Syllabus for Marketing 6862 – Customer Relationship Management

Term 5 – P2MBAF2010

Instructor:
Dr. Alan Cooke
Phone: (352) 273-3282
E-mail: alan.cooke@cba.ufl.edu (I prefer you use the class website email tool.)

Overview:
Your customers reflect one of the most important assets that your company possesses. This
class considers ways to evaluate the value provided by customers, and optimize decisions
designed to increase this value over time. We will explore the promise and perils of
customer relationship management (CRM) with an eye toward understanding the optimal
manner to incorporate CRM into everyday corporate practice.

There have been many recent advances in both the analytic techniques and technologies
supporting CRM. In this class, we will focus principally on developing the conceptual
insight and understanding necessary for successful use of CRM. While we will demonstrate
and discuss some of these recent advances, we will do so as an illustration of one modern
implementation of the techniques, rather than as the ultimate learning objective.

The overall goals of this class are:

 To understand the role that CRM plays in modern managerial decision making.
 To learn techniques that can be used to increase the value of customers to the
company.
 To learn analytic procedures that allow optimal deployment of these techniques.
 To learn what technologies exist for increasing customer value and aiding
managerial response.
 To learn the typical problems that companies encounter in updating their CRM
strategy.

Course Materials:
This class will use two texts and supplementary readings. The texts are:

V. Kumar and Werner J. Reinhartz (2006), Customer Relationship Management: A

Databased Approach. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 0-471-27133-0.

and

Sunil Gupta and Donald R. Lehmann (2005). Managing Customers as Investments: The
Strategic Value of Customers in the Long Run. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School
Publishing. ISBN: 978-0-13-142985-9.

The reader consists of the following cases:

 Dev Chekitan S. and Laure Mougeot Stroock (2007), “Rosewood Hotels and Resorts:
Branding to Increase Customer Profitability and Lifetime Value (case study),”
HBSP #2087.
Deighton, John and Stowe Shoemaker (2005), “Hilton HHonors Worldwide: Loyalty
Wars,” HBSP #9-501-010.

Course Evaluation:
Your performance in this class will be based on one exam, two cases, two assignments, and
class participation. Grades will be based on your cumulative point score as follows:

Individual case 25 points

Team case 25 points
Individual assignment 25 points
Team assignment 25 points
Exam 80 points
Class Participation 20 points
TOTAL 200 points total

Overall course grades will be assigned as follows:

180 – 200 points = A
160 – 179 points = B
140 – 159 points = C
120 – 139 points = D
below 120 points = E

Plus and minus grades will be awarded to students in the top and bottom 6 points of each
range, respectively (e.g., 173-179 = B+, 160-166 = B-).

Exam:
The exam is designed to test students’ understanding of the conceptual and analytic
material presented in class. They may involve a variety of question types including
multiple choice, identification, short answer, and essay formats. It will be open-book and
open-notes. The exam will be given in class on the last day of class and may be curved if
necessary. You will require a calculator for the exams, and you are not permitted to use a
computer or device with wireless communication capability (e.g., cell phone, PDA) unless
otherwise instructed. This class emphasizes understanding over rote learning and will
require you to understand the material and apply it to novel situations.

Cases:
We will cover two cases in this class, and both are designed to challenge you to integrate
the topics we have been discussing in class into realistic managerial problems. The first
case (Rosewood Hotels) is an individual case dealing with customer lifetime value and
customer profitability. It is designed to be a brief case. You should simply solve for the
critical information and make appropriate recommendations. Most of your work will be in
producing a spreadsheet containing the required calculations. You should also provide a
brief (2 pages max) discussion of your conclusions and limitations. Note: You are not
 permitted to collaborate with anyone else on this assignment! It is designed to test your
understanding of the topic.

The second case (Hilton HHonors) is a team case, and is designed to be more extensive.
Each team should provide a 5 to 6 page written report describing their analysis of the
problem and recommendations.

Assignments:
You will complete two graded assignments in this class. Both are designed to allow you to
explore the topics and techniques we are discussing in a more hands-on fashion. The first
assignment is an individual assignment designed to explore customer profitability and the
valuation of strategic changes in your own firm. You will be asked to collect data and
assess the profitability of one or more segments of your customer base or assess the value
of a proposed marketing change from a customer profitability perspective. Students who
are unable to access relevant data, or who are not employed in a firm appropriate for this
assignment will be asked to perform a similar assignment using other data.

The second assignment is a team assignment, and provides students an opportunity to

explore (predictive) scoring models, a key technique for customer selection. Students will
use a popular software package (SPSS PASW) to fit a series of scoring models. Students
will then compare the virtues and limitations of these models, and draw appropriate
strategic recommendations.

