Why Businesses Need Decision Trees

A lot of people may not know what decision trees are. Do they bear fruit? Are they hardy enough to survive inclement weather?

Actually, decisions trees are an essential part of daily life. Everyone uses decision trees to plan their lives, whether or not they know it. Only we probably don't think of them as decision trees. Should you change out of your pajamas? Will you ever find the thing you lost? Should you get a dog? Several daily life decision tree examples are posted on this site - these are intentionally funny, perhaps, but I think we can admit this stuff isn't that far from the truth.

Well, if decision trees power our daily decisions, how are businesses using decision trees to power their customer interactions?

This was the key topic that my colleague Lamar Shahbazian and I recently co-presented in a short webinar, Unleashing the Power of Business Rules Development. While decision trees in business take on various flavors depending on an organization's specific needs and analytic maturity, many are using this tool to achieve objectives such as improving retailer response rates, increasing alumni donations, or even detecting more wire fraud. The use cases in the webinar reflect how applying analytics to develop strategic segments, evaluating options and deploying the strategies can help uncover new insights - and take better, more profitable customer actions.

I invite you to check out the webinar, which is now available as an on-demand download.