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Either click here to review your order or continue to add content from another title.    Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Dixon, Matthew; Freeman, Karen; Toman, Nicholas Publication Date: 07/01/2010 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R1007L Subjects: Loyalty; Customer satisfaction; Customer service; Customer relationship management Academic Discipline: Service Management Product Description: The notion that companies must go above and beyond in their customer service activities is so entrenched that managers rarely examine it. But a study of more than 75,000 people interacting with contact center representatives or using self-service channels found that over-the-top efforts make little difference: All customers really want is a simple, quick solution to their problem. The Corporate Executive Board's Dixon and colleagues describe five loyalty-building tactics that every company should adopt: Reduce the need for repeat calls by anticipating and dealing with related downstream issues; arm reps to address the emotional side of customer interactions; minimize the need for customers to switch service channels; elicit and use feedback from disgruntled or struggling customers; and focus on problem solving, not speed. The authors also introduce the Customer Effort Score and show that it is a better predictor of loyalty than customer satisfaction measures or the Net Promoter Score. And they make available to readers a related diagnostic tool, the Customer Effort Audit. They conclude that we are reaching a tipping point that may presage the end of the telephone as the main channel for service interactions-and that managers therefore have an opportunity to rebuild their service organizations and put reducing customer effort firmly at the core, where it belongs.    Zappos’s CEO on Going to Extremes for Customers   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Hsieh, Tony Publication Date: 07/01/2010 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R1007A Subjects: Core competencies; Brand management; Customer service; Customer experiences Academic Discipline: Service Management Product Description: In 2004 the biggest problem the online shoe retailer Zappos faced was how to staff its customer call center with dedicated, high-caliber service reps. The company's headquarters were in San Francisco, where the high cost of living-and the upwardly mobile Silicon Valley mentality-deterred people from making customer service a career. Although it is an internet company, Zappos finds that most customers telephone at least once at some point. Its philosophy is to view every one of the thousands of phone calls and e-mails it receives daily as an opportunity to build the very best customer service into the brand. To do that, Zappos would need to find call center reps elsewhere. But the outsourcing possibilities were disappointing, and the company's previous experience with using vendors for warehousing and shipping had been poor. Hsieh and his team realized that customer service should permeate the whole company, not just one department. So they decided to move their headquarters to Las Vegas, a 24/7 city where employees are used to working late hours and the economy is focused on hospitality. Surprisingly, more than 75% of the staff was willing to relocate, and the company culture became even stronger as a result of the move. Although Amazon now owns Zappos-which has expanded into clothing, housewares, cosmetics, and other items-Hsieh's customer service still strives to make a personal connection with shoppers. He calls the Zappos reps the best in the world.    Community Relations 2.0   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Kane, Gerald C.; Fichman, Robert G.; Gallaugher, John; Glaser, John Publication Date: 11/01/2009 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R0911C Subjects: Social capital; Outreach; Social media Academic Discipline: Service Management Product Description: Before the internet, organizations had far more time to monitor and respond to community activity, but that luxury is long gone, leaving them in dire need of a coherent outreach strategy, fresh skills, and adaptive tactics. Drawing on the authors' study of more than two dozen firms, this article describes the changes wrought by social media in particular and shows managers how to take advantage of them - lessons that Kaiser Permanente, Domino's, and others learned the hard way. Social media platforms enhance the power of communities by promoting deep relationships, facilitating rapid organization, improving the creation and synthesis of knowledge, and enabling robust filtering of information. The authors cite many examples from the health care industry, where social media participation is vigorous and influential. For instance, members of Sermo, an online network exclusively for doctors, used the site to call attention to and organize against insurers' proposed reimbursement cuts. And on PatientsLikeMe, where people share details about their chronic diseases and the treatments they've pursued, charts and progress curves help members visualize their own complex histories and allow comparisons and feedback among peers. As you modernize your company's approach to community outreach, you'll need to assemble a social media team equipped to identify new opportunities for engagement and prevent brand damage. In the most successful firms the authors studied, community management was a dedicated function, combining marketing, public relations, and information technology skill    Closing the Customer Feedback Loop   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Markey, Rob; Reichheld, Fred; Dullweber, Andreas Publication Date: 12/01/2009 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R0912C Subjects: Customer feedback Academic Discipline: Service Management Product Description: Realizing that customer retention is more critical than ever, companies have ramped up their efforts to listen to customers. But many struggle to convert their findings into practical prescriptions for customer-facing employees. Some companies are addressing that challenge, say three Bain & Company consultants, by creating feedback loops that start at the front line. They forgo elaborate, centralized feedback mechanisms in favor of quickly polling customers with the question, How likely are you to recommend us? Firms use the responses to calculate their Net Promoter Score (NPS), a metric everyone in the organization can track. The greatest impact comes from relaying the results immediately to the employees who just served the customers - and empowering those employees to act on any issues raised. Allianz used this method to pinpoint make-or-break customer experiences. Claims representatives in a European insurance operation, for instance, learned that delays in reimbursement were a huge source of frustration for customers. Workers rapidly solved the problem by developing a new set of protocols, which spurred a sizable increase in NPS - and in policy renewals. Over time, NPS feedback can also be compiled into a baseline of customer experience, which firms can then draw upon to field-test ideas or make process and policy refinements. The household fixture maker Grohe did this by tracking the effect that the number of sales calls had on NPS in one of its markets. Grohe saw that scores spiked at three visits and then fell off. In response, it cut back on unproductive customer contact and freed up 25% more sale    Art of Delivering Great Customer Service   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Stauffer, David Publication Date: 09/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Most companies pay lip service to great customer service. But the ability to consistently deliver great service eludes a lot of them. What's the secret? In addition to giving front-line employees the necessary information, authority, and motivation to provide good service, you must also teach them how to handle customers and solve problems. Here are 12 steps to a great customer interaction. Includes a sidebar on USAA's great customer-service record entitled "Sterling Service: Creating the Context." HBS Number: U9909B Subjects: Customer service; Service management Academic Discipline: Service management    Best Face Forward   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Rayport, Jeffrey F.; Jaworski, Bernard J. Publication Date: 12/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0412B Subjects: Competitive advantage; Customer relations; Customer service; Innovation; Service management Academic Discipline: Service management Product Description: Most companies serve customers through a broad array of interfaces, from retail sales clerks to Web sites to voice-response telephone systems. But although the typical company has an impressive interface collection, it doesn't have an interface system. That is, the whole set does not add up to the sum of its parts in its ability to provide service and build customer relationships. Too many people and too many machines operating with insufficient coordination (and often at cross-purposes) mean rising complexity, costs, and customer dissatisfaction. In a world where companies compete not on what they sell but on how they sell it, turning that liability into an asset is what separates winners from losers. In this adaptation of their forthcoming book by the same title, Jeffrey Rayport and Bernard Jaworski explain how companies must reengineer their customer interface systems for optimal efficiency and effectiveness. Part of that transformation, they observe, will involve a steady encroachment by machine interfaces into areas that have long been the sacred province of humans. Managers now have opportunities unprecedented in the history of business to use machines, not just people, to manage their interactions with customers credibly. Because people and machines each have their strengths and weaknesses, company executives must identify what people do best, what machines do best, and how to deploy them separately and together. Front-office reengineering subjects every current and potential service interface to an analysis of opportunities for substitution (using machines instead of people), complementa    Best Face Forward (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Rayport, Jeffrey F.; Jaworski, Bernard J. Publication Date: 01/18/2006 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 2947 Subjects: Competitive advantage; Customer relations; Customer service; Innovation; Service management Academic Discipline: Service management Product Description: Most companies serve customers through a broad array of interfaces, from retail sales clerks to Web sites to voice-response telephone systems. But although the typical company has an impressive interface collection, it doesn't have an interface system. That is, the whole set does not add up to the sum of its parts in its ability to provide service and build customer relationships. Too many people and too many machines operating with insufficient