Customer Reviews

Data Mining Techniques in CRM: Inside Customer Segmentation

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I recently finished reading Data Mining Techniques in CRM: Inside Customer Segmentation. It is a very didactic book written by Tsiptsis and Chorianopoulos. The authors did a very good job in vulgarizing data mining concepts for the reader. That means nearly no formula. But don't misunderstand me, this is not a book only for beginner. Some deep concepts of data mining are presented. The only particularity is that everything is explained with words and pictures. I really appreciated the approach taken by the authors.

The first part of the book explains data mining concepts. Techniques such as clustering, PCA (Principal Component Analysis) and decision trees are introduced. Since clustering is the most used technique in CRM (Customer Relationship Management), it has a particular focus from the authors. Specific topics such as evaluating the clustering results or profiling are discussed. A very interesting chapter is the one showing examples of data marts in CRM applications (retailers, telco and retail banking).

The second part of the book focuses on CRM applications such as segmentation, cross/up-selling, churn, etc. Full chapters are devoted to customer segmentation in banking, retail and telco. These chapters really give detailed information for such projects (data to consider, aggregations, important factors, result interpretation, etc.). It is clear that the authors have a strong experience in CRM.

To conclude, this is an excellent book for any data miner or anybody involved in CRM. The text is clear and pictures are well done (and funny which is rare enough to be mentioned). From basic to advanced topics, the book is a very pleasant journey inside data mining with a clear focus on customer segmentation. Really advised if you're not a fan of formulas.

A holistic customer behavior & attitude analysis to support decision makers. It is the 'Bible' for marketers who need to build a deeper insight and plan accordingly their actions per customer segment, building profitable customer relationships. I truly recommend using it in your business.

Efi Kassouri
IT/ Release Management Senior Professional
Vodafone

This is a book for professionals who want a lift to the next level.
The authors share on a noble scale their professional and academic experience, analyzing methodologies and giving tips which a lot of Data Mining experts ignore or keep carefully hidden.
It is also remarkable that they cross the usual Data Mining boundaries, describing the full view of BI implementations and defining the modern data miner as a BI expert.

George Goudelis
MSc in Applied Mathematics
CRM & Customer Intelligence Manager
Eurobank EFG

`Data Mining Techniques in CRM' by Tsiptsis & Chorianopoulos is a must-read for modern, customer-centric corporation analysts. A remarkable reference on Data mining for Customer Segmentation, presenting methodologies, data mining best practices, along with real-world marketing applications across several industries. The practical orientation of the book is achieved through numerous data models and suitable how-to guidance.

Business analysts, marketers, information architects, business intelligence engineers will all find invaluable material presented in a stepwise, user-friendly approach. For both practicing analysts and experienced professionals this book will enrich the options towards a sophisticated customer intelligence framework.

George Krasadakis, Managing Director
Datamine decision support systems

Finally...a book that the professional data miner and CRM analyst can rely on for practical approach for many of the common CRM projects a customer-centric organization will undertake. I have been working in the banking sector for 20 years and in the CRM area for the last 6. This book truly addresses a multitude of the projects we undertook during these years and the approach hides nothing. Thus, any CRM analyst (at any level of expertise) can benefit from the hands-on approach with examples easily understood and solutions easily "copied". On a more technical side, the book addresses issues such as:
' Step by step methodology for segmentation projects
' Realistic examples with useful outcomes on various industries
' Marketing guide for segmentation management
' Tips and tricks to avoid data mining mistakes in segmentation
' Complete data marts for segmentation projects on various industries
As I said, I am working in the banking sector, and I have found the chapter `segmentation applications in banking' very good, starting from data gathering and finishing on marketing implementation. Actually, we just finished a customer segmentation project based on the authors approach and we are working on replacing the old customer classification groups we have in place. The book does not limit itself to the banking sector only but covers other hot areas such as telecommunications to a great extent. All in all, a must have for all CRM professionals.

Andreas Kokkinos
Manager CRM
Marfin Laiki Bank

This book is an excellent guide for the practitioner, a data mining specialist who needs to do something with his/her customer information. It covers basic machine learning algorithms like kmeans, decision trees and self organization maps, pca, etc. I recommend this book as a starting point for people who don't have any experience with data mining and statistics and they want to do something with their data. It is a big plus for the book that it gives hints about how to choose the options for algorithms, since this is very critical and hard to find. We as a company use this book to understand the problems that the business world faces. I think the book has the right size and sufficient number of examples that are very well explained.
Although I understand the need of picking a tool to express the examples I think sticking to SPSS so tightly gives a bias to the book of what is feasible and what is not. I think some examples with open source like R would help the book to be less biased. But again I don't think it is a major issue, since the majority of the audience is professionals that will buy SPSS.

My major objection though, has to do with the distinction of machine learning and statistical learning that authors make. As it is stated in page 61 decision trees and neural networks are machine learning methods and not statistical ones, while pca is a statistical one and not a machine learning one. In reality all of them are statistical methods, machine learning and statistical learning are the same thing in the literature. A more sensible taxonomy between statistical methods is parametric/non-parametric. It is true that in general parametric methods can be faster versus non-parametric, but the statement in the book that they are more accurate is not in general valid. Nonparametric methods are slower but they are by far the most accurate. In reality though, nonparametric methods have been accelerated recently and they can actually be as fast as parametric ones.

I definitely recommend this book and I think the authors have done very good job, it filled a gap between science and business.

Nikolaos Vasiloglou
CTO Analytics 1305

This is a powerful hand book for all marketers.
Illlustrated with real world applications concerning banking and telecommunications, it provides a detailed and clear step by step description of data mining procedures.

I would like to congratulate the authors for their excellent book. It's an original business book which really helps analysts and managers with day to day business matters.
It offers a realistic and detailed presentation of what is the correct way for a CRM department to focus on.
I would absolutely recommend it in view of the fact that it offers the necessary knowledge on Data Mining techniques in a detailed and easy to read fashion.


Kyriakos Kokkalas
CRM manager
WIND (WIND Telecommunications S.A.)

I have been working for the last three years with Mr. Tsiptsis and I have to admit that I have been taught much of the expertise offered in this book. So the content of this book was more or less familiar to me. What surprised me is the fact that the authors have not kept secrets for themselves, as it usually occurs in the data mining and marketing books I have gone through. All their knowledge and expertise is offered in this book. Plenty of tips and tricks reveal the authors' will to share their academic and practical experience. As long as such level of detail concerning information is offered, this book is at least a complete and useful, not to say essential, guide for data miners and marketers as well.

Loukas Maragos
MSc in Retail Management
CRM Analyst
Eurobank EFG

The book is one of the few in the market that describes from a marketing point of view the methodology to build a solid customer segmentation analysis and a marketing strategy.

The authors do have great experience and that is reflected from the detailed case studies from various markets like the Banking & Telecom.

Thank you guys for the data mining tips and the briliant marketing ideas.