How can I use data on customer interactions to drive communication strategy?

Question

I have data on my customers (age, location, gender) and number of interactions with customer by channel (#calls, #sms, #letters) and data on whether they have bought a product (yes/no).

I would like to predict what combination of interaction (e.g. 3 calls, 2 letters) is the best approach when contacting different types of customers. What would be an appropriate statistical/ machine learning technique to use to calculate this?

Answer 1

I would do the following:

First, cluster your customers into several groups, based on age, location, gender etc. Second, for each group, use different combination of interaction as features to predict 'yes/no', and select which combination of interaction performs best.

Answer 2

This is how you can approach this problem:

1. Customer Segmentation: Segment each customer as a separate data point, and if possible have another project for clustering the customers depending on various factors (Example: Depending on geographical regions, age, etc). This would help in simplifying the problem statement and narrowing it too.
2. Now choose the best combination: Now after segmentation, choose the best(average) combination of interaction mechanisms needed to be implemented for customer conversion. The mean would answer you the question: What is the average number of interactions by different media taken by a customer before he/she is converted

Bonus: In addition to calculating the mean, calculating the median also helps, as it helps in fixing skew due to overly compulsive customer reps who interact a bit more frequently than some, and difficult customers. Useful reference