As Sales Manager, customer retention is always top of mind. Getting new customers can cost five times more<\/strong> than retaining current customers, so you always want to keep customers.<\/p>\n But, staying on top of keeping current customers happy and accounts open takes priority. You feel like you spend all your resources fighting the pop-up fires instead of being proactive. It\u2019s the first Monday of the month and time to review the account closures from last month, and this routine is getting old fast. In fact, it\u2019s like it follows a script:<\/p>\n 1. Review the accounts on the \u2018Closed Last Month\u2019 list.<\/strong><\/p>\n 2. Prioritize the accounts you can save.<\/strong><\/p>\n 3. Dig deeper into the accounts to find trends and commonalities.<\/strong><\/p>\n You start thinking about how to write a better script for customer retention<\/a>. There is valuable information hidden in the report that can not only keep customers from closing their accounts, but it can improve processes and gain more time for employees.<\/strong> Ideally, you\u2019d acquire a list of the customers likely to close, then proactively work with them to resolve any issues instead of reacting after they close the account. In fact, your dream script would include the following steps.<\/p>\n 2. Reviewing the distribution of accounts to team members.<\/p>\n 3. Reviewing insights provided into accounts on each of the lists.<\/p>\n This script moves beyond the administrivia clogging up your calendar and keeping you from making progress on departmental goals. This set up allows you to focus on actionable work versus planning.<\/strong><\/p>\n Now, you need the time to create and implement this script. But, theorizing about the solution doesn\u2019t create the solution. You need someone who can take your ideas and write the script for you. You need a ghostwriter.<\/p>\n How do you find them, and what will they do? You know there must be tools that can build the lists you want. A quick web search on predicting customer retention shows articles on predictive models and various services around machine learning. You need convincing to implement this level of specialized work. Maybe the solution is a project manager.<\/p>\n Reading more clarifies the benefits of machine learning<\/a>\u2014 identifying trends and patterns easily, gaining accuracy and precision over time, adaptability to changes in the trends and patterns, and having the process automated.<\/strong> Not having to babysit the process would be a huge win!<\/p>\n Further research shows building a machine learning model to predict customer retention<\/a> requires knowledge of your business processes, access to and an understanding of the data, and a clearly defined goal. Those are all areas you can support. You can answer the questions around the business processes, and you know who on your team can clarify any data questions.<\/p>\n You remember to loop in the IT department because accessing the data and getting any resources set up requires their support, as well.<\/strong> You wonder briefly about the results and output from a model and hope that you can see what data goes into the predictions as well as the potential impacts from using the results.<\/p>\n You need a ghostwriter with skills in both business analysis<\/a> and machine learning. You\u2019ve worked with enough data scientists to know this is a tricky mix. Finding the right fit for this job will take more time and energy than you have to spare. You push the whole project to the back of your mind.<\/p>\n But, you can\u2019t ignore the need for a better solution. You find the next available time in your calendar and reach out to your preferred consulting company to schedule a meeting with your data and analytics<\/a> contact. They always have the resources for the projects you need, and they can provide the perfect ghostwriter to get this done. A discussion on the topic reveals they have done this exact work before and have developed a stepped approach for these Customer Retention Prediction models:<\/strong><\/p>\n This approach addresses all the areas you found in your web search, and you know this team will provide regular updates and stay engaged throughout the project to ensure that the model aligns with your processes and meets your needs.<\/strong> Feeling confident in moving forward, you reach out again to schedule the workshop. You\u2019re ready to flip the script on customer retention.<\/p>\n\n \n
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How Do You Improve the Script?<\/h2>\n
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Putting It into Action<\/h2>\n
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