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B2B Customers Expect More Than Ever. Demand Centers Can Help.
Sales & Marketing Digital ArticleCompanies like Microsoft and Intuit have started bringing sales and marketing teams together to craft a coordinated customer journey. -
Fighting Bias on the Front Lines
Diversity and inclusion Magazine ArticleLearn to detect subtle discrimination in your customer service. -
Sales Teams Need to Stop Focusing on the Customer Funnel
Customer experience Digital ArticleInstead, build an “experience chain” that aligns the customer journey across physical and digital channels. -
Frontline Work When Everyone Is Angry
Global Business Big IdeaIt probably won't surprise you to learn that incivility on the front lines of business is on the rise. After all, as the pandemic wore on, we saw in real... -
Are You Tracking the Customer Service Metrics That Really Count?
Customer service Digital ArticleDon’t just focus on tactical, operational goals. Ask what your customers are actually experiencing — and continuously push for improvement. -
Should You Let Employees Break the Rules to Make Customers Happy?
Sales & Marketing Digital ArticleEmpowering frontline workers to take small actions, like waiving a fee or allowing a return outside of the window, can boost the loyalty of both customers... -
How Sales Reps Can Succeed in the Social Era
Customer service Digital ArticleThe best stay attuned to their customers’ signals in the social graph. -
Using Mobile Phones to Capture Customer Experiences
Customer experience Digital ArticleThis post is part of Creating a Customer-Centered Organization. How well do you know your customers? We’re guessing not as well as you would like to … and not as well as you’ll need to in the future. Understanding customers has never been more important as empowered, fickle consumers take less notice of your marketing […] -
Call Length Is the Worst Way to Measure Customer Service
Sales & Marketing Digital ArticleBeing helpful is more important than being fast. -
Help Your Team Measure Customer Experience Data More Accurately
Analytics and data science Digital ArticleStart with the balanced scorecard, but don’t stop there. -
Service with a Very Big Smile
Customer service Magazine ArticleThe bigger the employee’s smile, the happier the customer. That’s the conclusion of new research from Bowling Green State and Penn State universities. With the help of trained observers, Patricia Barger and Alicia Grandey followed 173 encounters between customers and employees in coffee shops, scoring the employees’ “smile strength” on a scale from “absent” to […] -
How Low-Paying Retailers Can Adapt to Higher Minimum Wages
Managing people Digital ArticleKey questions investors will ask. -
B2B Sales Culture Must Change to Make the Most of Digital Tools
Customer experience Digital ArticleYou can’t deliver a modern customer experience with a dated approach. -
Exploding the Self-Service Myth
Sales and marketing Magazine ArticleInstead of forcing customers to do all the work, the most successful e-commerce sites are taking over many aspects of the shopping process. -
Why You Shouldn’t Engage with Customer Complaints on Twitter
Social media Digital ArticleResearch suggests it’s best to direct people to a private communication channel. -
Where Does the Customer Fit in a Service Operation?
Organizational restructuring Magazine ArticleWhile management skills can improve service systems, a manager is better off if he or she first has a clear understanding of the operating characteristics that set one service system apart from another. This author offers one view of services, which, if followed, results in a “rational approach to the rationalization” of services. His view, […] -
Case of the Complaining Customer (Commentary for HBR Case Study)
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleShortly after installing a new computer system designed to provide quick and accurate service, the president of Presto Cleaner received an angry letter... -
How Customer Service Can Turn Angry Customers into Loyal Ones
Sales & Marketing ResearchAn analysis quantifies the revenue impact of good service. -
Whole Foods Needs a More Consistent Pricing Message
Sales & Marketing Digital ArticleBoth customers and shareholders are confused. -
Customer Service Reps Work Best When They Work Together, But Only 12% of Companies Let Them
Sales & Marketing Digital ArticleWhen call center workers collaborate, morale improves and mistakes plummet.
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Buy Low, Sell High: Creating and Extracting Customer Value by Enhancing Organizational Performance
Sales & Marketing Case Study8.95View Details Provides an integrated framework for creating customer value and managing the firm profitably. Focuses on the use of product/service line management and... -
Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service, and Company Culture (Multimedia Case)
Sales & Marketing Tool25.00View Details On July 17, 2009, Zappos.com, a privately-held online retailer of shoes, clothing, and other soft-line retail categories, learned that Amazon.com, a $19... -
Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS (A)
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details CVS's retail pharmacy operations are functioning poorly and dissatisfying customers. Many customers are defecting as a result. A pharmacy service improvement... -
Laura Ashley and Federal Express Strategic Alliance
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details In an effort to improve its global distribution system and thus enhance customer service in its shops around the world, Laura Ashley entered into a path-breaking... -
Mitchells/Richards
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details Describes a small, luxury retail chain's operational sophistication achieved through the use of technology and high-touch customer service. A family-run... -
Clean Sweep, Inc.
