Publications
Publications
- March 2002
- HBS Case Collection
Virtuous Cycles: Improving Service and Lowering Costs in E-Commerce
Abstract
Illustrates how various elements in a customer's encounter with Internet services relying on physical service (labor-intensive customer support and/or logistics) affect one another. Presents a framework that suggests: 1) that improving service quality in specific elements results in cost reductions in others creating a virtuous cycle and 2) that some elements of the service encounter provide superior sources of competitive advantage than others because of the difficulty competitors have replicating them. Both findings have implications for managers of organizations involved in the provision of most services over the Internet because they illustrate how those managers can simultaneously increase organizational efficiency and customer effectiveness.
Keywords
Internet and the Web; Service Delivery; Performance Efficiency; Performance Effectiveness; Service Industry
Citation
Hallowell, Roger H. "Virtuous Cycles: Improving Service and Lowering Costs in E-Commerce." Harvard Business School Background Note 802-155, March 2002.