IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v295y2021i2p664-674.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How training on multiple time slices improves performance in churn prediction

Author

Listed:
  • Gattermann-Itschert, Theresa
  • Thonemann, Ulrich W.

Abstract

Customer churn prediction models using machine learning classification have been developed predominantly by training and testing on one time slice of data. We train models on multiple time slices of data and refer to this approach as multi-slicing. Our results show that given the same time frame of data, multi-slicing significantly improves churn prediction performance compared to training on the entire data set as one time slice. We demonstrate that besides an increased training set size, the improvement is driven by training on samples from different time slices. For data from a convenience wholesaler, we show that multi-slicing addresses the rarity of churn samples and the risk of overfitting to the distinctive situation in a single training time slice. Multi-slicing makes a model more generalizable, which is particularly relevant whenever conditions change or fluctuate over time. We also discuss how to choose the number of time slices.

Suggested Citation

  • Gattermann-Itschert, Theresa & Thonemann, Ulrich W., 2021. "How training on multiple time slices improves performance in churn prediction," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 295(2), pages 664-674.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:295:y:2021:i:2:p:664-674
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2021.05.035
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037722172100463X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2021.05.035?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Risselada, Hans & Verhoef, Peter C. & Bijmolt, Tammo H.A., 2010. "Staying Power of Churn Prediction Models," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 198-208.
    2. Buckinx, Wouter & Van den Poel, Dirk, 2005. "Customer base analysis: partial defection of behaviourally loyal clients in a non-contractual FMCG retail setting," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 164(1), pages 252-268, July.
    3. K. W. De Bock & D. Van Den Poel, 2012. "Reconciling Performance and Interpretability in Customer Churn Prediction using Ensemble Learning based on Generalized Additive Models," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 12/805, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    4. K.W. de Bock & D. van den Poel, 2012. "Reconciling performance and interpretability in customer churn prediction modeling using ensemble learning based on generalized additive models," Post-Print hal-00800148, HAL.
    5. K. Coussement & D. Van Den Poel, 2006. "Churn Prediction in Subscription Services: an Application of Support Vector Machines While Comparing Two Parameter-Selection Techniques," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 06/412, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    6. Chen, Zhen-Yu & Fan, Zhi-Ping & Sun, Minghe, 2012. "A hierarchical multiple kernel support vector machine for customer churn prediction using longitudinal behavioral data," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(2), pages 461-472.
    7. Kristof Coussement & Stefan Lessmann & Geert Verstraeten, 2017. "A comparative analysis of data preparation algorithms for customer churn prediction: A case study in the telecommunication industry," Post-Print hal-01745261, HAL.
    8. Erin Anderson & Barton Weitz, 1989. "Determinants of Continuity in Conventional Industrial Channel Dyads," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(4), pages 310-323.
    9. Coussement, Kristof & De Bock, Koen W., 2013. "Customer churn prediction in the online gambling industry: The beneficial effect of ensemble learning," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1629-1636.
    10. B. Larivière & D. Van Den Poel, 2004. "Investigating the role of product features in preventing customer churn, by using survival analysis and choice modeling: The case of financial services," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 04/223, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    11. Lessmann, Stefan & Voß, Stefan, 2009. "A reference model for customer-centric data mining with support vector machines," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 199(2), pages 520-530, December.
    12. Ballings, Michel & Van den Poel, Dirk, 2015. "CRM in social media: Predicting increases in Facebook usage frequency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 244(1), pages 248-260.
    13. Bose, Indranil & Chen, Xi, 2009. "Quantitative models for direct marketing: A review from systems perspective," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 195(1), pages 1-16, May.
    14. Glady, Nicolas & Baesens, Bart & Croux, Christophe, 2009. "Modeling churn using customer lifetime value," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(1), pages 402-411, August.
    15. K. Coussement & D. Van Den Poel, 2008. "Improving Customer Attrition Prediction by Integrating Emotions from Client/Company Interaction Emails and Evaluating Multiple Classifiers," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 08/527, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    16. Arno de Caigny & Kristof Coussement & Koen W. de Bock, 2018. "A new hybrid classification algorithm for customer churn prediction based on logistic regression and decision trees," Post-Print hal-01741661, HAL.
    17. M. Ballings & D. Van Den Poel, 2012. "The Relevant Length of Customer Event History for Churn Prediction: How long is long enough?," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 12/804, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    18. V. L. Miguéis & D. Van Den Poel & A.S. Camanho & J. Falcao E Cunha, 2012. "Modeling Partial Customer Churn: On the Value of First Product-Category Purchase Sequences," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 12/790, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    19. De Caigny, Arno & Coussement, Kristof & De Bock, Koen W., 2018. "A new hybrid classification algorithm for customer churn prediction based on logistic regression and decision trees," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(2), pages 760-772.
