wn unique pattern of relationship with the consumer. Different issues are important and cause customers to increase or decrease their loyalty. When dealing with issues of churn in the telecommunications and wireless industries, our challenge is to understand what those consumers' shopping cycle is. Stable VS. Unstable Shopping Cycles As you might well imagine, consumers and their shopping cycles are far from stagnant. Consumers have much that they need to buy and SO they have many shopping cycles to deal with. For some items that they purchase frequently or for which they have a long history of experience they will tend to have relatively stable and predictable cycles. Consider, for example, how people shop for food, clothing, and home appliances. Other purchase items that are new, interesting, or exciting will result in erratic, unstable cycles. Think about the Chapter 5 erratic patterns of buying behavior witnessed in the computer industry, or when the Beanie Baby or Hello Kitty toys first came on the market. Understanding consumers' shopping cycles becomes very important when we get involved in the diagnosis and management of churn. UNDERSTANDING TELECOM SHOPPING CYCLES What do we need to take into account to understand what the consumers' shopping cycles are for telecommunications products and services? The answer is complex and has many factors such as the nature of the telco service contract and the regulatory environment, the consumer's history with traditional telco services, and the competitive environment in the market. Alternative Telco Contract Types One big difference between the telco and other industries is the confusing nature of the contracts that consumers and telcos develop. The terms of these contracts are defined in part by regulators, in part by the technology, and in part by the company and its competitors. In general, the telco industry has to deal with three kinds of contracts depending on regulatory and market conditions. They: (1) fixed-term contracts, (2) automatic renewal, and (3) pre