Harvard Business Review

Closing the customer feedback loop

How Schwab shifted its focus from customer transactions to relationships.

By Rob Markey, Fred Reichheld and Andreas Dullweber

First published on Δεκεμβρίου 01, 2009
min read


The full version of this article is available on Harvard Business Online (subscription required). The Idea in Brief It's never been more important to keep the customers you already have-it's much cheaper than acquiring new ones. But elaborate customer research may be beyond this year's budget. Many companies have succeeded at retaining customers by asking them for simple feedback—and then empowering frontline employees to act swiftly on that feedback. European manufacturer Grohe, for example, turned around a decline in market share and used its sales force more effectively after implementing a simple feedback loop from the distributors who sold the company's products. Read the full article on Harvard Business Online.

The full version of this article is available on Harvard Business Online (subscription required).

The Idea in Brief

It's never been more important to keep the customers you already have-it's much cheaper than acquiring new ones. But elaborate customer research may be beyond this year's budget.

Many companies have succeeded at retaining customers by asking them for simple feedback—and then empowering frontline employees to act swiftly on that feedback.

European manufacturer Grohe, for example, turned around a decline in market share and used its sales force more effectively after implementing a simple feedback loop from the distributors who sold the company's products.

Read the full article on Harvard Business Online.