coordination (and often at cross-purposes) mean rising complexity, costs, and customer dissatisfaction. In a world where companies compete not on what they sell but on how they sell it, turning that liability into an asset is what separates winners from losers. In this adaptation of their forthcoming book by the same title, Jeffrey Rayport and Bernard Jaworski explain how companies must reengineer their customer interface systems for optimal efficiency and effectiveness. Part of that transformation, they observe, will involve a steady encroachment by machine interfaces into areas that have long been the sacred province of humans. Managers now have opportunities unprecedented in the history of business to use machines, not just people, to manage their interactions with customers credibly. Because people and machines each have their strengths and weaknesses, company executives must identify what people do best, what machines do best, and how to deploy them separately and together. Front-office reengineering subjects every current and potential service interface to an analysis of opportunities for substitution (using machines instead of people), complementarity (using a    Beyond Products: Services-Based Strategy   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Quinn, James Brian; Doorley, Thomas L.; Paquette, Penny C. Services technologies are changing the way companies compete. Vertical integration, physical facilities, even a seemingly superior product no longer assure a competitive edge. Sustainable advantage is more likely to come from developing superior capabilities in a few core service skills. Technology is increasing the leverage of service activities. These changes have far-reaching implications for the way managers structure their organizations and define strategic focus. HBS Number: 90212 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1990 Subjects: Competition; Organizational structure; Services; Strategic planning; Technological change    Can Patients Drive the Future of Health Care?   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Wyke, Alexandra As the traditional system of health care in the United States gives way to a regime run increasingly by the private sector, a powerful force is emerging: the patient. According to Harvard Business School professor Regina Herzlinger, health care is much like other service industries. Providers that hope to survive must cater to increasingly demanding and well-educated consumers. In a review of Herzlinger's book Market-Driven Health Care: Who Wins, Who Loses in the Transformation of America's Largest Service Industry, Alexandra Wyke, managing editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit, argues that the path to consumerism in medicine will be longer and bumpier than Herzlinger suggests. HBS Number: 97411 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1997 Subjects: Consumer behavior; Health care policy; High technology products; Hospital administration; Service management    Capturing the Value of Supplementary Services   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Anderson, James C.; Narus, James A. Virtually all managers are aware that the key to winning in the market today is tailoring one's offerings to the needs of each customer while maintaining low costs and prices. But most manufacturers have focused only on the products th HBS Number: 95101 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1995 Subjects: Customer service; Marketing strategy; Service management    Case of the Complaining Customer   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Finkelman, Dan; Goland, Tony Publication Date: 05/01/1990 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Shortly after installing a new computer system designed to provide quick and accurate service, the president of Presto Cleaner received an angry letter from a customer whose laundry had been lost by the system. The case study looks at the questions: How much service does a company or store owe a customer? Is the customer always right? Four authorities on customer service — Leonard A. Schlesinger, associate professor at the Harvard Business School; Dinah Nemeroff, corporate director of customer affairs at Citicorp/Citibank; Ron Zemke, president of Performance Research Associates; and Claus Moller, president of Time Management International — consider Presto Cleaner’s customer complaint. HBS Number: 90304 Subjects: Brief case; Computer systems; Customer relations; Customer service; HBR case discussions; Services Academic Discipline: Service management    Case of the Unhealthy Hospital   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Kovner, Anthony R. Blake Memorial Hospital was in poor financial health, due to rising costs and stagnating revenues. The hospital's quality of care was also a major problem, and its clinics were losing over $250,000 a year. As the new CEO worked on the 1992 budget, he saw he would have to cut some services in order to fund others. One service he was considering cutting was the clinic program. Experts from public service and health care comment on the issues. May be used with: (9-397-031) Decision-Making Exercise (A); (9-397-032) Decision-Making Exercise (B); (9-397-033) Decision-Making Exercise (C); (96408) Growing Pains. HBS Number: 91506 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1991 Subjects: Budgeting; Decision making; HBR Case Discussions; Health services; Hospital administration; Local government; Public administration; Service management    Center-Cut Solution   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Firnstahl, Timothy W. Timothy Firnstahl, restaurateur, faced rising costs, inefficient management, and a recession. Firnstahl got the answer to his problem from Mikhail Gorbachev: slash the centralized command and liberate the company. In doing so, he would also transfer virtually all power and responsibility to his line managers. And after five months of intensive study and planning, he accomplished what he set out to do. He fired most of his corporate staff, empowered his restaurant managers with "100% Power and Responsibility," and undertook a massive promotion campaign. HBS Number: 93304 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1993 Subjects: Cost control; Reorganization; Restaurants; Service management    Change with Your Customers—and Win Big   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): MacMillan, Ian C.; Selden, Larry Publication Date: 12/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0812B Subjects: Economic conditions; Market segmentation Academic Discipline: Service management Product Description: Downturns naturally reshape customers' needs. While competitors mindlessly cut costs, you should divide your customer base into new segments, whose emerging needs you can serve — and invest in — profitably. You'll increase market share and market capitalization.    Competing on Customer Service: An Interview with British Airways’ Sir Colin Mars   Add   View  24 pp.  Article Marshall, Chris; Prokesch, Steven E. Just because the competition is tough, that's no reason to be tough on customers, says Sir Colin Marshall, chairman of British Airways. Even in a cutthroat, mass-market business such as air travel, he argues, many people will pay a premium for good service--even those who travel economy. Marshall's views may be unconventional, but so is his company's performance: While the world airline industry has racked up billions of dollars in losses, British Airways has remained solidly profitable. HBS Number: 95607 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1995 Subjects: Airlines; Customer relations; Interviews; Marketing strategy; Service management    Consulting Is More Than Giving Advice   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Turner, Arthur N. Effective management consulting has eight fundamental objectives: responding to a client's request for information; providing solutions to specific problems; giving an in-depth, accurate diagnosis; presenting a program of recommended corrective actions; implementing changes; building consensus and commitment; facilitating client learning; and enhancing organizational effectiveness. HBS Number: 82510 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1982 Subjects: Business services; Consulting    Creating the Living Brand   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Bendapudi, Neeli; Bendapudi, Venkat Publication Date: 05/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: It's easy to conclude from the literature and the lore that top-notch customer service is the province of a few luxury companies and that any retailer outside that rarefied atmosphere is condemned to offer mediocre service at best. But even companies that position themselves for the mass market can provide outstanding customer-employee interactions and profit from them, if they train employees to reflect the brand's core values. The authors studied the convenience store industry in depth and focused on two that have developed a devoted following: QuikTrip (QT) and Wawa. Turnover rates at QT and Wawa are 14% and 22%, respectively, much lower than the typical rate in retail. The authors found six principles that both firms embrace to create a strong culture of customer service. Know what you're looking for: A focus on candidates' intrinsic traits allows the companies to hire people who will naturally bring the right qualities to the job. Make the most of talent: In mass-market retail, talent is generally viewed as a commodity — but that outlook becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Create pride in the brand: Service quality depends directly on employees' attachment to the brand. Build community: Wawa and QT have made concerted efforts to build customer loyalty through a sense of community. Share the business context: Employees need a clear understanding of how their company operates and how it defines success. Satisfy the soul: To win an employee's passionate engagement, a company must meet his or her needs for security, esteem, and justice. HBS Number: R0505G Subjects: Customer retention; Customer service; Employee development; Operations management; Retail stores; Service management Academic Discipline: Service management    Cyberservice: Taming Service Marketing Problems with the World Wide Web   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Pitt, Leyland; Berthon, Pierre R.; Watson, Richard T. Publication Date: 01/15/1999 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana Univ. HBS Number: BH035 Subjects: Internet marketing; Internet; Customer service Academic Discipline: Service Management Product Description: Service marketing is usually considered more difficult, complex, and onerous because of the problems created by characteristics unique to services. However, the World Wide Web has dramatically changed this received wisdom forever. Cyberservice not only overcomes previously imagined limitations of service marketing, it also creates new opportunities. The Web enables marketers to manage those characteristics — intangibility, simultaneity, heterogeneity, and perishability — once regarded as formidable barriers to service marketing. Web sites can, and should, lend a tangible dimension to services — if the quality, frequency of update, and server speed are up to par. The Web can even provide a “sample” of the service. Service marketers can use the Web to manage simultaneity by customizing, involving the customer as a part-time employee, industrializing services, and reducing customer errors. Cyberservice overturns the traditional hierarchy between products and service with its three unique characteristics: the ability to quantize, search, and automate.    