company wants the consumers to minimize their emotional investment and possibly not think about the selection process at all. The job of the zones managers at this point is one of convincing the customers not to worry about the subscription decision and to relax and enjoy the decision they made. The Damper Effect Ironically, when we view the customer's relationship with the telco in this light, we see that companies, in their transaction model efforts to fix problems, actually contribute significantly to the churn. It is in the company's best interest, once the decision to subscribe has been made, to have the customers not worry about the telecom selection decision anymore. What you would like is for the consumers to stop responding to the types of ads that you used to bring them on board. However, in their misguided efforts to use the transaction-based formula, telcos oftentimes create more and more campaigns to stimulate more and more emotional investment by the consumer. This effort often creates negative results. The more activated the customers are and the more emotionally invested, the more time they will invest in comparing offers from carriers. Ultimately, this can result in turning the commoditization of the entire industry. eXcellence in Telecommunications The Telco Churn Handbook Instead, the telco needs to determine how to damper the consumer's interest in negotiation after the decision has been made. Shopping Cycles and the Zones As we discussed in the previous chapter, the consumers' shopping cycle for telecommunications is not the same as the cycle for retail. Consumers do not remake their service provider decision every time they pick up and use a telephone. A telecommunication provider in this sense has a big advantage over the retailer. Telecommunication consumers do not want to constantly have to rethink a provider decision. They want to make the best decision and then stick with it until it becomes incredibly obvious that the trouble of changing carriers is worth the investment of time. This m