s of time frames and intimacy appropriateness. eXcellence in Telecommunications The Telco Churn Handbook THE TELECENTRIC PERSPECTIVE To accomplish this objective, however, there are two additional major hurdles to overcome. These involve issues of timing and customer intimacy. TIMING ISSUES One of the very nice qualities of the monopoly and retail business models is that everyone in the business understands exactly what is important and when. With either of these models, everyone in the company is encouraged to work on extremely short-term, future- oriented timelines. The nature of the business two years ago or six months into the future is not that important. What matters most is the number of sales this week and how many customer complaints are expected next quarter. Although these time frames create a certain amount of pressure for employees, it also creates much comfort. Everyone knows the when that is being focused on. Customer Relationships - Past, Present, and Future When you focus on customer relationships, you can no longer center on just the immediate time frame. If you want customer relationships that last for years, then you need to expand your thinking about those customers to include years. It is not enough, however, for a few strategies in the corporate offices to look at the long-term. Everyone has to embrace the concept. Tactical Long-Term Thinking You need to establish the concept of tactical long-term thinking within the entire organization. That phrase, "tactical long-term thinking," may seem like an oxymoron. After all, we typically associate strategy with long-term and tactical with short-term Chapter 19 thinking. Tactical long-term thinking means that we want every employee making any kind of tactical decision about how to react to a customer at any given point in time to make that decision based on three factors: The history of the relationship with this customer 2. The current situation and the reaction that is called for The company's future hopes for this relationship This is how a pers