Delivering Excellent Service: Lessons from the Best Firms   Add   View  19 pp.  Article Author(s): Ford, Robert; Heaton, Cherrill P.; Brown, Publication Date: 10/01/2001 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: Delivering excellent service is a challenge for most organizations. Although many aspire to it, the evidence from customer satisfaction surveys indicates that too few firms are able to deliver service excellence. On the other hand, some organizations consistently deliver excellent service. This article reviews ten lessons these benchmark service organizations have learned and shows how these organizations use them to meet and exceed the ever-rising expectations of their customers. These lessons can be emulated by any organization seeking such excellence. HBS Number: CMR214 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer service; Service organizations; Services Academic Discipline: Service management    Deregulation and Regulatory Backlash in Health Care   Add   View  21 pp.  Article Author(s): Robinson, James C. Publication Date: 10/01/2000 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: The American health care system is undergoing a market and organizational transformation analogous to the deregulation of the transportation, communication, utility, and finance industries, with price competition replacing rate controls, new entrants displacing organizational incumbents, innovation disrupting stability, and individual choice supplanting governmental oversight. These turbulent changes are generating uncertainty, hostility, and a backlash towards re-regulation. This article compares the evolution of the health care sector with the experiences of other deregulated industries, highlighting four effects that cut across all sectors. Deregulation and the role of price competition has led everywhere to: lower costs, due to better capacity utilization and improved productivity; increased differentiation of prices and products, moving away from the one-size-fits-all patterns characteristic of regulated industries; dynamic changes in both market and organizational structures, culminating in consolidation into multi-product, geographically diversified firms; and political backlash, fueled by uncertainty, organized producer groups, and selected groups of consumers who do not benefit from the overall cost and product improvements. HBS Number: CMR184 Subjects: Business government relations; Deregulation; Health care; Health care policy; Regulation Academic Discipline: Service management    Designing Services That Deliver   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Shostack, G. Lynn The root of most service problems is a lack of systematic design and control. The use of a blueprint can help a service developer not only to identify problems ahead of time but also to see the potential for new market opportunities. A service company that relies on ad hoc management is not equipped to react quickly to market needs and opportunities. HBS Number: 84115 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1984 Subjects: Customer relations; Operations management; Organizational design; Services    Developing Global Strategies for Service Businesses   Add   View  24 pp.  Article Lovelock, Christopher H.; Yip, George S. Provides a framework for developing global strategies for service businesses. Integrates existing, separate frameworks on globilization and on service businesses, analyzes how the distinctive characteristics of service businesses affect globalization and the use of global strategy, and diagnoses which aspects favor globalization and which do not. Applies the new framework to numerous industry and company examples, with particular emphasis on the role of information technology. HBS Number: CMR052 Type: CMR Article Publication Date: 1/1/1996 Subjects: Corporate strategy; Information technology; International business; Services Publisher: Publisher:California Management Review    Different Service Firms, Different Core Competencies   Add   View  11 pp.  Article Davis, Tim R.V. Service businesses are dominating most industrialized economies. Unfortunately, articles and texts too frequently offer generic prescriptions for managing them, as if they were a homogeneous class. Businesses in the growing service ind HBS Number: BH038 Type: Business Horizons Article Publication Date: 9/15/1999 Subjects: Core competency; Service management; Services; Strategy formulation; Strategy implementation Publisher: Publisher:Business Horizons/Indiana University    Don’t Take Calls, Make Contact   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Arussy, Lior Publication Date: 01/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Almost every call center strives to process inquiries and complaints quickly. But by stressing speed over service, centers usually end up annoying customers instead of helping them. Here's how to change that. HBS Number: F0201A Subjects: Customer relations; Customer retention; Customer service Academic Discipline: Service management    Driving Customer Satisfaction   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Taylor, Andy Publication Date: 07/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: It's one thing for people to believe in providing superior customer service; it's quite another to keep busy, ambitious, and largely autonomous managers focused on delivering it. Here's how they did it at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. HBS Number: F0207D Subjects: Customer relations; Customer service; Management of professionals; Managerial skills Academic Discipline: Service management    Effective Marketing for Professional Services   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Bloom, Paul N. Professional service firms are paying an increasing amount of attention to formal marketing practices to attract clients. The professionals are being prompted by legal sanctions, an overabundance of professionals, and a declining public image. Professional service firms are inhibited from freely using traditional marketing approaches by special challenges: strict ethical and legal constraints, buyer uncertainty, and the need to be perceived as having experience. HBS Number: 84504 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1984 Subjects: Professionals; Services    Executive Toolkit: Keeping the King Happy   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Obuchowski, Janice Publication Date: 04/01/2006 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: The customer is king — or at any rate, the customer should feel like a king in your business relationship. This article offers three approaches, identified by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, to anticipating and meeting the needs of your customers — and giving your valuable customers the royal treatment. HBS Number: U0604D Subjects: Customer experiences; Customer service; Personalization; Relationship-oriented behaviors; Service management Academic Discipline: Service management    Exploding the Self-Service Myth   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Moon, Youngme; Frei, Frances X. Many companies view the Internet as a self-service channel; they let customers help themselves. But self-service can frustrate customers. Smart players use technology to do more for the customer. HBS Number: F00304 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/2000 Subjects: Business models; Business to consumer; Customer service; Electronic commerce; Internet; Sales strategy; World Wide Web    Failed Revolution in Health Care: The Role of Management   Add   View  11 pp.  Article Herzlinger, Regina E. The 1980s held promise that at last the health care industry would begin to cut the acceleration of costs and improve service noticeably. Technology, moving fast, promised new devices and disease fighters to help the well-being of Americans. Costs continue to soar, treatment remains erratic in quality, slow, and often impersonal. While technology has come up with a string of cures and devices, its realization has meant little to most consumers. HBS Number: 89207 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1989 Subjects: Cost control; Financial management; Health services    How Do You Grow a Premium Brand?   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Maruca, Regina Fazio Gordon Johnston has taken his elite health-club concept from the germ of an idea to the pinnacle of success. But the most difficult decision in managing his company lies ahead. Gordon must figure out how to lead Transition fitness club HBS Number: 95205 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1995 Subjects: HBR Case Discussions; Marketing strategy; Pricing strategy; Service management    How Fidelity Invests in Service Professionals   Add   View  8 pp.  Article McColgan, Ellyn A. If you're in the business of service delivery, investment in the training and development of your staff is one of the keys to your company's success. But what's the best way to design and implement your investment? In 1994, Fidelity In HBS Number: 97109 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1997 Subjects: Employee training; Financial services; Service management    How the Arts Can Prosper Through Strategic Collaborations   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Scheff, Joanne; Kotler, Philip From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, the nonprofit performing-arts industry in the United States enjoyed unprecedented growth. But in recent years, the arts have been hard hit by shrinking audiences, rising debt, and cuts in government funding. Can arts organizations succeed in this environment and fulfill their own special mission? The authors have observed one way in which they can succeed: through strategic collaborations--intensive, durable commmitments created for mutual gain. HBS Number: 96111 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1996 Subjects: Arts administration; Joint ventures; Nonprofit marketing; Nonprofit organizations; Social enterprise    How to Buy/Sell Professional Services   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Wittreich, Warren J. Three key concepts are fundamental to professional services, and serve as a guide to the buying or selling of these services. First, a professional service must make a direct contribution to the reduction of the uncertainties involved in managing a business. Second, a professional service must address a specific, substantive problem of the business purchasing the service. Third, a professional service can only be purchased meaningfully from someone who is capable of rendering the service. HBS Number: 66213 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1966 Subjects: Business services; Consulting; Marketing strategy; Professionals; Services    In Loco Parentis?: The Purchaser Role in Managed Care   Add   View  17 pp.  