onship, what we want to know is different than for a marriage relationship. However, clearly we should gather some core information before the customers sign up or at least while they are our customers. How much information do you have about your customers? How much screening do you do before signing the contract? How do you know these are the customers you want to be in a relationship with? Relationship Models Of course, just because you know everything there is to know about a person does not guarantee a good relationship. Ask anyone who has been madly in love with a person who didn't even know the other existed. No, a good relationship is a two-way street, but at its core is a clear understanding of what the nature of the relationship really is. Different Kinds of Marriages for Different Kinds of People As any student of human nature can tell you, humans have developed an amazing variety of marriage relationships. While almost everyone in the world gets married almost no one does it in the same way. In some societies husbands have many wives. The fact that other women will be present in the home is a part of the nature of such a marriage relationship. In other societies, the one- man/one-woman rule applies. In others there is a one-woman/many men configuration. Imagine the chaos that would (and does) reign in relationships where the parties do not agree on the fundamental rules of how the Chapter 8 Figure 8-2: Different Kinds of Marriage Models marriage is supposed to work. If the man is working on a multi-wife model and the wife is a believer in monogamy, then the relationship is pretty much guaranteed to fail before it starts. Agreeing on the number of husbands or wives is only the most obvious of relationship models that we have to deal with. All sorts of rules and understandings go into any model of marriage. Who will raise the children? Who will have a career? Who will be the leader? Who will be the follower? All of that needs to be established if the relationship is going to succeed. Alternative Telco Re