A Stochastic Approach for Valuing Customers

The present study attempts to develop a new model for computing customer lifetime value. The customer lifetime value defined in this paper is the combination of present value and future value. As an innovation the CLV modeling of this paper is based on customer behavior modeling, done by data mining techniques. By extracting the profit vector related to each type of customer behavior, calculation of present study was done, then by utilizing Markov chain model we predict future value and count customer lifetime value. A new churn model was contributed by authors to manage unprofitable CRM costs; utilizing this churn model, the proposed CLV model can cause more profitability for the enterprise. The new CLV model of this paper was validated by historical customer data of a composite manufacturing company.

Keywords:

customer , Markov chain model , data mining , future value , present value , customer behavior