Article Author(s): Bergthold, Linda; Koebler, Suzanne Olson; Publication Date: 10/01/2000 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: The role of American corporations as purchasers of health insurance for their employees has changed dramatically over the past several decades from a passive stance to an aggressive purchasing and policy-making role. The transformation has caused purchasers to question the appropriateness of their health benefit interventions for legal, ethical, and financial reasons. Recent research about the role of "medical necessity" in California managed care decision making reveals a number of problems purchasers face and describes solutions recommended by some purchasers to those problems. HBS Number: CMR185 Subjects: Health care; Health care policy; Health insurance; Managed care Academic Discipline: Service management    Industrialization of Service   Add   View  11 pp.  Article Levitt, Theodore The introduction of hard, soft, or hybrid technologies into service areas is the beginning of the industrialization of service. The key point is to increase the volume of service to a magnitude sufficient to achieve efficiency and to employ systems and technologies which produce reliable, rapid, and low-cost service results. Various cases illustrate problems of paperwork, service repairs, selling, and specialization, when implementing this management rationality. Service industrialization requires a set of processes and management that is much different from that used in the functional production of goods. HBS Number: 76506 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1976 Subjects: Services; Technological change    Investing in Relationships   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Gittell, Jody Hoffer Publication Date: 06/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: In a roundtable discussion, top executives from Southwest Airlines reveal that relationships with the company's unions and frontline supervisors may actually be more important to its success than the operational focus for which it is so well known. HBS Number: F0106D Subjects: Airlines; Employees; Interviews; Labor relations; Operations management; Service management; Work force management Academic Discipline: Service management    Leadership That Focuses on the Customer—Really   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Field, Anne Publication Date: 07/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article HBS Number: U0707A Subjects: Communication in organizations; Customer profitability; Customer retention; Leadership & managing people; Management communication; Service profit chain Academic Discipline: Service management Product Description: Many executives and managers exhort their followers to make the customer the center of everything they do. Yet for all the passion and conviction of their words, genuine customer focus remains theory rather than practice. What can you do to make customer focus a reality in your organization? In this article, HMU distills expert wisdom on building customer satisfaction and loyalty.    Lessons in the Service Sector   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Heskett, James L. The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co. (HSB) dominates the market segment in which it operates. Its success comes largely from the company's service delivery system, a joint product of HSB's marketing and operating managers. Vital to strategy implementation is involving the employees who deliver the service. Successful companies focus on shared values, control by peer groups, generous incentives, and--where possible--a close relationship with the customer. Using databases imaginatively permits many of these businesses to substitute information for assets that both enhance service effectiveness to existing customers and attract new ones. HBS Number: 87206 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1987 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer service; Services    Look to Consumers to Increase Productivity   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Lovelock, Christopher H.; Young, Robert F. As the service industry segment of the economy burgeons, the drop in productivity in the sector becomes more serious. The problems encountered in trying to solve this dilemma have been rooted in management's ignorance of consumer attitudes and behavior. Seven suggested steps to avoid insensitivity to consumers are: develop customer trust, understand customers' habits, pretest new procedures and equipment, understand the determinants of consumer behavior, teach consumers how to use service innovations, promote the benefits and simulate trial, and monitor and evaluate performance. It behooves the service industry to adopt a marketing perspective that involves consumers in product development and seeks to educate them to newer and more productive processes. HBS Number: 79310 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1979 Subjects: Consumer behavior; Consumer marketing; Customer relations; Product introduction; Productivity; Services    Loyalty-Based Management   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Reichheld, Frederick F. Few companies have systematically revamped their operations with customer loyalty in mind. MBNA credit cards and State Farm Insurance are successful because they have designed their business around customer loyalty--a self-reinforcing HBS Number: 93210 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1993 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer retention; Customer service; Employee morale; Job satisfaction; Loyalty; Service management    Loyalty-Based Management (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Reichheld, Frederick F. Publication Date: 11/15/2000 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: HBR OnPoint Articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. Few companies have systematically revamped their operations with customer loyalty in mind. MBNA credit cards and State Farm Insurance are successful because they have designed their business around customer loyalty--a self-reinforcing system in which the company delivers superior value and reinvents cash flows to find and keep customers and employees. When a company consistently delivers superior value and wins customer loyalty, market share and revenues go up and the cost of acquiring new customers goes down. The company then can pay workers better. Increased pay boosts employee morale and commitment; as employees stay longer, their productivity goes up and training costs fall; employees' overall job satisfaction, combined with their experience, helps them serve customers better; and customers are then more inclined to stay loyal to the company. Finally, as the best customers and employees become part of the loyalty-based system, competitors are left to survive with less desirable customers and less talented employees. HBS Number: 5432 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer retention; Customer service; Employee morale; Job satisfaction; Loyalty; Service management Academic Discipline: Service management    Managing Customer Support Knowledge   Add   View  15 pp.  Article Author(s): Davenport, Thomas H.; Klahr, Philip Publication Date: 04/01/1998 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: The management of customer support knowledge is increasingly important to organizations because of rapid product change and the growing need for service-based differentiation. This article describes how organizations, particularly in high-technology industries, are both managing their own support knowledge and extending its use to customers for self-service. Among the issues addressed are the key attributes of customer support knowledge, the technologies most commonly used to manage support knowledge, and the management issues most frequently faced by customer support knowledge managers. HBS Number: CMR116 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer service; Knowledge management; Service management Academic Discipline: Service management    Managing Organizational Transformation: Lessons from the VHA   Add   View  18 pp.  Article Author(s): Young, Gary J. Publication Date: 10/01/2000 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: Managing an organizational transformation is a risky and difficult endeavor. This article examines the lessons learned from the transformation of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), one of the largest agencies in the federal government. The transformation, which has proven to be highly successful, has focused on changing the agency from a health care delivery system emphasizing inpatient-oriented tertiary care to a health care delivery system that can meet the growing needs of veterans for outpatient-oriented primary care. The VHA's experience reveals the importance of selecting leaders whose qualifications match the needs of the transformation, developing a coherent transformation plan, maintaining a focus on key transformation goals, and managing external changes to complement internal ones. In addition, the VHA's experience reminds us that a transformation often raises significant issues concerning employee training and education, communication with frontline employees, and the balance between centralized control and operating unit flexibility. HBS Number: CMR187 Subjects: Government agencies; Health care; Health organizations management; Health services; Organizational change Academic Discipline: Service management    Managing Our Way to Higher Service-Sector Productivity   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Van Biema, Michael; Greenwald, Bruce C. In the two decades following World War II, U.S. productivity grew at an annual rate of 3%. But since the beginning of the 1970s, it has grown at only about 1%. What is preventing a productivity revival in the U.S. economy? Clearly not the manufacturing sector, which has rebounded since the early 1980s. The service sector, on the other hand, has seen productivity growth rates stagnate during the same period. Why? Michael Van Biema and Bruce Greenwald believe that the usual explanations are incomplete and have resulted in some serious misconceptions. The authors point out the limitations of those explanations and offer one of their own. They lay the blame in two places: the ineffectiveness of many service-sector managers at improving productivity and the inherent complexity of the sector itself. HBS Number: 97410 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1997 Subjects: Government policy; Manufacturing; Productivity; Work force management    Many Happy (Product) Returns   