45-932 Customer-Driven Strategies and Services
6 units, Carnegie Mellon University
Service and ecommerce businesses constitute the majority of interactions for most customers, and most business students will work in service jobs, whether they are in manufacturing, ecom, or service companies. Although businesses give much lipservice to customer satisfaction, too many of these businesses do a poor job of attracting, serving, or retaining these customers. Instead, many companies have overly focused on inserting technology interfaces while underserving the customer. Or, they have focused on how they want to approachmanipulate the customer rather than on what the customer wants from the interaction. This course explores the concepts of customer service and customerdriven within the context of service, ecommerce, and other companies. It will examine what companies must do to attract, keep, and get repeat business from highly satisfied customers. It will explore how traditional businesses accomplish these goals and whether traditional conceptstools apply to ecommerce companies. When possible, it will highlight traditional and ecommerce companies that provide positive and negative examples. The course will also distinguish between ecommerce companies that provide a service and those that are customerdriven arms for manufacturing companies. Even some manufacturing companies e.g. autos and computers that traditionally were production or technology driven now find competitive advantage in being customerdriven. Ford Motor changed its company slogan from Quality if 1 at Ford to The Customer is 1 at Ford. As these companies move into an ecommerce environment, it may require a rethinking of their business and approach to customers. Topics that may be included are What does it mean to be customerdriven for any business How do you or should you make your firm more customerdriven How does a customerdriven strategy change the way a company positions itse
Prerequisites: none listed
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