r touchpoint activities In the next chapter, we will to tackle the issue of how segmentation can be used to drive effective, integrated customer relationship and churn management. Chapter 12 CHAPTER12 SEGMENTATION FRAMEWORK Segmentation is undisputedly the key to driving the entire integrated customer relationship management (CRM) organization. The segmentation processes we are describing here allow the firm to identify who its customers are, to manage them, interact with them consistently, and also to determine how well the customer touchpoint organizations are doing their jobs. The framework we are describing is in some ways complex and in others simplistic and obvious. It is the foundation for the creation of a new business model for the telecommunications firm. UNIQUE SEGMENTATION NEEDS FOR CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT Controversy and debate abound in the world of marketing about the subject of segmentation. Authorities in the areas of market research from academic and business communities have published volumes of work on the subject and arguments about what defines a good or a poor segmentation approach can involve many hours of heated debate. We make no effort to contest any of the many expert opinions about segmentation. What we propose instead, is that we take the already significant amount of work done in this area and create a framework for its use; one that will enable the organization to accomplish eXcellence in Telecommunications The Telco Churn Handbook its customer relationship management objectives. Although the telecommunications firm has certainly made use of segmentation and data-mining disciplines to their advantage in many situations, until now the application of those disciplines has been sporadic, disorganized and, in many ways, undirected. Our goal is not to gain random improvements in various marketing processes here and there. Instead, we want to get the maximum benefit out of the many kinds of segmentation that are available to the firm and create a CRM framework that really focuse