the critical value chain functions. For a detailed explanation of the telecommunications value chain see "Data Warehousing and Data Mining for Telecommunications" by Rob Mattison. THE DESPERATION PLOY - CREATION OF A CHURN MANAGER Did you notice that neither the org-chart nor the value chain have a place for customer loyalty management? Do you think that perhaps this is the crux of the problem? If we just created a churn management department then everything would be okay? Chapter 9 Figure 9-3: Churn Manager Unfortunately, as logical and easy as that solution sounds, forming a churn management function does very little to address churn issues in most firms. All too often, the churn management- or loyalty group ends up an under-funded, isolated, ineffective staff function that is constantly struggling to justify its own existence. Even if the churn management group is given much funding, it still cannot do much to address the problem by itself. Why? The answer to that question is the key to the whole problem of churn and customer relationship management. Churn/Customer Relations are Created by the Entire Organization The reason that a new churn management or customer relationship management (CRM) function cannot fix the churn your organization experiences is because churn is not created by any one person, department, situation, or activity. Churn is the willful act of a customer that tells you in no uncertain terms that somebody else is delivering value better than you are! Those are very strong words, but the truth they contain will become obvious. As we have already established, customers churn for many different reasons. Sometimes those reasons are obvious and straightforward; more often, however, they are subtle and indirect. Churn is the customers' way of telling you what is important to them and that you are not delivering the goods. eXcellence in Telecommunications The Telco Churn Handbook That explains why we believe that churn is a rejection of the overall customer experience. But to say that churn is a m