ustomer's behalf to coordinate their activities. This is no small task. Chapter 9 Markets Are Made Up of Millions of Customers The activities of the telco cannot be directly subjected to the same analysis as the behaviors of individuals because of the number of employees involved. When we try to apply our analogy to the millions of customers who make up the ranks of a typical telco's customer population, we also run into a problem. The fantasy of one-to-one marketing may sound nice, but in reality no company can afford to operate on a one-to-one basis with millions of people. These problems of scale, from both the provider and the consumer side, must be addressed if we are going to have any hope of applying our relationship model with success. The churn solutions picture we have drawn thus far seems to be simplicity itself. Determine who your customers are, how much revenue they represent, and how likely they are to leave. Then spend just the right amount of money to convince them to stay. Conceptually, this is simple enough to work. Practically, there is one more challenge to overcome before the approach can become reality. That challenge is the fact that a telecommunications company is an organization, that is, a very large group of people who work together. Because it is an organization, it must deal with additional complexities and challenges. CHALLENGES The first challenge that must be addressed is the problem of dealing with the organization itself. But why should the organization be a problem? Why would we not be able to implement the strategy and expect it to work? There are several reasons. Culture One of the biggest challenges is dealing with the culture of the company. You might think that the industry is much too new to have developed much of a culture. Yet it's true; each telecommunications eXcellence in Telecommunications The Telco Churn Handbook company, the new start-up service provider, the wireless, ISP, or CLEC, has a culture with interesting elements. 1. The companies are mostly less than five