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Stock, James; Speh, Thomas; Shear, Herbert Publication Date: 07/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Product returns have become an increasing burden for makers and sellers of almost every kind of good. But some savvy companies are finding that a good returns-handling system can actually enhance relationships with customers and suppliers--and ultimately boost profits. HBS Number: F0207A Subjects: Customer relations; Product lines; Suppliers Academic Discipline: Service management    Mapping the World of Customer Satisfaction   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Maruca, Regina Fazio The drivers of customer satisfaction vary greatly from country to country. But traditional customer surveys rarely uncover those variations. Now there's a better way. HBS Number: F00306 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/2000 Subjects: Brand management; Brands; Cross cultural relations; Customer relations; Customer retention; Customer service    Market Segmentation Strategies and Service Sector Productivity   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Keltner, Brent; Finegold, David; Mason, Geoff; Wagner, Karin Publication Date: 07/01/1999 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: Conventional explanations for lagging U.S. service sector productivity focus on the difficulties of measuring service output, a lack of sufficient competition in service industries, and poor management skills. Drawing on data collected in 95 service establishments in the banking and hotel industries in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany, this article suggests an alternative explanation. U.S. service companies may effectively be achieving low levels of labor productivity by design. The U.S. service establishments in this study are productivity leaders in low value-added market segments but productivity laggards in higher value-added market segments. They have consciously chosen to adjust the labor intensity of service delivery to the business potential of different customer segments. Varying the design of service processes by customer segment has lowered measured productivity levels but may be supporting higher levels of business performance. HBS Number: CMR157 Subjects: Market segmentation; Productivity; Service industries; Service management Academic Discipline: Service management    Match Supply and Demand in Service Industries   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Sasser, W. Earl, Jr. Good planning is the key to the creative management of supply and demand in service industries. The two extreme strategies for matching demand for services with capacity to supply them are "chase demand" and "level capacity." Service managers alter demand with the following demand-leveling options: pricing, developing nonpeak demand, developing complementary services, and creating reservation systems. They adjust capacity to fluctuating demand by using part-time employees, maximizing efficiency, increasing consumer participation, sharing capacity, and investing in expansion. The challenge to the service manager is to find the best fit between demand and capacity. HBS Number: 76608 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1976 Subjects: Capacity planning; Services; Supply & demand    My Employees Are My Service Guarantee   Add   View  6 pp.  Article Firnstahl, Timothy W. A customer satisfaction guarantee is meaningless if customers must jump through hoops whenever they complain. To satisfy them, it is necessary to make immediate amends--by giving employees both the obligation and the authority to honor a guarantee on their own and on the spot. In restaurants this may mean giving away drinks and food or picking up a check. Although this initially incurs high costs, each time something is given away a problem that can be fixed is identified. Finding and correcting the ultimate cause of each system failure leads to fewer complaints, higher sales, and lower costs. HBS Number: 89407 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1989 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer service; Employee empowerment; Services    My Week as a Room-Service Waiter at the Ritz   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Hemp, Paul Publication Date: 06/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: You can learn a lot from closely observing a business committed to excellent customer service; you can learn even more from actually trying to provide that service. Paul Hemp, an HBR senior editor, spent a week being trained and then working as a room-service waiter at Ritz-Carlton's Boston Common hotel. His tale, though sometimes humbling, offers lessons that managers in any service business might use to improve employee-customer interactions. The author first participated in a two-day orientation program at the Ritz-Carlton, which gave him a chance to learn how the company inculcates its service philosophy in new employees. Upon completion of the program, he went to work, first with a veteran room-service waiter at his side, then on his own. His aim was to put into practice the Ritz-Carlton service precepts, including its motto: “We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.” The author draws a number of conclusions from his experiences. Great service, he finds, should be based on dynamic principles rather than rigid formulas. Also, managers can build employees' emotional commitment to their jobs by emphasizing company traditions. Such commitment serves as a driver of excellent customer service only when employees are empowered to take initiative. And that empowerment has no potency unless employees are motivated to seize it. This depends in part on the kind of people you hire. For one thing, job candidates should exhibit not only concern for others but also genuine empathy — the ability to get inside customers' heads and anticipate their needs and desires. HBS Number: R0206B Subjects: Customer relations; Customer retention; Customer service Academic Discipline: Service management    New Back Office Focuses on Customer Service   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Matteis, Richard J. Citibank overhauled its service areas with a minicomputer and processing models copied from the manufacturing industry. However, this system was insufficient to provide personalized customer services. By decentralizing their system and reorganizing along market segments, the bank created National, World, and Industrial groups. The reorganization provides opportunities for advancement, better accountability of individual performance, and greater efficiency which markedly improves morale. HBS Number: 79204 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1979 Subjects: Banking; Customer relations; Customer service; Decentralization; Services; Systems design    New Old-Fashioned Banking   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Grzywinski, Ronald In a once-impoverished inner city section of Chicago, South Shore Bank has combined what its owners call old-fashioned commercial banking with a progressive social agenda to transform the neighborhood, without forcing out its old residents. It designated itself a community development bank, extending credit to residents to support small business, restore community self-confidence, and reinvigorate market forces. HBS Number: 91306 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1991 Subjects: Commercial banking; Community relations; Corporate responsibility; Service management; Social change; Urban development    New Productivity Challenge   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Drucker, Peter F. The developed countries need a productivity revolution in knowledge and service work. The country that first achieves such gains will dominate the economic landscape in the next century. The key to this new productivity revolution is closely examining work in five distinct steps: 1) defining the task; 2) concentrating on the task; 3) defining performance; 4) getting worker input on productivity improvement; and 5) building continuous learning into the organization. HBS Number: 91605 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1991 Subjects: Employee training; Performance measurement; Productivity; Services    Organizing Work in Service Firms   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Author(s): Metters, Richard; Vargas, Vicente Publication Date: 07/15/2000 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University Product Description: A cornerstone of manufacturing practice has been to separate complex tasks into simple ones for economies of scale, and service industry practice has followed a variation of this principle by splitting up high and low customer contact activities to cut costs. Low-contact activities are removed from front office jobs, standardized, and centralized in some remote back office to achieve scale economies. Here, the authors question this principle; the choice of how to organize back office work carries strategic implications. Their model provides four approaches illustrating different strategies, based on data from a study of retail bank lending operations and using examples from other service industries. The decoupling of front- and back-office operations hinges not only on cost but whether the service firm's strategy is one of cost leadership, dedicated service, premium service, or cheap convenience. Each distinct strategy poses a different set of trade-offs and important managerial issues. Decoupling can be eschewed to decrease costs, or embraced to enhance responsiveness in the front office. HBS Number: BH051 Subjects: Operations management; Service management; Services; Strategy implementation Academic Discipline: Service management    Power of Internal Guarantees   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Hart, Christopher W.L. An internal guarantee is a commitment by one part of an organization to another to deliver its product or service to the complete satisfaction of the internal customer. If it fails to do so, it will incur a meaningful penalty, monetary HBS Number: 95106 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1995 Subjects: Interdepartmental relations; Service management; Total quality    Power of Unconditional Service Guarantees   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Hart, Christopher W.L. Most fears about guaranteeing service are groundless. But offering a weak guarantee won't lead to success. The best guarantee is unconditional, meaningful, and easy to understand, invoke, and collect. Properly implemented, a strong guarantee boosts performance; sets clear-cut, customer-defined goals; creates a customer-oriented work force; and generates error data needed for improvement. A strong service guarantee can also boost marketing. It leads to more satisfied customers who generate higher sales and profits. McKinsey Award Winner. May be used with: (9-689-004) Westlake Cinemas: Designing a Service Guarantee. HBS Number: 88405 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1988 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer service; McKinsey Award Winners; Quality control; Sales management; Services    President and the Power of the Purchaser: Consumer Protection and Managed Care   Add   View  19 pp.  