview for Students

By: Eva Ascarza

Managing Customers for Growth (MCG) is a 14-session elective course for second-year MBA students at Harvard Business School. It is designed for business professionals engaged in roles centered on customer-driven growth activities. The course explores the dynamics of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Making; Analytics and Data Science; Growth Management; Telecommunications Industry; Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; Education Industry; Travel Industry

October 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service, and Company Culture

By: Frances X. Frei, Robin J. Ely and Laura Winig

On July 17, 2009, Zappos.com, a privately held online retailer of shoes, clothing, and other soft line retail categories, learned that Amazon.com, a $19 billion multinational online retailer, had won its board of directors' approval to offer to merge the two companies.... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Internet and the Web; Valuation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry

02 Apr 2019
News

The Right Way to Get Your First 1,000 Customers

September 2010 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Liza Davis and the Bargain Hunting Customer

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez and Lisa Brem

Liza Davis, an upscale women's fashion retailer, is reeling from worldwide recession and lower demand. Should the company target the fast-growing bargain hunter segment or hold the line on price discounts to preserve their brand image? Customer profitability... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Price; Product Positioning; Customer Value and Value Chain; Business Cycles; Financial Crisis; Profit; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry

March 2000 (Revised January 2001)
Background Note

Customers in Health Care, The

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer

Reviews the current literature on the consumers of health care, primarily patients. Discusses their stated preferences, the sources of information they use in making their selections of plan and provider, and their behavior. View Details

Keywords: Customers; Health Care and Treatment; Information; Planning; Behavior; Health Industry

21 Mar 2016
HBS Case

Can Customer Reviews Be 'Managed?'

Brian Kenny: What motivated you to write the case? Why were you interested in it? Thales Teixeira: Some of my research is on the economics of attention and online reviews have amassed a vast amount of attention nowadays. People have... View Details

Keywords: by Brian Kenny; Advertising; Travel

10 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Why a Federal Rule on CEO Pay Disclosure May Get You In Trouble With Customers

specific hypothetical products like towels, participants shopped for gift cards. Again, overall, participants preferred the retailer with the low pay ratio. A follow-up study explored a related possibility: Consumers might assume that a company with a low pay ratio was... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

Winter 2013
Article

How to Identify the Best Customers for Your Business

By: Frank V. Cespedes, James P. Dougherty and Ben S. Skinner III

How can businesses achieve profitable growth so that their costs don’t grow faster than sales? This article focuses on scaling a venture’s sales process and provides a methodology for identifying core customers and some implications for governance criteria and... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Growth Management; Sales

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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

15 Jun 2018
News

How customer complaints help companies

01 Nov 2018
News

On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

01 Mar 2004
What Do You Think?

Are Customer Loyalty Initiatives Worth the Investment?

Summing Up This month's column presented two views of the importance of customer loyalty management, one challenging its feasibility and long-term impact (Michael Treacy, Double Digit Growth) and View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

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

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