Leadership & Managing People Case Study11.95View Details This case describes a vacuum cleaner manufacturer whose program for operational improvement includes the development of performance measures. Management... -
Federal Express: The Money Back Guarantee (A)
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details Discusses a large overnight express company, which guarantees its service, and which has created a major headache for one of its customers. The problem... -
Ippudo: Bringing Japan To Paris In a Bowl
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details In early January 2016, the chief strategy officer and his team at Ippudo, an expanding ramen restaurant operation, were tasked to formulate both marketing... -
Blackshop Restaurant
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details In April 2008, the owners of the Cambridge, Ontario-based Cerny Hospitality Group (CHG) were considering the purchase and implementation of OpenTable's... -
Beleza Natural
Global Business Case Study11.95View Details The founders of Beleza Natural, a Brazilian chain of beauty institutes which specialized in products and services for women with curly and wavy hair,... -
Buckman Laboratories (A)
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details Explores the implementation of a cutting-edge knowledge management system in a midsize, specialty chemical company. The initiative, begun in the early... -
Wawa Inc.
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details Retailing requires attention to detail and customer and employee loyalty. Wawa is a 50-year old food retailer with almost a cult-like following. With... -
Grupo IUSACELL (A)
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details Describes the challenges facing a cellular telephone company in Mexico as it positions itself in the explosive cellular market and prepares to become... -
Cleveland Clinic Heart Center: A Legacy of Excellence
Organizational Development Case Study11.95View Details This case is about the history, achievements, and problems of a uniquely run medical institution. It has become an award-winning, world-class institution... -
The Scotts Company: Note to the (A) Case: What Happened in 2000-2003
Technology & Operations Case Study5.00View Details Case (A) describes how a major player in the agricultural chemicals industry struggles to transform a fragmented group of newly acquired businesses into... -
HubSpot and Motion AI: Chatbot-Enabled CRM
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details HubSpot, an inbound marketing, sales, and customer relationship management (CRM) software provider, announced that it had acquired Motion AI, a software... -
Marble Slab Creamery: The Weighing Decision
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study11.95View Details A current franchisee of Marble Slab Creamery (producer of the self-proclaimed "Freshest Ice Cream on Earth") was set to open his second location in Waterloo,... -
DailyFish: Reinventing Customer Service Management
Strategy & Execution Case Study11.95View Details DailyFish was an emerging e-commerce enterprise that was started in 2016 by Baby Marine Ventures, one of the largest exporters of frozen seafood from... -
Samsung Electronics: Using Affinity Diagrams and Pareto Charts
Leadership & Managing People Case Study11.95View Details Samsung Electronics had experienced a series of quality-related problems, including the recall of one of its LCD TV models. Unfortunately for quality... -
Federal Express: The Money Back Guarantee (E)
Technology & Operations Case Study5.00View Details See (A) case.
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B2B Customers Expect More Than Ever. Demand Centers Can Help.
Sales & Marketing Digital ArticleCompanies like Microsoft and Intuit have started bringing sales and marketing teams together to craft a coordinated customer journey. -
Fighting Bias on the Front Lines
Diversity and inclusion Magazine ArticleLearn to detect subtle discrimination in your customer service. - SPONSORED CONTENT FROM Freshworks
Rethinking Customer Engagement in the Era of Delight
Customer experience ResearchWhite Paper Sponsored By Freshworks -
Sales Teams Need to Stop Focusing on the Customer Funnel
Customer experience Digital ArticleInstead, build an “experience chain” that aligns the customer journey across physical and digital channels. - SPONSORED CONTENT FROM TELEPERFORMANCE
Key Trends for Remote and Hybrid Customer Experience Delivery
Customer service ResearchWhite Paper Sponsored By Teleperformance -
Frontline Work When Everyone Is Angry
Global Business Big IdeaIt probably won't surprise you to learn that incivility on the front lines of business is on the rise. After all, as the pandemic wore on, we saw in real... -
Are You Tracking the Customer Service Metrics That Really Count?
Customer service Digital ArticleDon’t just focus on tactical, operational goals. Ask what your customers are actually experiencing — and continuously push for improvement. -
Buy Low, Sell High: Creating and Extracting Customer Value by Enhancing Organizational Performance
Sales & Marketing Case Study8.95View Details Provides an integrated framework for creating customer value and managing the firm profitably. Focuses on the use of product/service line management and... -
Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service, and Company Culture (Multimedia Case)
Sales & Marketing Tool25.00View Details On July 17, 2009, Zappos.com, a privately-held online retailer of shoes, clothing, and other soft-line retail categories, learned that Amazon.com, a $19... -
Should You Let Employees Break the Rules to Make Customers Happy?
Sales & Marketing Digital ArticleEmpowering frontline workers to take small actions, like waiving a fee or allowing a return outside of the window, can boost the loyalty of both customers...