Article Author(s): Gitterman, Daniel P. Publication Date: 10/01/2000 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: This article highlights the President's formal and informal capacity to act unilaterally, and thus potentially to regulate managed care on his own, through the government's role as a buyer--what is referred to here as the "power of the purchaser." Presidents can act independently to shift policy in any way they wish, and there it will stay until and unless either Congress, the courts, or the market effectively responds. By the strategic use of executive orders and directives to the federal bureaucracy, President Clinton used the "power of the purchaser" to implement a range of consumer protections as a condition in any contract between federal "public" purchasers and health plans. In practice, those health plans and insurers wishing to do business with the federal government must meet the President's terms; others either need not enter into a contract or exit ex-post when they oppose the nature of the new provisions. HBS Number: CMR189 Subjects: Health care; Health care policy; Health insurance; Political process Academic Discipline: Service management    Production-Line Approach to Service   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Levitt, Theodore All industries are, effectively, service industries. Some industries merely have greater service components than others. Many so-called service industries such as fast food, mutual funds, and credit cards have applied manufacturing solutions to people-intensive service problems. To gain benefits, managers should consider the problems and desired output; how to redesign the process and install new tools that automate the job; and how to control people's behavior and channel their choices. The primary objective is to serve the customer's needs efficiently and effectively, and to make customer service an integral part of what the customer buys. McKinsey Award Winner. HBS Number: 72505 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1972 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer service; McKinsey Award Winners; Services    Profitable Art of Service Recovery   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Hart, Christopher W.L.; Heskett, James L.; Sasser, W. Earl, Jr. Service companies often cannot prevent mistakes, but they can learn to recover from them and thereby retain an unhappy customer. Recovery begins by identifying the problem, then acting quickly to correct it. Most important, service companies should give front-line employees the authority and responsibility to do what is necessary to correct a service mistake, even if it means deviating from the rules. HBS Number: 90407 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1990 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer retention; Customer service; Employee empowerment; Services    Profits with a Purpose: An Interview with Tom Chapman   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Chapman, Tom Greater Southeast Community Hospital is located in the center of one of Washington, D.C.'s most troubled and isolated neighborhoods. Like so many inner-city hospitals, it serves a population struggling with high rates of poverty, crime HBS Number: 92602 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1992 Subjects: Business & society; Community relations; Health; Health services; Hospital administration; Nonprofit organizations    Program Budgeting Works in Nonprofit Institutions   Add   View  11 pp.  Article Macleod, Roderick K. The management and trustees of nonprofit service organizations satisfy supporters' demands for better expenditure controls of their contributions by means of cost accounting procedures. The cost accounting of professional services pinpoints sources and uses of funds and facilitates decisions on money allocation. In the described example, management and trustees observe the establishment of a planning and accounting system at a once-drifting mental health clinic employing about 100 professionals. HBS Number: 71510 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1971 Subjects: Cost accounting; Health services; Nonprofit organizations; Planning; Services    Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Heskett, James L.; Jones, Thomas O.; Loveman, Gary; Sasser, W. Earl, Jr.; Schlesinger, Leonard A. Publication Date: 07/01/2000 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article 94204, originally published in March/April 1994. HBR OnPoint articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. In the new economics of service, frontline workers and customers need to be the center of management concern. Successful service managers heed the factors that drive profitability in this new service paradigm -- investment in people, technology that supports frontline workers, revamped recruiting and training practices, and compensation linked to performance. The service-profit chain, developed from analyses of successful service organizations, establishes relationships between profitability, customer loyalty, and employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity. The authors provide a service-profit chain audit that helps companies determine what drives their profit and suggests actions that can lead to long-term profitability. HBS Number: 4460 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer retention; Customer service; Loyalty; Performance measurement; Profitability analysis; Service management; Services Academic Discipline: Service management    Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Heskett, James L.; Jones, Thomas O.; Loveman, Gary W.; Sasser, W. Earl, Jr.; Schlesinger, Leonard A. Publication Date: 03/01/1994 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: 94204 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer retention; Customer service; Loyalty; Performance measurement; Profitability analysis; Service management; Services Academic Discipline: Service management Product Description: In the new economics of service, frontline workers and customers need to be the center of management concern. Successful service managers heed the factors that drive profitability in this new service paradigm — investment in people, technology that supports frontline workers, revamped recruiting and training practices, and compensation linked to performance. The service-profit chain, developed from analyses of successful service organizations, establishes relationships between profitability, customer loyalty, and employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity. The authors provide a service-profit chain audit that helps companies determine what drives their profit and suggests actions that can lead to long-term profitability. May be used with: (9-403-006) Cirque du Soleil; (9-898-007) Sears, Roebuck and Co. (A): Turnaround.    Quality Control in a Service Business   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Hostage, G.M. In a service organization, quality control of employee attitudes and performance is comparable to product quality control in manufacturing. The Marriott Corp. pursues an elaborate 'rescue' operation to keep good management people after recruitment and training. This rescue operation which provides employees with challenge, satisfaction and growth in their jobs, consists of eight programs including: Individual Development; Management Training; Manpower Planning; and Career Progression. Other programs include: annual Opinion Surveys; Fair Treatment; and Profit Sharing. HBS Number: 75405 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1975 Subjects: Employee attitude; Management development; Personnel policies; Quality control; Services    Quality Improvement Customers Didn’t Want   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Iacobucci, Dawn Is investing in new technology always the right choice for a company and its customers? Allan Moulter, the CEO of Quality Care, isn't sure he wants to invest in the computerized reception system that consultant Jack Zadow has outlined HBS Number: 96106 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1996 Subjects: Computer systems; Customer service; HBR Case Discussions; Hospital administration; Service management    Quality Is More Than Making a Good Product   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Takeuchi, Hirotaka; Quelch, John A. The quality of customer service is often as important as the quality of the product. A company can evaluate its customer service by performing a customer service audit. To effectively implement a customer service program the company should educate customers; educate employees; be efficient first, nice second; standardize service response systems; develop a pricing policy; involve subcontractors, if necessary; and evaluate the customer service operation. HBS Number: 83417 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1983 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer service; Marketing strategy; Operations management; Quality control; Total quality    Radical Prescription for Hospitals   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Goldsmith, Jeff In recent years hospitals have found themselves in financial trouble. Demand has plummeted because technological advances in treatment and changes in practice patterns have made most traditional institutional care unnecessary. Hospitals' new mission is to manage the course of chronic illness - maintaining patients, in a stable condition or restoring them to adequate functional levels. This requires taking services to the patient as much as bringing the patient to the hospital. HBS Number: 89306 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1989 Subjects: Health services; Management of change; Organizational development    Rate Yourself as a Client   Add   View  7 pp.  Article Jay, Anthony The talent for making good use of professional advisors ranks as one of the most necessary skills for an executive. Certain types of client attitude and behavior lead to success while other behaviors lead to failure. Twenty-five rules for the successful use of professional consultants and advisors examine the problems of hiring and fees, and the common grievances of consultants and clients. Advisors and clients both commit a set of "seven deadly sins" which need to be eliminated as soon as they occur. HBS Number: 77408 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1977 Subjects: Consulting; Executives; Managerial skills; Professionals; Services    Selling to the Debt-Averse Consumer   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Janszen, Eric Publication Date: 07/01/2009 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0907R Subjects: Consumers; Debt management; Long term financing Academic Discipline: Service management Product Description: The era of unbridled, debt-financed consumer spending is over: Today's shoppers are tightfisted. To win them over, companies need to offer value and utility and build messages that emphasize getting back to basics.    