Customer Analytics

Undergraduate Prerequisites: (QSTMK 223 previously, and QSTXP 298 previously or concurrently), or QSTMK 323, or CASMA 214 - Every company says it puts customers first. This course teaches students to test that claim with data, and to fix what they find. Through cases including Snapchat, Amazon, Ben & Jerry's, and Fairphone, students learn to measure how firm strategies actually affect customers, society, and the environment, and to tell the difference between companies that exploit their customers, quietly manipulate them, talk a good game, or earn their trust. They build a practical analytics toolkit along the way, from predicting which customers will leave (churn and survival models, customer lifetime value) to running experiments (A/B testing), mining networks and text, assessing environmental life cycles, and making machine learning models explain themselves. Students use AI to write code while owning the logic and interpretation, teach a method to their classmates, and complete two team projects that redesign a real strategy to reduce harm and build trust. Assumes introductory statistics, including regression and hypothesis testing. Effective Spring 2027, this course fulfills a single requirement in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning 2.