That analytics is clearly still in its infancy is not in dispute. What is encouraging is that a telecoms giant has put its money where its mouth is and is beginning to replace lost revenue by offering customers what they want, presumably when they want it.
It must be noted that we are still in the early days of using data analytics to the fullest. The old rules about what telcos think customers want and what they really want is changing rapidly, almost as quickly as their loyalty if they fell they aren’t being treated the right way.
Today’s data scientists are actually learning from experience. It would be foolhardy to think that they will get it right first time, and there is a distinct risk that customers will be lost. It is inevitable. Determining who is about to churn is one thing – knowing what to offer or do to keep them quite another. Then there’s the option of dumping customers that are simply not profitable, actually costing you money or simply not worth the trouble.
This is a brave new world we are entering. The ability to combine real-time big data analytics with data originating from more static databases within the enterprise is still a work in progress for many companies. The move to real-time transaction processing and real-time data collection will certainly help the business optimize efforts like anticipating and encouraging positive actions like customer buys – but it could quite easily have an adverse effect if left purely in the hands of the scientists and analysts.