Service Comes First: An Interview with USAA’s Robert F. McDermott   Add   View  12 pp.  Article McDermott, Robert F.; Teal, Thomas A. In this interview, Robert McDermott tells how he has built customer service into the very fiber of the insurance company he heads--USAA. His successful service recipe has three principal ingredients: 1) A niche market (active and former military officers and their families); 2) Progressive employment practices and commitment to continuous development of its work force; and 3) Innovative use of technology, including imaging and expert systems. HBS Number: 91508 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1991 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer service; Employee training; Information systems; Insurance; Interviews; Performance appraisal; Service management    Service Companies: Focus or Falter   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Davidow, William H.; Uttal, Bro To gain an edge in service marketing, first one must build a strategy. That strategy must limit itself operationally and in scope or one ends up with service too diffused and ineffective. Customers can be classified in many ways; two obvious ways are the cost and convenience of serving a particular group. Good service meets or exceeds customers' expectations. A service provider can do a lot to position itself so that it can manage these expectations. HBS Number: 89403 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1989 Subjects: Marketing strategy; Service management; Services    Service With a Very Big Smile   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Harvard Business Review Publication Date: 05/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0705C Subjects: Customer relations; Customer service Academic Discipline: Service management Product Description: New research confirms that the bigger the employees' smiles, the happier the customers.    Service-Driven Service Company   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Schlesinger, Leonard A.; Heskett, James L. For more than 40 years, service companies like McDonald's prospered with organizations designed according to the principles of traditional mass-production manufacturing. Today that model is obsolete, and companies like Taco Bell, Dayton Hudson, and ServiceMaster have chosen to reverse the cycle of failure by putting workers with customer contact first and designing the business around them. They are developing a model that replaces the logic of industrialization with a new service-driven logic. HBS Number: 91511 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1991 Subjects: Corporate strategy; Customer service; Employee training; Organizational development; Service industries; Service management; Services    Services Supply Management: The Next Frontier for Improved Organizational Performance   Add   View  24 pp.  Article Author(s): Ellram, Lisa M.; Tate, Wendy L.; Billington, Corey Publication Date: 08/01/2007 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review HBS Number: CMR371 Industry Setting: Service industries Subjects: Performance measurement; Purchasing; Service management; Suppliers; Supply chains Academic Discipline: Service management Product Description: Explores how the purchase of services is managed within the organization, the risks associated with current services purchasing practices, and how to improve the professional management of services purchases. Survey data obtained from benchmarking research performed by CAPS Center for Strategic Supply Research reveal that purchasing services is viewed as more difficult than purchasing goods. In addition, while purchasing of services is growing in importance and magnitude, the resources to manage it are not. Accordingly, there are huge opportunities for organizations to improve their services purchasing in terms of cost and value by dedicating more, and perhaps different, resources to services purchasing. Developing an outstanding capability to purchase services, and to manage that purchase, could truly be the next frontier for improved supply chain and organizational performance.    Silo Busting: How to Execute on the Promise of Customer Focus   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Gulati, Ranjay Publication Date: 05/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0705F Subjects: Commodities; Customer satisfaction; Customer service; Restructuring Academic Discipline: Service management Product Description: For many senior executives, shifting from selling products to selling solutions — packages of products and services — is a priority in today's increasingly commoditized markets. Companies, however, aren't always structured to make that shift. Knowledge and expertise often reside in silos, and many companies have trouble harnessing their resources across those boundaries in a way that customers value and are willing to pay for. Some companies — like GE Healthcare, Best Buy, and commercial real estate provider Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) — have restructured themselves around customer needs to deliver true solutions. They did so by engaging in four sets of activities: Coordination. To deliver customer-focused solutions, three things must occur easily across boundaries: information sharing, division of labor, and decision making. Sometimes this involves replacing traditional silos with customer-focused ones, but more often it entails transcending existing boundaries. JLL has experimented with both approaches. Cooperation. Customer-centric companies, such as Cisco Systems, develop metrics for customer satisfaction and incentives that reward customer-focused cooperation. Most also shake up the power structure so that people who are closest to customers have the authority to act on their behalf. Capability. Delivering customer-focused solutions requires some employees to be generalists instead of specialists. They need experience with more than one product or service, a deep knowledge of customer needs, and the ability to traverse internal boundaries. Connection. By combining their offerings with those of a partner, companies c    Six Sigma Meets the Service Economy   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Biolos, Jim Publication Date: 11/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Developed at Motorola in the 1980s, Six Sigma was meant to improve quality in manufacturing industries. But Six Sigma is not just for nuts and bolts anymore. Now, companies are using it to shape up such nonmanufacturing processes as accounts receivable, sales, and R&D. The issue now is not whether Six Sigma should be considered for service firms and service functions, but when and how. Read four important steps you should take to adapt Six Sigma methods at your company. HBS Number: U0211A Subjects: Corporate strategy; Organizational structure; Quality control; Service management; Service organizations; Strategy formulation Academic Discipline: Service management    Strategy Is Different in Service Businesses   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Thomas, Dan R.E. Understanding the basic differences between service businesses and manufacturing businesses is essential to the strategic management of a service business. Most managers of service businesses continue to think of strategy in product-oriented terms, despite the fact that much of this approach is actually irrelevant to their companies. Six suggested questions focus on topics these managers should consider about strategic management. HBS Number: 78411 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1978 Subjects: Corporate strategy; Services    Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety   Add   View  21 pp.  Article Author(s): Gaba, David M. Publication Date: 10/01/2000 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: A recent report from the Institute of Medicine has focused attention anew on the incidence of medical errors in the health care industry. While there is a relatively large body of research on how organizations can operate in a highly reliable manner, and thus avoid such errors, little of that work has been done in the health care field. This article discusses the ways in which the health care industry has failed to meet systematically the standards for achieving high reliability, based in part on two existing theories about the management of high-hazard environments--High Reliability Organization Theory (HROT) and Normal Accidents Theory (NAT). HBS Number: CMR188 Subjects: Health care; Health services; Occupational safety; Risk management Academic Discipline: Service management    Structural Problems of Managed Care in CA and Some Options for Ameliorating Them   Add   View  17 pp.  Article Author(s): Singer, Sara J.; Enthoven, Alain C. Publication Date: 10/01/2000 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: Of the two main types of health maintenance organizations (HMOs), IPA/network HMOs (which contract with independent practice associations (IPAs) and other medical groups) have grown faster than group/staff HMOs (which partner with exclusive multi-specialty medical groups or employ staff physicians). However, because the IPA/network HMOs in California contract with wide and overlapping networks of physicians and hospitals in order to satisfy purchaser demand, these arrangements suffer from inefficiencies that confound and frustrate physicians and consumers and these arrangements fail to provide the highest-quality, most-economic care. This article reviews the historical context and growth of managed care in California and then delineates efficiency problems due to overlapping networks of IPA/network HMOs. The authors also review a variety of potential strategies for addressing these problems and discuss advantages and disadvantages of each option. HBS Number: CMR186 Subjects: Health care; Health organizations management; HMOs; Managed care Academic Discipline: Service management    Taking the Measure of Mood   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): O'Connell, Patrick Publication Date: 03/01/2006 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: The Inn at Little Washington, a top U.S. restaurant, takes ``know the customer'' to a new level. Co-owner and Executive Chef Patrick O'Connell explains. HBS Number: F0603F Geographic Setting: United States Industry Setting: Restaurant industry Subjects: Behavior; Customer relations; Customer relationship management; Customer service Academic Discipline: Service management    Understanding Customer Experience   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Meyer, Christopher; Schwager, Andre Publication Date: 02/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0702G Subjects: Customer experiences; Customer relationship management; Customers Academic Discipline: Service management Product Description: Anyone who has signed up for cell phone service, attempted to claim a rebate, or navigated a call center has