Team Work:
For the team case (Hilton HHonors) and team assignment (scoring models) you may divide
the work however you like across your teammates, but you may not collaborate with
people outside your team. I will ask you to rate the contributions of yourself and your
teammates after the case and use these to determine the points that each student will earn.
Your goal should be an equitable distribution of work such that everyone rates the
contributions of all team members equally.

Case/Assignment Format:
The format of your case reports should be based on a typical internal or consulting
company report. That implies that you should state the key problem(s) and your solution,
followed by a discussion of how you reached that conclusion. Details of your analysis
should be available as appendicies (these don’t count against your report’s page limit) and
should be referenced when appropriate. Details should be displayed in-line where they are
necessary to understand your conclusions.

Case and assignment reports should be turned in (hardcopy) at the beginning of the class in
which they will be discussed. Late assignments will not be accepted. You should also
submit an electronic copy of your spreadsheets so that I can easily track the source of any
mistakes. Please submit the spreadsheets only using the class website before the start of the
class in which they are discussed.
Lectures and Class Participation:
It is critical that you attend lectures. The material discussed in lecture is often quite
different from or supplementary to that covered in the books/reader. Also, classes are
designed to be interactive. I try to stimulate discussion about particular topics in class and
often use group discussions to illustrate particular points. I will make printed note shells
and PowerPoint files available for each class. You should read assigned material and
review the PPT files prior to each class so that you can participate in an informed fashion.
Some class time will be allotted for working on various assignments. I ask that you turn off
or set to "silent" all cell phones and beepers prior to class. Exceptions can be made under
special circumstances.

Class Policies:

Attendance:
Attendance in class is required. If you should need to be absent from a class, you should
contact me and the MBA Programs office beforehand to discuss your absence. Unexcused
absences or multiple approved absences will result in a considerable penalty in final
grading and may result in referral to the MBA programs office.

Completion of Work:
Exams must be taken on the day they are scheduled. If an emergency should cause you to
miss an exam, you must notify me prior to the exam to schedule a make-up. I will require
documentation of the emergency situation. No early exams will be given. Missed exams
will earn 0 points.

Grades of “incomplete” will only be given in the event of exceptional circumstances, and
must be arranged before classes end. Incompletes will not be awarded to allow “re-takes”
of the class for an improved grade. See the Undergraduate Catalog for details of the official
policy.

Extra Credit:
Your grade in this class will be based on the rubric discussed above. Students may not
request supplementary assignments for “extra” credit, since offering opportunities to some
students that are not available to all would be unfair. Exams may list problems for “extra
credit” but these opportunities, if available, will be available to all students.

Students with Disabilities:

Students requesting accommodations for disabilities must first register with the Dean of
Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student,
who must then provide this documentation to me when requesting accommodations. I will
be happy to make any necessary accommodations.

Academic Honesty:
As a result of completing the registration form at the University of Florida, every student
has signed the following statements: “I understand that the University of Florida expects its
students to be honest in all their academic work. I agree to adhere to this commitment to
 academic honesty and understand that my failure to comply with this commitment may
result in disciplinary action up to and including expulsion from the University.”

All work submitted in this class must be your own. You are encouraged to discuss class
topics with others, study together, etc., but you are not permitted to represent the work of
another as your own. Cheating, plagiarism, and other violations of the University of Florida
Academic Honesty Guidelines will not be tolerated, and will be dealt with according to
University policy. This will, at a minimum, result in a failing score on the assignment in
question. If you have any questions about what behavior might constitute a violation of the
policy, you should consult your student handbook or discuss the issue with me.

We, the members of the University of Florida community, pledge to hold ourselves and our
peers to the highest standards of honesty and integrity.

UF Counseling Services:
Resources are available on-campus for students having personal problems or lacking clear
career and academic goals that interfere with their academic performance. These resources
include:
 University Counseling Center 301 Peabody Hall 392-1575 Personal and career
counseling
 Student Mental Health Student Health Care Center 392-1171 Personal counseling
 Sexual Assault Recovery Services Student Health Care Center 392-1161 Sexual
assault counseling
 Career Resource Center Reitz Union 291-1601 Career development assistance and
counseling

Software and Computer Use:

Some of the software used in this class will already be familiar to you, and you will likely
already have it installed on your laptop (e.g., Microsoft Excel and Word). Other software
will be new to you. You will not need to buy any special software for this class, but you
may need to install some demonstration software. If you have questions about the
installation of the software, or encounter any software-related problems, you should request
technical help in the MBA lab, or through CBA help. Questions about using the software,
on the other hand, are best answered by me.

All faculty, staff and students of the University are required and expected to obey the laws
and legal agreements governing software use. Failure to do so can lead to monetary
damages and/or criminal penalties for the individual violator. Because such violations are
also against University policies and rules, disciplinary action will be taken as appropriate.