Telecommunications Customers Churn Monitoring using Flow Maps and Cartogram Visualization

David L. García, Àngela Nebot, Alfredo Vellido

2013

Abstract

Telecommunication companies compete in increasingly aggressive markets. Avoiding customer defection, or churn, should be at the core of successful management in such context. These companies store and manage abundant customer usage data. Their analysis using advanced techniques can be a source of valuable insight into customers’ behavior over time. Exploratory data visualization can help in this task. Many important contributions to multivariate data visualization using nonlinear techniques have recently been made. In this paper, we analyze a database of customer landline telephone usage in Brazil. These data are first visualized using a nonlinear manifold learning model, Generative Topographic Mapping (GTM). This visualization is enhanced using a cartogram technique, inspired in geographical representation methods, that reintroduces the local nonlinear distortion into the representation space. Yet another geographical information visualization technique, namely the Flow Maps, is then used to visualize customer migrations over time periods in the GTM data representation space. The experimental results shown in this paper provide evidence to support that the use of these methods can assist experts in the process of useful knowledge extraction, with an impact on customer retention management strategies.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

García D., Nebot À. and Vellido A. (2013). Telecommunications Customers Churn Monitoring using Flow Maps and Cartogram Visualization . In Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications and International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications - Volume 1: IVAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2013) ISBN 978-989-8565-46-4, pages 451-460. DOI: 10.5220/0004270804510460

in Bibtex Style

@conference{ivapp13,
author={David L. García and Àngela Nebot and Alfredo Vellido},
title={Telecommunications Customers Churn Monitoring using Flow Maps and Cartogram Visualization},
booktitle={Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications and International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications - Volume 1: IVAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2013)},
year={2013},
pages={451-460},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004270804510460},
isbn={978-989-8565-46-4},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications and International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications - Volume 1: IVAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2013)
TI - Telecommunications Customers Churn Monitoring using Flow Maps and Cartogram Visualization
SN - 978-989-8565-46-4
AU - García D.
AU - Nebot À.
AU - Vellido A.
PY - 2013
SP - 451
EP - 460
DO - 10.5220/0004270804510460