Predictive Analytics: What is it & How can it Help Businesses
What is Predictive Analytics?
The use of data, statistical algorithms, and Machine Learning (ML) approaches to identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data is known as predictive analytics.
The goal is to provide the best prediction of what will happen in the future, rather than simply knowing what has happened.
Real World Applications of Predictive Analytics in Business Intelligence
Predictive analytics is nothing new for many businesses. However, it is increasingly being implemented by a variety of industries to improve day-to-day corporate processes and generate competitive differentiation. In practice, predictive analytics can take a variety of shapes.
Determine which clients are likely to abandon a service or product
Consider a fitness studio that has a predictive analytics model in place. Based on prior data, the algorithm may predict that 'Ashley' will not renew her membership and recommend an incentive that will entice her to do so. When Ashley returns to the studio, the system will send an alert to the membership relations team, who will offer her an incentive or speak with her about renewing her membership. In this case, predictive analytics can be applied in real time to prevent customer from churning.
Send marketing messages to clients who are most likely to purchase
If your company only has RM 20,000 to spend on an upsell marketing campaign and has three million consumers, you certainly can't give each one a 10% discount. Predictive analytics and business intelligence can assist in forecasting the customers who are most likely to purchase your goods, and then sending the coupon to only those people to maximize income.
Improve Customer Service through Appropriate Planning
Advanced analytics and business intelligence can help businesses better estimate demand. Consider a hotel chain that wants to forecast how many clients will stay in a certain location this weekend so that it can ensure it has adequate staff and resources to meet demand.
How Does Predictive Analytics Work?
It takes some time and effort to put up an accurate and successful predictive analytics system. Predictive analytics, when done correctly, necessitates people who recognize there is a business problem to be solved, data that must be prepared for analysis, models that must be established and refined, and leadership to put the predictions into action for good outcomes.
So how does predive analytics actually work? First, what information is to be leveraged from the existing data has to be thought through. What questions do you wish to have answered? What are some of the critical business decisions you'll make as a result of the insight? Knowing this is an important first step in using predictive analysis.
Once there is an idea of the above, consider whether the data that currently exists address those questions. Is your operational system collecting the necessary data? How far back in time do you have this data, and is it sufficient to learn any predicted patterns for the current period? These questions are vital to ensure that the objectives of the predictive analysis model is achieved.
Next, the system needs to be trained so that it can learn from the data and predict consequences. When developing the model, one must first train the system to learn from data. For instance, a predictive analytics model may examine previous data such as click action. One can train the system to look at how many individuals who clicked on a specific link bought a specific product and connect that data into predictions about future consumer actions by implementing the correct rules and algorithms.
Eventually, the predictive analytics model should be able to spot patterns and/or trends in customers' and their activities. The model may alternatively run one or more algorithms and choose the best one for a specific data, or an ensemble of several methods can be executed.
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