    20. Dudyala Anil Kumar & V. Ravi, 2008. "Predicting credit card customer churn in banks using data mining," International Journal of Data Analysis Techniques and Strategies, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(1), pages 4-28.
    21. Verbeke, Wouter & Dejaeger, Karel & Martens, David & Hur, Joon & Baesens, Bart, 2012. "New insights into churn prediction in the telecommunication sector: A profit driven data mining approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 218(1), pages 211-229.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matthias Bogaert & Lex Delaere, 2023. "Ensemble Methods in Customer Churn Prediction: A Comparative Analysis of the State-of-the-Art," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-28, February.
    2. Chen, Claire Y.T. & Sun, Edward W. & Miao, Wanyu & Lin, Yi-Bing, 2024. "Reconciling business analytics with graphically initialized subspace clustering for optimal nonlinear pricing," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 312(3), pages 1086-1107.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthias Bogaert & Lex Delaere, 2023. "Ensemble Methods in Customer Churn Prediction: A Comparative Analysis of the State-of-the-Art," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-28, February.
    2. De Caigny, Arno & Coussement, Kristof & De Bock, Koen W., 2018. "A new hybrid classification algorithm for customer churn prediction based on logistic regression and decision trees," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(2), pages 760-772.
    3. Arno de Caigny & Kristof Coussement & Koen W. de Bock & Stefan Lessmann, 2019. "Incorporating textual information in customer churn prediction models based on a convolutional neural network," Post-Print hal-02275958, HAL.
    4. Ballings, Michel & Van den Poel, Dirk, 2015. "CRM in social media: Predicting increases in Facebook usage frequency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 244(1), pages 248-260.
    5. Schaeffer, Satu Elisa & Rodriguez Sanchez, Sara Veronica, 2020. "Forecasting client retention — A machine-learning approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    6. Chou, Ping & Chuang, Howard Hao-Chun & Chou, Yen-Chun & Liang, Ting-Peng, 2022. "Predictive analytics for customer repurchase: Interdisciplinary integration of buy till you die modeling and machine learning," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 296(2), pages 635-651.
    7. De Caigny, Arno & Coussement, Kristof & De Bock, Koen W. & Lessmann, Stefan, 2020. "Incorporating textual information in customer churn prediction models based on a convolutional neural network," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1563-1578.
    8. Koen W. de Bock & Arno de Caigny, 2021. "Spline-rule ensemble classifiers with structured sparsity regularization for interpretable customer churn modeling," Post-Print hal-03391564, HAL.
    9. Chandrasekhar Valluri & Sudhakar Raju & Vivek H. Patil, 2022. "Customer determinants of used auto loan churn: comparing predictive performance using machine learning techniques," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(3), pages 279-296, September.
    10. Arno de Caigny & Kristof Coussement & Koen de Bock, 2020. "Leveraging fine-grained transaction data for customer life event predictions," Post-Print hal-02507998, HAL.
    11. Tang, Leilei & Thomas, Lyn & Fletcher, Mary & Pan, Jiazhu & Marshall, Andrew, 2014. "Assessing the impact of derived behavior information on customer attrition in the financial service industry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 236(2), pages 624-633.
    12. Tianyuan Zhang & Sérgio Moro & Ricardo F. Ramos, 2022. "A Data-Driven Approach to Improve Customer Churn Prediction Based on Telecom Customer Segmentation," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-19, March.
    13. Vera Miguéis & Dirk Poel & Ana Camanho & João Falcão e Cunha, 2012. "Predicting partial customer churn using Markov for discrimination for modeling first purchase sequences," Advances in Data Analysis and Classification, Springer;German Classification Society - Gesellschaft für Klassifikation (GfKl);Japanese Classification Society (JCS);Classification and Data Analysis Group of the Italian Statistical Society (CLADAG);International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS), vol. 6(4), pages 337-353, December.
    14. Koen W. de Bock & Kristof Coussement & Arno De Caigny & Roman Slowiński & Bart Baesens & Robert N Boute & Tsan-Ming Choi & Dursun Delen & Mathias Kraus & Stefan Lessmann & Sebastián Maldonado & David , 2023. "Explainable AI for Operational Research: A Defining Framework, Methods, Applications, and a Research Agenda," Post-Print hal-04219546, HAL.
    15. Amin, Adnan & Shah, Babar & Khattak, Asad Masood & Lopes Moreira, Fernando Joaquim & Ali, Gohar & Rocha, Alvaro & Anwar, Sajid, 2019. "Cross-company customer churn prediction in telecommunication: A comparison of data transformation methods," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 304-319.
    16. M. Ballings & D. Van Den Poel & E. Verhagen, 2013. "Evaluating the Added Value of Pictorial Data for Customer Churn Prediction," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 13/869, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    17. Clemente-Císcar, M. & San Matías, S. & Giner-Bosch, V., 2014. "A methodology based on profitability criteria for defining the partial defection of customers in non-contractual settings," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 239(1), pages 276-285.
    18. Fan, Zhi-Ping & Sun, Minghe, 2015. "Behavior-aware user response modeling in social media: Learning from diverse heterogeneous dataAuthor-Name: Chen, Zhen-Yu," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(2), pages 422-434.
    19. Johannes Habel & Sascha Alavi & Nicolas Heinitz, 2023. "A theory of predictive sales analytics adoption," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 13(1), pages 34-54, June.
    20. Chen, Yan & Zhang, Lei & Zhao, Yulu & Xu, Bing, 2022. "Implementation of penalized survival models in churn prediction of vehicle insurance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 162-171.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:295:y:2021:i:2:p:664-674. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.