on makes decisions about personal relationship situations. Why would we expect any less in our customer relation- ship management situation? Creating Tactical Long Term- Thinking Capabilities To say that we want individuals to change their thinking about how they make customer decisions is one thing, but to actually be able to do it is another. For that we need to do the following: Collect and provide pertinent historical information to the people that need it. Create management-based prospectuses that let everyone know exactly what the company's long term plans for this particular customer are. Provide the people making these decisions with the author- ity to react appropriately based on what they then know about the situation. This is a tall order but one that the customer management system- based environment can clearly support. SHORT-TERM CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP ACTIVITY TIME FRAMES Timing issues are also critical when we organize and execute larger scale activities. We need to be aware of the timing implications of our advertising, marketing, and sales activities, just as we need to be aware of our reactions to a customer service situation. eXcellence in Telecommunications The Telco Churn Handbook Customer Service and Timing The customer service organization has perhaps the most difficulty with time frames because that group, more than any other, must deal with the customers now, immediately. Because of this, the customer service organization is the most critical practitioner of tactical, long- term thinking that the organization has. Information Required by Customer Service to Make Good Customer Relationship Management Decisions To equip the customer service organization with the tools for the job, the customer management system (through the auspices of the call center management system) needs to provide customer service reps with the following information. At a minimum, to do their job as customer relationship managers effectively, a customer service rep needs to know: How long the person who is calling has 