CHURN, THE GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY At this point you are doubtlessly beginning to think about churn a little more seriously. If you are part of an organization that is already engrossed in the battle for customers, then you are probably familiar with many of these issues. If, on the other hand, your company has not yet had to face these challenges, then you are presumably thinking about what you can do to get ready for it. However, with all of the data, and all of the implications that the problem of churn seems to bring, the question is still, "Why is churn in fact a golden opportunity?" How Do We Turn Churn into a Good Thing The sudden appearance of churn in your marketplace would certainly set you up for a lot of nasty surprises, but it is not especially true that there is no way for you to turn the situation to your advantage. The bad news is that, when churn conditions are right in your market, there is no way that you will come out of the experience unscathed. Churn changes matters drastically for most carriers. Revenue goes down; marketing expenses go up. Not a good formula for profitability! The good news is that, when churn conditions appear in your market, your competition will go through the same pain as you are. There is no way around it. That means that one of two things will happen. Either you and your competitors do pretty much what you have always done, in which case all will end up with the same market share they started out with. Or, you figure out how you can turn it to your advantage (and to the disadvantage of your competitors). Making Radical Changes in Market Position Analysis of telecommunications markets has shown clearly that the relative market share carriers start out with typically defines the share they will have for a very long time. Market momentum and early brand image messages tend to carve out a niche for the carrier that is fairly hard to shake. Once people think of you as "number 2" it is very difficult to change that impression in their minds. Chapter 1 However, when churn rates s