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Next Best Action

Use the power of context to deliver exactly the right customer experience

What is Next Best Action?

Next Best Action (NBA) is a customer engagement approach that utilizes a combination of artificial intelligence and real-time interaction data to create hyper-relevant customer experiences. By analyzing consumers unique needs, preferences, and context, brands can determine the most relevant and meaningful action to best engage customers and prospects across any channel at any time.

Next Best Action

How NBA is used

With NBA, users build a large library of actions that are always on, making it easy for the artificial intelligence to sense a relevant action to take for each person. Business rules define the conditions under which customers are eligible, when actions are suitable, and where actions are applicable.

Why NBA is effective

Next Best Action engagement strategies create far better customer experiences than static marketing campaigns. It’s more effective to let artificial intelligence trigger content when it’s relevant, for any customer in context, across any channel than it is to pre-determine your customer conversations before they even begin.

AI automation: challenges

Create long lasting customer relationships with NBA

One of the greatest advantages of NBA is that it goes beyond just sales offers to consider all the potential conversations you could have with a customer. Over time, brands deepen connections and drive increased customer lifetime value.

The right action for the right moment

  • Service – support daily customer needs

  • Retention – keep valuable customers profitably

  • Nurture – keep your brand top of mind

  • Cross-Sell/Upsell – expand existing relationships

  • Acquisition – convert new customers

  • Resilience – safeguarding their financial state

How does Next Best Action work?

With NBA, your strategy will make the decision about which offer is best for your customer in each potential category.  Every company defines the next best action in its own way, but typically it’s the action that will increase customer lifetime value (CLV) by the largest amount.

NBA on work

Crossing the chasm

Create better customer experiences, go from traditional campaign marketing to one-to-one engagement.

AI and ML basics

What role does machine learning play in NBA?

Machine learning plays a pivotal role in determining the next best action in marketing and customer engagement programs. Machine learning algorithms analyze vast amounts of customer data – including interaction history, browsing behavior, and demographic information – to better predict which content, offer, or action a customer is most likely to respond to.

What to know about NBA marketing

NBA optimizes marketing programs by identifying the most relevant content to serve – in the most appropriate engagement channel, when a specific customer or prospect is most likely to respond. This ensures that the brand is providing the next best experience for consumers and driving higher customer lifetime values.

Next-best-action programs use machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze patterns in an organization’s data assets to better predict and understand customer behavior – helping brands create and implement marketing strategies that effectively address consumer needs, improve response rates, and drive conversions.

Fresh, accurate, and organized data sets are foundational to next-best-action marketing. That’s because data analysis is at the core of this capability. Next-best-action models convert data into insights, which inform the AI-powered decisions behind each action.

Next best action models

Next best actions rely on both predictive and adaptive models. Predictive models use historical data to make predictions about which interaction will resonate most with a customer. Adaptive models use real-time data to interpret whether an interaction is effective in real time.

Why are NBA models important

It’s important to use both predictive and adaptive models to understand the full context of a customer interaction – more accurately determining what the next best action should be because it merges historical, contextual, and real-time data.

Watch the video to learn how Pega’s Customer Decision Hub combines data, analytics, and adaptive AI to deliver real-time, hyper-relevant interactions.

How is Next Best Action different from traditional campaigns?

Next Best Action

Puts the customer at the center of their journey by enabling real-time interaction based on customer needs. NBA lets the brand pivot instantly to move with the customer, across any channel.

Traditional campaigns

Have static, pre-determined messaging that is delivered at pre-selected times. Often campaigns push products through a sales-first approach and are unable to pivot in real-time, wasting resources, money, and customer attention.

Pega Next Best Action Capabilities

Design, monitor and control your one-to-one strategies.

Increase relevance of customer experiences.

Provide recommendations while interacting with customers.

Explore what's possible with Pega for next best action
Create Long Lasting Customer Relationships with NBA

Getting started with Next Best Action

To get started with next-best-action strategies, organizations should define program goals, such as decreasing customer churn, improving response rates, or driving better customer lifetime values. Then, aggregate relevant customer data sets from across their organization and implement the necessary AI-powered tools and applications to deliver against their goals.

Discover Pega’s various capabilities like the Pega Next-Best-Action Designer that can help you jumpstart your strategy, including segmentation, prioritization, and communication channels.

Frequently Asked Questions about Next Best Action

Some of the benefits of implementing a next-best-action approach include:

  1. Personalized customer experience: Next best action (NBA) enables organizations to tailor their interactions with customers based on their preferences, behaviors, and historical data. This leads to a more personalized and relevant experience, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
  2. Increased engagement: By suggesting actions that are relevant to the individual customer's needs and interests, organizations can significantly enhance customer engagement. This can lead to higher response rates and better conversion rates.
  3. Higher conversions and sales: NBA helps in presenting customers with the right offer or recommendation at the right time, which can lead to higher conversion rates and increased sales. By suggesting products or services that align with the customer's preferences, the likelihood of making a purchase is improved.
  4. Consistency: NBA helps maintain a consistent approach across customer interactions. It ensures that each customer is treated in a manner consistent with their preferences and needs, regardless of the specific individual handling the interaction.
  5. Real-time decision-making: NBA systems often operate in real time, providing instantaneous recommendations or actions. This agility is particularly valuable in fast-paced industries where timely responses are critical.

While they might seem similar, there are distinct differences between NBA and next best offer (NBO). The main difference lies in the scope of the strategies. NBO is more specific and focused on offering relevant products or services to customers, while NBA is a broader approach that encompasses a wider range of actions aimed at enhancing the overall customer experience and achieving business goals beyond just sales.

An NBA model is a predictive analytical tool or approach used in various industries to determine the most appropriate action to take in a given situation. The goal of an NBA model is to optimize decision-making by selecting the action that is most likely to yield a favorable outcome or maximize a desired objective.

NBA models typically leverage data analytics, machine learning, and predictive modeling techniques to analyze historical and real-time data about customers, users, or patients. By considering factors such as past behaviors, preferences, demographics, interactions, and current context, these models can make recommendations for actions that are likely to lead to positive outcomes.

For example, in marketing, an NBA model could analyze a customer's past purchase history, browsing behavior, and demographic information to suggest the next best product to promote or offer a personalized discount.

Next best experience (NBE) refers to a concept commonly used in marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), and customer experience management. It involves using data analytics and algorithms to determine and deliver the most suitable and relevant experience to a customer at a given point in time. This could be in terms of product recommendations, content suggestions, or interactions, with the goal of enhancing customer satisfaction and engagement.

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