 as much business intelligence as possible TELECENTRIC OPERATIONAL ZONES The new model must include the best aspects of both the monopoly and the retail model while taking into account the uniqueness of the modern provider/consumer relationship. In this model we view the consumer as an independent free agent who can choose to learn more about our firm and to move closer to our company or further away depending on how attractive we are and how we meet the consumer's needs. This is contrary to the monopoly model, which assumes that consumers are stuck in a stagnant relationship with the provider. (They cannot leave, they cannot negotiate, they can only endure whatever services they can get and complain if it gets bad enough.) It also not built upon the retail model, which assumes Awareness Familiarity Preference Negotiation Transaction Telco Figure 18-1: The Basic Zones Diagram eXcellence in Telecommunications The Telco Churn Handbook that the consumer is just one of many and that this multitude must be encouraged to traverse the gauntlet of marketing and sales until trapped into performing a transaction. We call this the telecentric zone model and it is the foundation for our telecentric approach. Figure 18-1 shows a representation of the telecentric zone model. As you can see, we have recognized the same basic missions to be performed as in the retail model. We still must make consumers aware of our existence, make them familiar with what we have to offer, entice them to prefer us over alternative providers, engage them in negotiations, and, finally, convince them to sign up and continue to use our service. The difference, the very significant difference, is the way we view the consumer's role and the company's role throughout this process. THE ZONES FROM THE CUSTOMER'S PERSPECTIVE It is easy to understand how these zones (awareness, familiarity, preference, negotiation, and transaction) apply to our understanding of how to manage a non-customer. Basically, the objective is to turn a non-customer into a customer.