hat addresses a problem they are having, individuation occurs. The customers viewing the ad identify with the situation, thinking "Hmm, that company obviously knows what I need." Conversely, if a middle-aged businessman, for example, sees an ad targeted towards teen-aged girls, then the opposite of individuation happens. In this case, the customer sees the ad and says, "That's my company but they are very big. They don't really know me." Individuation at the mass marketing level is, of course, a tricky and complex business. However, mass market disconnect in the individuation area is not was bothers customers. Customers get upset when the more personal kinds of interactions fail to recognize them. When a very good customer calls customer service and gets put on hold for 10 minutes, the customer says, "This company obviously does not know me. I am a good customer, but they don't even know or appreciate that fact!" Even worse is when the customer receives direct mail or phone solicitations that fail to recognize who they are. It is very common for a customer to get an ad for a service they already have. This truly antagonizes the consumer. "If you know me well enough to send me mail, why don't you know that I already have that service?" Effective churn management needs to consider the effects of all customer interactions and create individuation as much as possible. Every Customer Behavior Can Be Anticipated Understanding that different customers have different values and that their decisions to churn are complex could cause you to throw up your hands and say, "We might as well just keep on doing what we have been doing." While learning by trial and error is one way to determine the best way to handle churn, experience would seem to indicate that, with this method, you would probably never achieve an optimum approach. Fortunately, despite the customers' seemingly erratic behaviors, there are things that we can do to anticipate their churn decisions. Chapter 7 When we use the term anticipate here, we have a very spe