sing information systems and organizational alignment is a good idea. The next challenge that you will have to face is figuring out exactly how each of the departments and groups in your corporation are expected to work together. eXcellence in Telecommunications The Telco Churn Handbook SHOPPING CYCLES AND RESPONSE MODELS You may recall that, in Chapter 5, we invested some time describing the consumer shopping cycle. The consumer shopping cycle is the term used for the collection of habits, patterns, beliefs, and values that consumers associate with the purchase of goods and services. We discussed some relatively stable shopping cycles in the retail and automotive areas, and then we explored some of the models that consumers associate with telcos. This exploration of consumer shopping cycles provides us with some insight into the nature of consumers and their churn probability patterns, but it becomes a template. Organizations can define their consumer response models against this template. Consumer Response Model - Definition Just as consumers fall into typical patterns while dealing with product and service vendors, organizations also fall into complementary patterns in response to them. The model that businesses use to most appropriately respond to consumer shopping cycles is called the consumer response model. Consumer response models are very obvious in some industries. For example, the consumer response model for MacDonald's, Burger King, and Kentucky Fried Chicken is fast food. The response model for 7-11 is convenience store. Each company looks at consumers and their shopping cycles and puts together a business model that is believed to achieve the best response. Response Model Challenges for the Telco It should come as no surprise that the telecommunications provider will have a hard time coming up with a good response model. As we have already noted, consumer shopping cycles are currently in a serious state of flux in the telecommunications area. There are millions of customers and dozens of shopping cy