n Telecommunications The Telco Churn Handbook Chapter 22 CHAPTER 22 CUSTOMER SERVICE: CHAMPIONS OF THE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT MISSION Although we can certainly take steps to help the sales and promotion organizations focus more on the creation and delivery of relationship packages to consumers, eventually the customer service organization will bear the brunt of the responsibility for this transition. While the sales and promotion organizations will always define the beginning of the relationship and the terms, it is up to the customer service organization to make sure that the relationship package is actually delivered. This means that the customer service organization must play a much more significant role in the entire customer relationship management process. Instead of being forced to participate toward the end of the process, trying to futilely deliver whatever deals the sales and promotion group has assembled, the customer service organization and its capabilities must become the key ingredient in the formulation of how a relationship package should look. Ultimately, the sales, promotion, and customer service organizations are commissioned with responsibility for the management of the intimate contact that the telco has with its customers. For this reason, these organizations must be focused on making sure that the consumer offesr are part of a relationship package that can actually be delivered effectively. The role of customer service will, therefore, have to become much more significant than it has been in the past. eXcellence in Telecommunications The Telco Churn Handbook THE CUSTOMER SERVICE LEGACY The single biggest handicap that the customer service organization has throughout this whole process is the organizational legacy that it carries from pre-competitive days. Echoes of the Monopoly Model You may recall, from our earlier discussions, how the customer service function began in the early days of telecommunications. In Chapter 16, we talked about the monopoly model and the nature of the 