probably suffered from a company's apparent indifference to what should be its first concern: the customer experiences that culminate in either satisfaction or disappointment and defection. Customer experience is the subjective response customers have to direct or indirect contact with a company. It encompasses every aspect of an offering: customer care, advertising, packaging, features, ease of use, reliability. Customer experience is shaped by customers' expectations, which largely reflect previous experiences. Few CEOs would argue against the significance of customer experience or against measuring and analyzing it. But many don't appreciate how those activities differ from CRM or just how illuminating the data can be. For instance, the majority of the companies in a recent survey believed they have been providing “superior” experiences to customers, but most customers disagreed. The authors describe a customer experience management (CEM) process that involves three kinds of monitoring: past patterns (evaluating completed transactions), present patterns (tracking current relationships), and potential patterns (conducting inquiries in the hope of unveiling future opportunities). Data are collected at or about touch points through such methods as surveys, interviews, focus groups, and online forums. Companies need to involve every function in the effort, not just a single customer-facing group. The authors go on to illustrate how a cross-functional CEM system is created. With such a system, com    Understanding the Postrecession Consumer   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Flatters, Paul; Willmott, Michael Publication Date: 07/01/2009 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0907P Subjects: Consumer behavior; Forecasting; Recessions Academic Discipline: Service management Product Description: How will consumers behave as we emerge from this downturn? Though recessions differ in their causes, depth, and duration, it's possible to anticipate the way consumers will act by understanding their behavior and motivation in previous recessions and analyzing current trends. Flatters and Willmott trace the paths of eight trends as they entered the recession and project their trajectories into the recovery. The authors' analysis paints a picture of chastened new consumers who will seek simplicity in products and services; take companies' boardroom ethics into account in purchase decisions; pursue “discretionary” thrift (virtuous but not essential cost cutting); flit capriciously from brand to brand; make green consumption more a matter of reducing waste than purchasing premium products; and steer away from frivolous, extreme leisure experiences in favor of wholesome, authentic ones. Like their great-grandparents, who grew up in the Great Depression, young consumers today, the authors say, will be permanently changed by coming of age during a profound economic downturn.    Want to Perfect Your Company’s Service?: Use Behavioral Science   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Chase, Richard B.; Dasu, Sriram Publication Date: 06/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: It may seem like the topic of service management has been exhausted. Legions of scholars and practitioners have applied queuing theory to bank lines, measured response times to the millisecond, and created cults around "delighting the customer." But practitioners haven't carefully considered the underlying psychology of service encounters--the feelings that customers experience during these encounters, feelings often so subtle they probably couldn't be put into words. Fortunately, behavioral science offers new insights into better service management. In this article, the authors translate findings from behavioral-science research into five operating principles: 1) finish strong; 2) get the bad experiences out of the way early; 3) segment the pleasure, combine the pain; 4) build commitment through choice; and 5) give people rituals and stick to them. Ultimately, only one thing really matters in a service encounter--the customer's perception of what occurred. This article will help you engineer your service encounters to enhance your customers' experiences during the process as well as their recollections of the process after it is completed. Subjects: Behavioral sciences; Customer relations; Customer retention; Customer service; Psychology; Service industries; Service management Academic Discipline: Service management    Want to Perfect Your Company’s Service?: Use Behavioral Science   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Chase, Richard B.; Dasu, Sriram Publication Date: 06/01/2001 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: HBR OnPoint Articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. It may seem like the topic of service management has been exhausted. Legions of scholars and practitioners have applied queuing theory to bank lines, measured response times to the millisecond, and created cults around "delighting the customer." But practitioners haven't carefully considered the underlying psychology of service encounters--the feelings that customers experience during these encounters, feelings often so subtle they probably couldn't be put into words. Fortunately, behavioral science offers new insights into better service management. In this article, the authors translate findings from behavioral-science research into five operating principles: 1) finish strong; 2) get the bad experiences out of the way early; 3) segment the pleasure, combine the pain; 4) build commitment through choice; and 5) give people rituals and stick to them. Ultimately, only one thing really matters in a service encounter--the customer's perception of what occurred. This article will help you engineer your service encounters to enhance your customers' experiences during the process as well as their recollections of the process after it is completed. HBS Number: 682X Subjects: Behavioral sciences; Customer relations; Customer retention; Customer service; Psychology; Service industries; Service management Academic Discipline: Service management    When Professionals Have to Manage   Add   View  7 pp.  Article Lorsch, Jay W.; Mathias, Peter F. A professional firm cannot exist without its specialists - accountants, lawyers, consultants, bankers, and so on - who generate client services. But how can they be managed? One solution is the producing manager: a person responsible for both management activities and generation of client services. With producing managers heading small, autonomous business units, the organization can stay nonbureaucratic and non-hierarchical and still grow, change, and retain its competitive edge. HBS Number: 87406 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1987 Subjects: Consulting; Management of professionals; Services    Where Does the Customer Fit in a Service Operation?   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Chase, Richard B. Service systems with high customer contact operate at a lower degree of efficiency than those with limited customer contact. Managers should separate high-contact and low-contact elements of a service system; separate groups of people should perform high- and low-contact activities. Implementation of these concepts will enhance the development of two contrasting classes of worker skills and orientations. It requires, however, answering questions concerning the company's operating system, procedures and potential. HBS Number: 78601 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1978 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer service; Organizational structure; Services    Who Profits from Nonprofits?   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Herzlinger, Regina E.; Krasker, William S. Some people believe that nonprofit hospitals provide better quality care to a wider range of patients at lower prices than for-profit hospitals. But the social subsidy we pay for nonprofits now outweighs any benefits they might offer, and for-profit organizations can do the job more effectively - and at a lower cost. A statistically valid study that looks at the performance of 14 major hospital chains shows that nonprofits do not automatically improve social welfare. HBS Number: 87111 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1987 Subjects: Health; Health services; Hospital administration; Nonprofit organizations    Will Services Follow Manufacturing into Decline?   Add   View  11 pp.  Article Quinn, James Brian; Gagnon, Christopher E. The service sector, now nearly three quarters of the U.S. gross national product, may be headed toward the same global noncompetitiveness as manufacturing. Deregulation of U.S. communications and financial markets has helped drive U.S. industries into global competitive leadership, but success may be producing a familiar complacency that repeats in services the same insularity that has damaged manufacturing. This report on a multiphase study shows that warning signs have already begun to appear. U.S. companies are paying insufficient attention to customers and quality and overemphasizing scale economies. HBS Number: 86611 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1986 Subjects: Competition; Services    Work with Me   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Bell, Simon J.; Eisingerich, Andreas B. Publication Date: 06/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0706J Subjects: Business processes; Customer retention; Information sharing Academic Discipline: Service management Product Description: Should service firms show clients their inner workings or keep their cards close? Recent research touts the benefits of letting customers know how firms operate.    Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Reichheld, Frederick F.; Sasser, W. Earl, Jr. Companies that aim for "zero defections" (keeping every customer they can profitably serve) can make profits rise. Defection rates are both a measure of service quality and a guide for achieving it. By listening to the reasons why customers defect, managers know exactly where the company is falling short and where to direct their resources. HBS Number: 90508 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1990 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer retention; Customer service; Quality control; Services    Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Reichheld, Frederick F.; Sasser, W. Earl, Jr. HBR OnPoint Articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. Companies that aim for "zero defections" (keeping every customer they can profitably serve) can make profits rise. Defection rates are both a measure of service quality and a guide for achieving it. By listening to the reasons why customers defect, managers know exactly where the company is falling short and where to direct their resources. HBS Number: 519X Type: HBR OnPoint Article Publication Date: 10/1/2000 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer retention; Customer service; Quality control; Services

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