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    CustomersRemove Customers →

    New research on customers from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including customer focus, customer relationship management, and measuring customer satisfaction.
    Page 1 of 102 Results →
    • 01 Aug 2023
    • Cold Call Podcast

    Can Business Transform Primary Health Care Across Africa?

    Re: Regina E. Herzlinger

    mPharma, headquartered in Ghana, is trying to create the largest pan-African health care company. Their mission is to provide primary care and a reliable and fairly priced supply of drugs in the nine African countries where they operate. Co-founder and CEO Gregory Rockson needs to decide which component of strategy to prioritize in the next three years. His options include launching a telemedicine program, expanding his pharmacies across the continent, and creating a new payment program to cover the cost of common medications. Rockson cares deeply about health equity, but his venture capital-financed company also must be profitable. Which option should he focus on expanding? Harvard Business School Professor Regina Herzlinger and case protagonist Gregory Rockson discuss the important role business plays in improving health care in the case, “mPharma: Scaling Access to Affordable Primary Care in Africa.”

    • 26 Jun 2023
    • Research & Ideas

    Want to Leave a Lasting Impression on Customers? Don't Forget the (Proverbial) Fireworks

    by Michael Blanding

    Some of the most successful customer experiences end with a bang. Julian De Freitas provides three tips to help businesses invest in the kind of memorable moments that will keep customers coming back.

    • 08 Aug 2022
    • HBS Case

    Building an 'ARMY' of Fans: Marketing Lessons from K-Pop Sensation BTS

    by Shalene Gupta

    Few companies can boast a customer base as loyal and engaged as BTS fans. In a case study, Doug Chung shares what marketers can learn from the boyband's savvy use of social media and authentic connection with listeners.

    • 17 May 2022
    • Cold Call Podcast

    Delivering a Personalized Shopping Experience with AI

    Re: Jill J. Avery

    THE YES, a shopping app for fashion brands, uses a sophisticated algorithm to create and deliver a personalized store for every shopper, based on her style preferences, size, and budget. After launching the app in 2020, the founders had to decide whether to continue developing the algorithm to deliver on the company’s customer value proposition or to focus their resources on new customer acquisition, with the idea that more users on the app would improve the algorithm's performance. Senior Lecturer Jill Avery and The YES co-founder and CEO Julie Bornstein discuss this make-or-break dilemma in the case, The YES: Reimagining the Future of e-Commerce with Artificial Intelligence (AI). This episode was recorded live at Harvard Business School on March 30, 2022 as part of our Case Method 100 celebration.

    • 28 Feb 2022
    • Research & Ideas

    How Racial Bias Taints Customer Service: Evidence from 6,000 Hotels

    by Pamela Reynolds

    Hotel concierges provide better service to white customers than Black and Asian customers, says research by Alexandra Feldberg and colleague. They offer three strategies to help companies detect bias on the front line. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 07 Jul 2021
    • Book

    Good News for Disgraced Companies: You Can Regain Trust

    by Lane Lambert

    Companies skilled at building trust focus on four key elements, say Sandra Sucher and Shalene Gupta in their book, The Power of Trust. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 05 Jul 2021
    • What Do You Think?

    Do Companies Really Need Chief Experience Officers to Know Their Customers?

    by James Heskett

    Does it take a CXO or chief customer officer to bring executives closer to the customer experience? James Heskett ponders the value of this increasingly popular role. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 04 May 2021
    • Book

    Best Buy: How Human Connection Saved a Failing Retailer

    by Michael Blanding

    In The Heart of Business, former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly shares how he revived the ailing electronics chain, offering a guide to leaders facing seemingly insurmountable challenges. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 04 Jan 2021
    • Working Paper Summaries

    The Twofold Effect of Customer Retention in Freemium Settings

    by Eva Ascarza, Oded Netzer, and Julian Runge

    Many digital products offer “freemiums”: that is, part of the product for free, often with advertising, and an enhanced customer experience for payment. This research, in a mobile game context, shows the importance of recognizing the short- and long-term effects on customer retention when managing the tradeoffs between free and paid aspects of freemium products.

    • 20 Aug 2020
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Can Shared Service Delivery Increase Customer Engagement? A Study of Shared Medical Appointments

    by Ryan W. Buell, Kamalini Ramdas, and Nazlı Sönmez

    Shared service delivery means that customers are served in groups rather than individually. Results from a large-scale study of glaucoma follow-up appointments at a major eye hospital indicate that shared service delivery can significantly improve patients’ verbal and non-verbal engagement.

    • 06 Jul 2020
    • Research & Ideas

    The Right Way to Manage Customer Churn for Maximum Profit

    by Michael Blanding

    Many companies actively manage customer churn but aren't seeking out the best customers to retain, warns Sunil Gupta. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 16 Jun 2020
    • Research & Ideas

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

    by Rohit Deshpandé, Ofer Mintz, and Imran S. Currim

    The coronavirus makes your customers less able and less willing to spend than before. How should you re-engage with them? Advice from Rohit Deshpandé and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 01 Jun 2020
    • What Do You Think?

    Will Challenged Amazon Tweak Its Retail Model Post-Pandemic?

    by James Heskett

    James Heskett's readers have little sympathy for Amazon's loss of market share during the pandemic. Has the organization lost its ability to learn? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 27 Feb 2020
    • Sharpening Your Skills

    How Following Best Business Practices Can Improve Health Care

    by Sean Silverthorne

    Why do Harvard Business School scholars spend so much time and money analyzing health care delivery? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 17 Feb 2020
    • Sharpening Your Skills

    How Entrepreneurs Can Find the Right Problem to Solve

    by Julia Austin

    Identifying a customer's pain points is the first step for entrepreneurs in developing a new product. Julia Austin offers tips for choosing the right "job to be done." Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 30 Jan 2020
    • Research & Ideas

    The Upside of Highlighting a Product's Downsides

    by Danielle Kost

    Companies want to show their offerings in the best light. Ryan W. Buell and MoonSoo Choi find out what happens when they also embrace transparency, accentuating the positive—and the negative. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 09 Dec 2019
    • Research & Ideas

    Identify Great Customers from Their First Purchase

    by Kristen Senz

    Using data from their very first transaction, companies can identify shoppers who will create the best long-term value, says Eva Ascarza. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 28 Oct 2019
    • Research & Ideas

    Brick-and-Mortar Stores Are Making a Comeback

    by Jen McFarland Flint

    Left for dead alongside the retail highway, physical stores are suddenly finding new ways to compete, say Jill Avery and Antonio Moreno. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 05 Sep 2019
    • Working Paper Summaries

    The Value of Intermediation in the Stock Market

    by Marco Di Maggio, Mark Egan, and Francesco Franzoni

    Despite the rise of alternative trading platforms, high-touch broker trading remains prominent in institutional equity markets. The authors analyze how fees, research, quality of execution, and information can help explain how execution decisions and preferences vary across investors.

    • 21 Aug 2019
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Improving Customer Compatibility with Operational Transparency

    by Ryan W. Buell and MoonSoo Choi

    Service firms seeking prospective customers usually highlight the advantages of their offerings and downplay the tradeoffs. This study suggests a different approach: Provide transparency into advantages as well as tradeoffs. The transparency helps customers make informed decisions and can lead to better outcomes for both firms and customers over the long run.

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