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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2020

  Can Shared Service Delivery Increase Customer Engagement? A Study of Shared Medical Appointments

  Ryan W. Buell, Kamalini Ramdas and Nazlı Sönmez

  Customers and providers alike often consider one-on-one service delivery to be ideal, assuming –perhaps unquestioningly – that devoting individualized attention maximizes customer engagement and improves outcomes. Alternatively, shared service delivery, in which customers are served in batch, may, through the dynamics of group interaction, lead to increased customer engagement. On the other hand, the loss of privacy and personal connection in shared delivery models may undermine engagement and performance. To explore this tradeoff, we conducted a randomized controlled trial with 1,000 patients who were undergoing glaucoma treatment over a three-year period at a large eye hospital. Using verbatim and behavioral transcripts from over 20,000 minutes of video recorded during our trial, we examine how shared medical appointments (SMAs) – in which groups of patients with similar conditions meet with a doctor simultaneously, and each receives one-on-one care in turn – impact patients' engagement during their appointments. Patients who experienced SMAs asked 37.2% more questions per minute, made 8.2% more comments per minute, answered 3.6% more questions per minute, and exhibited higher levels of non-verbal engagement across a wide-array of measures (attentiveness, positivity, head wobbling or ‘talai taḷḷāṭṭam’ in Tamil – a South Indian gesture to signal agreement or understanding – eye contact and end-of-appointment happiness), relative to patients who attended one-on-one appointments. We further find that patients in SMAs went on to report higher levels of satisfaction and exhibit greater levels of learning and medication compliance. These results shed light on the potential for shared service delivery models to increase customer engagement and enhance service performance.

  Citation:

  Buell, Ryan W., Kamalini Ramdas, and Nazlı Sönmez. "Can Shared Service Delivery Increase Customer Engagement? A Study of Shared Medical Appointments." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-001, July 2020.  View Details

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• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | March 2020

  Babcom: Opening Doors

  Ryan W. Buell and Joshua D. Margolis

  Teaching Note for HBS No. 418-026.

  Citation:

  Buell, Ryan W., and Joshua D. Margolis. "Babcom: Opening Doors." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 620-088, March 2020.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2018 (Revised February 2020)

  Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Unbanklike Experimentation

  Ryan W. Buell and Leslie K. John

  Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.
  
  In August 2017, Commonwealth Bank of Australia was looking for ways to differentiate itself from competing banks and was also trying to improve the financial well-being of its customers. One domain where this was particularly relevant was in its bank-issued credit card business, where customers routinely selected cards that although profitable for the bank could be a poor fit for customers’ needs—leading to low satisfaction scores, cancellations, and occasionally, financial distress. To that end, the company’s Behavioral Economics team had developed a provocative experiment dubbed “The Good and the Bad.” Rather than just presenting the strengths of its various credit card offerings, they proposed also promoting each credit card’s less-obvious drawbacks. Being transparent with customers might help them make better choices, but would those choices come at the expense of bank performance? Should a company choose to be in the sales prevention business?

  Keywords: transparency; experimentation; Banks and Banking; Credit Cards; Customer Focus and Relationships; Competitive Strategy; Banking Industry; Australia;

  Citation:

  Buell, Ryan W., and Leslie K. John. "Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Unbanklike Experimentation." Harvard Business School Case 619-018, October 2018. (Revised February 2020.)  View Details

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